Pumpkin Walnut Cake

It is amazing how everyone has such lovely stories to share when they bake. But sometimes (well in my case almost every time), you just bake because you want to. Especially because there is something you are just dying to try out or mostly, because you have just the right stuff in your fridge and pantry. And sometimes, it just turns out perfect! This is the story of my pumpkin walnut cake. I made it because I just did. It is dense, moist and just scrumptious.

For the cake:

• Butter: 250 gms.
• Flour: 200 gms.
• Cornmeal: 150 gms.
• Pumpkin puree: 400 gms.
• Sugar: 350 gms.
• Salt: 1 teaspoon
• Baking powder: 1 ½ teaspoon
• Eggs: 2
• Vanilla extract: 1 teaspoon
• Cinnamon powder: 2 tablespoon
• Walnuts (chopped): 100 gms.
• Milk: ½ cup
• Quark /mascarpone: 200 gms.
• Caster sugar: 100 gms.

For the ganache frosting:

• Dark chocolate (70%): 200 gms.
• Cream: 200 ml.

Cake:

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.

Line a 9 inch square baking dish with parchment paper.

Sieve the flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and cinnamon powder in a bowl and set aside.

In a food processor, beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy (about 8-10 minutes).

Add the eggs, one at a time and incorporate well.

Mix in the milk, followed by the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract and incorporate.

Add the sieved dry ingredients, about half a cup at a time, and mix well.

Fold in the walnuts in the batter.

In a separate bowl, mix the quark/mascarpone and sugar until smooth.

Gently pour the batter in the bowl and smooth the top with a spatula.

Pour the cheese on top.

Bake for 35-40 minutes.

Remove from the baking dish and cool completely.

Ganache:

Break the chocolate in to small pieces.

Over low heat in a saucepan, heat the cream, making sure that it does not boil.

Remove from heat, add chocolate and mix with a whisk until smooth.

Cool to room temperature.

Pour the ganache on top of the cooled cake and smoothen the top.

Voila!!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

I have been super lazy for the last couple of months. It has been crazy cold in Delhi this winter, and all I can think about is slipping under the blanket with a hot cup of tea. Don’t get me wrong, I have been cooking and baking, just haven’t been writing about it!

My friend just celebrated her 30^th birthday, and I wanted to bake something special for her big day. These cupcakes were just perfect, because after all, chocolate is her favourite! These super-moist gooey cupcakes were devoured at a pretty decent speed, and I was happy to see them go!

You will need:

For the cupcakes:

• Caster sugar: 1 cup
• Plain yoghurt: 1 cup
• Vegetable oil: ½ cup
• Eggs: 2
• Flour: 1 ½ cup
• Cocoa: ½ cup
• Baking powder: 1 teaspoon
• Crushed peanuts: For sprinkling on top (optional)
• Chocolate syrup (optional)

For the Nutella buttercream:

• Nutella: 300 gms.
• Butter: 150 gms.

For the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.

Line a regular 12 cupcake tin with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, sieve the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together.

In a food processor or a large mixing bowl, whisk the oil and sugar together until creamy (about 5 – 10 minutes).

Whisk in the yoghurt until smooth and add the eggs, one at a time, while continuously whisking, until pale and smooth.

Add the sieved dry ingredients from the third step, about half a cup at a time, and mix in, until smooth.

Fill the cupcake liners halfway with the mix.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes.

Cool to room temperature, on a wire rack.

Makes about 12.

For the Nutella buttercream:

Ensure that the Nutella and butter are at room temperature.

In a food processor or a large mixing bowl, whip the Nutella and butter until smooth.

To decorate:

Use piping bag with a large star nozzle to ice the cupcakes.

Top with some chocolate syrup and peanuts, if using.

Dark Chocolate Brownies with Salted Caramel Sauce

I am finally back on my own two feet! The broken foot has (almost) healed and the backlog of office work somewhat cleared! I really missed being able to cook and post something for such a long time.

This post is about my favourite brownies. These are rich, dark and wonderfully decadent! I made this batch for a darling friend’s Diwali party last Saturday. Try these out, and I hope you love them as much as I do!

You will need:

For the brownies:

• Dark chocolate pieces (unsweetened/mildly sweetened): 225 gms.
• Butter: 250 gms.
• Flour: 1 and ½ cup
• Baking powder: 1 teaspoon
• Caster sugar: 250 gms.
• Cocoa powder: 2 tablespoons + 3 tablespoons for dusting (optional)
• Eggs: 4
• Salt: ½ teaspoon

Preheat the oven to 150 degree Celcius. Line two 8×8 square tins with butter paper or grease well with butter.

Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar, cocoa powder and salt and set aside.

Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl over low heat, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth. Make sure to stir constantly to avoid burning it.

Take the chocolate off the heat and add the dry ingredients (from the first step) stirring constantly to get a smooth mixture.

Add the eggs and whip to get a silky smooth consistency.

Divide the batter into the two tins and bake for 25 minutes.

Once baked, cool the brownies in the tins and then carefully remove them.

For the salted caramel sauce:

• Sugar: 1 cup
• Water: ½ cup
• Sea salt: 1 teaspoon
• Cream (I used 20% fat): 200 ml.

In a pan over medium heat, add the water and sugar and allow it to caramelize. This may take about 15-20 minutes.

Once the sugar turns a golden brown colour (or slightly darker if you prefer that, like me), add the cream, whisking constantly with a wire whisk. (Use gloves or be extra careful, as the caramel tends to splutter and burn)

Stir in the salt and remove from the heat.

To assemble/serve:

Cut the brownies into 2 inch squares (or larger if you prefer) and dust liberally with cocoa powder, if using.

Drizzle salted caramel sauce generously.

Serve cold or warm in a microwave.

Eat several.

Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes

Considering how hot Delhi has been the last couple of days, I fear summer will soon be upon us. That also means that these are the last few days of strawberries, and so, I have been cramming a great many of them down my throat lately. The last batch I bought were incredibly good, almost the best I have had this season. They looked a little loopy, but that’s okay. I don’t tend to judge my food by its looks all the time. 🙂

So, armed with one last tub of cream cheese from the fridge, my (perhaps) last round of great strawberries and very little else, I decided it was time for some small yet delightful goodies. I had one warm, fresh from the oven, and it was great! I didn’t expect that to happen really, I have never had warm cheesecake, but I wasn’t disappointed at all! Of course they tasted just as great chilled.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

 You will need:

• Chocolate Oreos: 6
• Cream cheese (at room temperature): 180 gms.
• Icing sugar: ¾ cup
• Egg: 1
• Strawberries: 200 gms.
• Granulated sugar: 4 tablespoons
• Water: 4 tablespoons

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees Celsius.

Clean and roughly chop the strawberries.

In a saucepan, over medium heat, add the chopped strawberries, granulated sugar and water and bring to a boil for 20 minutes.

Cool the strawberry sauce before using.

Crush the Oreos in the grinder and keep aside.

In a bowl or in a stand mixer, whip the cream cheese with the icing sugar until creamy and smooth. Add the egg and whip until well incorporated.

Add half the strawberry sauce (make sure to add half the pieces of strawberries) into the cream cheese mixture and mix well.

In a 6-muffin tin lined with cupcake liners, divided the crushed Oreos and press down with a spoon.

Pour the cream cheese mixture equally over the Oreos.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the top begins to turn golden.

Remove from the oven, cool the mini cheesecakes and pour the remaining strawberry sauce on top and serve.

Strawberry Parfait

I caught a terrible cold recently which translated to the flu and all I could honestly think about was frozen yoghurt. The husband was dead against the idea (after all, I did call in sick!!), but the heart wants what the heart wants. Of course I had to compromise, so I didn’t make any frozen yoghurt but made some parfait which made me pretty happy! Needless to say, it really didn’t cure my cold.

You will need:

• Strawberries: 1 dozen
• Hung yoghurt: 500 gms.*
• Icing sugar: 1 cup
• Digestive biscuits: 100 gms.
• Butter (cold, cut into cubes): 25 gms.

Crush the digestive biscuits together with the butter in a food processor and keep aside.

In a food processor, blitz the hung yoghurt, strawberries and icing sugar.

Chill in the freezer for 30 minutes, and lightly whip.

To assemble, fill ¼ of the serving bowls with the digestive biscuits and top with yoghurt. Decorate with strawberries and mint leaves.

*To make hung yoghurt, add about 750 gms. yoghurt in a muslin cloth (or any cheese cloth) and gather the ends to form a pouch and tie the ends securely. Set the yoghurt in a colander with the bowl underneath. Leave it overnight in the fridge. Discard the drained whey in the bowl, untie and use as required.

(Boozy) Orange Cheesecake

Saturday was an amazing day! Four girls (together after 5 years), one boy, a lazy winter afternoon, tons of gossip and lots of food. Only problem, I totally overslept and started cooking (like a maniac) only at 10.30 in the morning (my friends were due to arrive at 1.30 in the afternoon(yikes!)) while the boy cleaned the house and made it pretty. I daresay I was pretty damn impressed with myself and managed to put together a decent lunch (baked rigatoni with bacon and gouda, grilled chicken and cheesecake!).

I have never ever made cheesecake in such a rush. All the recipes I read called for long baking and chilling time and I just did not have that much time! I just decided to go with the flow and the results were pretty amazing!!

Try this easy peasy cheesecake, I’m pretty sure you’ll love it as much as we all did (only one tiny sliver was left by the end of the afternoon!). The photos are fairly miserable, I didn’t have time to really get great shots (the greedy girls were breathing down my neck).

You will need:

• Chocolate oreos (or any other chocolate sandwich cookies, I used Dark Fantasy, which is locally available): 200 gms.
• Cream cheese: 400 gms.
• Cream (I used 20% fat cream): 200 ml.
• Icing sugar: 1 cup
• Baking powder: 1 teaspoon
• Zest of one orange
• Orange essence: 4-5 drops
• Oranges: 2 (segmented)
• Juice of one orange
• Sugar: 3 tablespoons
• Cornflour: 1/2 teaspoon
• Water: 1 tablespoon
•  Cointreau: 3 tablespoons (optional)

Preheat the oven to 175 degree Celsius.

Crush the chocolate cookies until they are like breadcrumbs.

Grease or line a springform baking pan with butter paper, and press down the cookie crumbs uniformly (use the back of a flat bottomed bowl, if you wish).

In a food processor (or use a mixing bowl), whisk the cream cheese, cream, icing sugar, baking powder, orange zest and orange essence until smooth.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 45 minutes to one hour (until firm and the top is brown).

(At this stage, do not panic, the cheesecake will bubble and rise and fall, but it will eventually brown on top and firm up.)

Remove from the oven, cool and chill in the fridge.

In a heavy bottomed pan on low heat, at the segmented oranges, orange juice, sugar and the cornflour (dissolved in the water) and boil for about 4-5 minutes until the syrup thickens and coats the back of a spoon.

Adjust the sugar depending on the tartness of the oranges.

Once cooled, add the Cointreau.

Pour over the chilled cheesecake and refrigerate for a minimum 30 minutes.

Cherry Clafoutis

It is fantastic to work in a law firm surrounded by a bunch of people who have incredible faith in my culinary mastery. For several months, a friend at work tried to convince me to bake a clafoutis, knowing fully well my obsession with stone fruit would push to me do it. I spent a lot of time checking out pictures and recipes on the internet and it looked so simple and so pretty that I had to try it out. It turned out to be gloriously fulfilling too.

 You will need:

• Cherries: 200 gms (stoned or whole)
• Sugar: 1 tablespoon + ¾ cup
• Water: 1 tablespoon
• Flour: ¾ cup
• Eggs: 3
• Milk: 1 and ½ cups
• Icing sugar, for dusting
• Baking power: ½ teaspoon
• Vanilla extract: ½ teaspoon
• Icing sugar: for dusting
• Butter: for greasing tin

Preheat the oven to 160 degree Celsius.

In a heavy bottomed pan, add the cherries, water and 1 tablespoon of sugar. On low heat, let it simmer for five minutes and keep aside.

In a food processor (or use a mixing bowl), beat the eggs and the milk together. Add the sugar and beat until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder and vanilla extract and mix well.

Grease a round tin with butter.

Pour the cherries into the tin and pour the batter gently over the cherries.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until the top starts to brown.

Dust with icing sugar and serve hot or cold.