CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE WITH ROYAL ICING

    Making Christmas Fruit Cake or Rich Fruit Cake or simply the Kerala Plum Cake is a tradition at home.   Married into a Christian household and their lineage legacy from Cochin - Fort Cochin tinted with Portuguese culture, our household holds reminiscence of its culture, tradition and cuisine.  Being a loyal Daughter in Law of the family, I just adapted the tradition.  And mainly, when it comes to cooking family recipes, I make sure to go to the extent of perfecting it, so that I can pass it out to the next generation.  A few family traditional recipes in Essence of Life- Food is written with the whole intention that it can be followed by the future generation in our family.

    So, when it comes to Christmas, our family sticks onto the long-running tradition of making Rich Fruit Cakes & homemade Wines.  In midst of other delicacies & dishes, the above are a must-have, must make default items in our house when it comes to Christmas, Easter or any family function as a matter of fact.  

     I have started to stick onto my very own, year-long regime of getting ready for Christmas.  Along with a year-long Wine making process & months before Christmas, I get ready with my homemade Christmas goodies like Tutti Frutti, Candied Fruits, Candied Peels, Candied Ginger, Orange Marmalade etc., for my Christmas Cake.  Then goes the process of  soaking the Dry Fruits in Wine/Rum.  I prefer soaking it in my homemade Raisin Wine for my Rich Fruit Cake.  I soak the dry fruits at least 3 months before Christmas and leave it in the refrigerator. So, now I always have a batch of soaked fruits ready in my refrigerator. This year for my son's birthday in July, I had baked the Rich Fruit Cake with fruits pre-soaked for almost a year. Then I make sure to get ready with Caramel Syrup & chopping the Nuts just a day or two before baking my Christmas Cake.

    All individual items ready & waiting for Christmas Cake.  I love the whole lot of planning & preparation for the Cake and ready for baking. The anticipation and the satisfaction of making things from scratch brings a lot of happiness to me.  So, when it comes to Christmas Fruit Cake/Rich Fruit Cake or Kerala Plum Cake, my memories go to my childhood.  My dad makes sure to buy a Fruit Cake with Royal Icing(hard icing) from JM & Sons, a popular bakery in Coimbatore.  So when it comes to a Christmas Fruit Cake it was always with Royal Icing.  Icing a Christmas Cake has never been a tradition at my in-laws place.  

    But, I & my husband loves these Fruit Cakes with Royal Icing.  So I have started to follow a regime to Ice the cake, for our Wedding Anniversary which comes in mid of January.  I save a cake for our anniversary and top it up with Royal Icing.

CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE WITH ROYAL ICING

    So lets's come to the lime light of this post - the Royal Icing.  After a long search and quite a number of mishaps and eggy tasting Icings, I have found the best recipe as good as a Royal Icing but to the Indian Bakery standards.  It is flowy initially, and so it is easy to pour out on to the cake making the process of Icing simple, quick, easy & less messy.  Then it gets slightly hard when set, but the overall texture is that it melts in the mouth, bursting out with flavours from the cake.  All goodness to the core... Satiating & overwhelming...

So, let's talk about Royal Icing.  Royal icing has just 3 ingredients: 

• Confectioners’ Sugar, 
• Meringue Powder/Egg Whites
• Water. 

    But this Royal Icing recipe calls for Egg White, don't panic about using raw egg whites.   We are going to heat treat the Icing finally and also if you are sceptical make sure to use pasteurized Eggs.  We are anyway going to heat treat the Egg Sugar Mixture.

How to Heat Treat Egg Whites?

     While this step is NOT necessary to making royal icing, it’s a good method to know when working with raw egg whites. To heat treat the eggs, cook them in a bain-marie* over low heat for 2-3 minutes, whisking constantly. Alternatively, you can simply cook this on a very-very low flame.

    Do this just until the egg whites have become warm, but are not hot. This will kill any potential bacteria in the eggs, making them safe to use when raw, and with the addition of the lemon juice, you’ll be as safe as can be! If you don’t want to use egg whites then go ahead with meringue powder.

    *A bain marie (ban mah-REE) is the fancy term for a hot water bath.  It is cooking delicate dishes over a hot water bath or an intricate way compared to double boiling.

Confectioners' Sugar/Normal Sugar? 

    And again I am doing this Icing with the normal White Sugar, powdered and sieved (no need to go search for confectioners' sugar).  And one other ingredient I have added into the Icing is the Lemon Juice, which helps avoid crystallization of Sugar and also helps to harden the Icing once set.

    The trickiest part is making the Royal Icing to land up on the Cakes in the perfect consistency.  Sometimes I need more water, sometimes I need less water. But the wonderful thing is that you can manipulate the icing to get the proper consistency by adding more water or more confectioners’ sugar/powdered white sugar. It’s awesome.  So you see no strict rules, still it is a foolproof recipe. I know why I am loving this Royal Icing Recipe.

How Long Does it Take for Royal Icing to Dry?

    Royal icing will begin to set after one hour, forming a nice skin. After 4-6 hours, the icing will harden completely, holding whatever form you give it while decorating.

    Classic Royal Icings are made with Meringue powder. But this is a Royal Icing, but a slightly hard version, which is quite famous in Bakeries.  So sticking on to the style served as in our local Bakeries in Coimbatore & Kerala.  For Christmas Fruit Cake with Royal Icing, you may first need a decent Fruit Cake/Plum Cake.  And then a remarkable homemade Royal Icing with simple & readily available ingredients.

For more CAKE Recipes, Click here...

Recipe Type - Icing/Frosting
Difficulty - Medium
Yields - 4 Cups(Approximately)
Author - SM

Preparation Time - 25 -30 Minutes
Cooking Time - 3-5 Minutes.
Icing Time - 10 Minutes(Without Decoration)
Setting Time - 1 - 6 Hours

 

For CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE RECIPES, Click here...

 

CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE:

RICH FRUIT CAKE

LIGHT FRUIT CAKE

CLASSIC CHRISTMAS POUND CAKE

EGGLESS FRUIT CAKES:

EGGLESS TUTTI FRUTTI CAKE

EGGLESS LIGHT FRUIT CAKE

For CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE RECIPES, Click here...

     Make a wonderful Christmas Fruit Cake, Rich or Light, Eggless or classic.  The idea is you basically require a Christmas Cake.  Once the Cake is ready, you can head over to make this Royal Icing. 

HOW TO MAKE CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE WITH ROYAL ICING

CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE WITH ROYAL ICING

 

INGREDIENTS:

For Royal Icing:

Powdered Sugar - 4 Cups
Lemon Juice - 2 Teaspoons
Egg White - of 2 Eggs
Water - 30 ml(6 Teaspoons)

 

METHOD: 

For Royal Icing:

• Powder the Sugar using a small Mixer Jar or a coffee grinder.
  
• Sieve the powdered sugar to make sure there are no lumps or whole sugar in it.
• Pour in the Egg whites & the lemon juice and mix well.
  
• Now, add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time and mix well.
• When you have added all the powdered sugar, the mix would gradually harden.
• You can now add 1 teaspoon of water at a time and begin to mix again
• You may need about 4 teaspoons of water.
• Once all the ingredients are mixed well, transfer the Royal Icing Mix to a wide non-stick pan.

How to Heat Treat the Royal Icing:

• Alternatively place the bowl of Sugar, Egg mix on a water bath {Place a wide bowl with hot water on the stove(like for double boiling) and let the flame be at the lowest}.
  
• Place the bowl with sugar, Egg mix over the water bath & heat treat this on a very-very low flame, mixing continuously.
• Let the flame be at the lowest.  The idea is to just heat treat the Royal Icing Mixture and not cooking.
  
• Gradually, it would start to loosen up.
• Now add 1 Teaspoon of Water at this point and mix well.
• Let it sit on a very low flame for a few minutes.
• Add 1 teaspoon of water to the above.
  
• The Royal Icing should be slightly flowy but not watery.
• The Royal Icing should be in a consistency easy to pour out.
• You may not need to heat treat this for a long time.
• The whole process needs about 6 teaspoons of water.
• And the Royal Icing Mixture should have turned just hot.  
• No need to cook this for a long time or boil it, which will alter the texture of the Royal Icing.
  

ICING THE CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE: 

CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE WITH ROYAL ICING

• Place the Christmas Fruit Cake over the cake stand, and line up the border with a parchment paper.
• This would make your process less messy.  You can remove the parchment paper once, the Icing is set.
• Gently pour the Royal Icing Mix over the Cake & make sure that the entire cake is covered with the icing.
  
• You don't need to spread it out, or even it out with any spatula. 
• Leave it aside to set. It would have hardened when set.
  
• Now gently remove the lined up parchment paper kept at the border of the Cakes.
• Can make small sugar balls out of the remaining Royal Icing and line it up at the borders.
• Can add preferred colour to the Sugar balls while decorating the cake.
•  Royal Icing will begin to set after one hour.
•  Leave it aside for about 4-6 hours for the icing to harden completely.

 

NOTES:

• Can  use confectioners' sugar instead of normal white sugar.
• I have powdered the white sugar and have sieved it until there were no lumps or sugar crystals in it.
• This way, it would be easy to work with the Royal Icing.
  
• Lemon Juice avoids crystallization of Sugar and also helps in hardening the icing.
• Use only 1 teaspoon of water at a time.  
• I used 6 teaspoons of sugar while making this Royal Icing and I got the needed consistency.
• Adjust to suit your preference.  Sometimes you may need more or less water depending on the type of sugar, heat used to cook etc.,
• Do not boil or cook Royal Icing for a long time.  
• The idea is to just heat it up and adjust the consistency of the Royal Icing.
• It should be in a flowy consistency, which would be easier when it comes to pouring it out on to the Christmas Cake.  
• And also facilitates even spreading of the Royal Icing over the cake.
• You don't need to spread it out or even it out with any spatula.