Almond and Orange Cake

First time I made this cake was about 6 years ago. I kept making various desserts for my guests and family and almost forgot about this one. Recently when my kids asked me to make something fruity and flavorful I opened my old diary where I use to make note of each and every dish that I would serve to my guests while I was in Sri Lanka, and guess what I stumbled upon this one. Now in past two weeks I have baked it three times and I guess it is high time that I share it with you.

Ingredients:

50g breadcrumbs

200g castor sugar

l00g almonds, ground

1 ½ tsp baking powder

200 ml sunflower or vegetable oil

4 eggs

zest of 1 large orange

zest of ½ a lemon/ lime

Syrup:
Juice of 1 orange

Juice of ½ lime

80g sugar

2 cloves

1 piece of star anise

Cooking time: 40 – 50 minutes

Preparation time: 10 -15 minutes

Note: For this recipe do not preheat the oven.

Temperature: 190^oC or 375^oF or Gas mark 4

Instructions:

• Grease and line a cake tin (8 inch or 20cm)
• In a large bowl, mix the breadcrumbs with the ground almonds, sugar and baking powder.
• Add the oil and eggs to the mixture and beat well.
• Stir in the orange and lemon zest.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin.
• Put into a cold oven and set to heat to 190C (375F /gas mark 5).
• Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the cake is a rich brown and a skewer/ fork inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes in the tin then turn out onto a plate.

Method to prepare syrup:

• Bring all the ingredients gently to the boil in a pan stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
• Simmer for 2 minutes.

You can prepare the syrup while cake is baking.

• Pierce the cake with a skewer/ fork while still warm and pour the syrup over it.
• Leave to cool spooning the syrup over the cake every now and then until it is all soaked up.

Serve it with whipped cream.

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Tangy Warm French beans Salad

I grew up on farms as my father worked as an Agriculture scientist. My father is very fond of gardening and we always had a kitchen garden where he would grow all sorts of seasonal vegetables, free of any chemicals. I still remember we used to get French beans only in winter season. My father would pluck them fresh from the garden and my mom would cook them with potatoes as a curry (which my brother and I didn’t like much).

Later, when I travelled to Europe I learnt that French beans could be prepared in so many different ways. I liked slightly blanched ones, seasoned and topped with butter (simple and my all time favorite). Apart from that they can be used in various salads, and of course there are so many versions in salads as well.

Much later in Sri Lanka I learnt completely different way of cooking them, in coconut milk with lots of spices, as fragrant hot curry, which I would like to share with you some other time.

Recently I got my hands on two big bundles of very fresh French beans, so delicate and full of flavor that couldn’t think of any other recipe but this tangy salad, which can be used as entrée or a side dish.

Tangy Warm French beans Salad:

Ingredients:

500g tender French beans, topped and tailed

Dressing:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp honey

2 tbsp yellow mustard paste or half and half yellow and English mustard

1 tbsp White wine vinegar (or any other natural vinegar)

2 tbsp capers

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed (I like a lot of garlic)

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Handful of fresh basil, torn with hands

Salt to taste

Instructions:

• Mix all the ingredients of dressing in a large bowl and keep it aside.
• To blanch beans bring 3/4^th pan of water to boil (in a large pan) with half teaspoon of sugar and 1 tsp salt.
• Add beans to the boiling water, stir well.
• Bring it to boil once more on full heat and let it blanch for a minute or so.
• Drain all the water through colander. Add to the bowl with dressing, mix well.

Serve as you wish, warm or cold, great as side dish with roasted or baked chicken.

P. S.: Sometimes I also add a piece of boiled chicken breast, torn into small pieces with hands and just thrown in. And voila – a wholesome meal is ready to be enjoyed!

Moist Egg-less Chocolate-Almond Cake

In the months of October- November every year, most of the Indian households observe religious rituals for their ancestors and then nine days fasting and of course after that celebration for Dusshera and Diwali begin. During most of this period many families completely go vegetarian avoiding eggs as well, and so is the case in my family, well..………. for few days!

I have been trying different recipes, with our own variations in each (I say ‘our’ as my elder daughter has been helping me here) to get the perfect recipe for egg-less cake.  We finally arrive at the one which we baked on my husband’s birthday. I would also like to mention here that this recipe is especially for our youngest member in the family, a little princess, who is allergic to eggs and I am sure she is going to enjoy it too!

Moist Egg-less Chocolate- Almond Cake:

Ingredients:

 All Purpose Flour – 2 cup

Baking Powder – 1 and ½ tsp

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – 10 tbsp

Almond powder – 1 tbsp (optional)

Castor Sugar – 1 and ¾ cups (grind granulated sugar in a grinder)

Vegetable oil – 1 cup (sunflower oil)

Hot Coffee – ½ cup (2 tsp of coffee in ½ cup of hot water)

Milk – ½ cup

Natural Curd/ Yogurt – ½ cup

Almond essence – 1 tsp

Natural vinegar – 1 tsp

Instructions:

 Preheat the oven to 180^oC, at least 8-10 minutes before baking (This is the time when you mix all your ingredients together). Lightly grease the cake tin and line with a parchment paper.

•  In a large bowl sift together the all purpose flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, almond powder and sugar. Make a well in the center. Add all the wet ingredients one by one.
•  Beat the mixture using an electric mixer on low speed for 2-3 minutes until the dry and wet ingredients are well combined. Do not over beat it.
•  Pour the batter in the prepared tin. Tap the tin to spread the batter evenly.
•  Bake in the pre-heated oven or pre-heated pressure cooker for about 30 minutes. Check the cake with a skewer or fork.
•  Take it out of the oven, and allow it to cool. After about half an hour remove the cake from the tin and let the cake cool completely before you dig in.

As I mentioned earlier, I baked it on my husband’s birthday, children couldn’t wait for it to cool down completely, so we hurried him to cut it while it was warm. It tasted great….. moist and spongy without icing! So go ahead, bake one and enjoy the way you want it!!!