Ovaltine fruit cake

Ovaltine fruit cake

So many times I longed for deshi bakery style ovaltine fruit cake !! So many times I missed that heavy , little chewy , ovaltine flavored cake!!! So wanted to give a try at home . I know in the bakeries , they use large quantity of ingredients and at the same time some of the secret ingredients like glucose syrup , golden syrup to make them so delightful . But yes , what I can do , knowing the fact , it won’t have exactly 100% the same flavor like that of Anondo or Yusuf bakery of my own city Dhaka , I can try my best to reach as near as possible . 😀

Before I proceed to the recipe , few things I’d really love to share ;

# The flavor of the cakes get better with time . You will love the cake most the next day after you baked the cake . 😀 But you have to keep them in an air tight container , or else they will dry out .so try not to cut and consume right away for better taste . 😀 Try at least after 4/5 hours . Though it tastes great right after baking too .

# These fruit cake batter should be thick , or else the fruits will sink on the bottom . So the batter is heavier than regular plain cake.

Ingredients :

3 eggs , room temperature
3/4 th cup of sugar, powdered ( 1/2 a cup of brown sugar + 1/4 th cup of white sugar)*
1/4 th cup + 2 tbl spoon butter ( softened, room temperature) + 1/2 ( half) a cup vegetable oil
1 and 1/4 th cup of all purpose flour + 1 tbl spoon
1/4 th cup of Ovaltine
2 tbl spoon Cocoa Powder
2 tbl spoon powder milk
2 tbl spoon of honey
1/2 tea spoon Baking powder
1/4 th tea spoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup of dried and candied fruits

Procedure :

1. Pre-heat the oven to 325 FH for at least 20 minutes . Grease and line the loaf pan with parchment or butter paper .

3. Sieve the flour along with baking powder, baking soda , cocoa powder and ovaltine, mix powder milk with it . Take one fourth cup of flour from it and coat the dried nuts and candied and dried fruits with it . Now mix them with the remaining flour . It will help the fruits not to sink on the bottom .

4. Beat brown sugar , sugar , butter , oil together until light , creamy and fluffy . Add egg , one at a time and beat well . Now add the Add the vanilla essence .

5. Add flour mixture to the egg mixture , in three batches , don’t add the flour all at a time . Fold it with light hand in clock wise motion with a spatula . Over mixing can ruin your cake . Add the honey in it . Unlike other cake batter , this batter is heavy .

6. Pour the batter in the cake pan. Tap for few times. cover the cake pan with aluminium foil like a tent . The pic is given in the note section . The moisture locked in it will help even rising and also help to prevent to be colored too early. Remove the tent after 25/ 30 minutes later or when the cake has already risen.
Bake immediately at 325 fh in a preheated oven for 45- 50 minutes or if toothpick inserted come out clean. . It may take a little longer too , depending on the oven . It took me around 50 minutes to get it done . Don’t over bake .

Notes:

1. Try to powder the white and brown sugar before you start beating them with butter-oil . The moisture , while beating the sugar with butter is need can be acquired easily if the sugars are powdered. Not only for this recipe , try this in other cake recipes too . You will see the wonder , light and fluffy within a very shorter period of time .

2. if you don’t have brown sugar at home , substitute with jaggery/ akher gur. Ground the jaggery fine and use .

3. Always use room temperature eggs , butter to get the maximum result .

4. The temperature and timing of oven is very important in this type of fruit cake , since candied fruits are used , it may take little longer to get done . You have to bake the cake at low temperature so that the fruits inside should not taste bitter .

5. Many a time we see the surface of our cake crack or doesn’t rise evenly . Most of the times , the center rise too high than the other parts and crack . For the smooth flat top of the cake , I’d love to share two secrets ;

# Tap the cake pan with batter few times on the counter top , before putting them in the oven .
# Not only tapping , another thing is necessary , cover the cake pan with aluminium foil like a tent like the pic below . The moisture locked in it will help even rising and also help to prevent to be colored too early . Remove the tent after 25/ 30 minutes later or when the cake has already risen . Also the temperature is very important , if the cake is baked at high temperature , the center will rise more than other parts . So the aluminium foil helps direct heating or excess heating . 🙂

There is no batter in the cake pan . 😛 I forgot to take picture while baking . So took a pic later just for demonstration .. 😀

6. For the nuts and raisins over the top of the cake , toss the sliced almond , pistachio and walnut with flour ( don’t add raisins, though I used , they get little burnt ) and then add it on the top when you are removing the aluminium foil tent over the loaf pan . Don’t take out the pan completely from the oven . Your cake may sink . This part is little tricky , if you are not careful , you might burn your hand badly . This little trick I learnt from my beloved sister Tahsin Rahman . 😀

7. Don’t cut the cake immediately . Let it cool completely and then slice them . The cake tastes better with time . I found it more flavorful the next day ( after 10-12 hours )after I baked it . But you have to keep the cake in an air tight container .