About:

As the festivity is in air with Christmas and New Year, it is the best reason to bake a cake. No Christmas celebration is complete without a cake, and this season give an extra joy to your loved ones by making a cake at home. Baking a cake at home always gives a satisfaction and pleasure to yourself and appreciation from loved ones for your efforts.

Chock-full of crunchy nuts and moist dried fruit, it was especially appealing for having no artificially coloured. This is an even more treasured recipe now that there are so many more dried fruits with which to create variations.

Yields- 1 loaf
Preparation time-15 minutes
Baking time-35-40 minutes
Soaking time-overnight (or atleast 2-3 hours)

Ingredients:

Dry:

• Wheat flour- 1.5 cups
• Baking powder-2tsp
• Baking soda-1tsp
• Cinnamon powder-1/4tsp
• Nutmeg powder-1/4tsp
• Salt- 1/4tsp

Wet:

• Coconut oil-3tbsp (can substitute with vegetable oil)
• Brown sugar-1/2cup (adjust as per the sweet preferred)
• Coconut milk-3/4cup
• Dates molasses-1/4cup
• Apple cider vinegar-1tbsp
• Fresh orange juice-3/4cup (I used freshly squeezed juice)

Fruits and nuts:

• Dried cranberries – 1/2 cup
• Raisins and Sultanas-1/2 cup
• Roughly chopped walnuts-1/2 cup
• Roughly chopped pecan nuts-a handful
• Glazed cherries-10-12

Procedure:

• Pre-heat the oven at 160deg C (fan assisted), grease and line the loaf pan and set aside.
• Sieve in all dry ingredients (wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda,salt, cinnamon nutmeg powder)in a bowl. To this dry ingredients mix in all dry fruits (cranberries, raisins, sultanas, pecan nuts, walnuts) and set aside.

• In another bowl, mix in all the wet ingredients (oil, coconut oil, molasses), sugar, whisk until fluffy and finally stir in orange juice, vinegar.

• Now add dry ingredients along with dry fruits to the wet mixture in batches and fold in until combined (use extra warm water)

• Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf tin and top it with glazed cherries
•  bake in the pre-heated oven for 45-50 minutes/ until tooth pick inserted comes out clear.
• Once baked allow it to cool completely before slicing.
• Tastes best the next day.

Note:

• I used dates molasses so reduced the quantity of sugar so feel free to add extra sweetener/sugar if desired.
• Dates paste can be used in place of dates molasses. Soak Pitted dates for 30 minutes and make it a paste using blender.
• Coconut oil can be replaced with vegetable oil .
• Combination of Nuts and fruits can be personalised as per taste.
• I used freshly squeezed orange juice- can also substitute with supermarket one.
• Baking time varies from oven to oven so keep an eye and bake until tooth pick inserted comes out clear
• One of my blog reader suggested and tried to top with chocolate chips..that’s an alternative topping for all chocolate lovers
• The loaf is brushed with orange juice for an added moisture. It is optional