PLUM CAKE TO MAKE YOUR HOLIDAYS MERRY

The holiday season is here and it won’t do without a scrumptious plum cake! If you’re a newbie to baking, fret not! The traditional plum cake uses rum or brandy, or even eggs in the process. However, the recipe for plum cake has evolved over the years and everyone has their own style or process of making it.

So, if you’re a newbie to baking, fret not! It is the perfect cake to try your hand at.

Christmas is the time to fill your world with joy, colour, laughter, love and light. So make sure you add these special ingredients when baking a cake with and for your family and friends.

Below is the recipe you can try for an eggless, rumless plain ol’ plum cake.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (maida) 
• 150ml milk
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 200gms sweetened condensed milk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon mix-fruit jam (or any jam you love)
• A pinch of garam masala (a little bit of spice is key)

Now we know that a plum cake is incomplete without fruits and nuts. You can choose the ones you like the most – cashews, almonds, black currants, raisins, or dried berries. The quantities also depend on your liking.

Steps:

1. Take maida, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl and sieve it. Add sugar to this mix.
2. In a pan, head butter and milk till it is lukewarm. Add sugar caramel to it and mix well (procedure to make sugar caramel at the bottom).
3. Add the milk, butter and sugar caramel mixture to the bowl and whisk it.
4. Then add the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla essence and whisk it till you get a smooth consistency (ribbon-like consistency).
5. Now add the jam (whisk it a little before adding to avoid lumps) and your choice of fruits and nuts to the mix.
6. Finally, add a pinch of garam masala and mix it well. Your batter is ready.
7. Grease the baking tin with butter and dust it with maida. You could also use butter paper for the inner surfaces of the tin.
8. Pour the batter into the tin. Place it in a preheated oven at 200 degrees celsius for 30 min.

Now, goodness takes patience. Sit back and let time do its thing!

After 30 min, insert a knife into the cake to check if any batter is sticking to it. If it is, your cake needs a little more time. If not, it is ready to be devoured!

Sugar Caramel to make your plum cake sweeter

Take two parts sugar and one part water into a pan and heat it. Make sure to not take too much sugar. For the above recipe, ½ cup sugar will do. Keep stirring it lightly. The sugar will start to melt and turn brown and sticky. Once you see lines forming when you pour the sugar, you know has turned to sugar caramel. This makes one of the key ingredients for your plum cake. Keep this small recipe handy to add to other desserts too.