This Christmas Fruit Cake is a rich, intense British-style plum cake flavoured with rum-soaked dried fruits, nuts, candied bits of orange peel, ginger, and garam masala.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
About Classic Christmas Fruit Cake
In India, the tradition of baking a fruit cake on Christmas packed with alcohol-soaked dried fruits started in the British colonial era .
Christmas Fruit Cake is known as rum cake or plum cake in many parts of India. This fruit cake is like a warm, comforting granny’s hug that reminds you of the Holiday Season even afterwards.
For me, The BEST Classic Fruit Cake :
- contain eggs
- requires time and patience
- has a good amount of butter & sugar
- packed with alcohol-soaked dry fruits
- combination of sweet, spicy, and bitter flavours
- should be tasty enough to eat without any frosting or decoration
Two Step Process
This fruit cake recipe is a two-step process.
Step 1) Soaking Dried Fruits : A mix of dried fruits, berries, tutti-frutti, candied ginger, and orange peel is soaked in alcohol for at least 15 days. There is no second step without completing this key dried fruit soaking process.
Step 2) Making The Cake: Once the soaked dried fruits are mature, they are added to the cake batter before baking. 80% of the flavour in a traditional fruit cake comes from the soaked dried fruits.
Soaking Dried Fruits
The original fruit cake recipe requires soaking dried fruits in good quality dark rum for a month before making the cake.
- Selection of Dried Fruits: I mix golden raisins, dried berries, cashews, walnuts, and colourful tutti frutti . Feel free to use a combination of dates, figs, cranberries, almonds, sultanas, currants, etc. But make sure to chop each dried fruit finely.
- Spices: Candied orange peels, candied ginger, garam masala, and a cinnamon stick are my favourite pick to flavour the soaked dried fruits. Make sure to chop the candied peels finely.
- Alcohol: Traditionally, only rum was used to soak all the fruit cake’s dried fruits. I mix rum, red wine, and Kahlua for an intense, fruity, chocolate-y flavour. Cherry brandy, amaretto, orange liqueur (Cointreau or Grand Marnier), and spiced rum are commonly used for soaking dried fruits.
- Alcohol-Free Substitutes: Use apple juice, orange juice, and rum essence.
Soaking Time: I soak my dried fruits for 1 month. But you can soak them anytime from 1 month to 15 days. Seal the jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake it now and then. DO NOT OPEN the jar until ready to use the soaked dried fruits.
The Caramelized Sugar
SECRET INGREDIENT: A Christmas fruit cake’s dark colour and deep flavour come from caramelized sugar. Pick a time to make the sugar caramel when you are not interrupted. One distraction, and it burns down to a bitter-tasting, sticky mess.
- Caramelize sugar before starting the cake and set it aside to cool down. In a pan on low heat, melt sugar slowly ( image 1 ). It will melt and turn into a dark brown goop (image 2). Keep stirring and let it turn a deep dark caramel colour. Don’t let it burn. Keep the flame on low.
- Add about ¼ cup water (image 3) and stay away because it will bubble and roar like a volcano eruption.
- The sugar will harden and form crystals. Slowly heat the mixture until the sugar crystals dissolve, and keep stirring it. This will take around 10 mins. Let this cool and set aside. Do not worry about the consistency. It will be like thick honey or molasses.
How To Make Cake Batter
- The Christmas fruit cake batter is like any other sponge cake made with – flour, eggs, butter, and white sugar.
- Whisk butter and sugar until creamy. Add one egg at a time and whisk each time. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and garam masala. Gently fold the batter.
- Last, add caramelized sugar and alcohol-soaked dried fruits. Cut and fold the batter to combine.
- Bake the cake in a round tin at 180 degrees Celcius for 50 – 60 minutes in the middle rack of the oven.
My Tried and True Tips
- Soaking dried fruits is an essential step in making a fruit cake. Hence, please do not skip it. Add only the soaked dried fruits. Discard the liquid and the whole spices.
- I highly recommend using a hand or stand mixer to whisk the cake batter. It gives a nice structure to the cake.
- Whisk only for 1 minute at medium speed after adding each egg.
- Allow the sugar caramel to cool down a bit before adding it to the cake batter, or else you might end up with scrambled eggs.
- You can poke little holes in Christmas fruit cake while it is still warm and pour some brandy-rum mix to get a richer-tasting cake with an extra boozy kick.
Storage Suggestion
In the olden days, the fruit cake was made on Christmas and stored for the upcoming winter.
I store Christmas Fruit Cake at room temperature in an airtight container lined with parchment paper for 15 days, and it remains perfect.
You can store it for 2 – 3 months in the refrigerator. It remains moist, intense, and tasty. On certain occasions, I baked fruit cake, packed it after cooling down, and carried it with me while travelling ( miles and miles via road / air/rail ) to share with family. It is the best edible Holiday gift.
More Holiday Baking Recipes
- Nankhatai
- Vegetable Bake
- Almond Cookies
- Gingerbread Cake
- Veg Shepherd’s Pie
- Eggless Tutti Frutti Cake
- Chai Spiced Pumpkin Cake
- Eggless Sponge Fruit Cake
Ingredients
1 Cup = 250 ml
Ingredients For Soaking Dried Fruits
- ▢ 200 gram (1 Cup) dried tutti frutti (candied fruit)
- ▢ 60 gram (¼ Cup) black seedless raisins, finely chopped
- ▢ 60 gram golden raisins, finely chopped
- ▢ 60 gram walnuts, finely chopped
- ▢ 60 gram cashew, finely chopped
- ▢ 25 gram candied ginger, finely chopped
- ▢ 25 gram candied orange peels, finely chopped
- ▢ 1 teaspoon Garam Masala ( see recipe here )
- ▢ 1 Cup rum (alcoholic beverage)
- ▢ ½ Cup red wine/brandy (optional)
Ingredients for caramelised sugar:
- ▢ ½ Cup granulated white sugar
- ▢ ¼ Cup water, at room temperature
Ingredients For The Cake Batter:
- ▢ 125 gram (½ Cup) all-purpose flour (maida)
- ▢ 125 gram unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ▢ 100 gram (⅓ Cup) granulated white sugar
- ▢ 3 eggs, at room temperature
- ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ▢ 1 teaspoon garam masala ( see recipe here )
- ▢ 1 teaspoon rum extract (optional)
- ▢ 1 teasponn vanilla essence
Ingredients For Decoration:
- ▢ icing sugar or confectioner’s sugar
- ▢ glazed cherries or candied fruits
Instructions
How to soak to dry fruits and candied fruits in rum:
- For soaking fruits, mix all the chopped candied fruits, dried fruits in a bowl. Pour in rum and, wine along with garam masala. Mix nicely and transfer to a clean airtight container. This can be done 1 month before or you can either do it one-two night before making the cake.
How to make caramelised sugar:
- Caramelize sugar before starting the cake and set it aside to cool down. In a pan on low heat, melt sugar slowly. It will first melt and then turn into a dark brown goop. Keep stirring and let it turn a deep dark caramel color. Don’t let it burn. Keep the flame on low, add about ¼ cup water and stay away because there will bubble and roar like a volcano eruption.
- The sugar will harden and form crystals. Slowly heat the mixture until the sugar crystals dissolve and keep stirring it. This will take around 10 mins. Let this cool and set aside. Do not worry about the consistency it will be like thick honey or molasses.
How to make christmas cake:
- Pre-heat oven to 350F / 180C. Line a round baking tin with parchment paper and grease sides well with butter.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, garam masala powder, and salt in a bowl.
- Whisk the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale in color – about 10 minutes by the manual whisk, 3-4 mins with a hand mixer. Add rum essence, vanilla essence and mix until combined.
- Add egg one at a time, beating each time for about 1 minute using a hand mixer.
- Fold in the flour mixture one-third at a time and mix gently using a spatula. combine all the ingredients nicely to form a smooth cake batter.
- Add the cooled caramel and the soaked dried fruits. Cut and fold the batter to evenly combine.
- Pour cake batter into the greased cake tin. Tap once or twice on the kitchen counter to release any air trapped.
- Bake for 55-60 minutes until the top turns into a dark brown color and when a skewer inserted into the cake comes out with dry crumbs. You can start checking from 45 minutes onwards. Usually, in our oven, it takes up to 60 minutes. The top will look like it’s overdone but don’t worry, make sure the inside is also completely cooked.
- Once the cake cools down completely, brush it with some leftover rum and cover it with foil and leave it in the oven or some warm place overnight or until you need it. This way it has a nice matured flavor.
- Dust the Christmas cake with the icing sugar before serving.
- Store Christmas cake at room temperature for up to a month in an air-tight container.
Recipe Notes:
- If you are not too keen on making caramelized sugar from scratch, use golden syrup or molasses of approximately 2 tablespoons.
- You can poke little holes in your cakes after it is done and pour some brandy-rum mix to get a richer, rummier cake with an extra kick.
- The cake tastes best when it is made a few days before you intend to serve it. The flavors and the texture of the cake are more matured after a few days. Or you can bake it at night, and serve in the morning.
- Store your cake wrapped in butter paper, and then in an airtight container.
Nutrition
We follow a strict NO SPAM Policy
Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Round Cake Tin
- Oven
Ingredients
1 Cup = 250 ml
Ingredients For Soaking Dried Fruits
- 200 gram (1 Cup) dried tutti frutti (candied fruit)
- 60 gram (¼ Cup) black seedless raisins, finely chopped
- 60 gram golden raisins, finely chopped
- 60 gram walnuts, finely chopped
- 60 gram cashew, finely chopped
- 25 gram candied ginger, finely chopped
- 25 gram candied orange peels, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon Garam Masala ( see recipe here )
- 1 Cup rum (alcoholic beverage)
- ½ Cup red wine/brandy (optional)
Ingredients for caramelised sugar:
- ½ Cup granulated white sugar
- ¼ Cup water, at room temperature
Ingredients For The Cake Batter:
- 125 gram (½ Cup) all-purpose flour (maida)
- 125 gram unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 100 gram (⅓ Cup) granulated white sugar
- 3 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala ( see recipe here )
- 1 teaspoon rum extract (optional)
- 1 teasponn vanilla essence
Ingredients For Decoration:
- icing sugar or confectioner’s sugar
- glazed cherries or candied fruits
Instructions
How to soak to dry fruits and candied fruits in rum:
- For soaking fruits, mix all the chopped candied fruits, dried fruits in a bowl. Pour in rum and, wine along with garam masala. Mix nicely and transfer to a clean airtight container. This can be done 1 month before or you can either do it one-two night before making the cake.
How to make caramelised sugar:
- Caramelize sugar before starting the cake and set it aside to cool down. In a pan on low heat, melt sugar slowly. It will first melt and then turn into a dark brown goop. Keep stirring and let it turn a deep dark caramel color. Don’t let it burn. Keep the flame on low, add about ¼ cup water and stay away because there will bubble and roar like a volcano eruption.
- The sugar will harden and form crystals. Slowly heat the mixture until the sugar crystals dissolve and keep stirring it. This will take around 10 mins. Let this cool and set aside. Do not worry about the consistency it will be like thick honey or molasses.
How to make christmas cake:
- Pre-heat oven to 350F / 180C. Line a round baking tin with parchment paper and grease sides well with butter.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, garam masala powder, and salt in a bowl.
- Whisk the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale in color – about 10 minutes by the manual whisk, 3-4 mins with a hand mixer. Add rum essence, vanilla essence and mix until combined.
- Add egg one at a time, beating each time for about 1 minute using a hand mixer.
- Fold in the flour mixture one-third at a time and mix gently using a spatula. combine all the ingredients nicely to form a smooth cake batter.
- Add the cooled caramel and the soaked dried fruits. Cut and fold the batter to evenly combine.
- Pour cake batter into the greased cake tin. Tap once or twice on the kitchen counter to release any air trapped.
- Bake for 55-60 minutes until the top turns into a dark brown color and when a skewer inserted into the cake comes out with dry crumbs. You can start checking from 45 minutes onwards. Usually, in our oven, it takes up to 60 minutes. The top will look like it’s overdone but don’t worry, make sure the inside is also completely cooked.
- Once the cake cools down completely, brush it with some leftover rum and cover it with foil and leave it in the oven or some warm place overnight or until you need it. This way it has a nice matured flavor.
- Dust the Christmas cake with the icing sugar before serving.
- Store Christmas cake at room temperature for up to a month in an air-tight container.
Notes
- If you are not too keen on making caramelized sugar from scratch, use golden syrup or molasses of approximately 2 tablespoons.
- You can poke little holes in your cakes after it is done and pour some brandy-rum mix to get a richer, rummier cake with an extra kick.
- The cake tastes best when it is made a few days before you intend to serve it. The flavors and the texture of the cake are more matured after a few days. Or you can bake it at night, and serve in the morning.
- Store your cake wrapped in butter paper, and then in an airtight container.
Nutrition
This is a South Indian-style rava upma recipe packed with vegetables. An easy, wholesome vegetarian breakfast.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
- What is ‘Upma’?
- Instant Upma Premix
- How To Make Rava Upma
- Serving Suggestion
- My Tried and True Tips
- Rava Upma Recipe
What is ‘Upma’?
Upma is an Indian word for ‘savoury porridge.’ It is made with various vegetables, whole grains, or vermicelli. There are wide varieties of upma in Indian cuisine.
- Plain Upma – with only aromatics such as ginger, curry leaves, onions, and green chillies
- Masala Upma – with onion, tomatoes, and a dash of sambar powder or other masalas.
- Tomato Upma – adding tomatoes gives the upma a tangy spin (Jain-friendly).
- Vegetable Upma – with the addition of carrots, peas, beans etc.
- Semiya Upma – adding roasted semiya (vermicelli) instead of semolina for a change in textures.
Rava Upma is a wholesome, vegetarian South Indian breakfast ready in under 30 minutes. It is loaded with carrots, green peas, beans, and onion.
Adding seasonal vegetables adds great taste to the upma and increases its fibre content. The addition of peanuts and cashews boosts the protein value of the upma.
Instant Upma Premix
It is easy to make an ‘instant upma premix’ at home.
- Dry roast semolina till light golden. Transfer to a bowl to cool down.
- Heat a teaspoon of ghee/coconut oil, and add black mustard seeds; once they splutter, add ginger, green chillies, cashews, chana dal, urad dal, and curry leaves. Fry for 1 – 2 minutes.
- Add salt to taste, mix well, and add it to the roasted rava (suji). Mix nicely and allow to cool down.
- Store this instant upma premix in the freezer for a couple of months.
When in a hurry, boil two parts of water, add one part of the upma premix, and stir continuously; once suji (rava) is cooked and thick, serve rava upma.
Rava Upma Premix
How To Make Rava Upma
Step 1) First, dry roast semolina over medium heat in a heavy bottom pan for 5 – 6 minutes. Stir continuously at regular intervals while roasting. Transfer to a plate and set aside till required. If you are using readymade roasted semolina, then skip this step.
Step 2) Heat oil in the wok or kadhai over medium flame. Add mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, peanuts, curry leaves, asafoetida, and fry for 1 – 2 minutes. The colours of lentils and peanuts will change to light brown.
Step 3) Next, add sliced cashews, grated ginger, green chilli, and fry for 1 – 2 minutes or till cashews turn light golden. Add the chopped onion and fry for 3 – 5 minutes or till the onion starts turning translucent.
Step 4) Add peas, salt, and crushed pepper, and stir to combine. Next, add water, stir to combine, and increase the flame to high. Let the water start boiling. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5) Slowly add the roasted semolina with a steady flow and stir continuously from the other hand in a circular motion to avoid lumps. Keep stirring until the semolina absorbs all the water.
Cover the wok with a lid and cook over low heat for 3 – 5 minutes.
Step 6) After 3 – 5 minutes, turn off the heat. Open the lid and fluff the upma using a fork. Drizzle a teaspoon of ghee and garnish with chopped coriander.
Serving Suggestion
In South India, the rava upma is served with side dishes such as coconut chutney , green chutney , or vegetable sambar .
You can serve suji upma as a breakfast or teatime snack. It is a fantastic dish for a kid’s lunchbox as well.
My Tried and True Tips
- Be mindful of the water to be added to the upma. I follow a ratio of ½ cup rava to 1 ½ cup water .
- Add semolina only after the water comes to a boil. Stir constantly in a circular motion while adding the semolina to avoid forming lumps.
- After the addition of semolina, cook the upma covered on low heat. Once cooked, give it a resting time of 5 minutes and then fluff it up using a fork before serving.
- For a creamier rava upma, substitute half the quantity of water with milk or curd.
- If you want the upma to be richer , you can roast the semolina in ghee and garnish it with ghee-roasted cashew nuts.
- For a vegan rava upma , use coconut oil or any other plant-based oil (that doesn’t have a distinct flavour) instead of ghee.
More South Indian Breakfast Recipes
- Rava Idli
- Medu Vada
- Millet Pongal
- Instant Rava Paniyaram
- Karnataka Maddur Vada
- Karnataka Style Khara Bhath
Ingredients
- ▢ ½ Cup rava/suji (semolina)
- ▢ 3 tablespoon cooking oil or ghee (clarified butter)
- ▢ 1 teaspoon mustard seeds (rai)
- ▢ 1 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)
- ▢ 6 – 8 curry leaves
- ▢ ½ teaspoon white urad dal
- ▢ ½ teaspoon chana dal (Bengal Gram)
- ▢ a pinch of asafoetida (hing)
- ▢ 2 tablespoon peanuts (moongphalli)
- ▢ 6 – 8 cashew-nuts (kaju), sliced
- ▢ 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- ▢ 1 Cup fine chopped onion
- ▢ ¼ Cup green peas
- ▢ 1 green chilli, fine chopped
- ▢ Salt to taste
- ▢ 1 teaspoon whole peppercorns (sabut kalimirch), crushed
- ▢ 1 ½ Cup Water
- ▢ 1 tablespoon chopped coriander
Instructions
- For making upma, first dry roast semolina over medium heat in a heavy bottom pan for 5 – 6 minutes. Stir continuously at regular intervals while roasting. Transfer to a plate and set aside till required. If you are using readymade roasted semolina then skip this step.
- Heat oil in the wok or kadhai over medium flame. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal, chana dal, peanuts, curry leaves, asafoetida and fry for 1 – 2 minutes. The colors of lentils and peanuts will change to light brown.
- Next, add sliced cashews, grated ginger, green chili and fry for 1 – 2 minutes or till cashews turn light golden in color.
- Add the chopped onion and fry for 3 – 5 minutes or till onion start turning translucent.
- Add peas, salt, crushed pepper and stir to combine. Next, add water, stir to combine and increase the flame to high. Let the water start boiling. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
- Slowly add the roasted semolina with a steady flow and stir continuously from the other hand in a circular motion to avoid any lumps. Keep stirring until semolina absorbs all the water. Cover the wok with a lid and cook over low heat for 3 – 5 minutes.
- After 3 – 5 minutes, turn off the heat. Open the lid and fluff the upma using a fork. Drizzle a teaspoon of ghee and garnish with chopped coriander.
- Serve rava upma warm with coconut chutney or sambar .
Recipe Notes:
- Add semolina only after the water comes to a boil. Stir constantly in a circular motion while adding the semolina to avoid the formation of lumps.
- After the addition of semolina, cook the upma covered on low heat. Once cooked, give it a resting time of 5 mins and then fluff it up using a fork before serving.
- For a creamier Upma, half the quantity of water can be substituted with milk or curd.
- If you want the upma to be richer you can roast the semolina in ghee, and garnish it with ghee-roasted cashew nuts.
- Upma can also be made vegan by using coconut oil or any other plant-based oil (that doesn’t have a distinct flavor) instead of ghee.
Nutrition
We follow a strict NO SPAM Policy
