Mosaic sponge cake

Mosaic cake which looks like a million dollar baby

I have moved into a new house and brought in my Murphy Richards oven too. Though I miss my own larger oven in my home in Trivandrum, I am quite happy with this oven,

It was raining in the evening and there was a storm too. Many trees lost the weaker branches in the garden in front of my house. I though a cake would be the best thing to have on a rainy day but my pantry cupboard had nothing much other than flour and cocoa powder. So I decided to bake a mosaic cake.
But instead of baking the usual marble cake, I modified the technique and when I turned the cake from the pan, surprise surprise, what a beauty it was.

As I said earlier this cake can be made with the simplest of ingredients.

Cake flour  - 2 cups
baking powder - 2 and a half teaspoons
milk - 3/4 cup
butter - 3/4 cup
eggs - 3
sugar - 1 cup
vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon
Rose essence - two or three drops
Cocoa powder - 2 table spoons

Pre heat oven to 180 degrees.
Beat the sugar, butter and eggs till light and fluffy. Add the essences and blend well. Sift the baking powder and the flour. Fold tablespoons of flour into the butter cream, alternating with milk.
Grease and dust a cake tin.
With your finger tips, drop small rounds of batter into the pan. Dust with Cocoa powder using a fine sieve. Repeat dropping the batter and dusting with cocoa powder till all the batter is finished.
Bake at 180 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.

Cheesy Pull apart bread with Olives, Jalapeno, tomatos

Cheesy Pull apart bread with Olives, Jalapeño, tomatoes

Baking bread is a passion. Nothing beats the flavour of freshly baked bread. 

Today I made a pull apart bread with a savoury twist.

What you need to make these soft pull apart bread are flour, yeast and some tinned and canned things.

flour 2 cups

salt to taste

yeast 2 teaspoon

sugar half a teaspoon

warm water half a cup

milk half a cup

tomato 3

jalapèno 3

olives  chopped - 3 tablespoons

grated cheese -  1 cup

Dissolve the yeast in warm water and sugar and leave it to froth. Add this to the flour with salt and mix with a wooden spoon till it comes together. Transfer to a floured surface and knead till soft and elastic . ( I usually beat the hell out of it with a roller )

Keep the dough in a lightly greased dish and leave it to rise for about 2 hours. 

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees.

Remove the raised dough, punch down and roll to form a thin sheet. e

Cut the tomato and remove the seeds leaving only the. fleshy skin. Slice it thinly.

Spread with chopped olives, Jalapeños, tomatoes and cheese.

Roll to form a cylinder. Cut the cylinder into pieces and place it on a lightly greased loaf tin with cut side up.

Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes checking at intervals to see it is nicely browned.

Sit around a table with black tea and good conversation and Enjoy the pull apart.

Portuguese egg tarts (Natas)

Portuguese egg tarts (Natas) 

The tall and young woman got out of the car.
The little girl in frilly pink frocks jumped out after her.
The little bakery aptly named `Primavera` held sweet little cases filled with the sweetest burnt custard.
This was the daily routine for me and my daughter every weekday on the way back home from school. I dont know if Primavera still exists at the far end of Avenida 24th Julho, but the memories of sweet natas remains in my mind.

Natas are baked egg tarts or baked custard tarts, a delicacy from Portugal. Its cousin, Hongkong egg tarts are different in that the cases are made of short crust pastry instead of puff pastry and that the custard in not caramelised.
These are pretty easy to make once you have puff pastry. I make my own puff pastry but you can always use ready to use puff pastry rolls.

For the filling: (makes 10 egg tarts )

egg yolks 2
sugar 2 tablespoon
cream 60 ml
full cream milk 260 ml
corn flour 1 teaspoon
vanilla extract 1 teaspoon

Mix everything together and whisk well so that there are no lumps. Place on low heat and keep stirring till the custard thinly coats the sides of the pan. Cool completely.

Roll the puff pastry, cut into ten circles to line a cupcake pan.
Fit the puff pastry rounds into the cup cake pan, Run a knife over to neaten the edges.
Pour just enough custard filling to come up to half a cm lower than the rim.

Bake at 220 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until the top of the custard is slightly burnt.

Below is the photo of tarts being baked in the oven.

Look at the shine on top of the custard. Bake some, you will want to make it every week.

Flaked rice Uppma

Flaked rice Uppma

South Indian breakfasts are  elaborate affairs. That two pieces of silky soft fluffy idlis which vanishes within seconds actually needs overnight workload of soaking the grains, then grinding the grains, then fermenting the grains, then greasing the idli moulds, steaming them so that those fluffy pillows of goodness can be devoured.

I am the laziest bum in my family.
I cant be bothered to do all this work today so that I can have my breakfast tomorrow.
So here is a tasty alternative for a South Indian breakfast,

I learned to make Uppma from my aunt Jayanthi, around the time my grandfather passed away. My aunt , whom I call Jayanthi Mami, volunteered to make breakfast for everyone in the family and I gladly became her assistant.  She is a woman of few words but she is the most efficient woman in my family. This Uppma is a long cry from the traditional one she taught me, but I do remember her in gratitude every time I make Uppma.

This is what you need to make this yummy dish.

Flaked rice  -  2 cups
grated coconut - 3 table spoons
chopped green chillies - 2
chopped carrot - 1
chopped green pepper - 1
chopped onion - 1 large
black gram dhal (Urad dal)- 1 teaspoon
egg - 1
curry leaves
butter , ghee or oil  - 2 tablespoons

Add 2 tablespoons of water to the flaked rice to soften it. Keep it aside while you prepare the vegetables.

Heat the oil, butter or ghee and add curry leaves and black gram dhal. When it browns add the chopped onion and sauté. Add all other chopped vegetables and sauté till soft. Add salt to taste.
Break the egg and pour over the veggies and scramble so that the egg coats the vegetables evenly.

Now add the softened flaked rice, and mix it thoroughly with the vegetables. Add grated coconut, remove from fire and serve hot with banana.

Coco ripple Sour cream cake

Coco ripple Sour cream cake

Cakes are for any time. Not just for special occasions or tea time.
Today is Vishu for Keralites like me. Vishu is a Hindu festival and it is the day when the young ones in the family get money from the elders to ensure year long prosperity.
This cake I baked today is soft, moist and full of flavour. I added a chocolate ripple to satisfy my children who likes to have chocolate in anything.

All you need to make this cake are the following ingredients.

softened butter  125 gm
sugar  220g
eggs 2
cake flour 300 g
baking powder  3 teaspoons
sour cream  300 ml
vanilla extract  1 teaspoon
chopped walnuts  2 tablespoon
cocoa powder 1 table spoon

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease a loaf pan and dust with flour.
Beat butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and eggs till light and fluffy. Sieve the flour and baking powder.
Fold in the sifted flour alternating with sour cream.
Drop big spoonfuls of batter into the loaf pan. Dust with cocoa powder to cover the batter. Repeat till all the batter is used up. Sprinkle chopped walnuts on top.
Bake for about an hour. Stand in pan for 5 minutes and turn the cake into a wire rack. Cool and serve.

White chocolate mud cakes

White chocolate mud cake

I was away from home for quite some time. Everytime I return, my home embraces me with all its love and warmth, 

This time was no different except that my husband took ill the same day I returned. The children also got tense and while he is resting and recovering, I decided to bake some cup cakes to cheer up the kids.

I dont eat chocolate of any kind. Even the aroma gives me a headache but everyone else in my family loves chocolate. 

This cupcake is made without a blender or a whisk. Sometimes Australian Women's weekly gives recipes which are triple tested in their kitchen and works amazingly well all the time.

This is what you need to make these cuties.

White chocolate - 90 gms

butter - 90 g

castor sugar - 110 g

honey - 2 table spoons

milk - 125 ml

cake flour - 150 g

baking `powder - 1 teaspoon

egg - 1

icing sugar to dust

Pre heat oven to 160 degrees  celsius. Grease a 9 hole cup cake tin and line with cup cake liners.

In a small thick based sauce pan, heat chocolate, butter, sugar, honey and milk over low heat till smooth. Leave to cool.

Sift flour with baking powder. Lightly beat the egg. Add sifted flout and egg to the chocolate mixture. Divide among the cupcake liners and bake about 25 to 30 minutes until lightly browned.

Cool the cakes and serve dusted with icing sugar.

I am sure you will enjoy baking and eating these mud cakes.