Soaked dried fruits for Christmas Fruit Cake

Soaked Dried fruits for Christmas Fruit Cake

Dried fruits soaked in tea decoration for 24 hrs.

Delicious, rich, soft, moist, super aromatic Christmas Fruit Cake. For Christmas Cake dried fruits plays one of an important ingredient. I've already shared an eggfree Christmas cake with dried fruits soaked in orange juice. 

You can soak dried fruits in fresh orange juice/ store bought orange/ grapes juice. 

http://swadishtkitchen.blogspot.com/2017/12/eggless-christmas-cake-whole-wheat-flour.html

Today I'm sharing a tea infused / tea decoction in which dried fruits and nuts are soaked. This gives a wonderful flavour to the Christmas Fruit Cake.

Dried fruits and nuts:

You can choose any mix of dried fruits which you prefer / easily / affordable. Such as:

Raisins, black raisins, sultanas, blue berries, cranberries, prunes, glazed cherries, dates, dried apricots, candid fruits such as gooseberries/ amla, tutti-fruty.

I have added 1/4 cup of each dried fruits and nuts.

Chopped nuts:

Walnuts, cashew, almond, pistachio.

Spices:

Cinnamon, clove, mace, cardamom

Chopped nuts and dried fruits:

Chop dried fruits to small / 1cm in size.

To make tea decoration:

Boil 500 ml of water/ 2 cups, add 3-4 tsp of tea powder/ leaves, whole cinnamon 2 inch, 3-4 cloves, less than 1/4 tsp of grated mace, 3 cardamom. Boil until it becomes a thick decoction. It takes approximately 10-12 minutes. Strain the decoction and allow it to cool down completely.

Container to soak dried fruits:

Always use sterilised glass containers to soak dried fruits and nuts.

Soaking:

Add the chopped dried fruits and nuts to the tea decoration, give a good mix cover it with a lid and allow it to soak well. You can soak  minimum of 2-3 hrs. Or overnight is fine. 

If you wish to soak for couple of days / for a week then store it in refrigerator. 

The dried fruits will be pulpy, oozy, boozy.

You can add nuts while soaking / can add while preparing the batter as it gives a nice crunch. I always add half the quantity while soaking and add some while mixing the batter.

Do try this method of soaking dried fruits and nuts for Christmas Fruit Cake and provide your comments.

Notes:

Always strain the soaked dried fruits and nuts and add to the cake batter. If you feel the batter is very thick, can add a tablespoon of soaked liquid. If you add soaked dried fruits will liquid in cake batter it may become runny / cake can be soggy in texture.