How to Make: Kerala Rich Fruit Cake

So this year, when it was time to make cake, I decided to shoot the making. You can read what I soaked over here. When it was time to shoot, Han lent me his equipment, Deep lent me his tripod and Vai Vow and I shot the making baking. This is the video I edited. You can find the recipe below it. Next year, I hope to come up with something else to bake. Hopefully by then, I will be in a position to buy ingredients myself.

Soak Dry Fruit a month ahead/ 2 weeks/ 1 week ahead in brandy.

I soaked:
Tropical dried fruits 220g Rs.250
California orange peel bits 100g Rs.350
Seedless black raisins 200g Rs.199
Golden raisins 200g Rs.175
Dates 250g 500g costs Rs.165
Cherries 300 g cost Rs 90 [I used 250 g of that]

Soaked in the cheapest brandy available. 3 bottles of 375 mL, each cost Rs.220

I soaked them for almost a month before starting on the cake.

I made the caramel by first heating half a cup of water (100 ml) and bringing it to boil. Set it aside to cool. Then took half a cup of sugar and started heating it with 1 tablespoon water. Waited till it turned dark brown. The colour of the cake will vary according to the brown of the caramel. I like it dark brown. You can have lighter shades as per your taste. Added the cooled water and brought it to boil and again and set it aside to cool. Be careful when you add the cooled water because it splashes. Caramel has to be cooled completely before making the batter.

Took 1 cup of unsalted butter (room temperature) and beat it. Add 1 1/2 cup of sugar to the butter and mixed it well. Add three egg yolks and mixed it well. Add the cooled caramel.

The flour, 1 1/2 cups of maida (all purpose flour) has to be sieved thrice with 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Take 1 1/2 cups of dried fruit from the soaked bunch. Toss it all in flour so that they won't sink to the bottom of the batter. If you have nuts, and i didn't, for the cakes i made for myself because i don't like nuts in my cake, but if you have them add chopped nuts 1/2 a cup after tossing that too in flour. Now add the sieved flour to the butter mix and mix well. It's hard. Have patience. Add the white of three eggs whisked with 1 teaspoon vanilla essence. Now add the fruit and nuts. Mix well. Set the batter aside for 6 hours.

Preheat the oven. My oven is a basic model. I pre heated the oven in the highest temperature mode. While the oven is getting heated, line your cake tin with cutter paper. Apply some butter on the tin first and then press down the butter paper on it according to the shape of the tin.
For baking i used the medium mode. It takes 1-1.5 hours for me to bake one cake in my model.
The cake is baked if when you insert a toothpick in the middle of it and pull it out, it comes with moist crumbs.

After baking you have to keep it aside for a week. The cake has to age, that is, absorb all the flavours and trust me, this is an important part. It was very difficult for all of us here to do this but if you manage to, you'll see a world of a difference in taste. Open and eat after a week.

This was my cake making last year