During Christmas time, you will come across two kinds of people in this world. The fruit cake lovers and the fruit cake haters. I used to be a fruit cake hater for a very long time. Then it all changed one day. Long time back, our good friend Femila Cinthu bought us a yummy Gazillion kilo weighing fruit cake during Christmas time. My husband loves fruit cakes. We had planned to have the cake after dinner as dessert but Vinodh insisted that we have cake first. The ever smiling Cinthu could not say no. She cut a piece for him and gave one for me. I could not say no. I had a bite very unwillingly but I am so happy I had it that day. It was heavenly. Ever since I have been making the cake using Cinthu’s secret fruit cake spice mix. Sorry Cinthu – Its not a secret anymore. My husband loves loves loves fruit cake. It has even become our anniversary cake that I make it every year as a ritual. Here is Cinthu holding my Vedant and her Nitin. Vinodh and Manoj (Cinthu’s husband) were friends from their bachelor days. It so happened that we traveled to the US at the same time. Not only that. We even stayed next door sharing one common wall between us. Wonderful days. Wish we can live it back again. Stevens Creek Boulevard – I miss you. I still remember this picture so vividly. It was taken on Vedant’s first birthday. We had just moved to San Diego from San Jose and we did not know anyone yet there. So we drove to San Jose where Cinthu hosted a birthday party for him. Good food (Lots of biryani), good friends and some really memorable times. That’s what life is all about. Not to forget, Thomas the train engine that ruled our lives at that time. Nitin (Cinthu’s son) must have been the biggest Thomas fan ever to be born.
Here are the other Christmas fruit cake / Plum cake on the site.
Kerala christmas cake, Xmas plum cake
Whole Wheat Christmas Plum Cake
Here is the video of plum cake recipe
For detailed recipe and measurements, scroll to the bottom of the page.
This fruit cake has black grapes (dark raisins), golden raisins (called as Kishmish locally), currants and dried apricots. The fruits you use are more of a personal choice. Use whatever you like.
Clean the dry fruits and get rid of any stems. The trick with fruit cakes is to chop the dried fruits. Take time to chop the apricots and rough chop the raisins and black grapes. I cut the grapes in half. Yes its time consuming work but its rewarding. I find that the fruits absorb more flavor of the spices if chopped and the end cake is even more tastier.
Now add the dark rum / brandy to the chopped fruits and leave it to rest in a draft free place in your kitchen. Rest it for a minimum of one day. You can leave it for even a month. Some people soak their fruits even an year ahead. Just give the container a good shake every day or every couple of days. If you do not want to use alcohol, just omit this step and proceed with the recipe. It still tastes good.
Now lets talk spices.
A lot of the flavor of the cake will depend on what kind of spices you use. This is the best spice mix according to me and a lot of flavor develops during dry roasting of the spices. The spices may look too much. But trust me, fruit cake can take it all!
Dry roast all the ingredients listed under Spice Mix One. Dry roast on low flame until the spices are fragrant. Remove from heat and let it cool. Grind the spices in a small mixie jar / spice grinder to a very fine powder. Getting the spices to a fine powder is very important. Pulse several times until you reach the fine texture. Set aside.
If the powder is not fine after grinding, sieve the powder.
We will need another set of spices and lets call it Spice Mix Two. Get them ready. While zesting orange and lime, make sure to zest only the skin of the fruit which has flavorful essential oils. Don’t go deep till the pith or the white part of the fruit. The pith is very bitter.
Take a pan and add in the soaked dry fruits, finely ground Spice Mix One, all of the ingredients listed under Spice Mix Two, water, butter, salt and both the sugars. Bring the mixture to a boil. Once its boiling, reduce the flame to low and let the mixture simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Its important that the mixture is completely cool before proceeding. If you mix flour in hot liquid, you will end up with gum. Nah! So be patient and wait for the mixture to cool. It might take one hour to cool.
Preheat the oven to 325 F / 160 C.
Whisk the eggs in a cup. Add it to the cooled fruit mixture. Mix well.
Sift the dry ingredients together namely flour and baking soda. Add it to the cooled fruit mixture. Fold the flour with a wooden spatula and mix well to combine. Grease and flour “two 9 x 5 inch bread loaf pans” or “three 6 x 3 inch round cake pans”. Line the pan with parchment paper. Transfer the cake batter to the pan. Level the batter with the back of a spatula. Make sure that the batter is not more than 3/4th of the height of the pan. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
After 45 minutes, insert a tooth pick in the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. If the tooth pick has a little batter sticking, bake for 10-15 minutes more and check again. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan until room temperature. Gently invert the pan and remove the cake from the pan and store it in an air tight container. The flavor of the cake improves the next day.
Have the cake with your friends and count your little blessings.
Print
Rich Plum Cake / Indian Fruit Cake Recipe / Christmas Fruit Cake
Rich Fruit cake recipe.
- Total Time: 26 hours
- Yield: 2 loaves / 20 servings 1x
Ingredients
For Soaking Fruits
- Total Fruits Used – 700 grams
- 300 grams dried Black grapes / Dark Raisins – seedless
- 200 grams dried Apricots
- 100 grams Golden Raisins / Kishmish
- 100 grams Currants
- 1/2 Cup Dark Rum / brandy
Spice Mix One ( Dry roast and Grind to a fine powder)
- 6 Cloves
- 4 Cinnamon sticks (Cassia) (1 inch each)
- 1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
- 6 Cardamom
- 1 tablespoon Coriander Seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon Cumin Seeds
Spice Mix Two
- 1 teaspoon Instant Coffee Powder
- 1 teaspoon Dry Ginger powder
- Zest of one lime
- Zest of one orange
For the cake
- 200 grams brown sugar or demerara sugar
- 200 grams white regular granulated sugar
- 2 Cups (500 ml) Water
- 100 grams butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 eggs
- 420 grams All purpose flour ( Maida)
- 2 teaspoon Baking Soda
Instructions
- Add the dark rum / brandy to the chopped fruits and leave it to rest in a draft free place in your kitchen. Rest it for a minimum of one day.
- Dry roast all the ingredients listed under Spice Mix One. Dry roast on low flame until the spices are fragrant. Remove from heat and let it cool. Grind the spices in a small mixie jar / spice grinder to a very fine powder.
- Take a pan and add in the soaked dry fruits, finely ground Spice Mix One, all of the ingredients listed under Spice Mix Two, water, butter , salt and both the sugars. Bring the mixture to a boil. Once its boiling, reduce the flame to low and let the mixture simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 325 F / 160 C.
- Whisk the eggs in a cup. Add it to the cooled fruit mixture. Mix well.
- Sift the dry ingredients together namely flour and baking soda. Add it to the cooled fruit mixture. Fold the flour with a wooden spatula and mix well to combine. Grease and flour “two 9 x 5 bread loaf pans” or “three 6 x 3 inch round cake pans”. Line the pan with parchment paper. Transfer the cake batter to the pan. Level the batter with the back of a spatula.
- Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan until room temperature. Gently invert the pan and remove the cake from the pan and store it in an air tight container.
- The flavor of the cake improves the next day.
- Prep Time: 24 hours
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: British / Indian
Hello Sugana,
I was looking for an EAST Indian Christmas fruitcake recipe off an East Indian website when your recipient came up. It looks delicious, and the take on it is very Indian with the additional spices, however, its basic recipe based on a traditional boiled fruit cake recipe.
Must admit, many people are changing over to this way of making a Christmas cake as it is a lot easier than the traditional method.
Omitted alcohol, still the taste was awesome with nice aroma of spices. But didn’t get the rich brown color of your cake, may be because of the brown sugar i used. Thank you 🙂
Thank you!
Will 100 gms of butter suffice for 420 gms of flour and 700 gms of soaked fruit? Your Kerala Christmas Cake has double the butter and half the flour! And less than half the fruit.
How does cumin and corriander powder make a plum cake?
Hi..I tried your cake and it was very tasty..
Would like to know the weight of the cakes made in round pan..
Thank you! I have never weighed them. May be will do it this year and get back.
Hello mam,
Can I try the same with Wheat flour? I know you do have a wheat flour plum cake, but that doesn’t have all these flavourful spices that’s the reason am asking.
Thanks.
This recipe doesnt work well with wheat flour.
Hi mam, I love to make ur dishes .often I keep surfing ur website to make some dishes. Now I want to make plum cake with rum and I’m set to but I want to use oil instead of butter can I use it? If yes quantity please
you will need butter for this recipe. The texture of oil will be off with this cake.
A simple recipe to follow for inexperienced bakers like me. The cake turned out quite well, even though I used white wine instead of rum. But I would have liked a stronger cinnamon flavour, and left out the coriander and cumin seeds. Next time, that’s what I will do. If I want to make it eggless, can I add curds or milk instead of the eggs?
Thank you. You will need eggs for this recipe. This recipe doesnt work well eggless.
Hi, what would we do with the reserve liquid that the fruits are soaked in? Add it along with the fruits and spices to boil or keep it to add later/ brush the cake with it?
This recipe uses 1/2 cup alcohol and after soaking, there would not be any liquid left.
Dear Suguna
Will this cake keep for a while or does it have to be consumed quickly
It keeps good for about couple of weeks.
Do we hand to refrigerate the cake?
Also how many cups is 420 grams of all purpose flour? different sites give different measurements. I’m asking for U.S. cup measurements.
No need to refrigerate the cake.
Please use weight measurements and not cup measurements as weighing is more accurate and preferred for this recipe.
Okay, Thank you.
I am doubling the recipe, but I used 4 cups of Rum instead of 1 cup. Will that be okay?
4 cups is too much. Strain the rum. You can use the rum for other purposes.
Dear Suguna
Will this cake keep for long or will have to be consumed soon
Hi..can we use orange juice instead of rum?
You can just omit the alcohol and proceed with the recipe.
You can also macerate in orange juice for a short while.
Thanks.
I baked it just now and waiting to eat soon!!! It’s still hot:(
Turned out pretty good. I just bought spice mix from the store to save some time. And I boiled the things and let it cool overnight and baked it the next day morning. I will let you know soon after I taste the cake. Thanks a bunch for the recipe!!!!
Thank you!
Hi mam!
Planning to bake this cake tomorrow! Can i use 400g regular sugar instead of 200g brown sugar +200g regular sugar?
Hi. Can we use fresh grapes juice or any citrus fruit juice for soaking the dry fruits?
never tried with fresh juice.
First Christmas cake made by me. Tried for potluck on Christmas eve. As you said, the cake tasted great the next day only. Thank you for the recipe.
Thank you.
I am glad I found your recipe. It’s 11.15pm here in India and my second cake will be ready in 15 mins. 😊 What a moist and super tasty cake this turned out to be and easy peasy too! Thanks once again!! 😍
Thank you. Glad you liked the recipe.
Hi Suguna,
Thanks for the recipe. Looks lovely. I just have one doubt. Isn’t baking powder required for the recipe?
Hi Sharon, Baking powder is not required.
Could I add walnuts in the recipe
yes. you can.
Thank you so much the cake was so delicious and came out so well. Have tried out atleast 10 different recipes this one was so awesome. Huge hit with my friends.
Thanks again
So happy to know this. Merry christmas.
Hi.. Can we use non alcoholic wine for soaking the dry fruits??? If so ..do we need to store them in the refrigerator??
Never tried with NA wine.
I tried ur steamed cooker eggless cake…was very good …pl.let me know a similar version of eggless plum cake too
Hi mam is corainder seeds used in this.. will it taste good
Hi if I want a stronger flavor of rum, can I increase it to one cup and reduce the water accordingly by the same volume to one cup?
Never tried with so much rum.
Hi Suguna,
I would like to bake this cake in a few days. Most of the recipes call for burnt sugar syrup for dark colour of the cake. Since your recipe doesn’t have this as an ingredient, can I try adding treacle to get a darker shade. Do you have any idea of how much to use as I do not want the cake to taste bitter?
Thanks,
Diana
This recipe uses caramel syrup. You may substitute treacle. Check out.
https://www.kannammacooks.com/kerala-christmas-cake-xmas-plum-cake/
Hi. Can I substitute orange juice for water?
There is no juice in this recipe.
Thanks Suguna for your prompt response. Will try and keep you posted.
Hi Suguna
Please can you tell me the quantities of ingredients for a 500 gms plum cake. I’m trying for the first time.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks
Shobana
Sorry, I dont have the measurements for a 500gm cake. But you can try halving the recipe and doing it.
Hi Sugana, thanks for sharing your fruit cake recipe. I tried it today and it came out lovely. I will do the for Christmas but a larger quantity. Thanks once again. Patricia
Thank you. I am glad you like the Christmas plum cake.
Hello Ma’am,
I am planning to bake this cake for Christmas. if I want to bake the whole batter in one cake tin can you please tell me the measurements of the cake tin…
My oven is too small and cannot accommodate 2 cake tins at one time. Baking one cake at a time would not be possible considering the baking soda in the second cake would react.
Please can you help me with this query.
You can halve the recipe if you want and bake one loaf at a time.
Since you say that your oven is small, go with one loaf.
Hello maam! Your recipes are all amazing!! I have a doubt! Shall we use red wine for soaking instead of rum or brandy?
Never tried it with wine. Sorry.
Hello, I love all your recipes. I have a small clarification with the recipe. Why s water used to make cake. Can I omit it
The water is used along with the spices so the dry fruits can soak up the spices. No you cannot omit it!
Ms Kannamma
Can u give a detailed recipe for Sugee Fruit Cake and Sugee Almond cake
It’s my favorite
Tq
Hi Kannamma,
I have tried few of your recipes. Everything turned out to be a tasty dish. Along with this plum cake I have made your banana walnut cake several times. I am a regular follower of you blog. But never left a comment. I have shared your recipes with my colleagues who are caucasian. They too liked it. Keep posting authentic recipes 🙂 .Thank you for all your recipes especially kongunadu recipes. Some of your recipes can’t be found in any websites.
Thank you so much!
Hi Suguna,
I’m a regular follower and a big fan of your recipes and have tried almost everything . Trying a fruit cake for the first time and i have just one question.
Should we powder the sugar or use as is?
I will be baking now in a while. Waiting to hear from you. Thanks
No need to powder.
Hi suguna,
Thanks much for the recipe.I tried this cake,outcome was so good.
Thank you so much. Happy you liked it. Wish you and your family a very happy new year 2018!
Mam, can i use water instead of rum ? If so how much water will be needed?
Do not use water. Just skip the rum and proceed with the recipe.
Thanks much for d recipe 🙏🏼 .I tried tis recipe,outcome was awesome and got positive feedbacks from my friends too.
Thank you so much.
I made this cake using the recipe given by you. It was too good and everyone liked it. Thank you for sharing such recipes.
Thank you so much. Happy you liked it. Wish you and your family a very happy new year 2018!
Hi Suguna,
Thank you very much for sharing your secret recipe, i want to try this out.
I will be using a convection microwave to bake this cake, so what would be the temperature and baking time, is it 45 min at 160 degrees if I use a 6*3 inch tray
Also as i can bake only one tray at a time, can the batter be kept for some time?
The timing remains almost the same whether it is OTG or convection. Convection may be a bit quicker. Yes you may bake one tray at a time.
Thank you so much 🙂
Hi.. this is my first time at baking a cake in convection mode. if I’m using the convection mode in my microwave, will I still have to bake the cake in 160C or at a lower temp?
The same temperature will apply!
are dates, figs or dried cherries, dried pineapple and mixed peel allowed and what about some nuts too? pl reply – thnks
Sure you can add the fruits according to your choice.
hi, i want to try this badly .. I do not have two loaf pans so can I put it in
one square or round baking pan – if so, for how long in the oven ? pl reply
Sure Maria. The timing will depend on how deep you are pouring your batter.
A minimum of 45 mins to an hour whatever size of tin right?
No. 45 min for the loaf tin. Any pan thats more than 2-3 inches takes longer to bake
Thanks for sharing this perfect recipe. It was too simple!!!!!!!
thank you!
Thanks for the receipe…Will be trying it today
Mrs. Saguna,
I have no word to express my emotions. My brother went crazy after I cook plum cake according to your recipe. Just awesome. Fab.
Thank you for such a lovely recipe.
Cheers!
Thank you so much. Really glad that the recipe worked for you!
Hi,
I would like to try this cake for Christmas. Do you have cup measurements for the recipe( I don’t have a weighing scale), if so can u please share it
Thanks
Archana
Sorry. Dont have cup measurements.
Will the spice mix like coriander and cummin seeds not give a curry like flavour to the cake?
Hi Connie, at first, even I was very hesitant but it works perfectly well.
How long can we store it outside and can we freeze it too?
Yes. This cake freezes well.
How long can I leave it out of the refrigerator with alcohol.
It stays good for weeks together because of the alcohol.
Hi, I loved this cake, it looks so yummy. I want to make it , but i don’t eat eggs. So is there any other way to make this without eggs? Can you please help me to make it without eggs?? BTW Your blog is so nice and your recipes are very tasty and creative. Thank you..
Thanks a lot. Glad you like the recipes. I have not tried this recipe without eggs. I will post an eggless version soon!
Hi Suguna,
Your cakes look so amazing. I’m new to baking. I wish to buy an OTG, can you suggest me a good oven in India. I was thinking to go for Morphy Richards 40 ltrs or above, but I’ve been reading mixed reviews of them. so not able to decide, Can you please help me find out a good one..
Thankyou in advance 🙂
My friends have bajaj and they like it!
This looks fantastic! I eat gluten free, so is there some other flour or combination of flours I can use instead of refined wheat flour?
BTW, I have tried out your other recipes millet paniyaram and kola urundai and they turned out great!
I live in the US. I told my mom in India about your recipes, she tried them out and loves them too!
Thank you so much. If you eat gluten free, there is an excellent gluten free flour available called cup4cup. http://www.cup4cup.com/
This cake seems to be tempting, i like the recipe, thanks for sharing it.