Nothing says it's Christmas time, more than the smell of freshly baked fruit cake in your home. I love walking into my kitchen and being invited by that enticing smell of baked goodies. Now while everyone needs a fail proof Christmas cake recipe (and this one is such a winner), you sometimes want to keep it simpler, skip that caramel business and just make a simple cake that still says Christmas. I've marked so many Christmas cake recipes and even converted ordinary recipes into Christmasy ones, by adding mixed fruit, mixed spice maybe and if not any of that, some rum for good measure. I stumbled upon this recipe for boiled fruit cake and quickly made some changes as I went with the recipe and holy moly, it turned out to be an amazing Christmas fruit cake!!!! and I didn't even have to beat a blob of butter. Like Come on.
What I loved most about this recipe, is that it was no fuss, no beating butter, whisking eggs and all that jazz. It was simply a little bit of mixing, stirring, wet ingredients meet dry and then letting it sit in the oven for a bit. You could make this cake in a 7 inch round tin or like I did, you can use 2 medium sized loaf tins too. And oh, that loaf will make a pretty nice treat to take along to a dinner.
Now while the recipe uses only rasisns, currants and sultanas, I thought it would be a great idea to just use my mixed dry fruits that have been soaking in rum . I generally soak large quantities of dry fruits in rum about a month before Christmas and then I can add a cup of it to a lot of bakes to give it some extra Christmasy feeling. Though most recipes specify certain amounts of each dry fruit to put , I just toss in whatever I have handy; raisins, almonds, walnuts, cashew nuts, tutti frutti and some orange peel . Chop it all up and let it soak in some rum. Now, don't assume that's the only way you can go about with this cake. I think this cake will be just as gorgeous if you used a mixed cup or two of raisins, currants and sultanas and you can even skip that rum. This cake is cooked on a very low temperature of only 150 C, specially because it needs to bake for about an hour. If you find the top of the cake browning too soon, then put a loose tent of foil on top after the cake has baked for about 35 mins and is continuing to bake.
While I didn't have the patience to wait too long to taste the cake, I can only imagine that its taste will get better a day later or so.
Easy Fruit Cake :
Ingredients :
1 can (400 gm) condensed milk
150 gm butter
1 1/2 cup mixed dry fruits (roughly chopped)
225 gm flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 eggs
1. In a heavy bottomed mix the condensed milk, chopped dry fruits and butter. Place over a low heat till the butter has all melted and then let it simmer for about 5 mins. Stir it occasionally, specially if you don't trust your pan and think it'll with catch at the bottom. Then let this mixture cool while stirring occasionally and you can get started with the rest of the ingredients.
2. Line the base and grease the sides of the cake tin and pre heat your oven to 150 C.
3. In a large bowl, put the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon powder and mix gently using a whisk. Then add the eggs and the cooled mixture and whisk it quickly till it all comes together. You'll find that the mixture sort of comes together like a fudge and that's how it is supposed to be.
4. Quickly tip in the thick batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for about an hour or till a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
What I loved most about this recipe, is that it was no fuss, no beating butter, whisking eggs and all that jazz. It was simply a little bit of mixing, stirring, wet ingredients meet dry and then letting it sit in the oven for a bit. You could make this cake in a 7 inch round tin or like I did, you can use 2 medium sized loaf tins too. And oh, that loaf will make a pretty nice treat to take along to a dinner.
Now while the recipe uses only rasisns, currants and sultanas, I thought it would be a great idea to just use my mixed dry fruits that have been soaking in rum . I generally soak large quantities of dry fruits in rum about a month before Christmas and then I can add a cup of it to a lot of bakes to give it some extra Christmasy feeling. Though most recipes specify certain amounts of each dry fruit to put , I just toss in whatever I have handy; raisins, almonds, walnuts, cashew nuts, tutti frutti and some orange peel . Chop it all up and let it soak in some rum. Now, don't assume that's the only way you can go about with this cake. I think this cake will be just as gorgeous if you used a mixed cup or two of raisins, currants and sultanas and you can even skip that rum. This cake is cooked on a very low temperature of only 150 C, specially because it needs to bake for about an hour. If you find the top of the cake browning too soon, then put a loose tent of foil on top after the cake has baked for about 35 mins and is continuing to bake.
While I didn't have the patience to wait too long to taste the cake, I can only imagine that its taste will get better a day later or so.
Easy Fruit Cake :
Ingredients :
1 can (400 gm) condensed milk
150 gm butter
1 1/2 cup mixed dry fruits (roughly chopped)
225 gm flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 eggs
1. In a heavy bottomed mix the condensed milk, chopped dry fruits and butter. Place over a low heat till the butter has all melted and then let it simmer for about 5 mins. Stir it occasionally, specially if you don't trust your pan and think it'll with catch at the bottom. Then let this mixture cool while stirring occasionally and you can get started with the rest of the ingredients.
2. Line the base and grease the sides of the cake tin and pre heat your oven to 150 C.
3. In a large bowl, put the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon powder and mix gently using a whisk. Then add the eggs and the cooled mixture and whisk it quickly till it all comes together. You'll find that the mixture sort of comes together like a fudge and that's how it is supposed to be.
4. Quickly tip in the thick batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for about an hour or till a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
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