Semi Homemade Lemon Pound Cake

Taste is one of the traditional five senses. It refers to the ability to detect the flavor of substances. According to Wikipedia, the sensation of taste can be categorized into five basic tastes: sweetness, bitterness, sourness, saltiness and umami. Sourness is the taste that detects acidity. Generally between India and US, I find people in US more receptive to the sour taste. There are so many items exhibiting the sour taste profile. I had been using lemon as an added flavor to our Indian dishes while making lemon rice occasionally. But after seeing so many recipes in Food Network where lemon was used as a star ingredient, I was inspired.

The lemon is presumed to have originated from India, northern Burma and China. It was introduced to the Americas in 1943 when Christopher Columbus brought lemon seeds to Hispaniola along his voyages. Lemon juice, rind, and zest are used in a wide variety of culinary applications. In my recipe I have used lemon juice and zest. 

Ingredients

Pound Cake or Yellow Cake Mix - 1 packet (I used Betty Crocker's Yellow Cake)

Ingredients as per the cake mix

Lemon - 4 (Depending upon the sourness level that you want, you can change this)

Sugar - 1 cup

Preparation

Prepare the cake batter as per the instructions given in the selected cake mixture. (If you are preparing the cake batter on your own, prepare the batter for plain sponge cake). Zest the four lemons. Extract the juice and keep it separately. Add the lemon zest to the batter. Mix thoroughly. Bake the cake as you normally would. Once the cake is ready, place it on a wire rack for cooling.

For Lemon Glaze

Melt sugar with 1/2 cup of water. (If you need nice white frosting replace plain sugar with confectioners sugar). Take it off the heat and add the lemon juice and mix thoroughly.

Pour the lemon glaze over the baked cake slowly allowing the cake to absorb the mixture. Lemon Pound Cake is ready and yummy!

No Bake Eggless Honey Sponge Cake

There are always those lovely memories that you keep thinking about. One of my memories is of having the Honey Sponge Cake in Leo Fortune Bakery in Adyar, Chennai. Just thinking of the cake makes me drool!!! Call me a foodie :-) Nowhere else have I seen that cake so soft and moist. I wanted to check if that recipe was available in the internet but nowhere could I find it. I hit upon a link for Honey Sponge Cake recipe. But let me tell you, this is nowhere similar to the Leo Fortune cake. Anyways I decided to try it and this is one recipe which is going to stay since it does not involve baking :-).  Here is my adaptation of Honey Sponge Cake:

Ingredients


All purpose flour - 1 cup
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Baking Soda - 2 tsp

Butter - 3 tbsp
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Honey - 3 tbsp
Vinegar - 2 tbsp
Vanilla Essence - 1 tbsp

Serves: 4 adults

Preparation

Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Keep aside. In a bowl, add melted butter and sugar and mix well. Add honey and vanilla essence. Beat well. Add vinegar and mix well. Add the flour mixture, little by little. Mix well after each addition. The batter is ready once the dry and wet ingredients are combined together. Pour this to a well greased dish and cover it with an aluminium foil (see notes). Place the dish on a steamer and steam on low flame for 35-45 minutes. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes.You can drizzle it with honey if required.

Eggless Honey Sponge Cake is ready and yummy...that too without baking!!!

Notes:

• I would have reduced the quantity of sugar since it was too sweet for me. 
• I did not drizzle it with honey at the end. Still I was able to get the lovely glaze on top of the cake.
• The cake hardened a bit on the next day. It is best served when warm.
• I forgot to use the aluminium foil as mentioned in the original recipe. I dont know what difference that makes though, since the cake anyways came out good.

This being a no-bake cake, I am sending this to Apy Cooking's No Bake Event.

~ Ramya

Eggless Sponge Cake with Chocolate Chips

The last few weeks have been happening. I have been exploring the house like a new child who has just started to explore things. Though my dad has been living here for quite a few months, he had not unpacked any of the cartons. So it was a week of unpacking. By the time I unpacked everything, I felt that I could start a mini Indian grocery store. Together (me, N and my dad) had got so many Indian groceries. Good for us I should say. 

With all the new enthusiasm I thought I would make pizza. I made the pizza, finished putting the toppings and switched on the oven. I put the pizza in the oven and after 5 minutes the fire alarm starting ringing loud in the entire house. It was my first experience and I panicked since gas lines run around the house. N, meanwhile patiently opened all doors and windows and switched off the oven. After ringing for around 10 minutes, it finally stopped. That is when I appreciated 'Silence'. Well the pizza was a disaster...This entirely dashed my hope of baking anything.

I was talking to my neighbors and they gave me the solution for avoiding the fire alarm. I tried it and when it worked, I decide to bake a small pound cake. 

I adapted Madhuram's recipe. Here is my version:

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Butter - 1 stick (1/2 cup) - I used salted butter

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Milk - 2 tbsp

Flax Seed Powder - 2tbsp thoroughly mixed with 6 tbsp of water

Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

Chocolate Chips - 10-12 pieces

Preparation

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease and flour your cake pan. Sift together flour and baking powder. Beat butter and sugar using low speed for about a minute. Add milk, vanilla. and flax seed mixture. Beat well. Add flour mixture and blend with a mixture using low speed. Spread the batter in the cake / loaf pan.  I used round cake pan. Add chocolate chips on top on the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes. When I did the knife test, it came out clean. after 25 minutes. But after cooling I the center to be little bit soggy. So I would suggest baking it for 30 minutes at least. Once the cake has rested for at least 20 minutes, invert it and then slice it.

Cake is ready and yummy!!!

~ Ramya

Eggless Tutti Fruity Cake in Microwave

The holiday season is upon us as we are getting ready to celebrate Christmas and the New Year!! So to enjoy the holiday season I decided to start by baking a cake. Not having an oven has never really stopped me from baking cookies, cakes and scones. While there were some disasters initially, I soon learnt the number of minutes for each recipe and now everything is good.

Here is the recipe for the cake:

Ingredients

Plain Flour - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Banana - 1
Tutti Fruity a.k.a Papaya Preserves - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1/4 cup
Butter or Oil - 1/4 cup
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Preparation

In bowl, mix the wet ingredients namely banana, butter/oil and vanilla essence. Whisk well. Add flour, sugar, tutti fruity and baking powder. Mix well. Add milk and mix well.

Prepare the cake pan by applying butter/oil on all sides. Pour the cake batter. Spread evenly. Bake at Medium for 10 minutes and then on High for 1 minute. (The minutes may vary depending upon the microwave output. Keep in medium for 8 minutes and depending upon the result keep it for another 2 minutes). Allow a standing time of 3 minutes. The cake is ready when a knife comes out clean after inserting into the baked cake.

Eggless Tutti Fruity Cake is ready and Yummy!!!

This recipe is going to Vandana’s Baking for Beginners, Purva's Christmas Feast Event and JZ’s Santa’s Holiday Challenge.

Eggless Chocolate Cake in Microwave

I dont have an oven. But the love of baking does not stop me from trying out recipes using the microwave. My first attempt to bake a chocolate cake in the microwave. It came out really good.

Ingredients

All purpose flour or Maida - 1.75 cups
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Cocoa - 3 tsp

Sugar - 1 cup
Cream - 0.75 cup
Curd (Should be thick) - 0.75 cup
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp

For the Frosting

Cocoa - 1.5 cups
Boiling Water - 1/4 cup
Butter - 3 tbsp
Powdered Sugar - 1 cup

Preparation

Sift all purpose flour, baking powder and cocoa together. Powder sugar. Blend powdered sugar, cream, curd and vanilla essence together. Add the sifted ingredients to this and blend. Butter the cake dish and transfer the cake mixture to the cake dish. Micro on medium for 5 minutes and medium-high for 5 minutes. Allow it to stand for 3 minutes. Turn it over a flat plate and allow it to cool.

Frosting

Add cocoa powder and boiling water. Stir until well-combined. Add the butter and blend until the mixture is smooth. Add powdered sugar until the sugar is mixed well. Blend till frosting is fluffy.

Once cake is completely cool, cut the cake horizontally and place one of the cake layers right side up. Frost the top of the layer. Place the second layer on top, and frost the top and sides of the cake. Slice and serve.

Eggless Chocolate cake is ready and Yummy!!!