Christmas is around the corner, and I’m sure you are all excited to bake the very famous Christmas Cake, Right?
Scream YES, if you are ready.
Now let us take a sneak peek into our kitchen shelves and see what we can use for your yummy cake.
We need
175 gms flour (maida)
250 gms butter / 1 ½ cup oil
4 eggs
Vanilla essence
Sugar
2 cups of orange juice
Ek chutki, baking powder
Some Spices – Cinnamon Powder, Nutmeg Powder
Dry fruits – Raisins, Dried pineapple chunks, Cranberries, Dried apricot, Blueberries, Candied ginger, Tutti Fruity, Chopped pecans (or almond), Cherries, Orange Peel, Lemon Rind
Don’t fret if you can’t find all these on your kitchen shelf. You can avoid certain dry fruits which aren’t available at home or take this chance to get these things from the market and buy yourself a chocolate too! Yippe, done deal! Now let’s get to baking.
Chop all the dry fruits into small pieces and mix them together in a bowl. Now generously pour the orange juice over the dry fruits. For the adventurous ones who are above 21 years, you can soak these in ½ cup of Rum too, then you can call this The Christmas Rum Plum Cake. Wow, How does that sound?
Let the above ingredients soak for about 3- 4 hours or you can leave it overnight (depending on your self-control levels).
On the day of baking – Sift the flour and the spices along with baking powder in a large bowl and keep it aside. Phew, sometimes sifting these can really be a messy job, so be careful.
Now, beat the sugar and butter together till they combine, traditionally we use a wooden spatula but you can use a hand beater too. Add the eggs one at a time and mix it slowly. Be careful while you break the eggs, you don't want eggshells in your cake, right? Pro – Tip: Break the eggs in another container before adding them one by one into the mixture.
Add the vanilla essence just to mask the flavor of the eggs.
At this point remember to preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius, which means that switch on the oven and let it heat at 180 degrees on the baking mode.
Slowly mix in ¼ cup of orange juice/ rum into the mixture to bring in the tanginess.
Add in all the soaked dry fruits into the mixture. Be careful and avoid creating a mess, your mom will not be too happy cleaning up after you.
Slowly sift in the dry ingredients and combine them together. What a heavy chunk of mixture to mix up altogether, right? Let your hand muscles get some exercise.
Oops, did I mention that you were supposed to line your tin? Use a baking tin and line it with parchment paper, too fancy? No worries, I will tell you another way. Take the tin and grease it using butter, slowly dust it with flour after the tin is greased
After you pour the mixture into the well-greased tin, now comes the hardest part “waiting for the cake to bake”.
Let the cake bake for 40-45 mins, at 180-degree Celcius only.
Till then you can dance to your favorite tunes or let the Christmas carols play at home to bring in some Christmas cheer.
Once the time is up, poke a knife into the centre of the cake and see if it comes out clean. If it doesn’t then be patient for 10 more minutes and repeat this step. Once the knife comes out clean the cake is ready, tada!!!! Now be patient, you cannot touch it, wait for it to cool down in the oven itself.
Once an hour is up and the cake is cooled just like your attitude, flip the tin and remove the cake. Of course, this step is not as easy as you think. If the tin is not greased properly, it might even stick to the tin. So make sure you do each step carefully so that your cake comes out clean without sticking to the bottom or breaking.
Now comes the joyful part, cut it into desired pieces, and dig into it. You can add caramel sauce, make a custard, or just enjoy it with vanilla ice cream.
Yabba Dabba Doo
Image courtesies-
- Festivelives
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