Eggless fruit and nut cake/Plum cake

I tried making a Christmas cake last December when I had just developed interest in baking (I know, wanting to bake this cake is asking for too much for a beginner) and I did not have an OTG. Got a recipe from the net and off I set to bake this cake in a cooker!!! I just followed the recipe as it is….and to everybody’s horror, the cake was completely burnt, the vessel had become black beyond recognition. I was very upset as I had put lots and lots of fruits and nuts into the cake. I had decided that I would never bake a cake ever again.. But as it turned out, I baked a cake the very next week. :-)

So, baking a fruit and nut cake was always behind my mind though I did not dare to try it once again..Yesterday, as my son had gone out with his grand parents, I was pretty much free. The baker in me raised her head again..and to keep her calm, I asked my husband if I can bake a fruit and nut cake..(I was pretty sure that he would say no..) But to my surprise, he gave a big YES.. I immediately sat in front of the PC and started searching for the recipe.

That’s when I came across Shilpa’s eggless fruit and nut cake in Aayi’s recipe. I had all the ingredients that the recipe called for except for orange juice. This is were Madhuram’s egg substitutes come handy.. I assumed that orange juice is used just to give softness to this cake.(as the recipe did not call for soaking the fruits in orange juice) So instead of orange juice, I used apple sauce as I had a lonely apple in my refrigerator. I also added as many different types of nuts and dried fruits that I had.

The cake was very delicious and my husband just loved it.. He is a big fan of fruit and nut cake and he was really waiting restlessly for the cake to be baked. And once he tasted, he said SUPERB. This is the first time, I felt so satisfied after baking a cake…All credit goes to shilpa for coming up with such a great eggless

I am posting this recipe for my reference with the modifications that I made. Please click here for the original recipe.

Ingredients

All purpose flour/Maida:  1 cup(125 gms)
Powdered Sugar:  1/2 cup(100gms) + 1/4 cup(50gms)
Butter:  7 tbl spn(100gms)
Spice powder:  1/8th tsp cinnamon powder, 1/8th tsp nutmeg powder, 3elaichis powdered Apple sauce:  3/4th cup(Peel the apple, cut into small pieces, put it in a bowl of water and boil in the microwave oven for 10 minutes. Once it is cool, grind it in a mixer into a smooth paste)
Vanilla extract:  1 tsp
Baking powder:  1/2 tsp
Baking soda:  1 tsp
Kissan Jam(mixed fruit):  1 tbsp
Salt:  ¼ tsp
Dry fruits and nuts:  I used a mixture of cashew, raisins, dates, cherries, tutti fruiti(red, yellow and green colors), walnuts and almonds. (peel the skin from almonds before chopping, by heating the almonds in a bowl of water in microwave for 2 minutes. Otherwise, almonds can be soaked in water for an hour and then can be peeled)

I just saw to it that all the fruits and nuts together weighed 300 gms.

Procedure

1. Mix all purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.
2. Pre heat oven to 150 degrees C for 10 minutes.
3. Melt butter and mix the chopped fruits and nuts with it.
4. Heat 1/2 cup sugar with 1 tbsp water in a thick bottomed pan till it becomes dark brown in color . This process is called caramelization (If you burn this, the cake become bitter, so be careful).
5. Add the caramelized sugar to the fruits and mix well. When I did this, the mixture formed some hard lumps due to the caramelized sugar. But there is no need to panic and can go to the next step.
6. When it is cooled a bit, add the spices, jam, vanilla extract and apple sauce and mix well.
7. Add the dry ingredients, 2 tbsp at a time to the fruits mixture and combine well. 8. Pour the batter in a greased baking dish and bake for 25 to 30 minutes..

Allow it to cool for sometime before gorging on it. :-)