Go all out on the Christmas weekend and bake Fruity Cake and Sweet Buns.
Delights for everyone in the family, it's lovely stuff to tuck into at breakfast and or for adding treat range to tea-time gatherings.
The chopped nuts and dried fruits give these yum and relatively simple recipes by Chef Kuldeep Bisht an intense flavour, while abiding by the Christmas theme.
Fruity Cake
Servings: 10-12
Ingredients
- 250 gm unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 225 gm castor sugar (a kind of finer sugar manufactured by top baking brands)
- 5 large eggs
- 250 gm maida or all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 50 gm golden raisins, chopped
- 40 gm seedless black raisins, chopped
- 40 gm tutti-frutti or chopped, candied fruit
- 20 gm candied lemon peel, chopped, available in gourmet grocery stores or purchase online
- 20 gm candied orange peel, chopped, available in gourmet grocery stores or purchase online
- 25 gm candied ginger peel, chopped, available in gourmet grocery stores or purchase online
- 20 gm dried prunes, chopped
- 20 gm dried or fresh cranberries, chopped
- 40 gm cashews, chopped
- Pinch baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- Butter to grease the cake pans
- Butter paper or parchment paper
Method
- Preheat an oven to 160°C.
- Butter and line two round cake pans, of about 9-inch diameter, with butter paper or parchment paper.
Keep aside. - In a large bowl, cream the soft unsalted butter with the castor sugar till fluffy.
- In another bowl, add the vanilla essence to the eggs and whisk well.
Keep whisking as you add the eggs-vanilla mixture to the butter-sugar mixture, slowly, bit by bit. - Into a third bowl, sift the flour and add the baking powder, salt to the flour.
Gently fold the flour mixture into the eggs-butter-sugar mixture.
Add almost all the chopped dried fruits, tutti-frutti, nuts, candied peels and fold gently.
Reserve a small quantity of the dried fruits, nuts, candied peel for adding on top of the cake before baking. - Fill the batter in the greased cake pans and add the leftover dried fruits etc as the topping.
- Bake both pans in the oven for 40-45 minutes at 160°C.
Cool before removing from the pans.
Cut into thin slices and serve warm.
Editor's Note: All ingredients should be at room temperature. Kindly don't over-mix the flour in the batter.
Sweet Buns
Servings: 15-16
Ingredients
- 500 gm maida or all-purpose flour, sifted
- 15 gm yeast
- 50 gm sugar + extra to sprinkle onto the buns before baking
- 50 ml vegetable oil
- 300 ml water
- 40 gm tutti-frutti or chopped, candied fruit
- 12 gm yellow raisins, chopped
- 20 gm unsalted butter
- 10 gm salt + extra to brush onto the baked buns at the end
- Butter for greasing a baking tray
- Butter paper or parchment paper
Method
- Preheat an oven to 180°C.
- Grease and line a baking tray with butter paper or parchment paper.
Keep aside. - In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, sugar.
- In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast with 100 ml of the water.
- Add the dissolved yeast-water mixture into flour-sugar-salt mixture and knead.
Add more water if required.
Add the unsalted butter.
Add most of the chopped raisins, tutti-frutti.
Reserve some of the tutti-frutti, raisins for sprinkling onto the buns before baking.
Knead into a smooth dough.
Cover with a moist kitchen towel and let the dough rest for 15 minutes. - Divide the dough into 15-16 small balls, roll them into palm of your hand, flatten each a little and arrange on the buttered lined baking tray.
Make sure there is enough space in between them, a little more than an inch.
Sprinkle a little water on the buns so that they don't dry out.
Leave the buns for proofing (to rise) till double in size.
Garnish with the tutti-frutti, raisins, sugar. - Bake the buns at 180°C for 8-10 minutes.
Take out of the oven and brush a dot of unsalted butter on top of each.
Cool on a wire rack.
Serve warm with a cup of hot chocolate or chai or coffee.
Editor's Note: For more healthy buns, you can replace the maida with ragi flour
Chef Kuldeep Bisht is the pastry senior sous chef at Theos Food Pvt Ltd, New Delhi.
