I’m a quintessential Gujju! So when my otherwise sossegado East Indian mother-in-law goes on hyperactive mode running helter-skelter to make an easy-peasy plum cake (which is also readily available at every bakery shop, BTW), I do not understand. And frankly, I get a little scared ‘cos by that time she is looking like that fat, grumpy cat from the meme world.
Sensing my anxiety, she comes to me and clarifies the importance of homemade plum cake. “You see, as Diwali is incomplete without motichoor ladoos, the same way Christmas is not the same without the ‘Pereira’s’ traditional plum cake”, she explains with her eyes squinting at me and a flared-up nose. I nod immediately in agreement, ‘cos the sooner I help her with this, the sooner I can get my cutie-sossegado MIL back.
So I put on the oven mitts and help her bake the plum cake for relatives, neighbours, strangers and basically everyone else.
Here’s her gingery plum cake recipe:
Fruits Used:
Raisins- 1 cup
Dates- 1 cup (chopped)
Candied Orange/Lemon Peel- 1/4 cup, thin slices
Rum – 1/4 cup
Broken cashews – 1 cup
All-Purpose Flour-1 tsp (to mix with fruits)
Spices Used:
Cinnamon Powder- 1/2 tsp
Caraway seeds (Shahi Jeera)- 1 tsp
Ginger Powder- 1/4 tsp
Clove Powder- 1/4 tsp
Nutmeg Powder- 1/4 tsp
For Caramel:
Sugar- 6 tbsp
Water- 3 tbsp
Lemon Juice- few drops
Boiling Water-1/2 cup
For Cake Batter:
All-Purpose Flour- 2 cups
Baking Powder -1 tsp
Butter- 180g
Powdered Sugar-2 1/2 cups
Eggs- 3-4 (depending on the size)
Vanilla extract-1 tsp
Rum extract-1 tsp
Method of Preparation:
For the Fruits:
1. Soak the fruits and nuts in rum in a clean bowl overnight.
2. Heat a pan and add the soaked fruits into it and warm it slightly and set aside to cool. Once cold and just before mixing with batter add a tsp of all purpose flour to the dry fruits and give it good mix. Helps to prevent the fruits form sinking to bottom.
For Caramel:
3. In a small pot, add 6 tbsp Sugar and 3 tbsp water and few drops of lemon juice. Swirl pan to mix – try not to use the spoon to mix.
4. Heat until sugar changes color and becomes caramelized. (Approx. 6-7 minutes). See that you don’t burn it.
5. Add 1/2 cup boiling water and swirl pan again to mix well.
For Cake Batter:
6. In a large mixing bowl, combine softened butter and powdered sugar and beat with hand blender.
7. Add one egg yolk at a time to the mix and blend well.
8. Add vanilla, rum extract, and blend.
9. Combine all dry spices, baking powder and flour and sift it into the bowl, adding little at a time and blending.
10. Preheat oven to 160° C
11. Lightly coat the baking pan with cooking oil.
12. Add caramelized sugar syrup a little at a time into mixing bowl and blend.
13. Add fruit/nut mixture, caraway seeds into mixing bowl and mix with a spoon.
14. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until they are fluffy.
15. Fold beaten egg whites into the cake batter.
16. Pour batter into greased baking pan and bake for approx 1 hour 30 mins at 160° C.
17. Remove cake from oven and let it cool completely in pan. After it’s cooled, remove the cake and serve it with confectioners’ sugar if you want.
Image courtesy: Shutterstock
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