Christmas fruit cake/ Kerala Plum cake

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR !!!

My first post of the year is Christmas fruit cake or Plum cake. Plum cake is one of mine and my husband's favorite cake. This is my first attempt in baking plum cake and it was a huge success. The whole cake was finished that day itself :)

The recipe is a combination of many other recipes like Yummyoyummy, edible garden, marias menu... The recipe list seems to be very long, but believe me its not that difficult and the taste is worth the effort :)

Ingredients:

To soak dried fruits & nuts
Dried fruits - 2.5 cups
Nuts - 1.5 cups
Orange Peel - 1 tsp
Apple juice/Wine/Rum - 1 cup

For spice powder
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp
Nutmeg powder - 1/4 tsp
Clove powder - 1/4 tsp
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Dried ginger powder -1/4 tsp (Optional)

For caramel:
Sugar- 1/2cup
Water - 1 tbsp
Hot Water - 1/4 cup

For cake batter
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 2 cups
Butter - 1 cup or 2 sticks ( at room temperature)
Eggs - 4 (at room temperature)
Vanilla essence - 2 tsp

Method:

Soaking the fruits and nuts
Roughly chop all the fruits and nuts. You can use any dried fruits and nuts like raisins, cranberries, dates, cherries, cashews, almonds or pecans. Soak all these fruits, nuts and orange peel in apple juice/wine/rum in an air tight container. I used apple juice here. Soak it for atleast 24 hrs to 1 week.

Caramelize the sugar 
1. Heat sugar with 1 tbsp water in a heavy bottom pan on medium heat. The sugar will first melt and slowly turns  into golden brown. Heat it for somemore time until the colour changes to dark brown. Now add the hot water to the caramel and heat it for another 2 minutes so that the sugar doesnot crystallize. Set it aside and allow it to cool down.
Note: Be very careful and keep safe distance while pouring water into the caramelized sugar.
          Donot stir until the sugar has melted completely and the colour has changed to golden brown.

Preparing the cake batter
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 8" cake pans or one 9x13" pan with butter and a sheet of parchment paper.
2. In a mixing bowl, sift together all purpose flour,baking soda , baking powder, salt and spice powders.
3. Drain the soaked dry fruits. Reserve around 2-3 tbsp of the juice/rum/wine. Add 1/2 cup of mixed flour to this so that the fruits and nuts are completely coated with flour. This will help prevent the fruits and nuts from sinking to the bottom of the pan.
4. In another mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar until creamy for around 3-4 minutes with a n electric hand mixer. Now add eggs one by one, beating after each addition. Beat until the mixture is creamy and fluffy.
5. Add the flour mixture to this and beat until incorporated. Now add the vanilla essence and mix well.
6. Mix in the cooled caramel and dried fruits and nuts and gently fold in with a wooden spatula. Lastly add 2-3 tbsp of the reserved juice/wine/rum to this and mix well.
7. Pour the batter into the greased pans and bake for around 1 hr , until a tooth pick inserted at the center comes out clean. The baking time can vary from around 50 min to 1 hr 15 min, depending upon the oven. Allow the cake to cool for 10 -15 minutes.

Enjoy the Christmas fruit cake!! Happy holidays!!