It's That Time of The Year Again! Fruitcake ( from Spicyana)

I had never liked fruitcakes much and this didn't change when I tasted the fruit loaded brick of a fruitcake here too. But you can never underestimate the power of memories. The tangy taste of the fruitcakes I had with the little goblet of wine at wedding receptions apparently stayed with me. The whole memory was reawakened and became a forceful nostalgic quest for more when one of my friend's Mom made it here on a US visit and gave me a quite generous portion to take home. By the time the quest became insufferable – my logical mind could not believe that I actually wanted to make and eat this cake – her Mom had already gone back. So in a moment of courage – I am a follow the instructions on the cake mix box and make a pound cake once in a while girl - I set out on my always fruitful food blog searches for a recipe. After going through many excellent recipes, decided to try spicyana's fruitcake. I had always been fascinated by all those baked cakes.

I stayed true to the recipe with due exceptions made for what I could find and what I assumed. The Indian store I went to for shajeera said it is the same as kala jeera and so that is what I used. I made the caramel a little early in the day and it kinda hardened by the time it was to be added and I heated it up in the microwave to liquefy again. This did not seem to have affected the taste much. It was quite a success and by the time a week came around the cake was barely there! Every time I took the cake out for basting with Rum it went back in a little less:-)

The recipe is pretty much the same as at spicyana's. For some reason, I am not able to link to the single recipe but to a whole page which contains it and you will need to scroll down a bit to Dec 13 to find the recipe. I am reproducing it here with how I went about it so it is easier for me the next time. This is the second year I made it and intend to make it a regular feature of our X-mas activities. Family and friends who have tasted it love it and I myself have heavily fallen for it. Must be all that rum:-)

Dry Fruits

golden raisins - ¾ cup

black raisins - ¾ cup

dried apricots – 12 chopped

dried tart cherries - ¼ cup

orange juice (no pulp) – 1 cup

nutmeg powder – ¼ tsp

cloves – 3

honey – 2 tsp

rum – 4 tbsp (I used Bacardi Select original premium crafted rum. I am sure any rum is fine but being completely lost in that aisle, wanted to note what I finally picked)

grated orange rind – 2 tsp

Warm the orange juice, add all the dried fruits and the other ingredients together and keep for 2-3 days in an air tight container.

Caramel

sugar – 1 cup

water – 5 tbsp

butter - ½ tsp

Take 1 cup sugar in a pan and add 1 tbsp water to it. Heat till you see a color change and stir continuously from this point. Keep on stirring till all the sugar melts into a nice golden brown. Add butter and stir. Add the remaining water. Take care to add the water very slowly so it won't splash up onto you. The solution will bubble up and all that but don't worry and keep on stirring and remove from heat to cool. Try to make the cake before the caramel hardens, but if it does, then carefully microwave it or melt again.

In The Cake Mix

all purpose flour – 2 ¾ cup

baking powder – 2 tsp

confectioner's sugar – 1 cup

butter – 1 cup

eggs – 5

cinnamon – a pinch

ground kala jeera (shajeera?) - ¾ tsp

vanilla essence – 1 tsp

soaked fruits and caramel from above

Did not use 1/4 cup chopped flour coated cashew nuts as we don't prefer it in the cakes but add if you do.

How To Do

Preheat oven to 300F.

This will make two round shallow pans of cake.

Grease the cake pans with butter or shortening. I do this by keeping the pan with the butter in the oven while heating up, then taking it out and spreading the melted butter around. Did not use parchment paper and did not flour the pans. Just lazy!

Sift the flour with baking powder and all the spice powders.

Melt the butter and add sugar. Beat with an electric hand mixer for a minute.

Beat the eggs and add to the butter-sugar mix. Add vanilla essence and caramel. Beat for 4 minutes.

Add the prepared flour now little by little and mix well with a whisk.

Add soaked fruits and whisk it in or stir in with a spoon.

Pour into pans and place it in the preheated oven for 60 minutes.

Since these pans are shallow, they don't need more than 60 minutes, but a deeper pan needed about 1 hr and 15 minutes.

Cake is done when a fork inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool for 15 minutes and unmold.

Bast with rum all around and cover in foil.

Repeat rum basting once a day for as many days as you are patient up to a week.

Not sure how long it will keep as every time it gets over within a week. I have mailed them across the US and reports indicate they were in perfect shape to be enjoyed on reception.

I can't believe I am making these cakes with gusto and would like to thank spicyana's winner of a recipe for making it possible.