Apple Cinnamon Cake - Sinfully Fresh

From chocolate cakes to truffles, Irish to plain vanilla, strawberry, cakes and pastries are a delight for everyone. But at times these cakes become too much of a sin. Still they are hard to resist. And since I am new to baking, every now and then craving for a warm piece of cake arises. Most of the times, I have to run to the nearmost bakery and only after having a piece of cake or pastry that the craving subsides. Its just that I am lucky, the bakery is just fabulous.

Although, this weekend shedding my laziness finally I made a cake. The recipe is somewhat similar to apple oatmeal muffins but with a few changes, adapted from a cookery show. Cookery shows come second in my list of things addicted to. First being the cookbooks, which I have already mentioned. Every time I get to watch a show, I scribble the recipe in my diary, just to use it at some point of time. Finally its turn came.

Lately, the weather has been freezing cold. But after the whole lot of effort of making the apple cake, when I took the first bite of the warm cake, I felt devine and much more fresh. The cold had made me really lazy to the extent of guilty of neglecting my blog. From a past few days, I was really feeling bad. So, I am back with a lovely delcious cake. Take my advice and have it fresh from oven. A warm cake is an indulgence worth taking. And with a dolop of chilled icecream or fresh scoop of cream cheese icing, the fun becomes much more joyful. s

Ingredients

For Cake

2-3 apples (peeled & chopped)
1 cup flour
1 cup butter
1 cup superfine sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp cinnamon powder

For Icing

1cup cream cheese
pinch of roasted cardamom powder
1/2 cup whipped cream

Method

* Whisk sugar and butter together for few minutes.
* Then fold in the flour followed by eggs, honey and cinnamon powder.
* Finally add apples and mix properly.
* Pour the prepared batter into a buttered baking pan.
* Bake for about half an hour at 170C
* Meanwhile prepare the icing by whipping all the ingredients together
* When the cake is baked, let it cool.
* At the time of serving spread the icing over the cake and serve.

Chocolate Plum Cake - A Simple One For Christmas

Weekends are a joy for everyone. Whole week everyone plans for weekend getaways and I plan for what I will make or bake. Lately baking is a new passion in my life, for which I get time on weekends only. In the last one, I had few of my friends. Just a bunch of women, no men. That makes me think, do we really need men in our life. No!! not at all. But yes men and women compliment eachother. And this will remain a fact as always. After all whatever we cook or we wear, if we don't have an admirer then from where will come the appreciations. We women love to be appreciated!!

For the lunch I had planned well in advance. There were grilled vegetables with tahini in the starters followed by fried rice and then my lovely chocolate cake with vanilla icecream for dessert. We chatted, we ate, watched a movie. All together you can call it a super fun time. Each part of my body freshened up.

Since when I have bought a can of chocolate, I am going totally crazy. Whatever dessert I am making, there is chocolate in it. Thats why I made chocolate cake. Its an easy recipe. I am gonna make one again and gift it to my darling neighbour on Christmas. So this one is for her. Rest of the menu, I will post in coming days. Enjoy this simple cake with your family this Christmas !

Ingredients

1 cup chocolate
1 cup butter
2-3 tbsp sugar free, powdered
2 eggs
2 tbsp honey
1 cup flour
handfull of chopped nuts

Method 

* Melt the chocolate in microwave or a pan of low heat.
* In the meantime whip butter and sugar together in a bowl until light & fluffy.
* Add melted chocolate and beat in the eggs.
* Fold in the flour. Whip the whole mixture in a blender as well for having a perfectly soft cake.
* If required add a little milk
* After blending, stir in the chopped nuts.
* Take a pan, grease it with butter and pour the mixture in it.
* Bake the cake at 170 degree C for about half an hour or more. Check using a toothpick.
* Serve with freshly whipped cream or a scoop of icecream.

Cheesecake - A No Fuss Wonder

Lately, I have been less into blogging for some or the other reasons. Nothing specific. These days I am somewhat into a wandering state. Although I am not moving but my mind is. Lots of thoughts are coming and going. At one time I want to write a story, then at another I want to start a new blog and some other random musings. But there are so many thoughts that I have become a little uncomfortable. I need to organize them. After much of contemplation, finally I have decided on making a notebook and jotting down all my thoughts and may be I will have to start another blog for my ramblings which are not at all related to food. Probably then I will be able to reach a sense of stability.

Other than thinking, I baked a wonderful cheese cake. There was no reason of celebration. But then Food is itself a reason to celebrate. Whenever we are cooking something delicious for our family, then that counts as a celebration. The Cheese cake on Thanksgiving came out to be perfect with all the flavors of my superb learning experience from other food blogs on baking. With not much fuss, I just used a simple recipe ofcourse a synthesis of all the cheese cake recipes I read.

Cheesecake is such a delicious dessert, a wonderful way to end the dinner. After having it you will be smiling with pleasure. I made a plain one but you can use any of the fruits, nuts, raisins or chocolate to make different flavors for the topping. Morever if you don't want to bake then you can set it also. But that takes few hours to set before serving.

Ingredients

For Base

2 cup biscuits crushed (around 8-10 biscuits)
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine

For Cake
1 cup cream cheese, softened
2-3 tbsp sugar free
2 eggs
2 tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp cream
1 tbsp coffee

Method

* First mix butter and crushed biscuits properly for making the base of the cheesecake and refrigerate.
* In a bowl mix well all the other ingredients.
* Place the biscuit mix in a baking pan.
* Pour the cheese mixture over the base.
* Bake the cheesecake at 325 degree F for about half an hour.
* Serve warm otherwise you can chill it for few hours, if you want to have it cold.

Custard Trifle - A Sweet Celebration

The occasion was Rakshabandhan, a festival for brothers and sisters. My brother came. Its been a month since I last met him. Hence, the time was indeed special and so I had to make something special too to match up with the occasion and taste buds of my brother, who is a great foodie and had a sweet tooth like me. So what best came to my mind was a Trifle, excellent for a summer dessert with layers of cream custard , fruits, mass of sponge cake and juice of fruits.

Custard Trifle is more easy, if you could get a ready made sponge cake from the market. It is one of the typical desserts of the English cuisine. The ingredients are distributed in layers by the sponge cake as separation with cream or custard as the last layer. I wanted a break from chocolate, so i opted for a custard one. With small variations, you could make a chocolate, lemon, or strawberry trifle. Although making a trifle is very easy but to make the best trifle you should star preparations a day before.

Ingredients
1/2 kg sponge cake
3-4 tbsp orange juice
1 apple chopped
2-3 bananas chopped
5-6 strawberries chopped
5-6 raspberries
1/2 cup pineapple chopped
2-3 vanilla custard powder
2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whipped cream
few nuts chopped

Method

Making Custard

* Boil milk in a heavy bottom saucepan.
* Lower the heat and add 2-3 tbsp of sugar according to your taste
* Meanwhile dissolve custard powder in 2-3 tbsp milk.
* Add this in the milk. Keep on stirring till it becomes thick.
* Remove from heat and let it cool.

Making Trifle

* Mix all the fruits and sprinkle some sugar on them. Refrigerate them for around one hour.
* Slice the cake in 2-3 layers horizontally. Place one layer in the base of a deep large glass bowl.
* Pour 1 tbsp of orange juice on the cake layer.
* Spoon the fruits over the sponge. Spread the custard over the fruit. Then add another layer of cake following the same process.
* Leave the flavor to develop overnight in the fridge.
* Whip the cream until it is firm, fold in sugar to taste, and spoon on top of the custard.
* Sprinkle chopped nuts and some fresh fruits to decorate.