eCurry - The Recipe Blog

Every evening as I make my cup of coffee, I have this craving for something sweet with it. A biscotti, a slice of cake… & often times I think of the white fruit cake with the colorful candied fruits in it that we would get from the local bakeries back at home. That was long long time back. But certain tastes & aroma stay with you irrespective of the years in between. When I read this recipe, I almost visualised the cake we would have, for the picture given for this was white and the recipe asked for red cherries.

This has been adapted from the recipe of Gillian Rauseo, of Houston Texas. She mentioned that this cake is from some island of the Caribbeans. That “..it is versatile in that it can be used as breakfast, a snack, or even dessert”. I loved the use of coconut and coconut milk in the bread (I’ve never used it before), & decided to give it a try. I have pretty much followed the original recipe, except I added the Spiced Rum, & incorporated the spices and the dry fruits & substituted the white sugar with brown. This cake did not look white, but it did have that similar flavor & aroma from so long ago.

Sending this to Vegetarian Thanksgiving - Recipe Carnival hosted by Mansi of Fun & Food Cafe.

& also to Event of the month: Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth hosted by Sudeshna of Here I Cook.

Ingredients:

1. 3 Cups of Flour
2. 3 teaspoons of Baking Soda
3. 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
4. 1/2 Teaspoon ground Cardamom
5. 1 Stick of Butter
6. 1/2 Coconut Milk
7. 1 Cup Fresh Grated Coconut
8. 1/2 Cup Mixed Zest of Orange & Lemon
9. 1/2 Cup Chopped Walnuts/Almonds
10. 1/2 Cup Dates
11. 1/4 Cup Raisins
12. 3 Tablespoon Spiced Rum ( I used Captain Morgan)
13. 1 tablespoon Vanilla Essence
14. 1 Teaspoon Orange extract
15. 1 Egg Beaten
16. 1 Cup Brown Sugar (Or 1 cup of White Sugar)

 

Preparation:

Sift the flour, cardamom, Cinnamom & Baking Soda to incorporate as much air as possible.

Squeeze out the grated coconut to make it dry & save the milk. Add the sugar to the coconut and mix with a wooded spoon. Add half of the Coconut Milk, & Rum and mix.

Chop the butter in to small pieces and add it the coconut mix. Beat the egg, Vanilla Essence & Orange Extract and add to this as well. Mix well.

Add Flour mixture to the coconut mixture. Add rest of the coconut milk & mix with a wooden spoon to make a soft dough.

Grease & Flour the bread pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Add the zests, nuts, raisins & dates to dough mixture. Mix well but gently so as not to press the air incorporated to the flour when sifting. Pour mix in the pan.

Place on the top shelf of the oven and bake for an hour. 

Move it to the bottom shelf of the oven and bake for another 20 minutes.

Do the toothpick/skewer test. If it comes out clean, remove from the oven for 2-3 minutes.

For the Glaze: Mix one tablespoon of sugar & one tablespoon of water in abowl & pour over the finished bread to give the bread a glaze.

Return to the oven for about 5 minutes.

Take it out and cool on a wire rack for an hour.

Serve it for breakfast, in the evening with coffee, or as a dessert topped with your favorite Ice Cream or Compote. I had it with Orange Sauce and tasted really good. But with all those fruits & nuts in it, it tastes amazing just by itself.

 

Note: If you want a white color for the bread, use white sugar instead of brown.

Tags: almonds, bake, Cake, Cardamom, Cinnamon, coconut, coconut milk, Coffee, dates, dessert, egg, evening tea, flour, orange zest, prunes, Raisins, recipe, spiced rum, sweet bread

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 8th, 2008 at 3:52 pm and is filed under Breads, Breakfast and Brunch, Desserts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.