Christmas Fruit Cake | Christmas Plum Cake

Christmas Fruit Cake/Christmas Plum Cake, a delicious and super easy cake to bake on this festival season. Few years back, i shared the eggless christmas fruit cake recipe , instead of eggs, i had used buttermilk in it. Do give it a check if you're looking for eggless one.

I had been searching for Christmas plum cake recipe with eggs at the same time without the dominant egg flavor like the one we get in the Indian bakery in the name of Christmas cake/Plum cake/Kerala Plum cake and finally my search end with this recipe. 

The recipe is super easy, no need to soak the nuts & fruits, alcoholic free and it can be made in a hour, what more we need, right? The basic recipe is from joyofbaking but i have tweaked a little bit with the flavoring that suits to our taste.

If you're looking for a Christmas plum cake /fruit cake recipe that the indian bakery sells during the christmas time, then you must try this recipe, even i couldn't believe how perfect they were when i had baked it for the first time. I have been baking this cake for a while now and it turns out perfect every "SINGLE" time. 

Baking is not the method of preparing food when i grew up, so i highly relay on the recipe available online, but the thing is every recipe(there are few exception) available online is for whole loaf or full cake, so i couldn't bake as much as like because if it turned out good, it takes days to finish and if not, the whole thing went to trash.

Then i found the solution and invested it in mini baking dishes(because if you baked  the reduced quantity in the full pan, the result won't be the same) like the loaf pan i have used here, similarly i have few other basic baking dishes in the mini size. So now, either i have halved or sometimes quartered the recipe available online and work around with the mini baking dishes i have. 

If you're new in baking, don't buy all those big baking dishes impulsively unless you really need it. Start with small one first until you get confident in baking :-) A little something that i had learned while learning baking myself.
Now come to today's recipe, the dried fruits and nuts i have used in the recipe are my favorites.You can add any types of candied peel, tutti fruits and the nuts you like. Make sure to cut the nuts and dried fruits into small pieces such that it get evenly distributed in the cake. Next the spices, i have used equal amount of ginger, cinnamon & cloves, if you don't like any one of these, leave that out and add the others more.

And lastly this cake taste best from the day after baking, so give it a rest for one day to the flavor gets intensified. Now let's check out the recipe for this delicious cake. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all whose who celebrate.

Christmas Fruit Cake | Plum Cake

Preparation Time : 15 mins | Cooking Time : 35 mins | Serves : 2 mini loaf  
Recipe Category: Cake | Recipe Cuisine: India
keywords Christmas Fruit/Plum Cake, a delicious and super easy cake to bake on this festival season.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
All purpose flour - 3/4 cup
Raisins - 1/2 cup
Dates & Dried Plums- 1/3 cup(chopped)
Orange zest - 1 tsp
Lemon zest - 1/2 tsp
Dried Nuts - 1/3 cup(i have used pecan, walnuts & almonds)
Light brown sugar - 1/2 cup
Butter - 2 tbsp
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp
Cloves powder - 1/2 tsp
Ginger powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup
Egg -1 
Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp

Procedure

Preheat the oven at 325 F. In a sauce add the raisins, dates & plums, then add butter, spice powder (cinnamon, cloves & ginger powder) ,salt & brown sugar.

Finally add the water and put it on the flame, let it bring into boil and let is simmer for 3 mins. Switch off the flame and let it cool.

Raisins would be puffed up after boiling. Crack open the egg in a bowl, add vanilla extract and beat it smoothly.

In the fruit- sugar mixture, shift the flour and baking soda, then add the egg mixture.

Next add the nuts ,orange & lemon zest. Mix it all together until it's combined. 

Butter the pan and line it with parchment paper. Pour the batter into the pan and bake it for 30-40 mins or until the tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Keep it in the counter for few mins, then gently flip the cake on the wire rack on remove the parchment paper.

Let it cool completely on the wire rack. Slice and store in air tight container.

Tasty Christmas Fruit Cake/Christmas Plum Cake is ready.

Notes:

• Using sharp knife to cut the cake.
• I have used my mini loaf pan. The dimension is  5.75 x 3
• Make sure the raisins are puffed up in the sugar syrup before adding other ingredients.
• Adjust the spice level according to your side, the given quantity has mild flavor.
• You can double the recipe and use the regular size loaf pan to bake.

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Fig Milkshake | Dried Fig Smoothie | Smoothie Recipe

Fig Milkshake, a healthy and creamy milkshake made from the dried figs. This milkshake is one of our recent favorite drinks, it tastes so good on its own and quite filling too. Actually this milkshake was inspired from the dates milkshake. 

When we were in Bangalore, ST was quite fond of dates milkshakes that were available in his office canteen, even he noticed how it was prepared in the canteen and told me, but as i'm not a big fan of dates in drink, i never attempt to make it at home.

Now coming to figs milkshake, whenever we go to Costco, we have the habit of buying MORE. Sometimes I wonder how the bag that looks so small in the store has turned into a huge sack at home !!! It's just me or anyone else who has the same experience. 

That's how a large bag of figs got into my pantry, after munching them for a while, I was really bored . That's when I remembered the dates milkshake and prepared the same way, replacing dates with figs and it turned out so creamy and delicious. Guess this is the perfect & delicious way to finish the remaining figs!!!!  

Fig MilkShake

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Smoothie | Recipe Cuisine: General
Fig Milkshake, Dried Fig Smoothie Fig Milkshake, a healthy and creamy milkshake made from the dried figs.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Dried Fig - 6
Warm Water - 1/2 cup
Honey - 1 to 2 tsp
Milk - 1 to 1&1/2 cup 

Procedure

Soak the figs in warm water for 20 mins, then add into the blender jar along with the soaked water and honey.

Blend into smooth paste, then add milk into jar and again blend it until all combine together.

That's it, Yummy and creamy Fig Milkshake is ready.

Related: How to make Strawberry Lemonade 

Notes:

• Soaking the figs helps to grind them easily.
• Don't discard the soaked water, it has lot of flavor.
• Adjust the milk as per the consistency you want.
• If you want mild sweetness to your smoothie, you may not need the honey, just the sweetness from the figs is enough.
  

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Eggless Fruits & Nuts Cake | Eggless Christmas Cake | Christmas Recipe

Christmas Fruits and Nuts cake, after the biryani, christmas cake comes to my mind when i think of christmas. In my childhood, we brought this christmas cake/plum cake from the nearby shop(sugi sweet stall) in our area.It was not a whole cake, they sliced them as pieces  like the commercial modern cake that are available in stores nowadays and wrapped it in the butter paper and placed it in the big tray, i was once a big fan of this cake,whenever i went out with my mom for shopping groceries or vegetables in the evening(Yep,that cake was available only after 4pm and almost it was over by the time 7PM), i pestered her to buy this and it was only 2 rupees then. Don't know whether that sweet stall still making that kind of cake. 

Now coming to today's recipe, i have tried christmas cake twice before and it didn't turned out as expected. Last weekend when i was searching again for christmas cake recipe, found this recipe in joyofbaking, i tried few recipes from her website and it turned absolutely delicious,so without hesitation,make notes of the recipe and i changed few things to our preference and tried it. It was so moist & delicious and i personally like her idea of using loaf pan to bake,so you can slice and wrap them in butter paper for single serving and it reminds me of childhood memories.It's eggless and ready to make cake,no need of soaking,give it a try and let me know how it turns out for you. 

Eggless Christmas Cake

Preparation Time : 20 mins | Cooking Time : 1 hr | Makes : 2 
Recipe Category: Cake | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cup
Dried fruits & nuts - 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups
Light brown sugar - 3/4 cups
Butter - 1/2 cup
Butter milk - 1 cup
Vanilla Extract - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
Ginger powder - 1/4 tsp

Procedure

Take the flour in a large bowl,then add the baking soda,cinnamon & ginger powder and salt in a sieve and sieve it on the flour. Mix it well with the flour and keep aside, now chop the dry fruits and nuts roughly into small pieces (i used black raisins,dates,almond,cashew and walnut) and add into the flour. Mix well such that all the nuts and dried fruits coated well with the flour.  Melt the butter and let it comes to room temperature and then add  the sugar into it.Then add the butter milk and vanilla extract and whisk it well till the sugar dissolves.Add this sugar mixture into the flour and mix it gently. Take the loaf pan, butter it well and dust it with all purpose flour.Transfer the cake mix into the loaf pan and bake it in the preheated oven of 350F for 55 to 60 mins. Remove it from the oven when tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.Mine got ready in 60 mins.Let it cool completely on wire rack before slicing.Delicious Fruits and Nuts cake is ready.

Notes:

• Add more dry fruits compared to nuts,it will help to keep the cake moist.
• You can use any dry fruits and nuts as per your liking.
• The original recipe calls for 1/4 tsp of cloves and nutmeg powder, but i feel that are overpowering,so skip it, but you can add if you like more spices in your cake.
• Dont cut the cake when it's warm, there is a chance of crumbling, so let it cool completely on wire rack.
• If you're worried about the cake sticking at the bottom, you can use parchement paper on the bottom,but mine cake out clean from the pan.
  

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