Fruit cake or plum cake if using plums :)

 

Wish you all a very happy and a prosperous new year !!!!!! Have a fabulous year ahead :)

We started our new year with a sweet note. Made this fabulous fruit cake and it was yummmmm..... Fruit cake is one perfect moist cake to satisfy your sweet tooth craving any time. Me, my hubby and my mil love this so much and I have been longing to hook on to some recipe that would be foolproof. One of my very good friends in the neighbourhood - Jhansi, shared some fruit cake with us last Christmas. The first bite of the cake and I knew that it was the perfect kind of fruit cake I was looking for. We loved every bite of the cake and thanked my  friend for the wonderful treat to our tastebuds. Awesome cake I should say

When I am telling you so much about the cake then you know what I would have done after appreciating my friend for her kindness.... yes.... I asked her for the recipe and that is how I got to try this. It took more than a year to try this recipe .... it somehow got postponed for some reason or the other. Mainly because my kids are not at all a fan of nuts and fruits in cake. They like the plain old vanilla sponge cake with cashews and nothing else. So it took me so long to finally try the recipe and I am really happy that it turned out perfect. My friend tried it and gave me a 100/100

Caramel and dried fruits are the main ingredients for this cake. The beautiful colour that the cake gets is because of the caramel that we add to the batter. Wellllll... to be honest I did not know that at all. I never would have guessed that :) Good that I tried out the recipe and I know this recipe is sure a keeper
  

Makes ... 1 cake

Serve option... Room Temp

This is what u'll need...

All-purpose flour / Maida - 1 cup
Powdered sugar - 1 cup
Salt - 1/8 tspn
Baking soda - 1/4 tspn
Baking powder - 1/2 tspn
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tspn
Nutmeg powder - 1/4 tspn
Fruits + nuts - 1 cup or a little more 
Eggs - 3
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tspn
Oil/Butter - 1/2 cup 
Lemon zest - 1/4 tspn

For caramel  ->
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/4 cup

Here is the stir....

• Measure 1 cup of all-purpose flour into a wide bowl

• Add 1/8 tspn salt, 1/4 tspn baking soda and 1/2 tspn baking powder to the flour

• Give it a good mix using a whisk

• Chop nuts - I have used almonds, cashews, hazelnuts and walnuts. Chop cherries and dates. I also used some raisins and tutti frutti

• Add all the nuts and dried fruits to the flour and whisk it all together

• You can either do it this way or keep the flour mixture separate and dust the nuts and fruits separate. In this case you can add the nuts and fruits in the end after the entire batter is ready

• Now the dry mixture is ready. Lets get the wet mix ready

• Lets start off with making the caramel which is the main ingredient for this cake. Measure 1/2 cup of sugar into a saucepan

• Let this simmer for a few minutes on low flame. The sugar will start to brown. Just keep stirring to ensure that the sugar browns evenly and doesnt burn

• When the sugar caramalises completely it will be a rich dark brown colour and it will start bubbling

• At this stage turn off the heat and add water slowly to the caramel. Make sure you dont pour the entire water in one shot else the sudden steam from it might hurt your fingers

• Mix gently to thin out the caramel a little

• Add oil or butter to another wide bowl. I made 2 batches - used oil for one and butter for one and it worked fine with both. But in case of oil you add a little less than 1/2 cup.... say take out 1.5 tablespoon of oil out after measuring half a cup

• Measure 1 cup of powdered sugar and add it to the oil. Add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon powder and 1/4 tspn of nutmeg powder. These spices lend a wonderful flavour to the cake

• Blend it well for a couple of minutes until nice and smooth

• Add 4 eggs to the  mixture. The picture shows only 3 but never mind... I added one more.... so make sure you add 4 . Blend it well

• Add half a teaspoon of vanilla essence and lemon zest. Forgot to take pic when adding lemon zest

• Add half of the caramel to the wet mixture

• Now fold in half the flour mix into the wet mix

• Add remaining caramel and flour mix and give it a gentle mix just until you dont see any dry flour around. No need to overdo it

• Pour the batter into a greased and dusted baking tray

• Bake this in 180 degrees preheated oven for about 35-45 minutes. Every oven is different so keep an eye on the cake after 35 minutes. I used a round cake pan so it took 40 minutes but if you are planning to use a loaf pan then it would definitely take more time

• Once done, remove the cake from the tin and let it cool on a wire rack until it comes to room temperature

• Slice and serve and enjoy the treat 

 

 Note: 

• I added the nuts and fruits to the flour directly but you add dusted nuts and fruits directly to the batter towards the end of the batter making
• Adding the spices and lemon zest gives a nice flavour to the cake. I would suggest not to skip it
• If you have time then you can soak the fruits and nuts in some liquor or orange juice
• This cake takes a little longer to cook than the regular vanilla cake
• If the caramel thickens while you are working on other stuff just add a little water and stir it gently to make it thin. Dont add too much water just a teaspoon should be good
• Be careful when adding water to the hot caramel. Add gently and little at a time else sudden steam might burn your fingers