Eggless Date Cake (Butterless too)

Surprised by the title? You read it right...This cake has NO EGG AND NO BUTTER ( not even a drop) And the taste? It was soo soft, spongy and absolutely delicious that I couldn't believe that it was eggless.

This is my first post for Blog-Hop Wednesdays started by Radhika of Tickling Palates. And I was paired with Nagashree of Sattvaa. Actually this post was supposed to be posted on Wednesday, but sadly I couldn't. I got too busy past few days with my 5 month old baby being unwell with flu, guests visiting us and with packing and what not...Moving is always a big hassle (specially moving countries) and what with a naughty toddler and a24/7 attention seeking baby at home....things get even messier. We have just 2 more weeks left in UK :( I am sad because we are leaving Oxford and also because I have so much packing to do yet.

Anyways coming to today's post I was going through Nagashree's blog and found so many regional dishes and was wondering what to cook, and then our neighbor from Saudi Arabia gave us huge box of dates. And I knew I had to finish those dates within few weeks, before we leave and as I am too much in baking mood these days I decided to bake this Date Cake from her space, which she had followed from here. And I am really glad I baked this cake. My family just loved it. I will definitely bake it again and I am planning to bake in a loaf pan next time like this banana bread.




EGGLESS DATE CAKE

Ingredients:

20-25 pitted Dates
1 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup All purpose flour/Maida
1 tsp baking soda and
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Method:

Soak the pitted Dates in 1 cup of milk overnight or if you don't have time soak them in warm milk for 3-4 hours. Preheat oven to 350 F / 176 C . Grease and line the bottom of a cake pan and set aside.

In a blender blend together the dates, milk and sugar to a smooth paste.Sift the dry ingredients- Flour and baking soda and set aside. In a wide mouthed bowl add the smooth paste from the blender and now add the cooking oil/vegetable oil. Slowly add the dry ingredients to this and mix with a spatula/spoon until well incorporated or use a hand mixer for 1-2 minutes to mix everything well. Stir in the chopped nuts.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Once out of the oven, cool completely on a wire rack before slicing. Serve it just plain with tea or you can serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream for dessert.



Sending this to Blog- Hop 18

Classic Victoria sandwich

After living in UK from last 4 years, I have seen the love and respect people have for the royal family. And I was have witnessed the celebrations among locals here and have seen how everyone is very enthusiastic about the royal celebrations of the country. Last summer, it was the royal wedding of prince William and Kate and very shop here sold souvenirs of many kinds. Every shop had something special for the celebrations and even at schools the kids got to celebrate it by having a royal wedding tea party. My toddler stills recalls those celebration because he adores the prince and his wife and what more..he was lucky enough to even meet the Duchess of Cambridge at his school :)


There he is lifting his hand and waving(second from left) Pic courtesy :BBC news

This Summer marked Queen Elizabeth II Diamond jubilee celebrations. The Diamond jubilee marked Queen Elizabeth's 60 years as queen and she is the second longest reigning monarch of United Kingdom after Queen Victoria. And it was so exciting to see people wear clothes that had red , blue and white, the street parties and the food with union jacks and crowns on it. It was a memorable event for everyone here and more for us because we will be leaving UK in couple of weeks. We will definitely miss this country and the lovely people we met here.

Coming to the recipe, I decided to bake the most iconic cake in Britain the 'Victoria sandwich' or 'Victoria sponge' which is named after Queen Victoria, which she loved having it with her afternoon tea. A classic Victoria sponge consists of jam and whipped cream or vanilla buttercream sandwiched between two sponges. Whenever I have bought this cake, I have found it containing the butter cream. Maybe because it will have a longer shelf life. But I opted for whipped cream filling as my son loved it. But I have also written the recipe for the vanilla cream.



CLASSIC VICTORIA SANDWICH CAKE
Recipe source: BBC Good Food

Ingredients:

For the cake:
200 grams /1 1/2 cup self raising flour
200 grams /1 cup caster sugar
200 grams softened butter- at room temperature
4 eggs- beaten
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp baking powder

For filling:
200 ml double cream
300 grams strawberry jam
icing sugar for dusting.

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 190 C / 375 F. Butter 2 sandwich tins and line it with a nonstick baking paper. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Now add the remaining ingredients and and beat till well incorporated and you get a smooth batter.

Divide the mixture equally between the prepared tins, smooth the surface with a spatula or the back of a spoon, then bake for about 20 minutes until golden and the cake springs back when pressed. Turn onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.

For the filling, whip the cream till soft peaks and spread it over the bottom of one of the sponges, top it with strawberry jam and sandwich the second sponge on top. Dust with a little icing sugar before serving.



Notes:

If you don't have sandwich tin, you can bake it in any round cake tin and slice it into layers to add the filling.

There are many other options for the filling like you can replace the whipped cream with buttercream or lemon curd. And also you can replace the strawberry jam with raspberry jam. Below is the recipe for the buttercream filling.

For the butter cream filling :

Ingredients:
100g butter - softened
140g icing sugar - sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Beat the butter until smooth and creamy, then gradually beat in icing sugar and vanilla extract until you get a smooth cream.

Sending this celebration cake to Jagruti's event- Celebrate Diamond Jubilee.

Eggless brownies

The first time I ever tasted a brownie was almost 5 years ago in USA and I had immediately fallen in love with its chocolaty goodness. But in those days, I was a newbie to baking and always hesitated to make it from scratch and thus bought Betty crocker brownie mix and baked them whenever I craved for it. But after moving to UK, when I started baking more frequently and learned more about baking, I had always wanted to bake brownies and it was on my 'to bake list' for a long time. Finally I managed to bake these eggless brownies which I found on K.O Rasoi to send to India with MIL along with banana bread and some Moroccan cookies .

Brownies are of 2 kinds - 'Fudgy' and 'cakey'. Everyone has their own favorite choice and I personally like fudgy, chewy brownies. And my lil boy loved these cakey ones. And yup :) baking a fudgy brownie is on my list next .




EGGLESS BROWNIES

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tbsp cooking oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp instant coffee
1 tbsp hot water
1/2 cup walnuts



Method:

In a pan, toast the walnuts on low heat for 5-10 minutes and chop them. Dissolve the instant coffee powder in the water and set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350°F /180°C. Grease and flour a square baking pan.

Sift all the dry ingredients- Flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, sugar and salt. To this, add the wet ingredients - Cooking oil, the diluted coffee and the buttermilk . Mix thoroughly until well combined, add the roughly chopped walnuts and pour into the prepared tin.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then turn onto a wire rack and let cool completely before slicing into squares. Serve warm or at room temperature with yummy ice cream. YUMMMMM....



Notes:

Toasting walnuts is optional. I prefer it toasted because it makes it crunchy.

Also you can use any nuts instead of walnuts, like almonds or pecans .And you can use melted unsalted butter instead of cooking oil.

If you don't have buttermilk, you can substitute it with 2 tsp yogurt dissolved in 1 cup water with 1 tbsp lemon juice mixed into it. Also for vegan recipe use 1 cup soy milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice.



Sending these to Jagruti's event celebrate- Diamond jubilee .

Molten Lava Cake

FINALLY !! Finally, I managed to come back to blogging after exactly 3 months of break. Its been exactly 3 months, since I last posted on my blog. And my last post was something Chocolatey and here I am back with yet another irresistible choccolate cake recipe. This cake was baked for Sweetpunch-October, chosen by Divya Kudua.

The cake was sooo yummy with the gooey chocolate sauce flowing out from the soft chocolate cake. And I must say this is the easiest cake I have ever made, preparing the bater takes just few mintes and baking this delicious cake takes only 10 -11 minutes. And Voila !! your Molten Lava cake is ready in less than 30 minutes. And make sure you eat these, when they are still hot or atleast warm to enjoy the hot chcolate sauce oozing from the cake like lava :)


MOLTEN LAVA CAKE
-serves 4
Recipe source - showmethecurry.com

Ingredients:
4 oz (113g) Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate,
4 oz (113g) Butter,
2 Eggs,
1/3 cup (75 g) Sugar,
1/4 cup (40g) All purpose Flour,
Butter – for greasing ramekins

Method:
1. In a double boiler, melt chocolate.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat Eggs and Sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Once chocolate is melted, remove pan from heat and add in butter. Mix until the butter melts fully.
4. Add chocolate/butter mixture into the eggs, add all-purpose flour and mix until well incorporated.
5. Butter bottom and sides of ramekins (small glass/porcelain bowls) and pour in mixture about 3/4 way full.
6. Place ramekins on a baking tray and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 C) for 10 – 15 minutes. Shorter for gooey (molten) inside, longer for stiff inside.
7. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream or with a dusting of powdered sugar.

Notes:

The above recipe makes 4 medium sized ramekins.The cake is done, when the sides of the cake looks cooked, but the centre is still wobbly. Baking it longer(cooking completely) will make the inside stiff. So, keep a close eye to make sure you don't over-cook them.

Devil's Food Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream filling

The second recipe from' A Sweet Punch' was these Cupcakes. And these are the first ever cupcakes I have baked...the only time I had used my cupcake pan was to bake these Portuguese Custard tarts. Never had I thought that I would be using it to make cupcakes , but here I am with the cupcakes and I thank Divya of Easycooking for this months Challenge through which I had a very new baking experience.

I enjoyed making these cuppie cakes and when I bake this next time, the only change I want to make is to not use the wrappers for them, coz I think they will look more cute without the wrappers as these are filled cupcakes. And I didn't use the Chocolate butter cream frosting. Instead I just used my family favourite Nutella as frosting. The recipe given below yields 24 cupcakes and if you want you can halve the recipe for 12 cupcakes...but As there were some lil guests at my House I knew they would all be gone in a day. So, made 24 of these and the verdict was that they all vanished the same day coz they were so moist and yummy.

DEVIL'S FOOD CUPCAKES WITH VANILLA CREAM FILLING
Recipe source - Baking bites

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter- room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream (low fat or full) -can be substituted with yogurt or cream mixed with a tsp of yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2-oz dark chocolate
1 cup water, boiling

Method :
Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease two 12-cup muffin tins.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light.Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by sour cream and vanilla extract.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
Add half of flour mixture to the butter mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla extract, followed by the addition of the rest of the flour mix.
Stir well between each addition and mix until no streaks of flour remain.Stir the cocoa powder and the dark chocolate into the boiling water in a large measuring cup.
Pour chocolate water into the rest of the batter and stir until uniform.Evenly distribute batter into prepared baking cups. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. (It’s fine if you can’t fit both trays into the oven at the same time, just wait until one batch finishes before putting in the second pan)
Turn cupcakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting and filling.


Vanilla Cream Filling
3 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk (low fat is fine)
1/2 cup butter (or trans fat-free shortening)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 scraped vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Whisk together the flour and milk and cook in a small saucepan over medium heat until thick. This will only take a few minutes.
Stir continuously to prevent the mixture from clumping and do not bring all the way to a boil.
When thickened (consistency will be that of a thin pudding or custard), strain with a mesh strainer into a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let cool completely to room temperature.
When the milk mixture is cool, cream the butter (or shortening) and sugar together in a medium bowl until light. Add in the milk/flour mixture and the scraped vanilla bean seeds (or vanilla extract) and beat at high speed with an electric mixer for 7 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Scrape into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip, or a large zip-lock bag with the corner cut off, and set aside until ready to fill your cupcakes.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat, with an electric mixer, until frosting is creamy, 3-5 minutes. Add additional powdered sugar as needed to achieve a thick, but not stiff, frosting that is easy to spread. Add additional milk, if necessary, to thin the frosting if it gets too thick.

Assembly
(A photo how-to of the assembly method can be found here.) Take a cooled cupcake and, using a small pairing knife, cut a cone of cake (1-inch across by 1-inch deep) out of the top. Trim off the pointy end of the cone, leaving a flat circle of cake. Set aside and repeat this process for all the cupcakes.Take the cream filling and squeeze a tablespoon or so into each cupcake cavity, filling the hole up to the top with filling. Top off with a flat circle of cake to plug the hole and keep the filling in place.
Using a butter knife or a small offset spatula, frost each cupcake with a layer of chocolate butter cream frosting. Place a dollop of icing in the center of the cupcake (on top of the cut out circle of cake) and spread from the center to the sides of the cupcake.If you have leftover filling, transfer it to a fresh Ziploc bag and cut a very small opening in one corner. Pipe a swirly line down the center of each cupcake, like the cupcakes in the pic here .
Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Note:
The frosting can be skipped completely and can be served with with some sugar dusted on the top. These soft and most cupcakes taste yummy, even without any frosting.

Baked Blueberry Cheesecake- with blueberry sauce

Creamy , yummy and gorgeous looking dessert- Yes !! I am talking about cheesecake. I am sure those have tasted cheesecake can never say 'No' to this tempting dessert. I fell in love with this dessert during my stay in New York State and let me tell you NY cheesecakes are very famous all around the globe. And if you are living in US you should definitely try cheesecakes from 'The Cheesecake Factory' atleast once.

My love for cheesecakes urged me to learn making this dessert at home..The first cheesecake I made was Strawberry cheesecake which I have earlier posted in my blog here. And this time, I baked a Blueberry cheesecake with home made Blueberry sauce. And I was so happy with the results, I just loved the gorgeous colour of the blueberry sauce on it and I was so happy that it was baked perfectly and didn't crack. And I am definitely going to bake this again and again.

BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE

Ingredients:
For the base:
1 cup digestive biscuits-crumbs,
3 tbsp of melted butter,
1/4 tsp of cinnamon powder and
1/2 cup of sugar.
For the filling :
16 oz /approx 500 grams of cream cheese,4 large eggs,
16 oz sour cream,
1 1/4 cup sugar,
3 tbsp all purpose flour,
1 tsp vanilla extract and
1 tsp lemon zest.
For the sauce:
2-3 cups fresh Blueberries,1/2 cup of sugar,
1 tbsp of cornstarch and
juice of half lemon.
Method: Preheat the oven to 325° F / 162° C. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for the crust and And press this mixture firmly into a round spring form baking pan. Press in very firmly using the back of a ladle or with a measuring cu(with flat surface). When, the crust is firmly pressed, refrigerate the pan till the filling is ready.

To make the filling- Beat the cream cheese in a bowl with a hand held mixer on medium speed until fluffy.Add the sugar and beat again for 1 minute. Add the eggs 1 at a time and beat on low speed after each addition . Add the sour cream, flour, vanilla essence and the zest and beat on low speed just till all the ingredients are well combined. Pour this mixture into the chilled crust and bake in the middle rack of the oven for 45-60 minutes or until firm, but little wobbly in the center. Remove from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack . Refrigerate for ateast 7-8 hours or overnight and just before serving top it with blueberry sauce or store bought blueberry pie filling.

For the sauce:
Combine all the ingredients listed above in a non stick saucepan and cook over a medium heat until the sugar is melted, the blueberries breaks and till it reaches the consistency of a sauce. Cool in the refrigerator until ready to use.


Notes:
Special care should be taken, to prevent the cheesecake from cracking. And the main reasons for the cheesecake cracks are over beating the ingredients or over baking. So, always make sure not to over-bake the cake.
If you like the the crust even on the sides, just double the quantity given above for the crust and press the mixture firmly and evenly on the sides.

Tiramisu Cake

Like many other bloggers out there, even I have a dream to join The Daring Kitchen someday..But, I feel I still need to learn a lot about baking, before I can join or atleast come close to those amazing and expert bakers. So, when I heard about Sweet punch , which was started to teach Novice bakers like me about baking...I knew that this group is for me :) And I am sure, I will love baking yummy goodies every month.

'A Sweet punch' is a new baking group started by Ria, Divya and Maria. This group is for all those people out there who are still learning to bake (like me) and Sweet Punch is for all those whose have a passion for baking because the mission of this group is to make baking easy for EVERYONE. And thus, our first baking challenge by Ria of Ria's collection was to bake this Tiramisu cake.

Tiramisu- I am sure everyone one knows about this famous Italian dessert. Traditionally Tiramisu is made using savoiardi (lady finger biscuit), which are dipped in coffee or rum and then layered with mascarpone cheese and whipping cream mixture and then, dusted with cocoa powder. And this Tiramisu cake is easy to bake and assemble and tastes Yummmmm.

Though I had never tasted this dessert before, I had heard a lottt about this dessert and I always wanted to make this at home. And Now,I have just fallen in love with this dessert and I am definitely going to try this again and again. TIRAMISU CAKE

Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

For the cake layers:

2 cups cake flour,

2 teaspoons baking powder,

1/8 teaspoon baking soda,

1/4 teaspoon salt,

1 1/4 sticks/10 tablespoons unsalted butter(room temperature),

1 cup sugar,

3 large eggs,

1 large egg yolk,

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract and

3/4 cup buttermilk

For the espresso extract:

2 tablespoons instant espresso powder

2 tablespoons boiling water.

For the espresso syrup:

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup sugar

For the filling and frosting:

1 8-ounce container mascarpone,

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar- sifted,

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup cold heavy cream

2 1/2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, or about 1/2 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips,

Chocolate-covered espresso beans, for decoration (optional)

Cocoa powder, for dusting

Getting ready:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9×2 inch round cake pans, dust the insides with flour, tap out the excess, and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To make the cake:

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

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy.

Add the sugar and beat for another 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, and then the yolk, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla; don’t be concerned if the mixture looks curdled. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, adding the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients); scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix only until the ingredients disappear into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 28 to 30 minutes, rotating the pans at the midway point. When fully baked, the cakes will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the centers will come out clean. Transfer the cakes to a rack and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them, and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right-side up.

To make the extract:
Stir the espresso powder and boiling water together in a small cup until blended. Set aside.

To make the syrup:
Stir the water and sugar together in a small saucepan and bring just to a boil. Pour the syrup into a small heatproof bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon of the espresso extract and set aside.

To make the filling and frosting:

Put the mascarpone, sugar, vanilla, and liqueur in a large bowl and whisk just until blended and smooth.

Working with the stand mixer with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, whip the heavy cream until it holds firm peaks. Switch to a rubber spatula and stir about one quarter of the whipped cream into the mascarpone. Fold in the rest of the whipped cream with a light touch.

To assemble the cake:

If the tops of the cake layers have crowned, use a long serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion to even them. Place one layer right-side up on a cardboard round or a cake plate protected with strips of wax or parchment paper. Using a pastry brush or a small spoon, soak the layer with about one third of the espresso syrup. Smooth some of the mascarpone cream over the layer – user about 1 1/4 cups – and gently press the chopped chocolate into the filling. Put the second cake layer on the counter and soak the top of it with half the remaining espresso syrup, then turn the layer over and position it, soaked side down, over the filling. Soak the top of the cake with the remaining syrup.

For the frosting- whisk 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of the remaining espresso extract into the remaining mascarpone filling. Taste the frosting as you go to decide how much extract you want to add. If the frosting looks as if it might be a little too soft to spread over the cake, press a piece of plastic wrap against its surface and refrigerate it for 15 minutes or so. Refrigerate the cake too.With a long metal icing spatula, smooth the frosting around the sides of the cake and over the top. If you want to decorate the cake with chocolate-covered espresso beans, press them into the filling, making concentric circles of beans or just putting some beans in the center of the cake.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 3 hours (or for up to 1 day) before serving – the elements need time to meld.Just before serving, dust the top of the cake with cocoa.

Notes:
The cake can be cut into small rounds and can be made as cakelettes or you can assemble them in a glass for individual servings.
I didn't use the whole syrup to moisten the cake, thinking it would become soggy. But I think the quantity given above should have been used to make the cake more moist.
And I have skipped using Kahlua or brandy for the extract and the syrup for obvious reason.
And as I didn't get chocolate covered express bean, I used choco chips to decorate.

'Box of Chocolate' Cake - My 100th Post

Finally !! Finally I have reached my 100th post :D I took soo long to reach this milestone. But I am so happy that I am writing my 100th post because I never knew I would come this far. A blog, which I started just to store the recipes that I learned from family and friends, to show my mom that her daughter is learning to cook and to show her the pics of the food I am cooking, now has become my passion. Yes !! Blogging has become my passion and I am addicted to this world of blogging. Blogging has helped me to make new friends, to learn new cuisines and to love cooking.
And for coming this far, all the credit goes to my husband first, for introducing me to this wonderful world of blogging and for patiently waiting for the food( like any other food blogger's husband) till I click and click all the photos :-). And for appreciating and encouraging me to learn new recipe.And to my parents for encouraging me through my learning process. (YES, My husband is lucky, because I had already gone through the experimenting and learning process before getting married) It was my parents, who went through it and encouraged me. I still remember how, I used to make different maps of the world with the chapathi/roti dough and my father used to eat the roti very happily. And when I was making raita for the first time, I had added lots of water with the yogurt and instead of raita for biryani, I had turned it into spicy lassi :-) but still... my family supported me and encouraged me to cook. And also my mother-in law, who introduced me to so many new recipes and for teaching me to cook with confidence.
And the most important people to make this blog successful are my blog friends and readers. I wouldn't have come this far without the encouraging comments they leave on my blog. And those appreciating and encouraging words from my blog friends urges me to do better and better every time. Thank you soooo sooo much for the lovely comments you all write on my blog.
Now, coming to today's recipe, I wanted to celebrate this milestone with something sweet. So, here is the recipe for 'Box of Chocolate Cake'. Though I didn't bake this cake exclusively for my 100th post, I had decided to post this recipe as my 100th post. I baked this cake for our 5th wedding anniversary few weeks back :-)Now coming to this cake...this is a perfect cake for wedding anniversaries, for Mother's Day and for those celebrating Valentine's day. This cake is covered with sugar paste icing. One can make the sugar paste icing on their own or the store bought ready rolled icing can be used. I first tried making the icing at home, but went wrong somewhere and I also didn't like the raw smell of the eggs in it. So, I have used the store bought Icing here, known as ready rolled icing. This cake is adapted from the book 'Cakes and cake decorating step by step' by Sarah Maxwell, Janice Murfitt and Angela Nilsen .
'BOX OF CHOCOLATE' CAKE
Ingredients:
For the chocolate cake:
175g /6oz butter, at room temperature,
175g /6oz self-raising flour,
50g /2oz unsweetened cocoa powder,
3 eggs, at room temperature,200 /6oz caster sugar,
1 tsp baking powder,1/8 tsp of salt and
1 tsp vanilla extract.

Other ingredients:
6 tbsp of apricot jam-warmed and sieved,
275 grams/ 10 oz of yellow marzipan,
900 grams/ 2 lb of sugarpaste icing,
red food colouring,
store bought hand made chocolates.

Materials and equipments:Heart shaped cake tin,
9 inch square piece of stiff card,
9 inch square / round cake board,
small heart shaped cutter.
Method:
For the cake:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C or 350 F. Grease the tin and line the base with greaseproof paper and grease the paper. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt together three times and set aside.
Place the sugar and butter in a large bowl and beat until light pale. Add he eggs and beat with an electric beater , until the mixture doubles in volume and is thick enough to leave a ribbon trial when the beater is lifted, about 10 minutes.Add the vanilla.Sift over the dry ingredients in 3 batches, folding in carefully after each addition.Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.bake in the centre of the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
leave the cake in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire wrack, peel off the lining paper and leave to cool completely.

Place the cake on the square piece of card and draw around it with a sharp pencil. Cut the heart shape out of the card and set aside This is for using as a support for the lid.
Using a sharp knife. cut the cake horizontally just below where the cake starts to dome. carefully lift the top section and place it on the heart shaped card and place the bottom section on the cake board.On a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar, roll out the yellow marzipan into a long sausage shape to place it on the bottom section of the cake.place the marzipan sausage on the cake around the outside edge . Brush both sections of the cake evenly with apricot jam.

Colour the sugarpaste icing with red food colour and divide it into 3 portions - 1 for the bottom, 1 for the lid and a small portion to cut hearts for the lid. Now on a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar, roll the icing to a 14 inch square ans use it to cover the bottom section of the cake.
Stand the lid on a raised surface like a bowl or a glass. roll out the reserves 1/3rd sugarpaste and cover the lid section of the cake. With the remaining portion of the sugarpaste, cut small heart shapes with the cookie cutter and stick them around the cake lid. carefully lift the top section on the the heart shaped card and place the bottom section on the cake board.Arrange the chocolates in the bottom section of the cake and position the lid, placing it slightly off centre, to reveal the chocolates inside. And serve with lots of love :-)


This is off to Meeta's Monthly Mingle and the theme for this month is Special Sweet Treats hosted this month by Erin of The Apartment Kitchen .

Classic Carrot Cake / My blog turns 1

YES!!!I am soo soo excited to say that my blog has turned 1 year old today... it all started when I started taking food photos of the new recipes I tried to show it to my mom, who lives far away from me. And then, one fine day my husband suggested that I should start a blog, to store all the food snaps with the recipes, which would make it easier for me to refer in future and thus my blog 'Faiza Ali's Kitchen' was born.Firstly I want to thank my husband for introducing me to this blogging world and helping me through it. And my sincere thanks my Mom and Mom-In-Law from whom, I have learned most of my cooking. And Also I would like to thank Lubna baaji of Yummy Food for taking out her precious time for helping me to create a menu bar for my blog..Thanks a lot dear.
Through blogging I made so many friends from around the globe, who visit my blog regularly and encourage me with their kind and lovely comments. I had never imagined in my wildest dreams that in 1 year I will have 135 readers/ followers. I am really thankful to all my fellow bloggers and friends who encourage me, it is the love and kindness you all shower on my blog that keeps it going. Thank you friends :-)
Now coming to today's recipe, I baked this classic carrot cake, which I learned from the book ''cakes and cake decorating ''. Last month my fellow blogger and friend Shabs of Shab's Cuisine had mailed to inform me that there is a huge sale on recipe books at WHSmith. I went to the store the very next day to grab some recipe books. And among the books, that I bought was this book''Cakes and cake decorating'' by Angela Nilson, Sarah Maxwell and Janice Murfitt. I never get tied of looking at those lovely cakes in my book everyday :D it has 200 recipes for beautiful cakes and the best part is the price I bought the book for. The original price of this book is £14.99 and I payed only £ 3.50 for this brand new book which was on a sale(smiles).
There are so many beautiful cakes to bake in this book, but I decided to start with a simple carrot cake and I decorated it with cute lil carrots made using the marzipan.And Yes, this is the first time, I was trying my hands on marzipan. And Voila !!1 here are the results. So, without further ado here is the recipe for the carrot cake.
CLASSIC CARROT CAKE

Ingredients:
225 grams / 1 cup of caster sugar,
20 ml /1 scant cup of vegetable oil,
225 grams / 2 cups of self-rising wholemeal flour,
1 tsp ground cinnamon,
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg,1 cup ground walnuts,
grated zest and juice of 1 orange,
3-4 finely grated carrot- squeezed dry,
4 eggs and
1/2 tsp of salt

For the Frosting:
225 grams / 1 cup of cream cheese,
30 ml /2 tbsp of clear honey,1 tbsp of orange juice,
50 grams of marzipan,
orange food colouring,
angel hair spaghetti and
green food colouring.
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 Celsius / 350 Fahrenheit. Grease a 8 inch round cake tin, line the base with greaseproof paper and grease the paper. Beat the sugar, eggs, oil, orange zest and orange juice together until light and frothy. Sift the dry ingredients- flour, salt and spices in another bowl and add to the frothy egg mixture and beat for a further minute. Stir in the carrots and the groud walnuts and spon the mixture into the prepared tin. bake for 50-60 minutes or until risen and a toothpick or a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Meanwhile make the icing. to make the icing, beat the cheese, honey and 1 tbsp of orange juice together until smooth. Chill for 30 minutes to firm up.Break the angel hair spaghetti into 2 1 inch pieces and soak in green food colouring for 5-10 minutes. dry them on a paper towel until ready to use.Tint the marzipan with orange food colouring to resemble the colour of carrots. Break small pieces and roll between your palms to form small carrot shapes.using a small knife, press marks around the sides and stick 2 small pieces if the spaghetti in the top of each one to resemble the stalks.
Spread the icing over the top of the cooled cake. Arrange the carrots around the cake or in a bunch, in the centre of the cake.


Note:This cake can be served with a simple dusting of icing sugar on the top if one doesn't like like cream cheese icing. Also the recipe asked for Angelica as stalk for the carrot, which i could find here, So, i used the spaghetti as stalk.

Black Forest Gateau / black forest cake

I wish all my blogger friends a very very happy and prosperous NEW YEAR 2010..I know...I know..I am wishing very late, but I was very busy for the past 1 week and so, this is my first post of 2010.....Black forest cake..yummmm...it reminds me of my childhood days in India...it was my favourite cake for years, then one day when I came to know that rum/brandy is added to the black forest cake, I stopped buying it from the bakeries, because we don't consume alcoholic drinks or anything with alcoholic drinks. But I always missed eating my fav fav cake :( And I never knew anything about baking then. I came across this recipe which one of my friend had . And I baked my favourite cake at home, without any rum/ brandy and YES, black forest cake is the first cake I learned to bake or should I say this is the only cake I know to bake :) I baked this cake again few weeks back after a long long time (after coming to UK). So, here goes the recipe for my favourite black forest cake...

BLACK FOREST GATEAU / BLACK FOREST CAKE

Ingredients :
For the cake:
1 3/4 cups flour,
3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder,
1 1/2 cup of sugar,
6 eggs,
1 tsp of baking powder,
1 tsp of vanilla essence,
1/2 cup of butter/vegetable oil and
1 pinch of salt,
For the filling/topping:
1 tin of maraschino cherries,
3-4 tbsp of powdered sugar and
3-4 cups of heavy whipping cream.
For the syrup
1 cup of water,
1/2 cup of sugar and
1 tsp of vanilla essence.
For garnishing:
chocolate curls and
whole cherries.

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F . Grease and flour a 9" inch round pan. In a bowl mix the dry ingredients- flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder and sift this, so that everything gets mixed well and to avoid lumps. Now add the sugar, vanilla essence, melted butter/oil and the eggs to this bowl with dry ingredients and beat until well blended OR the other method is to beat the eggs separately with sugar and essence till fluffy and fold in the dry mixture with the eggs. Pour this mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick or a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. let the cake cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes. now remove the cake from the pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
For the syrup: Boil the water with the sugar in a saucepan for few minutes. the syrup should neither be sticky nor water. Remove from fire, cool it and add the vanilla essence. Cool completely before using it.
Whip the cream and the sugar with an electric mixer until you get soft peaks. Drain the juice from the cherries and preserve 3-4 tbsp for the syrup.Preserve some whole cherries for garnishing on the top and chop the remaining cherries to small pieces.
Now to assemble the cake. Cut the cake horizontally with a serrated knife into 2/3 layers. On the first layer, sprinkle some of the above syrup to moisten the cake. Now spread a layer of the whipped cream and sprinkle the chopped cherries on the whipped cream.Now place the second layer and repeat the same procedure. place the last slice of cake and frost the cake completely with whipped cream on the top and the sides. Garnish with some chocolate shavings/ chocolate sprinkles/ chocolate curls and with whole cherries.
Refrigerate for 3-4 hours before serving.


Sending this Black Forest Gateau to:
In Love with Delectable Desserts, Pastries and Ice creams hosted by Radhika Vasanth of Food for 7 stages of life and Sudeshna of Cook like a Bong
Show me your cake event hosted by Divya of Dil Se .

Strawberry cheesecake ( MY 50th POST)

Hurray !!! this is my 50th post. And I still couldn't believe it.. I never knew I would come this far ( I know 50 is not a big deal,because I know few blogs, who post 50 recipes every month
:) )Though I sarted in February , I was actually into blogging regularly only from June. I should admit that, I started my blog just to store all the recipes I cook at one place. I never knew I will be making so many good friends, from around the globe, who I can say "I know them"even if I have not met them....I would love to thanks all my friends, who joined me and who leave sweet and lovely comments, just to appreciate me. It really boosts my confidence and urges me to do more and better next time. Thanks again FRIENDS.
And here is my first ever cheesecake, which I had made 2 days ago. And I never knew, even I can make my favorite cheesecake, until I tasted it. And that too like the store bought ones :)

STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE

Ingredients:

For the Biscuit layer:
200 gms of digestive biscuits,
2 tbsp of melted butter,
1 tbsp of Castor sugar.

For the cheese filling:
600 gms of cream cheese,
2 tbsp of Castor sugar,
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 tbsp corn starch,
1 cup whipped cream.

For the Strawberry topping:
1-2 cups of fresh strawberries,
2 tbsp of sugar,
1 tbsp of corn starch.

Method:
Butter and line a 23 cm loose-bottomed tin with baking sheet.Put the biscuits in a plastic food bag and crush to crumbs using a rolling pin or powder them coarsely in a food processor. Transfer the crumbs to a bowl, then pour over the melted butter and sugar and mix well. Now put this mixture into prepared pan and press firmly down into the base to create an even layer. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until the base becomes firm and ready to use.
Meanwhile, start making the cheese filling. In a bowl, place the soft cheese, vanilla extract and sugar and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Now add the corn starch and beat again. Finally add the whipped cream to it and beat lightly. Now pour this cream mixture to the prepared biscuit base and bake at 350 degrees for for 40-50 mins. Cool the cheesecake at room temperature and on-mould it .
Puree 1 1/2 cup of strawberries with the sugar in a food processor and the sieve. In a pan, bring this strawberry puree to a boil, and add corn starch to it. Cook until the sauce thicken and cool completely before pouring on the cheesecake.
Just before serving , place a slice of the cheesecake on a plate, place some sliced strawberries and pour the strawberry sauce over it.

Basbousa or basboosa

BASBOUSA-BIL-JOZ-EL-HIND
-Sooji halwa with coconut

Ingredients :
50 gms plain flour(maida), 1 tsp baking soda, 350 gms semolina(sooji), 225 gms Castor sugar, 50 gms dessicated coconut, 100 gms unsalted butter-melted, 250 ml milk, 1 tsp vanilla essence,Almonds for garnishing.
For syrup :
225 gms sugar, 150 ml water, 1 tbsp lemon juice.

Method:
To prepare syrup, place sugar, water, lemon juice in a pan and boil. Simmer for 6-10 minutes until the syrup is thick.Remove from fire.Cool and refrigerate.
Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees C. Seive flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Add semolina, sugar and coconut, mix well. Pour in melted butter,milk and vanilla essence and stir until they mix completely. Spoon this mixture into a greased tin measuring about 28x18 cm,so that the mixture is about 1cm thick. Garnish it with almonds on top.Bake this in the pre-heated oven for about 30-40 minutes,or until the top is crisp and golden brown.
Remove from the oven and cut into square or diamond shapes. Quickly pour the cold syrup over the Basbousa. Serve hot or cold.