Fruit Cake (Indian Version)

Contributor: Amu
I am giving the Indian version first...and then follow up with changes in western version(or version I know and use)

To get good intense flavour...you need to soak all your Dry Fruits and Nuts in either Brandy or Rum...The longer you soak the better flavour.(at work here we soak for 3 months...i have heard from friends that their granmoms have a barrel kept in the basement all year long and they just top up each christmas after they use what they want)...For this recipe I would suggest you to atleast soak for 1 week..

Dry Nuts you can use are Almonds and Walnuts...chopped up roughly
Dry Fruits or common called as Glace fruit - mix Glace Cherries/Tutti Frutti(Red, Green and Yellow),Dates, Sultanas(Kismis) and Raisins (Dehydrated Plums).

Mix all above Nuts and Fruit in large bowl/container and pour enough Rum/Brandy to cover the fruits and cover it with a cloth tied to it tightly...there should be no openings at all. You need to open this once a day and give it a good mix using a wooden spoon.
When you want to use take amount you want and drain off excess alcohol...fruits would have turned a lil plump after absorbing the alcohol flavour....

Ingredients
300gms Unsalted Butter
300gms White Sugar
6 Whole Eggs(50gms Eggs)
300gms Plain All-Purpose Flour(Maida)
1tsp Baking Powder
1tsp All Spice Powder (cinamon,cloves,cardamom)
300gms Dry Fruits and Nuts (Soaked in Rum/Brandy already)
1/2 Cup Rum (Optional- use it only if you have not soaked the fruits in Alcohol)

Procedure
1) Preheat oven to 190*C if normal or 170*C if fan-forced.
2) Cream Butter and Sugar using a Electric Beator on medium high till it has risen and is light and fluffy and also pale in colour.
3) Add eggs one by one slowly till they get well incorporated by using the electric whisk.
4) Sieve Flour, Spice powder and Baking powder to mix all dry ingredients properly.
5) Fold the flour mixture into the above butter +egg mixture carefully in slow steady movements taking care to not knock out the air in the mixture.
6) Add the Mixed Fruits and Nuts into the above mixture and mix till evenly distributed.
7) Rum/Brandy is optional. But people who dont mind liquor in food can add it to enhance Flavour. But only add this if you have not soaked your fruits and nuts already..if not it will be a lil too much..
8) Oil Spray the cake tin lightly first and then Line the Cake Tin(10 inch one if tin is not too deep or 8 inch one in tin is deep) with baking paper.
9) Bake it in oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on your oven or until a skewer inserted in between comes out clean.
10) Once done let the cake cool in the tin for about 10 minutes and then remove it onto a wire cake rack to cool further.

You can eat it as it is...warm and served with Vanilla Sauce(recipe will be posted).
Or if you want to give that extra great look...decorate it with royal icing....and Wide satin ribbons....

Royal Icing Deco...
Heres goes my professional knowledge on display for you....to make your cake extra special...

b]For a Professional Look
1) Once the cake is COMPLETELY COOLED you can cover it with Royal Icing (readily available in cake deco shops and most supermarket)..It is like a dough made with Icing sugar. Glucose and a lil corn starch....
2) Care should be taken to not expose this stuff to air for too long...It DRYS up too fast...so always keep in covered using Cling Film or lightly damp Tea towel.
3)When ypu are ready to roll the icing... You can dust a plain hard surface with Pure Icing Sugar and the roll the Royal icing like how we do a chapati but ONLY IN ONE DIRECTION(ante roll and lift and roll...dont move your rolling pin too and forth like we do for our chapatis)...roll it to the desired thickness... The movements should gentle but steady at same time to avoid cracks in the icing...
4)Then apply a lightly beaten EGG WHITE all over the rolled icing and drape the egg white side on...over your cake so that it covers all sides and smooth it out using the rolling pin in light movements. The Egg whites help the Icing to stick to cake...
5) Trim the excess off..leave it for a while and then decorate the top as you wish...

Some Deco Suggestions..
1) You can use a Wide Satin ribbon and just cover the sides and tie a nice Bow in the front. you can use egg whites to help you stick the ribbon with out movement.

2) You can make a Bow design using Ribbons and then stick on top..

3) You ca buy ready made Sugar Flowers from Cake Deco shops and decorate on top....

I will attach one cake I made last christmas for my Husbands Christmas Party at work... I forgot to take a snap but this was saved in a Frens(Bhanus College) Flicr album for quite some time and managed to convince him to send it to me...(Stupid sent me only with condition that i make him another one this Christmas)

What i did was put the cake on a small cake board...draped the Royal icing...

Then decorated with a Holly Wreath that i made with Royal Icing again...I was in doing Sugar Works class at that time...so practice session lo I did the Wearth at school and used it on my cake....Ding

You can get ready made flowers in many cake deco shops...use them...but be very gentle when transporting them....

I got the ribbons ready before i put them on the cake...esp the bow...once on cake i adjusted and stuck ribbons using egg whites...

Here goes the cake photo....
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/amulyagade/Cakes

I keep making these cakes on occasional basis only also at work...In australia we dont have much demand for such cakes...because of our climate....people prefer more fresher cakes with fresh creams etc....and mainly Chocolate....

Hope all is clear in the above recipe...any doubts ask me....
I follow this post up with western version.....and recipe for vanilla sauce if eating cake without any deco.....