Eggless Plum Cake

I know most of you would surprise to see this post at this time of the year as this cake is generally made during the Christmas time when the dry fruits have been marinated for days, weeks or even months to make the Plum Cake. 

My husband is a huge fan of plum cakes and he's been complaining ever since that I do a lot of baking and have never made things he likes the most like plum cakes, chocolate walnut fudge and fondant cakes. Although I did make a fondant cake which I have not yet updated on this blog. 
Here I am with freshly baked plum cake. 

Since we are just the two of us at home, I made a boozy version of this cake but booze is totally optional. The cake is very good on its own and does not need any frosting but still if you would like to frost this cake, reduce the amount of sugar from the recipe. The softened dry fruits makes this Eggless Plum cake very dense and moist. The good part, you don't necessarily have to marinate the fruits for days for this version of the cake.

Do I need to say that hubby just loved this cake?? :D He finished the entire loaf in just 2 days.

(Print this recipe)

Eggless Plum Cake 



Preparation time: 15 minutes 
Cooking time: 50 minutes 

Makes one 9X5 loaf 
(Source: www.cookingandme.com)

Here's what you would need to make this Eggless Plum Cake:

160 gms/ 2/3 cup of water 

105 gms/ 1/2 cup of brown sugar

110 gms/ 1 cup of mixed dry fruits (I mixed raisins, prunes, dates, dried cherries, tutti fruity)

2 tbsp brandy (optional)

1 tsp of baking soda 

1 tsp of vanilla extract 

115 gms/ 1/2 cup of butter 

295 gms/ 1.5 cups of all-purpose flour 

2 tsp of baking powder 

1 tsp of salt 

1 tsp of mixed spices like cinnamon, nutmeg etc 

2 tbsp of finely chopped cashew nuts/ pistachio nuts (I used cashew nuts) 

2.5 tbsp vegetable oil

Here's how you can make Eggless Plum Cake:

Pre-heat oven to 350F / 180C. Grease and line a 9"x5" load pan or 8" round cake pan, whatever you prefer. 

• Bring the water to boil in a pan and add the dry fruits (leave out the tutti fruity if using them), brandy and the sugar. Simmer for about 7-10 mins until the dates have softened but not mushy. 
• Turn off the flame, remove the pan and set aside for 5 mins to cool slightly. 
• Add the butter, vanilla (or zest) and baking soda. The mixture will foam a bit. Set aside to cool. 
• In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the spice powders and mix well to combine. 
• Add the cashew nuts and tutti fruity (if using) to the dry mixture. You can also add some chopped preserved cherries at this stage. 
• Add the cooled fruit mixture to the flour mixture and add the vegetable oil. 
• Gently fold until the batter has no flour streaks left in in it. 
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 50 mins. If the top seems to be cooking too quickly, loosely cover the pan with aluminium foil.

Hope you would also enjoy making this recipe as much as I did.

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Happy Baking!

Banana Bread

I thank all the people who saw and liked my earlier post on Orange Chiffon Cake. Continuing my celebration of this fall winter season with baking seasonal fruits, I have now decided to make some Quick Bread. The reason why I am saying Quick Bread is because making this bread would not require yeast and hence does not need dough resting time nor will it require kneading and proofing the dough. As its name suggests, it is really 'quick' and being an Arien (born in April), I clearly do not have the patience. I want my things to happen really quick. 

With apples, bananas, strawberries in my refrigerator, it was really difficult to decide on which bread to make first. Then I see my bananas which I bought fresh and kept aside for their skin to turn brown and thin. Its now the perfect time to make a bread out of it. So its Banana Bread today. 

Banana Bread

It started like this -

Bananas ready for making bread

Hey, don't panic! I am not making bread out of stale bananas. In fact, I waited for these bananas to turn to ripen so that its just perfect for making the bread. Bananas with these dark patches are more sweet and more healthy. The more darker the patches, higher will be its immunity enhancement quality. Hence, the riper the banana the better the anti-cancer quality. However, diabetic patients should not eat these bananas as the glucose content is pretty high.

Without wasting any more time, lets get straight to making the delicious, soft and moist Banana Bread.

Here's what you gonna need to make Banana Bread - 

• 230 gms/ 1¾ cup all purpose flour
• 150 gms/ ¾ cup caster sugar/ powdered sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 75 gms/ ¾ cup roasted chopped walnuts
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 113 gms/ ½ cup butter, melted and cooled 
• 3 large/ 5 medium size ripe banana, mashed well
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Yield - one 9' x 5' loaf

Here's how you are gonna make it

Preheat your oven to 180° C/ 350° F. Grease a 9'x5' loaf tin pan or cover it with parchment paper

• In a large bowl, add all purpose flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, walnuts and mix together until combined.

• In another bowl, whisk the eggs lightly. Add mashed bananas, melted and cooled butter and vanilla extract and whisk it until combined.

 

•  Pour the wet ingredients over dry ingredients and fold with the help of a rubber spatula just until the flour mixture is combined in the wet ingredients. DO NOT OVER MIX.
• Pour the batter in the pre-lined loaf pan and bake it for 55-60 minutes until the outer crust is golden brown and a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

• Place on a wire rack to cool completely before taking out from the pan. Serve hot or at room temperature.
• Store in an air tight compartment.

Now you know what to do with these dark patchy bananas instead of throwing them in the bin.

Hope you would have also enjoyed making it as much as I did!

Cheers!