* Ricotta Pound cake.....

  

My  big apologies to  readers  and  followers of my blog for not posting anything  for  long time. But things  at  my personal  end took  front  seat and  kept me overly occupied.I'm just  back  from  my  long India  trip and  coping  with  the jet lag.I planned to  post  this Ricotta  Pound  Cake before  I  left  for  vacation but   Anyone  who  reads  or follows my blog  must  have  known  by  now that I  have a  sweet sweet  tooth. So experimenting  cakes and  various  types  of  sweets are  definitely more frequent than  any  other  experiments in my kitchen. the other day  I was  browsing around and came  across this wonderful  cake in Parita's Blog ,she is amazing baker and  I love to  visit her space. As she vouched for this  ricotta pound cake  I thought I  should  give it a try and the  result was something to  'die  for'  for  a  cake  lover.Me  and  Shaan relished  on this  cake  first time  I made  and I  have  made couple of times  after that  with some modifications every time  and  this is  my favorite  so  far. I always  like to  tweak the recipe  after  first  attempt. The addition of  lemon zest,fresh blueberries and  honey to the recipe made its   even  better. I'm so glad I tried it. So here you go.

This makes a  small 8"  round  cake 
Ingredients:

                                                 
1. Ricotta Cheese                    : 3/4  cup(Ricotta  can be replaced by  fresh home made cheese or  paneer)

2. All purpose  flour                 : 3/4 cup
3. Baking powder                    : 1 1/2 tsp
4. Cornflour/Cornstarch           : 1 tbsp
5. Egg(at room temperature)    : 1
6. Salted butter (melted/softened)            :1/3 cup
7. Raw Sugar                           : 3/4 cup(I used raw  sugar but white granulare  sugar is  just  good)
8. Fresh lemon juice                 : 1 tbsp
9. Freshly crushed cardamon seeds          :1 tsp
10. Rose water                          :2 tbsp
11. Handful of raisins, soaked in water/rum for minimum 2hours, drained
12.Vanilla essence                      : 1 tsp

Procedure:

1. Shift  All purpose flour,corn starch and  baking powder together  and keep  them aside.

2. Beat the ricotta cheese  and rose water for 5 minutes  with an  electric  beater.Now time to  pour the 

   melted butter kept at room temperature to the mixture along with raw sugar and  beat  until the  sugar

  dissolves.

3. Add  pure  vanilla extract, egg and  cardamom powder  and  beat  the mixture  for 2 more minutes.

4. Now to the  above mixture incorporate  the  shifted  flour with a  spatula.

5. Once the  flour is  fully mixed add lemon zest, lemon juice,golden raisins, blue berries and  honey.

6. Grease and  flour the  cake baking pan.Pour the  cake  batter then bake it  in a  350 degree 

    Fahrenheit preheated  oven.  Bake for 30-40 minutes or do a poke test until the knife comes  out  clean .

          

 Enjoy this  cake  when warm.This also stays fresh for  2-3  weeks in refrigerator.

     
I would  love to  hear  from you n  Happy Cooking.

* My Mom's Vanilla Chiffon cake

          This is an  amazing cake that my school n college friends  can vouch for.I call it  Vanilla Chiffon Cake for its texture. Baking this  cake  and  eating  ,,takes  me  back to my University days.When I used to go back to hostel after  vacation,,all my friends  invariably knew that I  will have a  box of cake in my  side pocket of my bag and before I enter my room the cake box will be  already open, sometime they  try to  be formal and wait  until I open the box.I wanted  everybody get a bite,,sometimes the box  gets  over  before  everyone  come to my room  for  a  bite.So later I used to  hide  some  for those who didn't  show up first and  some for the evening chit chat in  my room with friends,S,R and M,miss you guys.Same was the case  in my  younger brother's hostel :) so this  was  the favorite of  all the  friends.I gave this cake couple of tries,,but  my husband always says its  not  like  Mom's  cake.So I  kept trying and  now  I got it right after I jotted  down step by  step process from my Mom when I talked to her  over our long weekend chats.It is a simple recipe,but I don't know what went wrong every time  I gave it a try .Whenever I made in last couple of years  she was always  around,so I never  went wrong so I was  very confident, but  I always messed  up in all  my attempts.Couple of months back I made this  cake for  our anniversary and we  both loved it.When I was searching  a box to keep the left over,,he said,,,don't bother about the box now,,you will  need a box if something will be left  at all..And  he was right.we finished the whole cake in a day :)

So  now  comes the recipe.This will make   one  bunt cake ring.

Ingredients:
1. Eggs - 4

2. All purpose Flour         -  1.5 cups

3. Granulated white Sugar - 3/4 cup

4. Vegetable Oil                -  1/2 Cup

5. Vanilla Extract               - 1  tb sp(Use the original  vanilla extract for a  better  flavour)

6.  Honey                          - 1  tb sp

7. Baking Powder              -1 tsp

Procedure:

 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit before you  start the process.

2. Use  eggs in room temperature for  more volume in the batter.I used a hand  blender here  but you can  use an egg beater  and beat with your hand,,it takes  a long time  and  you really need muscle power :) .Now to my relief I have a  hand  blender  which is handy to use  and  doesn't take a  lot of  space.My mom uses  the manual egg beater until now.I'm  planning to  gift her one  on my  next visit :)

3. Mix all purpose flour and  baking powder and  sieve  this mixture couple of times.(You  can use  pre-  sieved flour)

4. In a  big  bowl blend  granulated sugar and  4 eggs very well,The texture should  be something like  shown in the picture and pale yellow in colour.

5. Pour 3/4 cup of  Vegetable oil to the mixture and  beat  for 1 minute with the electric  blender.

6. Then  add the flour and baking  powder mixture slowly and  mix with a  spatula until the flour is   completely incorporated.If you  feel  at this  point  the  mixture is thicker than required then  add  some  milk and  bring it  to  the consistency where you  can smoothly pour the batter in the  baking mold.

7.Add 1 tbsp honey and  vanilla extract and  mix well.Mom says while  mixing do it in one direction don't change  directions (May be that lets the air bubble to escape and the cake  wont be as  soft and  fluffy)

8.Spray the  mold with  some cooking oil or  you can  spread some  oil with your  hand and  dust some  all  purpose flour to completely coat the  surface.

9. Pour  the  cake  batter on the  mold(I  used a bunt  cake  mold ,but  any  cake  mold  would  do) and  slide in to the  pre-heated oven.Bake  for  about 30 minutes in  350 degree Fahrenheit.

10. Now its  time to   test if  the  cake  is  done , Pierce  a  knife or a skewer. If it comes out clean then   remove from the oven immediately and let it cool for  15 minutes.Once  cool down  it is  easy to take the  cake out of the mold  after some time.

11.When  I flip the cake in to a plate,,,,it  just looks a nicely baked golden cake ring.the cake  stays  fresh  outside for  about a week.You can  refrigerate. It becomes  a little hard inside the refrigerator,but you  can  microwave for  5-10 secs and  have a bite anytime,it  stores up to a month.

Tips: You can add  dry fruits or cocoa powder for  variation.But this time I wanted to bake the original recipe that  I  have been eating for  years.I will post  some variation  later point of  time.For now  happy reading  and  thanks  for visiting my blog.

* Date & Walnut Eggless Cake

                    Since long I have been thinking of making a vegetarian cake,reason being my parent in-laws who are pure  vegetarian. I love to bake,but it is disheartening when  they  can't have  all the goodies that I love to make, so I have  been thinking on it since long. The  other day  I went to grocery  store alone(usually  me and  shaan  go together) and as usual my temptation to buy the whole store tickled me.I love grocery shopping as much as I love shoes shopping :) I bought a  whole bunch of dry fruits 4 founds of each. There was a big packet of  walnuts, for  which  he was after  me-'why you bought  such a big packet,it may get spoiled if you don't finish soon'. Before I opened the  walnut packet I bought another  date packet.
As soon as I reach  home in evening after work I start to munch on something... be it dry fruits or fresh fruits(whatever comes in front  of my eyes).The  other day I ate some dates and walnuts together and  liked it and then googled for  recipes.. I came across  many and tried to tweak  a  few and the  end result was just to die  for . I  was really skeptical about the cake(I was thinking how  will the  cake rise  and  get the  fluffy texture without  eggs), until I  flipped the  cake to the serving plate and oh,,it was  so moist and fluffy too. It was FIFA  finals day and  our friends  were  coming over for the game and  my new  experiment of vegan  cake was quality tested and recommended. Now I can't wait to go to  India  and make this  cake  for my  in-laws, hence this post is dedicated to my loving parent -in -laws.


Here  goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

1. All Purpose Flour : 2.5 cups
2. Pitted dates : 20-25 numbers
3. Sweetened Condensed Milk : 300 ml
4. Melted butter : 1/3 cup -1/4  cup
5. Honey : 1 tb sp (optional)
6.Baking powder :  1 1/4 tsp\
7. Baking Soda :  1/2  tsp
8. Milk : 1 cup + if  required  to thin the  cake  batter

Procedure:

1. Pre-heat  the oven to 350 degree F.
2. Soak  the date in hot milk for  20 mins and to make a puree blend it in a  blender adding  as little as milk needed.Keep thee rest of the milk for  later use.

                                                                                               (Click on the  picture to enlarge)

3. Sieve the  Flour,baking powder,baking soda  and  keep it aside.
4. In a deep bowl pour sweetened  condensed milk and  melted butter  and beat with a  hand blender(or
   manual beater) for  about 7-8 minutes.The texture should be as  shown in pictures.

                                                                                                                  (Click on the picture to enlarge)

5. While adding rest of the ingredients don't beat it vigourously just mix well with a spatula.
6. Add the date puree ,give it a mix.
7. Add flour,baking powder,baking soda mixture to the  batter  slowly incorporating  the flour into  the 
   batter. If you feel the batter is too hard then add some milk.The consistency should be as shown in the  picture.
8. Now coat the chopped walnuts in some  flour and  fold into the batter.
9. Pour the batter in to a greased and floured  baking dish and  slide into the oven for  40 minutes at 350
    degree F.As each oven works differently , test it by inserting a  knife time to time, take the cake  out  as
    soon   as  knife  comes out clean.
10. Cool the cake  for  about 15 minutes  before you serve. It tastes best warm and  it can be stored  in
    refrigerator  for  about 2 weeks and can  be microwaved for 15 seconds and  can be  enjoyed at a later
     time.

          Thanks for  stopping by  and  enjoy this moist   vegetarian  cake  and I  would be more than  happy to hear from you.

                                                                                                               (Click on the picture to enlarge)