Spicyana's Christmas Fruit Cake

First of all, let me wish all my friends - my readers - A Very Happy and Prosperous New Year, 2009. Thank you all for the wishes that you bestowed upon me this holidays and wishing you all the best this year too!!

I was having these work week start - blues or rather the blues after the holidays! JM had some extra vacation time and he surprised me with the news that he is going to be with us during much of the holidays. Eventhough we didnt have anything spectacular planned, this was one of the best holidays of my life. It was such a welcome change after his hectic work schedule and we spent time catching up on our good old life, lazing around the house, taking lil LM out, browsing, shopping (yes, I got quite a few baking stuff too!), ah... the best of times!!

These holidays, I also caught up on some of the recipes that were bookmarked so long ago!! Infact, around the Christmas time much of our specials came from recipes shared by other talented chefs in the blogosphere!! One of the best recipes I tried out is Spicyana's Fruit Cake. I made it twice, one for a Fruit Cake competition (which I didnt win BTW), and then for a gathering of a group of my friends. Needless to say, it was an awesome hit and it literally disappeared in minutes!! Everybody loved it, the taste, the texture and the looks. I know its slightly off-season or a bit late to make this post - which was actually delayed because JM was at home and I was too lazy to write a post. But I thought its only just to let you all know that this is one great recipe and gives you good results. Moreover, who needs a holiday to have a great Fruit Cake!!?

Here is a pictorial representation of a few stages in the making of a wonderful fruit cake. I have never been one to love the fruit cake, but now I do, I really do!! :-). I hope you all would enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them! ;-)

The first time I made this cake was in a round cake pan 9" by 3" and took about 1 1/2 hours to bake. The second was in a bundt pan (pictured) which took about 1 hr 10 minutes. So watch out for the baking times which would differ with the pan and your oven. I finished off the cake with a bit of dark chocolate ganache (chocolate and cream) poured over the cake and decorated with a bit of chopped nuts.

Thanks a lot for the overwhelming response to my first event - Santa's Holiday Challenge. I will be posting the round-up, judging details and the polls soon (just as soon as I get out of my stupor!). Do check back to vote for your favorites and help choose the two lucky winners of Santa's gifts!!

Coincidentally Jai & Bee of Jugalbandi are calling for the theme "Color Red- in a culinary theme" for their acclaimed event CLICK. I think the picture of my Fruit Cake would qualify for the event. So the first picture of the cake is my entry to CLICK : Jan 2009. Hope the photography gods smile upon me (atleast remotely) this time! ;-)

Have a great day!!