Almond Cake

Ingredients:

1. All purpose Flour - 50 gm

2. Almonds - 80 gm (powdered)

3. Sugar - 110 gm

4. Butter - 120 gm

5. Eggs - 3

6. Sliced Almonds - 10 gm

9. Rum extract - 1/2 teaspoon

Preparation time : 15 mins

Cooking Time : 30 mins

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F / 180 degrees C.

2. Take an 8 inch cake pan and coat it with butter / baking spray.

3. In a bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and rum extract .

4. Then add the flour, butter and almond powder and whisk it again.

5. Pour the batter into the cake pan and sprinkle the sliced almonds on top.

6. Bake for 30 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean.

NOTES:

1. If you want a fluffier cake, adjust the ratio of the flour to almond powder. 

2. I only had rum extract. Feel free to use any other cake essences you might have. That said, also make sure it blends with the almond taste :)

Chocolate - Beetroot Cake

I have been meaning to make this cake for a very long time. I found the recipe here . After which I Google-ed a couple of other recipes but always found myself coming back to Veggie Belly. It was KK's birthday and a perfect excuse for me to bake a cake.

Try this cake, if you are a chocolate fan and if you want all you friends to say WHAT?!! when you name the surprise ingredient. Like Veggie Belly mentions make sure all ingredients are weighed to exact measure.

Cooked Beets: 3-4 medium sized beets, peeled , cut into big chunks and boiled until fork tender. Cook until all water is absorbed. Puree the beets in a blender until you get a substance with coarse texture and keep aside.

How to make ganache : Heat the heavy cream in a sauce pan just until it begins to boil and then add the cream to the chocolate and whisk lightly.

Ingredients:

for the cake :

1.Cooked Beets - 300 gms

2. All purpose flour - 200 gms

3. Sugar - 200 gms

4. Milk  chocolate - 60 gms  (i used Dairy Milk)

5. Eggs - 3 jumbo

6. Dark Chocolate - 60 gms  (i used Dairy Milk)

7. Baking Soda - 1 tea spoon

8. Vanilla essence - 1 tea spoon

9. Oil - 240 ml
10. Cocoa - 30 gms

for ganache:

1. Heavy Cream - 240 ml
2. Grated Chocolate - Milk + dark chocolate (2: 1 ratio) - 250 gms
Method:
1. Melt the chocolate for the cake
(If you never melted chocolate before, you should probably go   here )
2. In a bowl, take the eggs, melted chocolate, beet puree, oil , vanilla essence and whisk well.
3. Then add the flour, cocoa powder and sugar to the mixture and whisk well until you get a batter with no lumps.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 farenheit.
5. In a cake pan (i used 9 inch one), grease the bottom and the sides with butter and then pour the cake batter into it.

                                                  Puree                                     Batter

6. Place the cake pan in the oven and bake until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. It took me an hour in my oven.
7. Remove the cake and allow it to cool . After which you pour the chocolate ganache over the cake and let it set.
8. Arrange some strawberries for the extra color and decorate it according to taste .
Some tips you may want to know:***
1. Do not microwave the chocolate. You will end up burning it. Unless you are pro :)
2. If the cake is not done after 45 mins. Lower the temperature to may be 300 degrees and let it cook slowly.
3. I like my chocolate/cake a little sweet hence I added milk chocolate and reduced the amount of sugar. If you are a dark chocolate fan please follow the recipe @ veggiebelly.com

Rava Laddoo / Sooji Laddoo

Alright, this is my dad's favorite sweet. There is a tin of these laddoos most of the time in our kitchen at home. When I realized that I had all the ingredients to make this laddoo, I immediately set to work. Two things- its easy to make and its deliciously sweet :)

Ingredients:

1. Sooji / Rava / Semolina - 2 cups

2. Grated coconut - 1 cup

3. Ghee / Melted Butter - 2  tbsp

4. Milk - 1/5 cup

5. Sugar - 1/2 cup

6. Cardamom Powder - 2 gms

7. Cashews - optional

Preparation Time : 2 mins (if you have the grated coconut already :) )

Cooking Time : 15 mins

Method:

1.  In a wok, add a tbsp of ghee and once its hot fry the cashews in it. You can also throw in some raisins if you wish. Once they have a reached a good golden brown, turn off heat and take the cashews and keep them aside.

2. Now in the same wok, add the rava , grated coconut, sugar, cardamom powder and mix well on medium flame for about 5 mins or until the rava changes color slightly.

3. Now add the milk and keep stirring until the mixture is semi solid (not powdery). Turn off flame.

4. Once the mixture is at a temperature where you can hold it in your hand try and make balls out of it :)
i like bit sized laddoos, since they are easy to eat but you can experiment with the size.

5. At the end I topped my laddoos with a fried cashew. You can actually add the dry fruits/ nuts into the mixture itself, if you choose.

NOTE : I like my laddoos a little coarse so I havent added too much milk. But if you prefer softer laddoos, you can add a little more milk.

Assorted cupcakes

A cupcake is probaly the only dessert that you can have more than one and get away with it :)

I once read, you cant buy happiness, but you can buy cupackes and they are about the same thing.

And so, i set to buy (Make) my own happiness at home in 3 different flavors and the result is a crumpled paper and a happy me :)


Ingredients:

1. Betty Crocker White cake mix - 1 pkt

2. Eggs - 3

3. 160 ml oil

For raspberry

i) fresh or frozen raspberries 1/2 cup
ii) Raspberry gelatin - 2 spoons

For chocolate

i) chocolate syrup - 1 spoon
ii)Chocolate gelatin - 2 spoons


Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

2. Take Ingredients (1,2,3 ) and beat well. Now add the ingredients for the chosen flavor and beat well.

3. Take a cupcake pan. Place the cups in the pan. And pour the batter so it fills 3/4 of the cup.

4. For a regular bett crocker pack you should have batter enough for 22 cupcakes.

5. Allow to bake in the oven for 18-25 mins.

6. Check if done by inserting a toothpick. If toothpick comes out clean then the cupcakes are done.
Else, you need a few extra mins of baking time.

7.Decorate with icing (optional)

8. And there you have flavored cupcakes :)

NOTE: Recipe of my personal icing can be found under the topic raspberry flavored cake

Cupcakes

Well, this week I missed my class. But Idint slack. I managed to do my class work at home, with a little effort.
So today I baked my first set of cupcakes. And here is how they turned out.

Phase 1

Phase 2

Final Product

Cake

Decorating a cake isnt easy. Well for me, the icing came out in good texture. But I did not do a great job of icing my cake. The crumbs kept surfacing. :(

And I could not get the icing to cover well on the sides of the cake. So I made another set of icing and layered the cake with the new icing so the crumbs wont show. But, my icing dint dry and that gave me a hard time to decorate the cake Here is the final outcome. Not happy, but since its my first one, I'll smile. Tasted great :)

Caramel Custard

I have a sweet tooth. So I try to find out easy recipes to satisfy my sweet cravings . Caramel custard is one of them. Easy to make, you cant go wrong with it.

Ingredients

Sugar - 1 cup

Milk - 2 cups
Eggs - 3
Vanilla Essence

Preparation Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time : 30-45 mins

Prepare Caramel :

Take half a cup of  sugar with 1 spoon water and heat it on a pan till it melts. Make sure to keep stirring else sugar will burn.

1. Once caramel is prepared, pour the caramel in to the vessel you will use for baking the custard.

2. Take a bowl, pour milk, remaining sugar, eggs and 1-2 drops of vanilla essence and beat well.

3. Now pour this mixture into the vessel in which the caramel is at the base. Make sure only 3/4 of the vessel is full.

4. Bake it in an oven preheated to 350 F for about 30 - 45 mins. Keep checking in between.

5. Once you take it out. Allow it cool and refrigerate it.

6. To serve, take the vessel and place a plate over it and turn the vessel gently (This is the tricky part, if you dont do it right, you will have a broken custard , but it will taste equally good :)  )

Serve with strawberries .