Christmas is perhaps synonymous with fruit cakes. As the mercury dips down, jingle bells ring around, it is time to indulge in the pie of fruit cake, teasing the tongue with sweat-sour diced fruits. Although I am into baking for quite some time now, this is for the first time, I have prepared a full-fledged fruit cake during the Christmas with generous amount of candied fruits viz. pineapples, orange, ginger, cherry, raisin, currant and nuts. One can use few drops of alcohol too, although I refrained. Friends and family was happy and I was over the moon.

If you are a vegetarian and don’t eat egg then try this egg-less version, Fruitcake with Buttermilk (An egg-less recipe).

Preparation Time : 25 mins.

Baking Time : 60 mins.

Difficulty Level : Easy

Ingredients for 10 – 12 slices :

1. Butter (unsalted) – 200 gm. (at room temperature)
2. Brown sugar – 180 gm.
3. Egg (large) – 2 (at room temperature)
4. Milk – 3 tbspoon
5. Juice of one orange
6. Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon
7. Flour – 220 gm.
8. Ground almond – 50 gm.
9. Baking powder – 1 teaspoon
10. Salt – ½ teaspoon
11. Cinnamon powder – ¾ teaspoon
12. Freshly grated nutmeg – ½ teaspoon
13. Dry fruits of your choice – 450 gm. (I used cherry halves, candied orange, pineapple, ginger, currant and raisin)
14. Roughly chopped almond/ walnut – 50 gm.
15. Few whole almonds (7-8 pieces,without skin) and cherries for garnishing (optional)

Procedure :

Grease a cake tin of 18 cm. (7 inch) diameter with melted butter. Then line the bottom of the tin with a circular piece of parchment paper.  Also wrap the sides of the tin with another piece of parchment paper. Make sure the height of the paper is larger than the cake tin’s depth.

Cut the butter into small pieces and transfer to a large bowl. Beat the butter with the help of a electric hand mixer (or stand mixer) until creamy. Then add sugar and continue beating for 2-3 minutes. Then add eggs (one at a time) and beat until they mix well. After that add milk, orange juice and vanilla extract. Beat the mixture for couple of minutes more. Our wet mixture is ready.

In a separate bowl take the flour, ground almond, baking powder, cinnamon powder, grated nutmed and salt. Mix them well with the help of a hand whisk. Our dry mixture is ready.

In another bowl take all dry fruits and nuts, mix them well with hand. Add 2-3 tbspoon of flour mixture into the fruit mixture and coat them well with flour.

Now pour the dry fruit mixture into the wet mixture and beat on low speed for 1 minute. Then add dry or flour mixture to the wet mixture and again beat on slow for 1-2 minutes.

Transfer the cake batter into the prepared cake tin. Place the whole almonds at the top.

Bake the cake into your preheat oven at 160ºC of 325ºF for 50 – 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cover the cake tin with aluminum foil after 30-35 minutes of baking, if the top of the cake seems to get burnt.

Take out the cake form the oven and let it cool completely. Garnish the cake with cherry halves.

Cut the cake into pies and enjoy 🙂

Note :

1. If you wish you can replace the milk and vanilla extract with any alcohol of your choice (like medium sherry, dark rum, whisky, brandy). And after baking, prick the cake with a wooden skewer and brush it with alcohol while the cake is still warm.
2. If you are using salted butter then skip adding salt to the cake batter.
3. Any dry fruit of your choice can be used in the cake. For example, dried cranberries, dried figs or apricots etc.