Recipe Name – Christmas cake ~ Rich, flavorful, Authentic Christmas cake recipe
Introduction – Christmas cake does not need any introduction. This beautiful, rich Christmas cake is loved by everyone on earth. This recipe is my favorite because of the authenticity it carries. I celebrate baking this cake like a festival which includes soaking dried fruits weeks ago, then preparing for the day I bake the cake and finally feeding the cake for weeks to get that authentic, Rich, deep flavors. All I can say, I just love this recipe and would like all of you to try it this recipe once.
What all do we need?
- All Purpose flour 275 gm
- Softened salted butter 275 gm
- Granulated brown sugar 275 gm
- Almond powder 75 gm
- Chopped Pistachios 40 gm
- Chopped Cashew nut 40 gm
- Eggs 5
- Nutmeg ¼ teaspoon
- Cinnamon 1 small stick
- Cloves 7-8
- Black pepper corn 7-8
- Soaked dried fruits <Refer Christmas cake recipe part 1 link below>
- Zest of orange or fresh orange pulp
- Loaf tin 9X4 inch with the capacity of 1.5 liters
Christmas cake part 1 - Soaking of dried fruits video link: https://youtu.be/1bK72CiroiM
Method –
- First of all prepare loaf tine. Grease tin with butter and line with parchment paper. Line outer side of the tin with aluminum foil strap to restrict too much heat. Refer recipe video to understand the process
- Ground dried spices (nutmeg/cinnamon/black pepper & cloves) into the fine powder.
- Now take a big bowl and start whisking softened butter using hand whisk till smooth and fluffy (avoid electric beater).
- Mix brown sugar and whisk again till everything is mixed well.
- Start adding eggs one at a time and whisk.
- After adding all eggs, incorporate orange pulp, almond powder and powdered spices using spatula. Do not use whisk here.
- Now it’s time to sieve all-purpose flour in the cake batter and fold using spatula.
- After folding flour, not its time to add soaked dried fruits, chopped pistachios and cashew nuts in the batter. Do strain soaked fruits once but do not throw away this juice as we will use it to feed out cake later.
- Fold soaked fruits, pistachios and cashew nuts using spatula. Do not mix but fold it. Check recipe video to understand the process.
- Batter is ready to go in lined loaf tin.
- With the help of serving spoon, fill the load tin with batter, push to the corner and level it properly.
- Preheat your oven on 150 degree Celsius and bake the cake for approx. 3 & ½ hours on 150 degree Celsius.
- In my oven it took me 4 hours 15 minutes to bake my cake to the perfection. Do ensure to check your cake after 3 hours every 15 min by inserting skewer or knife to check if it is done or not. If skewer comes out clean, it means it is done else it may need some more baking.
- Once your cake is ready, let it cool down completely before demolding.
- Once cake is completed cooled, demold carefully, poke hole using a skewer and feed your cake using remaining juice of the soaked dried fruits. And keep on feeding the cake twice a day using alcohol or fruits juice. This helps cake remain moist and gives beautiful deep flavor to the cake.
- Cover your cake with aluminum foil and parchment paper and keep it on the room temperature. Do not keep this cake in the refrigerator. Shelf life of this cake is more than a month.
Tips –
- Traditionally, Christmas cake is fed using alcohol for at least 2 weeks before serving on Christmas. This gives very nice rich flavor to the cake. .
- Do not throw away soaked dried fruits residue juice while straining the soaked dried fruits, rather use it for feeding your cake.
- This cake is a dense & slow baking cake, so have patience and do not increase the temperature to bake the cake faster. High heat can make the outer layer of cake brown but inside it will remain raw.
- After 2-3 hours check your cake by inserting a skewer or knife to check if cake is done properly. Every oven is different so this step is very important to follow.