Its almost Christmas and time for us to move our base from the hills to the plains till the winter break is over. This is the time of the year when our school shuts down for almost two months and we get a good time to spend with our family and loved ones. My bags are packed and I am about to empty my pantry. Last few days I am baking with whatever fruit is left in the fridge. Therefore, the productivity of Oven is at its peak. When I saw oranges and blueberry in my freezer compartment I knew I have make this cake which has been on my to do list for such a long time. I wanted a simple Orange Pound cake which makes everything just right.
And when the cake came out of the oven it was simply to die for. So moist, flavourful with orange zest and the cake was screaming eat me up! So that’s what I did 😉 If you are planning to do something for this holiday season its highly recommended that you include this in your bake list. You will surely thank me 🙂 Until next time…
Directions:
1. In a bowl add All purpose Flour, salt and Baking Powder and combine. Set aside.
2. Take zest of two oranges and juice them. Set aside the zest and fresh orange juice aside.
3. In another bowl add add butter at room temperature. Also add sugar and whisk it till everything is creamy.
4. Add eggs and continue to whisk till everything is light and fluffy.
5. Add Orange Zest and combine.
6. Now add dry ingredients to the wet and also add orange juice. Combine everything.
7. Add blueberries and fold inside the batter.
8. Grease a bundt pan or any pan you fancy. Dust it with dry flour. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius for ten minutes.
9. Pour the batter in the baking pan, remember to fill only 3/4th of it. Because you need to give it room to rise. Bake in the oven for 45- 50 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. If the cake is getting brown too fast tent it with aluminium foil and continue to bake at the same temperature.
10. While its baking in the oven you can prepare a glaze to pour. Add whipping cream in the bowl lightly whisk it add icing sugar, if its not sweet already and add some orange zest. Combine together.
11. Add the glaze in a piping bag and make a very small cut in the tip. You dont need a nozzle for this.
12. When the cake has baked take it out of the oven and let it cool down completely before taking it out of the pan. When it’s at room temperature drizzle some glaze on top and serve.
Other festive things you can try: Gingerbread Man Cookies, Greek Traditional Christmas Cookies , Chocolate Vanilla Marble Cake, Persimmon Rum Cake, Sorghum and Wheat Flour Persimmon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.
[whohit]OrangeBluebberyCake[/whohit]
[yumprint-recipe id=’265′]
Holi is around the corner and I am heading home next week to be with my family. I know for a fact that like any holi there will be Gujiya, Thandai and more Indian sweets and savouries. I want to take them something different which is special, colourful for the occasion and yet delicious. I decided to use pomegranates which I am currently loaded with. As you know my hunt for recipes begins when I start panicking with things in abundance. I have been eyeing this recipe on BBC good food for a while and with Holi on my mind this seemed a perfect match for the occasion.
This was very easy to put together. The base of this can be any sponge cake with egg or eggless! I chose to do egg because you get the perfect rise without being too dense. But if you like you can do any. You can even make my Eggless Almond Vanilla Cake, skipping the almonds. The beauty of this cake is in the syrup, as you can see 😛 The pomegranate arils are like the jewels studded in the crown. Oh I can become a poet now for I loved this cake. But the real kick is in the pomegranate syrup. It takes the cake to next level of deliciousness.
See I can go and and on and yap so much about this cake and lure with pictures. But you must stop me here and look at the recipe and make for your loved ones this holi! Or why look for an occasion, just bake it, dress it and devour.. Oh yes and don’t forget to thank me 😛 In the meanwhile I am sending this cake for my friend Shaheen from Spoon Fork and Food and Sonal from Simply Vegetarian 777 Holi Collective. Do check out their blogs for some amazing Holi Recipes.
Directions:
1.In a bowl add Butter and castor Sugar. Cream them together. You can use hand held whisk or electric whisk.
2. Add eggs and combine till creamy and light.
3. Add Zest of Lemon, Lemon Juice and Vanilla Extract.
4. In a bowl add All Purpose Flour, salt and Baking Powder.
5. Slowly add this to the wet ingredients and combine until moistened.
6. Pour this batter in a cake tin or smaller 4 cake tins and smoothen the top with a spatula.
7. Bake in the preheated oven on 160 degree for 50 minutes for large single tin and 20 minutes for smaller tins or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let them cool down completely before removing them from the pans.
8. For the syrup add Pomegranate juice and Sugar a sauce pan.
9. Also add Lemon Juice and Vanilla Extract.
10. Place the saucepan on medium heat and let the sugar dissolve in the juice. After a few boils the liquid will became a little thick but with pourable consistency. When it reaches that stage turn the flame off.
11. After your cake has cooled poke some holes with a knife or skewer on its top.
12. Place a sheet of Oddy Parchment Paper below a wire rack and place your cake on the rack. Pour the syrup on the cake and let the parchment Paper catch the drippings. Its makes cleaning breeze. Also top it up with pomegranate arils.
13. Greet your guests with this gorgeous cake this Holi. I am sure they will never forget this one.
You can try other cakes here as well Wacky Vegan Chocolate Cake, Persimmon Rum Cake. Apple Raisin Streusel Bread, Pumpkin Cake Rolls, Surprise Heart Inside Cake, Chocolate Vanilla Marble Cake, Lemon Cake with Lemony Frosting
[yumprint-recipe id=’199′]
On my last trip to Delhi I gathered a lot of strawberries for my experiments. Ha! I sound as if I am a mad scientist..well almost 😛 When I made the Strawberry Preserve for my family they went gaga over it and it was finished in a few days. I never have had so much jam in my entire life. Well I am left with is an empty jar and sweet memories on my tongue. The next on my mind was to use them for some cookies. I know it sounded weird but when I did my google I saw there were many weirdos like me. I zeroed down to Harini’s Recipe and it was huh! Heavenly!
The colour of cookies was so enticing that my little sunshine picked up one, and then two and finished three of these with milk in his favourite short mason jars. You know baker mommies they just love this and that’s how their heart melts. I am simply going to repeat doing this whenever I have strawberries next. In the meanwhile you try and indulge.
Directions:
1. Wash and hull strawberries and cut into slices. With the help of your finger tips coarsely mash them. A blender will make it a puree, but we just want them coarsely mashed. So stick to your hands.
2. In a bowl add butter and sugar. Cream them together.
3. Add coarsely mashed strawberries and combine.
4. Add Vanilla extract and combine.
5. In a separate bowl sift and combine All Purpose flour Baking Powder and Custard Powder.
6. Add the flour to the wet ingredients and mix together to form a sticky dough. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes so that it becomes easier to work with.
7. Line a baking sheet with Oddy Uniwrap Parchment Paper and preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.
8. Divide and roll the dough into golf size balls and place them on the baking sheet. Press them slightly with your palm.
9. Bake them in oven for 12-15 minutes. Remove them from oven. Let them cool down completely before indulging into it.
Other Cookie recipe you can try here are: Coconut Chocolate Cookies, Italian Almond Biscotti, Greek Traditional Christmas Cookies , Ragi & Whole Wheat Biscuits, White Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips.
[whohit]StrawberryCookies[/whohit]
[yumprint-recipe id=’197′]Sending this to: Uniwraps.com
Few days from now and it will be Christmas!! And I will be home with my parents. I may have been raised Hindu but having studied in a Christian School makes me yearn for Christmas and fun & frolic associated with it. I remember as a little kid I would decorate a potted plant in my house 😛 Now that I am a mommy, the spirit of Christmas hasn’t died in me, rather it is coming out in the form of baking and cooking delicious food which makes the festivity more joyous.
A little while back I had posted Melomakarona : Greek Christmas Cookies and since then the vicious circle of baking is on. The next on my list if to bake my Rum Cake for Christmas. I smell the rum soaked dry fruits everyday and greedily imagine when the cake will be baked. Well looks like I will do that in a day or two, cant wait beyond this 😛 Nevertheless here are my authentic ginger bread man cookies which are made with molasses syrup. It has a distinct spiced flavour to it which makes you warm and feel good about the weather around. Not to mention, its so much fun to decorate them using royal icing. You need a little practice and patience to decorate them perfectly. Clearly I lack both 😉 My kiddo had fun baking these cookies with me. He ate the entire first batch by dunking them in his glass of milk. Definitely, he is mumma’s boy <3
Directions:
1. In a bowl add All Purpose Flour.
2. Add to it ginger powder, ground cinnamon and cloves powder.
3. Add baking soda and salt. Mix all the dry ingredients well and set aside.
5. In another bowl add butter at room temperature and add brown sugar to it. I used light brown sugar as it was the only thing I had on hand. Add molasses and give everything a good whip until creamy and soft. I used my electric whisk but you can always do it manually.
6. Add an egg to it whisk again. Now its time to add your dry ingredients little by little till everything comes together in the form of a dough.
7. Divide the dough into two or four balls and wrap them in a cling wrap and refrigerate for an hour or until the dough is set.
8. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celcius (Learn more about Oven temperature and Conversion).Take one ball of dough and let it sit on counter till it is workable. Dust your counter well with dry flour and roll it into a 1/8 inch circle. Cut it into gingerbread man shape using a cutter. If you think your cutter gets sticky you can dip it into flour and continue to cut the shapes. You can buy gingerbread man cookie cutter from our online store The Gourmet Shop
9. Place them on a baking sheet lined with Oddy Uniwrap Parchment paper. Bake them for 10 minutes in a center rack until they turn a little brown.
10. Cool them completely and decorate them with Royal Icing and candies. Learn to make Royal Icing easily at home.
11. You can dunk them in milk or enjoy them as it is. Its a treat for kids and you can even gift it to your loved ones to melt their heart this season.
Other Cookies you can try here are:Melomakarona : Greek Traditional Christmas Cookies, Ragi & Whole Wheat Biscuits, White Chocolate Chip Cookies, Italian Almond Biscotti, Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips, Coconut Chocolate Cookies.
[yumprint-recipe id=’186′]
Its been a month me and my husband have been clean. No No its not what you are thinking 😉 We are not on DRUGS!!! We are eating healthy and exercising to burn those extra kilos we have gathered as a result of food blogging 😛 We are trying hard to keep our meals simple, clean and avoiding sugar as much as we can. I know its a painstaking task. But you see every Christ has to carry one’s own cross 😉
This gave me an opportunity to look into healthier and nutritious dishes. I recently made Couscous Chickpea Salad, Mexican Black Bean Mango Salad. But nevertheless the craving for sweet things gets in more too often. I tried to indulge in a dessert which is gultfree. I know Dessert and Guiltree are like the North and the South Pole. But trust me these Chocolate brownies are without any eggs, oil or butter and no extra sugar is added to it. Its sweetened with apple sauce, chocolate and maple syrup and above all it has goodness of Yellow Zucchini. Another fabulous idea to hide in Zucchini in your kiddos food without letting them know 😉
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius for ten minutes. Wash, peel and core apple. Cut into small pieces and make a smooth puree in a blender. Set aside.
2. Wash, peel and grate a zucchini. You can use yellow or green. Both will serve the purpose.
3. Place the grated Zucchini in a cheese cloth and squeeze out all the water. Set aside. You can use this water to make roti dough.
4. In a small bowl add Flax Seed meal or Flax seed powder (Learn how to make Flax seed Powder at home) and add some water. Let it rest for ten minutes and become gelatinous.
5. In a mixing bowl add apple sauce and soya milk.*
6. Also add Maple syrup and Vanilla extract.
7. Add the gelatinous flax meal mixture to the bowl and give everything a good stir.
8. In another bowl swift and add cocoa powder and whole wheat flour.
9. Also sift and add in baking powder and combine with the dry ingredients. The purpose of sieving is to eliminate all lumps.
10. Gently fold the wet ingredients in the dry ingredients.
11. Add grated and squeezed zucchini and combine using a spatula.
12. Chop some chocolate and add to the batter. Save a little for the top garnish. You can even use chocolate chips instead.
13. Line a 8×8 baking tray with some parchment paper and grease it with little oil so that nothing sticks. Pour the batter in the greased tray.
14. Top it with reserved chopped chocolate and keep it for baking in a preheated oven for 25 – 30 minutes.
15. Remove it from the oven and let it cool down completely before you cut it into squares. You can store them up in fridge in air tight containers for a few days .
Other desserts you can try here are: Blueberry Jam Bars, Pumpkin Cake Rolls, Mascarpone Cherry Compote Cheesecake Glasses,
[whohit]ZucchiniBrownies[/whohit]
[yumprint-recipe id=’167′]
The story of this Lemon Cake with Lemon Glaze begins here. My parents in law brought for us lemons from our lemon tree back in Faridabad. The tree is a special variety which bears seedless lemons and the fragrance of fresh lemons is to die for. They were in abundance and then the search began to put them to right use. Easy way would have been to make lemon pickle out of it. However, I had a lot pickle lying in the house sent by my mom earlier this year. I never wanted to hoard pickle while no one eats it. So I decided to this amazing cake which was on my to-do list for a very long time.
The Cake has an interesting lemony flavour (what else you expect!! Silly me :p). If you have a hang of lemon cakes and have tasted lemon tarts and muffins then decide to do this cake. This could be a little overpowering for those who are expecting this to be an ordinary cake with a spec of lemon here and there.. umm no! It has a distinct tartness which I love!!
Directions:
1. Wash your lemons and pat them dry. Now remove the green skin from the lemons known as zest. You can use a zester or simply grater for lemons. Do not use the yellow skin inside for that is known as rind and can be bitter in taste. Do not throw the zested lemons away.
2. Cut the lemons into half and squeeze out its juice.
3. Grease or Butter, or spray with a non stick cooking spray, a 9 inch (23 cm) spring form pan and then line the bottom of the pan with parchment or wax paper.
4. In a bowl add butter, at room temperature and add castor sugar. Cream them together till sugar and butter become creamy.
5. Add Vanilla extract and crack in some eggs* (for eggless see tip below in notes). Whisk them together using a strong hand or electric whisk until it become frothy.
6. Add the lemon zest and combine. Set aside.
7. In a separate bowl add the All purpose Flour, salt and Baking powder.
8. Give them all a gentle mix and add little by little to the wet ingredients and mix.
9. Add lemon juice and combine. Do not over mix, just enough to moisten the dry ingredients.
10. Pour the batter in the greased baking pan and slightly flatten the top surface with a spatula.
11. Bake it in a preheated oven for 40-50 minute on 180 degree celsius or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let it cool down for 15 minutes on a wire rack then remove it from the pan.
12. In the meanwhile sieve icing sugar or confectioner’s sugar in a bowl.
12. Add lemon juice to it until it has reached pourable consistency.
13. Let the cake cool down completely Pour the frosting over the top of the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides.
14. Let the frosting dry before covering and storing. This cake will keep for several days in an airtight container.
You can try other cakes Wacky Vegan Chocolate Cake, Persimmon Rum Cake. Apple Raisin Streusel Bread, Pumpkin Cake Rolls, Surprise Heart Inside Cake, Chocolate Vanilla Marble Cake.
Some days back the food groups on facebook were infested with posts to guess this new kind of fruit ultimately revealed as Ram Phal, Japani Phal and in English Persimmon. I couldn’t restraint myself when I saw these babies in the market. They were at a throw away price so I bought them a kilo. Now after eating a few I was thinking where else can I utilise them. I found this incredible recipe to make a spiced cake with persimmon, just perfect for the cold weather.
The persimmons were sitting on my shelf for a few days now so they had become super ripe just the way they are needed for this cake. The cake came out so moist and delicious that my husband declared it the best cake baked by me so far.
Directions:
1. Wash and Cut the persimmons into half.
2. Scoop out the pulp with the help of a spoon and throw away the peels.
3. Put the pulp in a blender and make a smooth puree. Set aside.
4. In a small saucepan pour some rum and raisins and bring them to a boil on medium low heat. Remove from heat and cover. Let them come to a room temperature.
5. In a bowl add All purpose Flour, Cinnamon powder, Baking Soda and salt.
6 . Also add nutmeg powder for that extra spice.
7. In the same bowl add castor sugar and mix everything. Set aside.
8. In a different bowl crack eggs and add the persimmon puree and also add rum soaked raisins.
9. Also add to this vanilla extract. Combine everything making sure everything mixes evenly.
10. Grease a ten cup pan spring pan or bundt pan. Also preheat your oven to 175 degree Celsius.
11. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the wet ingredients into it.
12. Also add melted butter. Also add toasted walnuts or pecans.
13. Combine everything using a spatula till everything is moistened. But do not overmix.
14. Transfer it to a greased pan and even out from the top by tapping the pan.
15. Bake in preheated oven between 40 minutes to 1 hour or until the inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove from Oven and let it cool completely. Invert the cake into a serving plate.
Slice it like that only or you can top it with Cream Cheese Icing.
You can even try Persimmon Sorghum Cup Cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, Pumpkin Cake Rolls and Spiced Raisin Cake.
[whohit]PersimmonCake[/whohit]
[yumprint-recipe id=’94’]
Honestly, my love for Pumpkin was never sudden. Infact I always considered pumpkin as a vegetable to make Indian cuisines or my Grandmother’s delicious Kaddu ka Halwa . Until Mexico happened and that is were I discovered that pumpkin is more than we think it to be. My respect for pumpkin grew overnight as I started experimenting with Pumpkin Puree. I learnt to make this Puree at home which made it a ready to make ingredient which can be used to make Pumpkin Rolls, Pumpkin Muffins, Pumpkin Bread and much much more.
In the west Pumpkins are symbolic to Halloween, a famous festival to remember saints, martyrs and all departed souls. Pumpkin is used to make feasts and even used for carving. The warmth of Pumpkin Puree along with spices makes the winter cozy and comfortable. So how are you celebrating your halloween. Treat or Trick? 😉
Directions:
1. Line a Large rectangular baking tray with Parchment Paper and brush it with Vegetable Oil . Set aside. Pre heat the Oven to 375 Degree Fahrenheit. Learn more about Oven Temperatures and Conversions.
2. Sift All Purpose Flour, Salt, Baking Powder and Pumpkin Pie Spice (Learn to make homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice) using a sifter, so that the flour becomes lump free.
3. In a large bowl whisk together eggs and sugar so that the mixture becomes thick and pale in colour.
4. Add in Pumpkin Puree and Vanilla essence together to the egg mixture and combine together. You can make Pumpkin Puree at home or you can use canned pumpkin puree.
5. Add the sifted flour mixture to it and combine to get an even batter. Do not over mix.
6. Spread the batter on the baking sheet lined with Baking Sheet. I have used Oddy Uniwraps Parchment Paper, because it makes baking a breeze. It ensures the cake bakes perfectly without sticking to the paper or tray and makes cleaning hassle free.You can use spatula to evenly spread the batter.
7. Bake it in preheated oven for 12 to 14 minutes or until the cake has cooked thoroughly.Let it cool for 5-7 minutes.
8. On your counter spread a kitchen towel and dust it with Confectioner’s Sugar generously. Remove the cake from the baking tray along with parchment paper and place on kitchen towel with parchment paper facing upwards and cake downwards. Now carefully remove the parchment paper.
9. Roll up the cake along with towel into a jelly roll starting from the shorter side. Let it cool completely for an hour or so.
10. Now for the filling you need butter and cream cheese at room temperature. Cream them together using a whisk. Add to it confectioner’s sugar or powdered sugar and little vanilla essence.
11. Add zest of orange or clementine to it and mix.
12. Now unroll the cake and spread the cheese filling on top using a spatula.
13. Now roll the cake again but this time without the towel. Try not to crack the cake. But if you get cracks never mind. 🙂
14. Wrap this with the kitchen towel from top and let it set in refrigerator for couple of hours. You can even do it over night.
15. After refrigeration for several hours unwrap the cake roll on a tray .
16. Cut it diagonally into half from the center.
17. Keep slicing it on an angle into smaller pieces.
18. Serve with your favourite cup of Coffee or simply like that.
Other things you can try with Pumpkin are: Pumpkin ka Halwa, Pumpkin Puree Buns.
[yumprint-recipe id=’67’]