Christmas fruit cake

I always wanted to bake cakes and cookies for quite a long time.
And so, my friends, I was pleasantly surprized to see a nice oven here. Within a few days, I managed to buy all the stuff required for 'beginner's' baking experiments and was all smiles with a cartload of stuff which he thinks it was 'junk'. This is my very first attempt in baking and much to my amazement, it was fabulous!!

Friends, I am super excited to share this cake with you. I hope you like it.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour (maida) - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp
Clove powder - 1/4 tsp
Dry ginger powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Caramel syrup - 1 tbsp
Grated orange zest - 1 tsp
Eggs - 3
Butter (at room temperature) - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Dry fruits (mixed) - 1/2 cup
Nuts (mixed) - 1/2 cup
Orange juice - 1/2 cup

Dry fruits which I used were dried cranberries, raisins, dates, and prunes. you can use dried apricots, figs, or any dry fruit of your choice. Nuts which I used were almonds, cashewnuts and walnuts.

Method:

Soak the dried fruits in orange juice overnight. Since I don't have any Rum or Brandy to soak the fruits, I believe orange juice will work just fine, and of course, it did!!

In a bowl, blend the sugar and butter well. Next step is to add vanilla essence and eggs into the same bowl, one by one and mixing well again and keep aside. Sift the maida with baking powder Baking soda, ginger powder, clove powder and cinnamon and salt into another bowl.

Now stir in sifted flour into the sugar butter and eggs mixture along with the rest of the ingredients i.e. soaked dried fruits, nuts, caramel syrup, orange zest and the orange juice used to soak the dried fruits.

Fold the mixture well. If you find the cake batter too dry or too thick, you can add some milk into it. But otherwise, fruit cakes are usually dense loaded with dried fruits and nuts.

Pour it in a greased baking pan and bake at 350F for 50- 55 minutes or untill done. To check whether the cake is done, insert a skewer into the cake, take it out. If the skewer comes out clean, it means its done. If not, bake for a couple of minutes more, keeping an eye on it. When done, allow the cake to cool done before you slice and store.

Enjoy eating a warm slice of this lovely cake this Christmas or any time of the year.


Have fun!!