Eggless Christmas Fruit Cake/Plum Cake with Wheat Flour

My ever favorite plum cake is now a bit healthier with the substitution of maida with wheat flour in part, though you can give a full substitution.  I tried this recipe with both full and part substitutions and they are the best in any form.

Also, this cake is egg free too.  If by any reason, you would like to avoid eggs, be it social reasons, allergic to eggs, personal preferences, and more, this recipe comes handy and very easy peasy too with all ingredients on hand.

And one more thing making it really easy is we don't need the caramel syrup done.  I don't know about you all, but I am a bit stressed out preparing the caramel syrup in its right color and consistency.  Now, that step is also not there, so really a hassle-free recipe.

Here goes the recipe for this "no egg, no caramel syrup and no or less maida" plum cake.


Ingredients:

Wheat Flour - 3/4 cup
Maida - 1/2 cup
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1 pinch
Brown Sugar - 1 cup
Butter - 85 gm
Curd/Yoghurt - 1/2 cup
Hot Milk - 1/4 cup
Vanilla Essence - 1/2 tsp
Soaked Dry Fruits - 1 cup
Spice Powder - 2 tsp

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees for 10 minutes.

Line the base and sides of an 8-inch baking pan with greaseproof (butter/parchment) paper.

Sift the wheat flour, maida, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.

In a bowl, combine softened butter and brown sugar using a hand whisk until light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla essence, whisked curd/yoghurt, and the hot milk and mix.  At this stage, the batter will look curdled and that's the right way, do not panic.

Mix together the sifted flour, spice powder, and the soaked and drained dry fruits.  Add this to the whisked batter and combine with a spatula until well incorporated.

Pour the batter in the prepared baking tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes at 170 degrees C. 

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool on a wire rack.  When warm, pour about a tablespoon of homemade wine or white rum all over the cake and allow to cool.  Wrap the cake with a cling film and store in an airtight container.

If desired, drizzle daily or on alternative days with about a tablespoon of wine or alcohol until use to make it a boozy, rich plum cake.

Homemade Tutti Fruiti - Candied Papaya

Tutti Fruiti are colorful and cute little jewels that adorn your dessert, be it cakes, cookies, breads or buns.  When I got hold of 2 raw papayas from my mom's place, I just couldn't think of making anything else other than these as I had exhausted making all other recipes using them viz., raw papaya dosa, raw papaya muffins, stuffed chappathis with raw papaya filling, kootu, etc.  With the holiday season around, I felt this was the best time to make these beauties using the raw papaya though ideally the tutti fruiti is made of different candied fruits.  Here, I have made tutti fruiti with raw papaya.  You can also name it aptly as candied papaya.

I have stored them safe to be used in my Christmas fruit cakes for this season which I am a die-hard fan of.

Raw papaya is good for health in that it has a lot of nutrients and minerals though the color and sugar content may to a certain extent not support the health factor.  Yet, the basic goodness of the raw green papaya remains.  Even I was skeptical about it earlier, but then when I had my hands on making them, was more than satisfied that health bhi and attractive bhi...

Let's try our hands on this recipe now.

Ingredients:

Raw Papaya - 2 (medium sized)

Sugar - 3 cups

Vanilla Essence - 1/2 tsp

Edible Gel/Liquid Colors - Few drops

Water - 5 cups


Method:

Wash and peel skin of the raw papaya.  Chop and remove seeds and the center white part of the papaya.  Finely chop the cleaned papaya into small cubes.  This gave 4 cups of chopped raw papaya.

In a heavy bottomed vessel, heat 3 cups of water.  Once it starts boiling, add the chopped raw papaya and allow to cook for 3 minutes exactly on the clock on low-medium flame.  Switch off the stove and remove the pan from the heat.  Let the papaya remain in the same hot water for 5 minutes more.  Strain the blanched papaya pieces and keep aside.  This would measure about 3 cups.

In another pan, heat 2 to 2-1/2 cups of water and add 3 cups of sugar to it.  Once the sugar melts completely, add the blanched and strained papaya cubes to the sugar syrup.  Cook on low-medium flame for about 15-20 minutes until the sugar syrup becomes sticky and is of a thin one-string consistency.  Switch off the stove and remove the pan.

Add vanilla essence to the contents of the pan and stir.

Divide the contents into separate bowls according to the number of colors needed for the tutti fruiti.  I made 5 colored tutti frutti - yellow, orange, red, pink, and green; so I divided into 5 bowls.  You can divide into 3 or more as desired.

Add a drop of the edible gel color in each bowl and mix well.  Keep aside for 12-15 hours or at least overnight.

After 12-15 hours, take out the papaya pieces from the colored sugar syrup and strain completely.  I then transferred to a bowl with a small plate placed half way through so that the excess syrup would drain out and collect at the bottom,  repeating the same for all other colored batches.  Keep aside for about an hour.

Spread those strained papaya cubes on a wire net placed on top of a plate and allow to dry until the stickiness is totally absorbed.  At this stage, you can leave it at room temperature or under a fan to dry completely for about 2 to 3 hours.

Store each colored tutti fruiti in separate airtight containers.  Alternatively, you can mix all the colored tutti fruiti and store in an airtight container until use.

These colorful tutti fruiti pieces can be used in cakes, cookies, dilkush (coconut bun), christmas fruit cake etc.

For a longer shelf life, store the container in fridge.



Notes:

I used Americolor gel colors to color the tutti fruiti.  Liquid or powder colors can also be added.

It is optional to colored the candied papaya cubes but coloring them is an attraction.

Do not overcook the papaya cubes in the sugar syrup, else they turn very soft and do not retain the slight crunchiness that normally has to be.

Adjust sugar up to 1/2 cup less or more according to the sweetness you desire.