Christmas Cake

For the past one week, I have been trying in vain to find the perfect recipe for the Christmas cake.On surfing the net, there were hundreds of recipes with varied methods leaving me totally confused. After carefully reading through a few of them, I gave up, closed down the net and did what I thought best - just followed my own instincts and made the cake according to what I thought would work best. As it is, I did not have any choice - it was a do or die situation - I know if I had not got around to making this cake today, I am sure it would have got delayed till the next Christmas and also I had two expectant hungry mouths waiting desperately. Anyways, I am really happy with the way the cake turned out. It was much better than I had expected, especially as it was my first attempt at making a fruit cake. It was moist and delicious and full of flavors and the best part .......... I finally got to make the cake and just on time to celebrate the special day. 
Enjoy this simple Christmas cake recipe and share the warmth of the holidays with your family and friends.
 Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a wonderfully Happy New Year !!


Ingredients
5 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 cups flour
200 gms butter
2 tsp  Baking powder 
1 tsp Baking soda 
1 tsp all spice powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg powder
1/2 tsp clove powder
Orange juice - 1/2 cup
2 tsp vanilla essence 
200 gms. Dry Fruits soaked in 1/2 cup Rum and 1/2 cup Brandy (Raisins, Cashew nuts, Candied peels, Cherries, Dates, Almonds, Dry figs, etc. all chopped finely and soaked in Rum and Brandy for at least 10 days).


Method
Preheat oven to 170 C. In a medium saucepan, combine the soaked mixed fruit, orange juice, vanilla essence, brown sugar and butter.

Add the spices(clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and all spice powder).

Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 minutes.

 Let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Next mix together the flour, baking powder and baking soda and add it to the fruit mixture.

Make sure that you mix it well so that the flour is evenly distributed - a good way is to rub in the flour with your fingertips. This ensures that the flour is mixed evenly with the fruits.

Now beat together the eggs and the white sugar with an electric beater for about 10 minutes till light and frothy.

Fold in the fruits and flour mixture into the eggs.

Stir  well with a spatula to blend uniformly.

Line the bottom and sides of cake pans with lightly greased butter paper.

 Pour cake batter into a prepared pan. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, then reduce temperature to 150 C, and continue baking the cake for 35 to 40 minutes more, or till a wooden toothpick inserted in  the center comes out clean. (Start checking after 1hr) 

Remove cake from oven and allow to cool completely in the tin before taking it out.

If storing in the refrigerator, make sure that you do so in an airtight container.