Christmas Fruit Cake - Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

Studded with rubies - Specks of red soaked fruit and nuts

Rich, cinnamony, moist, bursting with boozy fruits and smelling of rum and spice...but not too heavy...so that you can eat one piece after the other...I know my cake turned out lighter in colour than the classic dark brown but, I burnt three batches of caramel in order to get a dark caramel syrup and then I told myself whats in the colour...that which tastes as good as this cake...with any other colour would taste the same (Thank you.. Shakespeare).

Honestly, I wasn't very sure whether I should call this the Christmas rum cake or Christmas fruit cake..because there is as much rum as there is fruit.. Don't fret.. I cant eat cakes laden with rum either.. So I decided I shall use just as much as my sane self can withstand.

So I have never really baked a Christmas fruit cake before and I decided if I must I should follow traditions. And so the soaking of fruits happened a month or so ago. Ideally the fruits are soaked for a longer period of time, though I don't see how that might have altered the taste of my cake.. ( the cake turned out awesome..). So my vain self went shopping for the ingredients and I say vain because vanity is everything to do with what others think of me...which means that I went about the whole exercise with as much pompousness as I could muster...telling the whole world about it...even the uninterested shopkeeper...just made me feel like a pro who does this every year. So here is my list of fruits for the traditional soaking ( Brit, Austrian, French, German, American...all rolled into one )

100 gms Dark/Golden Raisins

100 gms Prunes

100 gms Candied Ginger

100 gms Mixed Peel

100 gms Dried Figs

100 gms Walnuts

100 gms Cashew

100 gms Almonds

1 Ltr of Dark Rum/Brandy/Red Wine/Whiskey (Use any one or a combination)

4 tbsp of mixed spice powder ( or make your own by dry roasting cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves and grinding them into a fine powder. Alternatively, you can tie these whole spices in a piece of linen and drop it in with your fruits.

Chop the nuts and fruits coarsely, add the spices and pour the rum over so that they are covered with it. Stir   so that everything is incorporated and within a couple of hours you will have to pour some more rum again. The fruits are going to soak it all up . Stir every 2-3 days and add more rum if required. So when I checked after a couple of days it still needed more liquid and since I had a bottle of red wine, I used that.. So in whole I used almost 1 Ltr of liquid (750 ml rum and 250 ml wine put together). If you are using any wine for soaking be sure to stir every two days because the wine might come on top and might ferment. Keep it airtight.

So all this was a month ago. Three days ago it was time to turn these into the perfect Christmas Fruit Cake. So I started with the caramel.. It is going to give your cake a deep dark colour. The darker you get without burning it, the better. My earlier experiments in caramel making haven't been too encouraging, and this time  was no different.. got it right the fourth time and had loads dark and bitter caramel .. not to mention the pans to scrub and clean. 

You can use brown sugar instead of white, but brown sugar is going to make the cake stickier and I personally do not like the texture of the cake with brown sugar... they are restricted to cookies and puddings in my kitchen. Also, brown sugar burns faster than white, so be careful.

Ingredients for the caramel:

2 cups white sugar (16 fl. oz)

1 cup of water ( 8 fl.oz)

Method:

Take the sugar in a heavy bottomed pan, and bring it up to a medium heat. Be patient. Do not stir. Around 4 mins later the sugar around the edges will start melting and changing colour. Be Patient. Do not be tempted to stir with a spoon. If at all, give the pan a swirl. Sugar will melt further. Again, do not be tempted to stir with a spoon, because that will crystallize the sugar and you will have lumps in your caramel. It takes around 8 mins or so for all the sugar the melt and change colour. 

After three burnt batches patience was thrown out of the window and I started to stir with a spoon and there I had crystallized sugar, but never mind. all you have to do is strain it out of your caramel... So if you have the strong urge to stir with a spoon, go ahead ...and professionals will tell you that a little water will dissolve the crystals. don't bother..just strain it..its simpler. 

Once the sugar melts, switch off the gas stove, wear kitchen gloves and pour the water into the pan and quickly move away. Once the splattering stops stir the water into the caramel. leave it to cool and it will thickens as it cools. If you do have lumps in the caramel, strain it while its still warm, because the thicker it gets the more difficult it is for it to come out of a strainer.

And so after all that trouble with the sugar, I did manage to make 1.5 cups (12 fl.oz) of golden coloured caramel and here is how it looked

So we have the fruits soaking, the caramel ready and now its time to make the batter.

Ingredients:

250 Gms butter, melted and at room temperature

5 eggs, at room temperature

2 cups whole wheat flour (16 fl.oz)

3 tsp baking powder

1 cup sugar, powdered

2 tbsp of cinnamon powder

1 tsp of nutmeg powder

1 tsp powdered cloves

1 tbsp dry ginger powder

1/2 cup of orange marmalade (4 fl.oz) ( purely optional, but extremely desirable)

3 cups of soaked fruits without the rum (24 fl.oz)

1 cup of rum from the soaking fruits

Here are few of my observations :

• I used whole wheat flour here but you can substitute with the same amount of maida/cake flour. Some might argue as to why make this dense cake denser by using whole wheat flour, but thats exactly my point...the cake is already dense so using a lighter flour is not going to change its texture considerably, so I will stick my good pal whole wheat.

• I did not stick to the traditional creaming method for the batter because we are not aiming at a lighter cake. Dense is in vogue !!

• Now since I live in tropical weather, the cake has to be finally stashed away in the fridge, otherwise it might get spoiled, so I was contemplating replacing butter with oil, so that the cake will be moist and soft even if it comes out of the fridge, but again I would have to thaw it to maximize the taste, so I decided to use butter so I can still have the buttery flavour in the cake.

• Orange marmalade is an optional ingredient, but I baked one cake with it and another without it.. and there was a difference... the slight hint of orange. Yeps, I baked two cakes...One was for gifting away and the other is still resting in my cake box and getting better with each passing day. Its Christmas after all and the season for giving.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius.  Grease and line a 20 cm x 20 cm cake pan with baking sheet.

2. Melt the butter and let it cool to room temperature.

3. Sift the flour and baking powder together. Set aside.

4. Use a hand blender and beat the melted butter and the powdered sugar. Add the eggs ( all at once or one at a time... its your choosing). and beat well till light and frothy. Add the caramel, orange marmalade, the powdered spices and beat well. Add the rum from the soaked fruits and beat well till all the wet ingredients are well combined.

5. Ad the dry and sifted ingredients slowly and beat just until incorporated.

6. Fold in the soaked fruits. You might want to dredge the fruits in flour to prevent sinking at the bottom, but in the first cake I did that and the second time around I did not and it made no difference at all. 

7. Pour the batter into the cake batter and bake for 10 mins at 180 degree Celsius and then for 35 min at 160 degree Celsius.

8. If you feel the crust is getting darker, take the pan out carefully and cover with aluminium foil and put the pan back into the oven immediately and bake again.

9. The cake is done when a tooth pick inserted at the center comes out clean. Take the cake out and leave to cool completely. The cake will not dome or sink at the center so even of you don't need a bundt pan for the cake.

10. Ideally, all Christmas fruit cakes are brushed with the left over rum from the soaked fruits. Holes are poked over the cake with a skewer and rum is brushed or poured over the cake for it to absorb. Its called feeding the cake. But this is one step I skipped. The cakes are baked 10-15 days in advance and rum is poured 4-5 times into the cake till Christmas. Or a cheese cloth is soaked in the rum and the cake is wrapped in it.. And on Christmas, the cake is served with almond paste or marzipan or just like that.

So Merry Christmas and Happy Baking !!!

Cinnamon Crumb Cake with Cinnamom Filling - Casting a magic spell inside the cake

Crumbly Streusel Topping interspersed with a sticky cinnamon filling...

Hibernating?? ..No....that would be for a much longer period of time....but yes its been quite some time now since I last visited my virtual world. Been vacationing much more than my usual share and yes, also been busier than usual with family and friends to take care of and with the usual routine stuff.....but, for me, what makes it interesting is that each of these mundane sounding everyday jobs revolves around lifestyles, people that we meet from different strata, friends, my family, my two children who are helping me evolve everyday and my dear husband who has made my life come alive. I am not trying to make it sound like an acknowledgements coloumn nor am I trying to sound too repetitive, but I guess all of this together makes every second worth living.

And then there is Food...put in simple words, it sustains life and a lot of times also sustains the soul....could be a lavish festive spread or a calorie sensitive health platter or a quick grab-a-bite fast food or just your simple home food ...you will surely agree with me that there is nothing more heartening than your favorite food at the table. So here is one of my very favorite Crumb Cake which everyone likes...haven't come across any exceptions.

This a beautiful Golden Crumb Cake with a  lovely Streusel Topping and hiding in between the cake is the cinnamon filling. The cake itself is so soft and moist , it is just waiting to melt into your mouth...believe me, I am not exaggerating...that's the way it really is...those who have tasted it can vouch for it.

Very cinnamony, but you'll be surprised to know that it is just the topping and the filling that have the cinnamon..the cake itself is a lovely golden vanilla cake. I came across this recipe long ago, accidentally, on www.nigella.com, when I was searching for Apple Strudel. Not that I was keen on baking the strudel, but just curious enough to know why it is one of the favorite things. The original recipe called for a lot of sugar in the topping, the cake and the filling. I can do with very less sugar all the time....So I have cut down the amount of sugar in my version.

Make room for some leisure time for yourself in the kitchen before you start off on this one. It calls for some extra preparation time than any other normal cake because you need to keep the  topping and the filling ready before you start mixing the cake batter. So get set going for a pleasurable baking experience, the results of which are so rewarding that you will find excuses to bake this one again...

Ingredients

The Streusel Topping


3/4 cup Sugar (6 fl oz)
3/4 cup Quick rolled Oats (like Quaker) (6 fl oz) (Can use ordinary flour instead)
1.5 tbsp Cinnamon Powder
1/3 cup melted butter (3 fl oz) (Either Salted or Unsalted)
1/2 cup Coarsely ground Almonds , optional

You can use this Streusel topping for any other cake or any fruit crumble.

The Filling

3/4 cup Brown Sugar (6 fl oz.)
1.5 tbsp Cinnamon Powder
1 tsp Cocoa Powder, for a deeper colour, optional

The Cake

3/4 cup soft butter (6 fl oz) (Either Salted or Unsalted)
1 and 1/2 cup of sugar, powdered (12 fl oz)
2 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs
3/4 cup curd/yoghurt (6 fl oz) (the original recipe used sour cream, I have substituted it with home made curd)
1 and 1/4 cup milk (10 fl oz)
2 cups Atta (Whole Wheat flour) (16 fl oz)


Method


For the topping
        

Mix together all the dry ingredients with a fork. Add the melted butter and mix well till well combined. Set aside.
For the Filling

Mix together all the ingredients together and set aside.


To make the Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 180 Degree Celsius.
2. You will need at least a10" x 12" x 3" pan for this cake. This cake is definitely for a large gathering or as in most cases a "store in the fridge cake" which gets better with every passing day.
3. Sieve Atta and baking powder and set aside.
4. Mix the curd and milk and whisk with a fork till it mixes well. You don't need to whisk out all the lumps. It takes care of itself while baking.
5. Cream the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
6. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition ( beat till the egg is completely mixed into the batter).
7. Add a tsp of Atta in between each addition of egg to prevent curdling.
8. Add half the Atta and mix into the flour. This ensures that most of the flour is covered in fat before the liquid is added and yields a lighter cake with maximum volume.
9. Add the remaining Atta and milk-curd mixture alternatively and beat well to ensure a smooth batter.
10. Beat only till all the ingredients are mixed well. Do not overbeat otherwise you will end up with a dense cake.
11. Now comes the assembling part.
12. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan spreading all the way up to the edges. You might want to use a wooden spoon for this.
13. Sprinkle the filling evenly on top of the batter. Make sure you cover the whole surface.
14. Pour the remaining batter on top of the filling and spread it evenly.
15. If required, you can take a knife and gently swirl the filling into the batter like in a marbled cake.. Again, don't combine it thoroughly otherwise the filling will mix with the batter.
16. Sprinkle the topping on top of the cake and cover the whole surface evenly.
17. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for about 55 to 60 minutes. The topping would have turned into a golden brown sheet and a toothpick should come out clean from the center of the pan.
18. Cool the cake for about 15-20 minutes and serve warm right put of the pan. Cover with a cling film and refrigerate.

Instead of a one large cake pan you can use two smaller pans and make two of these cakes for giveaways.

The golden brown Streusel right out of the oven

A closer look

Happy Baking !!