This is not the traditional Christmas cake.
The bold letters for those, who came here looking for traditional Christmas cake. I don’t think I have ever tasted a traditional fruit cake that is associated with Christmas. I wanted to try one for a long time now. But most of the recipes I saw had rum in it. As I have never used any kind of alcohol in my cooking, I was a bit hesitant to try it. The second reason was eggs. 90% of my readers want eggless cakes, I have been observing this for a long time now. If I post some cake with eggs, they anyway ask for a substitute. I feel very uncomfortable giving some advice that I have not tried myself. So I thought of trying out something without these two star ingredients. Also, I didn’t want to go out for grocery shopping in this cold weather, wanted to try with something that I have in my pantry.
This recipe is based on a rich plum cake recipe that I saw in a old Kannada magazine. It originally had 6 eggs and some of the proportions were different. I spent almost an hour thinking of substitutes for most of the ingredients. But when I started posting this, I realized I could have searched in the google and would have found so many recipes that would have fitted my requirements :(. Anyway, I am happy that I tried this, because it came out very moist and very delicious. I could not stop myself from digging in to this as soon as it came out of oven. So it kind of crumbled :).
Check out some fruit cake recipes at Jugalbandi , Dalithoy , Spyciana , Mishmash , Passionate about baking , whats for lunch honey , Food in the main and others.
Ingredients: 1 cup(125 gms) all purpose flour 1/2 cup(100gms) + 1/4 cup(50gms) sugar 7 tbl spn(100gms) butter Spice powder – 2″ cinnamon + 4 green cardamoms + 5 cloves powdered 3/4 cup fresh orange juice 1 tea spn vanilla extract 1/2 tea spn baking powder 1 tea spn baking soda 2 tbl spns orange marmalade (any mixed fruit jam can be used) 1/4 tea spn salt Dry fruits –
1/3 cup(50gms) raisins 1/4 cup(50gms) chopped prunes 1/2 cup(50gms) chopped pecans 1/2 cup(50gms) chopped cashews 1/2 cup(100gm) tutti frutti
Method: Preheat the oven at 350F for about 10mins. Take all the dry fruits in a bowl. Melt the butter and add it to the fruits. Mix. Heat 1/2 cup sugar with 1tbl spn water in a thick bottomed pan till it becomes dark brown in color ( caramel . If you burn this, the cake become bitter, so be careful).
Add this to the fruits and mix. When it is cooled a bit, add orange marmalade, orange juice, 1/4 cup sugar and salt, spice mixture, vanilla.
Sieve together flour, baking powder and soda. Add these dry ingredients to the fruit mixture a little at a time, mixing with a spoon.
Grease a baking dish and pour the batter into it. Bake it at 350F for about 25-30mins or till a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Wait till it cools down to room temperature and then cut it. (I tried to cut it before it cooled, so it crumbled).
PS: This cake is very dense due to amount of dry fruits used in it.
As most of you, I love chaats . When my parents were here with us few months ago, aayi and I prepared different chaats , almost every day. I am happy that I have successfully transfered my love to chaats to all my family members. Even dad and my hubby who were not big fans of chaats , love them now.
On one such day, we wanted to make sev puri at home. When we searched in Indian store, we could not find the flat puris . We were in no mood to make them at home. So we changed the plan and thought of making the dahi batata puri ( dahi – yogurt, batata – potato). The difference I found between these two chaats is -Dahi batata puri has yogurt and the red chutney only. – Sev puri uses flat puris and 3 types of chutneys , most of the times yogurt is not used in this chaat .
Now, every person has their own way of making these. Some people use yogurt in sev puri and some people use more than one chutney in dahi batata puri . So we mixed both of these and prepared dahi batata sev puri . It was absolutely yummy. Once the chutneys are ready, it is so easy to put together.
Just before posting this, I searched for “ dahi batata sev puri ” in google, I found that there is something called dahi sev batata puri , which included moong and chickpeas along with potato. Check out.
Sweet sour chutney: 2 tea spn tamarind extract or thick juice extracted from a big lime sized ball of tamarind 1 tea spn jaggery 9-10 dates Salt
Adjust the sour and sweet taste according to taste.
Method: Soak dates in warm water for about 30 mins. Take out the seeds. Grind them to smooth paste along with jaggery, salt and tamarind. The chutney should not be too thin.
Red chutney: 25 red chilies 2 tea spns chopped garlic 1/2 tea spn tamarind extract or 2-3 pieces of tamarind Salt
Method: Grind all the ingredients to a smooth paste with a little water.
Green chutney: 10-15 strands coriander leaves 7-8 green chilies 1/4 cup roasted chana dal ( dalia/hurigadale ) Salt
Method: Grind all to a smooth paste.
Other ingredients: Puris 1/2 cup cooked and chopped potato 1/2 cup chopped onions Sev Chaat masala 1/2 cup yogurt Rock salt
Method: Take some puris on a serving plate. Make a small hole on the top. Stuff them with 1 tea spn potato and 1/2 tea spn onion.
Now top with a little yogurt. Spread some chaat masala , rock salt on top. Now add the chutneys according to individual taste.
Spread sev on top and serve.
Preparation time : 30mins
