Eggless Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe | Kerala Plum Cake in pressure cooker

I know Christmas is not around the corner  had bookmarked the recipe & finally last sunday 
I made up my mind to bake the christmas fruit cake or Kerala Plum Cake

I  wanted to try a eggless version and  that too in pressure cooker.




Husband loved the aroma and texture of this cake.After hubby tasted a piece, he said  it is just perfect.
The cake was just so perfect it was dense, soft, moist, crumbly with loads of fruits and nuts making it way too good
My version of christmas cake  is alcohol free & i used ornage juice for soaking dryfruits & nuts,but you can even soak in rum  or brandy  if you like .Traditionally dryfruits are soaked in rum for 4 to 5 months



also this recipe uses boiled potatoes. •The potato starch acts as a egg replacer here and you cannot find its presence at all in the cake.i had soaked the dry fruits for 24 hours.,but you can soak for a week  or even 6 months before

Ingredients

Maida (All purpose flour) - 1 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
sugar - 1/2 cup +1/4 cup

orange juice - 1 cup

 Baking Powder - 1/2  tsp

 Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

 Spice mixture - 1/2 tsp(1 clove , 1 small piece cinnamon & a small piece of nutmeg)

 Date Syrup/ Honey- 1/2 tbsp

 Curd(Yogurt) - 3 tbsp

 Vanilla essence - 1/2 + 1/4 tsp

 Mashed Potato - 1/2 cup

 Water - 1/2 cup

Dry Fruits & Nuts- 3/4 cup {Raisins - (Golden + Black), Dry Figs,apricot, Dates,almond,pista,cashews,Tutti Frutti,walnuts}




Method:

 1.Get all your dry fruits and nuts ready.Chop them & place in a bowl.add orage juice & allow dry fruits to soak for 24 hours (a day)




dry fruit after 24 hrs

2.Lets prepare sugar caramel.Set aside and let it cool down.In a pan on medium heat, melt 1/4 cup sugar slowly. It will first melt and then turn into a dark brown goop. Keep stirring and let it turn a deep dark caramel colour. Don't let it burn. Turn off heat and add about 1/4 cup water. The sugar will harden. Turn the heat back on and slowly heat the mixture until the sugar crystals dissolve. This will take around 10 mins. Let this cool and set aside.



3.Grease the cake tin with a little butter or oil.Preheat a pressure cooker as follows.Remove the whistle/regulator of cooker  you wont need it throughout the process.

 Place a pressure cooker on flame and place a separator and close the cooker with its lid. Remove the whistle/regulator you wont need it throughout the process. (you can either close the cooker with the lid as you normally do or place the Lid upside down too)

  Then place the cooker set up on high flame for 10 minutes. till the cooker is being preheated lets prepare batter.

4 add oil & mix  half cup sugar & stir with whisk till sugar is completely dissolved .now add cooled sugar caramel & mix well.Meanwhile in a mixing bowl add curd, vanilla essence, spice mixture.

  5. Now add curd vanilla spice mixture to oil mixed with sugar caramel .then add the dry fruits mixture.add 1/8 tsp baking soda the mixture will become frothy and will bubble up.

6.Then add boiled and mashed potato . .Make sure the  mashed potato is cooled down before you add.Sieve maida, 1/2 tsp baking soda, baking powder twice and make it ready

 

7.Add the sieved flour and mix well.The mixture will be thick....add 1 tbsp water if batter is too thick .

8.Pour the batter into this greased 6 inch pan, do not pour up to the brim, stop when the pan is 3/4th full. .sprinkle few halved cherries  on top of batter too.You can decorate it with deskinned almonds on top if you wish to.

9.Now open the cooker and place the cake pan with batter carefully on the separator plate and close the lid.(whistle or regulator is not needed )

 

10.Now switch the flame to low mode and cook for 1 hour on low flame. To Check  if your cake has got cooked insert a knife or toothpick in centre of cake if it comes out clean that means cake is done. my cake  took 1 hour  to cook.


11•When the cake is ready,remove from flame and set aside. Do not open the lid immediately. Open after 10 minutes. •You will find that the cake has puffed up well and would have browned nice and evenly too.

12. Allow the cake to cool down for 10mins.•transfer the tin onto a wet cloth for easy unmoulding.Just tap the cake tin and the cake would come out easily. But in case if you find difficulty in tapping the cake out, just run a knife through the sides of the cake and tap it out.



13.Leave aside on a wire rack until it cools down. Then cut into pieces






Tips:

• Please remove cooker ring and whistle while making the cake or else your
• cooker can get damaged,.use an old cooker for making this cake.
• Do not forget to line the pan or else the cake might stick to the pan.
•  After the batter is ready, don't allow the batter to sit for more than
• the preheating time as cake can turn hard.
• while inserting fork or toothpick try checking in the center if its
• cooked completely or not.If  the center of the cake isnt cooked and is
• slightly sticky, cover the top of the cake with butter paper and bake it
• for 5 more mins,it will be perfect. The butter paper covering will avoid
• more browning on top at the same time the centre will be cooked
• perfectly.
• The batter will be thick enough to spoon. If it too dry to mix, add 2-3 tsp of water to form a batter.
•  make sure to slice only when completely cooled. Cooling time of 4-5 hrs is highly recommended.
•  Make sure to chop the nuts and dry fruits as small as possible so that it easily blends with the cake.
•  Use dryfruits and nuts of your choice.
• You can even use 2 tsp of orange zest / peels along with the dryfruits.
•  you can sprinkle icing sugar on top too.
• you can even use maida +wheat flour in 50:50 ratio in above cake