Chocolate Fruit Cake
Christmas Chocolate Fruit and Nut Plum Cake loaded with moist berries soaked in Orange Juice.
Ingredients
DRY FRUITS
- 1/2 Cup Orange Juice (Juice of 3 Sweet Oranges/Use packaged plain Orange juice, not sour)
- 1/2 Cup | 60gm Black Raisins, Chopped
- 1/4 Cup | 50gm Glazed Cherries, Chopped
- 1/4 Cup | 30gm Cranberries, Chopped
- 1/4 Cup | 45gm 5 Prunes, Chopped
FOR THE CAKE BATTER
- 1 1/4 Cup | 150gm All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 Cup | 25gm Cocoa powder
- Baking Powder 1 Tsp
- Baking Soda 1/2 Tsp
- Salt 1/4 Tsp
- 1/4 Tsp Cinnamon powder
- 1/8th TSP each of dry ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, clove powder
- Unsalted Butter 1/2 Cup | 115gms, room temperature
- Dark Muscovado Sugar 3/4 Cup | 150g
- 3 Eggs, room temperature
- 1 TSP Vanilla Essence
- 1 Cup Soaked Dry Fruits (reserve some for toppings if you wish)
- 3/4 Cup (1/2 Cup Cashews, 1/4 Cup Almonds)
Instructions
- Grease an 8 inch pan with oil. Place a parchment paper with long edges for easy pull out if using a loaf shaped tin like me. You can use any shaped tin.
- Cook the Chopped Dry Fruits in Orange Juice on LOW Heat for 6-7mins or till the Juice dries up. If you have time, then soak them for an hour or overnight. Keep them covered till you use.
- I used Fresh Orange Juice made by squeezing and straining the pulp of 3 Medium sized Oranges. Ensure that they are sweet though. You can also use packaged Orange juice which are sweetened.
- Beat the Butter till smooth. Add the Dark Muscovado Sugar and remove any lumps in the sugar.
- Beat them well till creamy. Add the eggs one at a time mixing each egg well.
- Add Vanilla essence and mix.
- Keep a Sieve on the bowl and add the flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda, salt and whole spices. Whole spices can be skipped if you are really not a fan of it but it does add the distinct flavor of a plum cake. Sift all the dry ingredients well.
- Now Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet batter. You can also use a beater to mix but do not overbeat only just till incorporated.
- Fold in the Dry Fruits and Chopped Nuts. I reserved some dry fruits to decorate the cake top later. Cake batter is ready! This batter is so delicious i almost licked the spoon off.
- Transfer the batter to the greased pan. Smoothen the top with the back of a spatula or a spoon.
- Bake @180C for 45-50 mins or till a toothpick comes clean, cover with an aluminum foil after 30mins of baking to avoid a hard crust and decorate with dry fruits if you wish. The dry fruits tends to get hard if baked for a long time so i add it halfway during baking.
- Allow to cool completely before demolding. Cover it with the Aluminum foil or a cloth to prevent drying out.
- Keep the cake slices airtight by wrapping in a parchment paper and then cling wrap. Lastly wrap with an aluminum foil to preserve the freshness. Keep it stored either room temperature, stays good for 3-4 days depending on your climate. I store them refrigerated or frozen, microwave them for few seconds before serving.
- These are really very addictive for any chocolate lover. I love munching on the nuts and berries with the chocolate buttery sponge.
Video
Notes
Do not add the Nuts while cooking the Berries. Add them separately to the batter at the end. Unlike the Berries, the nuts needs to have their crunch and not be soft.
Dry roast the Nuts before chopping them for better taste. I used Cashews and Almonds but you can use any other nuts like Walnuts, Pistas etc
Fruit cakes tend to be more flavorful after keeping for a day for the spices to be infused. However, use minimal amount of spices as they can get overpowering in a chocolate cake if added too much.