Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

Christmas fruit cake – the thought of biting into those fruity morsels is so divine but then comes the thought of the elaborate process involved – to soak the fruits beforehand et al. Well, this time I did away with a quick n’ easy version with no soaking of dry fruits and sans alcohol. And for the minimum efforts involved, it came out pretty well!

You need –

• All purpose flour – 1 cup plus 3 teaspoons for dusting the dried fruits
• Baking powder- 1 teaspoon
• Salt – 1/4 teaspoon
• Muscovado sugar – 150 grams
• Unsalted Butter – 150 grams
• Egg -2
• Vanilla Essence- 1 teaspoon
• Mixed dried fruits- 400 grams
• Orange juice- 2 tablespoons
• Ground mixed spice -1 teaspoon

How to –

Pre-heat the oven to 160 C . Grease and line a 8′ inch round cake tin. Sift together 1 cup flour, spice powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla essence. Turn the mixer to low speed and gradually add the flour and orange juice. (make sure to scrap the sides of the bowl).

Dust the dried fruits with 3 teaspoons of flour and gently fold into the batter.Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 1 hrs 15 mins or till the skewer comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 mins and then remove onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before icing/frosting the cake.