Soaking Dry Fruits For Christmas Cake
Soaking dry fruits for Christmas cake is the first step to make the traditional and authentic rich christmas fruit cake. Soaking fruits adds an amazing flavor, richness and moisture to the fruit cake.
Soaking dry fruits for all your Christmas and Holiday bakes is an easy thing to do. If you like rich, boozy fruit cake then you should not miss this soaking part. It’s an exciting thing to do and I swear you’ll be super excited waiting for the day to come to bake the rich, flavorful Christmas cake.
I have soaked the dry fruits in rum. Rum soaked fruit cakes are so rich and decadent loaded with dry fruits. Some preparation work is definitely needed for soaking the dry fruits. In this post, I will be sharing the traditional way of soaking dry fruits in Rum. I shall also share the alternative non-alcoholic substitute.
Here I’m sharing my version of soaking the dry fruits to bake the Rich Plum Cake for Christmas every year. I have used dry fruits whichever I could get hold of. One can use dry fruits as per availability and palate preference. The jar of soaked dry fruits is also a wonderful gifting option to your near and dear ones.
I will be using this rum soaked dry fruits for baking an egg based Christmas fruit cake which I will update here as soon as I bake them. I already have an eggless rum soaked fruit cake recipe and an eggless Non-Alcoholic Christmas Cake in my blog. You may also check out these festive and holiday cake recipes – chocolate wine fruit cake and chocolate strawberry chilly whisky cake.
Dry fruits are usually soak in any alcohol like rum, brandy or wine. Some use a mixture of rum and brandy. Soaking allows the dry fruits to soak up the alcohol which then plump up in the juice of alcohol. This is the traditional Christmas fruit soaking.
I always used rum for soaking dry fruits for Christmas cake. We can also use brandy or wine . For a non alcoholic version Orange or Grape Juice or mixed fruit can be used for soaking the dry fruits.
WHAT DRY FRUITS CAN BE USED FOR SOAKING?
We can soak all possible dry fruits for the Christmas fruit cake. These are few most commonly dry fruits used for soaking. You can add any dry fruits and candied fruits available to you.
Raisins
Black raisins
Dates
Figs
Apricots
Blue berries
Cherries
Cranberries
Black currants
In India tutti frutti which is candied raw papaya is easily available so it is mostly used by all in Christmas cake.
WHEN TO SOAK THE DRY FRUITS FOR CHRISTMAS PLUM CAKE?
The soaking time can be from 8-10 months to 1 day or worse case for 2-3 hours. The longer the soaking the tastier is the cake. What makes a well balanced christmas cake is the sweetness of the dry fruits, sourness from the alchohol/liquid juice, crunchiness of the nuts and the flavors of the spices.
Some people start soaking the dry fruits right from the beginning of the year and bake the cake in the last week of November, or 5-6 weeks before Christmas. The cake is then feeded with alchohol like once a week until Christmas.
The most common is soaking the dry fruits for 3 months ahead of December, that is, in early September. The cake is then baked in the last week of November, and kept moist by feeding a little alcohol every week till Christmas.
Many people also soak the dry fruits for a month or 2-3 weeks before Christmas. I too have tried this and it resulted in a flavorful and moist rich fruit cake.
There is a way for making the last minute Christmas cake without the dry fruits being soaked for a long time. One can soak the dry fruits 2-3 days ahead of Christmas.
For a non-alcoholic christmas cake, soak the dried fruits in orange juice, grape juice or can use even mixed fruit juice and store it in the refrigerator. Soak the dried fruits only a week before you are ready to bake the cake.
TIPS FOR SOAKING DRY FRUITS FOR CHRISTMAS CAKE
● Soak only dry fruits in the liquor. I would recommend not to add in nuts for soaking. To maintain the crunchiness of the nuts I add them only at the last minute once the batter is ready.
● Use dry fruits of your choice or whichever sourceble.
● You can also use candied peels and candied fruits.
● You may use your favourite alcohol for soaking the dried fruits.
● If possible chop the dry fruits into equal-sized pieces and then soak.
● Fill the jar with dry only half way or ¾th of the jar. Do not fill it upto the brim as the fruits plump up in the process of soaking and will fill up the empty space.
● Every 2–3 days swirl and shake the jar or use a clean spoon to mix the soaked dry fruit.
● Use a sterilized airtight jar preferably glass jar for soaking the dry fruits.
● Keep the jar in a cool and dry place in room temperature.
● Soaking the dried fruits for a minimum 2-3 months is recommended for a rich christmas cake.
● If you see the liquor level has reduced after soaking you can add in more alcohol.
FOR NON-ALCOHOLIC VERSION
For a non-alcoholic christmas cake, soak the dried fruits in orange juice, grape juice or can use even mixed fruit juice and store it in the refrigerator. Soak the dried fruits only a week before you are ready to bake the cake.
STORING SUGGESTIONS
Store the alcohol soaked dry fruits only in sterilized glass airtight jar or container. Store it in a cool and dry place in room temperature. Do not refrigerate. Swirl and shake the jar every 2-3 days and keep adding the alcohol as it is soaked up by the dry fruits.
HOW TO SOAK DRY FRUITS FOR CHRISTMAS CAKE
I made a simple video of how to soak dry fruit in alcohol for my readers which I have shared below. Please do watch and SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t yet. It will mean a lot to me and motivate me to come up with more videos for my readers. As always looking forward to your feedbacks!
Soaking The Dry Fruits Video Tutorial
Here’s a step by step pictorial instructions on how to soak dry fruits for Christmas cake
Start by chopping the dry fruits which ever required.
In a mixing bowl add in the dry fruits one after the other.
Gently mix the dry fruits altogether well.
Transfer the mixed dry fruits onto sterilized jar. Preferably use glass jar with tight lid.
Pour the rum over the dry fruits till the top. Immerse the dry fruits well in the alcohol.
Gently give a mix with a clean spoon so that the alcohol is dispersed well.
Close the lid and give a gentle shake.
Store the jar in a cool and dry place. Do not refrigerate the soaked dry fruit jar. This need to be stored at room temperature in a cool and dry place.
RECIPE CARD
Soaking Dry Fruits For Christmas Cake
Equipment
- mixing bowl
- glass jar
Ingredients
- 2 cups rum
- 150 grams dates
- 100 grams cherries
- 50 grams blue berries
- 150 grams tutti frutti
- 150 grams yellow raisins
- 100 grams black raisins
- 100 grams cranberries
Instructions
- Start by chopping the dry fruits which ever required.
- In a mixing bowl add in the dry fruits one after the other.
- Gently mix the dry fruits altogether well.
- Transfer the mixed dry fruits onto sterilized jar. Preferably use glass jar with tight lid.
- Pour the rum over the dry fruits till the top. Immerse the dry fruits well in the alcohol.
- Gently give a mix with a clean spoon so that the alcohol is dispersed well.
- Close the lid and give a gentle shake.
- Store the jar in a cool and dry place. Do not refrigerate the soaked dry fruit jar. This need to be stored at room temperature in a cool and dry place.
Video
Notes
- Soak only dry fruits in the liquor. I would recommend not to add in nuts for soaking. To maintain the crunchiness of the nuts I add them only at the last minute once the batter is ready.
- Use dry fruits of your choice or whichever sourceble.
- You can also use candied peels and candied fruits.
- You may use your favourite alcohol for soaking the dried fruits.
- If possible chop the dry fruits into equal-sized pieces and then soak.
- Fill the jar with dry only half way or ¾th of the jar. Do not fill it upto the brim as the fruits plump up in the process of soaking and will fill up the empty space.
- Every 2--3 days shake the jar or use a clean spoon to mix the soaked dry fruit.
- Use a sterilized airtight jar preferably glass jar for soaking the dry fruits.
- Keep the jar in a cool and dry place in room temperature.
- Soaking the dried fruits for a minimum 2-3 months is recommended for a rich christmas cake.
- If you see the liquor level has reduced after soaking you can add in more alcohol.
Well, do share your thoughts about this and your way of soaking dry fruits in the comments box below. You can also follow me on Akum Raj Jamir on Facebook and akumrajjamir on Instagram.
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. I hope you liked reading the post. Your valuable feedbacks are always welcome, I love hearing from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every one of you.
Happy Cooking!
Love Akum
Disclosure: At My Kitchen is an Amazon Affiliate, which simply means that if you make a purchase through these links, I will earn a very small commission at no additional cost to you! Please click if you wish to purchase these products from Amazon.
I soak mine in rum too https://viewfromtheback.com/2016/12/06/the-musette-christmas-cake/