Here comes the winter and it’s a perfect season for warm bakes. I love to do lots of baking in this holiday season. Also, I love to experiment with different ingredients in my baked goodies. This Cornmeal Fruit & Nut Cake is a very new addition to my eggless bakes. This time the texture I got was incredible, after having this nobody can tell that it’s eggless. The taste and aroma of the spices blended with the fruits and nuts so well, that you can’t stop at one! And cornmeal added a lovely yellow hue here which created a great contrast with the colourful fruits. So, what are you waiting for? It’s an easy recipe, give this a try and let me know about your experience. 🙂
Cornmeal Fruit & Nut Cake Squares
Yields: 12 cake squares
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour/Maida- 3/4 cup
- Cornmeal- 1/4 cup
- Caster sugar/White powdered sugar- 2/3 cup
- Salt- ¼ tsp
- Yogurt- ¼ cup
- Baking powder- ¼ tsp
- Baking soda- ½ tsp
- Vegetable oil/Olive oil- ¼ cup
- Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
- Milk- 6 tbsp (I used toned)
- Dry fruits- 1/3 cup (I used tutti frutti and 4 chopped dried apricots)
- Pistachios- 1 tbsp (chopped)
- Cashew nuts- 1 tbsp (chopped)
- Cinnamon powder- 1 big pinch
- Nutmeg powder- 1 big pinch
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Prepare a 9”x 7″ cake pan by greasing with oil and place a piece of baking paper at the bottom of the pan.
2. In a bowl mix all-purpose flour, cornmeal and salt.
3. Now add cinnamon and nutmeg powder into this, mix well, keep aside.
4. In a separate bowl mix yogurt, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Wait for 2-3 minutes. The mixture will become a little frothy.
5. Now mix in oil and vanilla extract.
6. Add the flour mixture into this in 3 batches. And keep mixing.
7. Now add milk. After adding the milk, I used my electronic hand mixer to whisk the batter well. On low speed beat the batter for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and again beat on same speed for 1 minute more.
8. Now add the dry fruits and nuts into the batter and gently fold by a spatula.
9. Pour this into the prepared cake pan. Smooth the top with the help of spatula. Tap cake pan gently on kitchen counter a couple of times to release the air bubbles.
10. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Insert toothpick in the middle of the cake. The cake is ready if the toothpick comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 5 minutes and then run a sharp knife around the edges of the pan and carefully remove the cake. Turn onto a cooling rack and leave there till cool completely.
When cooled, cut into squares, serve and enjoy!
Note:
- This recipe can easily be doubled as per your need.
- The baking time may vary for different size of baking pan.