To New Beginnings...

As I was scrolling through all the beautiful snaps of Christmas treats on Instagram yesterday, I finally decided to put an end to the gloominess that I had slipped into due to the recent bout of fever I had caught. And given it was a Sunday the next day, I could not think of a better way to spend it than doing the things I like the most - Baking and reading. Baking a dry fruit tutti fruity cake was a no brainer given it is Christmas and a Sunday. And just to indulge in the festivities, I chose to be my own Santa and went ahead and bought myself a present :) A Sunday well spent I must say!

As I went about prepping for this cake, a lot of things went wrong. I am usually not very good with measurements and go by my instincts. The batter was a bit too thick, the caramelized sugar got gooey and an I ended up with a burnt finger. But, when I took the cake out of the oven and turned the cake tin on to a plate after a few agonizing minutes of waiting, I was delighted at the perfectness of it. I've baked quite a few cakes but none with such perfect surfaces. 

The prep for this cake takes 15 min flat and takes about another 20-30 min to bake. So in less than an hour, you have the entire weeks's worth of dessert ready. Go binge, there's always the next Sunday for resolutions :) 

Dry Fruit Tutti Fruity Cake

Makes about half a Kg of Cake

Ingredients

One day before soak the following in 1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup of red cherries

1/2 cup of tutti fruity

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup of nuts (I used almonds and cashewnuts)

a small cube of butter

1/3 cup sugar for the cake

2 tb Spoon Sugar for caramelizing

1.5 cups of flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

4 tb butter ( I used amul salted butter so I skipped the pinch of salt for the cake) 

1 teaspoon all spice

A couple of drops of vanilla essence

Pre heat the oven at 160 C for 10 min. 

Whisk the butter, sugar and the eggs in a large bowl. Add the baking soda to the flour and sift. Add this to the eggs mixture. Meanwhile toss the nuts in a pan with the small cube of butter and remove from the fire once toasted. 

Add the soaked fruits, toasted nuts into the batter and fold. Now, take the remaining sugar in a pan, add some water and the all spice to it. let it caramelize in the heat till its dark brown and pour it into the batter. Fold gently and pour into a baking tin lined with butter and flour. Bake the cake at 160 C for about 20-25 min till a toothpick or a fork comes out clean from the cake. And your Christmas cake is ready to serve!

P.S - Looking forward to finishing "The Sellout" before the year ends. Hope I'll make in time to give all of you a book review of it!