Wishing All My Readers A Merry Christmas
Let us celebrate Christmas with this delicious eggless Plum Cake. This was the other recipe which Swathi gave for the Baking Partner’s challenge this month. I saved it for Christmas. The original recipe was suggested by Archana of Tangy Minds and the recipe had eggs. So I set out making it eggless and crossed my fingers when the cake was baking in the oven. I used puréed apple as the egg substitute. This is the first time I am using this so I was not very sure of the result. The aroma of the fruit cake filled my house and it was fantastic. The cake also raised well and browned nicely. I was in a hurry because it was the day I was going out on a trip and I couldn’t wait until the cake was completely cool.
So when I removed it from the pan and inverted on a plate, it got stuck. So if you are trying this cake, be patient and wait until it cools completely. The syrup you add makes the crust moist and so while hot it is sticky. Even after the sticking part, I was able to restore the cake, and the cake tasted wonderful. Wait for atleast a day before slicing the cake so that it develops all the flavours. When completely cool, cover with foil and place it in an air tight container. My daughter loved it. But the cake is quite heavy because of the dry fruits. A very small piece will make you feel full. Make this and enjoy your evening with a cup of coffee or tea. I will be taking it to MIL’s place to share it with my nephew, niece, BIL and SIL today. Enjoy the day.
Ingredients:
For The Dry Fruits Mixture:
Golden Raisins-1/2 cup
Apricot-1/4 cup (chopped)
Dried Figs-1/4 cup (chopped)
Candied Orange Peel-1/8 cup
Orange Juice-1/4 cup
Cashew Nuts-1/2 cup
For The Caramel Syrup:
Sugar-3 tbs
Water-1 ½ tbs
Lemon Juice-a few drops
Boiling Water-1/4 cup
For The Cake:
Butter-1/2 cup
Caster Sugar-1 ¼ cups
Apple Puree-1/2 cup( click on the link to see the procedure of making the puree)
Curd-1/3 cup
Almond Essence-1/2 tsp
Flour- 1 ¼ cups
Baking Powder-3/4 tsp
Powdered Cinnamon-1/4 tsp
Powdered Ginger-1/8 tsp
Powdered Nutmeg-1/8 tsp
Powdered Clove- 1/8 tsp
Procedure:
For The Dry Fruit Mixture:
- Add chopped figs, apricots and golden raisins in orange juice.
- Bring it to boil, simmer and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the cashew nuts and cook for one more minute.
- The mixture will become dry.
- Remove from stove and allow it to cool.
For The Caramel Syrup:
- In a sauce pan add sugar, water and lemon juice.
- Heat the mixture. Do not stir.
- The sugar will start caramelizing.
- When nicely brown, add the boiling water and swirl.
- When it boils, remove from flame. There should not be any sugar lumps in the solution. You will end up with a nice brown syrup.
For The Cake:
- Sift flour with all the spices and baking powder. Keep it apart.
- Preheat oven to 170C.
- Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add the caramel syrup and beat.
- Add apple puree, curd and almond essence and beat until incorporated. The mixture may look curdled but it is fine. Add the dry fruits mixture and beat.
- Now add the flour and mix with a wooden spoon gently.
- Line an 8” loose bottomed pan or a spring form pan.
- Grease the pan. Pour the batter into it.
- Bake for 1 ¼ hours.
- By 15 minutes the top will start browning. Place a piece of foil on top of the cake to avoid the burning of top.
- Insert a knife and check if it comes out clean.
- When done, remove from oven and allow it to cool for 1 hour before removing it from the tin.
- Loosen the sides of the cake with a knife.
- Place the pan on a tumbler and gently remove the outer ring.(if using a loose bottomed tin)
- Place on a wire rack and allow it to cool completely before removing the base plate and the butter paper.
- Slice it and enjoy.
This recipe is part of my Delicious Egg Free Cakes eBook. There are more recipes in the book and they are not available in my blog. Click on the image to buy it and enjoy. Please leave a review and rating on the website.
I used dark brown sugar to make caramel syrup. So this cake turned out with a rich brown colour. This is made during December 2014. Here is a video to make this delicious cake.
Eggless Plum Cake
Ingredients
For The Dry Fruits Mixture
- Golden Raisins-1/2 cup
- cup Apricot-1/4 chopped
- cup Dried Figs-1/4 chopped
- Candied Orange Peel-1/8 cup
- Orange Juice-1/4 cup
- Cashew Nuts-1/2 cup
For The Caramel Syrup
- Sugar-3 tbs
- Water-1 ½ tbs
- Lemon Juice-a few drops
- Boiling Water-1/4 cup
For The Cake
- Butter-1/2 cup
- Caster Sugar-1 ¼ cups
- Apple Puree-1/2 cup click on the link to see the procedure of making the puree
- Curd-1/3 cup
- Almond Essence-1/2 tsp
- Flour- 1 ¼ cups
- Baking Powder-3/4 tsp
- Powdered Cinnamon-1/4 tsp
- Powdered Ginger-1/8 tsp
- Powdered Nutmeg-1/8 tsp
- Powdered Clove- 1/8 tsp
Instructions
For The Dry Fruit Mixture
- Add chopped figs, apricots and golden raisins in orange juice.
- Bring it to boil, simmer and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the cashew nuts and cook for one more minute.
- The mixture will become dry.
- Remove from stove and allow it to cool.
For The Caramel Syrup
- In a sauce pan add sugar, water and lemon juice.
- Heat the mixture. Do not stir.
- The sugar will start caramelizing.
- When nicely brown, add the boiling water and swirl.
- When it boils, remove from flame. There should not be any sugar lumps in the solution. You will end up with a nice brown syrup.
For The Cake
- Sift flour with all the spices and baking powder. Keep it apart.
- Preheat oven to 170C.
- Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add the caramel syrup and beat.
- Add apple puree, curd and almond essence and beat until incorporated. The mixture may look curdled but it is fine. Add the dry fruits mixture and beat.
- Now add the flour and mix with a wooden spoon gently.
- Line an 8” loose bottomed pan or a spring form pan.
- Grease the pan. Pour the batter into it.
- Bake for 1 ¼ hours.
- By 15 minutes the top will start browning. Place a piece of foil on top of the cake to avoid the burning of top.
- Insert a knife and check if it comes out clean.
- When done, remove from oven and allow it to cool for 1 hour before removing it from the tin.
- Loosen the sides of the cake with a knife.
- Place the pan on a tumbler and gently remove the outer ring.(if using a loose bottomed tin)
- Place on a wire rack and allow it to cool completely before removing the base plate and the butter paper.
- Slice it and enjoy.
I love fruit cakes no matter which time of the year….mine is quite different from this….definitely a must try….tq for sharing….
Moist and delicious
Merry Christmas
Delicious gayathri !!! Love that plumpy slice!!!!!
Lovely texture.. despite it being eggless!
so tempting and delicious….
Love it Gayathri!!! could not take my eyes off them!!! Bookmarking this!!!
Sowmya
Ongoing Event – Let’s Party – Eggless Bakes and Treats
Ongoing Event – SYF & HWS – Ginger
so delicious…..
looks so tempting..
hi Gayathri
We (myself and my wife) tried your bun it came out very nicely.
Today we tried the above recipe but the cake got burnt within 40 mins. Hence we removed it from the oven.
We have followed the procedure as mentioned above. only thing that we did different was we used a glass bowl rather than a tin for baking.
Kindly advice.
Thanks
Swaminathan.
Hi Swaminathan, Thanks for trying my recipes. This cake browns very fast. So as given in the recipe, you need to cover the cake with an aluminium foil. This will slow the speed of browning. The final cake is very brown in colour. I haven’t used a glass dish for my baking. So couldn’t tell you whether the burning is because of that. So try using foil…
Hi Gayathri, I want to try this cake. Before that i have one doubt – whether foil should be placed before baking or after 15 minutes(because most of the bakers used to say don’t open the oven for first 3/4 of time of whole baking time). And whether we have to make slit in the foil(because most of baker used to make a slit if there are covering with the foil). Please clear my doubt.
Hi Ambika, You need to place the foil only if it becomes too brownish. May be by 30 minutes. I have just mentioned that it will start browning by 15 minutes. We are just placing the foil in between the coil and cake tin. There will be lots of space for steam to escape so no need of making slits on the foil.
Hi Gayathri,
I just stumbled upon this gem of a recipe. getting stuff together to bake it today. I have a query. If I use eggs instead of apple puree, how many eggs do I need to use? You did mention that the original recipe had eggs, and so asking.
Thanks
You need to add two eggs and skip the apple puree.
Hi, I wud like to try this recipe. Before that I have one doubt, instead of almond essence, vanilla could be used? TIA
Dolly
Yes, you can Dolly..
love yr blog been following and enjoying all ur recipes since last 6 months . I love to bake its my hobby and thanx to your blog i am loving it more. awesome recipe of plum cake. i am going to try this very soon i will let you know how the cake comes out
Hi Gayathri
I follow ur eggless recipes. I am going tobtry ur eggless plum cake today. I wanted to know the procedure for apple puree. Can u pls help me.
Click on the name for the recipe Jeeva..
Thanks. ….got it
i follow ur blog and find it useful as the recipes are with videos. i am new to baking . i am unable to click on the name of the recipe to get the method for preparing apple puree. pls mail me else send the link mam.
Hi Gayathri I have made this once and it was great. Can Apple purée be replaced with curd ?
Hi Gayathri, it is so nice of you to share all these wonderful recipes 🙂 I follow your posts regularly. My question is, can I use your egg replacer powder for this recipe instead of Apple purée?
Btw, I could not find potato starch and hence I made some myself 🙂
Thanks, Anjana
Yes, you can use it.
Hi Gayathri……Wonderful recipes on ur blog ……and I best part is the meticulous details u give makes things hassle free …..willl make this for y daughters for Christmas
Hi Gayathri, the cake looks delicious!! Wanted to try. Can I know how much caramel syrup did u use, because I already have caramel syrup at home? Pls clear my doubt
Use 1/4 cup of syrup.
Thank u!! I also wanted to know for how long I’ll have to bake if I double the ingredients
Depends upon the height of the cake. It may take one hour and half hours or a little more. Use an aluminium foil tent on the cake, if it starts browning too fast.
Hi Gayathri,
Planning to try this recipe for family and friends. You mentioned that we can bake it a day in advance so that the flavours mature the next day. How many days does this cake stay in room temp if I want to bake in Advance for gifting?? Does it stay good for 4-6 days considering it has curd in it??
Thank you for your time.
Swetha
DOn’t keep it out for more than two days. I always cling wrap my cakes and refrigerate as they are eggless.
Thank you for your prompt reply Gayathri.
I will keep that in mind.
Swetha
Hi gayathri.
Lovely recipe. Can I use rum instead of orange juice. If yes what quantity. Do I need to refrigerate the soaked dryfruits
Yes, you can. Use the same quantity and you don’t have to boil it. Just mix them and keep on a shelf. They do this three months before baking the actual cake. I also have heard that you can keep it for a year. the fruits would be so flavourful if you do that.
can fresh orange juice be used or the store bought ones?
This is fresh juice.
Hi Gyathri, I liked the recipe alot and will try this for Christmas. I have one question, can I use 10′ spring form instead of 8′ for the same batter? Thanks in advance for your response.
Using 10″ would give you a cake that has very less height. Try to make 1.5 times this recipe if using 10″
Hi Gayatri,
I tried your masala buns and orange cake. They have come so tasty and very good texture wise also. i tried plum cake as well. First time , i covered it with aluminium foil at a very early time after baking so it did not bake. Second time i did it exactly as told. The cake has come super. Left it to cool for more than 12 hrs. But once i started cutting it , i feel that the bottom is so sticky though it is baked well. It appears as the cake started absorbing moisture and is getting back to batter mode. Is this common?
Did you cool the cake on wire rack or inside the tin itself. If it is cooled inside the tin, then the condensation might have affected the bottom of the cake.
I tried on wired rack only…
I guess it was under baked, then. Otherwise this wouldn’t happen.
Hi mam.. I have a doubt.. Can i replace castor sugar to brown sugar and maida to wheat flour.. If so.. What is the qty.. What shall i do to adjust the consistency of the batter if i replace maida.. Please help
You can replace maida with whole wheat and caster sugar with brown sugar.
Hi Mam.. I have soaked the nuts in fresh orange juice and refrigerated for 4 days .can I use them now to bake the cake . Also want to know for how many days we can store in refrigerator if the nuts are soaked in fresh orange juice
Yes, you can do that. You can refrigerate it for maximum two months.
Ma’am I bake in the microwave oven so what is the option to cover the cake as i cannot use aluminium foil .also which floor to be used?
Thank you
If you are using the convection mode in the MW oven, then you can definitely use foil. Only in MW mode, you shouldn’t.