Milk Chocolate Macadamia Biscotti for Christmas

 Biscotti is a crisp (some would say hard) biscuit of Italian origin,traditionally enjoyed  (in Italy) with a wine or orange juice and in places outside Italy with a steaming cup of coffee. The word Biscotti describes its preparation - it is derived from the Latin word biscoctus which means "twice cooked/ baked". It describes foods which were cooked / baked twice so that they lasted longer and could be used to feed soldiers or travellers on long journeys and during wars. Their origin being the town of Prato, they are known as Biscotti di Prato; but they are also commonly called "cantuccini" in Tuscany and Sicily.

The traditional recipe only uses flour, sugar, almonds and eggs while not incorporating butter or yeast. The dough is baked in slabs and when fresh and warm cut into slices and baked once again till crisp. Recent recipes have started incorporating other nuts like hazelnuts, pistachios, pine nuts; baking powder and butter have also been included along with flavourings in the form of almond or vanilla extract and some spices like anise and cinnamon.

I love my cookies a bit crisp and crunchy and don't much prefer the soft ones, so I have always wanted to bake Biscotti. Never got around to doing it though until now. The thought of baking them twice and the fear of them crumbling while cutting them into slices after the first round of baking made it a little daunting, but it was actually all very smooth when I did get around to baking it.

I used milk chocolate (I had a large Cadbury Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut slab a friend had gifted my daughter and she - like me- doesn't always prefer "things" coming in between her chocolate. So I decided to cut it up into chips and use it in the biscotti. I also had some macadamia nuts lying from my trip to Australia and decided to use those as well. I adapted this recipe from Canadian Living.

I had my daughter's best friends over when I was making this so the tiny hands all wanted to shape the logs and they did a good job! My oven couldn't accomodate 14" logs, so I just divided the dough into 3 parts and made three smaller logs. The kids couldn't wait for the logs to be baked and then cool a bit so we could cut slices and I had a tough time restricting how much of the freshly baked logs they could consume - LOL! The slices cut quite easily with a serrated knife - you have to take care to use firm strokes to cut and not linger too much. The middle part of one of the logs was crumbling a bit, but there were a lot of takers for the crumbs, so I didn't have a problem with that :)

The Biscotti came out beautifully flavoured, not too sweet and with just the right amount of crunch from the nuts. They were crisp and made for a lovely snack with just the right amount of hardness. This is definitely a recipe to repeat since it has become a favourite in our house - none of my other cookies have won such all round approval satisfying the picky husband (when it comes to sweets) and the savoury liking daughter.

I have also baked my Christmas Cake with the kids - the one which I have been doing for many years and it is luscious with all the dried fruit inside - I sliced one portion and am dousing the other round cake with small spoons of orange juice till it is ready to be eaten on Christmas. I have another batch of dried fruit soaking with which I am going bake another Christmas cake when my niece arrives and we will have that one for New Year with friends and family. This is a different recipe I'm going to be using for the first time, lets see how it turns out. Have you baked your Christmas Cake - try this recipe here, its easy and you will love the flavour! If you haven't soaked dried fruit, ust steam the fruit for about 7-8 minutes gently in orange juice or rum and rest for 30 minutes, before proceeding with the recipe. Recipe here

Now back to the Biscotti.

 Milk Chocolate Macadamia Biscotti

 Ingredients:

Butter - 1/2 cup, softened
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Eggs - 2
Flour - 2 cups
Baking powder - 1.5 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Almond Essence - 1 tsp
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
Macadamia Nuts - 1/2 cup, chopped (can replace with almonds)
Milk Chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate bar chopped up into small pieces) - 2/3 cup

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl, beat till smooth and shiny.
2. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well.
3. Mix in the almond essence and vanilla extract into the egg mixture
4. In another bow, sieve the flour and baking powder together. Add to the egg mixture and combine with a light hand till it comes together into a soft dough.
5. Add the chopped nuts and the milk chocolate pieces and mix into the dough.
6. With your hands, divide the dough into 2 or 3 parts, depending on the size of your oven/baking tray.
7. Shape each part into a log about 10-12" long and place on a greased baking tray, then flatten slightly while still leaving the edges rounded, making each long about 3-4" wide. Use flour while shaping the logs in case they are sticking to your hands.
8. Pre heat the oven to 180C and bake for 25-20 minutes, till the tops are just turning golden and the logs are firm. Cool for 10 minutes
9. Cut the logs with a serrated knife diagonally in a firm, swift motion into 1/2" slices each.
10. Stand the slices upright in a baking tray and bake at 180C for 20 minutes, till dry and crisp and base is slightly browned.

Christmas Cake preparations - and Milestones

I have been tardy this year in soaking the dry fruits for the cake I make for Christmas every year. I usually try to do it mid-November, or atleast by the 25th, but this year we seemed to have a million things to do on the weekends this month.

Started with our Diwali celebration at the beginning of November, in Mumbai with family, then there was a breakfast picnic like this one, outdoor parties before it becomes too cold, dance and musical performances -The Manganiyar Seduction (an international act of Rajasthani folk musicians performing in 36 boxes stacked one on top of the other in 4 rows) was particularly spectacular!  - a children's literature festival called Bookaroo which has managed to reach its third year with much support from enthusiastic parents and children and the driving force of Swati Roy and Sanjay Roy who own Eureka - the children's bookstore.

In December, the 3-day Jazz Utsav was this weekend - we went on Friday, which was the opening day, and were treated to some scintillating performances - especially the one by Ranjit Barot and Talvin Singhs' bands.
The Delhi International Arts Festival (DIAF) also began this weekend - it has a smorgasbord of events happening till the 12th December including some excellent classical dance performances and theatre. The first ever exhibition of Anish Kapoor in India - (Anish Kapoor is a celebrated contemporary sculptor), opened this week at the newly refurbished National Gallery of Modern Art - and while I don't pretend to understand contemporary art and installations, I am definitely not going to miss an opportunity to broaden my horizons. As I tell my daughter - its OK to not like something after you have tried it, but you should atleast try everything once.
Then there is the Old World Theatre Festival at Habitat Centre, Christmas fairs organised by the various embassies, the Christmas decorations inside hotels and malls to gawk at....November to February is such a nice time to do things in Delhi - its what makes the rest of the year bearable!

These are some of the pics from the German Christmas Fair yesterday - my daughter and I had a nice time picking through the stalls and looking at the christmas stuff all over. There was a stall by the Swiss German Bakery where I picked up some wonderful baguette and sour dough bread as well as the aromatic Lebkuchen - a traditional Christmas cookie/cake which is quite strongly spiced with cinnamon and cloves. The reason I call it cookie/cake, it though it is a cake, it is not soft, melt-in-the-mouth, but quite crumbly in texture with a nice crust. I was happy with my glass of German beer, a quiche and some bratwurst (which was quite pungent I must say) while K devoured a lovely chocolate croissant. 

Anyway, suffice to say that I have enough excuses to have postponed the soaking this long. But I got up early this morning and managed to soak all the dry fruits and nuts. They will sit there for the next two weeks till I bake the cake on the 22nd or 23rd December - the cake tastes better later, as the flavours have time to meld.

'Tis the season to be jolly and all that - well, Peppermill has turned 3 - yes, can't believe it, but my first post was in November 2007. Thank you everyone who reads this blog, for all your encouragement and support and for reaching out to me - I have received much more than I can give, and for that I am thankful.

 

Don't need an excuse to celebrate though, so if you have always thought of baking a fruit cake, now's the time to start! Its a small list of ingredients and all readily available. For those who don't want to steep the fruits in alcohol, just use orange juice. Also, there are a lot of recipes which recommend "feeding" the cake with alcohol, after its baked (some days before Christmas) till its finally eaten. I don't - I also don't cover it with marzipan icing which is another traditional thing to do. I like my cake slices just as they are - filled with fruit, soft and dense and with that lovely dark colour and rich smell.

These are the ingredients I soak

Mixed Dry Fruit chopped - 350 gms (choose from currants,sultanas,raisins, dates, fig, apricot)

I use equal quantities of currants,raisins, dates,apricots and plums (dried)

The dry fruits are soaked 3-4 weeks in advance in about 1/4 cup of dark rum (brandy can also be used)

For the complete recipe and the earlier post- look here

Or you can also try Chocolate Gingerbread Men or White Chocolate, Cherry and Oatmeal Cookies

Orange and Clove Tea Cake - Mad Tea Party comes home!

This cake was made on an almost instantaneous decision....no plan, no lingering over recipes, no comparing notes. Just 15 minutes to put together the ingredients and another 35 minutes to bake - it was the first time I was trying this recipe, so I was a little anxious how it would turn out. But it was perfect.

Just like the person and the tea party this was made for - an instantaneous connection made just by reading each other's blogs. Sensing the similar wavelengths, appreciating the passion for food, the honesty and the humility which shines through. So, when the opportunity came to meet - couldn't pass it up. Not even if the both of us were on the last weekend before we went on a trip and had a million things to do. And it all came together so beautifully - a perfect tea party (though coffee was drunk!) with the right company and some stimulating conversation.

As some of you may have guessed by now, this was me meeting up with Anita of Mad Tea Party. For our own Mad Tea Party.  Exchange of mails, telephone numbers, calls and we had a tentative plan to meet on the weekend. So Sunday morning, Anita called and we fixed up for that afternoon 3 30pm. My relatively free Sunday had by then transformed into a matinee show of Beauty and the Beast with kiddo followed by lunch with friends, so I knew I wouldn't have time to serve up an elaborate spread. BUT when you have a food blogger coming over, you have to have food!

I had a couple of tangerines at home and I knew a tea cake would be nice and light for that time of the day.  So, I quickly looked for an orange based cake, which I found on the Whole Foods Market website - scanned through the list of ingredients to check that there were no exotic deal breakers. The main ingredient was Greek Yoghurt - which I thought could be substituted with hung curd. So, I tied up some home made yoghurt to hang in the fridge and then left at 10am to return only at 3pm.

I then raced around roasting the cloves and then grinding them, combining the eggs with the yoghurt, honey and zesting the oranges and lemon, while Tara (my girl Friday) tried to get some semblance of segments from the tangerines without mangling them. Managed to get everything together and into the oven by 3 30pm and 5 minutes later Anita and her husband were at the door! So, the cake baked itself while we chatted and caught up on who we were and what we did and all the things that connect us in this small world.


And as the filter coffee perked, hubby joined us too after his brief siesta while my daughter came back from our neighbour's place and we talked some more.Finally, time to check the cake (I had set it for 45 minutes but it was done in 35) and it looked gorgeous - lovely brown crust with the oranges peeping out.  It smelt delicious too - the cloves and the orange filling up the house with their aroma.

By then the dance of the cameras had begun, with my daughter pitching in for good measure, insisting that she wanted to take a pic too - talk about seizing the moment! The husbands waited patiently ("long suffering" were the words used I think) while we took our pics. And then we sat back and did what we do best - eat! 

I had made some khari biscuits too - with my latest discovery of readymade puff pastry from a local gourmet chain. I really, really miss my khari biscuits and the puff pastry makes it as easy as one- two- three! Roll it out, cut and bake. But more on that later.
The cake was moist and had that lovely citrusy flavour - a little sweeter than the recipe said it would be, but not as sweet as a dessert cake. Went well with the coffee - despite what one might think about a citrus cake.

Orange and Clove Tea Cake (adapted from here)

Ingredients:
1-2 oranges cut into peeled sections - I used one large kinoo (mandarin) orange.

1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)
1 cup refined flour (maida)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp clove powder (1 tsp cloves, roasted for 3-4 minutes and then ground) (the original recipe calls for 1.5 tsp but I didn't want to experiment with that much; this quantity gave a gentle bite to the cake without overwhelming it)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup castor sugar
1 1/2 tbsp orange zest
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp orange extract

1 cup hung curd (hang about 2.5 cups of homemade yoghurt or 2 cups of  store bought yoghurt for atleast one hour)

6 tbsp honey ( I would reduce this to 5)
3 eggs at room temperature
1/3 cup pure olive oil

1. Grease and flour an 8" cake tin. Pre heat the oven to 350C
2. Combine the dry ingredient - sieving the whole wheat flour before adding to the refined flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, clove powder and salt.
3. In a large bowl, mix the castor sugar with the lemon and orange zest with fingers. Add the eggs and honey and essence and beat till well combined,.
4. Add the olive oil and the hung curd and beat again till you get a smooth, thick batter. 
5. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and arrange the orange segments on top so that they are half in and half out of the batter.
6. Bake for 35 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean.

The Best Chocolate Cake for a Tea Party

For Anita's Tea Party celebration, the only fitting thing I could think of was this divine Chocolate Cake which I have blogged about before. This time though, I made it so my daughter's teachers could have a tea party celebration for Teacher's Day!

I have seen previous Teacher's Days in Delhi and the gifts and flowers it seems to entail in this showy city.....I don't subscribe to the idea at all. My mother has been a teacher all her working life and I know for sure that the one thing they do like is genuine appreciation for all the hard work they put in - the one upmanship among parents is, to say the least, annoying and sometimes embarassing.

My daughter is still very young though and it is a little difficult to explain to her why we don't necessarily have to do what everyone else is doing. So, I thought of involving her in baking a homemade chocolate cake instead, as a token of her love and appreciation - something which the other teachers could partake in as well, instead of making it a personal gift. She was happy to do all the mixing and measuring (and licking of bowl!) and took genuine pride at the end of it all in the soft, pillowy cake which emerged out of the oven. Lets raise a toast to freeing ourselves from the pack and doing what's right instead.

This time around, I added some whole wheat flour and cut back on the butter (as promised the last time) and it didn't make a difference. It is still a gorgeous chocolate cake - one you should try the next time you want someone to know, they're special.

 Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
Refined flour (maida) - 1 cup
Whole wheat flour - 1/4 cup
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
1/2 cup cocoa powder, (I used Cadbury's)
1/2 tsp coffee powder (instant)
1 cup boiling water
Vanilla essence - 2 tsp
Butter at room temperature - 1 cup
Castor sugar - 1 cup
Eggs - 2

Method:
1. Take a large bowl and beat the butter in it with an electric mixed on medium for about half a minute.
2. Add the sugar gradually and cream together till shiny and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat the first well before adding the second one.
3. Meanwhile, heat the water till it is boiling and then pour over the cocoa powder in a bowl. Mix well till dissolved. Cool and then mix in the vanilla essence.
4. Sieve the flour, baking soda and baking powder together. Add the flour mix a little at a time to the butter sugar egg mixture, alternating with the cocoa mixture, beating continuously with the mixer on medium continuously. When it is combined well, beat on low for another half a minute.
5. Pour the cake batter into 2 pans (I used a 8" round pan and a smaller rectangular pan) which have been lined with parchment paper on the bottom and greased and floured on the sides.
If not using parchment paper on the bottom (I didn't have any this time), grease and flour the bottom well, instead. This cake is very soft and if not lined or greased, may break when you try to turn it out.
6. Pre heat the oven to 190C and bake for about 25 minutes - a toothpick inserted should come out moist but not uncooked. Cool completely before attempting to take it out - this is very important.
7. Warm slightly before serving.

Upside Down Pear Cake

I'm back after a week in Ahmedabad at a learning program at IIM related to the field I work in. It was absolutely fascinating to be back in the classroom with 13 other individuals from different sections of the agri-business industry. The faculty was amazing and we had an excellent guest speaker; thought provoking insights, stimulating discussions and some heated arguments on the social aspects of the agri-business industry in India.

The other great bit about this trip was that I got to catch up with a close friend (and now a fellow blogger!) - Arch from the The Yum Factor. She was, as always, so warm and welcoming! We shopped, ate and chatted and then ate some more, in the very brief bits of time we got to spend together. When you reconnect with old friends, you come away recharged - Arch is this complete dynamo of energy - she has managed to design a beautiful and tasteful home for her family in a new city singlehandedly! An amazingly patient person, she is such a wonderful mother to her sweet 4 year old boy. And the food - delicious is the word. She even made pathrode - that Gujarati delicacy- at the last minute, steamed it and gave it to me barely 5 minutes before I left - its waiting to be eaten as a snack this evening!

But as always, good to be home - daughter insisted on accompanying Appa to the airport to pick me up but promptly fell asleep two minutes into the ride :) But was so nice to see her angelic (while asleep!) face when I landed. Childhood is a magical journey and I love seeing it through her eyes. I love upside down cakes - appeals to the child in me I guess. I think the first upside down cake I ate was a pineapple upside down cake made by my best friend's mother when we were in college. I still remember how heavenly it was.... I have made some more after that including this strawberry one.

So, when I saw this upside down cake made with caramelized pears and walnuts on Sig's blog, I was quite taken with the lovely, molten brown goodness it seemed to ooze. I also wondered at her comment about the 14tbsp of butter and 2 cups of sugar the recipe had and how it was difficult to expect the whole wheat to compensate for it in health terms. I decided to have a crack at the recipe and see whether I could come up with something which had a little less butter and sugar. When I started baking I never used to mess with recipes - of course, I went back to my bad ways of substitution pretty soon ;). But I was still a little bit concerned about tweaking this recipe.

I cut out the caramelized walnuts first since I don't really like nuts. That reduced a bit of the sugar,butter and maple syrup. For the caramelized pears I cut the butter and sugar as well as a little of the maple syrup. In the cake recipe as well, I figured since the caramelized sugar syrup would be sweet enough, some of the sugar could be reduced. I did increase the milk a little bit though since the batter seemed a little bit too thick. I had two pears and so I reduced the flour to 1.5 cups instead of 2cups; I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and half a cup of all purpose flour. I used some ginger powder instead of the cardamom powder and substituted the maple syrup with golden syrup.

The cake turned out quite well and the pears were beautifully glazed. Next time I would probably use one more egg white or applesauce for some more moistness. Also I would bake it at 350 instead of 375C since the centre took some more time to be cooked though the rest of the cake was already done.

A beautiful cake and you can serve it warm in this season with some vanilla ice cream on the side.

Upside Down Pear Cake

Whole wheat flour (atta) - 1 cup
All purpose flour (maida) - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Ginger powder - 1 tsp
salt - pinch


1 egg (plus one egg white)
Butter - 150gm (or about 9 tbsp)
Sugar - 1/2 cup
vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Milk - 3/4 cup

For the caramelized pears:
Pears - 2, peeled, cored and sliced thin
Butter - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 4 tbsp
Golden Syrup - 6 tbsp

1. Heat the butter till just melted in a heavy pan, add the brown sugar and after 3-4 minutes, add the pear slices and saute till they turn brown - about 4 more minutes. Add the golden syrup and cook for another 4 minutes till the slices are soft but not falling apart. Cool.
2. Bring the butter to room temperature and beat in a large bowl along with the sugar on high(if using an electric mixer) till soft and shiny.
3. Add the egg, milk and vanilla essence and beat on low for 3-4 minutes till well combined.
4. Mix the flours, salt, ginger powder and baking powder and then add one third at a time, to the larger bowl and beat till just combined.
5. Grease a 8" pan and line with parchment paper 9or simply dust with flour). Grease the parchment paper too and the sides of the pan.
6. Arrange the slices starting from an inside circle and carrying on to the outside circle till the whole pan is covered. Pour the syrup on top.
7. Pour the batter (should be of dropping consistency) over the pear slices and smooth over with a wooden spatula, taking care not to press down too much.
8. Pre heat the oven to 350C and bake for 40-45 minutes till a skewer comes out clean. When completely cool, invert and serve.

Divine Chocolate Cake

A dear friend in Chennai, used to make this absolutely divine chocolate cake - a bit fudgy at the centres and the lovely rich taste of chocolate in very bite. We loved having it at every celebration - birthday, Christmas and other special occasions. I had taken the recipe from her but never really bothered making it - why mess with perfection! But I missed it a lot after moving here two years back and finally decided to make it myself.

The intense richness of this cake, I believe, comes from pouring the boiling water over the cocoa and coffee powders. You know the perfect chocolate cake recipe you were looking for? - well this is it! I will be experimenting with a whole wheat & low fat version, but I think we should all be a little decadent sometimes and indulge ourselves :)
I am sending the first picture to Click - Bi colour this month - the popular photography event hosted by Jai & Bee of Jugalbandi.

Divine Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
Refined flour (maida) - 1 1/4 cups
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
1/2 cup cocoa powder, (I used Cadbury's)
1 cup boiling water
Vanilla essence - 2 tsp
Butter at room temperature - 1.25 cups
Castor sugar - 1 cup
Eggs - 2
Method:
1. Take a largish bowl and beat the butter in it with an electric mixed on medium for about half a minute.
2. Add the sugar gradually and cream together till shiny and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat the first well before adding the second one.
3. Meanwhile, heat the water till it is boiling and then pour over the cocoa powder in a bowl. Mix well till dissolved. Cool and then mix in the vanilla essence.
4. Sieve the flour, baking soda and baking powder together. Add the flour mix a little at a time to the butter sugar egg mixture, alternating with the cocoa mixture, beating continuously with the mixer on medium continuously. When it is combined well, beat on low for another half a minute.
5. Pour the cake batter into 2 pans (I used a 8" round pan and a smaller rectangular pan) which have been lined with parchment paper on the bottom and greased and floured on the sides. If not using parchment paper on the bottom, I would recommend heavily greasing and flouring the bottom instead. The cake turned out really soft and broke a bit when I tried to turn it out onto a plate.
6. Pre heat the oven to 190C and bake for about 25 minutes - a toothpick inserted should come out moist but not uncooked. Cool completely before attempting to take it out.
7. Warm slightly before serving.

White Chocolate, Cherry and Oatmeal Cookies

I have been baking a Christmas cake for the past two years and it has become nice way to bring in the holiday spirit - right from marinating the fruit to baking it on Christmas Eve. This was the first time in the last eight years we weren't at the our friend's house in Chennai for Christmas - but the cake still managed to please new friends. And the special part of baking it this year was that a couple of months back I got to meet my friend in London who had given me this recipe some years back. We have only been emailing each other for almost 8 years now so it was wonderful to actually get to meet her!



This year, I also baked some cookies - adapted this recipe which was itself adapted from this one
from Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from Cook's Illustrated. I love crispy cookies much more than the chewy ones so I loved the idea of these. They are actually not so much crispy rather than this kind of absolutely gorgeous vehicle to transport some rich chocolate and oatey goodness into your mouth!! I did away with the sea salt and reduced the oatmeal, threw in some dried cherries and Voila! - absolutely delicious cookies. I had to stop myself from eating the dough while waiting for the first batch to cook :)

Sending these cookies to Neivedyam's Cookie Baking Event which is being hosted by Sharmi.

White Chocolate, Cherry and Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

Flour - 2 cups
Oats - 1 cup (I used quick cooking oats)
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Butter - 200gms
White chocolate(chopped) - 170 gms
Egg -1
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Dried cherries - 50gms
Sugar - 1 cup

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl till smooth.
2. Put the chopped chocolate into a glass bowl and place it inside a bowl of heated water and microwave in 30 second intervals till melted and smooth.
3. Beat the egg and add to the creamed butter and sugar mixing lightly till combined.
4. Sift the flour with the baking powder and baking soda and then add gradually to the egg mixture.
5. Add the vanilla essence and the melted chocolate to the bowl and combine with a wooden spatula.
6. Refrigerate the mixture for about half an hour so that it can be shaped into balls - do not skip this step!
7. Pre heat the oven to 180C (350F), cut butter paper to size and spread on a baking tray.
8. Shape the cookie dough into balls, flatten slightly and place on the baking tray atleast 2 inches apart (they will spread and flatten as they bake). Don't handle the cookie dough for too long since the chocolate and butter will start melting.
9. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the butter paper with the cookies on it and set aside to cool. They are very fragile before they cool so don't try to remove them from the butter paper when hot.
10. Bake more batches in the same way till the dough is used up.

Coconut Lemon Cake

I'm sure most of the Indian (and other) food blogging community knows about Meeta's fabulous blog What's for Lunch Honey - an incredible space for some brilliant recipes as well as breath taking photography.

I especially love her baking recipes and frequently find myself being drawn from one post to another marvelling at the ease which she puts together combinations of flavours and tastes, colours and textures.

One such unbeatable combination was Mum's Coconut Lemon Cake - I just had to try it out the moment I saw it. It also had some lovely memories of her childhood and the special bond she shares with her mother which made it a delightful post to read.

Well, I baked it in two moulds with the idea that I would take the larger one to a lunch at my friend's place and the other smaller one to keep at home. The larger one fell apart for some reason (maybe I turned it out too soon and it wasn't cool enough) and I was quite dismayed but I was in a hurry and just took it as it was - crumbs and all. I needn't have worried - the cake was so delicious that my friend asked if she could keep the rest!

The one at home was also very difficult to take out in one piece but I was more careful this time and managed better. But it got polished off really fast and I hardly had a couple of pieces left to click!

The taste of lemon along with the coconut was just pure brilliance - thanks Meeta (and Mum) for this lovely recipe! This goes to Monthly Blog Patrol (MBP) - Fruit Fare Yyes I know coconuts and lemons do not fit the usual concept of fruit - but they are fruits, so there! ;)

MBP was started by Coffee of The Spice Cafe and is being hosted this month by dear Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen

Celebrations, Cake & Click Yellow for Bri

Click! Yellow for Bri

I have been back a week now but have hardly had time to breathe. My daughter's 3rd birthday on the weekend gave me only a week to scramble and get everything done in time. There were only six children this time so I decided to do everything at home , including the cake and of course it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be!

I should have expected the madness, considering the fact that I haven't ever iced a cake before. I'm not a great fan of butter sugar icing and don't know the first thing about fresh cream icing. But Birthday baby wanted a "Pink butterfly Cake" so the theme of the party was chosen automatically though I didnt have a theme for even her first and second birthdays! - there were Butterfly invitation cards, butterfly games and even a butterfly cake
- I drew the line at Pink icing for the cake though; instead I made pink marzipan butterfly and flower decorations to put on the icing.

Her best friend's mother got her a pair of pink wings and she was thrilled to bits. This was her first birthday party she really enjoyed; the highlight of the evening was the cutting of the cake of course and she beamed as everyone sang for her!! All that slaving at above 40C temps and 80% humidity was so worth it for that bug eyed look on her face when she saw her cake!

I thought I would never be able to get the marzipan right nor the cookies, the butter and sugar were simply melting and oozing out of everything. I somehow managed to get them both done but I was a puddle of sweat myself by the end of it.

The next day I got a bit smarter, when it was time for the icing I put on the air conditioning in my bedroom and did it all there!! And helping me through it all was Deeba of Passionate about Baking on the phone! - Thanks so much D, I really managed because you kept telling me it would work!

The menu in fact was like a Blog Patrol event I was conducting!!
The basic sponge cake was adapted from this recipe of Deeba's and then I made a butter and sugar icing tinted yellow. The marzipan I adapted, again, from Deeba's recipe, I cut out the flowers and leaves and shaped the butterfly by hand. The stained glass cookies are from her recipe and were much appreciated.

I made these chocolate cupcakes from Cooker's recipe and made some marzipan flowers and leaves to put on them.

I adapted this recipe from Farmgirl Fare to make some delicious carrot and herb rolls. And there was salami and cheese sandwiches, mini idlis and macaroni and cheese.
And then for me to relax after all the sugar fuelled hyperactivity, we had dinner with a few close friends at home - some chilled minty caipiroska, grilled chicken with mango salsa, pesto pasta, dinner rolls and a roasted salad and good company - it was a perfect evening.

ETA: I have just come back and catching up, came across the fund raising for Bri - I am entering this cake in the Click! Yellow for Bri event being hosted at Jugalbandi. I have participated in Click just once before this, frankly my photography skills leave a lot to be desired.
BUT this event is special and is being organised as a fund raiser for Bri of the blog Figs with Bri .
She is waging a second battle against cancer and we are all hoping that she wins this time too. In the meanwhile she needs to pursue all options including alternative therapy which is not covered by health insurance.
Been there, done that and still recovering from the financial effects of battling a major illness, though mine was not cancer. Its amazing to see the outpouring of support and I hope it helps her in as many ways as possible.

If you want to help the fundraiser, you can participate in Click Yellow for Bri at Jugalbandi till the 30th of June. OR you can Make a Donation OR Publicise the fund raiser by writing about it on your blog or website. You can use the HTML at this page.

Vanilla, Cream Cheese and Date Cake

My daughter had an end- of-term party coming up at school (I don't think we ever had such things...for that matter I don't remember going to play school, I think it was straightaway Kindergarten at 3 years) and every child was required to bring one item for the party.

Mine was to bring a snack while her friend was to bring a cake - her mother asked me whether I would bake a cake so that she didn't have to give store bought cake with all that sugar and icing. So we swapped and I came up with a delicious cake adapting this recipe from the Joy of Cooking site.

The kids enjoyed this simple fluffy cake with the childhood favourite Vanilla - the cream cheese made it that much more flavourful and soft.

I am sending this to Masterbaker's April theme - Vanilla Each month Nikki picks one ingredient and we get to bake whatever we want, then she bakes up a bunch of the entries and picks a winner - simple and fun!

Vanilla, Cream Cheese and Date Cake

Ingredients:

Refined flour (maida) - 2 cups
Butter - 1 cup
Cream Cheese - 3/4 cup (I used cream cheese spread and cut out the 1/4 tsp salt in the recipe, you can also use fresh thick hung curd)
Eggs - 3
Sugar - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 1 /4 tsp
Vanilla scrapings from one pod or 3/4 tbsp vanilla essence
Pitted and chopped dates - 1 cup

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C and lightly grease a cake pan and keep aside.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. into a bowl. Soak chopped dates in 1/4 cup of warm milk and keep aside.

3 Beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar a little at a time and beat until creamy and smooth.

4. Beat in the eggs, one at time and mix well. Add vanilla bean extract or vanilla essence and beat well.

5. Fold in the flour mixture gently until just mixed, drain and add the dates and pour the cake batter into the greased pan.

6. Bake for 1 hour at 180C or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 15 -20 minutes, before removing out of the pan and cooling again.

Orange Date Cake - Arusuvai Friendship Chain

After much wiffling and waffling....I finally decided how to use the orange extract I received from Deeba of Passionate about Baking as part of the Arusuvai Friendship chain. I baked this lovely citrus cake with luscious dates - especially for our very own orange blossom - our almost 3 year old daughter. Just as she fills our home with sparkling eyes and shy smiles, with stubborn cries and pouted lips, the fragrance of this cake warmed our hearts. This was for a sentimental family occasion and she loved that there was something special for her.
And for me it seemed fitting that a gift from someone who I have not even met yet, but seem to know so well, should be used to create a gift for someone so dear to me.

Thank you so much Deeba - it added that special touch to a beautiful day when my daughter got all saucer eyed looking at "her" cake (we are in possessive mode these day) as it came out of the oven - the one she helped stir and mix and pour orange "joosh" into.

This was the first time I experimented with a cake...I usually pretty much stick to baking recipes and wasn't at all sure how this one would turn out. Now that this frontier has been breached - well my oven had better be scared - very scared!

I loved that the cake turned out so moist and fluffy with a nice crust. The flavour of orange seeped right through. It didn't need an orange glaze which most recipes recommended.....The dates which popped up in between were a nice addition and I think soaking them in the orange juice and orange zest really helped make them juicy.This one will definitely be made many more times and hopefully become a fond childhood memory for our daughter.

I am also sending this recipe and story to Sugar High Fridays #41, which is being hosted at Habeas Brulee and this month's theme is all about Sweet Gifts.

Orange Date Cake

Ingredients:

Flour - 1 and 3/4 cup
Butter - 3/4 cup
Light Brown sugar - 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Eggs - 2
Orange extract - 2 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Buttermilk - 1/2 cup (Pour half a tablespoon of lime juice into half a cup of milk and set aside for 5-10 minutes till it separates - strain and use)
Grated zest of 2 medium organges (about 2 tbsp)
Juice of 2 medium oranges (1/2 cup)
Chopped seedless dates - 3/4 cup

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Soak chopped dates in the orange juice and orange zest for about half an hour. Grease a ring mould or a 8" cake pan and keep aside.
2. Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
3. Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl; beat eggs well and keep aside.
4. Strain the dates and keep aside the orange juice and zest.
5. Take the bowl with the creamed butter and sugar; add the dry ingredients(flour,salt etc) a little at a time alternating with the wet ingredients (egg, buttermilk and orange juice), ending with the dry ingredients.
6. Pour in the vanilla essence and orange extract. Mix in the chopped dates and the orange zest.
7. Pour in the batter into the greased cake pan and bake at 180C for 45 minutes or till done. Check with a skewer to see whether it comes out clean when pierced into the cake.
8. Let cool inside the oven for about 5 minutes, then remove and let cool outside for about 10 minutes. Remove from pan when fully cooled and set aside for sometime on wire rack.

French Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Ganache

On a recent trip I came across vanilla beans - an ingredient I have been looking for ever since I started visiting Vanilla Garlic, where amazingly creative Garrett waxes eloquent about vanilla bean varieties, vanilla sugar and what not......

So, when I saw that test tube shaped bottle with three long curling-black-as-gnarled-wood vanilla beans, I grabbed it up. Isn't it an oxymoron that the bean itself is this dark blackish brown and the colour one associates it with is white....vanilla icecream, vanilla white, plain as vanilla.....
I came back and it lay on my spice rack, where I could see it while cooking. I would open the bottle and take a deep breath and place it back. It's time had not come.....my cooking depends a lot on what I feel like, I rarely cook something "just because".

And so Valentine's Day drew nearer and though I did feel like making something this year, I somehow couldn't bring myself to think of chocolates or strawberry or pink and red stuff. So I kept looking at recipes and putting it off.

Today I caught sight of my vanilla in-a-test tube and knew that this is what I wanted to make - something with this rich aroma which makes the world seem like a nicer warmer place. I vaguely remembered a recipe on Vanilla Garlic and when I checked - there it was - perfect for my mood and for the day - French Vanilla Cupcakes.

So I set about making this as a cake. I followed the recipe exactly since I wasn't sure whether the custardy consistency he referred to would make it differ in anyway. The only thing I changed is the quantity of sugar - I used 1 1/2 cups instead of 2 and it was quite sweet.

The Circle of Life

The cake was oh-so-soft! but still had a nice brown crumb. It tasted of vanilla and a dozen childhood memories......and is perfect for my Valentine's Day this year.

I had decided to make a chocolate ganache to go with this since I'm not too fond of meringues. But when it came to making the ganache, I realised I am still the girl who likes to draw and hates painting in the sketch......I didn't feel like frosting the whole cake!
I just wanted more of the creamy vanilla flavour, so I just frosted the 3 cup cakes and part of the main cake.

Three valentines for the three of us

This goes to the Serendipity Bake Off hosted by familiabencomo with help from the soapchix at Serendipity Soaps and to Pooja at My Creative Ideas for her Valentine event.

And one of the pics goes to Jai and Bee of Jugalbandi for their event Click - this month's theme is FLOUR.