In a pan, add white granulated sugar, melt it over low heat, stir with a fork continuously, care should be taken not to burn the sugar. When the sugar melts completely and forms a rich caramel colour, remove the pan from the heat, and add the water slowly. The caramel would be very hot at this stage, so handle it carefully.

Now turn on the heat again and keep it low. The caramel will harden a little at this point and might stick at the bottom of the pan, but after a few seconds, it will dissolve completely. SSome foam might appear while simmering it, which is fine. The foam settles down as we remove the caramel from the heat. Turn off the heat, keep the caramel aside.

Next, add butter, water to the slightly cooled caramel, and simmer over low heat until the butter melts completely. Remove from the heat, and keep the mixture aside to cool.

After the butter mixture cools completely, add orange juice, vinegar, and vanilla extract, mix well and keep aside.

For the dry fruits in the cake, use any dry fruits which are available with you. I’ve used a combination of black raisins, dates, dried apricot, candied orange peels, candied ginger, tutti frutti, glazed cherries, and broken cashew nuts.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.

Prepare a 6” round cake pan by greasing it with oil and place a piece of baking paper at the bottom of the pan.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a bowl. 

Add 1 tbsp flour from this flour mixture to the dry fruits and toss them to coat, keep aside.

Add fruit cake spice mix to the flour mixture and mix well.

Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture, and whisk well to combine. Don’t whisk for a longer time.

Fold in the dry fruits gently to the cake batter. 

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.

Tap the cake pan gently on the kitchen counter a couple of times to release the air bubbles. Bake for 60 minutes (read notes). Insert a sharp knife or wooden skewer in the middle of the cake. The cake is ready if the knife comes out clean. If not, bake for some more time, and then check again.

Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes and then run a sharp knife around the edges of the pan and carefully remove the cake. Turn onto a cooling rack and leave it there until it cools completely.

When cooled, slice, serve and enjoy!

You can add a fine layer of powdered sugar through a tea strainer over the cake to hide the surface cracks before serving.