EGGLESS CHRISTMAS CAKE

Ho… Ho…. Ho…..It’s that time of the year again…..The air is filled with a festive scent. The requests I received for an eggless fruit cake was immense and how can I not please in this merry merry season. The eggless fruit cake recipe is vegan version of original fruit cake.  The eggless fruit cake recipe which requires intense amount of ingredients and pre-planning. It is healthy, nutritious but takes a little efforts and time. The major ingredients and the crucial steps remain, only the use of eggs is replaced. The use of dry fruits and nuts in abundance makes it tremendously nutritious and highly calorific dessert.  Most fruit cake recipes call for soaking the dried fruits in alcohol for several days to weeks. But this recipe shared here is an instant one which doesn’t require you to soak them in advance.  I have already shared one recipe last year on Christmas which is also non-alcoholic and instant fruit cake recipe. This rich fruit cake is moist, delicious and absolutely bang on the flavour’s and this cake is cure for anytime hunger. Merry Christmas to all of you and God bless you and your family in this wonderful season…!!!!

INGREDIENTS:

¼ Cup Orange Juice

1 tablespoon Raisins, chopped

4-5 Dates, chopped

4 tablespoon Tutti- Frutti

2 tablespoon Dried Cranberries

7-8 Glazed Cherries, chopped

5-6 dried Apricot, chopped

¼ Cup granulated Sugar

1 Cup All Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

½ teaspoon Baking Soda

2 tablespoon Milk Powder

2 teaspoon Corn Flour

¼ teaspoon Cinnamon Powder

¼ teaspoon Dry Ginger Powder

¼ teaspoon Cardamom Powder

¼ Cup Vegetable Oil / Butter melted

½ Cup Milk

1 teaspoon Vinegar

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

¼ Cup Mixed Nuts, crushed roughly

For Caramel Syrup:

1 tablespoon Sugar

5 tablespoon Water

METHOD:

STEP 1 –  Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees C for 10 minutes.

STEP 2 – Grease the cake tin with little oil, cover it with parchment paper and dust some flour. Remove excess flour from the tin. Keep it aside.

STEP 3 - Take orange juice in a mixing bowl, add raisins, dates, tutu-frutti, dried cranberries, cherries and apricots in it and mxi very well. Keep it aside for at least 1 hour.

STEP 4 - Now in another mixing bowl, add ½ cup milk and 1 teaspoon vinegar. Mix it and keep is aside undisturbed for 5 minutes.

STEP 5 – For making caramel syrup, add 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon water in a sauce pan and heat it up. Cook until caramelized. Then add rest 4 tablespoon water and mix it well. Your caramel syrup is ready, let it cool down.

STEP 6 – Add this caramel syrup with ¼ cup sugar to the dry fruits –juice mixture. Give a nice stir and mix well.

STEP 7 – In a another mixing bowl, sieve flour, baking powder, baking powder, cardamom powder, cinnamon powder, ginger powder, milk powder, corn flour and mix it well with a fork.

STEP 8 – Now add dry fruits-orange juice mixture, milk-vinegar mixture in the flour mixture

and mix well.

STEP 9 – Add chopped nuts, oil and vanilla essence and mix the batter with cut and fold method.

 Don’t over mix the batter.

STEP 10 – Pour the batter in the prepared cake tin and tap it once or twice on the kitchen counter top.

STEP 11 - Bake it for 40-45 minutes at 180 degrees C. Keep a close eye on it during baking. Check it with a wooden toothpick. If it comes out with wet batter on it, it needs more baking time. If the toothpick comes out with a few dry crumbs, it is perfectly baked and needs to be removed from the oven.[see notes]

STEP 12 – Cool it for completely and then turn the cake over onto a plate, remove the parchment paper and slice it up.

Slice it with some classic Christmas carols in the background, I bet all your worries and tensions will just vanish……..The fabulous eggless fruit cake is ready to attack.

NOTES: *Start checking after 40 minutes. Time may vary depending upon the brand of the oven.