Nahoum’s Style Holiday Rum Cake Recipe

For the past few weeks, all I could talk about was soaking in the spirit of the Holidays. Beyond doubt, it’s the most wonderful time of the year! And it’s not just the kids but my heart is jingle belling all the time! Christmas time has always been special. Today when I look back there are so many memories associated with Christmas that bring a smile to my face and make me feel like a little girl again.

A quintessential ingredient of our Christmas celebrations back then was the fruit cake from Nahoum. Nahoum and Sons is a small Jewish owned bakery which has been around in Kolkata (the city I come from in India) for more than a century now.  It is synonymous with Christmas celebration even today. Situated in New Market, a popular market place, the aroma of fresh fruit cakes and other baked goodies would have your olfactory senses get the better of you. It’s so hard to resist that smell of hot cakes fresh out of the oven wafting in the air. And during Christmas it just gets super crazy. The queue gets longer by the minute and you have to brave them to get to the city’s most sought after piece of treat.

I have another very fond memory of the fruit cake. Some years, we would spend this holiday at my grandma’s house. Let me tell you this, we are not Christians. So technically we did not celebrate it. However, Christmas day was really special. All our celebrations culminated in food. With every one being off from work it was all about staying home and enjoying good meals together. The morning of Christmas day would start with my dad (baba) sitting cross legged and slicing fruit cake loaves. It was a very small thing but we kids were so excited and would not leave his side the entire time. Small thing, but I can almost smell baba even today as I visualize myself standing next to him on that morning.

In a nutshell, I need the fruit cake ( Nahoum’s) to complete my Christmas celebrations. I researched a lot and finally was successful at doctoring a recipe which almost mimics the original taste.  It’s my family tradition now and I have been doing it for almost 5 years. And yes, I go all the nine yards where the fruit cake is concerned. I marinate the fruits and nuts almost 4-5 weeks before. The result is delicious and worth all the blood, sweat and tears.

Nahoum Style Fruit Cake

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• Prep Time: 20
• Cook Time: 60
• Total Time: 80

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Description

A holiday tradition in my house, this cake makes our Christmas complete.

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Ingredients

• Chopped Medley of Dried Fruits – 6 cups (dried apricots, cranberries, raisins, sultanas, currants, pineapple, ginger, figs, glazed cherries, mixed peel, etc)
• Chopped Nuts – 1 cup (walnuts & almonds)
• Brandy – 1 cup
• Dark Rum – 3/4 cup ( 1/4 cup is drizzled after the cake is baked)
• Almond powder – ¼ cup
• Butter – 2 sticks (1 cup)
• Dark Brown Sugar – 1 cup
• Large Eggs – 4
• Orange Juice – 1 cup
• Orange and Lemon zest – 3 tbsp
• Honey/Agave – ½ cup
• Milk Powder – 2 tbsp
• Ground Nutmeg – 1 tsp
• Ground Cinnamon – 1 tsp
• Ground Cloves – 1 tsp
• All spice – 1 tsp
• Baking Soda – 1 tsp
• Baking Powder – 1 1/2 tsp
• All-purpose flour – 2 1/3 cups

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Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a ceramic bowl, add the chopped nuts and fruits.
3. Pour in the alcohol. I marinated the fruits 4 weeks ahead. Marinate the fruits at least a week, the very least.
4. The day you are baking the cake, begin by assembling all the dry ingredients. In a bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, almond flour, spices and milk powder. Sift everything.
5. In another bowl, add the brown sugar, eggs, honey, orange juice, orange and lemon zest and room temperature butter. Cream together everything using a hand mixer.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix everything together.
7. Add the fruits and nuts soaked in the alcohol to the batter. Fold everything together.
8. Grease your cake tin. This will yield two 8 inch round cakes. I chose to bake several mini loaves along with one 8 inch round cake.
9. Pour in the batter in the cake tin and bake in a pre-heated oven for 60 mins.
10. Take out the cakes and check if they are done. If a probe inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean, the cake is done.
11. Cool the cake and baste with a tsp of rum. You can do this for several days until Christmas. This step is optional.

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Notes

• P.S: If you are baking in smaller cake tins, the baking time will be less. Keep checking.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 15
• Calories: 342
• Sugar: 18
• Sodium: 98
• Fat: 14
• Saturated Fat: 8
• Unsaturated Fat: 5
• Trans Fat: 0
• Carbohydrates: 35
• Protein: 3
• Cholesterol: 45