Rich Christmas Plum Cake / Fruit Cake Recipe ~ without RUM!
We bring you this perfect recipe of Rich Plum Cake/ Fruit Cake for this Christmas season. Hope you will like this recipe & will give this a try. Enjoy!!
Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour – 1 1/4 cup
- Eggs – 3 large
- Unsalted Butter – 8 oz (2 sticks) at room temperature
- Spices - 1/2 tsp each (cardamom, nutmeg, dry ginger, cinnamon, )
- Sugar granulated (white) – 1 cup
- Baking Powder – 1 tsp
- Vanilla Extract / rum extract– 1 tsp
For Caramel
- Water - 1/4 cup (in room temperature)
- Sugar – 1/2 cup
Cooking fruits & nuts
- Dry fruits - 1 cup (dates, figs, raisins, sultanas)
- Unsalted Cashew (chopped) – 1 cup
- Orange juice – 3 tbsp
- Orange/Lemon Peel (sliced thin)– 1/4 cup
Method
- Take a pan and put it on medium heat, add 1/2 cup sugar, let the sugar melt gradually until it turns golden brown give a quick swirl. It would take around 3-4 minutes to melt completely, let it further darken for 20-30 secs and switch off the heat. Add the 1/4 cup of water to the caramel and now it would become harden, slowly heat and cook the caramel for 6 to 8 minutes until completely melted. The caramel would be dark similar to coke/pepsi. Set aside and completely cool down.
- In another pan on medium heat add the vanilla extract / orange juice and cook for 2 minutes and add the dry fruits, orange peels and cook for 3 minutes mix well and add the chopped nuts and cook for another minute. Set aside and cool down.
- In a bowl sift flour, spice powders, baking powder and salt. then set aside.
- Pre-Heat oven to 350°F/ 175°C and line an 8" pan with parchment paper make sure that the sides are lined with 4" height, this helps in not burning the cake
- In a mixing bowl beat butter until it get smoothen, add 1 cup sugar gradually and beat until it gets soft and fluffy.
- In a mixing bowl beat butter until it get smoothen, add 1 cup sugar gradually and beat until it gets soft and fluffy.
- Add one egg and beat the egg for 2 minutes and add remaining two eggs, one egg at a time and beat for 2 minutes after every addition. Add the rum extract & vanilla extract and beat for another 2 minutes.
- Slowly add flour to the caramel and beat well after every addition until everything is used up.
- Add the nuts & dry fruits and mix well until well combined.
- Pour the batter into the sides and bottom of baking pan and bake the cake in center of oven for 50 to 55 minutes. or after 45 minutes Check with a skewer/toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
- Once done let in cool with pan for 10 mins
- then transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool completely.
- You can serve this cake plain, or with a dusting of powdered sugar or a drizzle of glaze on top.
Note:
- while caramelizing sugar make sure you don't burn it, otherwise cake will turn bitter.
- You can also add 1/4 cup rum or apple juice instead of orange juice to cook the dry fruits and nuts
