Try These Yummy Desserts To Light Up Your Christmas

This Christmas weekend, bake a fruity cake and sweet buns to satiate your sugar cravings. These desserts will delight your entire family as you serve them at breakfast or add them to your tea-time gatherings.

The dried fruits and nuts will give these yummy and relatively easy recipes by Chef Kuldeep, a pastry sous chef at Theos Food, New Delhi, an amazing flavour.

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Fruity Cake

Servings: 10-12

Ingredients

• 250 gm unsalted butter at room temperature

• 225 gm castor sugar

• 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

• 20 gm candied orange peel, chopped

• 25 gm candied ginger peel, chopped

• 20 gm dried prunes, chopped

• 20 gm dried or fresh cranberries, chopped

• 40 gm cashews, chopped

• Pinch of baking powder

• ½ tsp salt

• Butter to grease the cake pans

• Butter paper or parchment paper

Method

• Heat an oven to 160°C.

• In a butter or parchment paper, butter and line two round cake pans of approximately 9-inch diameter, then keep aside.

• Put the castor sugar on the unsalted butter until it is fluffy in a large bowl.

• In another bowl, mix the vanilla essence with the eggs and whisk well. Keep whisking as you add the eggs-vanilla mixture to the butter-sugar mixture, slowly.

• Into a third bowl, sift the flour and add the baking powder and 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 and candied peels, and fold gently. Reserve a small quantity of the dried fruits, nuts and 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 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 them warm.

Note: The candied lemon, orange and ginger peel are available at gourmet shops or online.

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Sweet Buns

Servings: 15-16

Ingredients

• 500 gm maida or all-purpose flour, sifted

• 15 gm yeast

• 50 gm sugar, sprinkle extra on 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, sprinkle 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.

• Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.

• In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast with 100 ml of water.

• Add the dissolved yeast-water mixture into the flour-sugar-salt mixture and knead. Check if more water is required. Then put the unsalted butter, and most of the chopped raisins and tutti-frutti. Reserve some of the tutti-frutti, and raisins for sprinkling onto the buns before baking. Knead into a smooth dough.

• Use a moist kitchen towel to cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.

• Divide the dough into 15-16 small balls, roll them into the 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 and 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, chai or coffee.

Tip: For more healthy buns, you can replace the maida with ragi flour.