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 !!!

Orange Marmalade Cake - Citrus Mania - One and only of its kind !!

Whole Wheat and Oranges - Can't get better than this !

Get set for a fresh burst of orange in your mouth...its like drinking out of an orange deodorant or eating an orange scented candle...Baking this cake is just as easy as peeling an orange - no creaming , no folding and even though it is Whole Wheat, just like every other cake of mine, it is so soft and 'melt-in-your-mouth' that for a moment you might not want to believe me.

I have been baking this cake for a very long time now. Earlier I used the electric mixer and just blended all the ingredients and baked it. All mixing and preparation over within 10 minutes. But after all these years of baking, I guess using some technique while baking is justified. But feel free to go back to the prehistoric era and use the ancient method..:-))

I have also baked these into mini muffins...power packed with the goodness of oranges and Whole Wheat. I am sometimes tempted to mash a banana into this batter, because, one - banana keeps the cake moist even after a few days of baking these, and, two - I love the merger of these two flavors. But I restrain myself because I think the Orange is the king here and should be allowed to rule the Kingdom of Flavours in this cake.

Handy Tip - If you don't have Orange Marmalade, use 1 cup ( 8 fl. oz.) of freshly squeezed orange juice with the pulp and the rind. So you will have only one cup of wet ingredients as opposed to 1 and a 1/2 as in the original recipe.

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 cups of Whole Wheat Flour (12 fl. oz.)

100 gms butter ( Salted or Unsalted ), at room temperature

3/4 cup Sugar  (6 fl. oz.)

4 large eggs

1 cup Orange Marmalade, (8 fl. oz), melted and at room temperature

1/2 cup Fresh Orange Juice, (4 fl. oz), with the pulp (Use out of a carton if you don't have fresh oranges)

2 tsp Baking Powder

Rind of One orange, optional

1/2 tsp Cinnamon, optional

1/2 tsp Vanilla

Method

1. Grease and line a baking pan ( I used 8" x 6"). I prefer lining my pan with a baking sheet for any fruit or vegetable cake for ease of unmoulding. 
2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
3. Place all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix it evenly with a fork or with hand. 
4. Add the butter and mix thoroughly ( with an electric blender or manually) so that it resembles coarse bread crumbs. Doesn't take too long to do this manually, just a couple of minutes.

Coarse sand like Texture

4. Grate the rind of an orange into the mixture.

Orange rind lends a very citrus flavor to the cake

5.  From this point onwards, take out your electric blender with the paddle attachment or use the wire whisk for mixing the batter manually.
6.  Combine vanilla, melted and cooled orange marmalade and orange juice. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix.Make sure there are no lumps.
7.  Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well after each addition.
8.  Keep scrapping the sides while mixing and blend till all the ingredients are well combined, no more. That should take anywhere between 5-7 minutes if done manually or even lesser if you use a machine.
9. Pour into the prepared an and bake at 180 degree Celsius for 35 minutes or till a tooth pick comes out clean from the center of the cake.
10. Unmould as soon as you can and cool on a wire rack. If you have used a baking sheet to line your pan, then you can unmould the cake faster ( within 5 minutes of taking out of the oven). Otherwise wait for the cake to loosen from the bottom and unmould.
11. Cool and slice. Serve warm right out of the oven.


12. For more orangy flavor melt some orange marmalade and pour over the cooled cake. Or make an Orange glaze - Mix 1 part of  orange juice with 1/4 past of sugar and simmer over a low flame till it thickens or reduces to 3/4 the original quantity.

Happy Baking !!

Chocolate Excess Cake with Ganache Icing - Inspired Baking

Mmmm.....Choco Fantasy

 

Well, here is yet another reason to bake....I just saw an episode of Masterchef Australia - Season 3 and guess whom I saw....Nigella Lawson sitting there tasting that Chocolate Devils Food Cake...Ah! How I wish I was there, treating her to one of my lovely cakes and bowl her over with my very special Chocolate Excess Cake covered with Ganache Icing. Well, I am not sure if she would approve of my downsizing the amount of butter, but I think this cake is just as tender, fudgy and infinitely chocolatey with a beautiful deep brown crust which is going to go under a blanket of cream and dark chocolate icing - the Ganache.

This cake is a cross between my Chocolate Sponge ( where I use Cocoa and in lesser amounts) and the Chocolate Devil's Food Cake which uses boiling hot water to get its texture and density. My version of Excessive Chocolate... Nigella, you will definitely endorse this cake !!!

Shining Crowning Glory !!

Ingredients:

1 cup atta/whole wheat flour ( 8 fl oz) ( Can substitute same amount of maida/cake flour)

1/4 cup soft butter ( 2 fl oz) ( Salted Butter is fine)

3/4 cup powdered sugar (6 fl oz)

1/2 cup finely chopped dark chocolate ( 4 fl oz)

1/2 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp Vegetable oil

3/4 cup boiling water (6 fl oz)

1/2 cup dark Chocochips (4 fl oz)

Method:

1. Just like any other cake, start by sieving the dry ingredients (atta, baking powder).
2. Add vanilla, the oil and the finely chopped dark chocolate to the boiling water and let it melt.
3. Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius.
4. Cream and butter and the sugar till light and fluffy.
5. Add the eggs one at a time and beat till the batter is smooth.
6. Add the atta and baking powder. Beat again
7. Add all the chocolate water and beat till well incorporated.
8. Stir in the Chocochips.
9. The batter will be slightly runny, but not too runny.
10. Bake for 25 minutes at 180 degree Celsius or till a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.
11. Unmould the cake and let it cool on a wire rack.
12. Once the cake cools down completely, poke the with a toothpick and make holes all over the cake and pour the Ganache over the cake till it covers the crust all the sides. The holes will let the Ganache trickle down into the cake.
13. For this Ganache I have used 6 fl oz ( 3/4 cup) of Amul Fresh Cream and 6 fl oz (3/4 cup) of Dark Cooking Chocolate.

Happy Baking !!

The Lemon Pound Cake - Take a break from Chocolate !!

I don't really need an excuse to bake...grab my eggs and butter and flour and ready to beat and mix and pour...

And what better occasion than my own birthday....bake my cake and eat it too....purrrfect

I have been hanging on to this recipe for very long now...never tried it out because I felt it had too much butter ..ouch !! the butter!! But I have been wanting to try something different and that something had to be this lemon cake.And what a cake it turned out to be. Extremely soft, tangy and with a little spice its just the perfect combination with the crust that was beautifully golden brown. I skipped the rind of the lemon because I was sure my kids would not like that, but do use the rind to enhance the lemony flavor. Next time I am going to replace the milk with some thick yoghurt/curd and use the juice of another lemon, I want some more lemony flavor into the cake. Those who have easy access to cream cheese must try that as well. I have reduced the amount of butter and added some milk instead.


The Classic Pound Cake recipe is a pound of everything - butter and eggs and around 9-10 eggs. That will take me a year at the gym to knock off!!! So this version, though does have enough butter to keep me going at the treadmill, is surely the healthier indulgence.

So all those Chocoholics...take a break from your chocolate habit and indulge in pure lemony pleasure...

Ingredients:

200 gms butter ( Salted would do, so would unsalted)

1.5 cups sugar, powdered  (12 fl oz)

2 cups (16 fl oz) Atta/whole wheat flour ( Catch me baking with maida and I owe you a cake !!)

1 cup milk ( (8 fl oz)

4 eggs, at room temperature

2 tsp baking powder

Juice of 1 big lemon ( about 2 tbsp)

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg (optional)

1 tsp dry ginger powder (optional) 
1 tsp Vanilla , Optional 

Method:

No Curdling of Batter..Perfect

1. Preheat the oven to 180 Degree Celsius.
2. Sieve the atta, baking powder, dry ginger and nutmeg powder.Set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a tbsp of  sieved ingredients in between each addition to prevent curdling.
5. Add the dry ingredients ( atta etc.) alternating with the milk,starting and ending with the atta.Add the lemon juice and rind.Beat until all the ingredients are just incorporated into the batter.
6. The batter will have a dropping consistency and not ribbon like.
7. Spoon the batter into baking pan lined with a baking sheet. Smoothen the top with a spatula.
8. Bake at 180 Degree Celsius for 50 minutes or till a tooth pick comes out clean.
9. Unmould the cake while warm and cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Happy Baking !!

Chocolate Cup Cakes...Rise and Shine

Ready for some fun baking? 

These Cupcakes will bring a smile to your face because one - they are so cute to look at, two - they are all fiber and no refined flour (maida) and (wait there is more coming) there is very little butter. And all you health freaks out there...substitute with olive oil. As for the sugar...do not use an electric blender...burn the calories and replenish later.

Life cant get better than this...so wishing you all a guilt free snacking.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Atta (Whole Wheat Flour, 6 fl oz)

1/4 cup cocoa powder ( 2 fl oz)

1/2 cup sugar, finely powdered (4 fl oz)

1 tsp Baking powder

3/4 cup milk ( 6 fl oz)

2 tbsp + 1 tsp melted butter

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp rum , optional

chocochips, optional

You can use the same amount of Maida in the recipe if you want to.

To make Vanilla cup cakes, just skip the cocoa, 1 tsp of butter and 1 tsp of rum. Optionally add a 1/2 tsp of grated nutmeg for flavorsome Vanilla Cup Cakes.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. Sieve together the atta, baking powder and the cocoa powder. In a deep bowl, beat the egg along with the sugar and vanilla till light and frothy. Add the melted butter and beat again till the butter combines well into the batter.Do not overbeat.Add the sieved ingredients and the milk alternatively and beat til all the ingredients are incorporated into the batter. Again, do not overbeat. Pour into greased muffin tray or line muffin tray with cupcake liners. Since I am using Whole wheat flour, I filled the moulds till the brim, if using Maida fill 3/4 full. Sprinkle with chocochips and bake at 180 degree celsius for 12-13 min or till an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool sightly and unmould while still warm.Let them cool on a wire rack if you want to store them, Otherwise serve warm with a drizle of Hot Chocolate Sauce or with an icing of your choice.

There have been times when I am in a hurry and I just blitz all the ingredients in a blender and the results are just as good.

Cocoa can make your cake go dry. So when ever you add cocoa, remember to add extra butter or rum to balance out the dryness. Rum goes very well with chocolate...Just a tiny splash of rum would do.Any alcohol losses its alcoholic potency once cooked/baked (basically after being heated).

Simple Vanilla Cake...Made with Atta ( Wheat Flour )

Light and full of flavour

Best thing about all my cakes is that I bake them using wheat flour (Atta). I substitute the same amount of Maida ( Cake Flour), sometimes when I am using this cake as a base for some icing.

So presenting before you...The Classic vanilla Cake...Simple, yet elegant...

Ingredients:

1 Cup Atta ( Substitute with the same amount of Maida, if desired) (8 fl oz)

1/4 cup Butter, softened (2 fl oz)

3/4 cup sugar, powdered (6 fl oz)

2 eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup milk, at room temperature (6 fl oz)

1 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Vanilla (Essence or Extract)

Optional Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Cinnamon Powder / Nutmeg Powder ( Sieve it along with the flour for some extra flavour)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius.

Grease and Dust a 6 inch Cake Pan. Alternatively line with baking paper.

Sieve the Atta and the baking powder 2-3 times and set aside. Sieve the Cinnamon/nutmeg along, if using.

Cream the Butter and Sugar till light and fluffy.Click on the link and follow instructions on the Creaming Method.

Add the eggs one at a time to the creamed mixture, making sure that the each egg is fully incorporated before adding another egg. Basically, what is formed is a fat - liquid emulsion. If the egg is not beaten well into the batter, the batter will curdle and all air bubbles created during the Creaming Method will be lost. Addition of one tsp of sieved flour in between the addition of eggs will prevent the batter from curdling. After all the eggs have been added, you must have a creamy batter  which will hold the air bubbles in.

Add the milk and the sieved flour mixture alternatively. Do not add all the flour together, otherwise you will end up with lumps in the batter and moreover, the idea is to coat most of the flour particles in fat. The more the flour comes in contact with liquid more gluten is formed resulting in a hard and tough cake. 

Do not over beat the batter otherwise you will end up forming more gluten...blend till all the ingredients have just been incorporated.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 22-25 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

Unmould while still warm. Cut and serve.

Happy Baking !!