Chocolate Fruit Cake
Here comes December!! I guess December is always welcomed with happiness. After all its a season of Joy, happiness & peace, right?? Yes, its Christmas season. When we hear the word Christmas so many things come to our mind like Christmas Tree, Crib, Midnight Mass and of course the fruit cake & wine.Usually the preparations for making fruit cake starts at least a month ahead. You need to soak fruits and stuff. In big bakeries & hotels, soaking of fruits is a grand ceremony, I remember seeing some pictures in the newspaper. However the fruit cake recipe below is a bit different.
“Ethenna avalose podiyil nutsum kismisum, aarenkilum avalose podiyil athokke edumo”?? (why there is nuts and raisins in avalose podi, nobody adds those in avalose podi). This was my amma’s reaction after seeing the avalose podi snap. She was surprised because in the traditional avalsoe recipe there are no nuts & raisins. The reason why I am saying this here is because you might also be wondering sometimes, after reading the title, what is this chocolate fruit cake? Who makes fruit cake with chocolate?
For me anyways, its completely new. I havent had any chocolate fruit cake before. For that matter, I started liking fruit cake only recently. I never used to enjoy fruit cake a few years ago. Back home, kids never used to like this cake. This was considered as an adult’s cake. Somehow these days I dont mind having it and also enjoying it. Signs of becoming old ;)?
When I saw this recipe in the Australian Women’s Weekly Magazine, I was a little curious to try it. One another reason I was excited because this recipe doesnt call for any soaking of fruits in advance. So this is like a last minute Xmas cake. Now about the texture & taste of the cake…the cake is ultimately moist, has a very good fruity flavor and I think the chocolate flavor blended with it very well. The dark color of the cake comes from the chocolate & cocoa powder.
Hope you will also enjoy this cake.
Here is the recipe:
- Butter – 125 gm, chopped
- Brown sugar – 3/4 cup (150 gm)
- Dark eating chocolate – 50gm, chopped coarsely
- Water – 1/2 cup (125ml)
- Dark rum – 1/4 cup (60 ml)
- Walnuts – 1/4 cup (30 gm), coarsely chopped
Dried currants – 1/2 cup (75 gm)
Sultanas – 1 cup (160 gm)
Raisins – 1 cup (170 gm), coarsely chopped
Mixed peel – 1/4 cup (40gm) - Plain flour (maida) – 3/4 cup (110 gm)
- Cocoa powder – 2 tbsp
- Self – raising flour – 2 tbsp
- Mixed spice – 1/2 tsp
- Eggs – 2, beaten lightly (room temperature)
For topping - Dark eating chocolate – 80 gm
Sour cream – 1/4 cup (60 gm)
Preheat oven to 150 degree/275 -300 F. Grease 20 cm ring pan; line base with baking paper. Combine butter, sugar, chocolate and the water in medium saucepan; stir over heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat; Let it cool for 10-15 mins. Stir in rum, nuts and fruit. Add sifted dry ingredients and egg; stir until combined. Spoon mixture into prepared pan.
Bake in slow oven about 1 hour. Cool cake in pan.
Just before serving, combine cooled extra chocolate and sour cream in small bowl; stir until smooth. Turn cake onto serving plate, top-side up; spread chocolate mixture over top of cake.
Serves 12
Notes: I made only half of the above quantity. As usual I didn’t do the topping. I used a 6 inch round cake tin and my cake was ready in 45-50 mins. You can use dry fruits of your choice. I used cashew nuts, dates, mixed dry fruits. I dusted the dry fruits with 1 tbsp of flour before adding it to the batter, this prevents the fruits from sinking to the bottom of the cake. I used dark chocolate with 50 % cocoa. I used soft light brown sugar. I brushed the top of the warm cake with 2 tbsp extra rum. I used Captain Morgan rum in the cake batter and I used Bacardi rum for brushing the top of the cake. I stored the cake at room temperature for more than a week. If you want to store longer, refrigerate it.
Also check out the Christmas Menu in this blog.
Recipe source: Chocolate Cakes by The Australian Women’s Weekly
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Yum yum yum!!! I am planning to soak the fruits today..:).But while that is getting ready maybe I can try this out…looks so moist and delicious and chocolate in fruit cake is definitely a yummilicious idea..:)
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Wow perfect cake for this season dear….Delicious and yummy…
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Mariakutty,
I have seen Nigella’s chocolate fruitcake and now yours! It looks so delicious! My fruits have been soaked to death and they are waiting to jump out of the glass jars :)
Will be making a fruit cake soon! Hope you have a merry season!
xx
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Hey, Maria.. how ya doing? must say perfect recipe for the perfect season..I am a regular follower of your site..keep up the good work………..Expecting more recipes on healthy snack s category…..
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Hi Maria,
I recently visted ur website and in no time am a big fan of ur receipes, i have made a note of almost all ur receipes and i would be trying it out.. so when are u adding ur new set of receipes for this festive season.
Advanced Merry christmas
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Divs – thanks dear and yes the cake was absolutely moist. Each bite was a pleasure :). I did miss the excitement of soaking of the fruits though…
Tinakutty – thank you :)
Ria – thanks for the wishes and am waiting to see your fruit cake, post it soon…
Lina – am fine dear. Will try to post more healthy recipes, please do drop in again…
Sherleena – Thank you for dropping in. Hope you will like the recipes from here and please let me know your feedback. I will be adding some Xmas recipes in the coming days :)
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Maria, was thnking if u dint use any raising agent here?…ur cake looks real good…i want to try one w/o chocolate n bake it in 6 inch pan, n reached here….we love fruit cakes, so thought of baking one w/o alcohol….
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Maria
Reply: on May 4th, 2010 at 12:14 pmShabs, I’ve used 2 tbsp of self raising flour, I guess that’s why there is no other raising agent. If you are using plain flour, add baking powder accordingly. Hope it works…
Cheers
Maria
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