Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe / Rum Fruit Cake Recipe / Kerala Plum Cake Recipe

Even though i have three variation of plum cake recipe in my blog. My viewers have been asking for the traditional fruit cake which has rum in it. So i decided to bake it this year and share it. I made it couple days back and i am telling you it turned out to be super yummy and loved it to the core.

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Eggless Fruit Cake
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When i baked this, the house was filled with the aroma of the rich dry fruits and it was totally heavenly. Loved it so much i couldn't resist smelling it. I soaked the dry fruits for 2 days, by which time the fruits soaked up the rum and was beautifully soft and plumped up.

These many days i thought that the plum cake which is sold in shops has cocoa powder in it from the dark colour. But recently i discovered that the colour comes from the dark caramel and not from the cocoa.Making the caramel is crucial, because it can get burned quite easily and the cake colour depends on it.

I didn't add any nuts in this cake, but you can add any nuts of your choice. Just add it along with the dry fruits and soak it together. I added 1 cup of dark rum, you can increase it or decrease as you like. If you dont want to use rum, just soak the dry fruits in orange juice.You can even pour hot water over it and leave it for 30 mins then use that as well. This way you can make this instantly.

This cake was so yummy and soft. Hope you will try this out and let me know how it turns out..

Preparation Time : 30 mins

Baking Time : 40 to 45 mins

Makes : two 15 cm round cake

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour / Maida - 2 cup / 240 grams

Sugar - 1 1/4 cup / 250 grams

Soft Unsalted Butter - 250 grams

Eggs - 5

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Dry Ginger Powder / Chukku Podi - 1 tsp

Cinnamon Powder / Pattai Podi - 1 tsp

Cloves Powder / Krambu Podi - 1/2 tsp

Nutmeg Powder - 1/2 tsp

Cardamom Powder / Yelakai Podi - 1 tsp

Vanilla Essence - 2 tsp

For Caramel:

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Water - 1/4 cup

For Soaking:

Dates - 1 cup chopped finely

Apricot - 1/2 cup chopped finely

Prunes - 1/2 cup chopped finely

Cherries - 1/2 cup chopped finely

Kishmish / Sultanas -1/2 cup

Raisans / Black Currants - 1 cup

Nuts - 1 cup chopped finely (cashew, walnuts, almonds, pista)

Dark Rum - 1 cup

All Purpose Flour / Maida - 2 tblspn for tossing dry fruits

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degree C.

Start by soaking dry fruits in rum for a day. I did it for 2 days. By this time the fruits will absorb the rum completely.

Take two baking pan and line it with parchment paper, butter the sides and bottom of the pan and set aside.

Take sugar in a sauce pan and heat it on low heat. Now it will start to crystalize. Keep stiring and it will slowly start to melt. Keep heating on low heat till it gets nice dark colour. Now take it off the heat and add in water and heat till the sugar dissolves again. Set aside to cool.

Take dry fruits in a bowl and toss it with 2 tblspn of flour. Set aside.

Sieve flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, spice powders and set aside.

Take butter, sugar, vanilla in a bowl and beat using a electric beater till it is creamy.

Add in 2 eggs first and beat till creamy. Add 3 eggs and beat again till creamy.

Now add in half of the flour mix and half of the caramel. Fold gently.

Now add remaining flour and remaining caramel and fold again.

Add in dry fruit mix and fold gently.

POur this in the prepared pan and bake for 40 to 45 mins.

Remove it and let it cool. Now invert it and peel off the parchment.

Slice and serve.

Pictorial: