Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Sorry for just suddenly dying for a year and a half. Life sorta just happened.

Hopefully I'll get back into blogging more frequently. fingers crossed.

This dessert is one of my all-time favourite desserts. My mum used to make it for special occasions/functions at home back in the day. I haven't had it in about a good 6 years at least, I think. Now that I'm back home and we were having a sorta dinner thingy at home I wanted to eat it soooo badly. My mum fussed saying that it was too much effort and she couldn't be bothered. So I took up the challenge to make it. I had never made it before, nor have I ever seen one being made. Anyhoo, i jumped right into it. everyone at the dinner loved it, and were equally excited that there was pineapple upside down because they hadn't eaten it in ages.

Your Challenge: Turn your world upside-down with a Pineapple Upside-Down

 

Ready --- Steady --- Cook

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

(Serves 10)

INGREDIENTS:

1 Pineapple sliced

250g Jaggery (grated)

230g Flour

230g Sugar

115g Butter/margarine

4 Eggs

1 tsp Baking powder

1 tbs Vanilla

Pinch of salt

extra butter to grease and dot 

cherries for decoration

METHOD:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C. Grease baking tray with butter.

2. spread a relatively thick layer of grated jaggery evenly in the tray. (1cm)

3. dot the jaggery with small bits of butter (help the jaggery melt when baking)

4. take out the pineapple cores and arrange them in the tray.

5. melt the butter and set aside to cool.

6. beat eggs and sugar together on high speed till light and fluffy.

7. mix the dry ingredients togther and fold it into the egg/sugar mixture gradually.

8. gradually fold in the melted butter till mixed well.

9. pour into pan and bake for 30-40 minutes until baked.

10. once out of the oven turn it over onto a serving dish and put cherries.

11. Serve hot or cold with ice cream.

 

Challenge Accepted???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

In school we used to go for these girls school District and All-Island Tennis Tournaments. The thing we used to look forward to the most was the amount of food we will be consuming during that week. Tennis matches were the best! Our team consisted of a bunch of really close friends who just constantly had fun. Up-to-date we still remember the silly things that we used to do at the matches and roll on the floor laughing. We didn't have superstar players but we always managed to at least bag second place. Jam and I were doubles partners, we were even on TV once because of this crazy intensely long match we played. Everyone at the tennis club knew who we were after watching that match, thus they came to watch the final match and we failed miserably at it. Whatever, we had fun anyway. 

So getting back to the food, I used to bring these massively awesome hotdogs and 'fried items'. I loved sausages, they were my thing and my team mates look forward to eating them because they were so so so good. The other favourite thing we did was buy a 600ml bottle of strawberry milk from the canteen. It was this gigantic pink bottle which finished in a few seconds because everyone just pounces at the person carrying it. And our all time favourite food at the tennis club was what they sold in the fancy gym attached to it. CHOCOLATE OATMEAL COOKIES. I have never been a fan of oatmeal for some weird reason. Always thought it was old peoples food. I was sceptical initially when everyone was buying it. The only reason we ventured in to the gym was because it was Air Conditioned and we couldn't bare the heat outside anymore. I'm glad we ventured in, because they were soo yummy. They had different flavours but the Chocolate one was my favourite. 5-6 years later I decided to make some at home. It was good. They get gooey after a day or two, initially they are a little cake-y. But it brought back fond memories. Missing and reminiscing. Good times, best food, great friends, awesome memories. Those were the days.

Your Challenge: oatmeal is healthy, so don't feel guilty.

Ready ---  Steady --- Bake!

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

(Makes 25 approx.)

INGREDIENTS: 

100 g all-purpose flour 

15g unsweetened cocoa powder 

1g ground cinnamon 

95g margarine/butter

60g brown sugar 

85g white sugar 

1 egg 

4ml vanilla extract 

85g rolled oats 

70g semisweet chocolate chips (optional) 

3g baking powder (only if using Plain Flour)

2g baking soda (only if using Plain Flour)

3g salt  (only if using Unsalted Butter)

 

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F). Grease cookie sheets. Stir together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; set aside. 

2. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients using a wooden spoon. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies. 

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Note: If you want it to be a bit more gooey than Cake-y, add a bit more butter or an egg OR reduce the amount of flour. If using plain flour, then reduce the amount of baking soda and baking powder to reduce it from fluffing up too much.

Ps: the batter tastes amazing. You have to have some raw. 

Challenge Accepted???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth

Quick Cake in a Mug

So Podi-Peré and Lady Shwij came to visit me at my Crib of Awesomeness (yes, it's a real place. One at a time ladies, please!). Well technically they came to visit Schmelly my dog. Whatever! still counts. That Lady Shwij is such a useless bugger (lady), she's been 'trying' to visit for the last 2 months and finally ran out of excuses. Anyway, cooked a Lankan meal: Rice, Pol Roti, Chili Chicken, Dahl, and Vambatu, the lot. Stuffed our selves, gossiped like school girls, stalked like loners and laughed at Youtube clips, then craved some dessert. So Lady Shwij had the brilliant idea of making Cake-in-a-Mug. It literally takes like 5 minutes to whip it up. 3 minutes to mix the stuff 'thoroughly' under Lady Shwij's bossy supervision and then 2 minutes to microwave and 0 minutes to eat it. It was good, we may have put a bit too much peppermint and we were all rolling around with a chocolate food baby afterwards, but what-evs, twas still good. 

Your Challenge:  whip up a couple-a Mug Cakes instead of Cupcakes.

 

 

Ready---Steady---Microwave!

Quick Cake in a Mug

(serves 2)

INGREDIENTS:

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons oil
1 dash vanilla
1 dash salt (optional)
1 dash baking powder (optional)

1 dash of mint essence (optional)

METHOD:

1. Put all ingredients in a large mug and mix well.
2. Separate batter in to 2 microwavable mugs

3. Microwave for 3 minutes.
4. You will see cake rise, but it will fall when you take it out of the microwave. Microwave times may vary. If it looks done 15 or so seconds earlier, take it out.
5. Serve with some ice cream or whipped cream.

Note: We used a gigantic mug and doubled the quantities. Don't fill the mug right to the top with batter, because it will overflow and make a huge mess like our one.

Challenge Accepted???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth

Super Duper Awesomely Gooey Chocolate Brownies

Welcome to my first legit post.

This was one of the first things I ever made (March 2012), since I moved out of College catered halls and into this amazing realm of cooking independence at my new pad. I was hosting a small party at my new crib of awesomeness, which is more formally called 'Tosakanth's Crib of Awesomeness',  because my house-mate was on holiday and thought it would be the best time to host a little gathering for my little friendas in Sydney, and also because I love hosting things.

My friends are suckers for brownies. I think it's a Sri Lankan thing. Brownies are considered to be this divine food fit only for the gods, so you vacuum it up at the sight of it because no one cares about manners when it comes to gooey chocolatey goodness.

Anyway, moral of the story--- my friends absolutely adored it, which made me extremely happy. We also won the Cricket match against some country we were playing at some random tournament, somewhere in the world. Win-Win!

Your challenge : give it a go and let me know (oh-hey, I'm also a lyrical genius)

Ready --- Steady --- Cook

Super Duper Awesomely Gooey Chocolate Brownies

Makes 16 larger or 25 smaller brownies

 INGREDIENTS:

140g Butter
280g Sugar
85g unsweetened Cocoa Powder (natural or Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon Salt 

1/2 teaspoon pure Vanilla extract
2 large Eggs, cold
65g All-Purpose Flour
2/3 cup walnut, pecan, macadamia pieces (optional)

Cooking Chocolate chopped/Chocolate chips (optional)

 METHOD:

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 160°C. Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.

1.   Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and set the bowl in a wide skillet of barely simmering water (double boil).

2.   Stir from time to time until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test.

3.   Remove the bowl from the skillet and set aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot. It looks fairly gritty at this point, but don’t fret — it smooths out once the eggs and flour are added. [Note, this step works just fine in the microwave]

4.   Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon.

5.   Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one.

6.   When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula.

7.   Stir in the nuts and extra cooking chocolate/chocolate chips, if using.

8.   Spread evenly in the lined pan.

-Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 20 to 25 minutes. Just keep an eye out, my oven takes various times to bake. Let cool completely on a rack. 

-To cut with clean lines, you can put it in the fridge or freezer for a bit.

Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares. 

adapted from: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Best-Cocoa-Brownies-108346

Challenge Accepted ???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth