A Delicious cake to Celebrate the year gone by - Tunisian Orange and Almond Cake

“Another fresh new year is here.
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!”

By - Willaim Arthur Ward

Another year goes by in a blink of an eye, 2012 was a wonderful year for me, there were small but significant changes in my life which I am very happy about. The aim for the coming year to build on these small changes to realize my goals in lifeJ

There are many more thoughts that I want to share with you all, but I will pen those in my post next year, for now I wanted to end 2012 on a Sweet Note n Positive Note, especially because I have not been able to get Nirbhaya / Damini out of my mind for the last several days. May her soul Rest in Peace and we continue to fight for her justice.

Since late November I have noticed truckloads of Indian oranges everywhere in Bangalore; I always pick them up when my stock at home is over, I either enjoy them fresh or in salads, but today I wanted to bake something.  I love the sweet orangy aroma in baked good… ahhh that smell just makes me hungrier. At first my choice was an orange chiffon cake, but then I came stumbled upon this recipe and knew at once I had to try it. I made some minor changes (please read the tips below) and the result was sensational. I loved the soft texture of this cake and the way my teeth sunk into it, it’s a recipe that I will treasure for years to come.

A simple cake with mind-blowing flavours is a perfect way to bring in 2013, here goes the recipe!

For the Cake:

Ingredients	Quantity
White breadcrumbs	45 gms (2 bread slices-preferably a day old bread)
Castor sugar	200 grams
Ground Almonds	100 grams
Baking Powder	1 ½ tsp
Refined Vegetable Oil	200 ml
Eggs	4 Nos.
Orange essence	1 tsp
Orange Zest	Zest of one orange

For the syrup

Ingredients	Quantity
Fresh Orange Juice (I used fresh Indian oranges)	½ cup
Sugar	2-3 tbsp
Cinnamon Stick	1" stick
Cloves	2

Makes: 5-6 slices

Preparation Time – 25 minutes

Baking Time – 190 degrees celsius for 45 minutes (I have a Microwave Convection Oven)

Method:

• Take a large bowl; add to it the breadcrumbs, caster sugar, ground almonds and baking powder.
• In another bowl add the vegetable oil, 4 eggs, orange essence and the orange zest. Use a spatula to mix all the ingredients till they well blended. I dint use my electric beater, mixing with a spatula/ spoon or and non electric hand blender was good enough!

I used this!

• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold the mix. See that there are no lumps in the cake batter.
• Pre heat the oven at 190 degree celsius
• Grease an 8 inch tin and pour the cake batter in the tin.
• Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a skewer placed into the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Set the cake aside to cool, in the meanwhile make the orange syrup to pour on the cake.

The cake is out of the oven

For the syrup:

• Take a heavy bottom pan, add to it the orange juice,sugar, cloves and cinnamon. Bring it to the boil and simmer, stirring constantly for  two - three minutes. Allow it to cool slightly.
• Now take the cooled cake and put it in a dish, using a skewer, poke little holes all over your cake. Next pour the syrup all over the cake, making sure to evenly soak the entire cake.
• Serve warm or at room temperature!

Tips:

• The original recipes does not ask for orange essence, I felt that the zest alone was not enought to flavour the cake and give it that distinct ornage flavour. Hence I added the essence, you may omit the essence and go with zest of 2 oranges. 
• The recipe also asked for lemon zest, which I omitted as I had put orange essence.
• I found that half cup or orange juice with 2-3 tbsp of sugar was enough to cover the cake and had the perfect sweetness, the cake already has enough sugar. If you wish you can easily add more sugar to the syrup.
• Once you remove the cake from the oven, it does looks a bit undone due to the oil, let it cool completely before you cut it or pour the syrup.
• Trust me this cake tastes even more delicious the next day after the orange juice has soaked in it ovenight.

My Christmas Special -Tie n Dye Cupcakes - Step by Step Recipe!

For me Christmas was and has always been my friend A’s home, I have known A since kinder garden though we were in the same school, we weren’t good friends till we bumped into each other in the same college.

From then on Christmas Lunches or Dinners were always at A’s place, I looked forward to it ever year; not only because the meal used to be scrumptious -homemade wine, fried fish, appams to carrot cake. Apple pie n rose cookies; but also Uncle n Aunty were such great hosts, it was more like going to another ‘home’ to eat more food and drink loads of wine!!

In the last couple of years we have all moved in different directions of the globe and Celebrate Christmas in our own special way. But there will be a day when we are all back in Pune (whenever that happens) and that year Christmas is definitely going to be A’s home.

This year my special take on Christmas are these colour full Tye n Dye Cupcakes, bright n colour full just the way I like!

These cupcakes are eggless, so everyone can enjoy them!

Here’s how to make them!

Ingredients	Quantity
All-purpose flour (maida)	1+ 1/4th cup
Powdered sugar	3/4th cup
Curds (sour)	6 tbsp
Baking soda	1/2 tsp
Baking powder	1/2 tsp
Milk	5 tbsp
Melted unsalted butter	5 tbsp
Vanilla Essence	1/2 tsp
Food Colour (4 different )	Of your Choice

Makes – 10 cupcakes

Preparation time – 30 minutes

Baking Time – 20 minutes @180 degrees celsius

Method:

• First get all your ingredients together.. just like the pic below J

• Then first sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda together as set aside.

• The beat butter and sugar together till light n flully

• Add the dry sieved ingredients to the butter- sugar mixture, to this add the curds, milk, and vanilla essence and fold the mixture gently. Fold it with a spatula, do not beat it.

• Divide the mixture into 4 individual bowls; I used four colours so I divided the batter into 4 parts. If you want to add more colours divide the mixture into accordingly.

• Now add the desired colour to each plain batter, take 1/4^th tsp of each colour, mix it into the batter. This will give you a medium shade of colour, use more or less as per the shade of colour you desire.

• 
  

  Line a cupcake baking tray with liners, and then add the colours one by one with a tea spoon on top of each other.

• Then gently with the help of a toothpick or a tsp mix all the colours together and bake in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes or till done!

Have bright n beautiful Christmas!

Sending this to Priya's 60 Days to Christmas!

National Blogging Day of Remembrance

"So our hearts are broken today — for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children, and for the families of the adults who were lost. Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors as well, for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children’s innocence has been torn away from them too early, and there are no words that will ease their pain." 

Today - 17th December 2012 is National Blogging Day of Remembrance, the members of the blogging community have decided to observe  a day of remembrance for the people of Newton CT. My prayers to all those who lost their loved ones in the shooting.

Thanks to Carrian Cheney of Oh Sweet Basil for starting this effort and to Nike Peterson of Nike Peterson Designs for the above graphic

Fresh Fruits dressed with Chocolate Balsamic Vinaigrette to Cheer me Up!

A 5 feet.7 inches tall, confident girl with a pleasant deposition who always smiled at everyone she came across, was sitting outside the dentist’s clinic today. Unlike other days, today she was all teary eyed shaking n shivering. It was difficult to see, that a person who always looked so confident and positive was crying like a small child, wiping tears on the back of her hands, trying to calm herself down and somehow escape the curious eyes of all the other patients in the waiting room. The treatment she was undergoing was not much, compared to the previous treatments she had undergone (2 failed implants, a root canal gone so bad that the tooth was extracted, another root canal which still pains once in a while, and a bridge treatment ongoing on the right side of her face).

But it seemed that all her agonies came flooding back today and her tears continued to flow. After a while her worried dentist (a student himself) more than half a decade younger than her, pacified her, gave a promise of a strong local anesthesia and completed her treatment successfully till the next session (yeah its not yet over)

This shivering, scared girl... all alone was finally feeling a little better, primarily as she could not feel anything on the left side of her face. She really wished her husband was with her today, but he was off on a trek. With no family around it was a real lonely, tough and painful day.

And if you haven’t guessed by now, that almost howling, nose leaking girl was ME

I HATE dentist, it’s nothing to do with them or their profession, I visit them due to my mistakes in the past, but I still HATE them. I know it’s a very strong emotion, but NO other word comes close to the pain I felt today.

I have to face this day due to my careless attitude towards my teeth in the past. When I was working full time; I always procrastinated visiting the dentist. There was never enough time, needed to work more to complete my sales targets, meeting friends for coffee, or something else always came up. I so wish I had taken the right steps at the right time.

Anyway it’s all water under the bridge and I don’t want to bore you all with my dentist issues J just wanted to tell y’ll that PLEASE GO TO THE DENTIST if you have to, DO NOT WAIT.. cause IT’s PAINFULL. No injection can reduce the pain .. trust me!!

Well after crying throughout the first half of the day I wanted to cheer myself up, ideally I would have loved a big bowl of icecream, but the fear of some more teeth decaying stopped me. I also knew that I had to complete my post for Magic Mingle. When Kalyani announced the Magic Mingle for December 2012 with fresh fruits and chocolate, I knew instantly; that I was not going to make a dessert, I wanted to try something new and different, which I did and loved it.

With chocolate and balsamic vinegar in my pantry I tried this dressing, It’s a simple to make but has intense flavours. The balsamic gives a huge kick of tanginess and the chocolate n sugar add the sweetness.This dressing goes well with fresh fruits or fresh vegetables and crunchy salad leaves:

This is the original source of the recipe: www.californiastrawberries.com

Ingredients	Quantity
Fresh Strawberries	5-6 cut lengthwise
One Pear	Sliced or cut into small pieces
Oranges deseeded and segmented	2 medium
Balsamic Vinegar	50 ml
Castor sugar	30 grams
Dark Chocolate	25 grams
Fresh Ground pepper	½ tsp
Salt	A pinch
Paprika	Optional to add more heat

Serves – 2

Preparation Time – 15 minutes

Cooking time – 5 minutes

Method:

• Cut/ slice / chop the fruits and set aside in a large bowl.
• Chop the chocolate roughly into small pieces and set aside.
• Take a saucepan, on medium heat add the balsamic vinegar and sugar, stir till it’s completely dissolved.
• Remove from heat and add the chocolate, stir till the chocolate is completely melted.
• Add the pepper, salt and check the seasoning, if you feel the dressing it’s too tangy for your taste add more sugar or some more chocolate!
• Instead of or along with pepper you can even add some paprika to add some heat to the dressing.

The rich dark dressing is ready

• Once the dressing has reached the room temperature, pour over the fresh fruits n enjoy!

My fresh fruit salad is ready

Tip:

Do not refrigerate the dressing as the chocolate will solidify.

Sending this to Magic Mingle # 12 Chocolates and Fresh Fruits @ Sizzling Tastebuds