Plum Cake

Ingredients 

Sugar for caramelization - ½ cup

Boiling water- ¾ cup

All purpose flour - 1 ½ cup

Baking powder - 1 tspoon

Baking soda - ¼ Tspoon

Cocoa powder - 1 Tspoon

Egg - 3 Nos

Unsalted butter - 100 gm

Refined oil - ¼ cup

Dry fruits soaked in alcohol - 1 ¼ cup 

Chopped cashew and almond - 1 ¼  cup 

Powdered spices ( cinnamon, clove, cardamom, nutmeg) - 1 tspoon

Dried ginger powder - 1/2 tspoon

Dried orange peel powder -1 tspoon 

Brown sugar - ½ cup 

Honey - 1 tspoon 

Jam - 1 tspoon

Plum cake essence / Vanilla essence -1 tspoon

Syrup from soaked dry fruits - 2 table spoon 

Method of preparation 

To make the caramel syrup, place a thick bottom pan on the stove.  Add 1/cup of sugar to it.  Do not stir until it slowly melts.  When the sugar melts well, start to stir well. When the sugar melts and turns dark brown in color, pour ¾ cup of boiling water. When pouring boiling water, take care to pour from a little distance. Otherwise it may spill and cause burns. After pouring the water, stir well and reduce the syrup till it becomes 1/2 cup(need to get the consistency of honey) After that turn off the stove and keep it aside to cool.

Now take 1 ½ cup dry fruits soaked in alcohol and strain it through a sieve and keep it aside.After straining, take the syrup and keep it aside. Add ½ cup chopped cashew and almond to the dry fruits and mix well. 

Next grind all the spices well. A small piece of nutmeg is enough. After that grind well dried orange peel and add a spoonful of sugar for easy powdering.

Grind ½ cup brown sugar finely. If you don't have brown sugar, you can use plain white sugar.

Next, mix all the dry ingredients together. For that, add 1 ½ cup all purpose flour, 1 spoon powdered spices, 1 teaspoon dried orange peel, powder, 1 teaspoon powdered dried ginger, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, and then 1 teaspoon cocoa powder to get a good color and mix well and filter through a sieve 3 times.

 Take 2 spoons of this and add it to the dry fruits mix and mix well. When the cake is baked, this is done so that all the dry fruits do not fall on the bottom.

Now let's mix all the rest of the ingredients. For that first take 100 gm unsalted butter at room temperature and beat it well. After beating the butter well, add refined oil to it and beat it well. Then add powdered sugar in batches to it and beat it well.Beat it till it becomes fluffy.. After that add egg at room temperature one by one and beat it wewell till it becomes a soft creamy texture. 

Then add plum cake essence / vanilla essence( depends on tha availability ), honey and jam(any kind of jam you can use) to this and mix well. Add half of the strained syrup to this and mix well.

 After that add flour and caramel syrup alternately, littleby little  and mix well. Instead of using a beater, it is better to fold it with a spatula. Or if you are using a beater, just put it on low speed and mix it.

After mixing well, add the reserved dry fruits mix to it and mix well. After that, pour it into the lined cake tin and tap it to remove any air bubbles, then decorate with some cashew and almond on top.

After that put it in a preheated oven and bake it at 180° for 45-50 minutes (depends on the oven). After baking, take it out and make small holes by piercing a skewer or tooth pick on it. After that, brush the remaining dry fruits syrup over it to get it more moist and soft. After cooling well, wrap in aluminum foil and store in an air tight container. After 1 week, you can brush the dry fruits syrup over it again (optional). 

Note:

Then, since the dried fruits are soaked in alcohol, it should be prepared at least a week before cutting. If not, there will be a taste of alcohol. Just make it and wrap it in an aluminum foil and keep it in an air tight container. No need to keep it in the fridge, atleast for 2 - 3 weeks.