Strawberry Loaf

Sending some uncomplicated, refreshing and strawberry love your way - hopefully a welcome respite from all the boozy and spicy cakes, puddings and cookies.

Recipe adapted from here with slight changes:

You will need:

-1 1/2 cup AP Flour

-1 teaspoon baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon baking soda

-pinch of salt

-3/4 cup and 1 tablespoon sugar

-80 g butter

-1 egg
-1/2 cup milk (at room temperature)

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-1 cup strawberries hulled and halved

-1/4 cup strawberry jam

 

-Preheat oven to 180C and butter and line the baking tin.

-Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

-Beat the sugar and butter till fluffy and pale. Add the egg and continue to blend. Add the vanilla extract and mix.

-Add the milk in a steady drizzle twith the blender on medium (It may look  like it is going to curdle a bit, but do not worry, keep blending on high once all the milk has gone in).

-Add the flour, and blend it on low till just incorporated. 

-Pour half the batter into prepared tin,  pour 3/4th the jam, swirl it in with a skewer. Pour the remaining cake batter, followed by the remaining jam and swirl again. Place the cut strawberries on top, cut side down and bake for 25 min or till the cake skewer comes out clean.

 -Let the loaf cool on rack before slicing. Enjoy!
and a Happy New Year all! May the coming year be as promising as our hopes and dreams - Cheers!

Flourless Almond Orange Cake

On a recent weekend holiday to Pondicherry, the foodie group of us cousins headed out to Villa Shanthi, this beautifully done-up restaurant with high ceilings, wide verandahs, vintage lanterns and white walls reminiscent of uber chic Sri Lankan décor. After a sumptuous (and tad expensive) lunch, it was time for my favorite part of any meal, the dessert. The options: bla, sthing, bla bla, blablabla, Flourless Almond Orange cake with chocolate mousse, bla, something... beeep beeep beep, rewind to Flourless Almond Orange cake with chocolate mousse. Intrigued, i decided to try it, and it did not disappoint. It was a little dry, but the doors to flourless/butter less baking opened. Doors to pairing cake with other classic elements opened. I was hooked on how well Orange and almond can pair up. The crowning glory that is the ultra smooth chocolate mousse amplifies the flavors. I had to try it at home, and true to the season at hand, the cake is Christmassy enough with the refreshing orange flavor. I tried it with the Chocolate Chantilly, and greedy me was so impatient to taste, i did not even allow it to whip up to full volume!
 

So if you want an exceptionally moist and healthy cake that is so different, yet so wholesome, you should try it. and you know what the best part of the cake is? Leave it refrigerated for the flavors to mature overnight, and the taste just gets better! Do not be put off by the duration of boiling the oranges. That requires hardly any bother (except when you have to occasionally top  up the water content).

I based this cake on a recipe i found online but i had not bookmarked it, and i can't find it now! So this is the closest i could come to finding the actual recipe i used, but please note i made quite a few changes:

-2 medium sized oranges

-250g almond meal

-1/2 light brown sugar

-1/2 cup sugar

-3 eggs

-1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract

- Wash the oranges thoroughly and put them in a saucepan filled with water. Let the water come to a boil, and boil for 15 minutes. Take off the flame, drain the hot water and rinse the oranges under regular tap water. Return it back to the saucepan, top it off with water, let it boil for 15 minutes, again, drain the hot water, and run the tap over the oranges. This process will help get rid of the bitterness of the orange peel. Do this process one more time, and then after that, return the oranges to the saucepan, top with water and let the water boil and then simmer for an hour or so. By the end of it, the oranges will have become soft. Rinse the oranges under regular water and cut them into segments, along with the peel. I did not take the thicker skin found over the top and bottom ends. 

Purée the orange into a fine pulpy consistency. i added a couple of tablespoons of water and passed it through a sieve to make sure it had no bits of skin or pulp.

 

-Butter and line a 9 inch pan and pre-heat oven to 185 C. I used a bundt cake mould that i just buttered.

-Whisk together the eggs and sugar till the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is light. Add the vanilla extract and mix to incorporate. Add the orange pulp and blend. Fold in the almond meal and pour into the prepared tin.

-Bake till golden brown on top and the skewer comes relatively clean (There still will be crumbs as this is a super moist cake).

-Cool on rack and once cool, slice. I served my slices with dollops of this 5 minute Chocolate Chantilly which could have been quenelled out, but  i was too greedy by then :)

Here's wishing the Season's cheer and baking bugs bite your homes as well! Cheers!
 

 

Banana Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookie Cake

Yes, it is official. There is such a thing as a cookie cake. how, you ask? well, combine the goodness of brown sugar, the good ol' classic combination of banana, chocolate chunk & walnuts and a cast iron skillet and what do you get? a cookie cake!!! proof, you ask? i'm eating it as we speak.

Ok, i'm going to stop being cheeky now. I have been waiting to bake in the cast iron skillet for ages. and a hankering for banana-walnut cake caught me by surprise yesterday. Also, chanced upon this. So to cut a short story shorter, i finally did it and am now blogging about it. This is a one bowl affair. no fancy frills. no schmancy ingredients required. and it combines two great loves of mine, a choc chunk cookie and a banana walnut cake. So there, you have it! simple, no-fuss and just plain good. enjoy it warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream drizzled with caramel sauce and have yourself a very happy weekend! (well, that's what i did anyway :))

If you are wondering if you can bake this in a regular cake pan, absolutely.

Recipe adapted from here with changes

Makes: 5.5" cookie cake

You will need:

-1 cup AP Flour

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-1/2 teaspoon baking soda

-1 egg

-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

-60 g butter

-1/2 cup brown sugar

-1 medium sized banana puréed

-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

-1/4 cup roughly chopped toasted walnuts

-1/2 cup chocolate chunks

How you go about it:

-Preheat the oven to 175C.

-Sift together the flour, salt and the baking soda and keep aside.

-Melt the butter in the skillet over the stove. Add the sugar and vanilla extract in and stir to melt. It will look like a clumpy mess. Don't worry. Switch off the flame. Let it cool and then add the egg in. Whisk it in you will have a smooth glossy mix.

-Add the puréed banana and cinnamon. Mix.

-Add the flour, salt and baking soda and mix till you just incorporate it.

-Fold in the walnuts and chocolate and pop the skillet into the oven to bake for 20-25 minutes, or till the skewer comes out relatively clean but few crumbs still clinging on (ie, wee bit under)

Serve warm. it could be the best thing that's happened to you today, yet. :)

'tis the season to be cherry! - Cherry Tea Cake

The corny title aside, cherries are in season! Yay! The cherries we get here are not the best honestly speaking, but they are not all that bad either. I love in-season fruits in my baked goodies and the memory of a deliciously yellow cherry tea cake has been on my mind since the Turkey trip 'cos they served one of the softest yellow cakes with what i thought was the most flavorful cherries on board one of the flights we took. So with that as my aim, these turned out not too bad. The not-as-robust cherries were the only things hampering the cause, but it IS a fabulous tea cake and tastes best when eaten the same day. or warm the next day. it does not last beyond that so i can't tell. :)

 

Recipe adapted from here with slight changes.
-50 grams unsalted butter
-175 grams fresh cherries, pitted
-3/4 cup all purpose flour
-3/4 teaspoon baking powder
-pinch of salt
-1 large egg
-70 grams granulated white sugar
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-40 ml milk

How to go about it:
-Rinse, dry and pit the cherries first. Leave them to dry on a paper towel, cut side down.
-Preheat oven to 185 C and butter and line baking tray.
-Melt the butter in the microwave and set aside to cool to room temperature.
-Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.
-With a blender, mix the egg and sugar till pale and thick. Add the vanilla extract and blend again.
-Fold in the butter and milk until just incorporated. Add the flour mix. In last
, fold in all the cherries save for a few (for arranging on top of the batter) and make sure you do not over beat the mix. Pour into the prepared tin and make sure you arrange the reserved cherries on top of the batter. Bake for 20 minutes or till it passes the skewer test.
-Let cool on rack for fifteen minutes and then serve warm.

Vanilla bean loaf

                                

Here's sending a vanilla bean loaf your way, a break from all the chocolate. So whats so cool about this recipe:  

works just as great in a circular cake tin or a loaf tin,

has no eggs or butter in the recipe!!

is loaded with fresh vanilla scraped from the pod (!)

is an awesome cake to pair with jam, nutella, coffee, milk or a plain grey afternoon

you can see the vanilla peek through the cake! (notice the gorgeous tiny black specks in the cake?) 

This cake yields a moist cake with a fabulous crumb.

                                                  

The recipe was adapted from here with a few changes of my own.

You will need:

1 cup + 3/4 cup AP flour

1/4 cup Corn flour

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon Baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon less than 1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 vanilla bean to scrape the inside goodness

-Pre heat oven to 175 ^oC and butter the pan/tin that you will be using and keep aside. Sieve maida with corn flour to ensure it is mixed evenly.
-Mix the buttermilk and sugar in a separate bowl. Add the baking powder and baking soda and let it rest for 2 – 3 minutes.

This mix will froth. Add the oil and vanilla extract and blend for 2 minutes using a hand blnder.

Slit the vanilla bean sideways and using a shaped edged, thin and handy knife, scrape out the vanilla from inside and add to the buttermilk mix.Continue to blend till it becomes a homogeneous mix.

Add the flour a little by little and continue to mix till incorporated.

Pour into prepared tin and place in the center of oven. Bake for 35-40 min or till it passes the skewer test.
Allow to cool in pan before turning it over onto a plate. Once cooled, slice and enjoy with a spread of your choice.

Is that enough nutella? :P