Spiced Fruit Cake - eggless and no alcohol - no soaking - Holiday Cake - Christmas Cake

I have been making this fruit cake for many years now and it is perfect for the holidays and for kids as it does not have any alcohol and no prior soaking is required. This year baked them in mini loaf pans so it makes a great holiday gift as well. 
You can customize this recipe with your liking of dry fruit and nuts. There is no hard rule on what to be used. I have used freshly squeezed orange juice in the place of alcohol. You can substitute this with Apple or Grape Juice.

I like to use mini aluminum pans for take away and makes great gifts as well.

Makes 1 - 8*11 pan or 5 mini loafs

Ingredients: 
All Purpose Flour - 2 cups
Brown Sugar - 1 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
Yogurt - 1 cup
Baking Powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp
Hot Water - 2 tblsp
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Vinegar - 1 tblsp
Tea Masala  - 1 tbslp
Orange / Lemon Zest - 1 tsp

Dry Fruits: (Combined  around 2 cups) - This is what I used, finely chopped
Raisins Black
Raisins Golden
Dry Mango
Candied Ginger
Cranberries
Cherries
Fig
Dates

Apricot

Prunes

Nuts - combined 1 cup, finely chopped
Almonds
Cashewnuts
Walnuts

Pecans

Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice - 1 cup

How to Bake?

1. Pre heat the oven to 350. Line a cake pan with parchment paper/aluminum foil. Spray oil.
2. Chop all the dry fruits and nuts roughly. Add the fruit juice. Heat on stove top over medium low heat for 5 minutes and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl add the dry ingredients - flour, cinnamon powder, ginger powder, tea masala powder. Mix well. Set Aside.
4. In another mixing bowl, add the yogurt, sugar and mix well till sugar is dissolved.
5. Add the oil, baking powder, vanilla essence, 1/2 tsp of baking soda and  vinegar. Whisk well.
6. Set aside, after few minutes you would notice bubbles.
7. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and fold.
8. Add the dry fruits - juice mix. Add the zest. Gently fold in all the ingredients.
9. Boil 2 tblsp water and add the 1/4 tsp of baking soda.
10. Add this to the batter and gently fold.
11. Pour the batter immediately in a lined cake pan.
12. Bake for 55 min - 1 hour, till toothpick inserted comes out clean.
13. Time varies depending on your pan size and oven.
14. Cool for 30 minutes. Slice. Serve.

Notes:
You can use your choice of nuts and fruits.
Orange juice can be substituted with Apple or Grape Juice. Even Fruit Cider can be used. The end taste would differ to the fruit juice used.
Brown Sugar adds more moisture to the cake, try not to substitute that.

If you do not have tea masala you can substitute with ginger powder, clove powder and cinnamon powder tsp each.