Why do they call it a Plum Cake?
I’ve tried to find an answer to this question for as long as I can remember. And now, when I didn’t find a satisfactory answer to this after looking at many directions, I realized something on my own that may be when the first time it was baked and named Plum Cake, the primary reason could be the inside of the cake, the colour of it might resemble a lot to how the inside (fruit flesh) of the Plum fruit looks like. Resonates right? Many bakeries make much darker coloured Plum Cakes and often use treacle or dark molasses to get the hue it’s famous for.
However, it’s not easy to develop an Eggless Plum Cake recipe by eliminating the popular egg replacements like curd or yogurt, milk, condensed milk, etc. I made this cake many times to achieve the final recipe, and now I can call it a decent Eggless Plum Cake that will not disappoint you when you bake one. It will definitely make your Christmas brighter and delicious.
The colour from the caramel, the fruity flavour from freshly squeezed orange juice and zest, the delicate notes from the homemade spice powder, and the love to make something unique for family and friends on Christmas make this cake truly special. And when the aroma of freshly baked cake wafts through the kitchen and fills your home, you know you’re Christmas-ready. 🙂
Eggless Plum cake
A moist and flavour-packed Eggless Plum Cake that has notes from beautiful homemade caramel and spice powder. Easy to make, bake it during the holidays and enjoy it with your family and friends.
Ingredients
- 1½ cups / 185g- Cake Flour (make cake flour at home, read notes)
- ⅓ cup / 50g- Caster sugar
- ¼ cup + 1 tbsp- Unsalted butter
- 1 tsp- Vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp- Baking soda
- ½ tsp- Baking powder
- 1 tsp- White vinegar
- ¼ tsp- Salt
- 1 tsp- Fruit cake spice mix
- ½ cup- Dried fruits
- ¼ cup / 50ml- Water
- ½ cup / 125ml- Fresh orange juice
- Zest from two oranges (optional, but recommended)
For caramel
- ½ cup / 90g- White granulated sugar
- ¼ cup / 50ml- Water
Instructions
Making the caramel
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In a pan, add white granulated sugar, melt it over low heat, stir with a fork continuously, care should be taken not to burn the sugar. When the sugar melts completely and forms a rich caramel colour, remove the pan from the heat, and add the water slowly. The caramel would be very hot at this stage, so handle it carefully.
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Now turn on the heat again and keep it low. The caramel will harden a little at this point and might stick at the bottom of the pan, but after a few seconds, it will dissolve completely. SSome foam might appear while simmering it, which is fine. The foam settles down as we remove the caramel from the heat. Turn off the heat, keep the caramel aside.
For the wet mixture
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Next, add butter, water to the slightly cooled caramel, and simmer over low heat until the butter melts completely. Remove from the heat, and keep the mixture aside to cool.
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After the butter mixture cools completely, add orange juice, vinegar, and vanilla extract, mix well and keep aside.
Preparing the cake
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For the dry fruits in the cake, use any dry fruits which are available with you. I’ve used a combination of black raisins, dates, dried apricot, candied orange peels, candied ginger, tutti frutti, glazed cherries, and broken cashew nuts.
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Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.
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Prepare a 6” round cake pan by greasing it with oil and place a piece of baking paper at the bottom of the pan.
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Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a bowl.
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Add 1 tbsp flour from this flour mixture to the dry fruits and toss them to coat, keep aside.
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Add fruit cake spice mix to the flour mixture and mix well.
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Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture, and whisk well to combine. Don’t whisk for a longer time.
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Fold in the dry fruits gently to the cake batter.
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Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.
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Tap the cake pan gently on the kitchen counter a couple of times to release the air bubbles. Bake for 60 minutes (read notes). Insert a sharp knife or wooden skewer in the middle of the cake. The cake is ready if the knife comes out clean. If not, bake for some more time, and then check again.
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Cool the cake in the pan for 10 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 it there until it cools completely.
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When cooled, slice, serve and enjoy!
Serving suggestion:
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You can add a fine layer of powdered sugar through a tea strainer over the cake to hide the surface cracks before serving.
Recipe Notes
- To make Cake flour at home minus 2 tbsp flour from a cup of All-purpose flour / maida. And add 2 tbsp of cornstarch / corn flour to the rest of the flour. Your 1 cup of Cake flour is ready to use. It's a fine variety of flour that improves the texture and structure of different bakes.
- This cake can also be baked with plain All-purpose flour / maida, but the texture of the cake will vary a little.
- Baking time may vary a little bit for different ovens and different sizes of baking pans.
