Christmas Fruit Cake

Ingredients

To Soak overnight

3 cups raisins, currants, sultanas and cashew nuts

1.5 cups rum

To make the caramel

½ cup Sugar

1 tbsp Water

¼ cup water Warm

For the cake

2 cups all-purpose flour (I prefer Gold Medal brand)

1¼ tsps baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 cup castor sugar + 2 tbsps

250 gms unsalted butter at room temperature (I prefer Lurpak)

4 large eggs at room temperature

2 tsps vanilla essence

1 tbsp apricot jam

Spices: 2 cloves, 2 cardamoms, cinnamon a small piece, pinch of ginger powder & some grated nutmeg.

Directions

Soak the fruits in rum for a week or overnight. Grind all the spices with a pinch of sugar in a dry grinder and keep aside.

For Caramel: Melt 1/2 cup sugar with water on low heat. Stir continuously to avoid burning, but gently. When the sugar browns, add 1/4 water of warm water. Bring it back to boil. Let it simmer for 3-4 minutes. Remove from fire and let it cool.

For the cake: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees 10 minutes before baking. Drain the soaked fruits & nuts and keep aside. Toss the drained fruits in 1-2 tablespoons of flour. This will avoid the fruits & nuts from sinking to the bottom. Sift flour and baking powder and baking soda, three times. Separate egg whites and beat till it form peaks. Now beat the egg yolk with butter till it becomes smooth. Add sugar to this gradually and fold this mixture gently. Add vanilla essence, caramel and powdered spices to this, beat again till the caramel is evenly distributed among the mixture. Add the sifted flour slowly while beating continuously. Then add jam and beat again. Fold with the beaten egg whites slowly till no white streaks are seen. Add the fruits and mix gently. Grease the baking dish, lined with parchment paper. Use a round baking dish for best results. Pour the batter and bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes. Insert skewer to check if fully cooked. Cool and turn the cake out of the tin. Dust with icing sugar.

If you are not using it immediately, turn the cake upside down and every week baste the cake with a teaspoon of rum. Store in airtight container.