Swetha's Fusion

Christmas fruit Cake / Rum Cake

Tuesday, January 01, 2019

This post is dedicated to Menaka Ajji or 'Ollamma' is what we used to call her with love. She used be our neighbor's sister. We used to wait for her visit as we had few common interests. One, love for cats; two, play board games (though she was our grandma's age), and love for baking .... well she taught us many wonderful baking recipes and we were eager to learn, to bake and of course to eat them. Menaka ajji used to conduct baking classes in Hyderabad and what more could one ask. She was a wonderful lady, time was filled with excitement during her visits, from chasing cats to shopping for ingredients to bake and enjoying our creations with Tea along with lots of talks, jokes and laughs.

Here is one of my favorite cake recipe - Christmas fruit/rum cake I learned from Menaka Ajji. Just like Nilgiris rich plum cake - rich, moist, loaded with dry fruits and nuts....and with good festive spirits. Literally!

Also, thank you Bina, for all the technical (I mean culinary) support for this cake.

Ingredients:

**150gm =2/3 cup = 5.3 oz
150gms - maida / all purpose flour
75 gms - sugar for preparing caramel
75 gms - sugar pdr for the batter. Brown sugar or molasses may be used as it will result in preferred darker shade of the cake.
3 - eggs
150gms - butter (room temperature)
3/4 tsp - baking powder
1 tsp - Vanilla extract/essence
3 - cloves /laung
3 - cardamom / Elachi
3 - cinnamon / daalacheenee
1/2 tsp - ginger powder
1/2 tsp - caraway seeds / shah jeera
Liquor - dark rum, brandy, sherry(wine) and/or Vodka - for soaking dry fruits and also used later to flavor the baked cake.
Liqueur - (optional) Cointreau or Grand Marnier ...anything orange flavor for flavoring the baked cake
75 gms - dry fruits : resins, saltines, plums, figs, dates, orange and lemon zests (or candied glazed orange peels), candied cherries (not glazed cherries), Tutti-Frutti (candied colorful usually made of raw papaya) - use whichever is available for you.
75 gms - nuts :cashew nuts, walnuts, almonds, pecan (if not all, use which ever you find)

Method:

Preparing the Dry fruits:

You may start this step almost a month before Christmas. ... or at least a week before. Because you want to make the cake day or two before Christmas.
Cut candied orange peels and dates into small chunks or pulse couple of time in a food processor. Make sure dry fruits like dates are pitted.
Put all the dry fruits in a container (which can be covered) or a wide-mouth glass jar. Pour Rum, Brandy, Sherry(or red wine) and/or Vodka, enough to cover all the dry fruits. Some people use only one kind of spirit (rum/brandy/red-wine). Cover and keep in a cool place.
Every other day, open the jar and stir the content. If needed add more spirit to the mixture as the dry fruits soaks up the liquid.

NOTE: Virgin Version ;) If you prefer not to use any liquor, you may prepare this cake with fruit juice. Four to five days before you make the cake, soak the dry fruits in fruit juice, grape or orange or combination of both may be used, preferably grape juice. Cover and refrigerate. Stir the content everyday and add more juice as needed. The day of baking or a day before, place the soaked dry fruits and the fresh juice of an orange in a sauce pan. Cover it, place it over a medium heat and allow it to cook until the juice is absorbed. Let it cool to room temperature before adding to the batter.

Preparing Caramel:

In heavy bottomed metal pan (preferably not a non-stick coated pan), cook the sugar and a tbsp of water on medium high heat. You will find that the sugar will melt and start to change color.
Swirl the pan once or twice without stirring with a spoon.
When the sugar caramel turns darker golden brown color, turn off heat and place the vessel near the kitchen sink.

To stop it from hardening, immediately, pour warm or hot water (a table spoon or two) little by little very carefully into the caramel and stir to mix well and keep aside. WARNING: the hot liquid may splash, be very careful and use caution.

Prepping before making the batter and baking:

Drain the soaked dry fruits in a strainer and retain the drained spirit for later use.
Grease the cake pans with butter and line with parchment paper if necessary. Keep aside. I keep mine in refrigerator until the batter is ready
Lemon and Orange Zest: Use a grater/zester to grate-off the top layer of the fruit skin. Make sure not to go deep to grate the white part which is very bitter.
Cut nuts in to small pieces and toss in flour. This helps it not to sink to the bottom while baking.
Take the drained dry fruits and toss it around in flour separating the fruits chunks. You may add fresh lemon and orange zest to this mixture.
In a food processor or in a mortar, make fine powder of all the spices - cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and caraway seeds.
Sieve the flour with baking powder. Mix in the ground spice powder to the flour and keep aside.
You may even add Coco powder and/or instant coffee powder to the flour to get that extra flavor and the desired dark cake color. This is optional, but I have added either or both if available.
Set the oven to preheat to 180 C or 350 F. (Please refer to the oven manual as each oven works differently)

Preparing the cake batter, baking and final flavoring:

Separate the yoke and egg-white.
Beat egg whites until they are stiff, scrape the sides of the bowl often with a rubber spatula. Continue to beat the eggs until the peak stands straight up when the beater is lifted from the mixture. Beat the egg white till fluffy.
In another large mixing bowl, beat the butter until paste and then gradually add sugar spoon by spoon while whisking.
Beat the egg yoke with vanilla extract to the butter mixture.
Add caramel to the mixture while still beating
To the butter mixture gradually add bit of flour and bit of egg white. Mix using cut and fold method. Keep adding flour and egg white until all are mixed in.

[Cut and fold method or a.k.a fold-in or folding : The lighter mixture is placed on top of the heavier mixture, then the two are combined by passing a flat spatula (usually a rubber or flat wooden spatula) down through the mixture, across the bottom, and up over the top. This process continues until the mixtures are combined. This traps air into bubbles in the mixture, allowing the cake to rise well while baking. This is accomplished by a specific technique of using a spoon to lift the two mixtures together, turning them over using a spatula so they combine.]

Finally now fold-in the dry fruits and nuts to the batter

Pour the batter into the greased and lined baking tray/pan.
Bake for 40 min - 60 min in a preheated oven or until a toothpick inserted to the cake comes out clean.
Once done, take the cake out and let it cool.
Invert the cake on a plate. Use a fork or toothpick to make small holes at the hard edges. This is to help the liquid to seep through and moisten the hard edges.
Slightly warm the saved liquor or make a fresh mix by combining fruit juice with rum or just the warm rum( combined with Liqueur-optional). Use a spoon and spread over the cake as it soaks, turn the cake over and spread the spread the liquid over the cake.
Cover with a cello /cling-warp and keep aside. May be refrigerate too. Note: do not warp or cover with Aluminium foil.
Repeat the process couple of more times after 6 - 8 hours gap.
You may choose to decorate it with frosting. But in our home, we just slice the cake and enjoy as the cake itself is moist, rich and very flavorful with all the dry fruits, nuts and liquor.