Christmas Cake with Wheat Flour

No Egg/ No Sugar/ No alcohol/ A somewhat healthier version of Festive Cake!!!

I know what I said last week: just loose it all, it’s ok to eat till you burst during festivals!! I still say it, but what to do?? Even during festive season you May continue your healthy eating scheme. I mean, healthy food can really have rich flavours and rich for your health at the same time. Good food= Good life= Good health = Good taste buds.. Healthy is no more Stealthy.. Am I not Correct???

Hopefully you are nodding with me Big time… so I have been trying this wheat flour cake recipe for some time, it has been a family favourite for some years now. I finally tried a little elaborate version, where I put all my favourite flavours (No, I hadn’t done it in a cake before) together in a cake and let it bake through a savouring concoction which I have only found in those ‘Christmas special, store bought’ cakes.. I wanted that same richness in my home made ingredients, magic spatula and bowls. And I can only say that, I love my choice of ‘favourite flavours’, because they know some wonder… Let me share everything I did this time, so that you have your idea of cake making or may be try this very recipe!!

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour- 1/2 cup- 125 g (If you wish to use only What flour, then 1 cup or 250 g wheat flour)
Oats Flour- 1/2 cup- 125 g
Baking powder- 1 teaspoon
Baking Soda- 1 teaspoon
Clove and Cinnamon Powder- little less than 1/4 teaspoon
Coco powder- 1 teaspoon
Coffee powder- 1 teaspoon
Olive oil/ White oil- 1/2 cup
Curd- 1/2 cup (you may use any plain or no flavour vegan curd)
Jaggery powder- 1/2 cup (you may use normal jaggery/ brown sugar)
Vanilla essence- 1 teaspoon
Fresh orange juice- 2 whole orange (1/2 cup)
Dry roasted nuts, roughly chopped: Almonds + Cashews + Walnuts- 1/2 cup (you may use nuts of your choice)
Dry Fruits- raisins+ black raisins + dry cranberries + dried papaya or peach + chopped dates- 1/2 cup (You may choose dry fruits of your choice)
Peanut butter- 2 table spoon (Optional or any other nut made butter)
Home-Made Caramel sauce- 4 table spoon (optional)
Dark Choco chips/ buttons- few handful (optional)

Let’s come to Caramel Sauce First:

You will need some brown sugar or jaggery powder (I purposely used brown sugar as I am already using jaggery in the cake) and a small dollop of butter or margarine.
In a small pot, take the brown sugar and little water. Place it on the oven, wait till the sugar dissolves in the water and the water comes to a boil.
Once boiling, give the mixture some time to thicken, you will see thick bubbles will form (keep stirring in between), don’t wait too long, then the caramel will thicken and once cold, it will become like hard crystal, which won’t be of any use.
so after about 2 minutes, add little butter on the caramel, and give few second’s time for the sauce to thicken little more. After adding the butter, the sauce will thicken fast, take it off the heat, stir for some time, while cooling the sauce will be thicker. The consistency will be little runny but as runny as water.
That’s your caramel sauce. You know what?? No I should not tell you, what if you do it too?? OK only for you.. this sauce tastes so buttery and so insatiable.. It was so difficult not to lick it off the pot till the last drop 😀 Please don’t so that, You have a cake to bake!!

Cake Making:

I usually do it a night before, but you may do it 2-3 hours prior. Take the orange juice (you may take any fruit juice of your choice), add the dry fruits in the juice, let it marinate in the fridge for 2-3 hours or a night. You may keep some dry fruits aside for garnishing.

Take a bowl. Add all dry ingredients: Oat flour+ wheat flour + a pinch of salt + Baking powder + Baking Soda + Coffee powder + coco powder + clove and cinnamon powder. And mix them well, you may also sieve them if required. Keep this bowl aside.
In another bowl (better take a bigger one), add the jaggery powder, oil, curd; mix them well, let the jaggery dissolve in the oil and curd completely. (In case you are using whole jaggery, them put the jaggery in the oven for 30-40 seconds, so that it melts into thick liquid and it’s easy to mix with the oil and curd)
Add the peanut butter, vanilla essence (I used Vanilla butter flavour for this cake)into that bowl; mix them well.
Now add the dry fruits along with the left over juice which won’t be more than a table spoon (little hear and there may be), dry nuts, again mix well, better to put these ingredients one by one, so that they blend well with each other.
Now it’s time for the caramel sauce. Add it in the mixture, stir well.

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All done, it’s time to add the flour, slowly. So, add the flour mix in small batches, and fold them gently with the liquid mix. Fold as in, gently try to wrap the liquid over the flour, this will take some time, but once the flour is completely mixed with the liquid add the next batch of flour and continue this till the entire flour is blended in the mix, and there is no lump in the cake batter. (I tell you the batter smells so sweet and so ice-cream like!!)
The batter is ready, keep the cake tin prepared before-hand. Take a baking tin (any shape you like), grease it with some oil, place a butter paper at the bottom of the pan. Now pour the cake batter into the tin. Once done, give the cake tin few gentle thumps so that the batter gets even from the top and there is no bubble in the batter.
Add the choco chips and some dried nuts (or fruits or both) on top. I quoted the choco chips with some flour, so that they stick to the top than flowing down to the bottom of the pan. You may use these chips in the batter as well.

Now pre-heat the oven at 180 degree, bake the cake for about 40-50 minutes in the same temperature. Once taken out of the oven, put a tooth-pick inside the cake, if the stick comes clean, the cake is ready. if not, you have put it inside the oven for few more minutes then.
Let it cool for some time, then take it off the pan and it’s ready to pounce on…

NOOO, don’t do that.. it’s festive season.. enjoy it with friends, family and your loved ones. My cake looks burnt from the top and I was a bit scared, but I think it happened because of the lot of colouring elements I used, like coco powder, coffee powder and the caramel sauce!

Because it was soft from inside and it was very very moist and the top didn’t taste burnt at all. It was truly a compact, rich yet lot healthy festive cake.. Okay.. may be a Cheat slice in a rather healthier way!! I know you like the word ‘Healthy’ like me.. you will love this cake.. let me know how it goes AND..

Merry Christmas to you and your beloved family…