Eggless Fruit Cake

Eggless Fruit Cake

Because of the nut allergies in the family I only used dry fruits and no Nuts...and because of that the cake was very moist but very tasty. Also I have not been very successful with making Caramel..I remember Bhavani making it for Bread Pudding with such ease..For now I substitute 4-5 tsps of Caramel Spread. The cake is super easy to make once you have all the ingredients in place...I plan on making it for a party this weekend and will post the pics...Enjoy

EGGLESS FRUIT CAKE

Ingredients:
1 cup(125 gms) all purpose flour
1/2 cup(100gms) + 1/4 cup(50gms) sugar
7 tbl spn(100gms) butter
1 tsp All Spice
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

WHAT I USED:

1 3/4 Cup Sunmaid Raisin and Cherries mix + Sunmaid Mangoes,Pineapples,Papaya+ Candied Orange Peel

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.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Good Job Vee Keep it up. (I realize I cannot write as well as Smi and Vee so will minimize my writing ....:)Seeing your postings I realized it was time to update some of mine too. I am not doing much cooking these days since the kitchen has been taken over by Amma and am enjoying some of her authentic konkani food. But Amma loves desserts and R loves cakes so I will post some Cake recipes. Most of my cakes are not made from scratch ...they are from the ready to make store bought mixes but with some creativity they turn out great. Pineapple Upside Down Cake is one of my favourites made ofcourse from the box but turns out just great. One of my first experiments with baking was in India with my childhood friend Su. We tried this cake on Aai's Aluminium Bundt Cake pan. It was one of the best cakes I have ever had. Aai and I still regret why we gave away that pan for a fancier one.:( So here goes..Pics to follow soon.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake
1 Duncan Hines Pineapple Upside Down Cake.
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 small Can crushed or sliced canned Pineapple
Cherries to decorate.

Prepare Cake mix as per Directions. (Tip: Replace the juice from the canned pineapple instead of water to add to the flavor)

Grease butter on cake pan . I sometimes even use olive oil spray.

Spread Brown sugar evenly.

Layer pineapples slices. Place one cherry on each slice. Pour the cake mix. Bake as per directions and when done ...guess what ....TURN it UPSIDE DOWN.
Tips: You can make a mix of 2 tsp honey, pineapple jam and spread it over the brown sugar.

Chaklis

Ah...Reading Smi's post has put me back into those days. Thinking of those times is like taking a sip of something exquisite, it just relaxes your mind and soothes every sense. There are so many memories to share, so many people to talk about...all in good time. Diwali for me, was a time to wear new clothes, get your stash of fireworks (I remember the phataki mam coming every year, getting a bunch of phulzhadis and what not and then making exactly 3 parts for Dada, Akka and myself, and then judiciously using it so they would last all 4 days !!), waking up at some un-earthly hour so you could be the first one in the building to light a fire-cracker. Aai's mandes,ladoos and chivda were a treat then and now a far-away luxury.

Thanks to San for the Rava Wadi recipe. Sounds very delicious, got to try it soon. That reminds me of Sharu mami's boondi ladoos...oooh delicious and Shaila mami's phenoris and Shamala mami's chaklis and ...the list goes on. Hopefully we can get our hands on all those recipes. Are you reading this Mami's?

Back to the reason for the post, My attempt at chaklis. They turned out pretty good unfortunately do not have my digital camera handy to take a picture before they are all gone. So, here we go....


3 cups rice flour
1 handful of udad dal
1 cup besan
2 spoonfulls of Chilli powder
1 spoon sugar
1 spoon til
1 stick of butter
a dash of hing
salt to taste

Dry roast the udad dal and make a pitti of it. Make sure you run it through the seive before adding it to the rest of the ingredients.

Mix all of the above ingredients well enough so that the butter is thoroughly mixed into the flour. Add water to make a fairly stiff dough. Chakli should be fried on medium high to a golden brown color...