Rich Plum Cake With Jaggery
Rich Plum Cake With Jaggery
This cake reminds me of our Christmas celebrations in Bangalore as a child when various kinds of Christmas goodies made their appearance. Every year, my Dad’s friend would bring a Rich Plum Cake, full of dark, juicy plums which we absolutely adored. It was rich, dark and moist and my Mum would hide it away in the meatsafe and bring it out for tea when all of us would sit down together and enjoy thick slices full of plums. I do read about Plum Cakes on the internet, but they have other fruits in it. My version is dedicated to black plums (raisins) which makes this Rich Plum Cake unlike any other. I have not blogged for a while as my computer screen was damaged and the technicians took a while to sort it out. So, I am sailing right into the Christmas Season and starting it with my awesome Rich Plum Cake With Jaggery instead of sugar, just for a change.
The Recipe For Rich Plum Cake With Jaggery
The Ingredients For Rich Plum Cake With Jaggery:
250gms salted butter
140gms dark jaggery (1 cup, loosely packed)
390gms black plums (raisins), chopped (3 cups, loosely packed
242gms eggs ( 4 eggs, large)
15 ml Vanilla essence (1 tbsp)
260gms Wheat Flour (2 cups)
4.8gms baking powder (1 tsp)
3gms baking soda (1/2 tsp)
5gms mixed spice (1 tsp)
120gms almond nibs/bits/pieces (1 cup)
160 ml alcohol ((2/3 cup)- I used whisky – Can omit and use 2/3 cup orange juice or any flavoured tea instead ( steep 2 tea bags in 2/3 cup hot water for 5 minutes and use)
Total Weight of ingredients before baking 1648gms
Weight of Square 8″ cake before baking was 1246 gms and after baking 1120gms
Weight of Small 5″ round cake before baking was 252 gms and after baking 230gms
Method For Making Rich Plum Cake With Jaggery:
Weigh all the ingredients and get them ready. Line pans with greased paper and keep aside. Sieve the wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and mixed spice into a large bowl. Add the plums and nuts and mix well to ensure the plums are well coated with the flour. This step is very important to keep the plums evenly distributed in the cake. If this step is omitted, the plums will sink to the bottom. Keep aside till required. Using a stand mixer, cream the butter and jaggery till creamy and fluffy. This takes about 5 to 7 minutes. You could do this by hand, but it takes much longer. Add the eggs one by one and ensure it is well incorporated into the butter jaggery mixture. Add the vanilla essence and mix again. Add the whole wheat flour mixture by the spoonful to the butter mixture and gently stir by hand (always left to right direction), until all the flour has been used up. Stir in the whisky and pour into prepared pans. Weigh each cake before baking as the weight reduces once baked. Bake in a preheated oven at 160 Celcius/320F for 1 hour (60 minutes), until skewer inserted in centre comes out clean. My large cake (8″ square took around 80 minutes), whereas the small (5″ cake) took around 50 minutes. Every oven is different, so make sure you test your cake 10 minutes before the timer goes off. These are just guidelines for you to use.
To round it off, the cake came out really well (made 2 teeny-weeny cupcakes for ourselves for tasting)and the large one is travelling to the USA for my daughter and son-in-law thanks to a kind friend. So if you want to make this for Christmas, please do and give me your feedback.
NB: Those who want, can feed the cake ( drizzle 1 or 2 tbsp of alcohol over the cake) once a week till you decide to cut it.
Some Other Christmas Cakes For You To Try
To Attend My Cooking Class Click Here
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.