Look and Drool!!

Yes, I know I haven't posted anything in a long long time. I have just been so very busy. My baking course started around the mid of January and I don't think I have thought about much else since that day.

I love my baking course... I love every minute of it... My hands ache from all the kneading and the beating and mixing... my feet hurt from standing for 3 hours... the travelling is an absolute torture on the system and still I have never been happier. Strange??? No, not at all because when you love something it no longer feels like work.

There's no way I can cover everything I have learnt in the last two months in one post... So for now I'll just give you a preview of what I have been upto.

Masala Pav... essentially a herbed bread with an Indian Twist... Love it!!!!

Swiss Roll with a melted chocolate filling

Shrewsberry Biscuit

That is what I call an Extreme Focaccia... It had caramelized onions, capsicum,  black olives, corn and lots and lots of cheese..... yummy!!!

Strawberry Gateau... it tasted as good as it looked

Bakewell Tart... Not one of my favourites, though it looks gorgeous

Garlic Bread... The shape is called an Epi Loaf

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Look.... Droooool... Recipes will come later.... much later because after all the kneading and beating and mixing (and eating) all I can do is sleep... Catch ya Later dudes and dudettes!!!

Is It a Bread? Is It a Cake? Who Cares, It's Fabulous!!!

Mouth-watering

Who knew Bananas could taste so totally fantastic!!!!

This is my new favourite cake. I have already made it about 4 times and I loved it every time. The entire house smells like bananas when I'm baking it. It’s originally called a Banana Bread. I actually found the recipe a long time ago and never tried it because I assumed it was a bread and so it needed yeast (which I didn’t have at the time). Also I did not want to get into kneading and punching and proving.

But, the funny part is, not only is this not a bread but it also requires very minimal mixing. It is so easy, kids could make it. You can put this cake together in 10 minutes, it’s that easy. However, it does need about an hour in the oven. And it tastes fabulous when it’s warm and fresh out of the oven.

This is a recipe that I don’t want to talk too much about. You have to experience it to know what I’m talking about. There are, however, a few things you need to remember when attempting to make a banana bread.

Firstly, the bananas have to be really really ripe. The kind that you know are very sweet but you wouldn't eat it because the skin has blackened. (I wait for my bananas to blacken just so I can make this cake.)

Secondly, you have to melt the butter and let it cool before you add the mashed bananas.

Lastly, DO NOT and I repeat, DO NOT over-mix the batter. Fold in the dry ingredients until just combined. The original recipe says if you over-mix the batter you get very dense cake. I know what you're thinking; won't the cake be lumpy if you don’t mix it enough?? But it isn't, it’s absolutely decadent.

This is what you'll need:

• 200g flour
• 125g granulated white sugar (I use powdered sugar)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 large eggs
• 100g butter, melted and cooled (If using unsalted butter add 1/4 tsp salt)
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed (approximately weighing 450-500g)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

 METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and prepare a loaf pan by greasing and flouring it. My loaf pan was too small so I made this in a round 8 in cake tin.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. These are our dry ingredients.
3. Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan over very low heat. Once cooled, add it to the mashed banana in a large mixing bowl. Next add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix well. These are our wet ingredients.
4. Now fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Do not over mix the batter. Fold in until just combined. The batter will look lumpy, do not worry about it.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50-55 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes (If you can control yourself, I couldn’t). Unmould from the pan, slice it and eat it warm… About an hour after I made this, there was only about 1/3^rd of the cake left. That’s how amazing this cake is. 

My only advice, make it as soon as you possibly can. 

A Disastrous Cheesecake

It does look slightly marbled... but still hideous

I have a total disaster on my hands. I planned on making a Marbled Cheesecake from my current favourite dessert cookbook called Traditional Puddings and Desserts by Mary Berry. I failed on every level. I decided to make the cream cheese at home, it turned out grainy. I think I didn't use enough gelatin, so my cheesecake didn't set completely and I think I over-mixed the batter so my cheesecake didn't look too marbled... But on the positive side, the taste was spot on. But this failure was good for me, it reminded me of just how little I know.

Okay, so I finally got my hands on some decent strawberries and this cheesecake recipe was on the top of my list of desserts to try. In India, cream cheese is an expensive product. A 180 gram pack costs 150 bucks and I would have had to buy 2 packs for this recipe since it requires 250g of cream cheese.

On the other hand, I can get 250g cream cheese from 2 litres of whole milk. Whole milk costs 40 bucks per litre. So, I made the more economical decision and decided to use home-made cream cheese. That was my first mistake.

This is what you will need to make Cream Cheese:

• 2 litres whole milk (I used Buffalo Milk)
• 200 ml half and half (I used Amul Fresh Cream)
• 1 cup beaten curds

METHOD:

1. Boil the milk. Let it cool slightly and add the cream. Stir to mix and keep covered for 15 mins. 
2. While its still warm, add the beaten curds. Keep it covered for about 3 hours.
3. Now warm the milk again on a low flame. Stir occasionally or else the cream cheese that separates may settle at the bottom of the pan and get burnt. The cheese has separated when the liquid in the pan attains a greenish-yellow colour.
4. At this stage strain the contents through a muslin cloth. Keep it aside for half an hour while the liquid drains away. Gather the edges of the cloth and squeeze the remaining liquid out of the cheese.
5. Blend the cheese in a mixer until smooth.

Cream Cheese while it's being strained

Cream Cheese after its been squeezed dry - At this stage, it must be blended until smooth and creamy

The mistake I made was I didn't blend the cheese in the mixer. Instead I beat the cheese with my hand held mixer for about 5 mins. The cream cheese ended up being grainy. My mom suggested that next time I should first beat it in a blender until smooth and then knead it by hand for about 5 mins until it feels almost soft and doughy.

Another huge mistake I made was, I didn't weigh the cheese. I assumed it would be 250 grams because the recipe said it would yield 250g. I cant believe I made such a rookie mistake. I'm hanging my head down in shame right now.

Now lets get to the actual cheesecake. The recipe originally called for raspberries but I've never been able to find raspberries where I live. I found raspberry conserve once but it was 300 bucks for a 200 gram bottle. A little too steep for an apprentice who doesn't make any money. I made my cheesecake with strawberries instead.. Maybe that was my third mistake... but I've always assumed that raspberries and strawberries were interchangeable. Are they??

For the Marbled Cheesecake, here is the list of ingredients:

For the biscuit base:

• 125g digestive biscuits
• 60g butter
• 30g demerera sugar

For the Cheesecake:

• 3 tbsp cold water
• 15g powdered gelatin
• 500g strawberries
• 250g Cream Cheese
• 150ml Cream
• 2 eggs, separated
• 125 g caster sugar

METHOD:

1. In a food processor, pulse together the biscuits, sugar and butter. Press into the bottom of a 9" springform tin and chill in the refrigerator while you prepare the cheese filling
2. Put the water in a bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Keep it aside for 10 mins to sponge. 
3. Meanwhile, puree the strawberries in a blender and keep it aside.
4. Beat the cheese in a large bowl until soft. Add the cream and the egg yolks and beat until well incorporated.
5. Heat the bowl of gelatin in a water bath until it dissolves. Then mix it thoroughly into the cheese mixture.

Now for the Marbled Filling:

• Using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer, whisk the egg whites until stiff. At this stage if you lift the mixer, the egg whites will fall back in a ribbon.
• Now add the sugar one teaspoon at a time and beat until the sugar is incorporated. I use powdered sugar so this process took me only about 5 minutes. If you use granulated sugar, it will probably take longer. This is called a Meringue and it will be stiff i.e. it will hold peaks and glossy.

Look at that beautiful Meringue - perfectly stiff and glossy

• Now fold the cheese mixture into the meringue and mix well. Chill the mixture for about half and hour. It will thicken slightly.
• Fold in the puree, swirling it a little to give the marbled effect. Don't over-do it or you will end up with a lightly shaded cheesecake, which is exactly what happened to me.
• Finally pour the cheesecake mixture over the chilled biscuit base and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours, preferably overnight.
• To serve, loosen the side of the cheesecake from the tin using a knife or an offset spatula and slide onto a serving plate.

An Absolute Disaster 

My cheesecake refused to set, even though I freezed it for a half hour. It was wobbly in the centre and unfortunately the edges cracked when I was trying to de-mould it. Mess, mess, total mess. I learnt lots of lessons today. The importance of always measuring ingredients above all else. I think I bit off a little more than I could chew. But I'm the industrious sort, I'm gonna freeze this and turn it into something like a gelato... I guess, my version of a gelato. Lets hope that turn out well.

I saved it by turning it into a Gelato Wannabe

Sunday Dessert

I have this book by Mary Berry called Traditional Puddings and Desserts. With a name like Mary 'Berry' I suppose it's only natural that she's one of the most celebrated food writers in UK.

It’s a great little book with about 75 recipes, some having variations. It also explains some key techniques with pictures like how to make a meringue, how to make marbled fillings, pastry-making and piping techniques among others. It’s quite a helpful book for beginners. The best part about the book is that the ingredients used are fairly easily available in India. There are maybe a couple recipes that will be difficult to make, all other can be made with relative ease.

For the past month or so I have been reading through the book and I finally settled on the pannacotta as the first recipe I would try from the book. The recipe was originally a lemon pannacotta but since I had just made a lemon yoghurt cake, I thought I would change it to a chocolate-flavoured pannacotta.

I decided against adding actual melted chocolate because I wasn't sure if I would need to change the amount of gelatin in the recipe and by how much I would need to change it. I just added some cocoa powder. This worked well because it gave the pannacotta a mild chocolate flavour. A strong chocolate flavour would overpower the palate and make the pannacotta feel richer than it already was.

Got a little over-enthusiastic while sprinkling the cocoa powder for garnishing and made a royal mess

This what you'll need:

• 2 Tbsp Cold Water
• 2 tsp Powdered Gelatin
• 500 ml Half and half (I used Amul Fresh Cream)
• 75g Sugar
• 25g Cocoa Powder
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
• Custard Bowls, Ramekins or Small Teacups

 METHOD:

1. Measure the cold water into a container and sprinkle the gelatin over it. Keep it aside so it can sponge.
2. Pour the cream into a saucepan; add sugar and cocoa powder to it. Heat it, stirring continuously, until the sugar dissolves.
3. You must remove it off the heat before it boils. You will notice that the cream mixture rises a little (like it’s about to boil), that is when I took it off the stove.
4. Keep stirring it for about 4-5 minutes so it cools slightly and add the sponged gelatin and keep stirring till it dissolves and the mixture is smooth. You can test the smoothness of the cream by rubbing it between your thumb and forefinger. Add the vanilla essence and mix it in.
5. Pour into the serving dish of your choice and refrigerate for a minimum of 6 hours or preferably overnight.

You can serve these in the dish itself or you could de-mould them by running a sharp knife around the edges.

This recipe makes 6 medium sized servings or 8 mini servings. I would suggest mini servings since pannacottas are quite rich.

Pannacottas are extremely simple to make and it makes a great dessert at a dinner partyespecially because you can make it the previous day. The next recipe I want to experiment with is the Marbled Cheesecake. To that end, I went shopping today and bought strawberries. That recipe will be up in the next couple days... Just something to look forward to.

Lemony Yoghurt Cake - Eggless

Lemon and Yoghurt - What a Combo!

Have you ever tasted something that was so good that you never forgot its flavour. Ages ago, I had the privilege of tasting a Lemon Cake that did just that to me. I still vividly remember the "party in my mouth" feeling I got. I remember it tasted like pop rocks without the actual pop.

For a while now, I've been thinking of trying out a yoghurt cake. I love yoghurt, it’s one of my favourite things in this world. And it’s so good for you. If you don’t believe me, check this out.

So, when I came across Ina Garten's Lemon Yoghurt Cake recipe, how could I not try it? True to my style, I made a few changes to the recipe because I wanted to make it Eggless. So, I left out the eggs and increased the amount of baking powder. I also slightly increased the amount of yoghurt used. I left out the glaze as well. But I have promised myself that I will try the original recipe soon.

Round bottom pans result in this funky semi-circle of a cake

This is what you'll need:

• 220g flour
• 200g granulated sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• Juice and zest of 1 large lemon
• 250 ml whole milk yoghurt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 tsp salt

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C and grease and flour a loaf pan. I used a round bottom pan (just for fun).
2. In a medium-size bowl sift the flour, baking powder and salt. These are the dry ingredients.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the yoghurt and sugar well, till sugar dissolves completely. Then add the zest and juice of 1 lemon and the vanilla essence, whisk till mixed well. This forms the wet ingredients.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, in three additions. You can do this quite easily by hand with a rubber spatula.
5. Finally, fold in the oil till it is completely incorporated.
6. Bake at 180 degrees for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. I suggest covering the pan with foil or you might end up with a burnt top.

This cake tastes amazing when warm. It's great when served with tea or coffee. I heard Nigella Lawson say on her show that the zest of the lemon imparts more flavour than the juice. I totally believe her now because this cake is so citrusy and lemony and just a total "party in your mouth." The lemon and yoghurt combine to give this cake an absolutely fantastic flavour. Trust me, one slice and you'll definitely come back for more.

On a totally unrelated topic, look what I got.

Love the contrast of the bright lollipop and the Buddha statue

Yes, one of my aunt's friends sent me a lollipop as a gift. She said she remembered me as a little baby, I guess it's been about 20-25 yrs since she's seen me. But, hey, I'm not complaining.. When I was a kid we never had lollipops that looked like that. We had those boring tiny ones in cherry and chocolate flavours. But I have a question, how am I supposed to fit this in my mouth!!!!!

Coffee Shop Inspiration

Healthy Oatmeal & Honey Cookies

The other day I went to local chain of coffee shops with my Aunt because we were craving their spinach and corn sandwich. While I was there I had their oatmeal and honey cookie and man... it was so totally delicious. I usually don't like sweet treats with tea or coffee, but that cookie was so good, I couldn't get enough.

I've had that cookie on my mind ever since that day but I wanted a healthy version of it. Let me explain, I live with a family full of diabetics and keeping the sweet treats to a minimum is essential. So I decided to leave the sugar out of the recipe. You won’t need to add extra flour because the amount of sugar used is quite minimal. After I ate my cookies I felt this feeling of healthy calm come over me, I'm sure that was just a fantasy. But what's life without a few fantasies.

 Now, you should be a little careful of the honey you use. Many of the branded packaged honey available in supermarkets tend to have a lot of sugar added to them. I bought my honey from the Khadi Gram Udyog at Vile Parle. It claims to be pure honey on the package (still has 1.5 grams added sugar, though) but I cant really be sure because there's no way of testing honey without conducting scientific experiments. (Is there?)

To know more about the benefits of honey click here.

Anyway, getting back to the recipe, this is what you’ll need:

• 1 cup honey
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (heaped)

METHOD: 

1. Preheat oven to 175 C.
2. In a bowl, mix the flour, oats and baking soda together and keep aside.
3. Using an electric/hand mixer beat the butter well. Now add honey and beat to incorporate. Next add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until it appears creamy.
4. Now fold in the dry ingredients in 3 additions. Mix well. Do Not Use Your Hands to make the cookie dough. Use a silicon spatula. The honey and oats together make this dough extremely sticky.
5. Using a small ice-cream scoop drop cookie dough onto a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake for about 12-15 mins for soft cookies. If you prefer crisp cookies, bake covered in foil for 15 mins and another 5 mins uncovered or until crisp.

This recipe makes around 3 dozen cookies.

My cookies must have been nice because while I was photographing them from various angles and trying to make them look good. Someone (and by someone I mean my lab, Jazzy) was drooling all over the floor. He’s my favourite little guinea pig. I haven’t made a single thing so far that he hasn’t loved ;)

Jazzy - My Favourite Guinea Pig

Saturday Night Gluttony

I was on a cooking spree yesterday... I started at 2 in the afternoon and was finally done at 10.15 (I was off running some errands from 4 - 6.30, but I still slogged in a hot kitchen for over 5 hours). I made a bread, nothing fancy just a standard French Loaf… which didn’t quite turn out right. I then decided to convert that bread into this amazing Garlic Cheese Bread which I'd read about on Pioneer Woman. I also made Prawns in Alfredo Sauce. I also made a small portion of veggie pasta for a vegetarian friend who decided to pop in unannounced. I was too tired to make dessert so I decided everyone would have to settle for some good old ice cream.

I started with the bread at 2in the afternoon. Bread takes a while to make what with having to rest the dough twice (That’s when I was running errands). I have decided against sharing my bread-making experience because it was a mini disaster. The bread was edible, but the crust was so hard that my mom's teeth actually started hurting after eating a couple pieces. I think I over-baked it. I have an oven that runs a little hotter than it should and I still haven't gotten my hands on an oven thermometer. Anyway lesson learnt, I should take all items out of the oven about 5 minutes before the original recipe says.

Moving on to my Prawns in Alfredo Sauce and its veggie version. It is composed of 4 parts the prawns, the veggies, the Alfredo sauce and of course the pasta. I'll present this step by step.

Prawns In The Marinade

Step 1: Marinate the Prawns (Prawns are similar to 

Shrimp – If your curious to know the difference 

between them click here)

You will need:

250g Prawns

2 Tbsp Butter

2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 tsp Ginger-Garlic Paste

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Melt butter in a saucepan on a very low flame and add ginger-garlic paste to it (Add a little oil to the butter if you don’t want it to burn.)
Stir for about a minute and then add

Prawns Frying 

Worcestershire Sauce, salt and 

pepper. Stir well to combine 

(about another minute). 

Turn off the 

heat and stir in the prawns. Mix well 

so that all the pieces are covered. 

Marinate for about an hour.

Transfer the prawns alongwith the 

marinade into a frying pan and fry. 

Prawns usually take about 10 

minutes to cook. 

Step 2: Cooking the Vegetables

You will need:

1 large Red Bell Pepper, diced

1 large Yellow Bell Pepper, diced

100 grams Button Mushrooms, diced

a bunch of Spring Onions, diced (keep the onion and the greens separate)

2 Tbsp oil

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste

1 tsp Italian seasoning

Veggies Mix - How Colourful!!

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Heat the oil in a saucepan on a medium flame (You 

can use butter if you're feeling particularly naughty). 

Add the ginger-garlic paste and stir it in for about a 

minute. Add onions (from the spring onions) and fry 

till they are translucent. It shouldn't take longer than 

2 minutes. Add salt and pepper and the Italian 

seasoning.

Add the diced bell peppers and stir so it gets coated 

with oil and then mix in the mushrooms. Cook the 

mixture till the moisture released by the mushrooms 

reduces. Finally add the green part of the spring 

onions, stir it in and turn off the burner. You're 

Veggie component is ready

Remember, you can use whatever vegetables you like, make it your own.

Step 3: While your veggies are cooking, you 

Assembled - Pasta & Veggie Mix

should also cook your pasta.. Linguini would 

be the best with this particular recipe. 

Unfortunately I couldn't find any linguini at my 

local store, all they had was macaroni and ziti. 

So I went with Ziti. Boil 200g pasta in salted 

boiling water for 8-10 minutes or follow the 

instructions on the packaging.

Step 4: Making the Alfredo Sauce

You will need:

1 Tbsp Butter

200 ml cream

100 ml milk

1 cup Cheddar Cheese, grated

1 tsp Oregano/Parsley/Basil (I use Oregano because I love it)

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Final Assembly

Melt butter in a pan and add milk and cream and 

simmer for 5 minutes. Add the cheese and stir to 

mix thoroughly. Season with the herb of your 

choice, salt and pepper and your alfredo sauce 

is ready to serve.

To Assemble:

Assemble the pasta as the 1st layer in your serving 

dish, cover it with a layer of the cooked vegetables. 

Place the fried shrimp over the vegetables and then 

pour the alfredo sauce over it all. For the veggie 

version, just leave the shrimp out.

Because my friend showed up unannounced and I had 

to make an extra dish with the same amount of 

Crusty Bread - Disastrous

ingredients, I ended up with a little less alfredo than I needed. That is why the round dish looks a little 

impoverished. But it tasted good anyway.

 Finally I converted my warped French Loaf into a
GarlicCheese Bread. Of course, I find it totally
impossible to stick to a recipe so I had to make a
few changes. For starters, I left out the Monterey
Jack and Parmesan Cheeses and only used grated
Cheddar. I also left out the garlic. I added about
2 Tbsp mustard sauce because I looovvee it.

The Breads Been Saved

Last night was a total gluttonous affair... We ate till 

our jean buttons were about to pop. We were 

sooo full that we had to skip dessert...Yes!! Now 

you understand the gravity of the situation, don’t 

you? But seriously, try both these recipes the next 

time you want to have a luxurious meal and when 

you have the time to prepare it. You will not regret 

it. Both of these are winners, so long as you buy 

the bread and not attempt to make it yourself.

A Healthy Dinner For A Single Girl

Single Girl Food

I have this cousin sister who lives in Luxembourg, she's a single girl, living and working in a city far from home, far from anything resembling family. As expected, she misses home food.. I can only imagine how boring it must be to have to cook for yourself after a long day on the job. I have this album titled "Food" on my Facebook account where I post pictures of the food I cook. My cousin wrote to me this one time and said "I'm a fan of your album. I look at it while having my dinner and it makes my food taste nice :)" Isn't that the sweetest thing!!

If I was in her place I know I would find it extremely boring to cook for myself and would, most probably, end up just eating out or ordering in or picking up something on the way home. But I know I would avoid those frozen microwave dinners and frozen pizzas and frozen what-nots... loaded with all kinds of chemicals and who knows how long those things have been frozen. I dread to think about what those things do to your body.

But never fear when Anita is here. I shall come to your rescue with my favourite grilled chicken recipe. It   literally takes 10 mins to cook (though the chicken needs to marinate a little.) Combine it with a simple salad and voila you have a meal. You could fry this chicken as well... a little less healthy than grilled but it tastes amazing and I mix the chicken juices+marinade mixture left behind in the frying pan with a few spoons of rice. The flavour in that rice is truly amazing. You could also mop up the juices with a loaf of bread... Yummm!!

Here's what you need to make a meal for one:

A chicken Breast

2 Tbsp yoghurt

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

For frying, use about 2Tbsp oil

1. Make 3 shallow cuts on each side of the chicken breast. This helps the marinade flavour the whole flesh of the chicken breast as opposed to flavouring just the surface.. Personally I don’t like it when the flesh tastes bland.
2. Add all the ingredients for the marinade to the chicken and mix by hand. It needs to marinate for at least 2 hours. But I would suggest you marinate the chicken in the morning before going to work, that way the chicken will have the most intense flavour. Just make sure you refrigerate it.
3. At chow time, jus pop it on the grill. Give it about 5-7 mins on each side and it should be done. If your frying the chicken and you want to preserve the juices, fry on a low/medium flame and cover your pan with a lid.

When it comes to a simple vegetable salad, there's no particular recipe I follow. I just dice up my favourite veggies (Or whatever is available at home).. Today I used a Carrot, a Green Bell Pepper and i tore up some lettuce.

My salad dressing includes:

4 Tbsp Yoghurt

1 Tbsp Mayonnaise

1 Tbsp Mustard Sauce (I jus love the flaour of mustard sauce)

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 tsp Chaat Masala (Careful when you add this because it contains salt as well)

Mix the ingredients together and add it to the veggies. I like my salads gooey and dripping in dressing. Please adjust the amounts depending on your taste and your preference.

After having this for dinner you feel so healthy and good. The best part about this dinner recipe is that it'll fill you up without making you feel full... To the uninitiated, what that means is... There'll be room for Dessert!!!!!

Polka Dotted Piece of Heaven

Pound Cake with Choco-Chips

My friend gave me some chocolate chips that were lying around her house and that got me thinking, what else could I use them for besides the obvious choice which would be choco-chip cookies.


And that’s when it came to me, a delicious soft springy pound cake with a beautiful sprinkling of chocolate chips. I decided to stick to my tried and tested pound cake recipe and just fold in the chocolate chips at the final stage. You can also substitute a vanilla sponge cake for the pound cake. I just find a pound cake easier to make and I also love its buttery flavour. 


I love chocolate (who doesn't, right?). But I'm also one of those people who finds chocolate overwhelming. This recipe is wonderful because you can distinctly taste the chocolate and the butter and neither of them overpowers the other... A perfect balance of sweet and salty.

The ingredients

The list of ingredients include:

• 100g all purpose flour
• 100g butter (I use salted butter in case you’re using unsalted add 1/4 tsp salt)
• 100g granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp chocolate chips

Equipment: Small Loaf Pan

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Butter and flour a loaf pan.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt (if using).
3. Beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. You can use a stand mixer/ hand-held mixer but honestly this is one of those recipes that does not require very vigorous mixing and so you'll do fine with just a spatula... think of extra cake you could eat because of all the calories you'll burn.
4. Add the eggs one at a time beating them in for about a minute each.
5. Add the vanilla extract.
6. Fold in the sifted dry ingredients.
7. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour the batter into the prepared pan.
8. Finally sprinkle 1 tbsp of chocolate chips over the batter. Cover the pan loosely with aluminium foil and bake the cake for 40-45 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove the foil during the last 5 mins of baking. 
9. Let the cake cool for about 10 mins before demoulding and cooling completely.

Batter with a sprinkling of chocolate chips just before it went into the oven

Here’s some pointers to remember while baking this polka dotted piece of heaven:

• Don’t over-mix the batter. If using a mixer, use it on low speed.
• Cover the cake and bake it or else there’s a chance that the sprinkled chocolate chips will burn and taste bitter. 
• My cake got just a little over-baked in the sides and the bottom… that’s because I made a mistake with the temperature. I set my oven at 200C and realized it only after 10 mins of baking. Thankfully it still tasted good.

I should specify that this is by no means an original idea.  I did troll the internet and I found several recipes that were more or less similar to mine. But I decided against using any of those. The pound cake recipe is one I learnt in my very first baking class and I just added the chocolate chips.


I believe every baking session has a lesson for an amateur like me. Today's lesson was:
"Check oven temperature before you put your cake in."

A New Beginning

My life's taken a new turn... I was just a foodie, nothing special, jus another girl who loves to eat.. So, you can imagine my surprise when one day suddenly I realized that I not only had an above-average love for all things food but a love for cooking it as well.

I suppose it shouldn't come as a huge surprise to me, after all, my father loved to cook and his Sunday afternoon chicken was the highlight of our week. He would come up with the most amazing stuff.. He would spend all Saturday looking through recipes to find one that was jus right and then he wouldn’t follow it.. He would always adjust it and put a little bit of himself into his cooking.. I think the greatest gifts my dad ever gave me were his epic collection of recipes, his talent for cooking and his absolute inability to follow a recipe :)

So, here I am, declaring my life's purpose. FOOD!! But I do favour baking a little more than cooking. I take comfort in the fact that it’s so scientific... I have a bachelors degree in Chemistry and I guess that should explain my previous statement.. Baking reminds me of those countless days spent in a hot laboratory, with semi-dangerous equipment, mixing ordinary ingredients together that react and result in the most amazing things that look nothing like the original ingredients... Of course, just like chemistry, baking also sometimes has disastrous results.

I am blogging with the sole purpose of chronicling my successes and my disasters.. And in the process if I happen to help a few people realize their own love for cooking then I guess.. Mission Accomplished!!! I’ll be joining a local college for a professional baking course in 2 months and then I can start giving serious professional advice. But for the time being I’m a novice who loves this twist that the universe has presented her with

Now, it’s time for lesson no. 1. "Follow Your Passion!!!" Against all odds if you have to. If I hadn’t, I would be stuck behind a desk working 9-5, barely having time for me, my family and other things that really matter in life. There’s no better pleasure than doing something you love.

On a final note, I hope I can do justice to all the recipes I post on this blog and to all those individuals who try their hand at something new because of my recommendation. So here goes….