Eggless Plum Cake - Baking - Andhra Telugu Recipes - Indian Vegetarian Food

Ingredients:

• Maida – 150gms

• Sweetened Condensed Milk – 200gms (Kept At Room Temperature)

• Melted Butter – 75ml

• Baking Powder – 2 Level Tea spoons

• Baking Soda – 1/2 Level Tea spoon

• Plums – 2 (170gms)

• Walnut Pieces – 12

• Raisins – 1Tbsp (30)

• Powdered Sugar – 2Tbsps (20gms) {Or To Taste}

• Vanilla Essence – 1tsp

• Water – 1/2Cup (100gms)

(Online Conversion utility to convert Gms to Cups & Temperatures etc)

Preparations:

Here I have used a heat proof (Borosil) loaf bowl to make the cake—however any shaped and any oven proof material (aluminum tins) cake bowls may be used. Take butter paper to line the base of the bowl. Add ghee into the bowl & smear the sides and bottom of the bowl. Line base of the bowl with butter paper. The butter paper sticks to the bottom of the bowl as we have smeared with ghee. Add ghee on to the butter paper and grease it. Keep this prepared loaf bowl aside. Wash plums and cut into wedges removing the seed. Cut the plum wedges into small pieces. Chop walnuts into bite sized pieces.

Method:

Preheat oven at 200^oC in convection mode. It takes 15 minutes to pre heat the oven—meanwhile, prepare the cake mixture. Place a sieve in a bowl and add maida, baking powder and baking soda. Sift the dry ingredients breaking any lumps with fingers. To the sifted ingredients add raisins, walnut pieces, powdered sugar and plum pieces. Mix well and add melted butter, vanilla essence and sweetened condensed milk. Mix well to incorporate the dry ingredients with wet ingredients. Then add water and mix well. Transfer the prepared cake mixture into the prepared loaf bowl and level it with a spatula--tap lightly to even the surface. If the mixture appears more for the bowl take out some portion into a small greased bowl. Now the cake bowls are ready for baking. Place the cake bowls into the preheated oven carefully. Bake the cakes at 200^oC in convection mode for 30 minutes. As temperatures differ from oven to oven depending on the capacity of the oven, keep a watch while baking. Test the cake by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cake. If toothpick comes out clean it indicates cake is done. If batter sticks to the toothpick then cake is not done—bake for few more minutes. It took 25 minutes to bake the cake in the small bow. Remove the cake pan from oven & keep it aside for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes run knife along the edges of the pan and transfer the cake on to a wire rack to cool completely. It took 35 minutes to bake the cake in loaf bowl. While removing the cake bowl from hot oven take care and remove wearing mittens. After 5 minutes run knife along the edges of the pan and transfer the cake on to a wire rack. Remove the butter paper carefully. While cooling the cake on a wire rack it is advisable to place the cake on butter paper to avoid the markings of the wire rack on the cake. Use the same butter paper which was used to bake the cake and place the cake on it and cool completely. Before slicing the cake keep it in freezer for 30 minutes—this helps to cut the cake without crumbling. To get even and smooth edged slices always use a serrated knife to cut the cake. Eggless cake is too soft and crumbles easily—so freezing it for 30 minutes and then slicing helps to get even and smooth edged pieces. Plum pieces which are pink in color changes to dark blue after baking and gives a nice design to the cake.

Points to Remember:

Always use ingredients which are kept at room temperature. Cold ingredients when added to the cake mixture, takes longer time to get baked. So ensure ingredients like sweetened condensed milk are at room temperature before preparing the cake mixture.

As I have used home-made sweetened condensed milk it has less sugar content compared to the readily available one. So add extra sugar depending on the sweetness you like. I have added powdered sugar as it helps in mixing up easily.

Use plums which are ripe. Plums which are not fully ripe, gives a tart flavor to the cake while eating.

Using walnuts is optional---can be replaced with any nuts or can be avoided totally. Adding nuts gives a crunch while eating.

Any type (Aluminum or glass or ceramic---Use oven proof only) of cake pans or bowls may be used to bake this cake.

Lining the base of the bowl with butter paper gives a smooth finish to the cake. If butter paper is not available grease and dust the bowl.

To grease and dust the cake bowl,

Grease the bowl with ghee. Add some maida and tap by turning the bowl so as to coat the maida on the sides and bottom of the bowl.

Remember to preheat the oven till you hear the beep sound. It took 15 minutes to preheat the oven in my case.

At times we see lumps in dry ingredients like flour, baking soda etc. So it would be ideal to sift maida, baking powder and baking soda and break all the lumps—this also ensures that baking soda and baking powder get mixes up well with maida.

While mixing the cake mixture see that the dry ingredients are fully incorporated with the wet ingredients. Also take care by not mixing the mixture too much.

Ensure that cake mixture does not cover more than three fourths of the bowl. While baking the mixture expands and increases in size.

As temperatures differ from oven to oven depending on the capacity of the oven, keep a watch while baking.

Test the cake by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cake. If toothpick comes out clean it indicates cake is done. If batter sticks to the toothpick then cake is not done—bake for few more minutes.

While cooling the cake on a wire rack it is advisable to place the cake on butter paper to avoid the markings of the wire rack on the cake.

Eggless cake is too soft and crumbles easily—so freezing it for 30 minutes and then slicing helps to get even and smooth edged pieces.

Use serrated knife to get even and smooth edged pieces.

Serve this cake during tea time, festive times or for a party.

Enjoy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Special Comments

What a tragedy - the word "Olympics" was trade marked by Olympics 2012 organizers and it couldn't be used without explicit permission from them? As per this law, one can't cut a cake in the public with the words "Olympics 2012" engraved to celebrate the opening of Olympics 2012 on 27th July 2012.

Click on this link to read more about trade-marking of London Olympics 2012, and using its brand http://www.london2012.com/about-us/our-brand/using-the-brand/

The original Olympic spirit is to "Include All those who wish to join", while the present trend is to "Include only those who can Pay to London 2012 Olympics Organizing committee" . If the organizers cannot afford to host an event, why to bid for it and later put its ethos/spirit for sale? Isn't it ridiculous to elevate "Profit center" concept or "Cost recovery Concept" to Olympics too!!!!

Was profit in the back of the minds of the Kings in Athens and people in Greece when they started this great sporting event? Did they ever consider it as a business opportunity like it is viewed today? Over the years we have definitely lost the spirit of Olympics and now its a business sport like cricket in India? We shouldn't degenerate to a level where we put our conscience, values for sale, only to line up our country and family too. It's surprising not many protests were made, and even if any were made the profiteers in London 2012 Olympics could silence or ignore them.

I actually wanted to bring this recipe as "Olympics 2012- Plulm cake".

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