Fruit+&+Nut+Cake

Fruit and Nut Holiday Cake
Brought to you by: Neema Vijay - India

Conversion Table U.S. to Metric and Metric to U.S.

Ingredients:

 * [[image:fn1.jpg align="right"]]Mixed dry fruits and nuts (raisins,apricot,almonds,pecans,walnuts,cranberry etc) – 2 cups
 * Rum/Brandy – 1 cup ( For a non-alcoholic version you may substitute with orange juice or Apple cider)
 * Sugar –1 ½ cup
 * Water – 1 tbsp + Warm water – ¼ cup
 * All purpose flour – 2 cups
 * Baking powder – 1¼ tsp
 * Baking soda – ½ tsp
 * Unsalted Butter –1 cup + 2 tbsp @ room temp
 * Eggs – 4
 * Vanilla essence – 2 tsp
 * Ground allspice – 2 tsp

Procedure:
Soak 2 cups of chopped mixed fruits and nut in 1 cup of Rum/Brandy/orange juice/Apple cider.( You may soak it for at least 1 hour or overnight or even upto 1 week in advance)
 * Soaking[[image:fn2.jpg align="right"]]**

Melt ½ cup sugar & 1 tbsp water in a sauce pan over medium heat. When the color of the melted sugar turns dark brown, remove the pan from the stove & add ¼ cup warm water to this carefully. Bring it back to boil for a few more mins, 3-4 mins. Let it cool.
 * Caramel preparation**

Preheat the oven @ 325 degrees F. Pour the batter into greased and floured tins. Bake for 30-35 mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
 * Cake batter **
 * Beat 4 eggs . Add 1 cup + 2 tbsp, softened butter to it. Beat it until smooth
 * Add 1 cup sugar to this, gradually followed by 2 tsp vanilla essence, cooled caramel, 2-3 tsp of allspice, pinch of salt & beat again.
 * Add 2 cups flour sifted with 1 ¼ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, gradually to this.
 * Drain the mixed fruits n nuts .Toss it in 1-2 tbsp of flour.Gently fold it into the batter with about 4- 5 tbsp of the retained soaking liquid.
 * Bake**

Let the cakes cool in the pans for 15 minutes. Enjoy!