Christmas Rum (old monk) Cake

Few more days to Christmas and I am ready with my Rum Cake. Since we live far from family, Friends are family to us and we always have friends over during Christmas. I love this time of the year, we cook amazing food and bake a lot of cakes. Baked this one and its so flavorful with a lot of nuts and dried fruits and of course Rum !! I used Old Monk which is an Indian favorite and is goes really well with this cake. Here’s the recipe for the cake.

Ingredients

-          450 gms Raisins

-          450 gms Tutti Frutti

-          6-8 finely chopped Dates

-          3-4 finely chopped figs

-          ½ cup oil

-          ¼ cup water

-          2 tbsp dark rum (old monk)

-          ½ cup powdered jaggery

-          2 tbsp lemon zest

-          2 tbsp orange zest

-          2 tbsp lemon juice

-          2 tbsp orange juice

-          ¾ cup Gluten free flour

-          4 tbsp almond flour

-          ½ tsp baking powder

-          ¼ tsp sea salt

-          1 tbsp spice mix ( dry ginger powder and Cinnamon)

-          1 tsp nutmeg powder

-          4 tbsp finely chopped walnuts

-          4tbsp finely chopped Cashews

-          2 eggs

Method: Take a nonstick saucepan. Add raisins, dates and figs to it. Then add oil, water, dark rum and powdered jaggerey. Also add lemon and orange zest to this mixture. Now add freshly squeezed lemon and orange juice. Turn the heat on and let it boil for about 3 mins. Turn off the heat and let it simmer and cool down. Meanwhile Mix all the dry ingredients. Take a clean bowl. Add gluten free flour and almond flour. Add baking powder, sea salt, spice mix and nutmeg to this mixture. Mix well. Preheat oven at 300-degree F. Now take a round cake mold. Grease it well with butter. Cut a parchment paper of the size of circular bottom of the mold. Paste it at the bottom of the mold so that it sticks well because of the butter. Now make walls with the parchment paper and stick it well. Also cover the outside of the mold with aluminum foil. The step of preparing the mold is important because we bake this cake for around 2 hour and it should not burn. Now add tutti frutti, walnuts and cashew nuts to the wet mixture. Whisk one egg at a time and mix it well in the wet mixture. Now sift the dry mixture over the wet mixture little by little and keep mixing it to have no lumps. Pour this mixture in the mold. Place the mold in the oven and cook it for 1 and half to 2 hours. My cake was ready in 1 and half hours but sometimes if not cooked properly keep it for half and hour more. Put a toothpick in the cake to check if its ready or not. If it comes out clean your cake is ready. Take it out of the oven. Make small holes with the toothpick and add 2tbsp rum on the cake so that it absorbs all the rum and is moist. You can keep this cake outside and keep it moist by adding either rum or orange juice. You can bake it ahead of the Christmas eve and keep it outside and moist. Enjoy your Christmas Rum cake. Have a lovely Holidays y’all.