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Ultimate Chocolate Fruit Cake / Super Moist Plum Cake- Christmas Cake Recipes

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Ok Here I am with the ultimate fruit cake recipe. This is one of the best fruit cake recipe I can ever imagine and so simple to make..The only thing it takes couple of hours to bake and it is worth every second.So are you ready..

I baked it yesterday and believe it or not everything got over right now.. I took a few pieces (which I saved it from my sisters) to office and everyone loved it. They told me that it is so much better than the store bought ones..I love plum cakes a lot than any other cakes, but some bakerys here supply this with dry little fruits in it and the cake itself looks so dry. But there is one bakery here which supply a awesome cake which has a lovely flavour of fruits in it..And this one came better than that too..Which is pretty amazing..
You could add any dry fruits in it as per your liking. The list of dry fruits are pretty endless, you could add dried prunes,  cherries, currants, candied lemon peel,  candied orange peel and many more..Usually for fruit cakes they soak these dried fruits in brandy or rum for a month,  so that the fruits gets all flavours and it plumps up a little..But in this cake since we are boiling the fruits,  it gets the plumpness and flavour without any hardwork..And the heat gives so much moistness to the cake..
This recipe is one of Nigella Lawson’s and I kept it in my mind for more than a year since I watched her show..I waited for the Christmas season to try this recipe and finally Christmas is near and I am done with it..It came out so much better than I expected, frankly I am now crazy about this and want it each and every day.
If you want to make it even more authentic, just use a slash or two of run or your favorite liqueur in it. This will bring the christmassy flavor from the cake..So guys here I give you the recipe of this awesome cake and Happy Christmas guys..

Recipe Source: Nigella Lawson
Ingrediants:
All Purpose Flour / Maida – 150 grams / 1 1/3 cup
Cocoa- 2 tblspn ( Use Good Quality Cocoa)
Baking Powder – ½ tsp
Baking Soda – ½ tsp
Almonds – 75 grams (Powdered) / 2/3 cup
Black Raisans – 100 grams
Sultanas / Kishmish – 100 grams
Dates – 200 grams (Pitted & chopped)
Eggs – 3
Oranges – 2 zested and Juices (You can use all pulps and juice from it)
Honey – 175 ml / 6 ¼ Ounces / ¾ cup
Sugar – 175 grams/ 6 ¼ Ounces / (¾ cup+2 tblspn)
Butter – 175 grams / 6 ¼ Ounces
Cinnamon Powder – 1 tsp
Rum / Brandy / any liqueur of your choice
Method:
Preheat oven to 150 ° C / 300 ° F.
Butter a deep round tin and line the bottom with parchment paper or wax paper. Now line the sides with parchment paper as well in the way that the paper is somewhat extended above the tin  which prevents the cake from burning and sticking all over the tin when it rises as it bakes. Butter all over the tin generously and keep it aside.
Break open 3 eggs in a bowl and mix it up. Take flour, powdered almond, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon in a bowl and mix well. Set this both aside till ready to use.
Now take a saucepan and add butter, sultanas, raisans, cocoa, honey, dates, sugar, orange zest, orange pulp juice and everything. Put it on the stove and apply heat to it..
Stir everything as it melts down and let it boil. Now simmer it for 10 mins while mix it inbetween so that everything boils and gets united and doesn’t stick to the bottom.
Leave this mixture to cool down for 15-20 mins aside.
Now add eggs to this and mix well. Add the mixed up flour mixture to this as and mix well so that everything is combined and mixed all the way through.
Pour this into the tin and bake it the oven for  1 ¾ – 2 hours. The cake looks little moist and sticky on top but has some moist texture in the middle.
Remove it from the oven and allow to cool down completely.
Now remove it from the tin and allow to cool down completely again. Since you have lined it with parchment paper it won’t be hard to remove the cake from tin.
Decorate it as per your wish and serve or store in a air tight container for 3-4 days.
Important Points to Note before Baking:
1)      Don’t add eggs when the mixture is too hot so that the eggs wont gets cooked and end up in chocolaty scrambled eggs.
2)      If you are baking in a small OTG oven like me where there is very small place between the cake and top heating element , you need to lightly cover the cake with aluminum foil after 1 hour of baking so that the top doesn’t gets burned. Don’t cover it too tightly, just put a foil over the tin and continue baking. In the last 15 mins remove the foil and bake. If you are baking in a regular big oven you don’t need to do this.
3)      You could add dried fruits as per your choice like prunes, cherries, currants, etc…
4)      Adding  liqueur to this cake is entirely optional.
Pictorial:
Take all your ingrediants
Start by lining a tin…First butter the tin on all sides
Take a parchment sheet
draw the shape of the tin using a pencil in the parchment paper
cut it out
line the bottom with the cut out paper
cut a long strip for the sides of the tin…Cut it so that the size is double…
Line the sides…Now butter it generously on all sides..
Can you see how the paper is extended..
Break open 3 eggs in a bowl
beat it slightly so that it is mixed up..Set this aside
Now take flour in a bowl
add powdered almond in it
measure cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda in a small plate
add it in
mix everything together…
Now zest the oranges and squeeze the life out of it..Can you see how i removed all pulps out the oranges, you can use everything..
This is how it looks…Orangy fragrance….
Equipments you need for this is very straight forward..Just a saucepan and a wooden spoon..
Now the steps are so simple..Add everything to the sauce pan..Start off with butter..
black raisans
sultanas
dates
orange juice and pulp
orange zest
honey
sugar
cocoa..that’s it..
Now heat it
and mix well
bring it to a boil and simmer it..
now allow it to cool down
IMP POINT : ALLOW IT TO COOL DOWN…after it cools down, add egg mixture to this..
and mix well
now add the flour mixture to this..
and whip everything together..
pour it in the prepared tin
wow…i can eat just like this
and bake it
after it cools down…Invert it to a plate and let it cool completely
now decorate it and enjoy..
GO ON…
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About Aarthi

Over the past few years I’ve been on a mission to find and create recipes that I can make from scratch. I hope you enjoy the recipes on this blog as they are tried and true from my kitchen to yours!

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Comments

  1. Kalpana Sareesh

    Will mail u my address pls send it me it involves too too much of work which i can never def find time..so pls send it to me.. if not its a sin for u..i cant wait to dive in it..truly awesome ..no words..

    Reply

  3. Achu

    AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE So yummyyyyy….Awaiting to bake it..Can i soak all dried fruits into rum for abt 1 to 2 weeks?Wat abt rum…u didn't add?awaitin to hear it

    Reply

  4. Aarthi

    Kalpana…Ha Ha..find some 3 hours for urself and try it..it is worth a try..You will feel really proud about yourself after you are done with it..trust me..

    Aarthi

    Reply

  5. Aarthi

    Achu…You don't need to soak your fruits in rum..since you are boiling the fruits you needn't do it..You can definitely add rum to this..add it along with the butter while you are boiling it..Please try it and let me know the results..

    Aarthi

    Reply

  21. SouthIndianHome

    just yesterday i watched this video of Nigella Lawson and today here came the post from you.You have made it perfect.I was little skeptical about adding cocoa powder in fruit cake.now since you have already made it and it is delicious I will go ahead and try this

    Reply

  38. Anonymous

    Hi

    I would like to suggest something.
    Can you have a link for a printer friendly version for your recipes.
    I love so many of your recipes and everytime i have to copy paste it and then print it.
    Love the pictorial tooo…..pls dont ever stop uploading them
    But a link for printer friendly version would be highly appreciated

    Thanks

    – Rupa

    Reply

  40. Anonymous

    Hi aarthi i found ur blog last month and now a big fan of it. can u please do a favr to vegetarian like me. please mentiont he subtitute of eggs in ur recipees, as it will help me a lot to try ur recipees. thanks

    madhu

    Reply

  45. Preethi

    Dear Aarthi,
    Let me be the first (am I???) to tell you that I tried this cake today and it came out awesoooommmeee!!!..Just followed your instructions and despite a slight burning on the top (did not heed you advise there, I guess), this cake is indeed moist and the orange juice and pulp all add to the flavour…..thanks a ton for this wonderful recipe dear. And yes, I did not use any liquer too!!!
    Love
    Preethi

    Reply

  52. Lincy

    I baked this cake last christmas, This year too i want to try this as it was a big hit with my family. Can you please tell the size of your baking pan which you used for this cake? which size will be appropriate? i have a small pan so last year i divided into two batches and made but i felt that the cake didnt rise as much as i would have liked

    Reply

  62. Sapthanaa Vytheswaran

    hey tried it Arthi.. came out well. I have an OTG oven. Hence didnt take more than 45 mins to bake this cake 150 degrees.

    was little sceptical about adding cocoa to this cake.. you proved me wrong..super easy and delicious.. my bro and 2.5 yr old daughter finished the entire lot.. thanks for this recipe . will post the recipe soon in my site……

    http://www.abikitchen.blogspot.com

    Sapthanaa

    Reply

  63. Caroline Ramya

    Hi Arthi,
    Did try out this cake and it turned to be a disaster. Don't know what went wrong since I sincerely followed all your interactions. The top got burnt and the bottom was not done so had to keep on baking it. The stick method of checking well done did not work out here. Also found the cake to be tooo sweet. Could have reduced the honey or sugar.

    Reply

  64. Aarthi

    @Caroline RamyaI am sorry to hear that. I have mentioned in the comment to cover the cake if it gets too brown half way through. And the sugar level mentioned in this cake is perfect, it will give you a moderately sweet cake. I think may be you must have messed with the measurement. Try it once again and let me know how it turns out.

    Reply

  67. Anonymous

    Hi Arthi,

    Tried this and this came out really awesome, the taste is just phennomenal. Thank you for this recipe.
    Also I have a question: When I made this, the texture of the cake was not very knife friendly. In the sense, it was not possible to cut it into shapely pieces and part of it would crumble and the fruits come out. Any thoughts on how I could fix that?

    Reply

  75. Anonymous

    This is by far the best recipe i got on net for christmas cake…thanks a ton for sharing it with step by step photos….helped a lot…n yeah ..my cake turned out awesome…i hope i could also have shared a pic as i decorated it well 🙂

    Reply

  76. Shalini Senthil

    Hi Aarthi can i try this in pressure cooker? Last time when i baked normal plum cake(i.e. without boiling fruits &without egg) i got big and lot of cracks at the top and looked hard.. I thought over cooked but later when tasted it actually should have been cooked for some more time. So any tips to avoid crack using pressure cooker? Thanks in advance

    Reply

  80. manasa

    Hi Aarthi,
    The cake looks amazing.i want to try this for my husbands bday.he loves plum cake.
    I just want to know if I can add some nuts like walnuts..If I add should I do something different and how much quantity can I add.

    Reply

  83. Shefali

    Hi Aarthi,
    Awesome recipe and the outcome is just amazing. I tried baking this cake and it turned out to be the best plum cake u can ever have. I also did a very thin layer of sugar icing. I did put rum. I put little less sugar.
    Thank you very much. I love using your recipes; they are great.
    God bless u!
    I would like to share a picture of the cake but don't know how to do that.

    Reply

  84. Anonymous

    Hi Aarthi,
    I have tried many of your recipes.
    Its simply awesome. I have one doubt in this cake…can i add self raising flour? What are the dos and donts for that?

    Reply

  85. Soumita Biswas

    Yesterday I made chocolate fruit cake / super plum moist cake without parchment paper as it is not available in market, did by aluminium foil coated with butter but still cake was not baked properly. Pls suggest need your help as I m making it for Christmas…… Could you pls tell this cake can be done without paper or foil or then it will bake properly…required your suggestion

    Reply

  86. Anonymous

    Hi Aarthi,
    We are using Morphy Richards 40 Rcss, as you had advised earlier. Now for this plum cake which rack should we put the trays, as there are 4 racks.

    Also, must state that your site inspired us to go for our own otg .
    Your advice will be really appreciated.
    Regards,
    David

    Reply

  87. Fermie Praisid

    Tried it twice and it came out well. Thanks for the recipe. Just that it is a bit time consuming. But the taste was worth the wait. Thanks ☺

    Reply

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