Kerala Plum Cake -Pressure Cooker Fruit Cake
Servings: 9 " pan
Calories:
Classic Kerala Plum Cake using Pressure Cooker! No Baking in oven, No Alcohol, No Soaking fruits, it’s Instant fruit cake.
Print Recipe
Ingredients
- All Puropose Flour /Maida : 1cup + 2 tbsp for tossing the soaked fruits
- Butter : ¾ cup + 2tsp at room temperature
- Powdered Brown Sugar /Powdered White Sugar : 1 cup
- Baking Powder : ¾ tsp
- Baking Soda : ½ tsp
- Vanilla Extract : 1 tsp
- Eggs : 3 nos at room temperature
- Sweetened Cherries : ¼ cup chopped
- Tutti Frutti : 1 cup
- Raisins : ¼ cup
- Cashew nuts : ¼ cup chopped
- Almonds and Walnuts : ¼ cup chopped
- Dates: ¼ cup chopped
- Orange Peels : 2 tbsp optional
FOR THE CARAMEL:
- Granulated Sugar : ½ cup
- Water : 1 tbsp
- Water : ½ cup
FOR THE SPICE POWDER:
- Caraway seeds Powder : 1 tsp
- Powdered Cinnamon : ¼ tsp
- Powdered Nutmeg : ¼ tsp
- Ginger powder : ¼ tsp
- Cloves powder : ¼ tsp or Cinnamon Stick :1″ inch , Clove : 2, Cardamom : 1, Nutmeg : 1) grounded into powder.
Instructions
- Heat a heavy bottomed vessel and add the sugar with a tbsp of water on medium high heat. You will find that the sugar will melt and start to change color. Don’t stir, you can swirl the vessel, once or twice. Do not allow any sugar crystals to get on the sides of the pan and be sure to moisten all the sugar with the water. When you find that the color has changed to a little darker golden brown color, turn off heat. Immediately, pour half a cup of water very carefully into the caramel and stir and mix well. (Note: Be careful, the liquid will splash when you pour the water into the hot caramel. The color of caramelized sugar is the key to the color of the cake. If you don’t caramelize well, you will not get the dark color.)
- Add the chopped dry fruit to the caramel syrup pan and boil it for couple of minutes (Note :This step help the dry fruits to make soft)
- Switch off the flame and drain the caramized sugar syrup and allow to cool. Caramel syrup should be cooled before adding to the cake batter.
- Toss the syrup soaked dry fruits with little all purpose flour/maida and set aside. Tossing the fruits in flour, prevent fruit from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
- Grease a 9″ cake tin, keep aside. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda together and keep aside.
- Separate egg yolks from the whites. In a separate bowl, whisk or beat egg yolks with vanilla until it turns light and fluffy.
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar using the hand blender or whisk till creamy and combined well.
- Now add the egg yolk mixture little by little, alternating with a tbsp of the sieved flour and combine till smooth.
- Pour in the caramel syrup and spice powders and beat thoroughly till everything is creamy and combined.
- Add the flour in small quantities and gently fold in with a wooden spoon or with rubber spatula.(Note : Don’t beat the flour just flod gently by doing this you’ll get the soft moist cake.)
- Now add dry fruits tossed with flour (keep half fruits aside for final sprinking) and gently fold them into the batter
- Whisk separated egg whites till it forms stiff peaks and gently fold into the cake batter immediately till well combined. If they sit for more than 10 minutes, they lose stability and start to deflate. It takes just few minutes using an electric hand blender but if you are using a whisk it will take some time. This is the main step that makes the cake spongy. So do not skip, but beat well.
- Brush a baking cake pan with butter and dust it with flour. Tap off the excess and set aside till use. (Note : Place parchment paper or butter paper optionally inside the pan)
- Pour the prepared batter into this greased cake pan, do not pour upto the brim, stop when the pan is ¾th full. Add the reamaining dry fruits tossed in flour and then level the top with spatula.Tap the pan lightly so that the cake is spread evenly throughout the whole pan.
- Add 1½ cups salt to the pressure cooker. This is done to maintain the heat while baking. (Note : You can also use sand instead of salt.)
- Place the grid/separator plate above the salt layer and close the pressure cooker. Preheat the cooker for 10 minutes on high flame. Don’t use whistle and gasket on the lid.
- Now open the cooker and place the cake pan with batter carefully on the separator plate and close the lid. (Note : Whistle or gasket is not needed throughout the procedure )
- Switch the flame to medium high and cook for 40 to 50 minutes. Check in between to see if your cake has got cooked.
- When you smell the cake, insert tooth pick into the center of the cake if it comes out clean. It is ready, now remove from flame and set aside. Do not open the lid immediately. Open it after 10 minutes.
- You will find that the cake has puffed up well and would have browned nice and evenly too.
- Let it cool down. Then just tap off 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.
- Leave aside on a wire rack until it cools down.
- Garnish with powdered sugar. Serve yummy kerala plum cake-christmas plum cake and Enjoy!
Notes
Tips and Notes for making Kerala plum cake/Christmas fruit cake :
I used the stainless steel pressure cooker for this recipe but I recommend aluminium pressure cooker is best for baking cakes.
Beating egg whites separately makes a huge difference in this cake and it is the most important step. It makes the cake really soft if you beat really well but same time take care not to overbeat it. You can test them by lifting the beaters straight up from the egg whites. Peaks will form and the tips will curl over and when the bowl is tilted, the mixture should not slide around. If not continue beating for few seconds more and perform the test again and also gently fold the egg whites immediately to batter. If they sit for more than 10 minutes, they lose stability and start to deflate
The baking time can vary depending on the pressure cooker and also the size of the tin used.
Cover the cake with plastic wraps or parchment paper and in aluminum foil and keep it for 4 to 5 days for a better taste.
To ensure the cake keeps long without spoiling use dry vessels and spoons when mixing the batter
Caramel should be cooled before adding it to the batter. Caramel can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator for a few days.
If you perfer soaking the dry fruit for alchohol verison soak it in rum/brandy/wine for a week and for non alcohol version soak it in with apple juice/orange juice/pineapple juice overnight or for 1 day.
Keep the dairy ingredients and eggs at room temperature before you begin.
Tossing the fruits in flour, prevents fruit from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
Adding orange peels to cake batter enhances the flavour a lot.
For more dark color you can use same quantity of light brown sugar instead of white sugar.
The longer the caramel cooks the harder it will become as it cools.
After the caramel is prepared, do not stir it too much, as this may eventually cause crystallization.
If after cooling the caramel is too hard, re-heat it and add more water, milk or heavy cream to thin it.
If after cooling the caramel is too liquidy, make a second batch and cook the caramel slightly longer, then mix the two together.
Caramel can be stored in room temperature, up to 3 days; refrigerated, at least 3 months. To reheat: Place it in a bowl in a pan of simmering water and heat, stirring occasionally, until warm for 5 minutes or soaking utensils in hot water will remove hardened caramel.
I used the stainless steel pressure cooker for this recipe but I recommend aluminium pressure cooker is best for baking cakes.
Beating egg whites separately makes a huge difference in this cake and it is the most important step. It makes the cake really soft if you beat really well but same time take care not to overbeat it. You can test them by lifting the beaters straight up from the egg whites. Peaks will form and the tips will curl over and when the bowl is tilted, the mixture should not slide around. If not continue beating for few seconds more and perform the test again and also gently fold the egg whites immediately to batter. If they sit for more than 10 minutes, they lose stability and start to deflate
The baking time can vary depending on the pressure cooker and also the size of the tin used.
Cover the cake with plastic wraps or parchment paper and in aluminum foil and keep it for 4 to 5 days for a better taste.
To ensure the cake keeps long without spoiling use dry vessels and spoons when mixing the batter
Caramel should be cooled before adding it to the batter. Caramel can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator for a few days.
If you perfer soaking the dry fruit for alchohol verison soak it in rum/brandy/wine for a week and for non alcohol version soak it in with apple juice/orange juice/pineapple juice overnight or for 1 day.
Keep the dairy ingredients and eggs at room temperature before you begin.
Tossing the fruits in flour, prevents fruit from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
Adding orange peels to cake batter enhances the flavour a lot.
For more dark color you can use same quantity of light brown sugar instead of white sugar.
The longer the caramel cooks the harder it will become as it cools.
After the caramel is prepared, do not stir it too much, as this may eventually cause crystallization.
If after cooling the caramel is too hard, re-heat it and add more water, milk or heavy cream to thin it.
If after cooling the caramel is too liquidy, make a second batch and cook the caramel slightly longer, then mix the two together.
Caramel can be stored in room temperature, up to 3 days; refrigerated, at least 3 months. To reheat: Place it in a bowl in a pan of simmering water and heat, stirring occasionally, until warm for 5 minutes or soaking utensils in hot water will remove hardened caramel.
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