Christmas Fruit Cake (non alcoholic)

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Christmas Fruit Cake
What is the first thing that comes to mind when someone says Christmas, besides Santa Claus? It’s the Cake!!
The cakes make Christmas more special and people start preparations for the Christmas cake days ago. I started doing the same too. Generally, there are two major kinds of Christmas cake prepared around the season. One is the Traditional Christmas fruit Cake (Alcoholic)  and another is with non-alcoholic. Here is the non-alcoholic one in which dry fruits and candied fruits were soaked overnight in either orange juice, apple juice or black grape juice along with spices. I have used fresh orange juice here.

 

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The significant part of the preparation is the soaking of fruits, the longer the tastier. The sweetness of the fruit, the sourness of the liquid and the crunch of the nuts, along with the divine aroma of spices make it a well balanced Christmas Cake.
For this cake, I soaked all the dried fruits in orange juice a day before, so that they get its aroma and flavours.then the fruits and candied orange peels were coated with 1 tablespoon flour so they do not sink at the bottom. I used date paste as this gives the cake, colour and natural sweetness. For the date puree, I soaked a few dates in water overnight and then blended to make a fine puree of it.

Preparation time – 15 minutes
Baking time – 70 minutes at 170℃
Servings – 8-10
Author – Bharti Dhawan

 

Pre Baking steps -:
 
* Preheat the oven to 170 ℃ for 10 minutes.
* Sift flour with baking powder,  soda and ground spices 3 times and keep aside
* Line the cake mould with butter papers.1 at the bottom and the other on the sides
Ingredients
1- All-purpose flour – 125 gms.
2- Softened butter – 100 gms.
3- Brown sugar – 80 gms
4- Eggs – 2 large
5- Dates/khajoor paste – 2 tablespoon
6- Mixed candied and dry fruits (dried cherries, raisins, plums, apricots, almond and cashew nuts) – 100 gms.
7- Ground spices like cinnamon, cloves and green cardamom – 1/2 teaspoon each
8- Orange juice – 1/2 cup or 50 ml. + 2 tbsp (1/2 cup for soaking dried fruits overnight 9- and other 2 tbsp for the batter)
10- Zest of 1 orange or 1 tsp
11- Baking powder – 1 tsp
12- Baking soda – 1/2 tsp
 
METHOD-:
1-  Whisk butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy with a hand whisk or electric beater.
2- Add 1egg at a time and whisk well. Scrape the batter From the sides of the bowl so that all the batter is mixed evenly
3- Add flour coated dried fruits, ground spices and mix gently
4- Add sifted flour little at a time and fold gently, not to over mix
5- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes at 170℃
6- Let it remain in the oven for 5 minutes at rest. Take it out and let it cool completely

7- Now unmould it and keep on the wire rack to cool it down completely. Decorate the cake with some candied orange peels and cherries.

Wishing Everyone a Merry Christmas!
Happy baking!
The method is step by step with pictures below
Whisk butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy with a hand whisk or electric beater.
Add 1egg at a time and whisk well. Scrape the batter From the sides of the bowl so that all the batter is mixed evenly
Add flour coated dried fruits, ground spices, orange juice, date puree and zest of orange and mix gently
Add sifted flour little at a time and fold gently, not to over mix
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 70 minutes at 170℃
Let it remain in the oven for 5 minutes at rest. Take it out and let it cool completely
Now unmould it and keep on the wire rack to cool it down completely