Christmas Fruitcake
It’s that time of the year again! Holidays, decorations, winter snow, family dinners and hot cocoa make this season something we to look forward to all year. It doesn’t snow in Singapore. But sometimes we crank up the aircon, curl up on the couch with a blanket and hot cocoa & pretend that it does. 😂
A few weeks back, we conducted a poll on our Instagram profile to see what our followers wanted for Christmas. We were surprised to see a whopping 75% vote for Christmas Fruitcake. We never knew so many like fruitcakes. So we had to dig out this gem which had been quietly sleeping in our recipe notebook for years. This is a moist cake literally packed with dry fruits and nuts. Dry fruits and warm spices complement each other so beautifully. We have used Orange juice in this recipe but it can be made with alcohol too. Alcohol acts as a preservative which gives fruitcakes its long shelf life. This cake made with orange juice instead has a decent shelf life of up to 6 days, refrigerated. Do not miss the NOTE section below which has some important tips.
We are so excited to share our recipe with you all. Cheers to all those who voted for this. If you still haven’t made your Christmas cake, now is the time to get cracking.
Wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy holidays! 😊
CHRISTMAS FRUITCAKE
Serves : 20 nos (2 * 5 inch round cakes / 1 * 8 inch round cake)
Shelf life : 6 days, refrigerated
INGREDIENTS
500g Mixed fruit
110 g Currants
100g Glace Cherries
50g Sultanas
50 g Raisins
50g Cranberries
50g Figs
50g Pitted Prunes / Dates
40g Candied orange peel
120ml Freshly squeezed Orange juice (or) Dark Rum
170g Butter
120g Sugar
3 nos Eggs
1/2 tsp Rum extract (OPTIONAL)
210g All Purpose Flour (Extra for dusting)
3/4 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Mixed spice powder
100g Mixed Nuts
METHOD
DAY 1
Chop the dried fruits into small pieces.
Add orange juice and mix well.
Store this refrigerated, in an airtight container for 10 - 24 hours or until ready to use.
DAY 2
Explained in the video below
NOTE
Depending on your oven a 5 inch cake may take anywhere between 1 hour 40 minutes and 2 hours. An 8 inch cake takes up to 2 hours 20 minutes or more to be well cooked.
If you are not too sure with the toothpick method to check the doneness, slightly press the center of the cake with your finger. It should be firm and shouldn't leave an impression if it is well cooked.
Line the bottom and sides of your pan with two layers of parchment. This will prevent the cake getting burned due to high sugar content and bake time.
You can tweak the fruit mix combination according to your liking.
If you want to make a traditional fruitcake, use Dark Rum instead of Orange juice.
In this case, you can soak the fruits anywhere from 1 day to 3 months. If you are soaking the fruits longer, you will have to feed it with rum from time to time.
If you are using rum extract, pls be informed that some rum extracts have up to 35% alcohol content. You can totally skip this or use alcohol-free rum extract.
This cake does not require any feeding. Tastes best after 1-2 days.