Eggless Kerala Plum Cake (Step by Step Pics)

Hope everyone had a great kick start to 2019, Happy New Year all :)
I am still in a holiday mood and was lazing around to write up. However, I had this interesting recipe that I wished to post a little while ago before Christmas. And at the last moment before holidays, I was so heavily packed up with things that I could hardly spare time and finish writing this post. I know there are few of you who requested me to post this eggless plum cake recipe too. Am Sorry ! Though I made this cake days before Christmas and carried home too but writing part of it didn't work. All loved the cake and am glad that I gave this a try.

Kerala plum cake without the eggs doesn't sound complete but this is one recipe for my vegetarian friends whose constant requests made me try the eggless version of the cake. Eggs add volume to the plum cake which went missing in this cake, otherwise moisture n softness wise its at par with the regular Kerala plum cake that I already have on the blog. I have tried this recipe twice now(once around three years back and left forgotten until this was requested again by few of my readers) and both times the taste and softness was really good. However in my first trial I tried baking the cake with dark brown sugar instead of caramelizing (though worked fine but I personally love the caramel taste better) and the cake was sunk in the middle. In my second yielded good results and I was very careful about the moisture in the cake.Also, this time I tried the cake by caramelizing sugar just like the other plum cake. I personally don't like the brown sugar taste. This cake had a really nice color and to my surprise none recognized that the cake was eggless unless I told all because the softness part of the cake was really taken care of just like the regular plum cake. When you compare both cakes, I would say none can beat the taste of Kerala plum cake with eggs but if you are a vegetarian then this would be equally good too. Another drawback of baking this cake is that this cake doesn't rise high unlike regular plum cake.

Preparation time ~ 25 minutes
Baking time ~ 35-40 minutes
Serves ~ 8 " round cake
Author ~ Julie

Ingredients
all purpose flour(maida) 1 1/2 cups(180 gms)
baking powder 1 tsp
salt 1/3 tsp
white vinegar 1 tbsp
baking soda 1/4 tsp
powdered sugar 3/4 cup-1 cup
spice powders(cinnamon powder,cloves powder,nutmeg powder together 1/2 tsp)
unsalted butter 1/2 cup(113 gm)/1 stick softened
milk 1/3 cup- 1/2 cup
vanilla essence 1 tsp

to soak
dried fruits & nuts 1 cup tightly packed(refer notes)
* wine /juice 30 ml to a cup

to caramelize
sugar 1/2 cup
water 1/4 cup

to garnish
cashew halves 10(optional)

Method
For the dry fruits & nuts-
-Chop them small pieces and soak the fruits & nuts well in advance in fruit juice like apple or orange (around 1/4 cup is good enough for a cup of fruits and nuts).

Preparing tray & oven
-Pre heat oven to 340 degrees F or 170 degrees C and line a  8" round cake pan(I used a aluminium wilton pan) with parchment paper or line with butter and toss with flour. I used a 8" round cake pan.

For caramelizing
- Heat a pan and add 8 tbsp(1/2 cup) sugar and heat.Wait till sugar starts to melt from the sides, start mixing with a spatula to get the sugar dissolved evenly and gets golden brown. Add 2 tbsp of water on low heat to the pan in the sides( the caramel may start sizzling up so be careful as its very hot). Switch off flame,move the pan away from heat else it may thicken further and become hard. Leave to cool completely.

For cake batter-
- Powder the granulated white sugar until smooth with cinnamon,cloves and nutmeg in a blender and keep aside.
- Sift the flour,baking powder and salt, at least three times so that its well combined.

- Cream the butter in another bowl until light & fluffy.Add the powdered sugar in batches,beat until smooth.
- Mix the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl, pour it immediately in the butter mixture immediately.

baking soda + vinegar mixture

- Add in the vanilla extract and caramel syrup to mix well. Add about 2 tbsp of milk to this mix.

- Add in the flour in three batches until incorporated or add in the wet mixture to the flour mix and combine well without any lumps using a spatula.The batter should be thick but well mixed.Toss in the fruits & nuts along with the juices/wine (reserve a few dry fruits for the top garnish).Add milk as needed at this point to combine the batter well (add as much required,I used almost to half cup milk as I didn't have any reserve juices left from soaked dry fruits).
- Pour it in the prepared tray, garnish with the reserved dry fruits and halved cashews.

Baking & Cooling-
-Place it in the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes(mine was done at 35 minutes). the cake dosn't rise very high unlike other cakes but springs back on touch.
-Cool on wire rack for 30 minutes,slide a offset spatula in the sides of the pan  and leave it to cool for an hour.Cut and serve immediately or cover with a cling wrap and use as needed (I personally loved the cake 4-5 days after baking,that tastes best rather than the immediate slice) !!

Servings ~ 8*2" cake 

NOTES
*The more the soaking time of fruits & nuts,better the taste. I had soaked the fruits & nuts two weeks before(I have used cherry,raisins,almonds,cashews,tutty fruity).You can add half of dry fruits and half of nuts but the ratio can be altered as per your wish here & there.
* You can even use the nuts and fruits without soaking too but soaking softens the dry fruits and nuts, there by enhancing the softness.
* Powder the whole spices with the sugar to be powdered to get it finely powdered or else use store brought powdered spices.
* I used 3/4 of powdered white sugar but you can go up to 1 cup. 1 cup yields a moderately sweet cake.