Christmas cake with dried fruits and nuts

Step-by-step preparation

Cooking time: 3 day 2 hr 20 mins

1. STEP 1

   

   How to bake a Christmas cake? Nuts and dried fruits must be soaked in strong aromatic alcohol in advance. Cognac or whiskey will do. For dried fruits, I have dried apricots, figs, raisins and candied fruits. And from nuts - hazelnuts, cashews, peanuts and almonds. You can choose dried fruits and nuts to suit your taste or take a ready-made mixture. If you like spicy baked goods, you can add cinnamon, ground ginger, cardamom and a little ground cloves to the mixture. Just a teaspoon of spices.

2. STEP 2

   

   Place dried fruits washed and cut into medium pieces into a deep bowl, add nuts and pour in whiskey. If you don't drink alcohol, you can use regular boiling water. But then the taste of the pie will be completely different. We need the mixture to absorb all the liquid. It took me 3 full days. It will be much faster with boiling water due to the high temperature.

3. STEP 3

   

   Prepare all ingredients for the pie. By this time, dried fruits should swell and absorb whiskey, and nuts should become soft. Take butter and eggs at room temperature.

4. STEP 4

   

   Place soft butter in a bowl and add sugar and vanilla sugar.

5. STEP 5

   

   Using a whisk, lightly whisk the sugar into the butter so that it does not scatter to the sides at high speed of the mixer. Then beat the mixture until fluffy for 4 minutes.

6. STEP 6

   

   Add chicken eggs to the mixture one at a time, mixing everything with a mixer until smooth.

7. STEP 7

   

   2 tbsp. mix flour with dried fruits. It is believed that this way the nuts will not settle to the bottom during baking.

8. STEP 8

   

   Sift the rest of the flour and baking powder into the dough. Flour of the highest grade. You can add a pinch of salt to the dough for taste. Using a mixer, stir the mixture until smooth. The dough should be thick, similar to the one in the photo.

9. STEP 9

   

   Mix the dough with the nuts using a spatula.

10. STEP 10

    

    Place the dough into the mold. I have a silicone mold measuring 22*6 cm. The height of the side is 6 cm. The mold is rectangular (or round with a hole in the middle) for better baking of the pie, since the dough is heavy. Bake the pie in an oven preheated to 160 °C for 1-1.5 hours. Check readiness with a wooden toothpick.

11. STEP 11

    

    Remove the pie from the oven and cool.

12. STEP 12

    

    Let's cover the cake with glaze. I recommend using freshly squeezed lemon juice. Add lemon juice, half a teaspoon at a time, into a bowl with powdered sugar and evaluate the consistency of the glaze. More powder may be needed than indicated.

13. STEP 13

    

    There are two options for glaze thickness. This thick layer will need to be applied and leveled with a spoon or spatula. It does not flow and is opaque.

14. STEP 14

    

    A thinner glaze is simply poured on top of the cake. It will be translucent.

15. STEP 15

    

    I chose the second option. Decorate the cake and allow the icing time to harden and become matte.

Comments on the recipe

Natalia M

31.10.2023

4.5

It has become a tradition for our family to bake Christmas baked goods with alcohol. Every year I bake something new, baked stollen, cupcakes, pies. This year I chose the recipe “Christmas Pie with Dried Fruits and Nuts” to try. I started preparing before the New Year. For the filling I used walnuts, cashews, raisins and candied pineapple. I poured whiskey over them, tightly closed the lid and put them in the refrigerator for two days. Periodically turn the container over so that the liquid is completely absorbed. As a result, the nuts and dried fruits became saturated with whiskey and became very swollen. When I kneaded the dough, it turned out that its quantity was almost equal to the amount of filling. The pie rested in the refrigerator for a week. It seems to me that this is the optimal time for soaking. The pie turned out just great! It's a little dry on its own, but the moist filling made it juicy and soft. Even the nuts became almost soft. This is delicious. I noticed that immediately after baking the pie had a sharp taste of whiskey (I tried a crumb), but after a week the taste became much softer. The nuts and candied fruits are very tasty, in general the whole pie is a real pleasure. I had to make a couple of pieces, otherwise we ate them all at once) Thanks for the recipe!

Christmas tree

31.10.2023

4.5

In the second step, the whiskey can also be heated and then the nuts and dried fruits will quickly absorb all the liquid.