There are two methods to make caramel syrup 'Wet' and 'Dry' Method. The Dry method is nothing but heat sugar in a heavy saucepan until it melts and begins to brown. The Wet method uses water with caramelized sugar. We will be doing wet method today. Caramelize sugar is used for topping your puddings, making caramels, and other desserts. It can be combined with butter or cream to create a caramel sauce that will make all sorts of desserts taste magnificent. The technique varies on what you are using the caramel for. A few examples, for Plum cakes we need to caramelize the sugar until it turns black. For Butterscotch desserts, we caramelize the sugar until dark brown. This recipe is used for plum cakes. Ingredients Serves - 1/2 cup Sugar - 1/2 cup Water - 1/4 cup Method 1. Heat sugar in a heavy bottom pan and melt completely. It goes through 3 stages. Honey color ----> Light brown Light brown ----> Dark brown (which is used for butterscotch cakes) Dark Brown ----> Black (which is used for plum cakes) It will be better if you are using a light color pan to see the color change. You learn something new every day :-) 2. When it turns black, add 1/4 cup water and boil. Initially, there will be lumps which will later dissolve to form caramel syrup. 3. Add water slowly else it will start bubbling out like this.
4. This sugar syrup gives the dark color and a very slight bitter taste for plum cakes. 5. It has a shelf life up to 1 month. So make ahead to reduce your work.
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Hi Friends, today I'm going to share my all time favorite rich plum cake recipe. I made my plum cake last Christmas and had some leftover dry fruits soaked in rum from last December. Then my friend and neighbor gave me a small order for 30 pieces of plum cake for her art exhibition. I learned this recipe when I took one week cake course back in Kerala from a famous cake maker. Although it has been just one week class, it was very informative. I learned lots of baking tips and icing techniques. As you know, plum cakes are time consuming work. We need to chop and soak dry fruit in rum or fruit juice for months. Some even start making them a year ahead. My recipe includes dates, tutti fruity, chopped raspberry and blueberry. I am not a big fan of raisins so I avoided them. You can use any dry fruit according to your preference. I can assure you that, the effort put into preparations is really worth at the end. So start soaking your dry fruits right away for next Christmas.
Yield - 1 kg cake Ingredients 1. Butter - 200 gms 2. Ghee - 50 gms 3. Sugar powder - 250 gms 4. Eggs - 4 5. Mixed Fruits -300 gms (Any fruits equal portions each. Soaked in rum for a few days. More the days better the taste) rum-soaked-dry-fruits.html 6. Flour - 300 gms 7. Mixed Spices - 1 tbps (Roasted and powdered cloves, cinnamom , nutmeg) 8. Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp 9. Caramel syrup - 1/2 cup (Caramel Syrup Recipe) 10. Pineapple Jam - 1 tbps 11. Vanilla essence - 1 tsp 12. Rum/Brandy/Fruit juice - 2 tbps 13. Nuts Chopped - 1/4 cup ( i used cashew, almond, walnut) Method 1. Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350 F 2. Grease a loaf pan or any of your preference. 3. Cream butter and sugar. 4. Add ghee and combine well. 5. Add eggs, one at a time and mix slowly at low speed. Do not over beat. 6. Sieve the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder and spice mixture. Add the mixed fruit into the dry ingredient and mix well in order to avoid the fruits sinking to the bottom. 7. Gently fold in the dry mixture, caramel syrup, jam, chopped nuts and vanilla essence with butter egg mixture until it reaches a dropping consistency. 8. Pour into greased pan (i have used a loaf pan) and bake for 45 mins - 1 hrs max. Baking time changes with type of pan you use.
Bake until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 9. Remove the cake from oven and spray 2 tbps of rum or brandy over the cake when hot. This really enhances the flavor. 10. Allow the cake to cool. This recipe makes 2 loaf cakes. This recipe is really easy and needs very few ingredients. One day I was thinking what else can I do other than cakes and thought about trying bread. I enjoy baking, let it be cakes, bread, dinner rolls, cookies, or brownies. I never thought that making bread at home will be easy and also tastier than the bread bought from the stores. From that day I have never bought bread from store. Ingredients Serves : 2 loaves 1. Active Yeast - 2 packets ( 4 1/2 tsp) 2. White Sugar - 3 tbsp 3. Warm Water - 2 1/2 cups 4. Softened Butter - 3 tbsp 5. Salt - 1 tbsp 6. Flour - 6 1/2 cups Method 1. In a large bowl dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. 2. Add Butter, salt and 2 cups flour. Mix well and gradually keep adding 1/2 flour at a time to get a dough. 3. Transfer the dough into oiled bowl and cover with damp cloth/ plastic wrap/top. Place in a warm area (I kept in the oven with light on) and allow to rise. It will double the volume for about 1 hour (For me it took more than 1 hour since it was winter). 4. Deflate the dough and turn onto floured surface. 5. Divide the dough into 2 equal halves and place in loaf pans, cover and allow to rise around 40 mins. Try making the top smooth so that it doesn't develop cracks while baking. 6. Preheat the oven to 425 degree F. 7. Bake at 375 degree F for 30 mins or until the top turns brown. 8. Slightly butter the top brown crust. Cool in the pan for few mins.
9. Take out of pan cool completely. Cut and store in clean container. 10. Home baked bread won't have the shelf life of store bought breads. So keep refrigerated if not used within 2-3 days. Soft and light blueberry cake. Blueberries have very different taste of what I was expecting. I was assuming that it's similar to grapes, but its totally different. They are almost citrus-like, but sweeter and mostly sour. We got bored of directly consuming them. So I started searching for recipes and ended up making blueberry cake. This cake has a custard kind of taste which everyone enjoyed. I will recommend everyone to try out if you have blueberry leftover and wondering what you can make with it. Without wasting any time just make blueberry cake and enjoy yourself or along with your friends and family. Ingredients 1. Butter - 1/2 cup 2. White sugar - 1/2 cup plus 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp 3. Salt - 1/4 tsp 4. Vanilla extract - 1 tsp 5. Egg yolk - 2 6. Flour - 1 and 1/2 cups plus 1 tbsp 7. Baking Powder - 1 tsp 8. Milk - 1/3 cup 9. Egg whites - 2 10. Fresh Blueberries - 1 and 1/2 cups Method 1. Preheat oven to 350 Degree F. Grease and line with parchment paper an 8 inch square pan. 2. Cream butter and 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy, until color changes to pale yellow color. 3. Then add vanilla and egg yolks until well combined and creamy. 4. Combine 1 1/2 cup flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture and milk alternately into the butter mixture. 5. Coat berries with 1 tablespoon flour and add to batter. 6. In a separate bowl, beat whites until soft peaks form. Add 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, and beat until stiff peaks form. 7. Fold egg whites into batter. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle top with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. 8. Bake for 50 minutes, or until cake tests done. Cool in pan for 10 mins and revert to cooling rack and let it cool completely Enjoy !!!
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