Dutch apple cake

This is a light non-fussy kind of cake. It will remind you of a sponge cake but the ingredients are totally different. Perfect with a cup of tea in the evenings when your friends come over.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

3/4 cup caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup butter

5 tblspn milk

1 cup plain flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1 cooking apple(green apple), peeled, cored and thinly sliced

Method:

Using an electric whisk, whisk the eggs, caster sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl until the mixture is thick.I went for manual whisking as I don't have an electric whisk in my kitchen. What you could do is, put the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the blender with the juicer blades on. Give it a few runs for about 2 minutes. Pour it all out into a big bowl and whisk it by hand now. Don't worry if it still looks thin. It will thicken. Melt the butter in a saucepan with the milk, then pour onto the eggs, whisking all the time. Sift in the flour, cinnamon and baking powder and fold carefully into the batter so that there are no lumps of flour. Pour the mixture into the greased baking tin and smooth the surface. Arrange the apple slices over the batter. Or you could even pour half the batter then place a few of the apple slices, pour the remaining batter and top it with the rest of the apple slices. Sprinkle over a tablespoon of sugar and bake in the oven for 30-35 mins in 180-200C. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin. Cut into squares and serve warm.

Very humble looking yet very comforting.

Banana Raisin Cake

This time around my insipration turned out to be the 2 over ripe bananas sitting lazy on my dining table.They were on their death bed and my mother would have put them to rest by dumping them in the garbage bag.I just wanted them to attain nirvana...and I believe they did.I would like to believe this is one of my better creations.If I may say so myself, the most moist and delicious cake I have ever baked.You will need:

1/2 cup soft unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar (caster/regular/icing)

2 over ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup raisins

2 eggs- separate whites and yolk

1 cup flour

1 1/2 tspn baking powder

1 tspn baking soda

1 tspn cinnamon powder

a pinch of salt

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. I personally prefer caster or icing sugar. Let's make life easy. Add the egg yolks. Mix well. Add the cinnamon powder. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites till they turn frothy. To the butter and sugar mixture add the mashed bananas and mix well.Combine the dry ingredients well (flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt)Add the dry mix into the wet mixture spoon by spoon.Mix well till all the ingredients are combined well. Trust me this is a good right arm work out! Tip in the frothy egg whites and gently folding them into the creamy mixture. Don't mix too much, else the cake will fall flat.Now we don't want that do we? Add the raisins. Here you can get a little creative by using any kind of dry fruits. From walnuts to cashews and dates to almonds.Anything.Now grease your baking tin with butter (I know!)

Pre heat your oven and bake for 45 mins at 180C Do the usual tooth pick/fork test to see if its done.

Take it out, let it cool.

Take a bite and thank me ;-)

Good old Sponge cake with Chocolate frosting

Just the other day I was going through my mother's old diary of recipes.1993 mind you. That's when I tumbled upon the Sponge cake recipe. I thought I'd add a little twist to it by making a chocolate frosting to go with it. Common, who'd say no to chocolate. So let's get on with it.

250 gm maida

250 gm sugar

200 gm unsalted butter

6 eggs

1 tspn baking powder

1 tblspn vanilla essence

Process:

Separate the egg whites and the yolks. Beat the egg whites to an almost stiff frothy consistency. Beat the yolks separately and fold it into the whites.

In a separate bowl mix the butter (soft) and sugar till it turns a little fluffy. Add the egg mix into it and fold gently. Don't panic (like I did) if it looks like they don't blend well together.

Now sift the maida and baking powder and add it to the wet mixture slowly folding it in little by little. What I did was, use a small sieve and added a heaped spoon of maida at a time and folded it into the wet mix. Then you'll see how after adding the flour the batter slowly takes shape and all the ingredients blend into one harmonious body.

Now add the vanilla essence.

Baking:

Grease a big square piece of aluminium foil with some butter. Place it in your baking tin.

Pour in half of the batter and pop it into your pre-heated oven for 40 mins when in medium heat. Do check the cake after the first half hour just to be safe. Pierce a tooth pick or just a fork deep into the cake in the center. If it comes out clean, great! you're done then.

Wait, it gets better..

Frosting:

Butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder.

Blend in these ingredients to a thick consistency. Let the cake completely cool down and only then slather it with the chocolate frosting you just made.

Enjoy! :)