Blogging Marathon# 35: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: Bookmarked recipes
Dish: Eggless Christmas Plum Cake
Here’s wishing everyone a very merry Christmas.
This holiday season has turned out to be the best so far with family and friends around. We have family visiting us for the holiday and everyone is just having a blast. It’s now past 12:00AM on Christmas morning, gifts are placed under the tree and cookies and milk left out for Santa and carrots for the reindeers. Kids are sleeping, but I’m sure they are dreaming about the presents that Santa’s going to leave them.
I planned to make fruit cake for this Christmas a long time ago, but as with everything else I kept it till the very last minute to make it. The reason being I found Dassana’s recipe that doesn’t need cakes to be soaked in booze for days and I decided to make it just 2 days before Christmas. So I soaked the dry fruit and nuts in orange juice and rum on Sunday and baked the cakes on Monday.
I’ve made fruit cakes that were dense and not very appealing before and from that experience I can definitely say that is one of the best fruit cakes I’ve made. It is soft, fluffy, not too sweet and delicious. My 6 year old super picky eater liked it and that means a lot to me.
- 3 cups Dry Fruit Nuts & (I used a combination of almonds, pistachios, walnuts, dried cranberries, dried cherries, raisins and apricots)
- ½ cup Orange juice (If you don't want to use alcohol, use 1 cup of orange juice)
- ½ cup Rum
- 1 tbsp Orange zest
- 1½ cups brown Sugar Light (alternately use turbinado or regular sugar)
- 1 cup Oil (use any flavorless oil, I used canola oil but vegetable oil is a good substitute)
- 1½ cups All purpose flour
- ¾ cup Whole wheat flour
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Cinnamon Ground
- ¼ tsp cloves Ground
- ¼ tsp Nutmeg Ground
- 1 cup Soy Milk
- 2 tbsps cider Vinegar Aple
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Soak the dry fruit and nuts in orange juice and rum for at least 24 hours or more.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a loaf pan or a 3~4 mini loaf pans. Line the bottom of the baking pan(s) with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl,combine brown sugar and oil. Using a whisk beat the mixture until very smooth, about 4~5 minutes.
- Sift flours, baking powder, salt and all the spices, Mix until combined.
- Add the soaked dry fruit mixture along with the orange zest.
- In a measuring jar, combine soy milk and vinegar and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Next add baking soda and vanilla extract.
- Add soy milk mixture to the cake mixture. Mix well until combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
I put the baked cakes in plastic bags and gave them as edible gifts for Christmas.
Srivalli
That’s one awesome cake Pavani…so beautifully it has turned out..it’s nice reading about your Christmas eve celebrations as well..
Sayantani
wow the vegan fruit cake looks really delish. such moist texture.
Nalini's Kitchen
Super moist cake,loved the vegan version…
Veena Theagarajan
looks so yum and soft…
Hari Chandana P
Perfectly baked cake.. looks stunning!!
Global Tastes & Travels Inc.
looks so soft and moist – would have loved to wake up Christmas morning to that!
Global Tastes & Travels Inc.
looks so soft and moist – would have loved to wake up Christmas morning to that!
Usha Rao
Perfectly baked plum cake! Bookmarking the recipe
Sandhya Ramakrishnan
Lovely cake! perfect as a gift.
Archana Potdar
Perfect cake. Love it. Can I beg for a slice of it.
manu
can i replace all purpose flour and use only whole wheat flour?
cookshideout
Hi Manu, using all wholewheat flour might yield slightly dense loaf than what you see in the photos. You can definitely try — I’m sure it will still taste great with all the dry fruit and nuts. Merry Christmas.
kp
Hi,
Thanks for the recipe and would definitely want to try this recipe. but have couple of questions before i try:
1) can i combine orange juice and rum in one container and soak the fruits and nuts?
2) can we substitute soy milk with unsweetened almond milk or regular milk?
3) Can i replace All Purpose Flour and whole wheat flour with complete Almond flour? if yes, does it need changes in measurements for other ingredients?
4) same measurement of butter can be used? Adding butter ads more flavor than oil right? specific reason for oil to be used?
Thanks.
cookshideout
Hi KP,
1) Yes, you can combine orange juice and rum in one container and soak the fruits and nuts.
2) Sure, you can substitute soy milk with any dairy or non-dairy milk.
3) Using 100% almond flour probably wouldn’t work with the recipe as written. I have not tried it, so I cannot comment on that. But you can definitely replace up to 1/2 cup of All purpose flour with almond flour.
4) I was trying to make it vegan by using oil, but you can definitely use butter. It definitely add more flavor.
Hope these help. Happy Baking.