Plum Pudding Cake - Sweet, Fruity and Spicy Treat

It’s a gorgeous sweet, fruity and spicy treat – great as a pudding or with evening tea.

I find baking with fruits is very exciting and quite challenging. Getting a good texture and keeping the flavours of fruits alive is quite tricky if you ask me.  So when I got my hands on some lovely ruby red plums I thought of trying this cake. The heart and soul of this cake is good sweet plums so please taste your plums before taking the plunge. I came across this recipe long back on a BBC show and it’s just got stuck in my head. It’s not like I did not try it before, that warning above is coming from there. You need beautiful and sweet plums, ITS A MUST.

Other thing which I would insist on is brown sugar. Brown sugar not only uplifts the flavors of fruits in the cake but it does wonders to the texture. So get ready to bake a rich, buttery and gooey cake with me.

2 Cup Flour

1 lightly heaped Tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1 lightly heaped Tsp ground Cinnamon

1 lightly heaped Tsp Ground Ginger

4 Tbsp of Honey

1 Cup Butter

¾ Cup Brown sugar

¼ Cup Granular sugar

 2 Cup Plums

2 Eggs (Replace with 1 Cup curd, if not using eggs)

1 Cup Milk

Pre heat the oven at 180C. Line a square baking tray with baking paper.

Sift together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger into a bowl.

Warm honey, granular sugar and butter very gently in a pan until the butter and sugar melts. Stir in the brown sugar. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.

Halve the plums, or cut them into quarters if they are very large, and remove the stones.

Break the eggs into a bowl, pour in the milk and whisk lightly to mix.

Pour the honey butter syrup mixture into the flour and mix with a large spoon. Pour in the egg and milk and continue stirring till you have almost sloppy batter without any lumps.

Tip the mixture into the lined cake tin, drop in the plums and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Server this pudding cake with a dollop of whip cream or just a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and see the magic.

Easy and Fun Baking - Ginger Cookies

Winter continues to play hide and seek. Yesterday’s bright and sunny day has given way to gray clouds again. The cold wind has again forced me take out my pullover this morning. These very rare days of slight cold make me nostalgic about winters of back home.

Having a cup of tea with freshly baked ginger cookies make a winter evening more enjoyable. You must be wondering, why every time I just think of having tea. LOL!! I love tea and everything which makes a cup of tea special. My love for tea has fetched me the title of “Miss Tea Pot”.  

Baking cookies sounds like a very tough job. Take my words, it’s not as difficult as it might seems.  I am sharing one of very simple recipe of make amazing cookies.

1 ¾  Cup Plain Flour

1 tps Baking Powder

2 tps Ground Cinnamon

1 ½ tps Ground Cloves

 ½ tps Ground nutmeg

 ½ tps Ground Ginger

¼ tps Salt

1 ½ Cup Brown Sugar

1 Cup Chopped Candied Ginger

1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil

3 eggs (Can use 1 cup of melted butter if you don’t want to use egg. )

Line a baking dish with butter/ baking paper and sprinkle very small amount of flour evenly

Pre-heat the oven at 180 ºC

Mix all the dry ingredients in one large bowl

Mix all the wet ingredients in another bowl

Mix both by adding small amount of wet mixture at a time in dry mixture.

(If using butter beat butter and sugar together lightly and then add all the dry ingredients. Mix well till the dough come together)

Prepare soft dough.

Roll out small size boll of dough and flatten to make coin medium size discs.

Bake for 20 minute at 220 ºC till golden brown . Cool on wire rack.

And that’s it!!!  You are done.

 Your Ginger Cookies are ready to enjoy. This recipe is so easy, try making these with your kids, it will be so much fun.

Ginger and spices together infuse such warm sensation on the plate that anyone can’t stop going for one bit after another. So make sure you make plenty.