Christmas is just round the corner and its nearly time to prepare all those goodies that we gorge on during Christmas season. ‘Bring On the Chef In You’ will put up some of those goodies during this month, however, we urge our readers to share their Christmas sweets recipes and pictures , so that we bring on the Christmas feeling to our readers, friends and well wishers.
To start with, presenting a ‘Delectably Rich Fruit Cake’. This one is especially dedicated to my friend, Newton Dsouza, who requested us to post a ‘Mangalorean Fruit Cake’ for him. I don’t know how Mangalorean this is, but ‘Fruit Cake’ it surely is. Newton, who is based in US, a very popular and well known writer on Mangalorean.Com, mesmerizes his readers with his words. Here is a link to some of his articles http://www.mangalorean.com/browsearticles.php?arttype=Article&articleid=418. Please ensure you read them .
Newton, I did a research specially for you and found a typical ‘Mangalorean’ fruit cake in a Mangy Recipe book. Will try it out and if it turns out well, promise to post that for you. One of our goals is to keep our readers happy; so if you are happy, so are we.
Fruit Cakes cut better if they are stored in the refrigerator and cut when cold; however this is a matter of personal preference. The important thing to remember when storing fruit cakes is to keep them as airtight as possible. The fruits were soaked for nearly 6 weeks, however even a 2 week soaking is OK for this cake.
Recipe
½ cup pitted prunes, halved
250 grams sultanas
250 grams currants
½ cup sweet sherry
½ cup brandy
125 grams butter
½ cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon dry instant coffee
¼ cup hot water
¼ cup plum jam
1 cup plain flour
1 cup self raising flour
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon nutmeg
250 grams glace cherries
250 grams dates
1 cup mixed peel
250 grams walnuts
Combine prunes, sultanas and currants in bowl, mix in sherry and brandy. Cover and keep in an airtight container for 2- 8 weeks. (Longer the better).
Grease a deep 23 cm round cake pan, line with 3 layers of wax paper.
Cream butter and sugar in a bowl with electric mixer only until combined. Add eggs quickly, one at a time, beat only until combined between each addition, Stir in the combined coffee and water and jam, and then the sifted dry ingredients in 2 lots. Drain prune mixture, reserve liquid. Add prune mixture, cherries, dates, peel and walnuts to cake mixture. Spread cake mixture into prepared pan. Bake in a slow oven (150 deg c) for about 2 hours.
When cake is done, add ½ cup brand to the reserved liquid and brush it over the hot cake. Cover and cool in pan.
Keeping time : 3 months
