Fruit Cake

On the 8th Day of Christmas, we made a fruit cake!

It’s almost Christmas! Yay! I love all things Christmas. From the albums that are released by artists, I love carols and as a kid, it wasn’t Christmas without us decorating the living room (this would last well on to February), and watching our church host a Christmas play. Technically, I start singing carols as early as June because Christmas is never long enough.

The beauty about Christmas is that we all get to relax, spend time with loved ones and best of all, there is no traffic, (Nairobi people understand this well). We also get to eat a lot of desserts since no one is judging, and there’s no better dessert that screams Christmas than a fruit cake.

The best thing about this recipe is that, if you didn’t have ample time to prepare the cake, you can serve it when it cools, though it genuinely tastes a lot richer the longer you let it mature.

Pradip has a wide range of products that can be used to make a good fruit cake, which include (but are not limited to):- dried and candied fruits, spices, colour caramel (molasses)

Ingredients – makes a 1kg or 8” cake

Desired amount of dried fruits (200-800g)

Rum to soak the fruits

For the cake

250g margarine/butter

1/2 cup sugar – can add to 1 cup

4 eggs

1- 2 tablespoons Pradip colour caramel (molasses/treacle)

soaked fruits

3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons Pradip Baking Powder

2- 3 teaspoons Pradip Spices (can use: cinnamon, nutmeg, cake masala, mixed spices)

1 cup rum

Method

At least 6-24 hrs earlier, soak your fruits in rum. Ensure the fruits are fully covered by the rum. This will ensure the fruits are full of moisture and will not dry out the cake.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Grease and dust your desired baking tin (I’ll be using a loaf pan).
In a bowl, sift together the flour, spices and baking powder.
In a second bowl, mix together margarine and sugar, until light and fluffy.
Add the colour caramel. It acts as a substitute to sugar giving the cake a sweet taste.
Add the eggs and once well incorporated, add the soaked fruits. Adding the soaked fruits at this point ensures that they don’t sink to the bottom when the cake is baking.
Next, add the flour mixture alternately with the rum, starting and ending with the flour.
When your batter is well combined, pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the cake tester comes out clean.

When the cake is ready, let it cool for 30-60 minutes before removing it from the cake pan. Let the cake cool completely.

(The next steps are optional especially if substituting rum with water)

Using a fork or a skewer, gently poke the cake and brush it with a little rum. Wrap the cake with aluminium foil and let it sit in a cool and dry place until you’re satisfied with maturity. You can opt to brush the cake with rum every week or every three weeks but it’s at this point optional.