Healthy, Low Fat Cake with Hung Yougurt Icing and Fresh Fruits

Its a shame how little I have been blogging since Siyona came into my life. This post will be another quick one. Straight to the point!

So, make a sponge cake. Here's how:

1 cup self raising flour,

1/3 rd cup soft butter (I find using leftover malai helps make the cake really soft so use that if you have some)

2 tb sp vegetable oil

1 tea spoon baking soda

1/2 tea sp soda bicarb

2 eggs (always measure 2 eggs per cup of flour)

1 tea sp vanilla extract or essence

1/3rd cup castor sugar

Cream the butter and sugar in a food processor. If dont have one use a hand-blender, or even the blender jar that comes with the 'mixie' :-). Add both eggs whole to this and blend.

Tip: I find if you separate the egg white and beat it till its light and frothy and fold this gently into the batter it make a very light cake. Always use a clean, dry vessel to beat egg whites otherwise they wont get beaten stiff. once you've beateb egg whites use quickly or they start loosing air after a few minutes.

So now that both eggs (or egg yolks), butter and sugar are creamed together. Sieve flour, baking soda and bicarb. Add to the egg mixture and blend till smooth. Add the vegetable oil while continuing to blend. Adding vegetable oil makes the cake spongier. Got this tip at a baking session conducted in a 5-Star. Dont over do the blending.

If you chose to beat yr egg white now is when u gently fold it in the batter.

Preheat the oven at 250 degrees. Pour the batter from a few inches above the greased and dusted baking dish. Adding it from a distance traps more air in the batter (for a lighter batter). Bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes or till a knife inserted in the centre some out clean.

Cool the cake completely before applying the icing.

Icing: 1 tub of nestle dahi hung in a muslin clothe for 5-6 hours.

1/3 rd packet of the 200ml Amul frsh cream

4 tb sp of honey

1 tea sp of vanilla extract

zest of an orange(optional)

4 tbsp of icing sugar or use artificial sweetner

Beat the cream and sugar till light. Always use chilled cream. With our climate thats the best thing to do.

Beat the yogurt with the rest of the ingredients. Fold in the cream. Icing is ready.

Slice your cake into 2 or 3 slices (horizontally). Soak the slices in orange juice (dissolve 1 tsp of sugar in the juice first). Apply the icing. Spread some chopped fruits over each slice and layer them up. Cover the sides with icing and more fruits.

Doughnuts! Cinnamon glazed, Dark chocolate, White chocolate

Its hard to come by good, fresh doughnuts in India unless you are breakfasting in a 5-star hotel or rushing to the nearest CCD joint. There are so many bakeries that shape bread into dougnut look alikes, glaze the top with sugar and call in a doughnut! Then there are others like Doughnut Bakers. I had high hopes when i packed one each of some 8 varieties of doughnuts only to find them tasting mainly of really bad, overused oil.

Anyway, I am not a doughnut junkie but I do like one, once in a while. And its exciting to think of the possibilities you can cover your doughnut with! I adore the cute round shapes too . I have made doughnuts in the past with average results. But this time they turned out really well. The dough rose beautifully. The doughnuts fluffed up dutifully. I was so happy just looking at them! :-)
BEATS STORE BROUGHT ONES HANDS DOWN!! My husband agrees :-)


I think what I did right this time was keeping the dough slightly sticky. Not as much as a bread dough. Maybe sticky ain't the right word. More like a loose, really soft dough.

You will need 2 cups of flour

2/5th cup sugar (granulated)

2-3 tbsp warm water

1.5 tbsp butter

a pinch of salt

1/2 cup hot milk

a pinch of nutmeg

1 tsp of active yeast

1/2 tsp of baking soda

Mix the milk, water, sugar, butter and salt well.

Mix the nutmeg powder, flour, baking soda.

In some warm water (not more than 50 degrees hot) add the yeast and leave for 15 mins, till it all bubbly and frothing.

Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour a part of the milk mixture and the whole yeast. Gently fold in a rounded motion. Keep kneading, adding the milk mixture gradually, as required till the flour feels slightly sticky. Keep working the flour for a few more minutes till its reaches a soft consistency.

Leave the dough to rest and prove for an hour. I covered the dough with cloth and put it in a slightly warmed oven. At this point, I always send a prayer to heaven. You never know of the dough will rise as much as it should. The dough should rise to twice its size.

This is a picture of my beautifully proven dough! Was so proud! :-)

Roll out the dough atleast 1/2 inch thick. I used a big bowl to cut the outer egde and a small bottle cap for the inner edge.

Heat vegetable oil. Carefully place the doughnuts in it. I fried the small roundels that were left behind after removing the big circles to get small hole-less dougnuts. And using my little finger poked holes in some of them to get miniature doughnuts!

Fry till they are fluffed up and golden brown.!

Glazing:

Cinnamon Glaze: Dissolve 3/4rth cup sugar in 2 tbsp milk, along with 2 tsp of cinnamon. Dip warm doughnuts in the glaze. Set aside to cool.

Dark Chocolate covered Doughnuts: Melt Chocolate, dip doughnut in chocolate, let cool (if you have the patience), eat doughnut dipped in chocolate. Yummm... As you can probably spot in the picture below, I couldn't even wait for the entire chocolate to melt. There are some chocolate pices still left. How can that be a bad thing right? Yummm

White choco Glaze: Melt White chocolate, Dip doughnut. dark chocolate beats white chocolate any day. It was worth a try. Not bad. White choco lovers like my mom, would like this.

You can store them for a week or two (or more??) in airtight containers in a refrigerator. Warm in oven before eating.

Fresh Sweet Cherry Crumble

Bright red, plump, juicy and sweet cherries are such a beautiful sight! Just wash them and serve as afters for a dinner party and you have an elegent finish. Leave stalks on of course- Looks are almost as important as taste soemtimes!

Pitting and halving cherries can be a little time taking task. run a knife around the seed, Hold one side of the cherry and twist gently. That half should come off quite easily. Simply pull the seed out of the other half in which it is embedded. Add 2 tbsps castor sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon powder and a drop of vanilla to a cup of cherries and leave covered for 15 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the crumble topping. A rather simple task.

For a cup and a half of cherries, simply mix together 3/4 cup of flour, half cup castor sugar, a drop of vanilla, 1 tsp cinnamon powder and 50 gms unsalted butter. Use firm cubes of butter. Rub between fingers till the mixture resembles bread crumbs or moist sand.

Spread the marinated cherries on the bottom of a greased baking dish. Sprinkle the crumble topping to cover the cherries. A few cherries peeking out are totally OK. Gently press down the crumble topping. Don't try too hard.

Bake for 30 minutes at 180 degrees. Enjoy warm with some whipped cream or icecream on the side.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Cut round thin slices of ripe pineapple/ or use tinned ones. Heat 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 2 tbsp butter, 1/4 cup pinapple juice, 1 tsp of cinnamon powder and a drop of vanilla essence. Replace pineapple juice with orange juice or use same amount of plain water for different flavours.
Heat this mixture till sugar dissolves and mixture becomes slightly thick. When I am using fresh pineapple I simmer the slices in this mixture for 5 minutes before using.

Pour out on a greased dusted pan. Arrange pineapple slices on top. Leave aside while you prepare the cake batter.

To prepare batter beat 1/2 cup butter with 3/4 cup castor sugar till sugar kind of dissolves and mixture looks light and fluffy. Beat 2 eggs till light. Fold into the butter-sugar mixture. Add a drop of vanilla essence.

Sieve 1 cup of flour with 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda.

Gently fold into the butter-sugar-egg mixture. Do not over mix.

Pour into the prepared cake tin and place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. Check if done. If not then bake for another 10 minutes or till done. Keep checking every 5 minutes after that though.

Decorate with cherries and serve with vanilla icecream.