‘Tis is the season of cakes and Plum Cake is my favourite to bake every Christmas. But before I share with you what my X-mas morning brought my way, I have something exciting to share.

This blog has finally moved to its own domain. Yes, after thinking over it for a fortnight, finally, I played Santa for myself and shopped for this domain. So update your subscriptions (if you are a non-Wordpress follower) with the new web address. To make things simple, the feed links in the sidebar have been updated so if you subscribe using any of those, you’ll land straight here.

This Christmas I have shopped for a handful of gifts for myself besides many goodies for the family. The one important thing I have learnt the hard way is, buying gifts for ourselves once in a while is quite satisfying. Never pinning my joy on expectations from others (finally) is the surest way of staying happy, day after day.

I am a huge fan of teatime cakes. I bake a number of fruitcakes to be enjoyed as a treat with a cup of hot tea (yes, green tea included). One of them is the Strawberry Cake and the other the Plum Cake.

Traditional plum cakes are made with the addition of spices and rum too (I’ll be baking that later in the day). However, to make this recipe suiting Pari’s liking, I avoid spices and add cocoa powder for the rich chocolate taste and colour. I baked this one early morning.

Without much ado, the plum-cake recipe, the way I make it. From here on, you too can have a fruitcake to relish with tea in winters and if you are enthusiastic like me, perhaps you can bake it in the next hour or so given the simplicity of ingredients.

 Plum Cake: 

Servings: 6

Difficulty Level: Easy

Ingredients:

• All Purpose Flour ( Maida) – 1 cup
• Cashews (Halved) – 1/2 cup
• Walnuts (Chopped) – 2 tbsp
• Dried Plums – 2 tbsp ( use raisins if not available)
• Butter – 1/2 cup
• Sugar – 1 cup
• Cocoa Powder – 2 tbsp
• Milk – 1/2 cup
• Baking Powder – 1 Tsp
• Vanilla Essence – 1 Tsp
• Egg – 1 large

Method: 

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Grease a loaf tin thoroughly with butter, dust a little all-purpose flour and set aside.
3. Coarsely chop the dried plums and walnuts and set aside.
4. In a bowl sieve the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt (if using unsalted butter). Use one tablespoon of this dry mixture and coat the walnut and dried plums (or raisins) well with it. It will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
5. In another larger mixing bowl beat the butter and one cup of sugar until light and fluffy. With an electric beater, it usually takes 3 to 4 minutes.
6. Mix in the milk, egg and vanilla essence until just combined.
7. Add the dry mixture gradually mixing gently until all the ingredients just combine. Do not beat too hard. Try the cut and fold technique to add air to the mixture till a smooth mixture is obtained.
8. Pour the prepared mixture in the set aside baking dish/ loaf tin and sprinkle the halved cashew nuts on top.
9. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes then reduce the temperature to 150 degrees to bake till the tester comes out clean when inserted in its centre. It usually takes 20 to 30 minutes varying with ovens.
10. Once done, remove the baking dish from the oven and let it cool for 10-15 minutes before de-moulding on a cooling rack.

Serving Suggestion: Once cooled, slice it and enjoy with a cup of hot tea. The beauty of tea cakes is their fresh flavours without the extra calories of cream in form of icing.

Find other recipes ‘From My Kitchen’ here.