Eggless Alcohol Free Fruit Cake
It wasn't long before I realized how deep rooted my little hobby has become. It was just day 4 of my self-declared break from blogging when I found myself jotting down/memorizing measurements even though I knew that I was not going to be blogging anytime soon. I caught myself picturing how I would photograph this Eggless Alcohol free Fruit Cake even before I was done sifting the dry ingredients. Who was I kidding.. even though I wanted a break from blogging, blogging wasn't in the mood to let go of me! So now I have a new approach. I will blog when I want to, and I promised myself that I will not beat myself up if there were weeks of no new posts. I will be especially taking things slow since typing is one of the triggers that my shoulder spasm and tennis elbow pain worse!
A break, however, is always rejuvenating, regardless how short it is.
This year it took me a while to start my Holiday baking. Once the 6 yo recovered from a nasty bout of flu, I fell sick. Then some bad news from home threw us all off the track for a little while. But life goes on. We pick up the pieces and move on.
I kicked off the Holiday baking with the Alton Brown inspired Boozy Fruit Cake. I baked it in mini loaf pans and I will be gifting these to a few friends. Friends who do not consume alcohol and/or eggs will be getting this Eggless Alcohol Free Fruit Cake. The addition of the glace cherries makes this cake a little on the sweeter side. You can switch out the glace cherries with dried fruits of your choice, if you, like me do not like your fruit cake over sweet. Addition of chopped orange peels and lemon peels also help in countering the sweetness.
Ingredients:
- Assorted Dried Fruits - 2 Cups, chopped (cherries, blueberries, apricots, dates, cranberries, plums)
- Glace Cherries - 1 Cup, chopped (I used red, green and yellow)
- Raisins - 1 Cup
- Orange Juice - 1 Cup, freshly squeezed or store bought (or apple cider)
- Toasted Chopped Nuts - 1/2 Cup (pecan, almonds, cashews, walnuts)
- Ground Jamaican Allspice - 1 tsp (or 4 whole cloves and 6 whole allspice berries, ground)
- Ground Ginger - 1 tsp
- Ground Cinnamon - 1 tsp
- All Purpose Flour - 1 1/2 Cup
- Whole-wheat Flour - 3/4 Cup (or you can use just APF)
- Brown Sugar - 1 1/2 Cup, packed
- Salt - 1 tsp
- Baking Powder - 1 tsp
- Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
- Oil - 1 Cup
- Milk - 1 Cup
- Vinegar - 2 tbsp.
- Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
Check out:
- Mulled Red Wine (Coming up soon)
In a medium bowl, soak the dried fruits in the orange juice or apple cider. Cover it with cling wrap and stick it in the fridge overnight.
Preheat at 325F. Grease and flour your baking pan(s) and set aside
In a bowl or a measuring cup, add 1 Cup of milk. To it add the vinegar and let it stand till it curdles.
In a largish bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices. Mix in the sugar and the oil till everything starts coming together. Now add the soaked fruits. Whisk in the curdled milk along with vinegar. Do not overmix. Lastly, fold in the toasted
Bake at 325 F. I prefer checking at the 30 minute mark. Since I baked in mini loaf pans, it took about 40 minutes to bake. The mini Bundt pan was done in 35 minutes. If you are baking in a 8-inch circle pan or a regular loaf pan it will take close to or over an hour - but keep checking after the 40 minute mark. A little peek will be enough. Once it looks done, poke the cake in the middle with a toothpick or a skewer. If it comes out clean, the cake is done.
Cover the cakes in cling wrap and store in an airtight container. If these are gifts (like mine) and you have baked in disposable mini loaf pans, cling wrap and then cover with an aluminum foil. These will stay fresh for 5 days.
Serve a slice with a warm mug of Mulled Apple Cider or Mulled Wine.
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| Mulled Wine |
This recipe is roughly adapted from vegrecipesofindia
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