Simple vanilla fruit cake

 

Baking cake is something that gives me complete pleasure and its kind of stress buster for me. I have been baking cakes for  many years now and I still remember when I fed my family with rock hard cakes once upon a time. I had an OTG that time  which I had to sell for some technical difficulties and bought my microwave. Since then I have been doing all my baking stuff in my microwave convection mode. Though I miss my OTG now a lot as people say it is the best for baking purpose. This holiday I have baked cookies, plum cake, some simple vanilla cake, chocolate cakes.


This particular recipe of this vanilla cake is something I am very very excited to share with you all. This has to be one of my no fail recipe of super moist soft spongy cake. I cant explain how happy I was when PB said that "ohh I thought it was store bought cake!!" PB & my daughter both of them have approved it as the best recipe of cake I have ever baked. Hence no waiting and I baked one chocolate cake, vanilla cake and even the plum cake with this particular recipe.

I wanted to make it a fruit cake but knowing my daughter , she would not eat it with dry fruits inside , I thought of only top the cake with few cherries. This time I have worked with the temperature level also while baking. I always get the top of my cakes not so brown which I don't like but never got any solution to do it without burning my cake. This time I tried to change the temperature levels. First I baked the cake for about 25minutes in 180 degree Celsius and then next 5 minutes  and then 3 more minutes in 250 degree Celsius. And it was like magic for me, I got a brown top and no burning inside. 

I have changed the measurements of this case from my regular ones. I normally used to bake cakes with 1 1/2cup of flour with 3 eggs with 2-3 tbsp. of butter/veg oil. In this recipe I have used 1 cup flour with 2 eggs and 1/2 cup butter & 1/2 cup sugar. I have added few spoons of milk and luke warm water as well. For the chocolate cake version , add 1/2 cup of cocoa powder and replace the sugar with brown sugar (use a little more that 1/2 cup as it is less sweeter than regular granulated sugar). Sift the cocoa powder together with the flour, baking powder & salt. If you wish , add dry fruits in this cake like almonds, walnut, dates, tuti frutti, cranberry etc. for example. Always roll them in dry flour before adding in cake batter to avoid them sinking in the bottom of the cake.

Here is how I made it.

SIMPLE VANILLA FRUIT CAKE

• Preparation Time : 12 minutes
• Baking Time: 35 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

Plain flour: 1 cup
Sugar: 1/2 cup (powdered)
Egg: 2
Butter: 1/2  cup softened at room temperature
Baking powder: 1 tbsp.
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
Pinch of salt
Milk: 4 tbsp. (at room temperature)
Luke warm water: About 2 tbsp. (you can adjust depending on the consistency of the batter)
Red & Green cherries: 6 each of red & green


METHOD:
                          
Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt in a large bowl.

Take another large bowl, add the sugar & butter. Whisk till everything combines and become creamy. Add the eggs one by one , whisk till the consistency is fluffy and creamy. I used the electric blender and it took me 6 minutes altogether.

Add vanilla essence and mix.

Now fold in the dry ingredients to this mixture with the help of a spoon or flat spatula. Once you combine everything well , add the milk & then water spoon by spoon keeping the batter consistency in mind. 


Grease the cake mould/tin with oil/butter and sprinkle some dry flour. Remove excess. I used an aluminium cook ware this time (as you can see in the picture) so I skipped this step.

Pour the batter in it and arrange the cherries on top of it . Before placing them, I have rolled them on dry plain flour.

Bake it in the preheated oven at 180 degree Celsius for 25 minutes. After that reset the temperature to 250 degree Celsius and baked first for 5 minutes and then for another 3 minutes to get that brown top. 

This step might vary from oven to oven. I bake in my microwave in convection mode. If you use oven/OTG, then bake it for 20-25 minutes or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Happy baking!

If you like the recipe do spread among your friends :)