Another Christmas season is almost here and preparing festive dishes occupy a major chunk of the festivity. How about preparing plum cake, the most popular variant of cakes in the season, at home this year? You don't even need an oven to prepare this version of the dessert. A combination of dried fruits and nuts, it can be an ideal treat for other special occasions as well. Let’s see how it’s prepared:
Ingredients
½ cup cashew nuts
½ cup dates
½ cup cherry
½ cup Tutti fruity
½ cup black raisins
1 cup grape wine
½ cup orange juice
2 tablespoon orange skin
2 tablespoon honey
¼ cup sugar
½ cup water plus 2 tablespoons
1 cup maida (refined wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
100 grams (melted) butter
1 piece of cinnamon
2 pieces of cloves
2 pieces cardamom
1 small piece of nutmeg
1 small piece of dried ginger
Preparation
Take a frying pan and mix the dried fruits and nuts with wine, orange juice, and masala powder
Cook the mix
As the water content evaporates, combine honey with it
Switch off the flame and let the mix cool down
In a frying pan, combine ¼ cup of sugar and two tablespoons of water to caramelize
When done, turn off the stove and gradually add half a cup of water
Combine well and keep it aside to cool down
Take a wire whisk and sift the maida along with one teaspoon of baking powder, ¼ teaspoon of baking soda, and a pinch of salt three times
Take 1 ½ of this powder and combine it with the fruit mix
Take a mixer jar, put in the powdered sugar along with two eggs, and beat well (make sure that the jar does not overheat while doing this)
Add one teaspoon of vanilla essence and ½ cup of butter into this egg mix and beat further
Shift the egg mix into a bowl, pour in the caramelized sugar and combine well
Fold in the flour sifted with the egg mix little by little to prepare the batter
Add the cooked fruit mix and blend well
The cake mix is now ready
Grease baking paper with butter and place it inside a baking tin
Pour the cake batter into the tin
Preheat the baking vessel for 10 minutes and place the tin into the vessel (you may also place a platform inside the hot vessel to keep the tin)
Keep the flame high for the first three minutes and then lower it
Continue to bake in low flame for one hour and ten minutes
A cake weighing 1.140 kg is now ready
Take out the cake from the mould and keep it to cool down
Here the rich plum cake is ready to be served
Cut into pieces and serve
