Christmas fruit cake

What's christmas without a fruit cake?

PART 1 (Soaking the dry fruits)

Here are the ingredients that you will need : Dry fruits and Brandy or Rum.

You will need 1 1/2 cup of any dry fruits. I took 1/2 cup of raisins, 1/2 cup of dry fruit and peel mix, 1/2 cup of chopped dates.

You can see this in grocery stores during holiday seasons...

And 3/4 cup of Dark Rum or Brandy.

Throw all the dry fruits in to a jar.

Add 3/4 cup of Brandy or Rum.

Close the jar and keep it at room temperature for one week...Give it a stir once a day..

This is how it goes:
Soak the fruits on December 11th
Make the cake on December 18th
Feed the cake with Brandy or Rum everyother day until 25th ..
Try this for one time..They might just become a part of your christmas tradition...

PART 2 (Combining the dry ingredients)

The ingredients are : All purpose flour,Baking powder and Baking soda.

Start with 1 cup of flour ..

Add 3/4 tsp baking powder..

1/4 tsp baking soda...

Stir it together and keep it aside..

PART 3 (Combining the wet ingredients and sugar)

Ingredients for the second part :Sugar,Eggs,Unsalted butter and Vanilla extract.

Seperate the eggs..

Beat the egg yolks..

Add 1/2 cup + 1Tbsp room temperature butter,1/2 cup + 1Tbsp sugar(you can also substitute half of sugar with brown sugar for darker color) and 1tsp vanilla extract .Mix until it's combined.(Sorry that I dont have a photo of adding butter and sugar)

PART 4 (Making caramel syrup)

Ingredients are : Sugar or Brown Sugar (for darker color),water and again water

Throw 1/4 cup of sugar or brown sugar and 1/2 Tbsp of water in to a pan on high heat and bring them to boil without stirring.Don't stir.

Soon the caramel will start deepening the color..

Reduce the heat to medium and swirl the pan few times for even coloring.

Now add 2Tbsp of  water and stir.Water might splash.Be careful !!

 Off the heat and pour it in to a bowl.You can also make the syrup in advance and refrigerate it .Try doing it with PART 1.

PART 5 (Combining everything together)

Ingredients : Caramel syrup,Whole spice,Any fruit preserve.

Grind 2 cloves,1 cardamom and 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon or small stick of cinnamon.

Pour the caramel syrup

Mix it...

1/2 Tbsp of any Jam or fruit preserve.I used pineapple preserve.

Ground spices..

And the flour mixture..

Not yet done !!

Beat the egg whites until frothy..

And fold the cake mixture in to the egg whites..

AND THE FINAL PART !!

Strain the dry fruits in to another bowl.Do not try to push the liquid through..

Refrigerate the liquid in the bowl and dab a small amount of this on the cake until christmas..

Fold it in to the cake mixture

Grease a 6,8 or 9 inch round cake pan.I used the 6 inch cake pan.Line it with parchment paper.

Bake in a pre heated oven for 40 mins or until the skewer inserted comes out clean at 350 degree F.

How good does this look?

Dont forget to feed the cake with brandy every other day until christmas ...

 Enjoy! This fruit cake is perfect for holiday parties.

RECIPE:

Servings : 10 (Use 6,8 or 9 inch round or square baking dish )

Ingredients :

Mixed fruits – 1 1/2 cups

Brandy – 3/4 cups (or Dark rum )

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Baking soda - 1/4 tsp

Baking popwder - 3/4 tsp

Egg - 2

Unsalted butter - 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp

Sugar - 1/2 cup + 1Tbsp (Substitute half of sugar with brown sugar for darker color)

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Caramel : Sugar - 1/4 cup (Substitute sugar with brown sugar for darker color)

               Water - 1/2 Tbsp

               Water - 2Tbsp

Spice powder :Clove 2

                      Cardamom - 1

                      Cinnamon - 1/4 tsp

Any fruit preserve - 1/2 Tbsp

Directions:

Soak the dry fruits in brandy for one week at room temperature.

Mix together All purpose flour, Baking podwer, Baking soda and keep aside.

Seperate the eggs.

Mix together Egg yolk,Unsalted butter,Sugar and Vanilla extract.

Add Caramel, Fruit preserve and Spice powder in to egg mixture.

Add the flour mixture.

Beat the Egg whites until fluffy.

Fold it in the cake batter.

Finally strain the dry fruits and add the dry fruits to the cake batter.

Bake it in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 40 min .

               

Spanish Flan

A FLAN-tastic dessert !

Here is what you need : Milk,Eggs,Sugar,Sweetened condensed milk,Vanilla extract.

Throw 4 eggs in to a mixing bowl..

Beat the eggs..

Like this.

Next add 1 1/2 cups of Milk..

Beat it again ...Like this.

NOW COMES THE GOOD PART !!

Pour a whole can (14 oz) of sweetened condensed milk ..

Creamy goodness !

Mix it..

Add 1 Tbsp Vanilla extract.

End of first part !!

Now let's make the caramel topping...

Throw half cup of sugar in to a saucepan on low heat...Let it sit over low heat and it'll start to melt.It will take few minutes..

Since we will be making this dish in a water bath,get a roasting pan ready or a large baking pan.

Place a folded kitchen towel in the center of the pan,so that the hot water can reach at the bottom of the baking dish and it helps in cooking flan evenly.

Pour hot water in to the pan till it is half full...

Now place the baking dish on top of the towel..You can use 8 or 9 inch baking dish

Now let us go back to the sugar

You can see the sugar starting to melt..

Gently stir it..

Sugar crystals!!

Soon the liquid will have light golden color..

Dont walk away now..Dont answer the phone or start checking your emails..

The sugar is  fully melted..

This is when you quickly turn off the heat and pour the caramel carefully to the bakiing dish..

Work fast,because it will cool and harden quickly..

Its ok if you couldn't spread it evenly..The oven will do that part ..

See that..Its already hard..

Now give the egg mixture one more stir..

Carefully pour the mixture to the baking dish..

See that the water is  half way up the height of the flan.Cover the flan with aluminium foil.Carefully put the pan in the preheated oven and bake at 350 Degrees F for 60 minutes.

After 60 minutes...
Let it cool for an hour..

Once cool,run a knife around the edges..

NOW THE SCARY PART !!

Place a plate on top of the baking dish..Search everywhere for a plate bigger than the baking dish.
I could get only a dinner plate.So i had to take this risk.

I am keeping a plate to collect all the syrup that's going to spill..

NOW INVERT IT !!

That was much better than I thought...
Now give the dish a few taps and lift it up..

Watch all that lovely caramel sauce !!
If there is caramel sauce left in the baking dish,keep it for a few minutes in the oven and let it melt.Pour it on top of the flan while serving...

My favorite flan recipe !!

Try it! I know it’ll become a favorite of yours, too.

RECIPE  (Adapted from allrecipes.com)

Servings : 8 (Use 8 or 9 inch round or square baking dish )

Ingredients :

• Egg -4
• Milk -1 1/2 cups
• Sweetened condensed milk - 14 oz can
• Vanilla extract - 1 Tbsp
• Sugar -1/2 cup

Directions :

• Beat the eggs, milk, condensed milk and vanilla extract.
• Caramelize the sugar.
• Pour the caramel in to baking dish.
• Pour the egg mixture on top of the caramel.
• Bake in a waterbath for 60 minutes.