Eggless Dry Fruits and Nuts Cake

As I am a passionate baker, I bake at least once a week. But until now, I have never baked a simple vanilla sponge cake. I was trying to bake a perfect vanilla sponge cake, which has no eggs and no butter. Finally, I made it. I saw many recipes for the same, mixed and matched almost all recipes, used my baking tips and at last my vanilla sponge cake with dry fruits and nuts was accomplished.
My sincere thanks to my co-sister, who gave me an awesome idea for baking a sponge cake. For the first time, I used that technique on my cakes and it turned out super soft!!
The tip was like this;
Mix 1 tblspn of flax seeds powder and 3 tblspn of hot water (neither warm nor boiling. Just hot). Mix well and refrigerate for sometime. Then, add it to the batter.

Another tip of mine is, adding Apple Cider Vinegar for all my eggless cakes, which does all the magic.

Here goes the Recipe

Ingredients

• All purpose flour/ maida - 1 + 1/2 cup
• Baking powder - 1 + 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Curd - 1 cup, well beaten
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Apple Cider Vinegar - 1 tblspn
• Flax seeds powder - 1 tblspn
• Hot water - 3 tblspn
• Chopped dry fruits and nuts - 1/2 cup
• Oil - 1/2 cup
• Vanilla essence - 1 tblspn
• Flour - 1 tblspn, to coat the dry fruits and nuts
• Salt - a pinch
• Cashews - few 

Method

• In a bowl, mix flax seeds powder and hot water. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
• Chop dry fruits and nuts. Coat them with 1 tblspn flour, so that it will not sink to the bottom while baking.
• Pre-heat the oven @200 deg C. Grease your cake tin or loaf pan with oil. Dust some flour all around, pat it so that it coats all the sides. Tap off the excess flour
• Dry Ingredients:Sieve together maida, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Sieve it at least twice.
• Wet Ingredients: In another vessel, beat the curd and sugar, until the sugar is completely dissolved.
• Now add oil, vanilla essence, flax seeds slurry and apple cider vinegar. Mix everything well.
• To the wet ingredients, add half of the flour mixture, fold in gently.
• Now add the remaining half, fold in gently. Use spatula to mix it.
• Now add the chopped dry fruits and nuts and again, fold in gently.
• Transfer this batter to a greased cake tin or loaf pan. Sprinkle some cashew nuts or any nuts of your choice.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven @200 deg C for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Once baked, remove from the oven and run your knife around the edges to loosen it. 
• Remove from the pan after 15 minutes.

• Cut and serve once it is cooled down completely.