Caribbean Fruit and Nut Cake - My Version

This is a Caribbean style Fruit and Nut Cake with Spices. The variation is that the fruit is marinated/soaked in Red Wine/Rum/Brandy and ground corsely into a paste and added into the batter apart from adding the dry fruits & nuts.

For my cake I soaked the dried fruits in Red wine and ground them along with some fruit punch and molasses and preserved it for a year. Yes, I did this last christmas and used that fruit mixture for this year's christmas cake.

The result was obvious...Though I and hubby identified some minors corrections, this tasted good.
Soaking the fruit for a few weeks and baking this cake any where from 2 weeks to 2 months before the occasion and moistening it regularly with a coat of wine, rum etc would do justice for this dark cake.

My cake may not have the exact carribbean recipe, but the concept is very much borrowed(grinding the fruit). Tailored to my taste buds.....hence this is my version of the Dark fruit and Nut cake
Here are the digital steps...


Ingredients:
To Beat
2 cups butter(softened)
2 cups white sugar
6 eggs(Increase to 8 if desired)
To Combine
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 pinch salt
To Add
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp almond extract
1 tbsp lime juice
1 grated zest of that lime
1/4 cup white rum (optional)
1 cup red wine
1/2- 1 cup dark molasses
Dried Fruits and Nuts
1 cup dried fruit(raisins, currants, Sultanas) 1 cup Cake fruits + Cherries
1 cup Nuts(Almonds, Walnuts, Cashew, Pecan)

1/2 cup chopped Dates To Grind
1 cup Dried fruits raisins, currants, Sultanas)
1/2 cup chopped Dates
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup frozen Fruit punch

Procedure:
Soak the ingredients to be ground a week before or alteast overnight and grind them coarse add a little fruit punch.
This mixture can be frozen or even just refridgerated well in advance(1 day to 1 year) In my case I had prepared this last christmas. For best results, fruits should be soaked in wine for at least 3 weeks, or boiled in the wine.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 - 9 inch cake pans.

Measure all ingredients and keep them ready, Take
butter out of fridge before an hour to soften it.

Beat butter, sugar in a large bowl until they turn creamy Add in eggs. Beat on low speed of electric mixer until blended, then on high speed for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

Combine and sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl, and fold these dry ingredients alternately with liquid ingredients to be added
to the batter mixture. Keep mixing while adding.

Add the ground mixture so fruits and wine. Do not to over-mix. Add all the dried fruits and nuts.

Pour into prepared pans.

Bake in preheated oven for 80 to 90 minutes

Once the cake rises and gets the shape and is almost hard, cover it with foil,
shiny side up, and bake for the remaining time or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
Additional wine or rum can be brushed onto cake as needed to keep moist.

This is my entry for
Think Spice - Cinnamon, created and hosted by Sunitha of Sunitha's world.
A Fruit a Month (AFAM) Event started by Maheshwari of Beyond the Usual, this month.
AFAM - Dried Fruits is hosted by Lathaji of The Yum Blog
Click - Nuts created and hosted by Bee and Jai of Jugalbandi.
Did you check for the Galore of christmas Trees here