Vanilla Muffins

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 2 cups
Sugar - 1 1/2 cup
Salt - 1/2 teaspoon
Milk  - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tablespoon
Butter - 250 grams
Vanilla esscence - 2 teaspoon
Egg - 2

In a bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla extract until it becomes fluffy. Now add sifted all purpose flour, baking powder and salt to this. Again mix it well using a hand mixer. Slowly add milk to this. Mix it well and once the batter is ready, Immediately transfer it to muffin mould and bake it for 20 to 25 minutes until a tooth pick inserted in the centre of the muffin comes out clean.

This is going to be my 50th post. I started blogging in the year 2015 just for fun. And planning to continue this hobby in 2016 as well. :) Wishing you all a Very Happy & Blessed New Year !!! :)

Vegetable Sambhar

Ingredients

Dal  - 1/2 cup
Potato - 2
Tomato - 1
Carrot - 2
Onion - 1
Garlic - 2
Green chilly - 3
Curry leaves
Sambar powder - 2 tablespoon
Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt
Oil
Red chilly -2
Fennel seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Mustard powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Tamarind extract - 1/4 cup
Water  - 1 cup

Optional

Raw Plantain - 1
Brinjal -1

In a pressure cooker, cook finely cut onion, potato, tomato, carrot, Dal with turmeric powder, sambar powder, salt and water. Cook it for 2 whistles. Keep it aside. Now in a pan add little oil. Once oil is hot, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, fennel seeds and red chilly. Add this to cooked vegetables. Mix well. 

Vegetable sambar is ready and is a famous south Indian curry for meals. You will find variety of sambar recipes. Am yet to post Kerala style sambar with roasted coconut. Here I have used Eastern Sambhar powder. You can try any sambhar powder to get the real sambhar flavour. I was so busy these days and forgot to take step by step pics of few recipes.  Hoping to update awesome recipe's in 2016 with lot of pics. 

Carrot Thoran

Ingredients

Carrot - 8
Onion  - 1
Green chilly -3
Mustard seeds  - 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder -1 teaspoon
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Salt
Oil
Curry leaves

In a pan add little oil. Once oil is hot, add mustard seeds, curry leaves and onion. Saute it for two minutes. Add finely cut carrots and little salt. Let it cook for 6-10 minutes by closing the lid. Finally add turmeric powder and grated coconut. Mix it well. It's an easy and fast recipe which again goes with rice.

Papaya Dal Curry

Ingredients

Raw Papaya - 1/2
Dal - 1/2 cup
Shallots -4
Green chilly -4
Garlic - 3 cloves
Cumin seeds  - 1 teaspoon
Mustard  seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Salt
Oil
Curry leaves
Dry red chilly - 2

In a pressure cooker, cook dal and medium sliced Papaya with little salt for 2-3 whistles. Keep it aside. Now grind grated coconut, shallots, cumin seeds, turmeric powder, green chilly and garlic cloves to a fine paste. Now heat a pan. Add little oil and once it is hot, add mustard seeds, red chilly and curry leaves. Add this to the cooked dal and papaya. Stir it well. Papaya dal curry is all set to serve hot. It goes well with rice.

Pathiri (Pancake - Rice Flour) (Malabar Pathiri)

Ingredients

Rice flour  - 1 cup
Salt
Oil - 1 teaspoon
Water - 1 cup

In a vessel, boil water with little salt and oil. When it starts boiling, add rice flour slowly. Do not mix it. Make sure you are adding rice flour in all the sides. Do not add it together in one shot. After this cover the vessel with a lid and let it cook for 30 -40 seconds in medium to low flame.

After one minute, slowly transfer this to a separate bowl. Now start kneading the dough when it is medium hot. Add little oil if it's too sticky. Make a round shaped dough like we do for chapatti.  Make small balls using this and keep it aside. Now using a chapatti press, with little oil on it, keep each balls in the center and press it.

Heat a pan or tava. Once it is really hot, cook these for one to two minutes on both sides. If you want perfect round shape, I would suggest to use lid of any big jar. So that you get exact round shapes. Or use cake moulds of 6 inch to get this medium shape for Pathiri . If it's too watery add little more flour to get the right consistency. So that it will be easy to knead. It's a famous breakfast dish of North Malabar. Also called Ari Pathiri. Its a kind of pancake made of rice flour. Please try it out with chicken curry or egg curry.

Pachakkaya Thoran (Raw Plantain)

Ingredients

Pachakaya - 1 (Raw Plantain )
Shallots - 6
Green chili - 3-4
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Water - 3/4 cup
Oil
Curry leaves
Salt

First cook plantain in water for 10 minutes. Make sure to close the lid and cook. Meanwhile mash shallots and green chilies. Keep it aside. In another pan, add little oil. Once oil is hot,  add mustard seeds. Let it splutter. Then add mashed green chilies and shallots. Saute it for two minutes. Now add cooked plantain to this and mix really well. Finally add curry leaves to this. Cook for a minute and serve hot.

Kakka Peera (Clams Stir Fry with Coconut)

Ingredients

Kakka - 500 grams (Clams)
Shallots - 12
Ginger - 1 medium
Garlic - 7 cloves
Green chilly - 6
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
Water - 1 1/2 cup
Pepper powder  - 1/2 teaspoon
Grated coconut - 1 1/2 cup
Salt
Oil
Curry leaves

Clean Clams three to four times just to make sure there are no pieces of shells in it. Then pressure cook clams for 4-5 whistles. Meanwhile, using an Ammi stone or grinder, grind shallots, ginger and garlic.  Keep it aside. 

Now grind coconut, green chilies, cumin seeds and turmeric powder. Make it thick paste. Since we don't need a fine paste. It has to be thick enough. Now heat a pan. Add little oil in it. Once oil is hot, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, mashed shallots, ginger and garlic. Saute it for two minutes until shallots turns to light brown color. Add pepper powder. Saute it for sometime. Slowly start adding cooked clams in it and mix really well. Cook this for another 3 - 4 minutes. 

Kakka peera is tasty with very little water and that's why it's called Peera in Malayalam. Those who prefer gravy can add little water. Pepper powder is optional. In case you need this to be extra spicy, add 2 - 3 green chilies. Its an awesome yummy dish. I would suggest you to try it out whenever clams are available since its seasonal.

Prawns Fry

Ingredients

Prawns - 500 grams
Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Red chili powder - 2 teaspoon
Shallots - 8
Ginger - 1 medium
Garlic - 7
Curry leaves
Tomato ketchup - 1 teaspoon
Water - 1/2 cup
Salt
Oil

First marinate prawns with little salt, turmeric powder and red chili powder in a bowl. Keep it for 10 - 15 minutes. Meanwhile, add, shallots, ginger and garlic in a mixer. And just grind it. We need thick mixture and not a fine one. Use Ammi Stone if you have it at home. Its a traditional method to use small ammi stone to mash shallots, ginger and garlic which will give us the real flavor instead of using ginger garlic paste.

Now take a pan with water and heat it. Add prawns to it and cook this for 5 minutes by covering the lid. Add mashed shallots, ginger, garlic and curry leaves to this. Mix really well. Cook it for two minutes. Finally add little oil and after couple of minutes add tomato ketchup. Prawns fry is my all time favorite especially this recipe since we are using ginger, garlic and shallots. It is so yummy and gives a different flavor all together. Please try it out.

Upma (Rava)

Ingredients

Rava - 1 cup
Green chilly -3
Onion - 1
Ginger - 1 small
Mustard seeds - 1/ 2 teaspoon
Salt
Water - 1 1/2 cup
Oil - 1 teaspoon
Ghee - 1/2 teaspoon

In a pan, start by adding oil. Once oil is hot, add mustard seeds, curry leaves and green chilies and chopped ginger. Now add finely sliced onion and saute it until it turns golden brown in color.

Add one n half cup water with little salt in it. Let it boil for one or two minutes. Slowly add one cup Rava to this and close the lid. Let it cook for three to four minutes. In between  keep stirring it so that entire Rava is cooked properly. Finally add ghee on top of it and serve. Its is also known as Upma, an easy and a traditional south Indian dish for breakfast. 

Egg Omelette

Ingredients

Egg -3
Onion - 1
Green chilly - 2
Pepper powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Oil
Salt

In a bowl, beat eggs with little salt and pepper. Now add finely chopped onions and green chilies  to this. Beat well. Now in a pan, add little oil. Once oil is hot, add this egg mixture in the pan. And cook both sides for couple of minutes. Very simple egg omelets is all set to have. :)

Dal Curry (Parippu Curry)

Ingredients

Dal - 1 cup
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Green chilly - 4
Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Shallots - 7
Salt
Oil
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves

In a pressure cooker, cook dal with 2 cups of water for 3 whistles. Keep it aside. Heat a pan. Add little oil. Once oil is hot, add mustard seeds and mashed shallots. Saute it until shallots become light brown color. Finally add curry leaves and coriander leaves. Mix this with cooked dal. Dal curry is ready. It is so simple recipe and tasty as well. It goes well with rice. 

Whenever  I feel little lazy, I normally go for dal curry which is easy to make and tasty as always. Also, am a big fan of Bengali dal tadka which is bit different  from this I guess. Need to try out the recipe one day from my Bengali friends Subh n Sush :)

Malabar Chicken Biryani

Ingredients

Ghee - 250 ml

Onion - 12
Tomato - 9
Green chilly -12
Ginger - 2 medium
Garlic - 15 cloves
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves
Mint leaves
Spices powder  - 3 tablespoon  ( cinnamon, cardamom, cloves )
Coriander powder - 4 tablespoon
Turmeric powder - 1 tablespoon
Pepper powder - 1 teaspoon
Sweet cumin seeds -1/2 teaspoon
Salt
Chicken - 1 kg
Biryani Rice - 1 kg
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Curd - 1/2 cup
Vinegar - 1 tablespoon or (lemon juice)

For seasoning

Onion - 2
Raisins - 50 grams
Cashew nuts - 50 grams

Masala Recepi

In a large pan, add little ghee. Once it is hot, start by adding finely cut onions. Saute it until onions turn golden brown in color. Grind ginger, garlic, curry leaves and green chillies in very little water. Just grind it as we dont want a fine paste. Add this to the pan and saute it again for two to three minutes. Add turmeric powder, coriander powder, pepper powder, sweet cumin and little salt. Saute it again for a minute. Now add sliced tomates to this. Let it cook for five minutes. Grind coconut and make a fine paste. Add this to the masala. Mix really  well.  Cook it for another three to four minutes. Now add chicken to this and mix again until chicken is coverd with all the masala. Cook it for 10 - 15 minutes. Finally add curd, coriander leaves and mint leaves. Cook it for a minute and switch off the flame. Keep this aside.

Rice

In a pressure cooker, add three tablespoon of ghee. Add 1 teaspoon Turmeric powder and 1 teaspoon Salt to this. Now start adding water by measuring the rice first. For example, if you are taking 6 cups of rice. You need to add 9 cups of water. That is for one cup of rice, we need to add one n half cup of water. After adding water, slowly add rice to this and pressure cook for 4 whistles. 

Seasoning

In a pan, add little ghee and fry onions until it becomes dark brown in color. Also, add raisins an cashew nuts to this and keep it aside.

Baking

In a large vessel, start by adding little masala at the bottom. Then add little rice and again add masala on top of it and continue the process. In between keep adding fried onions, raisins, nuts and spices powder. Also add little coriander leaves and mint leaves. Use vinegar or lemon juice in between so that rice will not stick together. Repeat the process of adding all the above and finally cover the vessel and bake it for five minutes. Try keeping this in oven or on stove. I guess this recipe is known to almost all north keralites especially people from Calicut, Kozhikode.

Fondant Christmas Cake (Marshmallow)

Ingredients

For Fondant

Marshmallows - 175 gram
Water - 1 tablespoon
Sugar powder - 2 cups

For Butter Cream Frosting

Butter - 250 grams
Sugar - 3 cups
Milk - 3 tablespoon

In a microwave bowl, add marshmallows and water. Keep this in microwave for about 2 minutes. Keep stirring the marshmallows every 30-40 seconds so that it will not stick. Make sure to grease the bowl and spoon with little oil or butter. I used Marshmelts Vanilla Mist. Bought it online through Amazon.  I like vanilla flavour and moreover I wanted to make a red and white Fondant cake for this Christmas. :)

Knead the fondant to get the right consistency by adding sugar. Add little oil or butter if its too sticky. Also add little icing sugar while rolling out the fondant as it prevents the fondant from sticking on to the rolling surface. Better use a plastic wrapper on the table for this.

Once the fondant shape is ready, slowly place it on top of the cake with the help of a roller. Using a fondant smoother, slowly fix the top part and the edges of the cake.

Always make sure to measure the height and length of the cake. I would suggest to consider the diameter of the cake. For example:- if the diameter is 20 cm, consider it as 22-24 cm. This will help the fondant to have enough length and will be easy to spread it on the cake without much trouble. Use colors, depending on your choice. Separate the fondant,  and use one drop of food color gel and knead it again. Or try buying, ready mix fondants.

And for the cake part, i used fruit cake recipe. Please refer to my post of  Christmas Plum Cake. Here, in the beginning, I used butter cream frosting to cover the cake. And then I used fondant on top of it. This will help the fondant to get the right shape. Also, the edges and the sides of the cake should be even for which I used the butter cream frosting on the cake. I have already published a post before for butter cream frosting. Since I don't want to repeat, am not including the steps here. This was my first attempt using a fondant. Its actually very simple just that you need to have little bit of patience for this. :)

Chicken Stew

Ingredients

Onion - 1
Tomato - 1
Potato - 1
Carrot - 1
Ginger - small piece
Garlic - 4 cloves
Tomato - 1
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves
Pepper powder - 1 teaspoon
Green chilly- 4
Chicken - 500 gm
Shallots - 4
Coriander powder - 1 tablespoon
Fennel seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Spices powder - 1 teaspoon  (Cardamom,  cinnamon,  cloves )
Coconut Milk - 1/2 cup
Salt
Oil

Cook potato, carrot and chicken along with finely cut onion, green chilly, ginger, garlic and tomato. Also, add coriander powder and pepper powder to this. Once it is cooked, keep it for five minutes and remove the cooker lid. Now in a pan, add little oil. Once oil is hot, add shallots and saute it until it turns light brown in colour. Then add fennel seeds, curry leaves , coriander leaves and spices powder to this. Saute it for a minute. Now mix it well with already cooked vegetables and chicken. And finally add coconut milk to this and serve hot.

To make coconut milk, grind grated coconut and make a thick paste. And take only the juice using a strainer. Chicken stew goes well with Kerala Appam (vellappam), (kallappam), Puttu and even with bread.

Appam (Kinnathappam) (Raw Rice - Pancake ) (Kallappam )

Ingredients

Raw Rice - 1 kg

Salt - 1 teaspoon

Sugar - 1 cup

Grated coconut -4 cups

Cooked Rice (Any) -1 cup

Yeast - 1 tablespoon

Water - 2 tablespoon

In a mixer, grind raw rice, cooked rice and grated coconut. Make it a fine paste. Keep it in a separate bowl. In another bowl, add little water and yeast. Keep it aside for 10-15 minutes. Add this to the first bowl and soak it overnight. Next day, add sugar and salt to this. Mix it really  well. Take a plate or any type of small vessel to cook this. Make sure to grease the vessel with little oil. So it will not stick to the plate. In a steamer, cook this for 10 minutes. Once it is out of the steamer, keep it in a pan with little water. so that it will be easy to remove from the plate. Slightly tap the edges as well. It helps the Appam to come out easily from the mould. You can make different shapes using small moulds. Also, try in a plate, to get a round shape.

Try adding 1 teaspoon  of baking powder  and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda just before cooking which is just optional in case if the batter is not fermented properly. You can make out the volume of batter becoming double if its well fermented. It has to rise little bit. You can also try adding toddy (Kallu) instead of yeast as it's a traditional way of making Appam. And the original name for this Appam is Kallappam. Its a traditional north Malabar dish especially  for Christmas. One should definitely try having this with chicken stew or any chicken curry. Its an awesome dish. Please refer to my post for chicken stew recipe :)

Christmas Cookies

Ingredients

All purpose flour -3 cups

Sugar -1 1/2 cup

Egg -2

Baking powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Salt - 1/2 teaspoon

Vanilla  essence -2 teaspoon

Unsalted  butter - 1 cup

For decoration

Jam

Icing sugar - 4 -5 tablespoon

Mix butter, sugar and vanilla extract using a hand mixer. Slowly add eggs to this and beat well until it becomes fluffy. Mix it really well. Now slowly add sifted flour, baking powder and salt to this. Knead the dough in such a way that it gets the right consistency. Keep adding little flour or butter if its too sticky or dry. Once the dough is ready, refrigerate it for 30 to 40 minutes. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. Place a parchment paper on the baking tray. Roll out the dough and make different shapes using cookie cutter. Immediately transfer cookies on the tray and bake it for 10 - 15 minutes. Let it cool on a wire rack for at least 2 -5 minutes.

For decoration, I have used round shaped cookies with jam. Use round shaped cutter to make two discs for one cookie. For first disc, I have used jam in the center. And using a small cookie cutter, I have given different shapes in the center for the second disc. Keep these second discs with center cut outs on top of a wire rack. Now sprinkle little bit of icing sugar on top of it. Please refer to pics for better idea. Use jam in the center of the first disc, that is plain round shaped cookie at the bottom. You can use any jam depending on your likes. Here I have used Kissan mixed fruit jam. So that the jam in the middle will stand out and this gives the cookie that pretty look.  :)

For the other decoration. First divide the dough in to two parts. Use orange colour for one dough and pink for the other. I normally use Wilton food colour which is bit costly but highly recommended by bakers. Now make a long strip out of orange coloured dough. Repeat the method using pink coloured dough. Slowly make swirls by combining both dough. That is just twist both the doughs together so it gets a swirl effect. Cut out different shapes using cookie cutter and enjoy the colourful christmas cookies. 

I got this idea of cookies from Natalie Poeter from Vienna, Austria. :) After seeing pics of Nati's heart shaped Christmas cookies with jam, i got inspired and thought of trying it out though I have posted butter cookies before. Thanks to Clive n Nati for this idea. :)

Kovakka Fry ( Ivy gourd Fry)

Ingredients

Kovakka - 15

Turmeric powder - 2 teaspoon

Red chilly powder - 1 teaspoon

Salt

Oil

Cut Kovakka in long strips, make it medium to thin slices. In a bowl, add turmeric powder, red chilly powder and salt. Mix this well. Now add finely cut Kovakka into this and mix really well. Keep it for 10-15 minutes. Heat a pan, add 1-2 tablespoon of oil.  Once oil is hot, slowly put these Kovakka  in the pan by reducing the flame. Shallow fry this on both sides in medium to low flame until it turns golden brown color. It goes well with rice. Its a simple and easy recipe at the same time tasty as well.

Cauliflower Kuruma

Ingredients

Oil

Cumin seeds -1/2 teaspoon

Spices - 1 teaspoon  (cardamom,  cinnamon,  cloves )

Onion - 1

Tomato - 1

Green  chilies - 2

Ginger - small piece

Garlic - 4 cloves

Cashew  nuts - 7

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Cauliflower - around 25 florets

Carrot - 1

Curry leaves

Coriander  leaves

Turmeric  powder -1/2 teaspoon

Red chilly  powder -1/2 teaspoon

Coriander  powder - 1 teaspoon

Cumin powder - 1/2 teaspoon

First cook cauliflower and carrot for 3-4 minutes by adding 2 cups of water. Drain off the water completely.  Keep  it aside. Now in a pan, add little  oil. Once oil is hot, add Cumin seeds, curry leaves and onion. Saute it for two minutes and when onion turns to golden brown color, add green chilies,  ginger, garlic and tomatoes.  Saute it again for two to three minutes. 

Now start adding all the masalas. Add turmeric powder, red chilly powder, coriander powder, Cumin powder  and spices. Mix it well. Later add half cooked cauliflower and carrot to this. Meanwhile grind coconut and cashew nuts together with very little water around 1/4 cup. Make a medium thick paste. Finally add this to the pan. Add little water if you need gravy. But I would suggest not to add water as you mix coconut paste , this itself  will give enough gravy. And moreover it is kuruma where gravy should be thick enough. Now cook this for two minutes and add coriander leaves at the end. It goes well with rotis or even rice. I would suggest to try this for breakfast as a side dish with Appam, Chapatti, Pathiri or even Puttu.

Puttu - Kerala style (Steam Cake)

Ingredients

 

Rice flour -1 1/2 cup

Salt

Water - 1/2 cup

Grated coconut - 1 cup

In a bowl, add rice flour, hot water with little salt in it. Mix it really well. Make sure to use enough water as we don't need too much of water. But at the same time rice flour should be wet enough to get the right consistency. Make sure you have a puttu maker or puttu kutti before you start. Pour 4-5 cups of water in puttu maker in the bottom vessel. Then for top part, you will find a round shaped disc with holes which we need to fix at the bottom of the top part of this vessel. Here we need to add 2-3 tablespoon of grated coconut first and then 5-6 tablespoon of the mixed flour. Again keep adding grated coconut and then flour. Finally add grated coconut on top of it and make sure to cover the vessel with lid. Once water in the bottom part of the puttu maker is hot enough, slowly fix the upper part of the vessel and make sure this is fixed well as we don't want the steam to go out in between the top and upper  part of the vessel.

After 6-7 minutes, slowly remove top part of the vessel using handle of puttu maker. Take out the lid. And using a knife or any long stick push the disc at the bottom  of the vessel so that entire puttu comes out of the cylindrical shaped vessel without breaking  it. Try to do this with little  patience :) as we don't want the puttu to break in between. Very easy to make once tried. Also Kerala puttu is famous with kadala curry , chicken curry or egg curry. You can always try any curry with this. This is a common breakfast recipe for keralites. One of my colleague from Andhra Pradesh was asking me to get puttu and kadala curry once as he still remember this awesome dish which he had from his childhood from Malayali neighbors. :) I promised him to get this one day to office. Guys, please try it out since this one is an easy and healthy recipe.

Christmas Plum Cake (Christmas Fruit Cake )

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 2 cups

Baking  powder - 1 teaspoon

Baking  soda - 1/2 teaspoon

Salt - 1 teaspoon

Vanilla  essence - 2 teaspoon

Sugar -1 1/2 cup

Egg - 5

Unsalted  butter - 250 grams

Spices powder - 1 teaspoon  (cinnamon,  cardamom,  cloves)

Black raisins - 1/4 cup

Cashew nuts - 1/4 cup

Red cherries - 1/4 cup

Tutti frutti - 1/4 cup ( red, yellow  and green )

Lemon zest - 1 teaspoon

Dried orange peel - 1/4 cup

Rum -  1 cup

For caramel

Sugar  - 1/2 cup

Water - 1/4 cup

Preheat microwave  to 180 degree  Celsius. Butter cake pans after placing parchment paper. Here I used two round moulds of 6 inch and one square cake mould. Arrange all the dry fruits. I have used finely chopped cashew nuts and dried orange peel. Mix all the above listed fruits in a bowl and add one cup Rum in it. Let these fruits completely  soak in the liquor. I just kept it for half an hour.

Meanwhile prepare caramelised  sugar. In a pan add 1/2 cup sugar and heat it in low to medium flame. Now sugar will start  to melt and slowly turn to light brown color. Keep stirring  it until it becomes dark brown  in color. Switch off the flame and let it cool. Later add 1/4 cup of water to this and heat it again. Keep stirring until it melts completely. Keep this aside.

Now in a bowl add unsalted butter (in room temperature) and sugar. Mix it with a hand mixer. Add vanilla essence and two eggs in it. Beat again for sometime , later slowly add remaining eggs and beat well until you get a creamy texture. In another bowl sift, all purpose flour, baking  powder, baking soda, salt and spices powder. Now slowly add this flour mixture with the egg mixture. Take only half of the flour mixture in the beginning. Also add half of the caramelised sugar into this and fold this mixture gently. Again add the remaining  flour  mixture and sugar syrup into this. Repeat the process. Finally add all the dry fruits after mixing it with two tablespoon of all purpose flour as we dont want this mixture to go and sit at the bottom. Once everything is mixed properly, immediately pour the  batter into the cake pans. Bake this for 40-45 minutes. Make sure not to overbeat the mixture. Also try adding fruits of your choice. Once it is done keep the cake on wire rack and let it cool completely for at least 10 - 15 minutes. Remove the parchment  paper and your christmas cake is all set to serve in style. :)

When it was in the oven my home was filled with the aroma of this cake. Also I was bit tensed about the sugar part. But everything was perfect including the sugar. I was so happy and excited  as this was the  first time I was baking a Christmas plum cake. And I should say that the cake came out so well and it was so yummy. I just loved it. In fact everyone at home. :) You will get the flavour of all those fruits, vanilla and spices and it's just an awesome feeling when you finally see that dark plum cake on your table just out of microwave oven :)

Thanks to paul for gifting a Samsung Galaxy  Tab using which I published this post :) Also his help throughout as I normally lack patience in baking since I don't like long hours of waiting. Am famous for that among my friends and relatives. They used to make fun of me by calling me with names of all the fast moving trains in India. :) Anyone can make out this in my blogs aswell as i normally go for simple and fast recipies else the posts will be short and simple. I guess this is my lengthy post so far.

Jokes apart, i would really  suggest everyone to try this Christmas cake. This was my first attempt for this Christmas and would definitely like to try more good recipes. And since its holidays, am planning to publish few more posts soon. Wishing everyone a happy and a blessed Christmas in advance. :) Happy holidays!