raj christmas cake

This is a recipe from the days of the Raj and is surprising gluten-free. Dried tropical fruit, almond meal and coconut flour create a wonderful fruit cake.

christmas cake, Raj style, with nuts topping

prepare: 40

cook: 3 30

ferment: 21

total time: 21 4 10

difficulty: complex

yield: 48 servings

calories: 141 kcal

diet: gluten free, vegetarian

cuisine: anglo-indian, Indian

ingredients

for the fruit mix

1 lime
2 oranges
1 kg dried tropical fruit
100 ml brandy
1 red apple - peeled, cored and grated

for the cake

250 g almond meal
½ cup coconut flour
½ tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
180 g unsalted butter
180 g jaggery
6 eggs - large, free range
1 tsp rosewater
6 green cardamom pods - seeds removed from husks and coarsely ground
50 g raw cashews - chopped
50 g macadamia nuts - chopped
50 g raw cashews - whole
50 g macadamia nuts - whole

for decoration

1 cup jaggery - crumbled
½ orange - finely sliced
1 lime - finely sliced
2 tbsp mango jam
1 tbsp brandy

instructions

preparation

Use a grater to get the rind from the lime and one of the oranges. Set aside.
Juice both the oranges and the lime. Set aside.
Finely dice the dried fruit into 5mm pieces.
Combine chopped dried fruits, rind, juices, brandy and grated apple in a bowl. Mix well, cover and refrigerate for three weeks. Stir every day.

for the cake

Remove fruit from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature.
Pre-heat oven in conventional mode, not fan-assisted, to 130C. Line base and sides of a springform 22cm round cake tin with two layers of brown paper, and 2 layers of baking paper, bringing the paper 5cm above the top of the pan.
Sift the almond meal, coconut flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Mix well.
Beat butter and jaggery in another bowl until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined. Do not overbeat mixture or it will start to become a meringue, which is not desirable.
Add rosewater, cardamom seeds, chopped cashews and macadamias to the fruit mixture and mix well.
Add almond meal and coconut flour mix to fruit mixture and mix well.
Add the egg and jaggery mix and combine well. Do this by hand using a folding technique, rather than stirring until you have a consistent, very thick homogenous batter, with no clumps of fruit or almond meal.
Spread mixture evenly into the prepared cake tin and decorate the top with whole macadamias and cashews, pressing lightly into mixture until half submerged.
Cover the top of the mixture with a layer of baking paper, cut to the cake tin diameter,
Bake for 2 ¾ hours or until just cooked when tested - use a skewer and check that it comes out clean.
Remove from oven and place the tin on a rack. Cover tightly with foil and allow to cool completely. Once cool, which will take several hours, remove from the cake tin. Carefully remove the paper. Place cake in a close-fitting, airtight cake tin, and store in a cool place. Refrigeration is not required, but will not hurt the cake.

to decorate

Allow cake to come to room temperature if it has been refrigerated.
Heat 1 cup of water with the jaggery powder and bring to a simmer. Add the orange and lime slices, then poach for about 15 minutes or until soft. Remove carefully from the syrup and decorate the top of the cake with this glazed fruit.
In a small pan, gently heat brandy and mango jam, until the mixture is runny.
Brush the top and sides of the cake and glazed fruit with the jam and brandy mixture.
Allow to cool and serve.

notes

For the dried fruit, we use mango, papaya, pineapple, cranberries, figs and sour cherries.
For the glazed fruit, you might go to a health food shop and get some glazed limes and pineapple, rather than make your own.
You might consider making small individual cakes. We have a square muffin baking tin that is just ideal, although we then need to bake in two batches. These small cakes are ideal as gifts and for impressing your work-mates. You will need to reduce the cake cooking time, depending on the size of the individual cakes. We have found 1¾ hours is about right. If doing this you will need to grease the tins with butter.
Covering the top of the mixture with baking paper will stop the top of the cake from browning excessively.
Mango jam is available from good Indian grocers. Aside from its use here you just may become addicted to it. Last night’s leftover roti with mango jam is a delight.

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