No soaking of dry fruits in alcohol for long period, no beating of eggs or butter with a beater! Yes, you can make a bakery-style rich plum cake(or fruit cake)without soaking in alcohol for a long duration, yet the taste and the texture are the same! In a couple of hours, you could have the Plum cake ready for your Christmas, New Year or other special occasions.
Dry Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour (Maida)
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1½ tbsp spice mix (10 cardamoms, 5 cloves, 1 cinnamon and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg)
2 tbsp sugar
Other ingredients
¾ cup brown sugar (or regular sugar)
½ cup (125ml) butter or oil
1 tbsp honey or jam
2 cups of dry mixed fruits
½ cup orange juice
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup dry nuts (cashews, almonds, pecan, walnuts etc., add nuts of your choice)
Preparation
Combine 2 cups of dry mixed fruits of your choice (can include dates, raisins, tutti fruity, red or green cherries, figs, candied orange zest, candied lemon zest) into half cup of orange juice and set it aside.
In a pan, add half cup of sugar to caramelize. Once you have the required colour of caramel, add 1 cup lukewarm water and bring to boil till the water content evaporates to half cup. Then, add half cup butter or oil followed by brown sugar(or regular sugar) and then the dry mixed fruits along with honey. Bring to boil and switch off the flame when the syrup gets a thicker consistency.
In a blender, blend the spice mix that includes 10 cardamoms, 5 cloves, 1 cinnamon and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg with 2 tablespoon of sugar and set aside.
While the sugar syrup becomes cold, add 2 eggs and vanilla essence into it and mix it well.
It’s now time to combine the dry ingredients mentioned above and sieve together with a strainer.
Mix the dry ingredients with the final boiled fruit syrup and at the end add the dry nuts. Cake mix is now ready to bake.
Method of baking
Take an 8-inch cake pan and brush some butter or oil inside(can use the parchment paper inside), then pour the cake mix into it.
Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius (350F) and bake the cake for about an hour. Bake time may change depending on temperature settings. Check the middle of the cake by inserting a toothpick or skewer towards the end of baking. If it is clean, cake is perfectly baked. Cool completely before cutting the cake.