Plum Cake/Fruit Cake

This time Baking Parteners group started by Swathi had three wonderful cakes suggested by Suja and Archana. Before the mail for this months challenge had come I had decided to bake a fruit cake for this X'mas. Once the challenge came and I saw the recipes I wanted to try Brazil nut cake as well as the earlier decided fruit cake..but due to the lack of people to eat I opted to go with just one. I went with the fruit cake which was so perfect for the season. The cake was suggested by Archana and it came out good though there were some issues that I faced which I have mentioned in the notes section. Anyways the cake got over before X'mas...:(. I felt that the cake was getting better as days went.
As for the recipe I had tweaked it little according to our needs. Instead of rum, I have used orange juice. You can use apple juice too.

Fruits Used:
Raisins- 1 cup
Dates-1 cup(chopped)
Candied Orange/Lemon Peel- 1/4 cup, sliced thin
Orange Juice- 1/4 cup
Unsalted Cashew Pieces- 1 cup
All Purpose Flour-1 tsp( to mix with fruits)

Spices Used:
Cinnamon Powder- 1/2 tsp
Caraway seeds- 1 tsp
Ginger Powder- 1/4 tsp
Clove Powder- 1/4 tsp
Nutmeg Powder- 1/4 tsp

For Caramel:
Sugar- 6 tbsp
Water- 3 tbsp
Lemon Juice- few drops
Boiling Water-1/2 cup

For Cake Batter:
All-Purpose Flour- 2 cups
Baking Powder -1 tsp
Unsalted Butter- 2 sticks (8 oz) at room temperature
Powdered Sugar-2 1/2 cups
Eggs- 3 large or 4 medium (separated)
Vanilla Extract-1 tsp
Rum extract-1 tsp

Method of Preparation:
For the Fruts:

1. Soak the fruits and nuts in orange juice in a clean bowl and set aside. Keep it on counter top for a day closed properly with an air tight lid. Then move it to refrigerator and keep it there for 2 days. Before baking take the fruit mixture from fridge and set on counter top.

2. Heat a pan and add the soaked fruits into it and warm it slightly and set aside to cool.Once cold and juts before mixing with batter add a tsp of all purpose flour to the dry fruits and give it good mix. Helps to prevent the fruits form sinking to bottom.

For Caramel:

3. In a small pot, add 6 Tbsp Sugar and 3 Tbsp water and few drops of lemon juice. Swirl pan to mix – do not use spoon.

4. Heat until sugar changes color and becomes caramelized. (approx 7-8 minutes).See that you don't burn it.

5. Add 1/2 cup boiling water and swirl pan again to mix well. Keep aside.

For Cake Batter:

6. In a large mixing bowl, combine softened butter and powdered sugar and beat with hand blender.

7. Add one egg yolk at a time to the mix and blend well.

8. Add Vanilla, rum Extract and blend.

9. Combine all dry spices, baking powder and flour and sift it into the bowl, adding little at a time and blending.

10. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

11. Lightly coat 9"/10" baking pans by spraying cooking oil or regular oil.

12. Add caramelized sugar syrup a little at a time into mixing bowl and blend.

13. Add fruit/nut mixture, caraway seeds into mixing bowl and mix with a spoon.

14. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until they are fluffy and soft peaks form.

15. Fold beaten egg whites into the cake batter.

16. Pour batter into greased baking pans and bake for approx 1 hour  30 mins at 325 degrees F. For smaller pans, baking time may vary.

17. Remove cake from oven and allow it to cool for few minutes in pan and then on rack till it is completely cooled.

Notes:

1. The original recipe used rum which I replaced with orange juice of same amount. 

2. Since rum is not used to mask the egg smell in case it existed I used rum extract. 

3. Caraway seeds are added extra by me. Its optional.

4. To reduce the baking time increase the oven temp to 350 F and bake in middle rack. If top gets cooked earlier use a foil to cover it to avoid blackening of the top.

5. Mixing the dry fruits with all purpose flour prevents it from settling at the bottom.

6. Be careful while making caramel syrup. It tends to burn easily. So keep an eye on it.
7.  I used a 9" spring foam pan lined with parchment paper.

8. Cake got delicious as the days went by.
9. Do increase the amount of sugar used to make caramel to get a darker color for cake. In this case reduce the amount of powdered sugar.You can replace half of the sugar with dark brown sugar too.
10. When I baked at 325 F the outer side of cake cooked faster and the center took long time to cook. But still the center cooks perfect without burning the outer.Just that the time is more.