Light Fruit Cake

I have been wanting to bake a light coloured fruit cake since last two years. But since Neha is not a big fan of fruit cakes and hubby dislikes most cakes, I never got an opportunity to bake one. However, on December 31 st, when hubby’s friend visited us ( he is a big fan of my cakes 🙂 ) and also it was my brother in law’s birthday, I planned to make a light fruit cake loaded with dried fruits and nuts. This is a relatively quick version

of the traditional fruit cake and you just need to soak the fruits only for few hours. I have also not used any spice powder. But you may add quarter to half teaspoons each of cinnamon powder, clove powder and nutmeg powder. Also, one can use candied orange peel, lemon peel and ginger too. (I haven’t used it because I didn’t have any with me).

You may opt to soak the dried fruits in rum or brandy and if you have time, you can soak it overnight too. I have used freshly squeezed orange juice to soak the dried fruits. Alternatively, you can use apple juice too. You can use dried fruits of your choice. I haven’t soaked the nuts to retain it’s crispiness. Lemon extract can be replaced by orange extract or vanilla extract. I found the cake to be quite light and it had a nice nutty flavour because of the almond meal too. If you do not have a Bundt pan, you can use an eight inch or nine inch round cake tin.

The sour cream adds a nice moistness to the cake. You can click here to get the recipe of sour cream. It’s extremely easy to make it at home. Chop the nuts and fruits finely to help in getting clean and neat slices. As always, I have used a 240 ml cup. If you want your cake to be very sweet, you can increase the amount of sugar by two tablespoons or so. You can check the blog for various other versions of Christmas fruit cakes.

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour 260 gm
• Almond meal 40 gm
• Salt a pinch
• Granulated sugar 100 gm
• Baking powder 1 tsp
• Baking soda 1/2 tsp
• Butter 60 gm
• Oil 60 ml
• Sour cream 100 gm
• Milk 60 ml (1/4 cup)
• Orange juice 180 ml (3/4 cup)
• Orange zest 1 tbsp
• Lemon zest 1 tsp
• Lemon extract 1 tsp
• Almonds 20 gm
• Cashew nuts 20 gm
• Walnuts 20 gm
• Kismis 20 gm
• Cranberries 20 gm
• Black currants 20 gm
• Prunes 20 gm
• Apricots 20 gm
• Dates 20 gm
• Cherries 20 gm
• Green tootifrooti/dried kiwi 20 gm

Method:

• Dry roast the almonds, cashews and walnuts till they are golden.

• Chop it finely and keep aside.

• Chop the cranberries, apricots, prunes, dates, cherries into bite size pieces and soak it in around 120-180 ml of orange juice. You may soak for around 3-4 hours or overnight.

• Take around 40 grams of almonds and pulse them in a dry mixer jar in burst of 10 seconds. Sieve it for 2-3 times.

• Preheat the oven at 150 degree Celsius for around 10 minutes.
• Grease a twelve cup classic Bundt pan or a ten inch round tin with butter and dust it with flour. Tap out the excess flour.
• Sieve the all purpose flour, salt, rising agents and almond meal for 2-3 times.
• Using a zester, scrape the zest of two oranges and a big lemon. Add it to the dry ingredients.

• Powder the sugar in a dry mixer and transfer it into a big mixing bowl.
• Add butter and cream it well. Now add oil and mix again.
• Furthermore, add the sour cream and mix.

• Now add this mixture into the dry ingredients and fold gently.
• Add the soaked fruits along with the orange juice and mix. Add the toasted nuts too.

• If the mixture looks too dry, add around quarter cup of milk and adjust the consistency of the batter.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smoothen the top using a spatula.

• Tap the tin to remove air bubbles if any.
• Bake the cake for 45-50 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean
• Remove the tin from the oven and place the tin on a wire rack and allow it to cool for around 20 minutes.

• Loosen the sides if required and invert the cake onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

• Slice and serve it to your loved ones 🙂