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CUISINE

Rich fruit cake

There’s nothing like a mouthful of delicious fruit cake ...

Ingredients

Maida – 125 gms

Milkmaid – three-fourth tin

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Baking soda – half tsp

Salt – a pinch

Melted butter – 100 gm

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Hot water – 70 ml

Milk – 30 ml

Almond essence – 1 drop

Icing sugar – A little

For caramel syrup

Sugar – 4 tbsp

Water – A little

For the spice – Dried fruit mixture: (Can be prepared 2 days in advance.)

Cashews or Almonds- finely chopped-50 gms

Brown kismis(seedless)- chopped- 50 gms

Black kismis- finely chopped- 50 gms

Dates- diced- 50 gms

Cherries- chopped- 50 gms

Tutti- frutti/ candied peel- 50 gms

Shahi jeera, powdered- half tsp

Cinnamon- a small piece

Clove – 2 no.

Nutmeg and mace- A pinch each

Dried ginger- a pinch

Powder the above spices. Cinnamon and shahijeera should slightly exceed the quantity of cloves. All spice powders should be half tsp in total.

Fresh juice of half an orange.

Sugar- 3 tsp

Alcohol- Vodka/brandy/rum/ whisky- 2 tsp

Orange rind- 1 tsp

Method

Soak all the ingredients of the spice- dried fruit mixture in orange juice and alcohol. Refrigerate for two days. Dust it with a little icing sugar or flour. Dust and shake just before using.

To prepare caramel syrup: Heat 4 tbsp sugar in a saucepan over gentle heat. When it turns golden brown, add a little water. Keep stirring to avoid burning. When red and fully dissolved, turn off flame. Add the spice-dried fruit mix to the caramel syrup. Stir well to coat contents.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Grease a cake tin.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Mix with wooden spoon. Separately, mix milkmaid, melted butter, almond essence and vanilla extract. Spoon in the dry flour mixture in three batches and stir. Add the prepared caramel coated spice-dry fruit mixture, 70 ml hot water and 30 ml warm milk. Stir batter well till blended and smooth.

Pour batter into greased cake tin. Bake at 1g0 degrees for 40 minutes. (Check from 35 minutes onwards.)

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