It is the season to be jolly and to deck the halls with boughs of holly! Christmas time is here. For most kids, this is the time for Santa and cakes. A lip-smacking rum cake on Christmas eve is sure to endear you to all the children and also give you the satisfaction of creating a wonderful dish. Here is how you can go about making a Christmas-special rum cake.
Complexity level:
Moderately/Easy
Time taken:
The actual process takes about 2-3 hours. But it is advisable to start the process early to give enough time for the cake to absorb the rum.
Ingredients:
Exotic sweetened dried fruit (mix of melon, papaya, pineapple and mango) 175g
Ready-to-eat, dried dates 175g
Dried cherries and cranberries 100g each
Raisins 300g
Sultanas 200g
Grated rind and the juice of two oranges
Rum 100ml
Softened butter 200g
Dark muscovado sugar 200g
4 beaten eggs medium size
Plain flour 225g
Baking powder 1 teaspoon
Mixed spice 2 teaspoons
Brazil nuts 100g
Sieved apricot jam
Marzipan 500g
Ready-to-roll, white icing 750g
Concentrated paste of red food coloring
Cookie-cutter (Holly shaped)
Edible red sparkle
Process:
1. Keep the orange zest, orange juice, dried fruits and rum soaked in a bowl overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius.
3. Take a round cake tin and grease it. Beat the sugar and butter into a cream and then into the eggs.
4. Fold the above beaten mixture into the flour and baking powder. Add fruit, spice and nuts.
5. Spread the mixture in a tin and bake it for about 30 minutes. Then, reduce the temperature of the oven and bake it for a further 1.5-2 hours.
6. Pierce a hole in the cake and gently drizzle about 1-2 teaspoons of rum inside.
7. Keep doing this, a little by little, every few days. This way, the cake will keep soaking up the rum.
8. Wrap the cake in a grease-proof paper which is double layered. Store the cake in a cool and dark place till it is ready to get decorated.
9. When it is ready for decoration, unwrap the cake and place it on a board.
10. Apply apricot jam to the top surface and dust it with icing sugar.
11. Drape the top of the cake with a rolled out piece of marzipan. Smoothen and trim the edges once you do this.
12. Drape another layer on the cake with the icing. Once again, trim the excesses once you smoothen it.
13. Make another rolling of the icing and cut out decorations using Holly cutter.
14. Also, make sure to create a ‘red berry’ shape with the rolled icing.
15. Decorate the cake aesthetically with the accents you made of icing.
Tips:
Bake at a reduced temperature till the cake gets firm.
Start this process of baking weeks before Christmas. This will help the cake to soak up the rum uniformly.
Use different colored icing for different feel of the cake.
