Fruit Cake

Recipe#28 from Mrs.K.M.Mathews recipe series!

This fruit cake name in the cook book is "our favorite cake". It is a fruit cake with raisins, cashews and red cherry in it.

Ingredients:

1. Butter - 125gm
2. Margarine - 125gm
3. Sugar, powdered - 250gm
4. Egg yolk - 5
5. Milk, warm - 2 tbs
6. All purpose flour - 250gm
7. Baking powder - 2 tsp
8. Raisins - 200gm
9. Red cherries, soaked in sugar syrup, chopped - 50gm
10. Cashew nuts, chopped - 50gm
11. Lemon zest - 1/2 tsp
12. Vanilla essence - 2 drops
13. Orange essence - 1/2 tsp
14. Egg white - 5
15. Sugar - 2.5 tsp

Note:

• All ingredients should be in room temperature
• Use dry raisins, cherries and nuts and add a tsp of flour to them and mix well before adding to cake batter
• I have used vanilla extract and orange extract instead of essence. Use a tsp of vanilla extract and 2 tsp of orange extract if you are using extracts

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F heat
2. Butter 2x9inch shallow pan or 1 9 inch deep pan
3. Cream the butter and margarine together in a mixer
4. Add powdered sugar and beat again in the mixer till mixed well
5. Add egg yolks one by one and mix again for 2-3 minutes more
6. Mix flour and baking powder well in another bowl and sift it
7. Add the half of the flour mixture to butter mixture and mix for 1-2 minutes
8. Add milk and mix till combined and mix rest of the flour mixture
9. Add both essence, raisins, cherries and cashew nuts and mix using a spatula
10. In a clean dry bowl whisk the egg whites until it is frothy
11. Add 2.5 tbs sugar to egg whites and whisk again till the egg whites are like white foam and can hold its shape
12. Add 2-3 tbs of egg white mixture to the cake batter and mix well using spatula
13. Slowly add rest of the egg white to the cake batter and fold it in the batter. Don't over mix the batter.
14. Spoon the batter in the cake pan and bake it till a skewer inserted at the cake center comes out clean. If using 2x9inch pan it will take approximately 30 minutes to bake. If you are using deep pan it might take upto an hour to bake