Eggless Plum Cake

I know most of you would surprise to see this post at this time of the year as this cake is generally made during the Christmas time when the dry fruits have been marinated for days, weeks or even months to make the Plum Cake. 

My husband is a huge fan of plum cakes and he's been complaining ever since that I do a lot of baking and have never made things he likes the most like plum cakes, chocolate walnut fudge and fondant cakes. Although I did make a fondant cake which I have not yet updated on this blog. 
Here I am with freshly baked plum cake. 

Since we are just the two of us at home, I made a boozy version of this cake but booze is totally optional. The cake is very good on its own and does not need any frosting but still if you would like to frost this cake, reduce the amount of sugar from the recipe. The softened dry fruits makes this Eggless Plum cake very dense and moist. The good part, you don't necessarily have to marinate the fruits for days for this version of the cake.

Do I need to say that hubby just loved this cake?? :D He finished the entire loaf in just 2 days.

(Print this recipe)

Eggless Plum Cake 



Preparation time: 15 minutes 
Cooking time: 50 minutes 

Makes one 9X5 loaf 
(Source: www.cookingandme.com)

Here's what you would need to make this Eggless Plum Cake:

160 gms/ 2/3 cup of water 

105 gms/ 1/2 cup of brown sugar

110 gms/ 1 cup of mixed dry fruits (I mixed raisins, prunes, dates, dried cherries, tutti fruity)

2 tbsp brandy (optional)

1 tsp of baking soda 

1 tsp of vanilla extract 

115 gms/ 1/2 cup of butter 

295 gms/ 1.5 cups of all-purpose flour 

2 tsp of baking powder 

1 tsp of salt 

1 tsp of mixed spices like cinnamon, nutmeg etc 

2 tbsp of finely chopped cashew nuts/ pistachio nuts (I used cashew nuts) 

2.5 tbsp vegetable oil

Here's how you can make Eggless Plum Cake:

Pre-heat oven to 350F / 180C. Grease and line a 9"x5" load pan or 8" round cake pan, whatever you prefer. 

• Bring the water to boil in a pan and add the dry fruits (leave out the tutti fruity if using them), brandy and the sugar. Simmer for about 7-10 mins until the dates have softened but not mushy. 
• Turn off the flame, remove the pan and set aside for 5 mins to cool slightly. 
• Add the butter, vanilla (or zest) and baking soda. The mixture will foam a bit. Set aside to cool. 
• In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the spice powders and mix well to combine. 
• Add the cashew nuts and tutti fruity (if using) to the dry mixture. You can also add some chopped preserved cherries at this stage. 
• Add the cooled fruit mixture to the flour mixture and add the vegetable oil. 
• Gently fold until the batter has no flour streaks left in in it. 
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 50 mins. If the top seems to be cooking too quickly, loosely cover the pan with aluminium foil.

Hope you would also enjoy making this recipe as much as I did.

If you like this recipe and if want to be updated with the new recipes updated on the blog, don't forget to subscribe on email or like me on FB or simply post a comment about the blog below.

Happy Baking!

Classic Red Velvet Cake

July is the month of many birthdays at home but unfortunately both the birthday boy and girl have not been at home as they went outstation for some work taking away my chance to bake a cake. 

To save my urge to bake the cake, I saw a daring baker's challenge which is the most toughest for me as the challenge was to choose a recipe from the past challenges and make. The hardest part was choosing the recipe to make. Well, there is a long list of things I wanted to make and I keep adding in my already very long "to make list of baking". I chose to make a red velvet cake from March 2007 daring baker's challenge. This cake was made on the birthday of my lovely brother in law who was shooting in Goa for a film (he is a cinematographer you see..:))

To top the challenge, I wanted to frost the cake with homemade quark cheese. I got a very nice recipe of Quark cheese from GermanFood.About.com and decided to get started.

The cake turned out deep dark red and I loved the flavour of the cake. I also loved the combination of red velvet cake with quark cheese and it is needless to say how beautiful the cake was looking with the combination of red and white...truly festive!!! Isn't it??? Perfect to try it during Christmas or Valentine's Day!!! Would love to make it again during the next Valentine's Day.

And now for you, here's the recipe.

(Print this recipe)

Red Velvet Cake

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Assembly Time: 30 minutes
Quark Cheese Preparation Time: 2 days





Here's what you would need to make Red Velvet Cake

Cake:
2 1/2 cups (250 grams) sifted cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons (15 grams) regular or Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk
2 tablespoons liquid red food coloring
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda


Frosting:
2 cups/ 459 gms homemade Quark Cheese/ cream cheese
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (115 grams) confectioners' (icing or powdered) sugar, sifted
1 1/2 cups (400 ml) cold whipping cream (I used Amul)

Here's how you can make it:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter two - 9 inch (23 cm) round cake pans and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper. Set aside.

• In a mixing bowl sift together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside.
• In bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until soft (about 1-2 minutes). 
• Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). 
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. 
• Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.
• In a measuring cup whisk the buttermilk with the red food coloring. 
• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.
• In a small cup combine the vinegar and baking soda. Allow the mixture to fizz and then quickly fold into the cake batter. 
• Working quickly, divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth the tops with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon. 
• Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 25 - 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean. 
• Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. 
• Place a wire rack on top of the cake pan and invert, lifting off the pan. Once the cakes have completely cooled, wrap in plastic and place the cake layers in the refrigerator for at least an hour (or overnight). (This is done to make filling and frosting the cakes easier.)

Cream Cheese Frosting: 
In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the quark cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and confectioners sugar and beat until smooth. In another bowl whip the whipped cream until soft peaks. Add the whipped cream in quark cheese and stir until well combined. Ensure the frosting is thick enough to spread. Add more sugar or cream as needed to get the right consistency.

Assemble:

With a serrated knife, cut each cake layer in half, horizontally. You will now have four cake layers. Place one of the cake layers, top of the cake facing down, onto your serving platter. Spread the cake layer with a layer of frosting. Place another layer of cake on top of the frosting and continue to frost and stack the cake layers. Frost the top and sides of the cake. Garnish the cake with white chocolate and cake crumbs. 

Hope you would also enjoy making this recipe as much as I did.

If you like this recipe and if you want to be updated with the new recipes being uploaded on the blog, don't forget to subscribe on email or like me on FB or simply post a comment about the blog below. I would love to hear from you.


Happy Baking!

DIY: Homemade Roasted Pumpkin Puree

I really got carried away seeing all the pumpkin delights all over the internet, blogosphere, pinterest i.e. almost everywhere you look around on the netsphere at this time of the year. I have never made or eaten anything which has pumpkin in it. But looking at these pumpkin creations I got myself buying my first pumpkin ever and waiting to make something delightful out of that.

For this reason, I love the fact that I have a blog which gives me such adventures and I often find myself in unfamiliar territory experimenting with some never tried ingredients, experimenting some never tried tastes and also knowing different cultures, cuisines. This is all so incredible.

Here in India, we don't get canned pumpkin puree. But that did not lower my spirits in any manner whatsoever. Hence, this is gonna be another DIY project from scratch and I am excited!

There are different ways to prepare pumpkin puree at home. For my first, I prepared the pumpkin puree by roasting the pumpkin. It's great to make this pumpkin puree recipe ahead and freeze so that you’ll have plenty on hand to use in any pumpkin delight you would like to make.

As a general rule, 3 pounds of fresh pumpkin will yield about 3 cups of mashed and cooked pumpkin.

Roasted Pumpkin Puree:

Here's what you would need to make Roasted Pumpkin Puree:

1.5 Kg. Pumpkin
Olive oil 1 cup water
(Source: thegreendaily.com)

Here's how you can make Roasted Pumpkin Puree:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Rinse the pumpkin under cool water to rid the skin of any residual dirt and dry well with a clean towel.

3. Cut the pumpkin in half. Remove the seeds and stringy fibers with a metal spoon or ice cream scoop. Save the seeds for toasting, if you like, and discard the innards.

4. Rub the cut surfaces with oil. Place them, cut side down, in a roasting pan and add 1 cup of water to the pan.

5. Bake in the oven until the flesh is tender when pierced with a knife. This takes approximately 90 minutes.

6. When tender, remove the pumpkin halves from the oven and place on a flat surface to cool.

7. Once cool enough to handle, but not cold, scoop out the pumpkin flesh.

8. Puree the pumpkin in a food processor or with a hand held blender. 

9. Pumpkin flesh holds a lot of moisture. Line a sieve or fine mesh colander with paper towel or a coffee filter and set over a deep bowl. Let drain for about 2 hours and stir occasionally.

To Freeze:

Once the puree has cooled entirely, place in freezer containers or ice cube trays. Leave some room at the top (headspace) of the containers or individual ice cube compartments. Label, date and freeze the puree for future use.

DIY: Homemade Quark Cheese

In my kitchen, I like making things from scratch. Although it requires more time and effort and it's rather much easier to just go to the market and buy ready made ingredients to use for cooking or baking. 

The second option is easier to practice but it's not only high on pocket and the ingredients are processed with chemicals and kept on the shelf for god knows how long. When it comes to the choice of food for my family, I would any day prefer fresh food. Hence, I prefer to follow this rule while baking also. 

I wanted to learn making homemade cream cheese for so long and have been just avoiding doing it for no reason for a very long time. I know, I am a classic example of a procrastinator. That's the reason I have been avoiding many recipes which calls for cream cheese as a main ingredient as I wanted to make it from scratch.

Finally, when I tried making Quark Cheese at home, I realised how effortless it was to make. I didn't have to do a lot of things. I just had to give some time for the ingredients to do its work. I am now so addictive to this cheese and have used the cheese in frosting a classic Red Velvet Cake, an eggless red velvet cake, a No Bake Mango Quark Cheesecake and the list will increase in future for sure.

Without taking much time of yours, lets get started to making it.

(Print this recipe)

DIY: Homemade Quark Cheese

Here's what you would need to make Homemade Quark (Curd Cheese)

adapted from recipe @ GermanFood.About.com

• 1/2 cup cultured buttermilk (you can make buttermilk at home by adding 1 tbsp vinegar to 1/2 cup milk) (I used Amul buttermilk non spiced 1/2 ltr pack)
• 3 and 1/2 cups full cream milk (you may use low fat milk also)

Here's how you can make it:

• If your milk is not pasteurised you should bring it to the boil, then allow it to cool to room temperature (covered with a lid).
• Stir the buttermilk into the milk in a container you can cover.
• Put the container in a warm place. 
• Allow the culture to proceed for 18 - 24 hours, or until the curds and whey separate. At first the milk will look grainy, and eventually the curds will float on the whey. The grainy stage is probably sufficient, but might give a lower yield.
• Dampen a clean tea towel/cheesecloth or muslin cloth and use it to line a sieve. 
• Place the sieve over a basin. 
• Pour the curds and whey into the strainer. 
• Bring the tea towel together so that it covers your quark and do it up with a rubber band. 
• Place the entire draining apparatus in the fridge.
• Allow to drain in the fridge overnight, or for 24 hours. The drained quark should have a consistency similar to sour cream, but it has a more sour taste.
• You may use the whey in making dough for breads at home.

Here, you have it... Hope, you would like to try making this cheese and including it in your cakes or desserts. All you need is some planning and some time to let the buttermilk do its work and let you enjoy the wonderful fresh cheese.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have been spending a lot of time at my office lately as there are some projects which needs completion asap. I know...too boring! Also, Mumbai has witnessed some heavy rains lately making the weather so beautiful and also making it even more difficult to concentrate on work. My time away from my oven coupled by the weather is making me so uncomfortable to work at office flipping through the various excel spreadsheets, reviewing the work of my staff. 

Gosh!!! I need some comfort. 

I need some cookies at my office so that I can collect my brains to concentrate on the work I have been trying to finish while sipping the hot cuppa tea and looking at the clouds pouring down heavily and heavenly. 

Talking of comfort, nothing has given me more comfort in my life than having Peanut Butter on toast for breakfast and rush for office for over 6 years now. That's the way I go whenever I am running late and there is always a jar of Peanut Butter sitting on my kitchen counter to save me from hunger. 

This is the first time that I have used PB in my baking and I am completely smeared by it. I loved the PB in cookies as much as I like it on my toast. Not only me, everybody in the house enjoyed these cookies so much as the jar of cookies was over the next day it was made and I had to bake the second batch of cookies the next day, the dough for which I had kept in the freezer. Yeah, these cookies are perfect for freezing and you can enjoy freshly baked cookies any time you want. 

Lets not wait more and have a look at the recipe I used.

Print this Recipe

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes: 45 cookies approx.

Here's what you would need to make Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:-

Ingredients: 

3/4 cup/ 170 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup/ 105 grams light brown sugar
1/2 cup/ 100 grams caster sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup/ 185 grams peanut butter (smooth or crunchy) (I used Smooth)
2 cups/ 260 grams all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (omit if you using salted butter)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Here's how you can make it:

Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

• In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. 
• In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). 
• Beat in the peanut butter. 
• Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat to combine. 
• Add flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture and beat until incorporated. 
• Fold in the chocolate chips. (If the batter is too soft to form into balls, place in the refrigerator for about an hour or until firm.)
• Roll the batter into 1 inch (2.5 cm) balls. Transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheet, placing them about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Then, using the tines of the fork that has been dipped in white granulated sugar, make a crisscross pattern.
• Bake the cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges. 
• Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely before transferring to an air-tight cookie jar. 

How to freeze the cookies to bake later

• Place the ready to bake cookies on a baking sheet and place the baking sheet into the freezer to for 20 minutes to chill the cookies.
• Once chilled, transfer the cookies into a ziplog bag and write the date of freezing on the bag.
• When you want to bake the cookies, take out from the zip log bag. Let it come to room temperature and bake as described above.

Hope you would also enjoy baking these cookies as much as I did.

Happy Baking!