LazyAfternoon

Sweet buns! It’s very soft and fluffy. I cant describe the softness…i can feel the real mochi mochi (Japanese term) texture.
Here is the recipe:

*This bread is pretty sweet, I made this recipe like this so I can eat it without butter or jam.

Bread flour 200g
All purpose flour 100g
Butter 30g
Sugar 30g
Condensed milk 30g
Milk 200cc
Yeast and salt 1 teaspoon

After mixing, 1st rise and punch.
15 min bench time
Shape and 2nd rise till rise almost double

Dust some flour on top , bake 10min in 160 degrees oven then turn it down to 150 degrees, bake another 20min.

I put foil on after 10min as it’s a sweet bread it can burn.

A Sally Lunn is a large bun or teacake made with a yeast dough including cream and eggs, similar to the sweet brioche breads of France. Served warm and sliced, with butter. As a tea cake it is popular in Canada, England and New Zealand, where it is usually served warm or toasted.

Ingredients

1 package yeast
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup milk
6tsp butter
3tsp sugar
2eggs
3Cups flour
1 1/4 salt

Procedure

1. Activate yeast using first 3 ingredients.
2. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs.
   3.add flour and salt and the yeast mixture.
3. Knead and form nice a dough
4. Let it raise for 1 and 1/2 an hour or until double the size.
5. Beat and pour it in to a bundt pan and let it raise for 30mins.
6. Bake at 180oC for 40mins.

Plum Cake is a seasonal fruit cake made during Christmas 🎄. I can say making plum cake is an art. Plum cake gives the smell of Christmas. Every food blog is filled with different versions of plum cake. I have tried many many recipes and this recipe is very satisfying.

Ingredients:

• For Soaking
• 1.5 cup Black Raisins
• 1 cup Cherry
• 1 cup Fruit mix or Tutti frutti
• 1 cup Mixed Nuts (cashews, almonds, walnuts)
• 2 Cup Grape Juice or Rum
• For Sugar Caramel
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1/4 cup Water
• 1/2 cup Boiling Water
• Spices
• 1 inch Cinnamon
• 4 Cloves
• 3 Cardamom
• For Cake Batter
• 2 cup All purpose flour / Maida
• 2 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Melted Butter
• 5 Eggs
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Soak dry fruits and nuts in grape juice for minimum 1 day
2. make sugar caramel
3. powder the spices
4. mix the wet ingredients
5. add the dry ingredients and the soaked fruits
6. Bake it at 350 F or 180 C for 70-80 minutes
7. Plum cake is ready to be served

Step by step Cooking procedure

Step 1) Soaking the dry fruits and nuts:Soak raisins, cherry, Tutti frutti and nuts in grape juice.Add grape juice until the fruits and nuts are fully immersed. 2 cups of juice will be sufficient , if you are using rum then add 2 cups of rum.Cover and let it soak for minimum 1 day to maximum for a month.I soaked everything for 2 days.

If you want to make the cake instantly then boil the dry fruits and the nuts along with the juice for 3-4 minutes and let it cool completely and then add it to the cake batter. 

Step 2) Caramelizing the Sugar:After two days of soaking lets start making the plum cake by caramelizing the sugar. We need to caramelize the sugar to get nice brown color or you can also add brown sugar instead.Heat 1/2 cup of sugar with 1/4 cup of water and boil it until it gets nice dark brown color( amber color) . Once you get brown color add 1/2 cup of boiling water to it and stir well, after mixing turn off the heat and keep it aside.Let it cool completely. 

Step 3) Spices for Plum cake ? Yes we need to add some spices for the plum cake recipe.In a blender add cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom and also add some sugar to it and grind it to a fine powder. Refer note: 6 for the reason behind adding sugar. You can also use powdered spices if you have.

Step 3) Wet Ingredients for Cake batter: In a large mixing bowl add eggs , melted butter , sugar and the powder sugar+spice and mix well. Butter should be in room temperature . If added hot then the eggs will cook so add the butter once it is completely cooled.

Step 4) Making Plum Cake batter:Next add All purpose flour / Maida to the wet ingredients and also add baking powder, baking soda, salt and mix well. I added everything in the same bowl, you can mix the dry ingredients separately in a bowl and then add it to the egg batter.

Step 5) Adding soaked fruits and nuts: 
After mixing add the caramelized sugar and vanilla extract. make sure the sugar syrup is at room temperature, if it is hot then it will react with baking soda immediately. so make sure to cool the syrup completely before adding.Finally add the soaked friuts and nuts along with the juice. Do not drain the juice completely we need some juice in the batter to get nice taste. I added most of the juice only 1/4 cup of juice is left.The Cake batter should not be very thick it should be slightly thicker than pouring consistency . 

Step 6) Assembling: 
After combining all the ingredients transfer it to a baking pan. I have used one 10 inch pan and greased the sides with butter and lined with a parchment paper. If you don’t have 10 inch pan the use 2 medium sized pan and bake it for 40-50 minutes

Step 7) Baking Time and Temperature:

• Preheat the oven to  180 Celsius 
• Bake for 70-80 minutes ( for 10 inch pan) 
• 40-50 minutes if you use 2 medium sized pan.

Check the cake by inserting a tooth pick. if it comes out clean then our cake is perfectly baked.
I baked the caked for exactly 75 minutes @ 180 C ( ie) 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Notes:

1. The longer you soak the dry fruits and nuts tastier the cake becomes.
2. you can any fruits of your choice like prunes, dates, apricots etc..
3. Black Raisins add more taste to the recipe so i prefer to add more black raisins than all other ingredients .You can also mix 1/2 cup of golden raisins to it.
4. If you want to make the cake instantly then boil the dry fruits and the nuts along with the juice for 3-4 minutes and let it cool completely and then add it to the cake batter. 
5. Do not add cold water to the caramelized sugar syrup , if we add cold water then the sugar will crystallize and will take lot of time to get into the proper consistency, so use hot water to prevent sugar crystallization. 
6. If we grind only the spices we will not end up with fine powder (because of the less quantity) so add some sugar to it and grind the spices into a very fine powder.