CHRISTMAS FRUITCAKE

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Merry Christmas!

When I was young, every Christmas, one of my mom’s friends, would gift us a loaf of fruitcake. It was the most delicious cake I have ever had. Growing up, I experimented tasting other fruitcakes, but nothing ever came close to that cake and well, the other fruitcakes just put me off fruitcakes altogether. This Christmas I wanted to recreate the same recipe. I tried asking my mom to get the recipe from her friend, but, unfortunately she did not have her number. One thing my mom did know about the recipe, though, was that she would make it at least a month before Christmas, soaking the cake with booze every few days.

So, the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, I started prep for my version of fruitcake. One thing I was sure that I did not want to use in the cake, was candied fruit. I was so sure about that, that even before searching for an apt recipe, I had already bought dried fruits. So I looked into my cookbooks, but none carried the recipe that made the cut. Then , I turned to my next best friend, google, for the recipe. And I found Alton Brown’s. Now, I loooooove his series Good Eats and the recipe is from one of the episodes of the series that aired this recipe. Besides not including any candied fruits, the recipe also got rave reviews. I did tweak it a bit by including the dried fruits I bought. My list included black figs, calmyrna figs, dried currants, medjool dates, dried cranberries, crystallized ginger, monukka raisins, pitted prunes, sultanas. I used brandy instead of rum as thats what I had on hand. Since, I planned to gift the cakes to a few of my friends, I tripled the recipe.

The dried fruits chopped up and covered in sugar

I have never baked so many cakes together at one time before. And, there was this nagging feeling telling me- this is not a good idea. I did not have a bowl big enough to mix the whole batter. Then the oven wasn’t so big to accommodate all the cakes and having enough space for air circulation. Anyways, I thought to myself, if they are an utter failure- well, I’ll keep them for myself and make a pudding!

Three weeks later, they are all wrapped and ready to be gifted to friends, save for one- the one for us. Now, of course, I don’t remember the taste of the fruitcake I had eons back, but this version has been the best I have eaten since then!

All wrapped up!

Alton Brown likes to have his slice toasted with some mascarpone cheese! Like Alton Brown says, this is Good Eats!

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SWISS BLACK FOREST CAKE

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Black Forest Cake is one of V’s favorite cake and for a long time he had been hinting that I should make one. Now, in India its a pretty popular cake and most people I know love it. Not me. I am not a fan and never was. I am the dark truffle cake kind of girl. Or the strawberry cheesecake girl but NOT the Black Forest Girl. So, when I decided to make this cake V and I had a deal – that he has the sole responsibility of finishing it and I won’t help. But, argghhh, my love for all things sweet- I don’t think I’ll be keeping my end of the deal. But, going by the cake, I think V is going to keep his end.

For the recipe, I took out the Cake Bible. Like the name suggests- its just that! If you love baking, this is one must-have book! Rose’s Swiss rendition of the Black Forest Cake is far lighter and more delicate than the original German one. Kirsch soaked cherries are sandwiched between two thin, light layers of liqueur moistened chocolate génoise to make the cake. (In true representation of myself, I goofed up and did not read Rose’s instruction to half the recipe for the génoise and ended up making the full recipe. Thus, instead of a two-layer cake I had a four layer cake, which was not too bad- kind of like the cake we get in Indian bakeries!)

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The whipped cream is barely sweet so in case you want a sweeter taste add more sugar. Rose also gives the option of using Super Stabilized Whipped Cream. While, the Real Old Fashioned Whipped Cream is lighter in texture, the cake cannot be held at room temperature for more than 15- 30 minutes. I took my chances because I did not have the required gelatin for the Super Stabilized one. Also the Real Old Fashioned Whipped Cream is great for people with access to only the low-fat cream (the 20 % kinds), as the method given results in a 40 % butterfat cream

The cake used has the light texture of a génoise but is more velvety and moist. An equivalent amount of chocolate is used instead of cocoa, but a special technique is employed to intensify the flavor. Before being added to the batter, the chocolate is cooked with water which releases its flavor. When chocolate is dissolved in water, the surrounding barrier of cocoa butter in chocolate dissolves and swells the cocoa particles until they rupture, unlocking the flavor components, thus getting a génoise in the flavor of your favorite bittersweet chocolate bar.

You can make the cake ahead, like I did. Refrigerate or freeze it, in case you don’t plan to make it within 5 days. I kept it at room temperature as I assembled the cake the next day. This was also my first stint at making rosettes (or actually any kind of piping). Lot of improvement is possible, but I think for a first time attempt it did not turn out too bad, watsay?! V loved the look and loved the cake. Hubby is happy, my stomach and thighs are not!
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*Update*:

This recipe was first tried on December 21st, 2010. I have made this recipe after that, and have updated the pictures as well. The pictures you see are the updated ones (only the one just below is from the original post), and though the recipe makes a four layer 9 inch cake, for the pictures I halved the recipe and made a 3 layer 6 inch cake. For just the two of us, halving the recipe works absolutely fine, since it makes a smaller cake.

*Second Update*:

I made this again for my dad’s birthday. I experienced a few problems and have learnt a few lessons and tricks to keep in mind from the mistakes I made.

Make sure you use sifted flour. Even before measuring it, sift it first, measure and sift it again over the beaten eggs 2-3 tbsp at a time. Use cake flour (making your own cake flour is given in the recipe).

To be on the safer side, you could also add a tsp of baking powder- classic genoise gets is rise only from beaten eggs, but if you are unsure of your folding skills, add a teaspoon of baking powder. 

Gently fold the flour in and try not to over mix. A balloon whisk works well to fold yet not deflate the mixture, you still need to make sure to be gentle.

Also before you mix in the chocolate mixture take about 1 cup of the batter and fold it to loosen the mixture and then add it to the rest of the beaten egg-flour mixture. This will make sure you don’t end up over-mixing the batter.

Also, be generous with your syrup. Everybody loves a moist cake. Poke the cake in places with a toothpick so that the cake soaks the syrup better.

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RUGELACH

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‘Tis the season to be jolly!La la la la, la la la la! Today was a fun day. I always have a great time with my coffee group friends. Though generally we meet on Friday for coffee, this time we met on a Thursday for our Coffee group Christmas party!

There was food- lots of it! It was a potluck- so everyone got a dish. The menu was exhaustive. I read out the potluck sign-up list to V last night and even though we had just eaten dinner both of us were salivating! There was Kung Pao chicken, shrimp fried rice, Mac and cheese, Mexican Lasagna (which was awesome!), fried chicken, bean salad, deviled eggs (I got the recipe and will definitely try it out!), Caprese salad (yum!), pumpkin pie (which I couldn’t try because I was stuffed with all the other food- can you believe that- me not tasting dessert?? I thought the day would never come!!!) and Mimosas (now that’s what I call a party)!

Besides all the food, we had the cookie and gift exchange. For the gift exchange we played White Elephant Gift Exchange. Everyone bought a gift under the budget of a pre-agreed amount. Once all the gifts were under the tree, and the food in our stomachs, we each got a number. I was 8 in queue. Now the idea behind White elephant is that each person, as per the order of the number she has, gets to pick up a gift. So the person who has 1, goes first, picks a gift, opens it up and shows it to all. Now the person who goes second has the opportunity to either steal the first person’s gift or pick a new gift from under the tree. If she does steal the first person’s gift, then the first person has to pick another gift. And this goes on. Now a gift stolen can only pass three hands. If it gets stolen the third time, the last person keeps it and no one else can snatch it away from her. That’s how I got my Christmas gift. It got stolen three times and I was the third person to steel it, so no one else could steal mine! I really wanted a new wallet, so was very happy with it. Someone got the magic edge brownie pan. That was the last person, so no one could steal it from her- and it went to the right person- a baker. I would have liked that too but I was very happy with my gift!

For the cookie exchange, all of us were supposed to get a batch of 24 cookies- store bought or home-made and an empty plate. Everyone that ways got two cookies of each kind to take home! There were home-made marshmallows, Mickey mouse shaped cookies, pumpkin cookies, and so many others (I haven’t tried any yet- I’m still full with all the food).

For the cookie exchange, I took rolled fruit cookies, or as the Jews call it Rugelach. The recipe is from Rose Bakery’s cook book. Rose Bakery is an Anglo-French Bakery and restaurant in Paris. Her book includes recipes for over 100 of Rose Bakery’s most popular dishes. Rose Carrarini, the owner of Rose Bakery, holds a passionate philosophy that,

Life is improved by great food and great food can be achieved by everyone.

Now the first part I agree hands down but the second part I feel is incomplete and should go on to add “eventually”.  Eventually great food can be achieved by everyone, case in example- the cookies.

My first attempt at the rolled fruit cookies has been a semi-flop. Semi- flop because, even though they tasted good- the presentation wasn’t that great. I had problems rolling the dough. I don’t know why- I did leave the dough for more than 2 hours (overnight, to be precise), but I doubt that’s the reason. I think I added too much flour. I found the dough too sticky and ended adding more flour, but I think if I had left in the fridge, the stickiness would have been taken care of without any additional flour and would have thus been easier to roll out. Next time I’ll try that and I would suggest even if you feel the dough is sticky, refrigerate it like that and then when rolling add additional flour accordingly.

Rose likes these cookies because the pastry is made with cream cheese and very little sugar, so even though the filling is quite sweet, the cookie is not. I found that to be true!

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