chocolate cake:

Ingredients:
cake flour - 2 cups
soda bi carb - 1 teaspoon
milk - 3/4 cupsz
vanilla essence - 1 teaspoon
cocoa powder - 5 teaspoons
egg - 1
powdered sugar - 1 1/4 cups
butter - 1/3 cup
yoghurt - 1/2 cup

Preparation:
Cream together butter and sugar till pale, then dd the egg and whip till fluffy.
Dissolve cocoa in milk and keep aside. sieve flour and soda bi carb together. Fold in the flour to the creamed butter mixture, alternating with cocoa milk and yoghurt.
Pour into a greased cake tin and bake at 180 degrees C, for 30 - 40mins

Apple crumble tart

Ingredients:
Apples, peeled and sliced - 3 cups
Sugar - 1 cup
Cinnamon stick - 1
Cloves - 3 or 4
flour 2 cups
Butter - half a cup
Egg - 1


Preparation:
Cook the apples with half a cup of sugar, cinnamon , cloves and about a cup of water.
Rub cold butter into flour to resemble bread crumbs. Add half a cup pf powdered sugar and beaten egg and gather the flour to a dough.
divide into two and keep in the refrigerator for about an hour.


Roll out half the pastry and use that to line a greased pie dish. Spread the cold cooked apple, taking care to remove the cinnamon and cloves.
Grate the other half of the pastry over the apple filling to cover it completely.
Bake at 180 degree for 35 to 45 minutes.

Tender Coconut dessert with praline

Ingredients: 
gelatine - 2 table spoons
water - half a cup
tender coconut water - 1 and a half cups
condensed milk - half a tin
milk - 2 cups
sugar - 5 tablespoons
tender coconut, chopped - 1 cup
for praline:
chopped cashewnuts - 2 tablespoon
grated coconut - 2 table spoons
sugar 3 tablespoons


Preparation:
In a nonstick pan, heat coconut, nuts and sugar together till the sugar caramelises. Keep aside till cooled.
soak gelatine in water and place it over boiling water in a pan, till it melts.
warm condensed milk, milk and sugar together and add the melted gelatine to it.
remove from fire and add the tender coconut water.
Strain and pour into a serving dish. Add the tender coconut pieces to it.
Set in the refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours.
 Just before serving, sprinkle praline over the pudding and serve.

Creme Caramel

Ingredients:
condensed milk - 1 tin
eggs - 5
vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp
milk- 1 cup
sugar - 2 tablespoons
for caramel:
sugar - half a cup 

Preparation:
Heat half a cup of sugar in a pan, till it becomes golden. Pour into a cake tin and keep aside.
Whisk eggs with condensed milk , milk, sugar and vanilla. Strain and pour into the cake tin.
Place the tin into a vessel containing water and steam for 25 minutes.
When it cools down , invert into a serving bowl and serve chilled.

Greek rum cake with figs.

Ingredients:
butter : 250 gm
eggs : 5
semolina (rava) : 2 cups
sugar ; 1 cup
cake flour : 1 cup
baking powder : 4 teaspoons
vanilla essence : 1 teaspoon
fresh figs : 6

For the syrup:
2 cups sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 cups water
2 tablespoons rum


Preparation:
Cream butter and sugar till pale. Add in egg yolks and blend till fluffy. Add semolina. Sift flour and baking powder together. Whip the egg whites till soft peaks form. Fold in the flour to the butter cream alternating with whipped egg whites. Add a little milk if the mixture is too thick.
Pour into a greased tin and bake at 190 degrees for 30 minutes. 
Boil sugar and water for 15 minutes. add lemon juice just before removing from heat. Stir in the rum and pour over well pricked cake.

Herbed' Garlic Bread

 Making bread brings so much joy to me. Imagine waking up to aroma of bread baking in the oven. I cannot describe the feeling with my limited vocabulary in English.

The way I bake bread has changed tremendously after I bought Bernard Clayton´s book. As the book suggested , I started with the first loaf and was amazed at how great the bread turned out to be. I have used the recipe to make umpteen versions of the bread.

Today I have some Parsley and Rosemary lying around, so I made Herbed Garlic bread.

Ingredients:
flour : 1 1/2 to 2 cups
Yeast : 1 teaspoon
Sugar : 1/2 spoon
warm water : 1 cup
salt :1/2 teaspoon

Filling:
chopped parsley : 1 tablespoon
chopped rosemary : 1 tablespoon
crushed garlic : 1 tablespoon
butter : 1/2 tablespoon

Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients for the filling together with salt to taste.
Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water and keep aside for 10 mins. Add flour and salt to it, little by little, and knead so that it forms a soft dough. Keep the dough in a pan and leave it to rise in a warm place for about 2 hours.When the dough has doubled in size, knead it once again to knock out the air, adding flour if needed.
Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape and spread the filling over it. Roll the rectangle from the shorter side, and place it in a greased bread loaf tin, with the seams underneath.
Keep it to rise for about 45 mins to 1 hour.
Bake at 220 degrees for 25 to 30 mins.

Madeira cake

Ingredients: 
butter - 180 gm
lemon rind - 2 teaspoons
powdered sugar - 2/3 cup
eggs - 3
cake flour - 1 1/2 cups
baking powder - 1 1/2 teaspoons
mixed peel - 1/4 cups
slivered almonds - 1/4 cup


Preparation:
beat butter, rind and sugar until light and fluffy. beat in eggs. 
Sift flour and baking powder together. Fold into butter mixture.
spread mixture into a greased cake tin. bake for 20 minutes at 160 degrees. Remove from oven and sprinkle with peel and nuts. Return to oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Strawberry yoghurt mousse

Ingredients:
marie biscuits - 1 pkt
softened butter - 1 tablespoon
strawberries - 500 gm
gelatine - 3 teaspoons
water - 2 tablespoons
sugar - half a cup
yoghurt - 1 cup
lemon juice - 1 teaspoon
cream - 300 ml
icing sugar - half a cup

Preparation:
Powder the biscuits and mix with butter. press this into the base of a spring form tin. slice 8 to 10 large strawberries in half lengthways and place them around the side of the tin, cut side touching the tin.
Sprinkle gelatine over the water in a glass and melt it by keeping it in a pan of simmering water. stir till dissolved.
Blend the remaining strawberries to a smooth puree. in a bowl, combine sugar, yoghurt, lemon juice and gelatine. Whisk till combined.
Whip the cream with icing sugar till soft peaks form.Fold the cream into the yoghurt mixture.
Pour into the prepared tin and refrigerate for 4 hours or until firm.
when firm. Release the clip from the tin, and place the mousse on a serving plate.