Festival of Christmas is here and baking occupies a major part of festivities. Cakes are the most popular ones during Christmas. This cake includes fruits, nuts and liquors. Rich plum cake is originally a German dish that has variety of dry fruits. This delicious cake is prepared by soaking dry fruits in liquor or wine. The flavours of the liquor get soaked in the fruits.
Ingredients
1. Unsalted Butter – 225 gm
2. Sugar powder – 1 cup
3. Eggs – 4
4. Maida – 2 cups
5. Baking powder – 1 tsp
6. Baking soda – ¼ tsp (optional)
7. Salt – ¼ tsp
8. Cardamom powder – ½ tsp
9. Cinnamon powder – ½ tsp
10. Cloves powder – ½ tsp
11. Nutmeg powder – ¼ tsp
12. Dry ginger powder – ¼ tsp
13. Cake jeera – 1 tsp (optional)
14. Orange zest of1 orange
15. Lemon zest of1 lemon
16. Pineapple jam – 2 Tbsp (optional)
17. Soaked and strained fruits – 1-2 cups (Refer my blog for its recipe)
18. Roasted and chopped nuts – 1 cup
19. Caramel syrup – 1 cup or Treacle – ¼ cup (Refer my blog for its recipe)
20. Vanilla essence – ½ tsp
21. Rich plum essence – ½ tsp
22. Pineapple essence – ¼ tsp
23. Orange essence – ¼ tsp
24. Liquor strained from the soaked fruits – 2 Tbsp
Preparation
1. In a bowl mix maida, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all the masala powders and keep aside.
2. In a bowl add 2 Tbsp of maida with the soaked fruits and roasted and chopped nuts and mix well. Keep aside.
3. In another bowl beat butter till soft. Add sugar powder and beat well.
4. Add eggs, one by one, and beat well. Add all essences and the grated zests.
5. Add the strained liquor of soaked fruits and beat well.
6. Add half of caramel syrup or treacle and half of maida mix and half of fruits and nuts mix. Mix well. (Care be taken to ensure that the fruits and nuts don’t settle at the bottom.)
7. Add rest of the caramel, maida and fruits & nuts and mix well.
8. Transfer to a greased baking tray, lined with butter paper or parchment paper at the bottom and sides.
9. Bake in a preheated oven at 150 degree Celsius for 1 hour or till done.
Tips
1. Brown sugar gives a darker colour to the cake.
2. All ingredients should be at room temperature.
3. Feed the cake with the same liquor (1 or 2 Tbsp) used for soaking the dry fruits immediately after taking out from the oven (optional)
4. When the cake has cooled cover it in butter paper and preserve for a week at least before cutting it.
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