Come December, its the month of celebration and happiness. Christmas bells ring to bring in harmony and happiness among people and the smell of the traditional fruit cake or plum cake as we call it make their way to the Christmas platter.

There is no fun in celebrating christmas without this traditional plum cake and the preparation for this delicious cake begins two to three months prior to Christmas. The tradition of cake mixing ceremony dates back earlier centuries where dry fruits along with the spices were soaked in rum or wine to give a unique flavour to the Christmas cakes. The dry fruits list is of individual choice which includes raisins, sultanas, glazed cherries, candied ginger, almonds, cashews, dates, pistachios and candied papayas which is mixed and soaked in rum ,brandy or red wine.

Every country have its own version of Christmas cakes and we have our version of plum cakes which reaches the every household in Kerala(India) only in the month of December. In today’s recipe i have made a fruit cake using wheat and palm jaggery. In southern states of India palm jaggeryis called as karuppati or panam sarkara which is loaded with nutrients as this comes in unrefined form. Palm jaggery is loaded with phytonutrients and minerals like iron,magnesium ,potassium and calcium.

Their is a myth that palm jaggery is good for diabetic people but the truth is that it provides same calories and conatins sucrose like the white sugar. Unlike the refined white sugar palm jaggery is unrefined and does not undergo the process of crystallisation. This Christmas try this easy to make delicious wheat palm jaggery plum cake. If you are trying non-alcoholic version of this cake you can use apple juice,grape juice or orange juice can be used for soaking