Eggless Christmas Plum Cake Recipe | British plum cake | with step by step photos and video recipe. A popular and flavoured fruity cake recipe made with a delicious combination of dry fruits. An easy to do last minute Christmas cake recipe which is soft & moist, with no prior soaking of fruits & nuts!
No Soaking Of Fruits & Nuts:
Traditionally, plum cake is made with dry fruits and nuts soaked for months in rum syrup. For those of us who don’t consume/stock alcohol, it is difficult to do this. For the non-boozy version of the plum cake, the fruits and nuts can be soaked in orange juice. But then again, I am sure there are going to be many like me who forget to do this year after year. I have a simple solution that works out easily. I cook my dry fruits and nuts in thick orange juice and it gets me the best cake without much prior effort.
What is a Traditional Plum Cake?
Refers to a wide range of cakes made with either dried fruit (such as currants, raisins or prunes) or with fresh fruit. There is a wide range of popular plum cakes and puddings. In India, plum cake has been served around the time of the Christmas holiday season, and may have additional ingredients such as rum or brandy added.
In the last two centuries since it first travelled out of England, the plum cake has reached every corner of the world. Every country, region and family has a different version of the recipe. Moreover, Some are made with nuts soaked in rum or wine, some are fed with sherry or brandy for weeks after being baked, and some have no alcohol at all.
Tips & Important Notes To Make Perfect Eggless Plum Cake
This recipe is very simple and beginner-friendly recipe with not many technicalities at all. Here are some important points to keep in mind while making this cake.
- Make sure all your baking ingredients are at room temperature. Even the boiled dry fruits mixture should be at room temperature when it is being added to the cake batter.
- Use the freshest yogurt/curd for best results.
- The cake batter shouldn’t be over mixed. This is one recipe where your hand whisk and spatula are more than enough. You don’t need a standup mixer or hand mixer. If the batter is over-mixed, the cake becomes dense.
- To get the best textured plum cake, it has to be baked for long time at low temperature. It takes about 60mins at 160°C to get the cake baked to a golden beauty.
- Wait for the cake to be completely cooled down and in fact it best to let it rest for a night or a day before cutting it to get clean slices.
How to make eggless christmas plum cake recipe?
Eggless Christmas Plum Cake Recipe | British plum cake | with step by step photos and video recipe. Moist, soft and rich plum cake recipe. Firstly, the dry fruits are cooked in the orange juice. Further, a caramel syrup is prepared for the intense dark brown color. As for the dry ingredients, the flour is mixed with some spices.The best part of winter baking is the sweet fragrance and warming touch of winter spices like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and so on!
Once the batter is made by mixing the dry & wet ingredients, add the boiled cooled dry fruits mix. Further, to get the best textured plum cake, it has to be baked for long time at low temperature. It takes about 60mins at 160°C to get the cake baked to a golden beauty. Or bake for 30 min at 180 & reduce the temp to 160 for further baking.
In addition, I would like to highlight out homemade wine collections, Christmas Plum Cake using eggs and carrot dates cake. Hope you would like them.
Eggless Christmas Plum Cake Recipe
Course: DessertCuisine: InternationalDifficulty: Medium500
gms30
minutes40
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hour10
minutesEggless Christmas Plum Cake Recipe | British plum cake | with step by step photos and video recipe. A popular and flavoured fruity cake recipe made with a delicious combination of dry fruits.
Ingredients
- Boiling Dried Fruits
1/4 cup Tutti Frutti
2 tbsp Chopped Dates
2 tbsp Chopped Red Cherry
3 tbsp Black Raisins
2 tbsp Golden Raisins
1/4 cup Cashews & almonds Chopped
1/2 cup Orange Juice
- Sugar Syrup
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Water
- Preparing Cake Batter
1 cup Maida
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Ginger Powder
1/4 tsp Cinnamon Powder
A pinch of Nutmeg Grated
1/4 cup Curd
1/4 cup Oil
1 tbsp Orange Zeat
1/2 cup Sugar
Directions
- Firstly, add 1/4 cup Tutti Frutti, 2 tbsp Chopped Dates, 2 tbsp Chopped Red Cherry, 3 tbsp Black Raisins, 2 tbsp Golden Raisins, 1/4 cup chopped Cashews & almonds in a pan.
- Pour 1/2 cup Orange Juice & mix them well.
- Put it on the stove top & boil for 3 to 5 min over a medium flame until the dry fruits absorbs the orange juice and become softer and there is not a lot of liquid.
- Switch off the flame & Keep aside for cooling down.
- For preparing the caramel syrup, add 1/4 cup sugar on a pan & heat it over a low-medium flame. Heat it & let the sugar melt over a low flame. When the color of the melted sugar becomes brown, add 1/4 cup of warm water to this. You need to be very careful at this stage since the water tends to splash and can cause burns. Mix it and allow it to boil for 30 seconds.
- Switch off the flame & allow to cool down.
- Pre-heat the oven to 160 degree C and line a 6 inch round cake pan with parchment paper. or preheat a kadai for 5 minutes over a low flame.
- In a mixing bowl sieve in 1 cup Maida, 1 tsp Baking Powder, 1/2 tsp Baking Soda, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp Ginger Powder, and 1/4 tsp Cinnamon Powder. Grate a nutmeg and add a pinch of it. Mix well & keep aside.
- In another bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup Curd, 1/4 cup Oil and 1/2 cup Sugar. Whisk until sugar is dissolved well.
- Now add in 1 tbsp orange zest. Mix until everything is combined well.
- Now pour this wet ingredients & cooled sugar syrup into the dry ingredient mix.
- Gently fold in the dry ingredients and mix until everything is well combined and there are no large flour pockets in the batter.
- Further, add the cooled dry fruits & mix them in. Do not over mix at this stage.
- Transfer the batter into the cake mold.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or only until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean in a preheated kadai over low flame or in an oven at 160 degree celsius.
- Allow it cool completely.
- It is optional to dust icing sugar on top.
- For better results, Slice the cake next day.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Make sure all your baking ingredients are at room temperature.
- Wait for the cake to be completely cooled down and in fact it best to let it rest for a night or a day before cutting it to get clean slices.
- The cake batter shouldn’t be over mixed.