Plum Cake

Christmas without plum cake is just like christmas without santa. Yep i cant imagine my christmas celebration without this cake loaded with dry fruits and nuts. Usually i'll soak the dry fruits in rum before a month for making my christmas plum cake but this time when we received this month's Baking partners mail with three different festive cakes, i know i'll be baking this plum cake suggested by Archana of Tangy Minds. I prepared this cake last weekend to take them to my mom's place as my dad just love this cake very much.We just enjoyed each and every bite and this cake turned out absolutely awesome with a beautiful texture.I didnt changed anything apart from the candied orange peels from the original recipe given by Archana,i simply replaced them with fresh orange zest and tutti frutti chunks else i followed each and every step as per the recipe went for.

Nowadays this Baking Partners group is very close to my heart, eventhough we are just passionate home bakers i just love the friendship chain behind this group. If someone have a doubt, definitely there will be an another one to help and share the tips and tricks.Obviously am learning so many tips from them, thanks to Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen, the brain child of this fabulous baking event, for bringing us together and making this wonderful event very interesting every month.

2cups All purpose flour
1cup Raisins
1cup Dated (chopped)
2tbsp Orange Zest
1/2cup Tutti Frutti
1/4cup Rum
1cup Cashew nuts
200grms Butter
2cups Sugar
4nos Eggs (separated)
1tsp Vanilla extract
1tsp Baking powder
1/2tsp Cinnamon powder
1/4tsp Ginger powder
1/4tsp Clove powder
1/4tsp Nutmeg powder

Caramel syrup:
6tbsp Sugar
In a small pan, take the sugar,water and lemon juice given for caramel syrup and swirl pan to mix.

Heat in medium flame until the sugar turns brown and caramelized, add immediately the boiling water and swirl the pan to mix well,keep aside.

Sieve the flour with cinnamon powder,clove powder,nutmeg powder,ginger powder and 3tbsp Water
1/4tsp Lemon juice
1/2cup Boiling water

In a pan, add the rum,dates,raisins,orange zest, tutti frutti chunks and cook everything in medium flame.

Finally add the cashews and cook again for a minutes,put off the stove and keep aside.

baking powder,keep aside.

Preheat the oven to 325F.Grease well a round baking pan with butter and keep aside

Beat together the butter and sugar in a bowl until they turns creamy, add one egg yolk at a time and blend well.

Add the vanilla extract and beat well, gradually add the flour little by little and blend well.

Add the caramelized sugar syrup to the mixing bowl and blend, finally add the fruit and nut mixture to the mixing bowl and gently mix it with a spoon.

Beat the egg whites in an another bowl with a pinch of salt until they turns fluffy and a soft peaks form.

Fold gently the egg whites to the cake batter.

Pour this cake batter to the greased baking pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool completely.