Vegan Christmas cake recipe | Vegan Christmas fruit cake | Kerala plum cake Make this popular and flavourful fruit cake, commonly called plum cake made with a load of soaked dried fruits. You can skip out the rum and soak the fruit in orange juice. This is an vegan version, of the popular rum fruit cake or brandy Christmas cake served for Christmas.
WHAT IS A PLUM CAKE?
In India, specifically Kerala, Plum Cake refers to a type of cake made with either dried fruit (such as raisins, cranberries, figs, prunes etc.)with a hint of rum or brandy. In India, the plum cake has is served during the Christmas season, and those who are vegetarians, skip out the eggs, and those who don’t want alcohol in their cakes, generally use orange juice instead.
This recipe came to India from England, but it is quite a popular cake around the world. Every family usually has their own family recipe for a fruit cake.
How to make my Plum Cake alcohol-free?
Traditionally, for this cake, the dried fruit is soaked in rum or brandy for months or even years and then using them for an extensive Christmas bake. Honestly, nowadays, not everybody remembers to do this! For this eggless and vegan plum cake, I use half rum and half orange juice. But if you want to skip out on the rum, then just replace it with more orange juice! Also, try my quick, cheat code to soak the dried fruit in a matter of 10 minutes! I do this by cooking the dried fruit in rum and orange juice until the fruit soaks it all up! It helps make the dried fruit super flavorful for the cake. I used raisins, dried cranberries, dried apricots, dried figs, and prunes for this vegan plum cake. But you can use any dried fruits you have at your disposal!
How to bake this cake without an oven?
Here’s an FAQ: Can we bake this cake in a microwave? Yes, you can bake this cake in a microwave too! Yes! So if you don’t own an oven, feel free to still try out this cake!
Just turn on the convection mode in your microwave! Then, pre-heat to 160 degrees celsius and place the cake pan on the microwave tray, and allow it to bake for 30-40 minutes. Definitely keep an eye on the cake so that it doesn’t burn. As soon as it gets a golden brown edge, stop!
This vegan plum cake can also be made in a pressure cooker or the Indian wok: kadhai! Feel free to try out the option that best works for you!
Make other festive bakes from the blog:
- Vegan Cardamom Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
- Cardamom Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Tahini chocolate chip cookies
Vegan Plum Cake – Vegan Christmas Fruit Cake
Ingredients
For the cake batter:
- 1 ½ cup All purpose flour 180 grams
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp ground ginger
- ⅛ tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp orange zest
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup yogurt 245 grams
- ½ cup neutral vegetable oil sub with vegan butter, 109 grams
- ¾ cup brown sugar 165 grams
- For soaking the dried fruit:
- ⅓ cup orange juice
- ⅓ cup rum sub with orange juice
- ¼ cup raisins
- ¼ cup dried apricots chopped roughly
- ⅛ cup dried cranberries
- ⅛ cup figs chopped roughly
- ⅛ cup prunes chopped roughly
Nuts (about 110 grams):
- ¼ cup almonds
- ¼ cup pecans
- ¼ cup cashews
Instructions
- In a saucepan, take rum and orange juice, and turn on the heat.
- Add the dried fruits to the rum and juice mix and cook untill the mixture thickens and the dried fruit absorbs all the juices. Set aside and let cool.
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C (320 degrees F) and line an 8-inch cake pan with parchment paper.
- In a bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground spices, and orange zest and set aside.
- Whisk together brown sugar, vanilla extract, yoghurt and oil in a separate bowl until well combined.
- Gently fold in the dry ingredients with a silicone spatula, then the soaked dried fruit, and nuts and mix until everything is well combined with no large flour pockets. Do not over-mix the batter!
- Bake at 160C for 50-55 minutes or only until a toothpick or skewer comes out clean.
- Top the cake with the extra soaked fruits and enjoy!
I would like to make this cake but with more strong rum taste . My friends are vegan and i want to make for them but with a heavy rum taste . How do i do it