"The Good Old Christmas Cake"

I know it's queer to share a Christmas cake recipe at this time of year,when Christmas seems so far far away and everyone is gearing up for Spring. It will further sound  peculiar to say that I have never liked Christmas cake in my life.Either you can love it or hate it.So why is it so near and dear to me? One reason being my Mom and R adores Christmas cake.I have heard a lot of stories from R,who hails from a place where Christmas is celebrated extensively, about the custom of soaking the dry fruits in dark Rum for six months or so and making the Caramel syrup and all.Then came the ritual of receiving Christmas cakes from neighbors,friends and the entire community.For R it seemed the season of raining Christmas cakes.

Initially I was very timid to make this cake as it involved the dreadful part of making the perfect Caramel syrup. Let me say it took me at least four to five trials before I could come anywhere near to the satisfactory caramel sauce,which is still not perfect. The whole process is bit tedious but as Julia Child once said,

"Non cooks think it's silly to invest two hours work in two minutes enjoyment ;
but if cooking is evanescent ,so is the ballet".

Christmas Plum Cake

Soaking the dry fruits

Raisins-1 cup
Dried Cranberries- 1 cup
Unsulfured Apricots- 1 cup cut into small pieces
Date - 2 cups
Silvered Raw cashews/almonds- 2 cups ( I usually don't soak the nuts as they tend to become very soft and break.)
Orange and lemon peel- 1/2 cup
Dark Jamaican Rum - 1/2 to 1 cup enough to coat all fruits well.

Soak the dry fruits, preferably in a glass jar,  for at least one month to induce the flavor of rum.Once in a while shake the jar to make sure the dry fruits don't dry out.


Prepare the liquid caramel syrup
White sugar- 1cup
Tap water - 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup to stop the caramel process.

In a medium heavy gauge stainless steel pan, mix sugar and 1/4 cup water.Turn the heat to low to medium flame.Let the sugar and water mixture melt and the color will change from light brown to dark amber.Avoid stirring while making a liquid caramel syrup.Gently tilt the pan side-to-side to make sure the sugar doesn't have burnt spots.Once the sugar is burnt, the only thing you can do is toss it out and start again. When the desired color is achieved, deep reddish ,very carefully pour half cup of water.Please be very careful and stand back while pouring the water into the mixture as the syrup will bubble up furiously and splutter about.Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly.Let it cool.

Additional Note While making Caramel Syrup
1 Use the heaviest and larger pan you have for even heat distribution and it will prevent the caramel from developing burnt spots.
2 Make certain that the pan is absolutely spic and span.There should not be any kind of impurities.
3 Once the sugar and water is on the heat, avoid stirring it.
4 Take all the safety measures while making the Caramel syrup.Wear long sleeve shirt and oven mitts. Hot Caramel can cause severe burns if not handled properly.

Make the cake batter

All purpose flour - 2 cups
Super fine sugar - 2 cups ( you can reduce it to 1 1/2 cups if you prefer it little sweet)
Unsalted Butter- 9 oz ( Butter should be very soft and at room temperature. Leave the cold butter overnight in the kitchen counter.)
Baking powder- 2 tsp
Large eggs at room temperature - 6
Pure Vanilla essence- 2 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Spice powder- 3 tsp ( Take equal amounts of Cardamom,Cloves,Cinnamon,Nutmeg,Dry ginger and grind them to fine powder in a spice grinder.)
Rum- 2tbsp

1 Sift the flour two to three times.
2 Add baking powder, spice powder and set it aside.
3 Beat the butter and sugar well till light and fluffy.
4 Add one egg at a time to the butter and sugar mixture.Beat the mixture until all the eggs are well   incorporated in the batter.
5 Now add the flour mixture alternatively with the cooled Caramel syrup and fold in gently with spatula.Make sure there are no lumps of flour in the bottom of the pan.
6 Add the vanilla essence,orange juice and one tbsp of rum.Gently stir the batter well.
7 The last step is to add the soaked dry fruits to the batter.Take the dry fruits, along with any rum syrup left, in a small pan and mix it with 2 tsp of All purpose flour.This helps the dry fruits to stay evenly distributed in the cake rather than burried down. Gently mix so that the flour coats all the dry fruits.Add the dry fruit mixture to the prepared batter and gently mix.
8 Pour the batter into a lined and buttered 9 inch cake pan.
9 Preheat the oven to 350 F.Bake it for 45 to 60 minutes or until the cake is deep golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.If still undone,reduce the oven temperature to 250 F and bake it for 10 -20 minutes,checking every 6 minute or so.In order to prevent the top from burning cover the cake with aluminum foil.
10 Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the cake pan.Brush the cake with 2tbsp of Rum.

If you can, let the cake sit at least 1-2 days to allow all the flavors to mingle.The cake can be kept in the room temperature for 1-2weeks and in the fridge for 1 month.However,I have found storing the cake in the fridge dries the cake out.If the cake dries out, bring the cake to the room temperature and brush it with warm orange juice.

R.