Eggless Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe / Plum Cake is usually light or dark brown in colour, have crumbled texture, enriched with dry fruits and nuts. It is said dry fruit and nuts are soaked in rum / wine before six months itself and allowed to ferment. But this version I have given below is an eggless, non alcoholic version. The cake is so flavourful and delicious, but because of my craziness to taste the cake, I cut the cake before cooling and it got crumbled. So I baked a second batch and ended up with rework. But I feel its worth trying it. Wish you all a Merry Christmas.
Plum Cake Recipe
Eggless Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe | Plum Cake
Preparation + Cook Time: 1 hour 20 minutes | Makes: 6 to 8 Slices
- All Purpose Flour / Maida – 1 cup
- Mixed nuts and Dry fruits – 1 cup mixed (cashews, almonds, raisins, tutti frutti, dates, cherry, citrus peels)
- Orange Juice – 1 Cup
- Butter – 1/2 cup
- Honey – 1/2 to 3/4 tblsp
- Demerara Sugar / Sugar / Brown sugar – 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup
- Water – 1/2 cup
- Baking soda / Cooking soda – 1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp
- Baking powder – 3/4 tsp
- Curd – 3 Tblsp
- Spice powder – 1/2 to 3/4 tsp (1″ cinnamon,1 clove, 1 pinch nutmeg powder )
- Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
- Potato – 1/2 cup (boiled and mashed)
1. Chop nuts and dry fruits finely. Soak in orange juice for 1 day. Pressure cook potatoes and mash it well. Heat a pan add butter and soaked fruits and nuts.
2. Add honey, sugar, water and cook the fruits and nuts in low flame for about 10 minutes until the butter and sugar melts. (It cooks faster as we have already soaked in orange juice).
3. The dry fruits and nuts would be cooked by now. Switch off the flame and add 1/8 tsp of baking soda. Now the mixture turns frothy and bubbles will appear.
4. Once the mixture cools add curd, spice powder, vanilla essence, mashed potato and mix it gently.
5. Sieve maida, baking soda, baking powder once. Add the sieved maida to the wet mixture and fold it gently. Line the baking tray with a butter paper / parchment paper. Then with a spoon pour the batter in the tray and slightly level it, shake the pan on sides so that the air bubbles releases. The batter should be thick but if it is too dry, add 1 tblsp of water or orange juice. If preferred place some dry fruits or nuts on top.
6. Pre-heat oven at 180c for 10 minutes. Place the tray in the oven and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or a tooth pick inserted in the cake comes out clean. My cake was done in 40 minutes itself, as my tray was small. Allow it cool for 20 minutes and remove the butter paper. After 2 or 3 hours slice it.
Enjoy this delicious Eggless Christmas fruit cake recipe.
Plum Cake Recipe
1. Mixed fruits and nuts choice is optional as per your preference.
2. If preferred fig, walnuts, almonds, pista can be used.
3. You can directly use the mixed fruits and nuts without soaking in orange juice. But as the nuts and fruits get fermented in the orange juice, it gives a wonderful flavor to the cake.
4. Apple juice / grape juice also can be used to soak the fruits and nuts.
5. Chop the fruits and nuts finely so it will be easy to slice.
6. Orange zest or at least orange juice is a must as the slight bitterness comes from it, else the cake taste only sweet.
7. Don’t over mix the batter or over bake the cake, it will turn hard.
8. If the cake browns on top too much, then cover it with a butter paper / aluminium foil and then go ahead.
9. Allow the cake to cool completely about 2 hours and then slice it.
10. Maida can be replaced with wheat flour also. But the plum cake turns little dense.
Eggless Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe
Welcome to my blog www.asmallbite.com. Thanks for reading my blog! I hope you’re enjoying my recipes to make the taste forever. I am Priya Santhamohan, writer and photographer (with hubby’s help) of this blog.
I see its rich fullness. This is the perfect way to Christmas joy.
Thanks Nava.
Yummy and flavourful cake!! Very well made!
Thanks Sundari.
Perfectly baked…looks delicious. 🙂
Thanks Swati.
V nice.thanku
You added baking soda two times in 3 and 5 point
Can we use market one orange juice also
Hi, Anju you can use store bought orange juice also.The procedure calls for addition of baking soda in both steps,it is a must.
Please bake this for me. I can smell it from here