Super MOIST Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe | Holiday Favourites

This is going to be the best Christmas fruitcake you have ever tasted. Hi, you're watching Plating It With Wendy where I share with you recipes which impress with ease. This fruitcake is loaded with dry fruits which are soaked in alcohol, super moist and bursting with flavor. So let's get baking. Let's start by lining our cake tray to make the cake. We're going to be using an 8-inch loose bottom cake tray and we're going to line it with parchment paper. I've cut two circles to line the base and a long strip to fit the circumference of the cake tray. To help the parchment paper take the shape of the round cake tray, let's give the bottom a slight fold and snip it at the edge. We're going to apply some melted butter to the cake tray. The butter is just acting like an adhesive to hold the parchment paper in place. Let's lay down the strip along the wall of the cake tray and let's place the two round sheets at the bottom. We're going to be baking this cake on a low temperature and for about three hours. So let's insulate the pan so that it bakes evenly. Now we're going to take a long sheet of the parchment paper which will go around the cake tray and we're going to fold it into three. You could even use aluminum foil if you wanted to do this. Now let's take the strip and put it outside the cake tray. I'm just going to use a handy dandy clip to clip it together so it's easier to tie and we're going to tie it with a thread that we use normally for the turkey. Just a second one to keep it really strong and that's our cake tray all set to go. For our traditional Christmas fruitcake we're going to be using homemade caramel and let me show you how I prepare it. To a heavy bottom pot on a medium heat let's add one and a half cup of white granulated sugar and to that we're going to add one cup of water. Let's give it a gentle stir and allow the sugar to melt on a medium heat. It's going to take a few minutes to change color as it begins to caramelize. Once you've achieved that desired amber color switch off the stove and give it a swirl so that it can begin cooling down. Now let's place it on a wire rack. The caramel is best prepared a day ahead of time because we need it to cool completely and it'll also thicken up before we add it to the cake. Now let's start mixing our cake. We're going to go in with 225 grams of room temperature unsalted butter and we're going to add that to our stand mixer. You could even use a hand mixer if you wanted. Now let's cream the butter till it turns a little light and fluffy. We just want to incorporate some air into it. To that we're going to add 225 grams of a soft dark brown sugar. You could even use a light brown sugar if you wanted but this is going to intensify the taste of the molasses in our cake. Now let's beat these together and incorporate a little more air into the mix. Let's give the bowl a scrape. Now to that let's add four large eggs which are at room temperature and we're going to beat them on a slow speed till they're just incorporated. Let's just clear down the sides of the bowl. Now your batter might look a little bit curdled but nothing to worry about. It'll all come together once we incorporate the flour. To prepare our cake batter we're going to be using 225 grams of all-purpose flour and for that traditional Christmas flavor we're going to add one teaspoon of allspice and this is going to give that lovely warm flavor to our cake. And we're going to add half a teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg. And to bring out all these flavors let's add half a teaspoon of salt. And to give our cake that little rise we're going to go in with half a teaspoon of baking powder. Now let's sift this all together. I've done it in a parchment paper so that it becomes easy for me to pour it into the mixing bowl with the mixers on. Now with the mixer on still let's incorporate the flour mix into the batter. Now to give our cake that lovely rich color and caramel flavor we're going to be adding 130 ml of the caramel that we had made earlier and which has cooled to room temperature. Now a cool hack to use when measuring out the caramel or honey or maple syrup is to oil the container in which you're measuring it and then you will see how easily it slides off. You could even use melted butter actually. Now for a little bit of zing we're going to add the zest of one lemon. Very lightly we're going to zest it so we don't get any of that white portion. And let's add the zest of one orange as well. You could either do this with a microplane or a zester similar to this one. And no cake is complete without that lovely flavor of vanilla and we're going in with one tablespoon. It's a pure vanilla extract. Now let's bring all this delicious goodness together. Let's weigh 900 grams of the soaked dry fruits to add to the batter. This is looking so delicious. Making this cake is really getting me into the Christmas spirit. And if you haven't soaked your fruit already, go ahead and check out my recipe which is linked in the description below. The aroma coming from the batter and the alcohol in this fruit. I can't wait for this cake to be baked. It's feeling like Christmas already. Now for a little bit of crunch I'm going to be adding 25 grams of toasted almonds which I have chopped, 25 grams of toasted and chopped walnuts and 50 grams of whole toasted hazelnuts. You could even go in with 25 grams of cashew nuts, 25 grams of hazelnuts or you can put any proportion of the nuts you would like. I like to keep the hazelnuts whole because they look really nice once the cake is sliced. Let's give this a mix before we add it to the batter. If anyone in your family or your friends are allergic to nuts and you want to avoid them, you could definitely do that. Just increase the fruit by another 100 grams. That looks so very tempting. Let's add the fruits and the nuts to the batter. Now with the mixer on stir, let's bring it all together. Let's give a final mix with the spatula to make sure that everything from the bottom of the bowl is lifted up and mixed with the fruit. Using our spatula, let's gently level the batter on the top. You might find that the batter is a little bit high in the cake pan but there's nothing to worry about because this cake does not rise too much. As I mentioned earlier, we're going to be baking this cake on a low temperature. I have my oven preheated at 280 degrees Fahrenheit and we're going to bake it for approximately three hours or until a toothpick inserted in it comes out clean. And because we're going to be baking for such a long time, I have another parchment paper which I've cut in a little bigger circle and with another little hole in the center which we're going to place on the top of the cake in the oven and the hole is so that the heat goes through it. This is going to prevent the cake from excessively browning on the top. Come, let's put this delicious cake of ours into the oven. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, I like to pour a little bit more contour or rum and this just adds to the flavor. Now we're going to leave the cake with this wrapping for about 10 to 15 minutes before we remove it and allow it to cool completely. Now that our cake has cooled completely, I'm really excited to unmold it. Oh my goodness! Now for the moment we've all been waiting for, let's give this a taste. And that's a wrap! 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