March 26, 2011

Eggless Pumpkin Apricot Cake



Initially I had planned  to use the apricot received as part of the Arusuvai Friendship Chain in a baking recipe. And I bookmarked few recipes too. I tried a cake using the recipe from Allrecipes. The original recipe was for two cakes. Since I wanted to bake a single cake, I halved the ingredients. I replaced eggs with flaxseed meal and used whole wheat flour (atta) in place of all purpose flour(maida). Except for these two changes, I have followed the original recipe. 

I chose this recipe since I have never baked with pumpkin puree.  Its just mixing the wet and dry ingredients and no creaming/whisking required here. Actually you can do all the mixing in one bowl as mentioned in the original recipe. Since I am used to doing it separately and also wanted to be sure that the wet ingredients are combined well for even distribution.


Ingredients

  • Dried apricots  -8 nos  1/4 cup puree
  • Pumpkin puree - 1 cup
  • Whole wheat flour - 2cups
  • Baking powder - 1 tspn
  • Baking soda - 1/2 tspn
  • Ground cinnamon - 1 tspn
  • Salt -1/4 tspn
  • Caster sugar  - 1 cup (I powdered granulated sugar not very fine)
  • Flax seed meal - 1 tblspn mixed in 4 tblspn of water
  • Vegetable oil - 1/4 cup

Method

Prepare the apricot puree

Soak the apricots in boiling water for half an hour. Water should be enough to cover the apricots. Puree the apricots in a mixer grinder. Add some water while grinding. The puree should measure 1/4 cup. You can use the soaked water to make it to 1/4 cup.


Prepare the pumpkin puree
Take 250 gm of pumpkin. Peel and deseed the pumpkin and then chop it into cubes. Steam cook in the pressure cooker or microwave until it is tender. Puree the pumpkin to get 1 cup of puree.


To bake
Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and sugar in a bowl.  In another bowl, add flax seeds mixed in water, apricot and pumpkin purees. Make a well in the centre of the fry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and mix until they are just combined. 

The batter consistency is similar to that of muffins. At first, I had mixed flax seed meal in 3 tablespoon of water. But I found the batter to be very thick and added. another tablespoon of water to get muffin batter consistency.

Bake in a greased and dusted tin at 180 C for 45 minutes or until the skewer inserted comes out clean



The cake was moist and airy. The cake is just sweet enough for my palate. If you prefer it be very sweet, then increase the sugar by 1/4 cup more. After tasting, I felt addition of a handful of nuts/tutti fruity/chocolate chips will be better to make it more than just a plain cake. Else a butter cream frosting would have complemented the cake well but decided not to go for it since I did not want to add more calories.


I will be sending mystery ingredients, as part of the Arusuvai Frienship Chain, to Rajani of Healthy Slurps and Rituparna of ChocolatesAndDreams






26 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Cake looks yum, nicely described method.

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  3. adding pumpkin to bakes is a new concept for me but looking at your recipe am tempted to try. awesome.

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  4. absolutely stunning cake recipe..thanks for sharing dear..
    Tasty Appetite

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  5. Apricot and pumpkin are unusual combo! That looks absolutely delicious!

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  6. wat a fantastic recipe...sounds delicious..

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  7. yummy healthy cake,luks delicious...

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  8. Cake looks super prefect, never combined both pumpking and apricot together in bakes, sounds wonderful..

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  9. This one looks yummy ...

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  10. I have never thought of pumpkin in a baked dish and to combine apricots there is very novel. This cake must have been filling given the ingredients there!

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  11. yummy cake jayshree...Apricots gives a slight sour taste like strawberry I beleive..nice combination, love to try it out sometime.

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  12. Cake sounds yummy and looks so soft too!

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  13. Wholewheat and fruits makes this a very healthy cake!

    Lite Bite

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  14. Looks moist and spongy!!!

    I am here for first time, happy following you..

    valar
    http://valarskitchen-basics.blogspot.com/

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  15. Pumpkin apricot cake looks gorgeous. Perfect cake without egg.

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  16. Cake looks nice and spongy..Would like to have a bite nowwwwwwwwww. Please collect an award at my space.

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  17. First time here !!! Loved the cake !!! Pumpkin and apricot combination sounds good !! I loved your collection of recipes. So happy to follow you .

    Sneha

    http://inspirationalartofcooking.blogspot.com/

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  18. Very beautifully made, looks wonderful.

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  19. Very innovative. Hope those who tried have found it tasty! All the best. Keep blogging!!

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