I can’t believe that I have successfully completed the Bake-a-thon. One whole month of various bakes has been amazing. I must admit it looks nothing like I had planned – I wanted to include the pineapple upside down cake which has been on my to-do list forever. I wanted to try out lasagna which also is long time pending. But due to various reasons, I couldn’t do quite a few dishes of what I had originally planned. But I tried other dishes that I had no idea about. So it’s not all bad.
   

This fruit cake is for my husband. He loves this cake and has been asking me to make it. During his growing up years, his neighbor was the owner of an Iyengar Bakery. So you can imagine the fun treats the husband was privileged to. Ever since, he has his self made tradition of getting a fruit cake every Christmas. We didn’t find a good one this year and so he kept bugging me and finally I relented. This cake is also a small thank you to him for being very understanding and supportive during this month. 

I admit I wasn’t as prepared as I was hoping to be to be able to blog thrice a week. Quite a few dishes and posts were left to the last minute and I was frantically rushing all around. The husband was sweet enough to come early from work and take care of the daughter so that I could blog in peace. The best part was him asking me before eating anything – “Have you clicked all the pictures you need? Can I eat this now?” 

This recipe is from the TV show – Baking with Anna Olson. It’s easy and the cake turned out delicious. I did not use alcohol but replaced it with tea. Was still good! So here goes –

WHAT WE NEED

Mix dried fruits and candied peel                      2 1/4 cups

Strong tea                                                                   1 1/2 cup

Unsalted butter, at room temperature              1/3 cup

Brown sugar                                                               1/3 cup

Egg                                                                                 1

All purpose flour                                                       1 cup

Baking powder                                                           1/2 tsp

Pecans / Walnuts, chopped                                    1/3 cup

WHAT TO DO

• Boil a cup and half of water and dip three teabags in it to make the tea and set aside to cool.
• Take the dried fruits and candied peel in a bowl and add one cup of the cooled tea and mix well.
• Refrigerate the other half cup of tea.
• Keep the mixture covered with cling wrap overnight. Do not refrigerate.
• The next day, preheat the oven to 150C
• Remove the tea from the fridge and let it reach room temperature
• Take butter and sugar in a bowl and beat them till they are light and fluffy.
• Add the egg and beat it again.
• Sift and add the flour, baking powder and salt to the butter mixture.
• Drain the tea from the soaked dried fruits and add 1 tbsp of it to the mixture.
• Add the pecans/ walnuts.
• Add the soaked dried fruits and mix well.
• Grease a 9″ loaf pan or 7″ round pan generously
• Pour the batter and bake for 80 minutes.
• Once the cake is removed from the oven, take a brush, dip it in the tea and brush it on the cake.
• Repeat it two more time within an hour.
• Let the cake cool completely.
• Remove the cake form the pan after it has fully cooled
• Enjoy!

NOTES

1. The original rexipe uses alcohol but I have replaced it with tea. If you want to use alcohol use brandy, sherry or rum.
2. If you are using walnuts instead of pecans, then add some sugar to the tea mixture after you remove it from the refrigerator. The strong tea tends to dilute the sugar in the cake.
3. Dried fruits and candied peel include raisins, candied ginger, candied orange peel, candied lemon peel, glazed cherries, etc. you can also add dried apricots, prunes and dates.

  

This is part of the
Bake-a-thon 2015