Apple- Caramel Cake

Apple-Caramel Cake

Apple-Caramel-Cake

Cake is one thing that can be had with milk/ coffee/tea for breakfast, as snack and as dessert. Desserts can be made from cake combining them with ice cream/cream/custard etc. Trifle is one of my favorite cake desserts. When cake is made with lots of different fruits it not only adds to the taste but adds the required dietary fibers and nutrients to the cake. Apple cake is very tasty, nutritious cake. I prefer not removing the peeling of apple as they add lots of color to the cake and the vitamins present in the cake are also not lost. As far as possible try to include the peeling of fruits and vegetables to the food to get full nutritional value from them.

Preparation Time: 30 min.

Baking Time: 50 min. (Approx,)

Servings: Makes nearly 1 Kg. Cake(Approx.)

Ingredients for Making Apple Cake:

• 200 gm. All-purpose flour (Maida)
• 300 gm Sugar (150+100+50 gm.)
• 100 Gm. Nutrelite butter/White butter (Chilled)
• 4 Eggs
• 1/2Teaspoon Cinnamon powder
• 50 gm. Kernel of Walnuts cut to pieces

Walnut Pieces

• 1 Teaspoon Baking powder
• 1 Teaspoon Eating soda (Soda-bi-carb)

Directions For Making Apple Cake:

Golden Syrup:

• Make golden syrup from 100 gm. of sugar. 

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.in/2014/02/how-to-make-golden-syrup.html Thick Golden Syrup Caramelizing The Walnuts:

• Heat a thick bottom pan with remaining 50 gm. of sugar on low flame with regular stirring till the color of sugar turns brown (Caramelized).

Sugar being Caramelized for Walnuts

Caramelized Sugar ready to be added to Walnut

• Switch off the heat and pour this sugar caramel on the cut walnuts.Stir quickly to coat the pieces with caramel. Spread these caramel coated walnuts on a plate and crush to separate the pieces coated with caramel.  

Caramelized sugar sterred with Walnut pieces

• Some may get crushed to small pieces and some caramel pieces may be without walnut. Do not worry. Keep aside for later use.

Walnut pieces coated with Sugar caramel

Making Batter For Apple Cake:

• Mix
• Maida (All-purpose flour)
• Baking powder
• Soda-bi-carb
• Cinnamon powder
• Sift through a fine sieve four to five times to ensure thorough mixing of the ingredients.
• Keep the mixture in a dry container for later use.
• Make fine powder of 150 gm. of sugar,
• Separate egg yolks from egg white and whisk the egg yolks.
• Beat egg white to peaky stiffness. When egg white is foamier and fluffy the cake comes out best.

Whisked Egg White

• Cut chilled butter to small pieces (Cubes) and add sugar powder to it.
• Whisk till creamy and fluffy.
• Add egg yolk in small proportions with constant whisking. When all egg yolk is added the mixture should be creamy and light.

Egg yolk-Butter-Sugar Mixture

• Remove the core with seeds from apples and grate them. The grated apples will turn brown do not worry. Immediately add all of it to the mixture of egg yolk-butter-sugar.
• Add egg white in small proportions to above mixture and fold with fingers gently.
• Add golden syrup and mix gently.
• Add caramel coated walnuts and mix.
• Batter for the cake is ready.

Batter For Apple-Caramel-Cake

Baking The Cake:

• Pour the batter in a baking dish and bake for 30 min. at 160^oC in a preheated oven.

After 15 min of baking at 160 C

• Increase the temperature to 180^oC and bake for 10-15 minutes.(Approximately)

After 45 min. of baking

• Keep checking the cake by poking a dry metallic/wooden needle if it comes out without any thing sticking to it then it is ready. Stop baking further and remove from oven.
• The time for baking may change with the size of eggs (Egg white amount) and type of oven. I have used oven with heating from top and bottom but baking was done using bottom heating only.
• Cool the baked cake on a rake covering it with thin damp cloth (Muslin cloth).

Cake cooling on the Rake

• Place a plate on the cooled cake and holding the dish with the cake invert the plate. Tap lightly on sides and bottom of baking dish. Cake will come out easily on the plate. Remove the butter paper gently.

Inverted Apple-Caramel-Cake

•  Cut to pieces and enjoy delicious Apple Cake with hot cup of tea/coffee.

Apple-Caramel-Cake

Tips:

• If you have square oven with top and bottom heating then for best result bake the cake using bottom heating only as top heating causes the cake to become hard and black from top with center remaining uncooked.
• Round oven cooks cakes from sides and bottom thus cake comes out good.
• Grate and add grated apple to flour just before use.
• Prepare the cake baking dish before starting to make the batter by either oiling the dish and dusting with flour or lining it with butter paper.
• Always remove the cake from baking dish when it is at room temperature not warm to ensure cake coming out of dish without breaking.
• Coat dry fruits with flour to avoid them from settling at the bottom of the cake.
• Do not beat the batter while mixing the egg white, if done so the air trapped in the egg white will come out and cake will become less fluffy and soft.
• The Golden syrup should not be too thin this will cause the batter to become thin.
• Golden syrup can be make and kept in fridge for long time.

Alternate suggestions:

• Walnuts can be added without coating them with caramel, just coat them with little flour to stop them from settling at the bottom.
• Walnuts can be roasted before coating with caramel/flour to give wonderful roasted flavor.
• Almonds can be cut and added along with walnuts.
• Green cardamom powder can be used instead of cinnamon powder. If cardamom powder is being used then take 1 tea spoon of it rather than 1/2teaspoon.
• Golden syrup can be stirred not mixed uniformly to give double color to the batter and cake.(Yellow and golden brown) 
• One medium size apple can be peeled and cut to 1 cm. cube pieces and coated with flour and added to the batter with the nuts.
• This cake can be made using whole wheat flour/multigrain flour, the color and textutre will change but the nutritional value will increase.

Banana-Jaggery Eggless Cake

Banana-Jaggery Cake

Banana-Jaggery cake

Cake is the flavor of season in the month of December, as from thanks giving to Christmas and New Year eve fall in this month. Many either are pure vegetarian or opt to have egg less cake. Egg-less cakes are made either from Dates, chocolate and fruits. Though most of them are in texture like any other cake the recipe of the cake I am blogging today is slightly wet / moist but is extremely tasty and healthy. Iused to make Banana-Sugar cake but Banana and jaggery was introduced to me by my daughter-in-law who inturn got this wonderful recipe fromPushpa (Anand's wife). Banana and jaggery both are rich in iron and whole wheat as well as banana is rich in vitamins and fibers. Extremely easy to make this cake is delight of all cake lover's especially egg-less cake lovers. My daughter in law made this for my mother and she delightfully cut this cake.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Baking Time: 50 minutes (Approx)

Servings: makes 800 gm cake (Approx)

Ingredients Required For Making Banana-Jaggery:

• 150 gm. Jaggery

• 225 gm. Whole wheat flour

• 225 gm. Banana (Peeled)

• 1/2Teaspoon Cinnamon powder

• 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder (Level)

• 1 Teaspoon Eating Soda (Level)

• 150 ml. Olive oil/sunflower oil

• 100 gm. walnut kernel

• 100 gm. Cashew

Directions For making Banana-Jaggery Cake:

• Cut peeled banana to small pieces.

Banana cut to pieces

• Break the jaggery to small pieces.

• Mix jaggery and banana in a bowl, cover and keep aside for 10 min. 

Jaggery added to Banana pieces and mixed

After 10 min. Banana and jaggery mixture

• Mix

• Flour

• Baking powder

• Eating soda

• Sieve the flour mixture through a fine sieve three to four times to ensure through mixing.

• The mixture of jaggery and banana will have liquefied in 10 min. Make it to fine paste. 

Paste and jaggery paste

Whole wheat flour and jaggery banana paste

• Add flour to jaggery banana paste.

Jaggery banana paste added to flour 

• Add oil and cinnamon powder and mix.

Oil being added to flour banana mixture

Cinnamon powder added to flour jaggery mixture

• Mix the nuts and sprinkle 10 gm. of whole wheat flour on then and give a shake so as to coat them with flour.

• Add these nuts to the batter and stir to mix the nuts in batter.

Batter of cake

• The batter will be thick not pourable like in egg cakes.

Consistency of Batter

• Put the batter in a butter paper lined baking dish.

Batter in baking dish

• Bake for 30 min at 150^oC temperature.

• Increase the temperature to 160^o C and bake for 10 minutes.

• Poke with a needle if it comes out clean then switch off the oven. If it comes out sticky with batter then bake for 5-10 minutes at 160^o.

Cake after 50 min.  of baking

• When the batter does not stick to the needle then switch off the oven and remove the cake from oven. Cool on the rake.

Banana-Jaggery Cake Ready to be cut

My Mom  Cutting the Cake

• Cut the cooled cake to required pieces. If hot cake is cut then pieces will not come out neat. 

Banana-Jaggery Cake

Tips:

• Do not add any raisins as they do not taste good in this cake.

• Do not increase the amount of cinnamon the flavor will become overpowering and unwelcome.
  

• Always measure the baking powder and eating soda with standard measuring spoon to get best results.

• Get jaggery powder from market to ease your work.

• The baking dish should never be filled more than 3/4^th. Else the cake will remain half-baked from the center.

• Always coat the nuts with flour to ensure they do not settle at the bottom.

• If you do not want to use butter paper then thinly coat the baking dish with oil then dust flour on it before putting the batter in it.
• Keep 150 ml of water in the oven while baking below the cake rake to ensure the top exposed surface of cake does not become hard.

Alternate Suggestions:

• Organic jaggery can be taken rather than normal jaggery.

• Multigrain flour can be taken in place of whole wheat flour.

• Almonds can be added along with the nuts.
• Bananas can be mashed in the peel itself but the mash should be weighed to the given weight in the recipe. 

Walnut-Spice cake

Walnut-Spice Cake with Walknut by the side

Walnut-Spice Cake

Christmas season, birthdays or any occasion cakes for all occasions are available in various flavors in market but what a charm it holds when for the loved ones cake is baked at home. It has a personal touch and we can make as many variations as possible. On my children birth days they used to demand I make chocolate cake or spice walnut cake. My husband used to lend helping hand and children used to boast to their friends of the delicious cake their mom makes and how papa dear is always there to help her in baking the cake. My daughter in law recently went for trekking and made me make this cake since then her colleague have been pestering her to ask me to blog the recipe of Walnut-spice cake. Make this Christmas special for your loved ones by baking this cake.   

Preparation Time: 40-50 min.

Baking Time: 45-50 min

Serving: makes 750 gm. Cake (Approx)

Ingredients Requi8red For Making Walnut-Spice Cake:

• 6 Eggs 
• 200 gm. Maida (Refined Flour)

Refined Flour (Maida)

• 150 gm Sugar
• 2 Teaspoon Honey
• 150 gm Nutrelite Butter/White butter
• 100 gm Walnuts deshelled (Akharot)
• 8 Cloves (lawang)
• 3 cm. Cinnamon piece (Dalchini)/1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 4 Green Cardamoms (Choti Elaichi)
• 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder (Level not heaped)

Directions for Making Walnut-spiced Cake:

Making Golden Syrup:

• In a thick bottom pan take 50 gm of sugar and heat on low flame with continuous stirring.
• The sugar will start melting keep heating on low flame and stirring till the sugar turns to dark brown (not black) liquid. It will take 4-5 min.
• Switch off the gas and add 100 ml. of water to the hot melted brown color sugar in the pan. The sugar will stiffen do not worry.
• Boil the mixture with stirring so as to dissolve all sugar.
• When the sugar water mixture reduces to half remove from heat and cover. Keep aside to cool and future use.

Making The Batter Of The Walnut-Spice Cake:

• Mix baking powder and refined flour and sift it through a fine sieve four or five times to ensure thorough mixing of baking powder with maida. Keep in a dry container.
• Mix all spices and make a course powder.
• Add the spices powder to the golden syrup cover and keep aside.
• Cut walnuts to small size and sprinkle 10 gm. refined flour on it. Mix nicely so as to coat the walnut pieces with maida(Refined flour).
• Separate egg whites from egg yolk.
• Powder 100 gm sugar to a fine powder. Keep 50 gm sugar separate for making golden syrup.
• Cut the butter to cubes and take in a wide deep bowl.
• Beat the butter with a wooden fork or fingers to soften it.
• Add all sugar powder and whisk with wooden fork or fingers till it gets creamy consistency. It will take minimum 10 minutes.
• Beat egg yolk and add small portions and whisk with fork. Continue till all egg yolk has been incorporated in butter sugar mixture.
• The mixture should look creamy and be light.

Butter and Sugar Egg yolk mixturemixture

• Whisk egg white till stiff peak are formed of the froth of egg white.

Egg White being whisked

Frothy stiff peaked Egg White

• To the creamy mixture of sugar, butter and egg yolk add one spoon of refined flour and baking powder mixture and mix with light swirling action. Add one spoon of egg white and fold it to the mixture. Repeat this alternate mixing of egg white and flour mixture till all the egg white and flour is finished.

Egg White and Flour being added 

Batter before golden syrup is added

• Add spices and golden syrup mixture and honey to the above mixture and mix with light swirling action.

Golden syrup with spices, Honey added to Batter

• Add the walnut pieces and mix lightly.

Walnuts added to batter and mixed

• Line a baking dish with butter paper and pour the batter in it.

Batter being poured in Baking dish lined with butter paper

Ready for Baking

Baking The Cake:

• Pre-heat the oven to 160 centigrate and place a small metallic /oven proof dish with 150 ml. water ot the bottom.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160­^o C for 30 min.

After 30 minutes

• The cake will rise and start becoming light brown from top.
• Increase the temperature to 180^oC and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
• Keep checking by poking a long needle in the cake and switch off the oven immediately when the needle comes out clean. The time may vary from 5-10 min depending on the size of eggs.

After 45 minutes

• Remove the cake from oven cover with a thin cloth or butter paper and cool on a rake.

Walnut-SDpice Cake

• Turn the cake in the baking dish upside down on a big dish and pat the baking dish lightly with hands. The cake will fall free on the plate.
• Remove the butter paper and cut the cake to the required size or decorate it as per your choice with icing then enjoy with hot tea/chocolate/coffee with family and friends.

Walnut-Spice Cake with Walnuts on the side

Merry Christmas to my friends. Celeberate this christmas with Walnut-Spice Cake.

Tips:

• Butter shouldf be chilled noty at room temperature when you cut it to pieces for whisking.
• Avoid using metallic spoon or fork. If wooden fork is not available use your fingers for making fluffy cake. Metal fork causes heavy whisking thus reducing trapped air.
• Do not heap the spoon while measuring the baking powder.
• Measuring spoon set is availabler in market which gives standard measurement, use them preferably.
• Sugar powder should be very fine.
• Add egg yolk slowly with continuous whisking to avoid curdling of butter.
• Coating nuts with flour is must to avoid them from settling at the bottom while baking.
• Caramelize the sugar on low flame and do not burn it the golden syrup will not be golden in color or taste.
• Water is kept in the oven to make sure the top exposed surface remains moist and soft.

Alternate Suggestions:

• 50 gm of deseeded dates can be soaked in 100 ml of milk for 30 min and then ground to coarse paste and added along with golden syrup- spices mixture.
• Whole wheat flour or multi grain flour can be taken instead of refined flour (Maida) to make the healthier version of Walnut-Spice Cake.
• 20 ml. Rum can be added along with golden syrup-spice mixture to give a Christmas touch.

Matar Pulav( Rice with Green Peas)

Matar Pulav

Peas have such lovely green color and sweet taste and when cooked with rice the whole appearance and of rice becomes too tempting to resist.  It is a very simple dish to cook but amazing in taste. In Northern India it is a preferred dish of rice in winters as lots of fresh green peas are available in winters. Innovation in the kitchen is every mothers forte, who has to pack the lunch box for the school going children.I used to get my reward when my children used to come grinning happily from school with every grain of the packed food polished off. Matar pulav is very convenient to keep in lunch box with pickle /chutney.

                         

Preparation Time: 10min.

Cooking Time:  30min.

Servings: Makes three large servings.

Ingredients required for Matar Pulav:

• 150gm. Rice
•  250gm. Fresh peas removed from pea pods

Peas

• 1 Tea spoon Cumin seeds Jeera (cumin seeds)
• 1-2 Bay leaves

Condiments for Matar Pulav

• 4-5 Black Pepper pods
•  1 Black cardamon
• 1/2Inch Cinnamon stick
• 3-4 Cloves
• 1/2 Tea spoon Salt (Or to taste)
• 5ml. Ghee/ cooking oil
• Water

Directions for Making Matar Pulav

• Wash rice and soak it in 150ml. water.
• Take soaked rice and cook it in a pan with large amount of water till the rice grain are almost done.
• Drain all water and if the grains are sticking to each other pour water to remove excess starch and allow all water to drain off.

Boiled rice

• Take ghee/ oil in wok and heat on high flame.

Oil being heated in wok

• When ghee/oil is hot add jeera and bay leaves,cinnamon,cloves,pepper.

Bay leaves,cloves,Black cumin,Pepper cinnamon added to hot oil

• When the seedssplutters before it starts getting dark brown add peas and stir for 2min.

Peas added when the cloves and other seeds splutter

Peas mixed with in oil and spices

• Lower the flame and add drained boiled rice. 

Boile rice added to oil, spices and peas

• Add salt,turmeric powder,red chili powder.

Turmeric,Red chili powder,salt added to rice and matar

• Mix nicely and gently.

All spices mixed with rice and matar

• Cover and cook for 5 min. on low flame, with occasional stirring.

Rice and matar with spices being cooked on low flame

• Hot Matar pulav with beautiful yellow and green color is ready to be served.

Delicious Matar Pulav ready to be served

Matar Pulav

 Matar pulav goes best with curd/raita, pickle/chutney. Dal or any gravy is not really required as it is a complete dish by itself. 

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/mango-pickle-north-indian-style.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/tangy-mango-pickle-maharashra-style.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/spicy-mixed-vegetable-pickle-less-oily.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/hariyali-chutney-raw-mango-chutney.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/green-coriander-and-mint-chutney.html

   Tips:

• While boiling rice in pan take excess water which can be drained once the rice is cooked.
• Take thick bottom pan to boil rice.
• Do not over cook peas. They will loose color,flavor and taste.
• If you are uncomfortable in boiling rice in pan pressure cook and then wash in flowing water to remove excess starch so that the grains of rice do not stick to each other.

Suggested Variations:

• A quicker version:-
             Quick fix way of making this pulav is add peas, jeera, cinnamon,cloves,bay leaves,turmeric,red chili powder salt ghee/ oil, water to soaked rice and cook in the pressure cooker. Pulav will be ready in 5 min.
• If fresh peas (matar) are not available preserved green peas can be used.
• While boiling rice few pieces of lemon grass can be added.It gives wonderful flavor to the rice.
• Few drops of lemon juice can be added and mixed to the Pulav just before removing from gas. It will change the color of pulav to lemony yellow color.