Kerala Plum Cake - Ingredients and Preparation Methods
Do you like to make your festivals more colorful by preparing delicious cake items? Once try this cake. If you try at once you never forget it and you get impressed with this recipe. The recipe list goes long and also the method looks little complex but trust me it is a very easy recipe if you follow the given instructions clearly and plan it in advance. Do not miss preparing this cake during your festivals; it will definitely make your festivals more colorful.
During Christmas time, the people would like to prepare the dry fruits for the Christmas cake. The Kerala Plum cake is very famous in Kerala. That's why they prefer cakes and also, this cake is very delicious to consume. Some of them add alcohol. But the festivals are very holy to celebrate so here I didn't add alcohol with this cake. Ingredients of Kerala Plum Cake
• 100 grams (1 leveled cup) All purpose flour
• 100 grams (1 stick or 1/2 cup) unsalted Butter, at room temperature
• 60 grams (1/4 heaped cup) Dark brown Sugar
• 2 large Eggs
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp fresh Orange Zest
• 1/2 tsp fresh yellow lemon Zest
• 1 tbsp candied Peel(optional)
• 1 tbsp candied Ginger(optional)
• 3/4 tsp All spice powder( 1/4" Cinnamon + 3 Cloves + a fat pinch of Nutmeg powder)
• 1 tsp dried ginger powder
• a pinch(1/4 tsp) of Salt
• to prepare ahead(at least a day before):
• 3/4 cup fresh/canned Orange juice
• 1/4 cup Tutti Fruit
• 1 cup dried Fruits(1//4 cup dried Cranberries, 2 tbsp Raisins,2 tbsp Black currants,2 tbsp chopped dry Dates, 2 tbsp chopped dried Figs, 2 tbsp chopped dried Apricots,2 tbsp chopped Glaced Cherries)
• 1/2 cup chopped Nuts(8-10 Cashews, 8-10 Almonds, 8-10 Walnuts, 8-10 Pecans, 2 tbsp Pistachios)
To prepare caramel
• 50 grams(1/4 cup) Dark brown Sugar
• 1 tbsp Water
• 1/4 cup warm Water
• 1 tsp Vanilla essence
To decorate
• tbsp icing sugar
• 25 blanched and skinned AlmondsPreparation Methods
Step 1:
1 day before soaking up dry fruits. Cut all the dry fruits like apricots, figs, dates and cherries into fine pieces and also cut the nuts like cashew nuts, almonds, walnuts and pecans into small pieces and stay it ready.
Step 2:
Soak all the cut dry fruits and nuts with tutti fruit and cranberries, raisins and black currants in an orange juice. Put all the dry fruits into the orange juice let it soak for a day or at least 6-7 hours.
Step 3:
In between that soaked time you should keep mixing the chopped fruits and nuts. So soak up all the juices.
Step 4:
Following below given tips to prepare Caramel. Take a deep pan put the 50 grams of dark brown sugar and add 1 tbsp of water. Then mix it frequently until the sugar caramelizes and melts and it starts bubbling and its color turns to the deeper dark shade.
Step 5:
Generally it takes around 4-5 minutes. In the meantime heat ¼ cup of water on flame. Before add ¼ cup of water you should first turn off the flame and then add it. Allow cooling it totally and adding essence of vanilla to it and stir.
Step 6:
To prepare Cake. By layering for prepare a 6" round tin with butter piece at the bottom and grease it on the butter. Spray a tsp of all purpose flour and powder it to arrive at all the edges of the pan. Clean the almonds and peel off the skin and keep them ready. Sift the all purpose flour with baking powder, baking soda, dry ginger powder and all flavor powder. Sift it 4-5 times until all the flour is uniformly mixed
Step 7:
Take butter and hit it with an electric whisk and add already prepared dark brown sugar. Once again hit well for about 4-6 minutes. If it gets a smooth and fluffy mixture now you should stop the hitting.
Step 8:
Put in one egg at a time to the mixture and hit once more until everything is well included. If you want to add one more egg, you can follow the same process.
Step 9:
To get a smooth mixture you should add cooled caramel mixture and beat again. Pour orange zest and lemon zest and stir well with a rubber spatula. At the same time preheat the stove at 160 degrees for around 10-12 minutes.
Step 10:
Add 1/3 rd amount of the flour combination and beat it with electric whisk. For the remaining portion of flour also you should repeat the same process.
Step 11:
Drain the already soaked dry fruits and put in them to the batter and softly stir with a spatula.
Step 12:
Dig out the mixture to the prepared tin until 2/3rds full. When you closed it with Aluminum foil and make sure that the top portion will not get burnt.
Step 13:
Bake it in preheated oven at 160 degree for about 40-50 minutes. Excavation got done in 45 minutes. After 30 minutes you can check it with a long tooth pick insert in the center. If the cake is perfectly baked it should come softly.
Step 14:
Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes to cool completely. Run a sharp knife along the edges and overturn it on to the wire holder and unpeeled the butter paper and let it cool completely for an hour.
Step 15:
Before cutting the cake. Cool it completely overnight for minimum 5-6 hours. Then keep it in an air tight container. You can store it well for 3 days under room temperature. If you want to store more than a week you should keep it in refrigerator.
Step 16:
If you want to decorate it before serving, you can dust it with icing sugar, blanch and almonds.
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