Celebration Fruit Cake

This is the first time I'm baking a fruit cake. This is one cake that my aunt will make and serve together with other goodies during Chinese New Year. During this festive Christmas season, I'm baking us a fruit cake, with booze added.

I read that fruit cake is a must have during Christmas for many. My version would be considered easy since some of the fruit cake recipes I come across need to be baked for around 2 hours. I soaked the mixed fruits with rum and have it covered for a few days before baking. This not only help to soften and moisten the mixed fruits, it also add a wonderful flavour to the cake.

I also brushed the baked fruit cake with rum 2-3 times a week so that this luxurious cake has a subtle rum flavour and a moist texture. It's best to bake this cake in advance of Christmas since you need time to feed it with alcohol to allow the flavour to mingle and age.

However, if you would like to make it a child friendly cake, feel free to leave out the alcohol and replace with orange juice, date juice, prune juice or leftover cherry juice in bottle you bought the cherries in.

Celebration Fruit Cake

Ingredients:

For the Cake

300g mixed fruits (I bought from Phoon Huat)

2-3 tbspn brandy, whisky or rum (I used rum)

230g butter

230g brown sugar

4 eggs

1 tbspn marmalade (I used yuzu jam)

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbspn juice

1 tbspn orange zest

300g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon powder

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

90g almonds, roughly chopped

For Decoration

Some red and green glazed cherries, halved (I bought from Phoon Huat)

Some walnuts

Icing powder

Method:

1. Soak the mixed fruits with rum and keep covered overnight or up to a week.

2. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

3. Mix in jam, orange zest, orange juice and vanilla extract.

4. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

5. Mix in half the sifted flour mixture, then mix in half the mixed fruits and almond.

6. Repeat step 5 to mix all the flour, mixed fruits and almond into the cake batter.

7. Pour batter into loaf tins and decorate with halved cherries and walnuts as desired. Bake in preheated oven at 160C for about 45 minutes.

8. Remove cake from the oven and cool completely on wire rack.

9. With a skewer, poke holes in the top surface of the cake and brush with a little rum.

10. Wrap the cake in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and place in a container. Brush the cake periodically (once or twice a week) with rum until Christmas.

Note

- This cake can keep for several weeks or it can be kept frozen for a few months.

- I made 4 disposable paper rectangular cake holder/pan for this. Dimension as follows: 

This post is linked to Cook and Celebrate (Christmas 2014) organised by Yen from Eat your heart out, Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids.

 

I am also submitting this post to "My Treasured Recipes #4 - Ho Ho Ho It's Christmas (Dec 2014)" hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders  and co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House.

Do link back to LY's Kitchen Ventures if you have used any information published in this blog.