I am not a good baker and I follow K.M Mathews cake recipes to the dot. I am very reluctant to make any changes to it, since I don’t know the complicated science of baking.
This recipe is from her book, Naadan Pachakarama.
I don’t know whether any part of India other than Kerala has this tradition. Maybe Goa? This is a big tradition of cake baking, rich fruit cake. But let me tell you, I had fruit cake in Italy and I didn’t like it a bit. It was soo hard and chewy. This Kerala fruit cake is a mix between fruit cake and plum cake. It is very soft, has lots of fruit and nuts and will keep well for days.
I multiply the quantities and this time I multiplied them by 8 times. If you want to make just one cake for a smaller family I would say to divide these quantities by 4.
One thing about baking is measurement. Do not guess the measurement like you would do for a curry. You have to buy that measuring spoons, measuring cups and the kitchen weighing machine if you ever think of baking. If the recipe calls for room temperature, yes it definitely means room temperature and you cannot directly mix the ingredients from the refrigerator.
Another thing is the freshest ingredients and these do make a big difference in the quality and the storage of the cakes. I usually buy them only the previous day.
The easiest part of this cake is the soaking.
Black raisins – 150 gm
I buy fruit cake mix dried fruits which come in a single packet – 200gm.
(You can buy different dried fruits and mix them together in proportion.)
Now buy some cheap brandy and soak them. For this quantity of fruits you would require ½ cup of brandy.
See the last post for soaking.
Soak the fruits I would say one week ahead. You can also soak them two or 1 days ahead. Soak them for one week in a non-metallic jar and stir them every day to get them mixed nicely in brandy. Keep them airtight and also in a large jar since the fruits plump up when soaked.
The recipe calls for dicing the fruits before soaking. I have tried that and God it is so much work. So these days I don’t do it since I make this in large quantities. You have to dice a raisin into two if you want to follow the recipe. This is to make sure the cake while slicing won’t have crumbs. Ah! I don’t care, let it crumb, let it crumb, let it crumb! :)
Dice a cashew into four. Like that keep ¼ cup raw cashew nuts ready and soak them in Almond essence and keep aside.
Okay, so soaked them? Now onto the next step, caramalization.
Boil ¼ cup of water. Now take a pan and in low heat, add ¼ cup sugar and keep on stirring, You will see the sugar getting dissolved and changing color. When the sugar is browning and not burning, it produces an instant coffee color. Take from heat and slowly add the hot water and keep it again in the flame. While adding water be extra careful, since it will splash and burn your fingers. Now keep stirring continuously until it forms caramel color syrup. Take from heat and let it cool.
(This time I didn’t brown the caramel as I should have to a deep dark brown, fearing if a small mistake would destroy my entire batter. A little more of browning is good)
Now on to Butter. Please do not use substitutes, you are eating a cake. Unsalted Butter. Make sure it is not salted and yes, do not let your hubby dears do the shopping for this.
So, Butter at room temperature. That means it should not be a stick and rather it should be soft and gooey to touch.
Butter 250 gm. With a hand mixer or in a stand mixer, lightly beat the butter until fluffy.
Now add 300gm powdered sugar to this and beat it thorough until you don’t see any lumps.
Separate 5 eggs at room temperature as whites and yellows. To do this, make a small hole on the top of the egg and pour out all the white and the yellow will stay inside the egg shell.
Add the yellow to the butter sugar mix and beat it slightly until they mix good.
Sift 250gm of unbleached All purpose flour. Yes sifting is important. Make sure you are not buying flour premixed with rising agents etc. This is the plain All purpose flour and unbleached. Add 1 teaspoon of baking powder to this flour and sift.
Now add this sifted flour in small quantities to the egg butter mix and beat it slow. You cannot use a hand mixer now, since the mix is going to be hard. So either use a stand mixer or use your hand. Incorporate the flour into the mix. After this add ¼ cup of fine sooji into this.
Now you can add the cold caramel. Beat the egg whites separate and add to the mixture. Add 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract to the batter. Add one teaspoon of lemon essence and mix.
You are now ready to add the nuts and the fruits. Mix a little flour to the cashew nuts so that they dont sink to the bottom of the cake batter.
Fold the fruits and the nuts into the cake batter and mix with hand slowly.
Now keep aside this batter with a closed lid for 6 hours.
After that you can start baking. Either butter the cake pan or cut wax paper or parchment paper and use it inside the cake pan so the cake wont stick to the pan. What I do is, use butter or margarine and make spots inside the cake pan and then add the wax paper so it will stick to the pan and then pour in the batter
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and when ready, bake the cake. Make sure when you pour the batter, pour only half of the cake pan. Since the batter would rise while baking.
Bake it for on hour or so. Keep checking after 50 minutes by inserting a toothpick into the cake and if it comes clean with no batter, your cake is ready.
This cake needs to age. Yes, at least it would need to age for 2-3 days before you get the real taste. The process of aging is a must for these kind of cakes. So when the cake is real cold after baking, cover it in wax paper and aluminum foil and keep aside in an airtight container.
After 24 days of advent and midnight mass, we would reach home from the church and we all gather around the table for my mother to serve the cake. The cake keeps us kids busy while she heats the curries to break the fasting of 24 days. My mother bakes beautiful cakes in her small electric oven. It was round in shape and would look like a flying saucer especially when it is baking with small red lights. Anyone remembers that small electric oven?
