Christmas is the season of cheers , love and ofcourse , a lot of desserts . Plum cake has been served around the time of Christmas holiday season . The plum cake is loaded with dry fruits and fruit flavour to cherish in each bite . For Christmas festival there is a dedicated cake recipe , even though it is generally known as Christmas cake but it is widely known as fruit plum cake. In this traditional fruit cake the crunch of dry fruits and nuts come together with the rich taste and aroma of spices and tanginess of orange juice . In this cake recipe I used Demerara Sugar instead of regular white sugar . This sugar gives flavour of molasses and toffe with hints of subtle caramel . Also I feed the cake with fruit syrup , it makes the cake more soft and moist . It is not mandatory , if you like your plum cake dry you can skip it .

Ingredients :

For soaking dry fruits :

1. Rum – 1/2 cup .

2. Orange juice fresh or caned – 1/2 cup .

3 . One full cup of dry fruits ( chopped dates , chopped prunes , chopped cherries , black raisins , golden raisins , cranberries , mixed tutti frutti , candied orange , candied ginger )

For cake batter :

1 . All purpose flour  ( Maida ) – 1 1/2 cup .

2 . Milk powder – 1/4 cup .

3 . Baking powder – 1 1/4 tsp .

4 . Baking soda – 1 / 2 tsp .

5 . Salt – 1/8 tsp .

6 . Vanilla essence – 1 tsp .

7 . Cardamom , nutmeg , cloves & cinnamon powder – 2 tsp .

8 . Oil – 1 / 3 cup .

9 . Demerara Sugar – 1 / 2 cup .

10 . Curd – 1/3 cup .

11 . Milk – 1 / 2 cup if needed add more .

12 . Chopped dry nuts – 1 full cup ( cashew nuts , almonds , walnuts , pecans ) .

For caramel syrup :

1 . Sugar – 1/3 cup .

2 . Hot water – 1 / 3 cup .

For fruits Syrup :

1 . Finely chopped cherries – 1 tbsp .

2 . Mixed fruit jam  – 1 / 2 tbsp .

3 . Sugar – 1 tbsp .

4 . Water – 1 / 2 cup .

Some nuts and dry fruits for topping .

Method :

How to soak dry fruits :

1 . In a glass bowl add all dry fruits .

2 . Add rum and orange juice  mix well .

3 . Soak this for atleast one day or until the dried fruits absorb all the juices .

Preparing caramel :

1 . In a heavy bottom sauce pan take sugar . Keep this pan on the stove top on the medium heat .

2 . Sugar starts to melt , now lower the heat medium to slow and start to stir .

3 . Continue to cook and keep on stirring .

4 . Continue to cook till you see the colour changing to a golden brown . Switch off the flame at this point . Don’t cook further the caramel will burnt and spoil the taste .

5 . Remove the pan from stove and immediately add hot water to the caramel being very careful not to burn yourself as the mixture splutter .

6 . The caramel will harden as soon as you add the water . Place the sauce pan back on the stove over low flame . Bring to gentle simmer and stir offen until all the hardned caramel is dissolve .

7 . Let the liquid caramel solution cool completely .

Preparing cake tin :

1. Take 7 inches cake tin .

2 . Brush with oil .

3 . Line up the butter paper on the bottom and sides

Preparing cake batter :

1 . Powder the sugar .

2 . Seive the maida , baking powder , baking soda and salt together twice and keep aside .

3 . Preheat the oven at 180 degree centigrade .

3 . Take a large mixing bowl add oil , curd and sugar powder , beat until it’s turn creamy .

4 . Now add milk powder and mix well .

5 . Add  caramel syrup , vanilla essence and spice powder and mix it well .

6 . Take one to two tables spoon of maida from maida mixture and add to the soaked fruits and mix it well ( if extra syrup is there drain it off ) and keep aside .

7 . Now using spatula alternatively add milk and maida mixture using cut and fold method do not over mix as the cake will turns chewey then .

8 . Add soaked dry fruits mix well .

9 . Add chopped nuts and mix well .

10 . Transfer the cake batter into prepared cake tin , tap twice to level up uniformly and remove any air bubbles if present .

11 . Top it with cashew nuts  , cherries and tutti frutti .

12. Place the cake tin in to preheated oven and bake at 180 degree centigrade for 60 – 70 minutes .

13 . Insert the tooth pick and check if the cake has baked completely .

13 . Keep the cake for cool .

How to prepare fruits syrup for feeding the cake :

1. In a small saucepan add jam , cherries , sugar and water .

2 . Boil for 4 – 5 minutes or until jam dissolve well .

3 . Switch off the gas and keep aside this syrup to cool slightly .

4 . Poke the cake with help of skewer , make sure not to damage the cake .

5 . Now pour slightly warm syrup slowly over the cake .

6 . Rest the cake atleast 4 hours or one full day so that cake absorb all the juice well and become soft and moist .

7 . Store in airtight container and serve up to a week .