Orange-Cranberry-Nut Fruit Cake

Are you all ready for Christmas?  I am!  We always have a mellow Christmas celebration and my husband and I always emphasize the importance of the birth of Jesus instead of having lots of gifts under the tree.  It helps with all the craziness that's going on around the season.  It really doesn't matter if we have many gifts or only one.  We tell our son that the important things is to be with family and enjoy the season by doing something good.  I digress.

Every Christmas I try to bake a fruitcake.  I have a couple of favorite recipes but this year I wanted to try something new.  This recipe is a keeper.  As it stated in the original King Arthur Flour website, this is more of a cake than a traditional fruitcake.  I do like the light version of fruitcake but I don't mind the dark one if it's being offered to me :)

My family likes fruitcake as well so they're looking forward to it every year.  And even my son commented that this was a good one!

Orange-Cranberry-Nut Fruit Cake

Fruit:
2 cups dried cranberries
2 cups dried fruits (I chose a combination of golden raisins, dried currants, dried apricots, and candied citron)
1/2 cup orange liqueur
1 3/4 cups candied red cherries

Cake:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon orange oil
4 large eggs
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup orange juice
2 cups diced pecans

Glaze:
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup suagr

Icing:
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
Enough milk to make a thick but pourable icing


Prepare the fruit:  Combine dried fruits with orange liqueur in a bowl.  Cover and microwave for 1 to 2 minutes, stir, then set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 325 degree F.

Prepare the cake:  In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light-colored and fluffy.  Beat in the baking powder, salt, and flavors.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and beat again briefly, to incorporate any sticky residue.

Stir in the flour alternately with the orange juice.

Stir in the undrained fruit, the candied cherries, and pecans.

Lightly grease two 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pans.

Spoon batter into the lightly greased baking pans, filling them about three-quarters full.

Bake the cakes for 50 to 70 minutes.  When done, the cakes will be a light golden brown all over, and a long skewer inserted into the center will come out clean.  If cakes brown too quickly during baking, cover lightly with aluminum foil.

Make the glaze:  Stir together the orange juice and sugar while the cakes are baking.  Warm briefly in the microwave; about 45 seconds.  Stir to help dissolve the sugar.  Set aside to rest at room temperature, stirring occasionally to continue dissolving the sugar.

Remove the cakes from the oven, place on the cooling rack.  Let cool for 10 minutes then turn them out onto the rack.  Brush the warm cakes all over with the glaze, continuing to brush until you've used it all.

When completely cooled, wrap well and let "age" at least 24 hours; the cake improves with a 24-hour rest.

Drizzle with icing just before serving.

Store cake, well wrapped, at room temperature; it should keep for a couple of weeks.  Freeze for longer storage.


Source:  adapted from King Arthur Flour website

Pumpkin Walnut Cake

I made this cake when I had a break, that is over Thanksgiving break :)  I know I'm way behind posting related recipe according to the season; but I've given up trying to follow the trend because it's just not enough time in my life to do that anymore.

I thought this cake is delicious all around; it was a moist and has tender crumbs.  It reminded me of my mom's pumpkin roll cake--flavor-wise--but hers uses no eggs while this has.  This year I'm in love with pumpkin spice all over again.  My favorite beverage right now is chai tea latte with lots of pumpkin spice; it's a nice drink to have when the weather is dropping down to the 30's.

The caramel whipped cream is equally good, I actually have never made it before and thought, why didn't I try this sooner?  Combining caramel and whipped cream is simply divine.  The original recipe doesn't use salt but I did put in a generous pinch of it because I really thought it needed it.

The recipe came from my favorite book in my book shelves, The Cake Book by Tish Boyle.  There are numerous recipes that I haven't even tried and all sounds very yummy.

Here is the recipe:

Pumpkin Walnut Cake

Makes one 9-inch square cake

1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup safflower oil or other neutral vegetable oil
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degree F.  Grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch square baking pan.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt into a medium bowl.  Whisk to combine well, and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat the eggs with both sugars at medium speed until pale, about 2 minutes.  Add the oil, pumpkin puree, milk, and vanilla extract and mix until blended.  Add the flour mixture at low speed in three additions, mixing just until blended.  Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and stir in the walnuts.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Bake the cake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool the cake completely in the pan on a wire rack.

To serve, cut the cake into squares, and top each with a large dollop of the cream.

Caramel Cream

Makes about 3 cups

3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided
Generous pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extra


In a small heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, water, and lemon juice and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves.  Increase the heat to high and cook without stirring, occasionally brushing down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush, until the syrup caramelizes and turns a golden amber color, about 4 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and carefully add 1/2 cup of the heavy cream (the mixture will bubble up) and sea salt, stirring until smooth.  Carefully pour the hot caramel into a heatproof glass measure and loosely cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate the caramel until chilled, about 2 hours.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat the remaining 3/4 cup cream with the mascarpone cheese and vanilla at medium speed until blended.  Add the chilled caramel and beat at a high speed until the mixture forms soft peaks.  Use immediately, or cover and refrigerate.


Source:  The Cake Book by Tish Boyle

Whole Wheat Apple Cake

A whole wheat apple cake that's moist and choke-full of apples.  I love making easy cake like this because it's flavorful and light enough for after weekdays after dinner desserts.  We eat it for breakfast, of course, because the recipe said that it was for that time of day :)

Any apples will do for this cake, I had some homegrown Fuji and Gala that I used.  It's a recipe that uses spices that are so wonderful this time of year.  The house smells so fragrant while I baked this cake.

The cake is slightly darker here because I didn't cover it after 45 minutes of baking.  Oops...it's something that I missed, as usual, for not reading too carefully towards the end.  The color is pretty dark on top but the inside is still moist. 

So here is the recipe for your enjoyment!

Whole Wheat Apple Cake

Makes 1 9-inch cake


3 apples, Granny Smith, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups plain whole-milk yogurt


Preheat oven to 350 degree F.  In a medium bowl, combine apples, 1/2 cup light-brown sugar, cinnamon, and cloves; set aside.  Sift together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.  Butter a 9-inch springform pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, until well combined.  Add vanilla extract, and combine.  Add reserved flour mixture and yogurt; stir until well combined.  Fold in two-thirds of the reserved apple mixture.

Spoon half of the batter into prepared pan.  Sprinkle remaining apple mixture evenly over batter.  Top with remaining batter; smooth with a spatula.  Sprinkle top with remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar.

Bake cake until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes.  Cover with foil after 45 minutes of baking.  Let cool 20 minutes before releasing cake from the pan.


Source:  adapted from The Martha Stewart Living Christmas Cookbook