Tag: Cakes

Last-Minute Fruit Cake

This cake can be made anytime during the year especially if you need to bake a cake at the last-minute when you have not much time. I baked 2 cakes this christmas – last minute cake to give as a present to my neighbour and relatives, the other was a traditional brandied christmas cake.

I put a lot of time and thought into planning my recipe for both the cakes weeks before christmas and it was worth the effort. I was asked if the cake was store-bought and I was happy to tell them that it was in fact, Homemade!šŸ˜‡. Receiving good compliments on my recipes is what makes me motivated to post more recipes here and all credits to everyone of you making this happen. Do share your thoughts and tell me how you spent your christmas this year in comments below if you can spare a minute of your time.

Thank you and have a Happy New Year 2018!Ā šŸ˜ŠšŸ’«ā˜ƒ

 

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 1hr 10 minutes

Requirement: 20 cm / 8in round deep cake tin or springclip tin greased and lined (or use a ready made cake liner)

Ingredients

Dried Fruits:Ā Raisins – 100 g

Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā Black currents – 20 g

Candied Cherries – 10 pieces, halved

Orange juice – 3/ 4 cup, of 2 large oranges

 

Unsalted butter, softened – 200 g + extra for greasing

Brown sugar (fine) – 200 g / 1 cup

Plain Flour / Top flour – 225 g

Large whole eggs – 4, at room temperature

Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Ground cinnamon – 1 tsp

Nutmeg – 1 tsp

pinch of salt

 

Nuts:

Cashew nuts – 70 g, chopped

Almonds, slivered – 20 g

 

 

Directions

1. Place the dried fruits such as raisins and currants together with cherries, orange juice into a deep pot. Bring it to a boil on high heat. Turn on the heat and simmer for approximately 15 minutes.

dried fruits

 

Leave it to cool or if you have time leave it overnight or as long as you can. Coat the nuts in 3 tbsp of all-purpose flour and set it aside.

IMG_9523

 

Preparing the baking tin:

2. In the meantime or on the day of baking, butter a 20 cm round cake tin and then line both the bottom and the sides with baking paper making sure the paper peaks over the top by about 5cm. Butter again the base and the sides. Set aside.

IMG_9535

Preparing the cake mixture:

3. In a large bowl, put all the rest of the ingredients such as sugar, butter, flour, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt except for dried fruits and nuts. Initially, use a wooden spoon and give it a good mix, otherwise using a hand mixer could make the flour fly around everywhere making a mess.

IMG_9524

Now use the hand mixer and make sure to mix everything really well, around 1.5 – 2 minutes on medium speed. Once its mixed well enough, detach the beaters from the hand mixer and remove any cake batter on it.

IMG_9525

4. Add the dried fruit mixture along with its syrup. Mix with the wooden spoon. Then mix in the nuts coated in flour. Give a good mix.

IMG_9528

Nuts Coated in flour | Fruit Cake

Preheat the oven to 140Ā°C/Gas Mark 1 or for 10 minutes.

5. Spoon the cake mixture into the cake tin, level the top using a spatula and bake in the centre of the oven or if using a convection oven place on the lower rack for 70 minutes checking in between once after 45 minutes.

IMG_9536

It is cooked when a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. I could do this without removing the cake tin out of the oven. Do not worry if it has turned light brown on top and needs more time to cook. Just in case the top has turned dark brown in color before its cooked, cover the top with a parchment paper.

Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin. If you wish to decorate the cake you can do so after its completely cooled.

IMG_9538

IMG_9546

Packing as present. Forgive me for my bad photography skills.

IMG_9544

 

 

More on Baking or Cakes

TraditionalĀ Christmas cake – Fruit Cake

Lemon Cake

Pear Cake

Tapioca cake

Cocoa -Easy Cake(Vegan)

Butter Biscuit

 

 

 

Stay Healthy!

Read More

Cucumber Steamed Cake / Mangalorean Mandas

Yesterday was Deepavali, so I thought of preparing this incredible rice cake called as Cucumber cake or Mandas (konkani) which my mom used to prepare occasionally at home. The steaming process gives a lovely aroma due to the common ingredients such as jaggery and coconut that I usually add to most of my mangalorean snacks (please check the Mangalorean Recipe categories for more on this).

Preparation time: 15 minutes + soaking time

Cooking time : 30 to 60 minutes

Serves: 4 to 6

 

 

Ingredients

Cucumber – 370 g / 1 large, peeled with seeds removed and chopped

Ghee / Oil – 3 tbsp

Idli rice / White small grain – 1 cup, soaked for 3 to 4 hours (*see here)

Fresh or frozen grated Coconut –Ā  95 g

grated coconut

Jaggery – 70 g, powderedĀ (more info on jaggery read here)

Jaggery

 

 

Directions

1. Soak the rice for nearly 3 to 4 hrs with water 2 inches above the level of rice. Prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2. First blend the cucumber to liquefy, otherwise the blender might heat up while adding the hard ingredients at the bottom.

Cucumber chopped

Then, add the rest of ingredients such as rice, coconut and jaggery. Do not add any water and blend to make a smooth batter of running consistency.

batter for cucumber cake

3. Grease the container with 1 tsp Ghee. Pour the batter into a container and drizzle 2 tbsp ghee. Run a knife through the batter to evenly spread the ghee.

preparing for steaming

Cover with aluminium foil.

4.Ā  In a large pot or work with enough water, place it on a stand of water bath. Close the lid. Cook for 30 – 60 minutes until a toothpick or skewer inserted comes clean without any wet batter.

steaming process

Cooking time varies so check after 30 minutes. You can remove the foil carefully with a pair of tongs and place it back. Steam can be very hot hence must take care not to cause steam burns.

IMG_8937

Steamed Cucumber Cake

 

Thank you for visiting!

 

Stay Healthy! šŸ™‚

Read More

Pear Cake

 

If you noticed, the last time I blogged a recipe was a week ago. Since then I have been thinking of ways to prepare something sweet that can be made with fruits. My husband is so charming that when he is home he doesn’t want me being in the kitchen the whole time preparing snacks or dishes for him that consume a lot of time. He would rather love watching television shows like Ozark or The Good Wife the whole day if possible. Yup!Ā šŸ˜ƒ

Yesterday evening before I could get dinner on the table, I gathered all the ingredients for the Pear cake šŸ. It was quite simple and was less complicated with just few basic ingredients a cake always needs. This is the first time I baked a cake for this long with a waiting time of 60 minutes but, was super easy to prepare. It was delicious, less sweet (I usually prefer that way) and just what I expected.

If you are reading this, then I would like to hear from you. My Facebook page is also available for any comments. Happy October!!Ā ā˜ŗ

 

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 60 to 65 minutes

Appliance : Convection oven

 

Ingredients

Spring-form baking pan – 21 cm

Parchment paper

Pears – 3 smallĀ  size, peeled deseeded & halvedĀ 

Butter – 150 g, soft at room temperature

Caster Sugar – 100 g / 1/4 cup

Eggs – 3, large

Lemon zest – 1

Vanilla essence – 1/2 tsp

All-purpose flour / Top flour – 150 g

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Pinch of salt

 

Directions

1. Grease the spring pan with butter and line the base with parchment paper. Grease again with some butter and set aside. Prepare the ingredients.

2. Using a hand held mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy with the speed set at 1. The butter must be soft to get a smooth texture.

Butter and sugar mixed to form a creamy batter | Pear Cake

3. Mix the eggs one at a time starting from a lower speed and increase the speed after adding all the eggs for 2-4 minutes.

addition of eggs into butter-sugar mixture | Pear Cake

Add lemon zest and vanilla. Mix together.

Meantime: Preheat Oven at 170 degrees Celsius.

4. Using a separate bowl add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix with a spoon.

5. Add the flour mixture (step 4) to the egg mixture (step 3) part by part. Mix with the lowest speed until well combined. Make sure not to over beat.

Flour with baking powder and salt into the Egg mixture | Pear Cake

6. Transfer half of the batter to the greased spring-form pan. Spread it evenly.

Pear cake Recipe | Easy fall recipes

Arrange the pears on top of the batter. Pour the rest of the batter and spread it gently with a spatula.

Pear batter

7. Place the baking pan on a low rack in the oven. Set the baking time for 170 degrees Celsius and time it for 60 minutes.

After the baking is done the oven beeps. Let the cake sit in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and let it sit to cool.

Pear cake - Fall recipes

Pear Cake

Pear Cake - tart

 

 

For more Dessert or Cake Recipes click belowĀ šŸ‘‡šŸ‘‡

NO BAKE:

Caramel Orange Pudding

Vermicelli Pudding or Kheer

Jelly and Custard Recipe

 

BAKE using Convection oven:

Lemon Cake

Butter Biscuits

Pineapple, Honey and Pistachio Flapjacks

Moist Cassava Cake (or Tapioca Cake)

Read More

Moist Cassava Cake (or Tapioca Cake)

Cassava cake is one of my favorite snack with a light, delicious, aromatic flavor. It is one of the traditionalĀ tea time snack that looked inviting to me atĀ the local bakeries in Singapore.Ā It might look simple but once you taste it the texture of the cake is supremely addictive. Tapioca cakeĀ in Malay is called asĀ Kuih Bingka Ubi.

Tapioca is extracted from Cassava root. The flesh can be chalk-white or yellowish. Hence, the color.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cook : 1 hr 30 minutes

 

Ingredients

Round baking pan 25 cm

Parchment paper

Grated tapioca – 1 kg, at room temperature (1.4 kg when I bought it before peeling.You can use a store bought grated tapioca or manually grate it if not available).

Eggs – 2

Granulated Sugar – 1 cup

Salt – 1/4 tsp

Undiluted coconut milk – 375 ml

Water – 1/4 cup

 

Directions

For Grating the tapioca

If you have grated tapioca that’s bought from the market skip these steps.

 

+ Peel the cassava root.

Cassava root, tapioca

Tapioca, Cassava

 

+ Grate the tapioca with aĀ grater as shown below.

Grated tapioca

 

+ Once the grating is done, useĀ a 15 inch longĀ cotton towel. Place the grated tapioca at the center of the towel and get the ends of the towel together in your palm and squeeze the juices (or tapioca starch) from the grated tapioca until dry. (I did this part by part so it gets easier to squeeze excess liquid fromĀ them).

Tapioca starch

+ Place the liquid-starch aside. In about 15 mins – 30 mins you will notice a white powder settling at the bottom.

 

 

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree Celsius (350 degree F) for 10 mins, grease the pan with parchment paper.

Round baking pan, parchment paper

2.Ā Carefully pour in the liquid ( liquid-starch ) into the grated tapioca leaving behind the white starch at the bottom.Ā 

Tapioca Starch

3. In a separate bowl combineĀ eggs, sugar and salt. Mix untilĀ the sugar is partially dissolved. Pour this to the above mixture.

eggs, sugar

eggs, salt, sugar

4. Add coconut milk and water. Mix well.

coconut milk, Ayam brand

grated tapioca, sugar,salt,eggs

5.Ā Gradually, pour the mixtureĀ into the baking tray. Tap the edges to settle any unfilled gaps.

baking tray, tapioca

 

6. Bake for 1 hourĀ at 180 degree Celsius. Insert a skewer into the center and make sureĀ it comes out clean. (I baked it for 1 hr 30 minutes to get a nice color at the top).

 

7. Ā Remove it fromĀ the oven and let it cool completely.

Cassava cake, tapioca cake

Tapioca cake, Cassava cake

Storage:

+ Store in airtight container in the fridge.

+ Reheat and serve.

 

 

 

Read More