Apple N Almond Cake

There are several lovely blogs that are a source of inspiration for new bloggers like me. But the one that I worship and admire the most and also visit almost every day is Deeba Rajpal's "Passionate About Baking" . Her creations have truly been a great source of inspiration for me and I have pretty much bookmarked every recipe that shows up on her blog. I baked this Apple and Almond Cake for Swara's 9th month B'day. I also served this as dessert on a potluck picnic lunch the next day. The apples slices layered on top gives this cake a nice tartness and the almonds give it some crunch. The cinnamon compliments the apple and almonds really well. The part that my friends and family loved most about this cake was that it was very lite and not too sweet. So everyone had second and third servings without feeling guilty. This is another simple coffee cake that would be perfect with a steaming hot Cuppa Joe.

 

Ingredients -
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Granulated sugar - 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 1/2 teaspoon
Baking soda - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt - 1/4 teaspoon
Eggs - 2
Plain yogurt - 1/4 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup / melted
Almond extract - 1 teaspoon
Apples - 3 / peeled and thinly sliced
Almonds - 1/4 cup , sliced
Granulated sugar - 3 tablespoons
Cinnamon - 1 teaspoon

Method -
1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 9 inch spring form pan.
2. In a bowl, stir together flour, almond flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs. Stir into the eggs, yogurt, butter and almond extract.
4. Stir wet ingredients into the flour mixture just until combined.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan. Arrange apples over the batter.
6. For the topping: Combine almonds, sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle the topping over apples.
7. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes or until cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Wilton Course # 2 - Grand Finale Basketweave Cake

Wilton Course # 2 - Grand Finale Cake Prep Work

 

 

 

 

 

Bhendi Jaipuri

This is another classic dish from Vahchef . I tweaked it a little to suit our palate. This is a great accompaniment with a simple sambhar rice meal or can also be served as an appetizer.





Ingredients -
300 gms okra/ bhendi
1 tsp amchoor powder
2 tbsp broken cashewnuts
1 tbsp red chilli powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp dhana jeera (coriander & cumin) powder
1 cup besan/ gram flour
3-4 tbsp of vinegar
salt to taste
1 tsp sugar
onion slices (optional)

Method -
1. Cut the ends of the okra and slice them at an angle into thin slices.
2. In a bowl, add the sliced okra, broken cashewnut pieces, cumin seeds, amchoor powder, chilli powder, dhana jeera powder, salt and sugar
3. Now sprinkle some vinegar on the okra mixture. Mix well. Adding salt and vinegar brings out the moisture from the okra and also reduces the sliminess of the okra.
4. Now add some sliced onions
5. Add some besan and mix. Dont over mix and let the mixture sit for sometime.
6. Add few drops of water if the mixture is dry.
7. Heat oil in a pan and deep fry okra mixture. Drop the mixture in hot oil just like onion bhajji. Fry till crisp.
8. Garnish with cilantro

Phaldhari Kebab

I think plantains/ green bananas is a very versatile vegetable and can be substituted for potatoes in many dishes. I believe Jains who abstain from root vegetables like potatoes, extensively use raw bananas in their cooking. These are easily available throughout the year in the Indian stores here in the US, so I'm always looking for ways to add these to our meal. I guess, by now everyone knows or have heard of Sanjay Thumma of the VahrehVah fame. He has been a huge inspiration for me and has definitely taken by cooking to a whole new level. When I saw this Phaldhari kebab recipe on his website I immediately wanted to try these. I guess they are called Phal- dhari kebab bcoz they use bananas, cashews, raisins etc that fall in the fruit category. These kebabs turned out to be awesome and is a must try for vegetarians.



Ingredients -
2 Plantains/ raw bananas
1 cup finely chopped fresh corn
1 small finely chopped/ grated carrot
1 tbsp chopped raisins
2 tbsp crushed cashewnuts
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp garam masala
2 green chillies
1/2 lime juice
1 cup paneer
1 pinch red chilli powder
1 pinch chat masala
Handful of cilantro leaves finely chopped
salt to taste

Method -
1. Boil green plantains for 20 mins and remove from hot boiling water. You can also pressure cook the plantains. Just make sure you take them out of the water as soon as possible and wipe them with paper towel to remove any excess moisture
2. Use a grater to grate the plantains
3. Add finely chopped green chillies, chopped cilantro, cumin seeds, chopped corn, finely chopped carrots.
4. Then add some chopped raisins, crushed cashewnuts, grated paneer, garam masala, chilli powder, pinch of chaat masala, salt to taste and mix well.
5. Now knead the mixture like dough. Needs to come together and hold shape. If there is any moisture, add some maida or corn flour.
6. Once ready put it on a wooden spoon or a skewer to form elongated kebabs and remove from the skewer.
7. Deep fry till they turn golden brown.

Note - I deep fried the kebabs and they tasted heavenly. Nothing beats that but the kebabs can also be baked in the oven. Just brush it with some butter and bake it till they turn golden brown

Eggless Chocolate Brownie Cake

It looks like Tarla Dalal has a variety of easy eggless cake recipes. When I came across this brownie cake recipe, that uses yoghurt and has no eggs, I could not wait to try it out. This is pretty different than the brownies I have tasted here in the US. But can pass as a very simple yet delicious eggless chocolate cake that requires no fancy kitchen gadgets and only a few basic ingredients from your pantry. I have successfully baked this cake few times before. My baby turned 7 months old this week. I had this fun monkey shaped cake in mind and this chocolate cake turned out to be the perfect base for the decorations. All you need is some frosting and fun candies to bring this monkey to life. It was pretty simple to make and is sure to bring a smile on anyone's face





For the Brownie Cake

Ingredients -
1. 2 cups plain flour (maida)
2. ½ cup cocoa powder
3. 1½ cup powdered sugar
4. 1 teaspoon soda bi-carb
5. 1 teaspoon baking powder
6. 12 tablespoons curds
7. 10 tablespoons milk
8. 10 tablespoons melted butter
9. 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method -
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C (350 F).
2. Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl using a wooden spoon, making sure there are no lumps.
3. Pour this mixture into a greased and dusted 9" round baking pan
4. Place in the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Cool and proceed with the decoration as given below.

Note - If you like, you can also add 1 cup of chopped walnuts to the cake batter

For monkey cake decoration -

Ingredients -
1. 1 (9-inch) round cake
2. 2 chocolate-covered doughnuts
3. 1 cup pink frosting (I used left over pink icing from my Wilton class. You can use vanilla frosting and tint it pale pink with some red food coloring)
4. 1 Wilton ready to use red icing (You can tint @ 2 tbsp vanilla frosting with red food coloring for dark red color for the lips)
5. 2 tbsp white vanilla frosting
6. 1 can (16 oz) chocolate frosting
7. ½ cup chocolate sprinkles
8. 2 black jelly beans
9. 2 miniature York peppermint patties
10. 1 red Twizzler

Other Tools -
1. A bread knife/
2. A serving platter
3. 2 resealable sandwich-size plastic bags (Ziploc)
4. Kitchen shears or scissors

Trimming the cakes -

1. Place the cake on a clean work surface. Using the bread knife, trim a 1 ½-inch triangle-shaped notch from opposite sides of the cake (see template). Discard scraps. Place the trimmed cake onto a serving platter.
2. Cut ½ inch from one side of each doughnut.



For the white, red, and pink frosting -
1. Spoon ¼ cup of the untinted vanilla frosting into a resealable plastic bag.
2. Add enough red food coloring to 2 Tbsp of the vanilla frosting to tint it red and spoon it into a separate resealable plastic bag.
3. Add a few drops of the red food coloring to the remaining vanilla frosting to tint it a pale pink.

Frosting the cake -
1. Spread the chocolate frosting onto the top and sides of the cake
2. Spread the pale-pink frosting into a kidney bean–shaped area over the monkey's mouth, chin, and cheeks, as pictured.
3. Press the chocolate sprinkles into the forehead, the top of the head, and the underside of the monkey's chin.

Assembling the cake -
1. Press the trimmed edges of the doughnuts onto the cake for the monkey's ears. Press the jelly beans into the center of the cake to make the monkey's nostrils.
2. Pipe a red frosting line onto the pink part of the cake for the monkey's smile.
3. Pipe 2 white circles onto the top of the cake for the monkey's eyes and press the peppermint candies into them. Add a dab of white frosting for the sparkle in each eye, as pictured.
4. Snip the Twizzler into thin 2-inch strands with kitchen shears or clean scissors and insert them into the top of the cake for the monkey's hair.

ENJOY!

Swara's Nursery

Methi na Dhebra

Growing up in India, my neighbours were a Gujurati family. I was very close to them and developed a strong liking for Gujju food. Basically, I'm a big fan of rich oily food …that explains why I like Gujju food. Last week I bought a fresh bunch of methi (fenugreek leaves) from Patel Bros. Initially, I was planning to make some methi theplas for dinner. However, I changed my mind and instead made "Methi na dhebra". This is a spicy methi puri made from bajra flour. Gujjus mainly have these for breakfast with hot tea or serve these with Chunda (grated mango pickle). I served this for dinner with some yoghurt based potato bhaji also called batatyache bhareet in Marathi.

Makes 22-24 dhebras
Ingredients -
2 cups millet/bajra flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp semolina/rava
2 tbsp besan (gram flour)
Green paste (1 inch piece ginger, 2-3 cloves garlic, 4-5 green chillies -- to be blended into a fine paste)
1 cup finely chopped fenugreek/ methi leaves
2 tsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1 pinch turmeric
salt to taste
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup yogurt

Method -
1. Take all the ingredients except yogurt and the ground paste in a bowl and mix well.
2. Add the green chili-ginger-garlic paste and mix well.
3. Make a dough using yogurt and add some water if needed. Make a firm but semi-soft dough like puri dough and leave it aside for an hour.
4. Heat some oil for deep frying in a kadhai. Make medium sized balls (like you would make for puris).
5. Place the dough ball on a greased sheet of plastic or cut open ziploc bag and start patting the ball with the help of your hand and fingers. Rolling pin can also be used. Some wheat flour can be used to dunk the balls which will make rolling easier.
6. Gently slip them into the kadhai for frying. Fry the vadas on both sides. When the vadas puff up and turn brown remove them and let them drain on a paper towel to remove excess oil. Once cool, these can be stored in the refrigerator and reheated in the microwave before eating.
7. Serve with any accompaniment of your choice.

Grilled Chutney Sandwich

I'm really excited to celebrate Father's day for the first time on my daughter's behalf. Since Sunday is the only day I get to unwind from the daily busy routine, I decided to make something delicious yet simple for Sunday breakfast. This is a very popular street food from Bombay. These sandwiches bring back memories from the good old college days. These are very simple to make and can easily pass as a breakfast/ lunch/ dinner item.



Ingredients –
Cilantro chutney -
1. 1 bunch cilantro/ coriander leaves
2. 1 inch piece of ginger
3. 3 -4 cloves of garlic
4. 4 -5 green chillies
5. 1 wedge of lime/ lemon
6. 1 tsp sugar
7. salt to taste

Other Ingredients -
Slices of bread (Pepperidge Farm sandwich bread gives the best results)
Sliced tomatoes
Sliced cucumber
Sliced onions
Sliced boiled potato
Chat masala
Tomato ketchup
Butter

Procedure –
Cilantro Chutney – Grind all the ingredients with very little water to make a thick paste.
Spread butter on slices of bread. Then evenly spread some green chutney and tomato ketchup on the bread. Arrange sliced boiled potatoes on the slice of bread. Sprinkle some chat masala. Layer cucumbers/ tomotoes and onions in this order and sprinkle chat masala between each layer. Cover with another slice of bread. Grill the sandwich on a hot skillet by spreading some more butter on the outer surface of the bread. Grill/ toast on both sides till golden brown. Cut the sandwich diagonally or vertically and serve with green chutney and ketchup.

Tips – 1. You can also spread some grated cheese/ paneer for another variation of this sandwich.
2. These sandwiches can also be served cold. Just skip the grilling part

Carrot Cake

I baked this carrot cake for Swara's 6th month B'day. I bought this book called "The Cook's Encyclopedia of BAKING" by Carole Clements few years back. Unfortunately, never got a chance to try out any recipes from this book. All the cakes I had baked so far used butter. So I was looking for a recipe that uses oil instead of butter . The carrot cake recipe in this book seemed to be perfect bcoz firstly I had never baked a carrot cake at home and secondly it used oil instead of butter. This is probably the best carrot cake we have ever tasted. It was very moist and delicious. I stored it in the refrigerator and warmed it up for 15 sec in the microwave before serving. I strongly recommend trying this recipe. You will love it.



Ingredients -
1 pound carrots, peeled
11/2 cups flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsps ground cinnamon
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
11/4 cups oil
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1/2 cup raisins

Procedure -
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the baking pan with wax paper and grease it with some butter/ oil. You can also just grease the baking pan and dust with some flour.
2. Grate the carrots and set aside.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a bowl. Set aside.
4. With an electric mixer, beat the eggs until blended. Add the vanilla, sugar and oil, beat to incorporate. Add the dry ingredients, in 3 batches, folding in well after each addition.
5. Add the carrots, walnuts and raisins and fold in throughly.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the cake springs back when touched lightly, 40- 45 mins. Let stand 10 mins, then unmold and transfer to a rack.
7. Decorate the cake as you please.