Eggless Rum-less Dry-Fruit Cake

I don't know where to start with this cake..I am not so much a sugary person, an occasional slice of cake is more than enough for more. Even when I bake, I normally don't eat more than one small piece..just that I can't take in so much sweetness. But this particular cake broke all norms!! I was addicted to this one. It had such an earthy overtone, majorly from the use of muscavado (very similar to our jaggery) sugar in it. 

So I am not sure how many of you will like it. It was much sweeter compared to other cakes, and much more dense, li'l chewy and full of deep flavours. More than half of it was consumed by me, and the other half by hubby. Got the recipe from here. I am sure to make it again, just that I will need reduce few inches before I make it again.

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 1.5 cups

Baking powder - 2 tsp

Baking soda - 1 tsp

Vegetable oil - 150 ml

Water - 200ml

Dates (pitted and chopped) - 100 g

Raisins - 100g (Original recipe called for 150g, but I found it slightly overpowering)

Cashew nuts, almonds, walnuts (broken) - 100g

Jaggery or Dark muscavado sugar - 150g

Sugar - 150g

Fruit jam - 3 tbsp (if possible use sugarless jam, as this makes the batter very sweet

Spice powder - 2 tsp

Grated rind of 1 lime (I omitted this)

Method:

1. Grease and line the bottom of an 8” square or 9” round cake tin with greaseproof paper/baking parchment/butter paper. 

2. In a mixing bowl, assemble the flour, baking powder and baking soda, mix with a spoon and sieve once to make the mixture uniform. 

3. Heat the oil in a pan and add the fruits and nuts. Stir in the jaggery, sugar, jam and 100 ml water. Heat on a low flame until the sugar and jaggery melt, stirring all the while. Don’t overcook the mixture. 

4. Allow to cool and add the reamaining 100 ml water, rind and spice powder. 

5. Mix in the sifted flour mixture and beat with a spoon or a wire whisk until there are no lumps. 

6. Transfer the contents to the greased and lined tin and bake in a preheated oven at 150 degree centigrade for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean.

Banana Bread

What will you do if you have got 2 big bunches of ripe banana (ethapazham) sitting in your kitchen, threatening to go from ripe to over-ripe to rotten within few days!! I was in complete dilemma the last 3-4 days, as my hubby who traveled to India came back with a really big bunch of plantains (lovingly packed my MIL). It is home grown, organic and all that stuff, which means you just can't throw it. While my hubby was away in India, I made a very relaxing trip to Lulu and had bought the week's grocery which included around 4 big bananas...I wasn't expecting him to come back with a 20 kg baggage full of fruits and vegetables from the backyard.

Since I had to use up all of those 11 really ripe bananas within few days, here is what I did...

Day 1 - I, along with my kids ate bananas as it is...3 gone

Day 2 - Made some pazham pori / banana fritters (post pending to be posted) - 3 gone

Day 3 - Made banana bread - 3 gone

Day 4 - Made pazham nirachathu / stuffed banana (pending post) - 2 gone

Hurray!! so I used up all of them without wasting even a li'l bit, and without my family getting bored of eating the same thing everyday..

Now coming to banana bread, I have made this n number of times before...but using Chiquita bananas. This is the first time I am using Kerala's own nethrakkaya for this...and it was super-duper delicious. Our home-taster (my son) gave a thumbs up and "Super" (which he rarely utters) after the first bite. This bread is slightly dense compared to the one using chiquitas, but the taste was incomparable. Above all its super-easy to make this. 

This is a very basic/flexible recipe, and you can make modifications as per things available in your kitchen, or as per your liking.

Ingredients

Very ripe (Kerala) banana - 3 (if using chiquitas, you'll need around 4)

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Whole wheat atta -1/2 cup (you can use only all purpose flour, or increase the amount of atta)

Sugar - 1 cup (I used Demarera sugar, you can use white, or soft brown or a mix of both)

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Butter - 1 stick / 100g, melted (you can use oil instead)

Salt - a pinch

Chocolate chips - 1/2 cup (optional)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius

2. Prepare a 9 x 5" loaf tin (grease and dust with flour)

3. Prepare the dry ingredients. Sieve together the wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, couple of times.

4. Melt butter in a sauce pan, and allow to cool.

5. Take the big jar of the mixer and add the chopped bananas. Puree it well in the mixie.

6. Now to the same jar, add the sugar and melted butter along with the banana puree and pulse of 3-4 times till the sugar, butter and banana are incorporated well.

7. Move the banana mixture into a bowl and slowly mix in the flour mixture until all are well incorporated.

8. Add half the amount of chocolate chips into the mixture and give a gentle mix. 

9. Pour the batter to the prepared tin and sprinkle rest of the chocolate chips on the top.

10. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 40 min (this will depend on the size of your oven, so keep checking after about 35 min) or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.