Traditional Christmas Fruit Cupcake

Category: Bakery products

Kitchen: english

Ingredients
Raisins (light and / or dark)	180-200 gr
Dried apricots	180-200 gr
Dried cherries	180-200 gr
Prunes	180-200 gr
Dates (pitted)	180-200 gr
Dried cranberries, strawberries, pear	180-200 gr
hazelnuts and walnuts (lightly fried in a pan)	300 g
In total, you should get about 2.5 kg of the mixture. Ingredients can vary depending on desire, preference, and availability.
Butter	500 g
Sugar (brown is better)	500 g
egg	8 pcs.
Flour	620 g
soda	1/2 tsp
Spices 3 teaspoons 1 tsp. cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg. nuts (or other spices to taste).
cognac	150 -200 gr

Cooking method

Rinse the fruits, cut into small pieces of the same size, soak overnight in 150g. cognac or other alcohol, but it is also possible in juice or sweet water (if the option is for children)
It is better to determine the amount of cognac for soaking by eye and you can soak for several days, be sure to stir.
We take out the butter and eggs from the refrigerator in advance to let them warm up. Stir the butter and sugar into the cream. Beat eggs and add to butter, a little at a time.
Flour, spices and soda. Sift and add to fruit. Mix well. Then mix with the oil mixture. If you add the butter mixture to the flour, the fruit may settle to the bottom during baking.
Put the mass into prepared forms. Align the top with a wet palm. The water will not only help smooth the top of the cake, but it will also prevent the top from cracking later on. We close the top with foil immediately and remove this foil before the end of the baking.
Place the muffin in a cold oven. Set the temperature to 120-130 degrees. Don't check earlier than 4 and a half hours, I baked for 6 hours. After the cupcake is ready DO NOT REMOVE FROM THE FORM !!! otherwise it will crumble, wrap it in paper and leave to cool right in the mold.
To ensure that the cake is evenly baked, remains juicy on the inside and without dried crusts on the outside, it is very important to properly prepare the form.
To prepare a baking dish, it must be covered with at least two layers of baking paper. Then, from the outside, I wrap the uniform with a newspaper folded in a long strip, and tie it over with a rope so that the newspaper holds. In the oven, I also put the mold on a thick layer of newspaper. I put a bowl of water on the bottom. This helps the cake stay softer on the outside. The newspaper, by the way, is also wetted with water.
Since the oven temperature is low, the newspaper will not burn. It's good to turn the cake pan from time to time, especially if the heating in the oven is uneven from different sides, I didn't)) In any case, the temperature regime must be selected individually for each oven. The cupcake should not be dry after baking.
When the cake is ready, you can pour it on top with a couple of spoons of cognac. You can even prick the surface and water it heartily. If the children's option, then this item can be omitted. Then I wrap the cake right in the mold in baking paper (or parchment), then in foil, then in a towel, and then turn it right upside down in the mold to cool. This allows the top to be smoother. It can cool all night or longer.
After the cake has cooled down, we take it out of the mold, wrap it again in paper, foil, then a film on top and then put it in a cupboard, a saucepan or somewhere else, but out of sight so that it lasts for at least a couple of weeks, or better months) )) otherwise the cake will crumble.

The dish is designed for

(from this amount, I got 4 cupcakes with a diameter of 17 cm and a height of 8 cm and)

Note

The cake is very flavorful, rich and moist. In a word ... Food of the gods !!!
The recipe is based on Vali (piosima), "At the samovar", for which many thanks to her
Redesigned for yourself