Christmas fruit cupcake

Easiest Christmas cupcakes ever!

I remember the first time I ever made a fruitcake for Christmas. I started it in the second week of November (I chopped all the dry fruits and let them steep in the alcohol for fifteen days) and baked it in the first week of December and I continued to cure it with alcohol twice a week until the day of Christmas.

Then came the Domestic Goddess Nigella Lawson herself with a super cheats recipe and I must tell you that, that was the cake I made for the past few years as it eliminated all the weeks of steeping and maturing the cake with alcohol. Now this meant I could bake this cake in the second week of December and get away with it without the fuss and the palaver of long elaborate steps and procedures.

Ah! But then I accidently stumbled upon this recipe on pintrest the other day and it claimed to do a lot more with so few ingredients and much lesser time. I got extremely intrigued and after much trial and error devised my own recipe that works every single time like a charm.

Looks so pretty! Makes great Christmas presents too

Now, this cake batter can be either baked into a traditional Christmas cake in a seven inch cake mold  or (if you are pressed for time and patience) into cupcakes. All you need to do to make this cake look pretty is some festive cupcake paper cases and a snowy dusting of icing sugar on top.

Don't forget the snowy icing sugar dusting!

This recipe calls for a kilogram bag of mixed and chopped dried fruits but if you can't find them then you can make your own by chopping and mixing some dried prunes, apricots, dates, cranberries, currants, sultanas, figs, raisins, blueberries, cherries and any other dried fruit you can find.

Also the stronger the espresso you use to make this coffee the better it tastes and the best I can find is the dark Italian roast espresso powder from Starbucks. If you wanted to incorporate booze element into your cake then instead of using two cups of espresso you can use a cup or espresso and a cup of rum or brandy.

Lastly, if you loved my cupcake paper cases and wondered where I bought mine from, I bought mine from Nilgiry's. My paper cases have stars and bells and holly berries and I think by using a festive paper case you are halfway through gift wrapping it if you decide to give these away as gifts - just place them in a transparent plastic bag and tie the open end with a gold ribbon.

Yes, these do make excellent Christmas gifts. If you are a vegetarian or vegan or non-alcoholic or diabetic or have friends who are vegetarians or vegans or non-alcoholics or diabetics then these make great Christmas gifts to give away or to have yourself for Christmas tea.

Finally, if you think you don't want to make this cake into cupcakes and want it to look traditional then you can pour the batter into greased and lined seven inch cake mold and bake in the pre-heated oven at 160C for about 40 minutes or till a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

Using a festive cupcake paper case makes it look extra special

Ingredients:
1 Kg mixed, chopped, dry fruits
2 cups (500ml) strong espresso
2 cups (250g) self-rising flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 bar (100g) dark chocolate
2 tablespoon icing sugar (optional)

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven at 160C and prepare the cupcake molds by placing the cupcake paper cases in each of them and set aside.
2. Place a heavy-bottom pan on low heat and tumble in the dry fruits and the espresso.
3. Stir till the mixture begins to smoke and take it off the heat. Stir once in a while so the dried fruits absorb some of the liquid and the mixture looks sludgy. Set aside to cool for a bit.
4. Add in the ground cinnamon and the self-rising flour and stir to incorporate and make a smooth batter. If you feel your cake batter is too thick, then add in a splash more of the espresso or milk and stir. 
5. Finally add in the chopped chocolate and stir to combine.
6. Spoon in the cake batter in to the cupcake cases almost to the top and bake in the middle rack for 20 minutes or till a cake tester inserted comes out clean.
7. Set aside till the cakes come to room temperature and just before serving, dust it with icing sugar for a festive indulgence.

A thing of beauty does for Christmas tea time.

If  you want to watch me bake the cupcakes then you can watch them on my YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQQyoEkIE3o

We can also be friends on Instagram @sriranjani_n

and also on twitter @Iamsriranjani

Make sure to tweet me the images of your Christmas cakes because I would love to look at them and drool.