Bellpepperss: Christmas Fruit Cake

Christmas Fruit Cake/ Non Alcoholic Fruit Cake / Kerala Plum Cake /Kerala Fruit Cake

Holiday season is here 🎄🎅, you all must be very busy. Yes like you all I was very busy decorating our sweet home with a lovely Christmas Tree 🎄🎊, lights, snowman and baubles. Grabbed some time to bake a super soft and super tasty non alcoholic Christmas cake. We had a small get together at home last week and I served this cake to my dear friends 😍.They all enjoyed and asked me to post the recipe ASAP. Dear friends, here is the recipe. Christmas 🎅 is incomplete without a fruit cake 🍰. Back home in Kerala (India) we have our own plum cake. During Christmas time almost all the bakeries will be loaded with plum cakes that too Elite Plum Cake 😋. My dad always gets me a pack of this Elite Plum Cake every year me 😍. Wish I could give him a slice of this plum cake that was baked by me 😞. For the past few years I was longing to bake this but I backed off as I thought it won’t turn out perfect without alcohol 😕. I was in no mood to add alcohol 😏. Finally I got a recipe from all recipe where they have used orange juice 😊. To give it a personal touch I replaced orange juice with grape juice and personalized the recipe here and there 😉. I have added as much dry fruits as possible. Raisins, plums and dates gives it a rich flavor 😋. Dry fruits are soaked in freshly made grape juice and I refrigerated this for two and a half days 😉. It’s better to use fresh grape juice as store brought might contain preservatives and other chemicals. Spices gives the cake extra punch that tempts us to eat it again and again 😋😋😋. Since there is no alcohol it doesn’t have much shelf life 😐. You can wrap them in aluminum foil and store it in an air tight box. It will be good for another 5-6 days but it won’t last that long 👌. The cake will be over by that time. Yes, believe me this is a super yummy cake 😃. Okay then let’s get started…..

Preparation time: 2 days and 20 min

Cooking time: 50- 60 min

Serves: 8-10

For soaking dry fruits

Fresh grape juice: 2 – 2 ¼ cup

Dried plum: ½ cup

Dates: 2-3

Cashews: ¼ cup

Pistachio: ¼ cup

Almonds: ¼ cup

Walnuts: ¼ cup

Raisins: 1 cup

Cherry: 1 cup

Tutti frutti: 1 cup

For Caramel

Sugar: ½ cup

Boiled water: ¼ cup + ½ cup

For cake batter

Dry ingredients

All purpose flour / Maida: 2 cups

Baking powder: 1 tsp

Baking soda: ½ tsp

Wet ingredients

Eggs: 5 (room temperature)

Butter: 1 cup (room temperature)

Sugar: 1 ½ -2 cups

Vanilla essence: 3 tsp

Spices

Cardamom: 2

Cinnamon: a small piece

Cloves: 3

Dry ginger powder: ½ tsp

Method

1. Juice the grapes using a blender ,collect the juice discarding the skin with the help of a strainer.

2. Chop all the dry fruits: plums, dates, cashews, pistachio, almonds, and walnuts.

3. In a large bowl add all the chopped dry fruits, cherries, raisins, tutti frutti.

4. Add the grape juice make sure all the dry fruits are completely immersed in the juice.

5. Cover it and refrigerate for at least two days.

6. You can strain the juice if you want but I didn’t. Set aside.

7. Crush the spices listed under “spices” with the help of a mortar and pestle. Keep it aside.

8. To prepare the caramel, take ½ cup of sugar in a pan then slowly add ¼ cup of hot water to the sugar and patiently wait till it caramelizes in medium heat. It is a time consuming process.

9. Once it caramelizes add ½ cup of hot water, take care it will splash. Sometimes the sugar solidifies a bit, stir it vigorously. Set it aside. Allow it cool.

10. Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C . Prepare two 8” inch baking pans or 1 10” inch baking tin.

11. Beat the melted butter and egg together till smooth. One egg at a time.

12. Add sugar combine it will.

13. Mix and sieve the dry ingredients.

14. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar- butter egg mixture. Beat it well.

15. Add the crushed spices to the batter. Mix it well.

16. Add the cooled caramel and vanilla essence. Give it a good mix.

17. Next add the soaked dry fruits along with the juice. The batter will look curdled; it is due to the acid present in the grape juice.

18. Combine all ingredients well. Transfer the batter to the prepared cake tin.

19. Bake it in the preheated oven till it is done. Insert a toothpick or knife to check. If it comes out clear the cake is done. If not bake it for few more minutes.