How To Soak Fruits For Christmas Plum Cake - The Artistic Cook (2024)

FAQs

What can I soak my Christmas cake fruit in? ›

For non-alcoholic version, use fresh squeezed orange juice. It is a must to soak the fruits only a week in advance when using non-alcoholic beverage like orange juice and store it in an airtight glass jar in fridge. Alternatively, you can follow the instant version of making soaked fruit too.

Rehydrate the fruits: Dried fruits can be quite hard and dry, so it's often a good idea to rehydrate them before adding them to your baked goods. To do this, simply soak the dried fruits in warm water or fruit juice for 15-20 minutes until they are plump and tender.

The best way to avoid sinking fruit is to toss the fruit in a couple of tablespoons of the flour (just use some from the measured amount for the recipe) to coat it lightly. Once added to the cake mixture the flour coating will thicken the batter immediately surrounding the fruit and help suspend the fruit.

What alcohol should you use? Strong, flavourful spirits with a high ABV are ideal for feeding fruitcakes. You can use rum, brandy or whisky for spice, or if you like citrus flavours, try an orange liqueur. Cherry brandy and amaretto will also work well if you prefer these.

Submerge the fruit or vegetables in the baking soda water. Let soak for 12 to 15 minutes. The time will help the baking soda do its job. Swish the produce around in the water or push it down several times to ensure all sides of the produce is being cleaned.

Wrap it in several layers of cheesecloth and saturate the cheesecloth with rum or brandy. Place in a sealed container or zip bag. If the cloth starts to dry out, add more booze. Your fruitcake should be ready to eat in 7–10 days but it will keep for many weeks when properly aged in alcohol.

And you can use other alternatives such as sweet sherry, Grand Marnier or Amaretto. It is possible to use orange juice instead of alcohol to soak the fruits but we would not use it to feed the cake with after baking as fruit juice spoils more easily than alcohol.

Put your dried fruit in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Let it steep for 10 to 15 minutes, and then strain the fruit and discard the water. The fruit will be plumper, juicier, and softer. To give your fruit some extra flavor, swap the water for fruit juice or a liquor, like rum, bourbon, or brandy.

Why do you soak fruitcake? ›

To add moisture

If you add dried fruits straight into a cake batter they'll try to absorb moisture from the batter, and once baked, they'll try to absorb moisture from the cake. This can make a cake turn out dried than you'd expect. By pre-soaking the fruit though, they'll have absorbed all of that moisture already.

To enhance their digestibility, it is best to soak them for 6-8 hours. Soaking reduces their heat properties and removes phytic acid/tannins, making it easier for our bodies to absorb their nutrition. If you cannot soak them, dry roasting nuts before consumption is a much better option than eating them raw.

Q: Why does fruit sink to the bottom of the cake? A: Cake mixture too slack, fruit too large and/or syrupy e.g glace cherries (see next question).

5. My cake has sunk in the middle. There are three main reasons for this: a/ the oven door has been opened before the cake has set, b/ the cake didn't go in the oven as soon as the mixture was ready or c/ there's too much raising agent. 6.

This usually happens because the baker has turned the oven up too high. The key to a moist fruit cake is making sure that you use the correct temperature and don't exceed the cooking time. It's also imperative that you measure out the ingredients correctly.

You can activate dry fruits and nuts by taking the required amount in a closeable container, adding a small amount of water, and covering the container with its lid. This container can be kept on your shelf and left out overnight.

It's really important to soak your fruit overnight for a lovely rich, moist pudding. The further in advance you make the pudding, the better it will be for Christmas Day.