Pan Gravy Kadai Curry: Eggless Dry Fruit And Nut Cake, for Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all "Mommy" Readers! How are you? I am fine, thank you! Enjoy your day!
A lovely Poem honoring all moms --

More Than A Mother
When God set the world in place,
when He hung the stars up in space,
when He made the land and the sea,
then He made you and me.

He sat back and saw all that was good,
He saw things to be as they should.
Just one more blessing He had in store;
He created a mother, but whatever for?

He knew a mother would have a special place
to shine His reflection on her child's face.
A mother will walk the extra mile
just to see her children smile.
She'll work her fingers to the bone
to make a house into a home.

A mother never pokes or pries
but stands quietly by your side,
giving you the strength you need,
encouraging you to succeed.

A mother is one who listens well,
will keep her word; will never tell.
~ Kari Keshmiry

My Mother's Day kick started on Friday morning with me having food with my kid in his classroom. I got my first gift, a potted chrysanthemum from my darling son who is asking me when it is going to bloom. With my black thumb, the opposite of a green thumb, I couldn't promise him anything. I keep reminding myself that I need to water the plant and that is a start. Anything to see my kid happy.

Today morning, as I was giving him breakfast, I almost told him that I would take a bullet for him. But since he is too young to understand I said, " Baby, I would walk upside down for you". He was like, Mommy you can't..cause your head doesn't have feet. Totally cracked me up! Man, I love listening to his childish wise-cracks. Being Aran's mom totally rocks!

This cake is for my mom, a wonderful lady who gave me the gift of life and more. Being a vegetarian, she loves all my egg-less bakes. Recipe adapted from Divine Taste. I don't have the 8" deep pan that the original recipe calls for but I do have a 7" pan. So taking cue from Gayathri's CookSpot, I used a 7" deep cake pan and two 7oz fluted ramekins for the remaining batter.This fruit and nut rich cake doesn't have to be restricted to holiday season alone. It is a phenomenal cake and can be made round the year. The last time I made this cake, I had friends over and I didn't get a chance to take clicks of the big cake. 95% of it was gone the same day it was made. So the cross-sectional view is from those teeny heart-shape cakes. Look how moist and densely packed it is.. Umm, delicious! I will update the post with more pictures the next time I make the cake.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Melted butter, for greasing the pan
2 Cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 Tsp Baking powder
1/4 + 1/4 Tsp Baking soda
3-1/2 Cups Mixed Dry Fruit ( 1 Cup Tunisian Dates + 1 Cup Raisin-Craisin + 1 Cup dried California "Mission" figs + 1/2 Cup dried Turkish Apricots)
1/2 Cup Mixed Nuts - Almonds, Walnuts, Pistachios, Pecans (your choice. I used walnuts and pistachios)
1 Cup Dark Brown Sugar, packed
1 Stick Butter (1/2 Cup)
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup or Date Syrup ( I used Vermont Pure Maple Syrup)
Finely Grated Zest from a Florida Navel Orange
1 Cup Water
2 Tbsp Yogurt
1-1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
3/4 Tsp Allspice Powder
1 Cup Smoothly Mashed Potato ( I used 1 Medium Sweet Potato + 1 Medium Yukon Gold Potato)
40 Blanched Almonds, for garnish

Tools:

8" Round Deep Cake Pan Or 7" Deep Round Cake Pan + 2 7-0z fluted heart shaped ramekins

Procedure:

Gather all the dried fruits. Sift the flour, baking powder and 1/4 Tsp baking soda twice to combine uniformly.

Finely chop the dates, figs and apricots. Add them and the raisin-craisin mixture to the sauce pan.

To the sauce pan, add the brown sugar, butter, olive oil, maple syrup,water and heat slowly on low heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium and allow the mixture to come to a boil, reduce the heat and then simmer for 20 minutes on low heat. Remove the sauce pan from the heat, mix in the 1 tsp baking soda and allow to cool.

Boil the potato and sweet potato until it is fork tender. Toast the nuts and finely chop it.

Mash the potato and sweet potato using a ricer.

Combine mashed potato, yogurt, grated orange zest, vanilla extract and allspice.

Incorporate the mashed potato mixture to the cooled fruit mixture.

Stir in the flour mixture in batches. Fold the toasted chopped nuts. The batter will be sticky and dense.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees C. Spoon the batter into an 8" round cake pan and arrange the blanched almonds decoratively over the top. Cover the top with an aluminum foil and bake the cake anywhere from 1-1/2 hours to 2 hours.Important: Check periodically after 90 minutes. If using 7" cake pan, the baking time will be slightly less. I used 7" cake pan and 2 7 oz heart shaped ramekins. The ramekin cakes baked much quicker.