Fruit Cake for Christmas

S, my daughter insisted that a Christmas cake had to be planned well in advance.  Fruits steeped in alcohol at least a month in advance. We realised nothing can be planned when there is a baby at home.  Then Priya  posted this recipe for a last-minute cake.  We put the little one in a pram, headed for the nearest supermarket, picked up the ingredients, stayed up most part of the night and had the cake ready on Christmas eve.

Ingredients:  

There are three stages - preparing the caramel, preparing the fruits, and preparing the batter

Caramel -

Sugar - 1/2 cup and water 1/4 cup

Mixed fruits - 11/4  cup ( the packet contained raisins,sultanas,figs, mixed peel) - and I added dates, and orange zest.  Chop the fruits

Nuts - 1 cup - cashew, almond, walnut - chopped coarsely

Orange juice - 3 tbsp

Rum - 2 tbsp ( though Priya says you can omit the orange juice and add up to 1/4 cup of rum)

Unsalted butter - 230 gms

Granulated sugar - 1 cup

Eggs - 3 large

Vanilla - 1 tsp ( or rum extract)

All Purpose Flour - 1 1/4 cup

Mixed spices - 1/2 tsp each - nutmeg, ginger powder, cinnamon powder

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Preparation 

Making the caramel - Take a pan, add the 1/2 cup sugar and allow it to melt on medium heat. Be very careful. It will turn golden brown.  Keep swirling/mixing and allow another 30 secs till it turns slightly darker. Remove from heat.  Add the 1/4 cup water.  The caramel will harden.  On slow heat allow the caramel to melt. It will be a dark solution like that of Coke.  Remove from heat.  Cool and keep.  Do not allow the sugar to burn as the cake may turn bitter.  Keep a close eye and regular mixing is essential )

Preparing the fruit - in a pan, add the orange juice/ rum.  Cook on medium heat for 2 minutes.  Add the chopped mixed fruit and orange zest.  Cook 3 minutes.  Add the chopped nuts. Keep a minute longer. Remove and cool.

Sift the flour, salt, spice, baking powder

Pre-heat oven 180 C

Line a 8" tin - bottom and sides 

In a bowl , beat the butter and gradually add the sugar, continue to beat till a soft mixture is obtained

Add eggs - one at a time - continuously beating the mixture

And the vanilla extract

Now fold in  flour and then the caramel alternately- till the whole amount is used up

Add dry fruits and nuts.  Mix well.

Pour into the prepared cake tin.

Place in oven.  Bake for about 50 minutes.  Check cake regularly after 40-45 minutes with a skewer through the centre. Make sure it comes out clean before removing it from the oven. 

Cool thoroughly.

Dust with icing sugar and serve

Watermelon Granita

This post about the Golla Walla got me thinking of childhood and the ice shavings that would be moulded around a stick and some brightly coloured essence sprinkled on them.  They looked wonderful, but sadly it was forbidden by my mother who doubted the quality of ice.  I also thought of little A who would eat loads of ice as a toddler .  And now I think it would have been a good idea to have made granita for her and pushed down some fruit in a way she would have thoroughly enjoyed!

The Junior Masterchef programme had a demo on the making of granita .  This is how they made it..  The ingredients quantity may vary.

Fruit Pulp/ Juice - 2 cups
1/4 cup water ( I omitted this - since watermelon had enough liquid)
Sugar - 1/2 cup - vary quantity depending on sweetness of the fruit
Lemon juice - of half a lemon

(Optional ingredients - lemon zest, soda)

Add the sugar, juice and water - mix.
Keep on stove till the mixture gets warm to enable the sugar to melt.  Do not boil
Cool
Add the lemon juice
Spread into a tray and place in freeze till the mixture sets
Take a fork and scrape the surface to obtain fine ice shavings ( this needs some patience)

Serve in bowl/glasses
Top with either mint leaves, fruit pieces depending on the fruit used in the granita

Enjoy!

Palmyra Fruit Dessert - Munjal or Nungu

The original container for the fruit -the above two pictures from The Hindu

  

It was maybe a coincidence that hubby got home the fruit just after Mothers Day.  Palmyra fruit or Munjal as it is known in these areas. It brought back memories of the dessert that my mother would make ever so often in summer.

The ones here ( below) were bought off a highway, freshly plucked from the palmyra tree.  

The outer peel has to be removed and the succulent white fleshy mass is exposed- juicy when tender and a treat to eat.  It can be eaten plain, but I decided however to make it the way my mother did.                                    

The pulpy fruit is placed in a bowl.  Sometimes she would cut it into small even pieces ( when they were not too tender) and a dollop of cream was placed on the fruit and lightly sprinkled with powdered sugar.  This was chilled in dessert bowls and would be at just the right temperature to devour when we came back from school.  This was of course before cholesterol made news.  I went a little easy on the cream and sprinkled some diet sugar.  Maybe not the same, but did bring back memories of the dish the way amma made it.