Season’s sweet things – “You-know-what”

Gleeful happenings are taking place on the lower quarter of our Christmas tree, ornaments are constantly switching places and ribbons seem to be perennially on the move. A pink Dora whistle and a yogurt tub lid were found spending time on the tree for a while, before getting replaced with a scrubbing pad and a piece of chalk. Altogether it looks like so much Christmas fun for someone in the house!

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I purposely decided not to start off this post mentioning fruitcake; you are still here, aren’t you? People from my home state are long known to pledge their allegiance to this cake perhaps from the time when British inspired bakeries began making the cake, substituting difficult ingredients like molasses with home made caramel syrup, adding on other spice favorites like shajeera, lavishing on cashew nuts, and skimping on candied fruits for good. Every Christmas we bake some, buy some, gift some, eat even more and then start off again in our relentless pursuit for making the best fruit cake ever. The journey is on and we all know that getting there is perhaps all the fun!

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My favorite fruitcake recipe still is the most viewed post in this blog, so I think it is only fair to share one more. The Rum and raisin fruit cake gets its intense flavor and melt in the mouth texture from the boiled raisin puree used in the recipe. Always make sure that you bake the cake till the cake tester comes out clean with some crumbs attached to it. Also if you are using a dark surface cake pan, cover outside with Aluminum foil to prevent over browning of the cake during the prolonged baking time.

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Rum and raisin fruitcake

Granulated sugar 1 ½ cups + ½ cup
Butter ¾ cup
Eggs 2
All purpose flour 2 ½ cups
Baking powder 2 tsp
Ground cloves ½ tsp
Ground nutmeg ¼ tsp
Ground Shajeera 1 tsp
Salt ¼ tsp
Orange extract ½ tsp
Rum ¼ cup +1/4 cup+ 2 tbsp
Raisins 2 cups + 2 cups
Chopped cashew nuts 1 cup

Raisin Puree
Cook 2 cups of raisins with 1 cup of water, and ¼ cup of Rum with occasional stirring till the raisins are very tender. Cool the mixture, blend to a fine puree adding just enough water to get the blender going if needed.

Caramel syrup
Mix ½ cup sugar with 2 tbsp water in a sauce pan, turn on the heat, and mix well till the sugar dissolves. Now stand back and wait for the sugar syrup to start caramelizing, mix with a wooden spatula till the syrup turns deep golden brown. Turn the heat to low, add ½ cup water ,increase the heat a bit with constant stirring till all sugar clumps dissolve. Cool and refrigerate up to 1 week.

Soaking fruits
Soak 2 cup raisins in ½ cup orange juice+ ½ cup water+ ¼ cup rum for 1-2 days in the refrigerator (Or microwave the mixture (without rum) for 4 minutes, add the rum and soak for 4-6 hours). Drain off the excess liquid before adding fruits to the batter.

Heat oven to 325 degree F, grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan

In a bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, and spices with a wire whisk.

Cream butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes, add eggs, orange extract, spices, caramel syrup and continue creaming for 2 more minutes. Add the raisin puree and flour mixture alternating between the two, mixing very well after each addition. Add soaked raisins, chopped nuts and mix well with a wooden spoon. Spoon the batter (it will be very thick, you may add a couple of tablespoons of water to the batter if and only if it is needed, otherwise the fruits will sink to the bottom of the cake) into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 hr and 30 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake come out clean with a few crumbs on it. Start testing after 1 hr 15 minutes. Keep the cake on a wire rack to cool down for 20 minutes. Invert the cake, brush it with 2 tbsp of rum (optional) and let the cake rest for a day before serving. Store at room temperature for up to 7 days, refrigerate for up to a month

fruitcake4

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow !

Supriya

Swapna said...

All I can say is wow!!! Beautiful Clicks Archana!!!

Ria Mathew said...

My nieces behave just like your lil one! My cousin sis says they 'decorate' their tree every single day! :)

You4 Rum n Raisin cake looks really nice! Even I had a plan of baking it in a bundt tin, but then thought of doing it next year! I have another batch to bake, so maybe I'll try it this year itself :)

Divya Kudua said...

Looks so good Archana..Love the dusting of powdered sugar on top and the dry fruits and raisins perfectly distributed throughout.Oh God,how many Fruitcake recipes will I try this year??

Vidhu said...

Yummm!!!

Anonymous said...

These pictures are taking my breath away,you know how to make statements. Very fitting for the season, but not over done.
Smitha & Joe

Bharathy said...

Heaven!!!

Indian Cuisine Blogroll said...

That looks perfect..I'm a big fan of your blog...Pictures in the blog are awesome...

Cool Lassi(e) said...

Hey, this is my first time here. You have a gorgeous blog and I am in awe of all your pictures. The rum and raisin cake made my eyes pop!

Priya Suresh said...

Omg, am speechless..Terrific clicks..Fruit cake looks absolutely divine..

shoma said...

Oooooo...Yum, yum, yum!!!! Great pictures..your pics are tempting all of us..Thanks for the terrific recipe.and cant wait to see your chrismas tree with all those innovative ornaments.

shoma

Mishmash ! said...

mine tried to keep his milk bottle twice y'day :)
too tempted to make this , i wish i could get to it soooon!

I know u re fully drenched in x'mas spirits....enjoy...Merry x'mas to u, T and Lil Sarah :)

Poornima said...

OMG. Now I have to decid ewhther to make this or your other fruit cake. Tough choice. Thanks anyway for the recipe.

archana said...

Supriya
Su, is that you? Thank you.

Swapna
Thank you dear

Ria

I am pretty much doing the same thing especially on weekends. I love bundt cake pan, that is kind of my self decorating bakeware.
Thank you

Divya
We can never have enough fruitcake recipes, can't we ? Loved your cherry cake today, for some reason your blog is not letting me comment. Thank you, i am glad that you liked it.

Vidhu,
Thank you

Smitha & Joe,
Thank you folks, that is extremly kind of you to say so.

Bharathy,
Thank you dear

Indian Cusine Blog roll
Thanks a lot Deepa

Cool lassie

Welcome to this blog, glad you stopped by.Thank you for your kind words.


Priya,
Thank you dear, glad that you liked it

Shoma,
Thank you, can't wait to see you guys here.

Mish,
How cute is that !!!! Is he walking around a lot? Have fun ! I would so love to hear from you after you make it. Thank you for the wishes. Same goes to you too.

Poornima,
Thanks dear, let's flip the coin. I am glad that you looked at my other recipe too.

Neelu said...

Your pictures are eye candy !!!!

Reena said...

Archana, i made this yesterday, will be cutting it today, and will let you know. But i thought of letting you know that i made it. Thank you, it was fun making it,i loved the color of the batter with ground raisins, i made it in a tube pan,it took 1 hr 20 minutes for me.

Reena

vineela said...

Iam going to recipe.Beautiful pics.
vineela

Reena said...

Archana, this recipe is a true keeper. Thank you, we had a slice, it tasted so rich, i know why you mentioned about baking till it is fully cooked. The cake is so moist, i think it will get even better by tomorrow. I am making this for Christmas. Thank you very much, i was so glad when you got back to blogging, your recipes always worked for me. Merry Christmas!
Reena

Devarenjini... said...

WOW!! First time here...surprisingly... every dish, every pic, every presentation and the whole blog is so wonderful and nice... and its a breath of fresh air in the world of foodie blogs...
Congrats and keep up the awesome work... Thanks for sharing these recipes...

Ann said...

This looks divine. What fantatsic photography. this so reminds me of a boiled fruits cake that my aunt used to make in south africa, but we all lost the recipe.
must.try.this!
BTW - you mention brandy in the soaking fruit portion, how much would be needed approx?
thanks!

Megha said...

I am still thinking, should I express how yummy that cake looked or should I appreciate your presentation of the cake or the pictures you clicked.. :-)
one word, WOW! :)
It is amazing..

Regards,
Megha...

Swathi said...

Fruit cake looks awesome. nice clicks.

cheryl said...

Archana I just made this cake today and we could not wait to taste it so went ahead and cut it. WOW it is so good, thanks for sharing.

archana said...

Neelu, Thank you

Reena,thank you so much dear, you made my day. I love it when i hear back from people after they test a recipe out, it helps me in many ways to improve myself. Merry Christmas to you, have a fantastic season ahead.

Vin, good to see you here again friend. Thank you


Deavrangini,
What a lovely name ! Welcome to this blog, and do visit us again. Thank you very much for you kind words.

Ann,
I started thinking about this cake, after i saw a recipe for a boiled raisin cake couple of year ago. I hope you try this one out, and please let me know how it went. Sorry,i mis-typed, it should have been rum instead ( 1/4 cup) , correction is now made, thank you for telling me about it. Hope y ou are all set for Christmas.

Megha,
Welcome to this blog, thank you very much for all the kind words, it really makes me going. Thank you and have a merry season ahead.

Swathi
Thank you dear

Cheryl,
Thank you so much dear, i am so happy to hear from you. I am glad that you liked it.Keep coming back please

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