The delicious Chocolate Fruit Cake for Christmas

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Christmas and Cake both begin with the letter C, have a crisp freshness about them and most importantly Christmas for reasons unknown have always been in sync i.e. Christmas celebrated without the cake being there to cut and devour to heart’s content is just about unthinkable – be it any cake for that matter. This Christmas it shall be the Chocolate Fruit Cake to make, eat and fish for compliments.

The richness of the Chocolate Fruit Cake stuffed with a host of fruit pieces spread in the gooey chocolate is sufficient to get the mouth to water. If you are ready here we go!
 

Chocolate Fruit Cake

Ingredients:

• Maida - 3 cups, (all purpose flour)
• Cocoa powder – ¾ cup
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Baking soda - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon powder – ¾  tsp
• Nutmeg powder – ½  tsp
• Clove powder – ½  tsp
• Butter - 1 ½  cups
• Sugar - 1 ½  cups
• Brown sugar – ¾  cup
• Vanilla essence - 2 tsps
• Eggs - 5
• Buttermilk - 1 ¼  cups, (or thick yogurt)
• Mixed dried fruits - 2 ½  cups - toss in 1 ½  tbsps flour
• Mixed nuts – ½  cup (I used almonds)
• Glazed cherries – ½  cup (chopped)
• Chocolate chips – ½  cup

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 160 C. Grease four 7" cake pans and line with parchment paper.
2. Sieve flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon powder, clove powder and nutmeg powder. Keep aside the dry ingredients.
3. In a large bowl, cream the softened butter for a minute. Add sugar and brown sugar and beat until the sugar is well blended. Add lightly beaten eggs, vanilla essence and mix well.
4. Add a third of the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Add a third of the yogurt/buttermilk and mix.
5. Again add a third of the dry ingredients and mix, followed by the yogurt. Repeat this process and end with the dry ingredients. Do not over beat.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips, mixed fruits, glazed cherries and chopped nuts. Do not over mix.
7. Pour batter into prepared pans till half full.
8. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160C for 55 minutes and for 10 to 15 mts at 130C or until a toothpick inserted in its center comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Wrap in plastic foil and leave for 12 to 24 hours at room temperature.
9. Slice and serve.

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While the basic fruit cake would be prepared and ready to be eaten, it is always nice by tradition to have some aesthetics to make it look appealing. See the image which shows that a little mix of cream and icing along with molten choco mix spread smoothly and evenly over the top surface.

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The icing could also be spread all round on the sides evenly. To give the idea of chocolate, small chocolate chips could be distributed evenly over the sides. Then small pieces of fruit like apricot, grapes, blueberries, papaya, cherry could be arranged neatly and evenly as shown. Candies can also be included on the periphery.

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Helpful Tips 

• If you do not have glazed cherries, you can omit them.
• Use any nuts of your choice.
• All ingredients should be at room temperature.
• If you do not have brown sugar, replace it with granulated sugar.
• The above recipe makes a lot of cake batter. You can halve the recipe and make 2 large cakes or 4 medium sized round cakes.
• Oven temperatures differ from oven to oven. For larger cakes, bake for a slightly longer time and lesser time for smaller cakes. Do not over bake or the cake will become dry. Check from 50 minutes onwards.

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