Ingredients for Plum cake recipe
Flour -1cup
Baking soda 1/2 tsp
Baking powder 1/4 tsp
Salt one pinch
Chocolate powder 1or 2 tsp
Coffee powder 1 tsp
Milk powder 1 tsp
Milk 1/2 cup
Brown sugar 1/2 cup
Oil 1/4 cup plus 2tsp ghee or butter or oil
Dry Fruits soaked in orange juice and covered in flour that is sieved
Spice mix - 3/4 tsp
Vinegar 1/2 tsp
Vanilla essence 1/2 tsp
Caramel essence 1/4 tsp
Method
Sieve the flour and other dry ingredients.
Mix the sugar and oil till the sugar is dissolved.
Add the milk powder and mix again.
Mix the milk with essence and coffee powder. The coffee powder is optional and can be avoided if you are using caramel.
Add a bit of the milk mixture to the mix, stir, add a bit of the flour and repeat the process.
Add the dry fruits and fold them in till it is thoroughly mixed.
Add vinegar last, mix, and bake for 50 minutes at 220 degrees Celsius.
Make sure to preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. You can use eggs if you wish, but this is an eggless recipe, so you would have to change the ingredients a bit because cakes made with eggs do not require baking soda and vinegar. So, if you are using eggs, avoid baking soda and vinegar and instead use the baking powder alone. Also, the usage of oil too would not be required. Instead, use butter.
Using brown sugar helps the cake to get a rich color and even if you did not use caramel, it would not matter. You can make caramel and store the rest to be used for baking quite a few cakes.
The cake should be cooled completely before trying to slice otherwise, it could crumble. Also, remember that a Christmas fruit cake will be tastier after a few days. So, make sure to bake your cake a few days before you intend to gift them to friends and family.
Always check for doneness after about thirty minutes because each oven is different and one side may not be done completely. so, check with a pick and bake again for ten minutes or so. Baking again before the cake cools off completely can yet save the cake.
I am sharing a few pictures of the process. Please try to bake using this recipe and tell me how it went.
(spice mix - cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, cardamom)
(flour)
(brown sugar)
(oil)
(milk and coffee powder)
(mixing flour)
(mixing in dry fruits)
(the consistency)
(disposable cake pan)
(cooled and ready)
All images belong to sayee
I am not sure why it is referred to as plum cake in Kerala as it uses dry fruits but it is a huge hit and Christmas indicates cakes and bakeries here take it seriously. Almost all people buy cakes and gift them to each other.
If you want to buy a Christmas goodie for a child, please consider donating one hive or hbd or more to 