Sri Lankan Semolina Christmas Fruit Cake

My brother is visiting us with his wife and daughter. This is our first Christmas here and we feel so honored to have him and his family celebrate the holidays with us. While chatting with my sis in law, she mentioned that one of her Sri Lankan aunties from UK had made a delicious Semolina Fruit cake. I was so tempted to try it so I googled up some recipes and came out with my own version. I think the Sri Lankan fruit cake has cardamom powder added to the cake. I did not add cardamom in my fruit cake simply because I don't like cardamom flavored cakes. My sis in law said that it was very good and quite similar to the one her aunt made. I was quite pleased with my effort.

Nutty Fruity Semolina Fruit Cake

Fruit Cake - cut up for storing

Ingredients

for the fruit marinade:
250g raisins
125g blackcurrants
125 orange & lemon peel
125g  red cherries
125g green cherries
1 cup chopped or halved cashew nuts
1 tbsp rose essence
1 tbsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp almond essence
1/2 cup brandy or rum (I used rum)

Put all the ingredients above in a zip lock bag. Shake it well and leave it t marinate in the fridge for at least a day. I left mine in the fridge for a few days. Actually I left it in the fridge until it was Christmas day and I forced myself to bake the Christmas cake. Well....my so called lazy mood... ;)

for the Cake
2 1/2 + 1/2 sticks of salted butter (113g per stick)
240g  dark brown sugar
2 tbsp of golden syrup
220g of semolina
80g of all purpose flour + 1 tsp of mixed spice, sifted together
5 large eggs, at room temperature


Directions
1. Roast semolina under medium low heat with 1/2 a stick of butter until you get a nice nutty smell. Refer to picture below. Leave it to cool.
2. Beat butter, sugar and golden syrup until light and fluffy.
3. Add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Beat in vanilla essence.
5. Mix the cooled roasted semolina with the flour and spice and add it to the butter-egg mixture, alternating flour and the marinated fruits and nuts.
6. Line a 9 x 9" cake tin with four layers of grease proof paper.
7. Pour cake batter into 9 x 9 " into cake tin and bake in a preheated oven at 300 F for about 21/2 to 3 hours or until a skewer inserted inside the cake comes out clean.
8. Once cake is done immediately remove cake from the oven and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of rum.
9. Cool well before refrigerating. Cut the cake when it is cold otherwise cake will be crumbly.
10. Cake tastes better after a few days. Enjoy :))

Semolina roasted with butter