Christmas Cake is a conventional nut Cake with a rich, smooth surface that is so fully seasoned and rich that it very well may be eaten plain. Be that as it may, nobody dismisses a slosh of custard! Typically Christmas Cakes should be begun a day before, with soaking of dried fruit. But Mohit Bansal Chandigarh shares a recipe that doesn’t take so long but is delicious nonetheless! Easy to make on the day and it’s just as tasty even if you make it without alcohol. Go wild with the decorations – or keep it straightforward!

Christmas Cake

What goes in Christmas Cake?

You really want a Great deal of dried fruits and little bit of the cake batter with fixings!!

1. SOAKED DRIED FRUIT

Here’s what you need for the Soaked Dried Fruit. The fruit is soaked in either apple juice or a combination of apple juice and brandy (for those who like boozy Christmas Cake).

• Use any dried fruit you want – as long as it weighs 855g / 30 oz in total. You could even use a store bought mix of pre chopped dried fruit – but just know that chopping your own will yield a more moist cake. Mohit Bansal Chandigarh shares an insider tip-pre chopped is not as moist. Having said that, this cake is ultra moist so you may go ahead and use pre chopped!
• Mixed peel is a store bought mix of dried, crystallised (ie sugared) lemon and orange peel. Usually it comes pre chopped – Mohit Bansal Chandigarh like to chop it a bit finer. You can use less citrus peel than some recipes or you may find a big piece of orange peel in your cake if you are not careful! Don’t use FRESH orange and lemon peel, it will be too strong and too bitter. It is difficult to figure out how much fresh peel to substitute this for.
• Juice and/or booze – for a traditional boozy Christmas Cake, just switch 1/3 of the apple juice with brandy. Can also sub apple juice with orange juice if you want a stronger citrus flavour.

2. CHRISTMAS CAKE BATTER

And here’s what you need for the cake batter part. The cake has very little baking powder because it’s quite a dense cake. But it’s still got a distinct “cake” texture – unlike some Christmas Cakes that are so dense, you’d swear you were eating a block of fudge!

• Dark brown sugar – makes the cake a rich dark brown colour. You can substitute it  with normal brown sugar – It will make the cake lighter (also looks nice as fruit stands out!)
• Molasses / golden syrup –  it adds to the richness of flavour and colour of cake. Either is fine – you can go back and forth with either. It is totally up to you really!
• Walnuts – you can substitute it with any nuts of choice, or leave it out completely. Again, it is totally on your choice. 
• Oil and butter – oil is what gives this cake a superb moistness. Butter is for flavour! So don not shy away and be picky. Add both in the right amounts to get the rich cake we all love!

How to make Christmas Cake

And here’s how the making part goes down. Just follow Mohit Bansal Chandigarh’s easy steps and you will end up with a delicious cake in no time.The key step that makes this so much faster to make than other fruit cakes is the fruit soaking step. Most recipes call for dried fruit to be soaked overnight.

Mohit Bansal Chandigarh takes a speedy approach: just microwave the dried fruit with juice and/or brandy, then stand for 1 hour to soak up the liquid. So much faster – and just as effective! Who knew right? Other than that, there’s nothing unusual about how this fruit cake is made. Because it’s a dense cake, it needs to be baked long and slow in order to cook it all the way through without drying out the edges and surface (without fussing with water baths). 3 hours 15 minutes, to be exact! Be careful of the time so as to not under or over cook it.

1. Christmas Cake Decoration ideas

A plain Christmas Cake does look like a big, dark brown block so it is nice to decorate it! Here are some ideas – but remember, it’s purely decorative. This fruit cake is full flavoured and very moist so unlike other cakes, you don’t need a frosting to make it ultra delish to eat!

• Simple – just dust with icing sugar, or pile on cherries or other fruit and dust with icing sugar. The classic way you can not go wrong with!
• Christmas TREE decorations – yes, really. Inedible decorations is fine!
• Drippy white glaze –  You can use any recipe you like or get the glaze ready made. Again it it totally on your convenience. Flip the cake upside down to get a good even surface to work with!
• Traditional white fondant– Some people really don’t like fondant. Too many bad wedding cake experiences!But nowadays, store bought fondant is actually much nicer than it was in the past. It just tastes like a softish sheet of plain sweet frosting. So try something new maybe! 

2. How to serve Christmas Cake

This Christmas Fruit Cake is rich and moist, with a ton of flavour from the fruit so it’s absolutely delish eaten plain. No frosting, no fondant – nothing needed – and it’s certainly how you pick away at the leftovers for weeks and weeks!

But if you really want to make it special, serve it with custard. Homemade custard, if you can. But if you opt for store bought, do a little pimping up trick – just stir in some vanilla bean paste. The little black specks gives it a little “extra special” look and it does wonders to freshen up the flavour too!

And lastly, you’ll be very happy to know this keeps for weeks and weeks! 3 months in the fridge, a year in the freezer. But it is highly unlikely it isnt eaten up within days! 

Merry Christmas to everyone!

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