Kerala plum cake, Christmas fruit cake recipe step by step - Edible Garden (2024)

FAQs

Which is the best plum cake in Kerala? ›

A Fruit Cake is a normal vanilla cake with fruits in it. Whereas a Plum Cake is made with dry fruits soaked in alcohol/orange juice for more than a day. A Fruit Cake's colour is white to yellowish inside, whereas a Plum Cake's colour is brown to dark brown inside.

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Christmas cakes are also commonly made with pudding while a fruit cake uses butter, however there are Christmas cake recipes that do contain butter. The traditional Scottish Christmas cake, also known as the Whisky Dundee, is very popular. It is a light crumbly cake with currants, raisins, cherries and Scotch whisky.

Bacardi Oakheart is a good rum for making rum cake as it contains a lot of compatible flavors like vanilla, cinnamon, butter scotch, caramel and baking spices. Taste a few good rums and decide what you like. Sometimes a very rich rum brings more flavor while a light rum is more subtle.

Before you look at the long recipe notes for this Kerala Fruitcake, I promise, it's not that hard to make. This fruitcake (also known as Plum Cake) is a Christmas-classic in my house. Several years ago, my mom started this tradition of making enormous batches of this cake.

Somewhere around the 16th century, oatmeal came to be replaced with flour, and people began to bake cakes, adding sugar (thanks to colonisation), milk, candied fruits, spices, and dried fruits and nuts. Of course, plum puddings are still baked and are a little different from fruitcakes/Christmas cakes.

Plum cakes have a fascinating history originating in medieval England where a fasting tradition preceded Christmas. The precursor to plum cake was a porridge-like dish made with dried fruits, oats, spices, and honey. The recipe evolved with the substitution of oats with flour, and the addition of eggs and butter.

Plum cake usually contains rum as an ingredient along with various nuts, olives, and apricots. The alcohol ingredient is responsible for its higher cost and a peculiar yet awesome taste. Plum cake is generally costlier since it has loads of nuts n berries.

A coin was hidden inside a small cake, whoever found it was crowned as mock king. Hiding small tokens in a cake is another tradition that has existed throughout the ages. The Christmas Sixpence, which is hidden inside a Christmas pudding or cake as a token of good fortune, being a recent example of this tradition.

What is Christmas fruit cake made of? ›

Fruitcake is a bread-like cake made with candied or dried fruits, nuts, and spices. The fruit and the cake itself are traditionally soaked in liquor. The sweet treat is usually served (and also gifted) during the holidays. Since it's doused in liquor, Christmas fruitcake lasts for months.

The hole in the center is usually filled with a variety of dried fruits and nuts. In Portugal, it is a popular tradition to include a fava bean in the cake. Whoever finds the fava bean in their slice is considered to have good luck for the coming year.

Some say you should make your Christmas cake 6 weeks before eating, but the advice given on Nigella.com is that 12 weeks before is the optimum time to get baking. Your Christmas cake should be fed every 4 to 6 weeks but in the meantime, after baking, it should be stored away in a secure, air tight container.

Most recipes call for dried fruit to be soaked overnight. I take 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! Other than that, there's nothing unusual about how this fruit cake is made.

Fruitcake aficionados will tell you that the best fruit cakes are matured – or “seasoned” in fruitcake lingo – for at least three months before they are cut. Seasoning not only improves the flavor of the fruitcake, but it makes it easier to slice.

The story of plum cake in India dates back to 1883, when a British planter in Thalassery, Kerala, named Murdoch Brown asked the local baker, Mambally Bapu, to taste the rich plum cake he had brought from England. Brown provided Bapu with ingredients but asked Bapu to buy a French brandy.

Plum cake has historically referred to an early type and style of fruitcake in England since around 1700.

Plum cake is a delightful confection that harmoniously blends the rich flavours of ripe plums with a moist and tender cake base. This delectable treat boasts a pleasing contrast between the slightly tart essence of the plums and the gentle sweetness of the cake, creating a symphony of tastes with each bite.