Eggless Kerala Christmas Fruit Cake
A cake infused with the richness of dried fruits and nuts, marinated in brandy. Traditionally, the fruits are soaked in the brandy mixture for over a year, imparting a delightful aroma to the baked cake. For a special occasion, you can enhance it further by adding a chocolate glaze and topping it with cherries before serving.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 tsp Soda Bicarbonate
- 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 cup Brown Sugar (I used light brown sugar)
- 85 gms Butter (softened)
- 1/2 cup Whisked yogurt (room temp)
- 1/4 cup Hot Milk
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
For soaking
- 1 3/4 cups Mixed Dry Fruits
- 1 cup Apple Juice
- For spice powder
- 1 Cloves
- 2 Cardamom
- a small piece Cinnamon
Instructions
Soaking of Fruits
- Soak the fruits overnight in Apple juice. I used a combination of sultanas, seedless raisins, currants & candied orange & lemon peel. I didn’t chop the fruits & used it as such. You can use dried fruits of your choice. If you are using dates/apricots etc.; chop it into small pieces & soak it.
For the cake
- Preheat the oven @ 180 C, 10 minutes before baking.
- Just before making the cake, drain the fruits and keep aside. Grind together cloves, cinnamon and cardamom with a tsp of sugar and keep aside.
- Sift together all purpose flour, baking powder & soda bicarbonate. Using a manual whisk combine softened butter and brown sugar till light & fluffy. Add hot milk, yogurt & vanilla essence and mix well. Batter might look curdled at this point, but it comes together after adding the flour. Fold in the sifted flour in two batches.
- Coat the drained fruits with 1 tbsp flour before adding to the batter. Fold in the drained fruits and spice powder.
- Grease and line a cake tin (refer notes) with parchment / baking paper. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake in the preheated oven till a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The timing can vary from 25-45 mins, depending on the size of the tin used (refer notes).
- Cool the cake completely before slicing. You can store the cake in an airtight container @ room temp for 3-4 days. If you are living in a very hot or humid place, you may refrigerate the cake after 2 days.
Notes
- I used store bought Apple juice for this recipe.
- I used a 7.5 inch and 6.5 inch round tin for baking the cake. It took 30-35 mins and 20-25 mins respectively for the cake to be baked.
- You can also bake this cake plain without any fruits. Follow the same recipe and skip the part of adding fruits and spice powder.
- You can also use fruits soaked in alcohol for this recipe. Except for the soaking of fruits in apple juice, follow the rest of the recipe.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!