Fruit & Nut Cake

I actually baked this cake for last year's Christmas. Yeah it is supposed to be a Non Alcoholic Christmas cake with ground spices but its not quite our favorite. Hence I made a FRUIT & NUT CAKE, a special request from Big A (who particularity insisted there be no cinnamon...poor guy hates it and I usually add it to everything muhahaha)!!! Its just a basic vanilla cake with dried fruit and nuts of our choice. Moist and perfect for non Christmas cake lovers like us. 

Makes One 9 Inch Round Cake

Recipe very Slightly Adapted from HERE

You Will Need:

100 gms Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature

1/2 Cup Tightly Packed Dark Brown Sugar (White Sugar also works fine)

2 Large Eggs

1 tsp of Vanilla Extract

1 Cup of Plain Flour (Scoop out a tbsp of flour to toss with the fruit and nuts)

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

A Pinch of Salt

1/4 Cup of Whole Milk

1/4 Cup of Tutti Fruti

2 tbsp of Dried Cranberries

2 tbsp of Chopped Glazed Cherries

2 tbsp of Raisins

10 Cashew Nuts, Broken

10 Almonds, Roughly Chopped

10 Walnuts, Broken

***You can add any dry fruits and nuts in addition to the above mentioned. And add more or less depending on how much you like. I prefer a little less.

The Cooking:

Preheat oven to 160 degree Celsius and grease a 9 inch round cake pan.

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda into a bowl.

In another bowl cream the butter till pale. Now add the sugar and beat for another 5 mins till the butter and sugar is light and fluffy. Now beat in one egg at a time making sure you incorporate well after each addition. Pour in the vanilla extract and beat again for few seconds. Make sure you scrape the sides of bowl so that the batter is evenly combined. Now gently fold half of the flour mixture. Pour in the milk and mix. Add the remaining flour and fold again making sure there is no lumps.  

Combine the dry fruits & nuts in a bowl and add the tbsp of flour. Toss till the flour has coated the nuts and fruits. Now fold this into the cake batter. DO NOT BEAT OR OVER MIX. This process of tossing the fruits & nuts in the flour will help them from sinking to the bottom while baking.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40 - 45 mins or until when a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, Be sure to check the cake after 35 mins since the temperature and time will vary for different ovens.

Happy Baking!

Dessert

0

Skinny Carrot Muffins

Pardon my terrible picture. It was close to midnight and I was in the middle of packing to travel the next day. Little A has been self feeding for the past 3 months now and its impossible to sneak a snack in front of him without him crying and asking for it. We had to train travel to our hometown the next day and I wanted to make some snack to carry with us so that we can have our train meals in peace. I polish off my fridge before every travel and I had nothing to make except couple of apples and some carrots. After Googling for what looked like an eternity I came across this Eggless Butterless Whole wheat carrot Muffins.....and I simply call them SKINNY CARROT MUFFINS!

I have never baked eggless before. I love my eggs. And am a fan of white flour. But since it was for Little A I had to go with Whole Wheat. There is ZERO Fat in these muffins and I was amazed at how moist it turned out. The snack was meant for Little A but since it was Eggless and Fatless Big A jumped right in. Healthy muffin baked in no time.  

Baking powder and baking soda are generally to be avoided for babies and toddlers but as a on off thing its fine. 

You Will Need:

Makes 12

1.5 Cups Whole Wheat Flour

3/4 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Ground Clove

1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg

1/2 Cup White / Brown Sugar

1.5 Cups Unsweetened Applesauce

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Large Carrot, Peeled and finely grated

The Baking:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a muffin tray with cupcake liners or just grease them or spray cooking oil.

In a large bowl sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, ground clove, and  ground nutmeg. Then add the sugar, applesauce, vanilla and shredded carrots. Mix until everything is moistened. DO NOT over mix.

Fill each muffin cup 3/4th full and bake for 18 - 25 mins or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool in the muffin pan for 10 mins before turning them over to a cooling rack to cool further. 

Recipe Source: Simply Daily Recipes

Happy Baking!

muffins

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Brownie Pudding

I was in chocolate heaven when I tried this BROWNIE PUDDING! SOoOoO gooey and chocolaty that are sure to make your eyeballs roll back into your head!!! Creepy?! Well I say that in a good sense. Its that good. Its such an easy recipe to follow and you can whip up the batter in just few mins. The pudding has a hard top that cracks when you break into it and a gooey gooey moist center. 

You Will Need:

3/4th Cup Unsweetened Coco Powder

1/2 Cup Plain Flour

2 Cups Sugar

4 Large Eggs, room temperature

Seeds form 1 Vanilla Bean

1 Cup Unsalted Butter

The Baking:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease a 1.5l baking dish. Melt the butter and bring it to room temperature. 

Sift together flour and cocoa powder in bowl and set aside. In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until pale yellow for 5 - 10 mins. Then add the vanilla and coco flour mixture and mix until combined. Then pour in the melted butter and mix until just combined. 

Then pour the mixture into the prepared dish and place the dish into another baking tray and fill water half way. Bake in a preheated oven till cake tester comes out with wet crumbs and the top is hard. and its risen a little. Remove the baking dish from the baking pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Serve at room temperature. 

Recipe Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker!
Happy Baking!

Dessert

2

Chocolate Loaf Cake

I have never been fully satisfied with the look of any of my cakes until I baked this one. Nigella's Quadruple CHOCOLATE LOAF CAKE, well it was supposed to be Quadruple but I guess its not since I stopped with the loaf. This cake had this beautiful deep crack right in the middle and it formed a lovely crust, such a beauty. The loaf alone was not overly sweet and am sure going to drench it with more chocolate next time I make it. And its such a simple cake I tell you. No techniques, no methodology to be followed. Just have all your ingredients at room temperature and you are good to go. Its one bowl, One mix and straight to the oven. 

Nigella made the cake over the top with mixing, drenching and covering the loaf cake with loads of chocolate. But I wanted to keep it a little simple (this time, only this time) and served warm slices of the cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

Hey that does not mean I going to stop there. Quadruple, am coming for you pretty soon!!!

Makes 10 - 12 Slices approx. 

You Will Need:

200g Cups of Plain Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

50g Cocoa Powder

275g Caster Sugar

175g Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature

2 Large Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

80ml Sour Cream

125ml Boiling Water

The Baking:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 175c

Step 2: Line a 21cm x 11cm, 7.5 cm (mine was a little smaller than her's I guess) deep loaf tin with foil and slightly grease the inside of the tin. Leave a little foil hanging outside the loaf tin, so that it will be easy to lift the cake off the tin.

Step 3: Place all the ingredients except water in a large bowl and whisk everything together using a wooden spoon. Then pour in the recently boiled water (must be hot, not cool) and whisk till everything is combined. 

Note: You can substitute sour cream with plain hung yogurt.

 OR

Place all the ingredients except water in a food processor and blitz till smooth. The pour in the boiling water and blitz once again. 

Step 4: Scrap down the batter into the loaf tin, it will be a little liquid batter. place it the preheated oven and bake for about an hour (mine was done somewhere between 30 - 40 mins). You will know when its done when you can smell cake in the air, a straight deep crack on top of the cake and when a cake tester inserted comes out with wet crumbs and NOT CLEAN. 

Step 5: Once done take out and place the cake on a cooling rack. DO NOT REMOVE the cake from the tin. Let the cake cool completely then remove the cake from the tin and slice as desired with a serrated knife.

Do check out my post on Tips For Cake Baking!

Happy Baking!

Dessert

0

Lime Honey Oats Muffins!

LIME HONEY OATS MUFFINS....these muffins are a weight watchers indulgence. If you are a buttery sweet kind of person, then sorry this won't give you any satisfaction. I am no fan of oats or any healthy dish for that matter. I actually made these for my big bro (he is the one I experiment all my recipes with, poor fellow ;p )

These muffins are very light, less sweet and "The go to" breakfast on the go. Its moist and the texture is just amazing. You can taste the oats, the honey and ting of lime in every bite. The glaze gives a nice sharp edge to the muffins, so I recommand you be genourous when glazing. 

Before the glaze! 

There is another way you can eat these muffin. Slice through the muffin and spread your favourite jam and eat like scones, Yummm!

Recipe Courtesy: food.com

You Will Need:
Makes 13 Muffins

For the Muffins:
1 Cup Uncooked Oats
1 Cup Yogurt
1/2 Cup Honey
1/4 Cup Milk
3 tbsp Melted Unsalted Butter
2 tsp Lime Zest
1 1/2 Cups Plain Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
2 Egg Whites, Lightly Beaten

Glaze:
You Will Need:
3/4 Cup of Powdered Sugar
4 tsp Lime Juice
1 tsp Lime Zest

The Baking:

Muffins:
Preheat oven to 180c and Line the baking tray with 12 muffin cups.

Combine oats, yogurt, honey, milk, melted butter and lime zest in a large bowl. Mix evenly and let it rest for 10 mins.

In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Keep aside until needed.

Add the beaten egg whites to the oats mixture and mix until well combined. Fold in the dry ingredients into the oats batter until the flour is moistened. DO NOT OVER MIX.

Fill the muffin cups almost full. Bake for 20 - 25 mins until the muffins are cooked through and are light golden colour on top.

Let it cool in the tray for fe mins. Then take the muffins out and let them cool completely on a wire rack.

For the Glaze:
Combine all the ingredients together.

Dip the top of cooled muffins into the glaze and serve.

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Happy Baking!

muffins

0

White Chocolate & Peanut Butter Blondies

One word....Sinful!!! Am not a fan of peanuts and I never liked anything made out of peanuts. This has been on my to bake list for way too long, ever since I saw Rachel Allen bake these on her show Rachel Allen Bake! They looked amazing. The only thing that held me back from baking this was Peanut Butter. This Blondie uses a lot of peanut butter. So am back home and as usual my dear bro was demanding I bake something for him. I wanted to bake something fast yet delish, and peanut butter is one of his favourites. So I decided to go on with this recipe but I had my doubts till the end. The moment it came out of the oven and went into my mouth.....I had no words. It was amazing amazing! Moist and nutty and my god I cursed myself for not trying these for long. 

My 2.5 years niece who is a picky eater loved the crust. I found couple of squares with no crust at all ;) And the white chocolate was a kick! I actually doubled this recipe and later regretted...I must have tripled it!!!

Recipe Source : Rachel Allen's Bake!

Makes 16 Squares (depends on the size you cut it)

You Will Need:

125g Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
100g Unsalted Butter, Room temperature
150g Crunchy Peanut Butter, Room Temperature
175g Caster Sugar
1 Large Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
75g White Chocolate, Chopped
1/2 Cup Milk

The Baking:

Preheat oven at 180c.

In a bowl sift together plain flour and baking powder. Keep aside.

In a large bowl cream the butter and peanut butter together till smooth and fluffy. 

Note: I strongly recommend crunchy peanut butter. You will get an amazing crust from it. You can also use smooth peanut butter, but not so good crust.

Since its first time I tasted peanut butter it was salty and my batter was salty. But when baked the sweet was just perfect. So don't be alarmed if the batter tastes salty. 

Add the sugar gradually and beat till incorporated. Break in an egg and add the vanilla extract. Beat well.

Gradually fold in the flour mixture alternating with milk. The batter will be thick. Finally mix in the chopped chocolate.

Grease an 8 x 8 inch baking tin and spread the batter evenly. Bake for 25 - 30 mins or until the top is nice golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let it cool in the pan before taking it out and cutting it. 

Note: Once cooled, cling wrap the uncut Blondie and store till next day. This will make the cake firm and less crumbs. I know its hard to wait but you have to. 

To make need squares, use a serrated knife. Saw through the crust and cut straight down into the cake. Wipe the blade clean before slicing the next one.

Serve hot with a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream drizzled with caramel or serve them on their own at room temperature. 

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Happy Baking!

Dessert

0

Custard Cake

Okay, let me tell you this first. This was a half successful attempt. I got the creme caramel  part right but totally messed up the chiffon cake. Baked this in a heavy bottom pan which I used to bake butter cakes whenever I am at my mom's place. And the pan seemed to be best friends with my butter cakes and they totally ditched my chiffon. And that's why it was only half successful.

Now, let me come to the cake part. Custard Cake or LECHE FLAN CHIFFON CAKE  a popular Filipino tea time snacks. The top layer is creme caramel  and the bottom is chiffon cake (I know you are wondering where the cake is). Its also called a magical cake, the light chiffon cake batter beautifully floats on top of the heavy custard. They don't mix together resulting in two separate beautiful layers. This cake so rich and it tasted great.

Before going to the recipe I must tell you what went wrong for me. First, like I told before I used a heavy bottom pan for baking this. They are great for butter cakes but chiffon is an absolute NO! So you can see a dense layer of cake under the caramel (its supposed to be chiffon for god's sake!) I know I will get it right with my OTG back home. Secondly, the recipe uses way too much of egg yolks and my cake was smelling too much eggs.... Yikes! And also I found the cake way too sweet for me. 

But I got to tell you its a beautiful cake. It does have quite a long process but as the name says it is magical in the end. Am gonna give this cake another try once i travel back home. With my otg, baking equipment and a little change in the recipe I know I will get it right. 

You can follow the recipe I followed or just go ahead with your favorite creme caramel recipe and chiffon cake recipe. It will work just about right. 

Ok I have just given the recipe Link...next time when I bake this cake will post the altered recipe. 

Recipe taken from Ang Sarap!!!

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Happy Baking! 

Dessert

0

Strawberry Layer Cake with Strawberry Butter Cream!

With less than 2 weeks to go before the arrival of the bundle of joy am still busy ticking off my 101 Things to Do Before the Baby Comes list. And cake baking is one of the things I have been keeping in pending for a very long time. Am back to my mom's home and I can hardly imagine baking a cake without my oven and baking tools. But I just couldn't say No to my brother who has been requesting and finally demanding for a cake from me. So I went back to how my mom baked her first cake when I was about 5 years old. Thank god for an old measuring cup that barely had any markings on it, a cake pan over 10 years old and a heavy bottom sauce pan I used to bake cake before we had an oven.

Without my hand held electric mixer I was back to creaming the butter in a large bowl with a heavy stainless steel spatula or ladle or whatever it is called. Yes a lot of muscle was required, I can already feel my biceps. 

Now about the cake, its a STRAWBERRY BUTTER CAKE filled and frosted with strawberry butter cream with fresh strawberry purée. The cake batter has a combination of strawberry flavoured jelly crystals and fresh strawberry purée. The jelly crystals gives a nice texture, sweetness and a lovely colour to the cake whereas the flavour comes from the purée. And the strawberry butter cream just adds even more berry punch to the cake. 

Now, I know my frosting is bad or even worse. But that was all I could manage with a plain old knife and a non rotating surface. Nevertheless, this was one moist strawberry cake and there was one happy brother!!!

You Will Need:

For the Cake:

Makes one 3 layer, 8 inch round cake 

227g of Unsalted Butter

3 Cups (300g) Cake Flour

A tbsp of Baking Powder

1-3/4 Cup (350g) of Sugar

4 Large Eggs

85g of Strawberry Jelly Crystals 

1/4 Cup (60ml) Fresh Strawberry Purée

1/2 Cup of Whole Milk

A tbsp of Vanilla Extract

3/4 tsp Salt

Strawberry Butter cream Frosting:

375g of Unsalted Butter

4 Cups (500g) Icing Sugar

A tbsp of Milk

45 ml Fresh Strawberry Purée

Pinch of Salt

Note: All ingredients must be at room temperature. 

The Baking:

For the Cake:

1. Place about 2 handfuls of strawberries in a blender and purée the strawberries. 
2. Preheat oven at 180c and grease or line with parchment paper three 8 inch round cake pan (I used one deep cake pan in my case)
3. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Keep aside.
4. In another whisk the strawberry purée, milk and vanilla extract.
5. Cream the butter, sugar and jelly crystals in a large bowl for 5 mins till light and fluffy. 
6. Break in the eggs one at a time and beat till each egg is well incorporated. 
7. Now, add half the dry ingredients into the batter followed by half of the wet ingredients. Mix just until combined. Again add the remaining dry ingredients followed by the remaining wet ingredients and beat till everything is just combined. 
8. Divide the batter into three greased / lined cake pans. you can also weigh each cake pan to make sure you have distributed the batter equally. With a spatula level the top and bake in a preheated oven for 25 - 30 mins or until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Check cake at 20 mins but not before. 
9. Once the cakes are baked let them cool on the cake pans for 10 mins. Then run a knife along the sides of the cake pans and loosen the cakes to invert them over a wire rack and let them cool completely. 

Note: They can be kept at room temperature for 2 days tightly wrapped with a cling film or stored in an air tight container. Or they can also be refrigerated for 5 days or frozen for 2 months. 

Also refer my older post for some helpful tips on Cake Baking! 

Making the Frosting:

1. Place the butter in a bowl of a stand mixer / hand held electric mixer. Whip the butter till soft and pale for about 10 mins. 
2. Add the icing sugar and vanilla extract and whip for another 8 - 10 mins till the butter cream is soft and fluffy. 
3. Add the strawberry purée and mix till its well incorporated. 

Note: Sift the icing powder 2 or 3 times for smooth butter cream. Let the butter cream chill for 24 hrs, thaw and whip for one last time before frosting. 

Layering the Cake:

Once the cake layers are completely cooled, fill and frost the cake layers as desired. We prefer plain cakes or cakes with minimal frosting. Hence I have gone really thin on the frosting. But the recipe for frosting I have given is enough to thickly fill and frost 3 cake layers. 

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com!

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Happy Baking!

Strawberry

0

Rainbow Pound Cake!

POUND CAKES are the yummiest cakes in this whole world, there is no other cake for me to beat this Devil. The Butter : Sugar : Flour ratio in a pound cake is equal thus resulting in a rich, moist, buttery cake ( definitely not for you weight watchers our there & those preferring light cakes) and they are just yummm! And you know what? These are even more irresistible the next day, yeah sure to bring on the fight for that last crumb. Its the first time I tried adding soft drinks to a cake batter and batter was so aerated and fluffy (try not eating the cake batter, you will want some to be BAKED!!! But I have to admit that was one delicious batter!) 

Now, I know my rainbow is all painted with wrong colours ;) It's time am going on my "Maternity" break (yes, the Stork has been circling my house for quite sometime now and its sure to make a stop pretty soon :) So I have been on my feet all week tidying my house and emptying my pantry since there won't be much cooking to do for sometime! And there it was, my 8 Wilton Gel Food Colours (definitely not rainbow colours) sitting unopened! Since I did have a cake baking in my Things To Do Before The Baby Comes List, I planned on making my hubby's-long-time-requested not-so-Rainbow Cake. Rainbow cake is best done with a White Cake since the colours show well, but I already made a White Cupcake and I wanted something to make my palate go BOOM!!! Hence the RAINBOW POUND CAKE! 

I was little concerned about the gel food colour reacting funny with the acidity in the batter. So I went on asking some expert opinions and found it was totally safe to mix food gel colours in a acidity batter. So if you doubt the same Do Not Worry, the cake does not give any weird after taste or the batter does not react funny. 

This Pound Cake is a must you try. So go ahead and do it as a rainbow or just Plain old Pound cake! 

You Will Need:

For the Pound Cake:

3 Sticks / 340g of Unsalted Butter, Softened

3 Cups of Plain Flour

3 Cups of Superfine Sugar

5 Large Egg

2 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

A Cup / 240 ml of Sprite / 7Up, Room Temperature 

Other Ingredients:

Gel Food Colour (I used Wilton)

The Baking:

Cream the butter till soft and fluffy. Then add sugar a cup at a time and beat till the sugar is well incorporated and the batter is fluffy. Then beat in one egg at time making sure to fully incorporate each egg after each addition. 

Pour in the vanilla extract and mix well. Sift in the flour a cup at a time and mix briefly after each addition. Now pour in the sprite and beat on low speed till everything is well combined. 

Divide the mixture into any many portions as you wish, depending on the number of colours you are planning to do. I did five colours. 

Line / grease a baking tin, round, bundt, loaf tin anything you have (I used a loaf tin) and pour in the cake batter, in desired pattern. Checkout the post on Not MarthaExperiments in Rainbow Cake, she has some cool stuffs on that perfect rainbow swirls in each slice. Bake in a preheated oven till the cake is completely cooked i.e, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. 

Let the cake cool in the tin for an hour or so before you invert it onto a wire rack. Let it cool on the wire rack for another hour or so before you start slicing it. Hot cakes are so fragile, they will crumble. 

Baking Temperature: 180 Degree Celsius 

Baking Time: Approx 60 mins

Cooling Time: 2 - 3 hrs

Important Pointers:

• Check my Tips for Cake Baking post for basic tips & tricks on cake baking! 
• Pound cakes take a long time to bake and the top does brown. So don't panic if you find the top is browning too fast too soon. Simply cover with a foil and continue baking.

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Recipe Adapted from The Pioneer Woman!

Happy Baking!

Dessert

0

Molten Lava Cake

MOLTEN CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKE...or simply "Half Baked Cake" like how my husband calls it ;) I don't even have to tell you about this sinful dessert. They are just yum eaten hot or at room temperature, with dollop of cream and berries or like how I prefer it just plain on its own with little dusting of powdered sugar. 

There is really nothing much technique in baking these babies. Just "half bake" your cake and its a lava cake.... :p So the baking time actually varies on how gooey you want the center to be. The first cake I attempted was way too gooey for me. I baked it for 15 mins exactly and it was too runny for me. Then the second one went a little longer and it was just perfect. Now coming to the chocolate that's best for this recipe is any chocolate you like to eat. It need not be expensive dark chocolate, any good quality chocolate will do. I used Cadbury Dairy Milk Roasted Almonds for this. So any chocolate you love to eat, but remember the taste, colour and flavour will differ from what chocolate goes in. 

The recipe is for 3 lava cakes and this recipe can be easily doubled or tripled. 

Makes 3 Lava Cakes

You Will Need:

200g of Dark Chocolate, Broken

100g of Unsalted Butter, Cubed

65g of Powdered Sugar

50g of Plain Floura

2 Whole Eggs

2 Egg Yolks

Tsp of Vanilla Extract

The Cooking:

Place the chocolates and butter in a heat proof bowl and melt in a microwave or over a double boiler / water bath. Give it a good whisk once and add the powdered / icing sugar. You don't really need a whisk or a mixer to do this just with a spatula stir the sugar till well incorporated.

Now before adding the eggs let the mixture cool for a few mins, just in case the eggs scramble if the mixture is too hot. Then add the vanilla and one egg at a time whisking well to ensure the eggs get well incorporated. Now fold in the flour and transfer them to a greased ramekin.

Place them in a preheated oven at 180c and bake for 15 - 20 mins, that's depending on how gooey you want them to be. Let the cake rest for few mins before being inverted on to a plate. 

IMPORTANT POINTERS:

• For a cheat's version, fill the ramekin halfway and place a chocolate square in the center and top off with batter. The chocolate melts when baking promising a runny center every time. 
• Check the blog post Tips On Baking for pointers on cake baking.

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Happy Baking!

Dessert

0

Marble Cake

MARBLE CAKE…is a lovely vanilla butter cake with streaks of chocolate. Its so moist and spongy, you can never go wrong with it. Mostly its just vanilla and chocolate cake, but there are other fruit variations like strawberries too with cinnamon and spices. For this cake, I adapted Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Vanilla Bean Pound cake recipe from her cookbook Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. She uses vanilla beans in the batter, but I totally skipped that part coz I didn't have any bean ;) What she does is, she scrapes the insides of 2 vanilla bean and she mixes that with the sugar used in the recipe. So you can imagine the intense flavour, vanilla bean infused sugar followed by vanilla extract. So if you have vanilla bean, then try infusing them in the batter. And the traditional method of creaming the butter and sugar together is replaced by mixing the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately and then combining them gradually together. So lets start marbling!

You Will Need:

184g of Unsalted Butter (Room Temperature)

1 1/2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

3/4 Cup or 150g of Superfine Sugar

3 Large Eggs

45ml of Milk

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 1/2 Cups or 150g of Flour (Sifted & Measured Out)

3/4 tsp of Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

The Baking:

Preheat the oven at 100c.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder.

In another bowl mix together the eggs, vanilla and milk with a whisk until well combined. 

 

Yeah that’s how it looked….trust me its the wet batter not my morning coffee ;) Just cut small chunks off the butter (MUST BE AT ROOM TEMPERATURE) and mix into the dry ingredients. Don’t worry if you see lumps of butter here and there that’s totally fine. Pour half of the wet ingredient into the dry mixture and beat it just until the mixture is moistened.

    

Again pour little wet mixture into the batter and whisk again for 30 sec. It may look like its not going to come together but it will.

Pour in the remaining wet mixture and whisk till you get a smooth non - lumpy batter.

Now, divide a little batter from the vanilla batter to make the chocolate cake.  (Too many batter batter!!! ;))

Sift the cocoa powder into the divided batter and mix till its all combined.

 

Line a baking dish with parchment paper. I used my brownie tray for the cake, but you can use Bundt pan or even a loaf tin. Now, alternatively put a dollop of vanilla and chocolate batter on the pan.

Now with a toothpick or any skewer just swirl the batter making abstract pattern. Don’t swirl too much, you don’t want the batter getting mixed too much loosing the effect.

Bake it in a preheated oven for 30 – 40 min. Then, take it out and gently press the top of the cake. If it springs back its done or if it makes dents then you will know its still uncooked. Or simple insert a toothpick, if it comes out clean with no wet batter or wet crumbs its done. This needs to cool in the baking pan for 15 min, then transfer it carefully to a wire rack and let it cool completely before slicing.

Important Pointers:

• Measure out the ingredients carefully. It should be precise.
• My oven overheats, making the top of the cake to brown too quickly. If that happens in your case too just cover the top with foil.
• Don’t forget to read more important key points in cake baking HERE!

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Happy Marbling!

Cakes

3

Carrot Loaf Cake!

I know bad photography. This cake traveled with me 7 hrs all the way to my hometown, to be shared with my family. The cake was still in its mold uncut and plastic wrapped. I had a wedding to go as soon as I reached there and when I came back this was all I could find. Half the cake gone…I had to click fast before everything was gone!

CARROT LOAF CAKE…or just Carrot Cake, its loaf because I baked it in a loaf tin. This moist dense butter cake with specks of orange color from the carrots is a classic. The grated carrots, chopped walnuts and the spice gives a wonderful flavor and its such a favorite  I prefer plain cakes to frosted ones, and am yet to try frosting on this one. It was heavenly just as it was. But you can frost this with cream cheese frosting, buttercream or just glaze it. This recipes makes great carrot cake cupcakes too, simply frost them with cream cheese frosting.

Ok enough of reading, go preheat your oven…

You Will Need:

200g Unsalted Butter, Melted
150ml or 4 Large Eggs
110g or 1/2 Cup of Granulated Sugar
110g of Demerara Sugar
90g or 3/4 cup Roughly Chopped Walnuts
1 tsp Cinnamon Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
170g 1 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp Plain Flour Measured and Sifted
185g or 2 1/2 Cups Grated Carrot
Pinch of Salt

The Baking:

Preheat the oven to 170c. In a bowl mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda and keep aside. Place the melted butter in a large bowl and whisk in one egg at a time . Whisk for 30 sec after each addition to make sure the eggs are well incorporated with the melted butter. Now add the granulated sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Whisk till the sugar is melted. Now add the dry ingredients and fold it with a spatula. Add the grated carrots fold until there are no lumps seen.

Line an 8” baking pan with parchment paper and evenly spread the batter. Bake this in the preheated oven for 30 min or till toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Important Pointers:

• Chopped walnuts are optional, if you don’t like nuts just leave it out. You can also use spices like grated nutmeg, mixed spices and raisins too.  
• You can store this in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
• Read Tips for Cake Baking for more important baking tips.

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Happy Baking!

Cakes

2