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 Eclairs

As a fellow Lankan, Eclairs are a famous 'short eat' savoured by every member of the family. Yet people find it rather a hard task to make it and thus they'd rather buy it from a pastry shop. You get all sorts of different flavours. Filled with cream, chocolate icing, fruits, coffee icing or any other weird concoction you can come up with. My dad absolutely loves them because he has the biggest sweet tooth and so my mum makes a super sweet icing filling because the chocolate ganache on top is not sweet enough for him. My friend Princess has been asking me to make eclairs and post on the blog so that she can do it herself. I finally got myself to make it because I was craving Lankan stuff. Mainly because I haven't been home in over a year! So I did. I made it. It came out pretty well I believe. Take a look for yourself.

Your Challenge: Make some Eclairs to feed your true Lankan soul.

 

        

           

Ready --- Steady --- Bake!

Chocolate Eclairs
(serves 10)

INGREDIENTS:

116g butter

240ml water

113g all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

600ml cups cold milk

240ml heavy cream

50g confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate

2 tablespoons butter

113g confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons hot water or milk

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 230°C. Grease a cookie sheet.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine 116g butter and 240ml water. Bring to a boil, stirring until butter melts completely. 
3. Reduce heat to low, and add flour and salt. Stir vigorously until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and begins to form a stiff ball. Remove from heat. 
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well to incorporate completely after each addition. 
5. With a spoon or a pastry bag fitted with a No. 10, or larger, tip, spoon or pipe dough onto cookie sheet in 1 1/2 x 4 inch strips.
6. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce heat to 165°C and bake 20 minutes more, until hollow sounding when lightly tapped on the bottom. Cool completely on a wire rack. (times depend on the oven)
7. For the filling, combine pudding mix and milk in medium bowl according to package directions. 
8. In a separate bowl, beat the cream with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Beat in 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
9.  Fold whipped cream into pudding mixture. 
10. Cut tops off of cooled pastry shells with a sharp knife. Fill shells with pudding mixture and replace tops. Alternatively, make a slit on the side of the Choux pastry with a scissor and fill.
11. For the chocolate coating, double boil the chocolate and 2 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan over low heat.
12.  Stir in 113g confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in hot water or milk, one tablespoon at a time, until icing is smooth and has reached desired consistency. 
13. Remove from heat, cool slightly, and drizzle over filled eclairs. Refrigerate until serving. 

  Challenge Accepted ???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth

Christmas Cake

It's Christmas time, mistletoe and wine and I'm not home  for Christmas this year. Sad face. Tosakanth is sad. Christmas is my favourite time of year to be in Sri Lanka because my family and the extended jingband all go for a Christmas breakfast at a family friends place. It's the bestest thing ever. AuntyChurchVillage makes the best breudher ever ever. I personally hate breudher because it's always really dry and full of raisins and stuff that I don't like. But this lady's breudher is to die for. I look forward to this day the whole year and I eat till I pop. Second most awesomest thing about Christmas at home is Christmas dinner at my friend BigMommaR's place. I've been attending her Christmas dinners now for about 6 years I think and it's so much fun. A bunch of fun fellas having homemade Christmas dinner and then afterwards playing havoc with  firecrackers. Our favourite thing to do is sweep the bambara chuckra (the spinny wheely thing) with a broom as far as we can using our hockey skills. best times. sigh.  So anyway, this time I won't be enjoying any of those fun stuff because I'm all alone in Sydney. To numb the pain (and also because I love throwing parties) I decided to have a Christmas Jingle at my place for all those orphaned loners who are in Sydney with me. I wanted to do something authentically Christmassy for dessert. So decided to make Christmas pudding. My mother always fusses and says what a painful task it is because it takes so long to make and all the ingredients are really expensive and stuff. But I think I managed to do a super job of it. although I did want to make pudding and not cake, once I had finished making the batter I decided to bake it instead and make it a cake because steaming it would take forever and I didn't have forever. But O.M.G. the cake is divine. It is soooo moist and rich that I myself am very impressed by how it turned out. 

Your Challenge: This cake is all you will want for Christmas. Trust me. Mariah Carey is lying to you.

  

 

             

Ready --- Steady --- Bake!

Christmas Cake
(Serves 10)

INGREDIENTS: 

100g sultanas 

100g raisins 
100g currants

50g glace cherries, chopped 
50g candied peel
50g ginger preserve, chopped

50g mixed glace fruits. chopped
50g pineapple, Chopped
50g chopped nuts (almonds, cashew, hazelnuts, walnuts etc)

125ml (1/2 cup) brandy 

125g butter, softened 

155g (3/4 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar 
50g white sugar

60ml (1/4 cup) golden syrup 
30ml Honey

2 eggs 

125g good quality dark cooking chocolate, melted 

75g (1/2 cup) plain flour, sifted 

55g (3/4 cup) breadcrumbs

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 

1/2 teaspoon allspice 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 tbs brandy, extra, to serve

 

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to180°C.

2. Line cake pan with baking paper. (two 9-inch cake pans)

3. Combine the fruits (sultanas, raisins, currants, candied peel, pineapple, ginger, cherries, nuts and glace fruit) in a glass or ceramic bowl. 

4. Place brandy in a heatproof, microwave-safe jug. Cover with plastic wrap and heat on High/800watts/100% for 1-2 minutes or until hot. 

5. Pour brandy over fruit mixture and stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes to macerate.

6. Use an electric beater to beat the butter, sugar, honey and golden syrup in a large bowl until thick and pale. 

7. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

8. Add the melted chocolate and beat well

9. Add the batter into the fruit mixture, and stir until well combined. 

10. Add flour, breadcrumbs, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, and stir until well combined.

11. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tray and bake for about 35 minutes until toothpick comes out dry. 

12. serve with a brandy butter cream cheese icing.

Note: if you want to make Christmas pudding instead

Cover with 2 layers of baking paper. Tie unwaxed white kitchen string under the rim of the basin to secure. Cook on Defrost/350watts/30% for 20-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the pudding comes out clean. Drizzle with extra brandy and set aside for 15 minutes. Turn pudding onto a plate and cut into slices to serve.

Challenge Accepted ???

Have yourself a MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS, my internet buddies!

Enjoy!

Tosakanth

 

Moist Carrot Cake

Ok, I know what you are thinking. "Why carrot cake out of all the things you could have made and posted about, whyy whyyyyy?" Sri lankans have this mutual hate or detest for putting vegetables in their desserts. I get it, I really do. The first time I heard about carrot cake when I was a itsy bitsy little kid I was as repulsed as you are right now about the thought of it. "Ewww carrots?, why carrots?, and why in a cake?, that must be fowl". But seriously once you get out of your little Lankan comfort zone and try things that are 'weird' it really does open your eyes to endless food possibilities. That's exactly what happened to me. My cousin made some carrot cake when I was about 12 years old, although I was sceptical to try it, I did anyway and my mind = BLOWN. It really is an amazing concoction. You have to try to it believe it. And for all those who already thought putting carrot in a cake was a brilliant idea - you are special.

So, finally about a decade later I found this super awesome carrot cake recipe and wanted to give it a go, but realised I didn't have any carrots at home. So I kept putting it off until now. One of the subjects that I'm doing for my HR course requires me to do a 30min theory presentation/training session for my class and the following session is going to be the practical training session where I teach the class a skill in 30 minutes. I decided to do cake decorating as my skill. Although I'm pretty crap at it, I thought I could get my sister to teach me a few things about fondant modelling. For the theory session I did a presentation on cakes. History, types, flavours, cake decorating tools, ingredients etc. I decided to make a carrot cake for the class to enjoy after my training session and also to bribe the bitch! The bitch is my teacher. I do not like her at all. If the name-calling did not suggest that, I'm telling you that she's an absolute meanie. She's the biggest bully ever. She picks someone she doesn't like and just keeps going at them. And as per usual, I was picked. I thought I left all that nonsense behind in school. But I thought wrong. In school teachers either loved me or absolutely HATED me, there was never any middle ground. Some liked the tomboyishness and others just thought I was trouble just by looking at me. I thought once you grow up and move on to tertiary education that shit would stop. But I guess this woman clearly doesn't agree. Anyway, whatever! I passed the theory session. So all's well in the world, until next week when I have to train the class on fondant decorating. Help!

Anyway, back to the carrot cake. Got side tracked as usual. I have to say that this is the most amazing cake I have ever made. It is so amazingly yummily superbly moist. I cannot believe how good it is myself. You must try it. My housemate Loopi doesn't even like carrot cake or nuts for that matter, but she was orgasming after she ate it. Although the process seems really long, it's quite simple. So give it a go and let me know!

Your Challenge: Moist carrot, what a challenge!

 

 

 

 Ready --- Steady --- Bake!

Moist Carrot Cake
(serves 10 or more) 

INGREDIENTS:

240g  All Purpose Flour or Self Raising Flour

300g  Sugar

50g  Brown Sugar, packed (dark or light)

1 1/2 teaspoon  Baking Soda (if using all purpose flour)

1 teaspoon  Baking Powder (if using all purpose flour)

1 teaspoon  Salt

4 teaspoon  Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon  Nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon  Ground Cloves 

1/4 teaspoon  Ground Ginger

200g Finely Grated Peeled Carrot

85g  Coconut Flakes, sweetened

225g  Crushed Pineapple or Peaches, drained

       (reserve 2 Tablespoon of drained Pineapple/Peach juice)

110g  Nuts (Cashews, Walnuts or Pecans) Chopped into small pieces

200g/250ml  Vegetable Oil

2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 tablespoons Maple Syrup
1 Tablespoon  Orange Zest, Fresh and Finely Grated 

3  Eggs, extra large

165g  Raisins (Optional)

Cream Cheese Frosting:

70g butter

170g icing sugar

125g cream cheese

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

 

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. 

2.  Prepare two 9 inch cake pans by spraying with Vegetable non-stick spray (like Pam Spray) and line with a parchment paper round on the bottom then spray the top of the parchment.  Or spray a 9 X 13 baking pan with Vegetable non stick spray (like Pam Spray) or use 20 jumbo Cupcake liners in a Muffin tin without using Pam spray. 

3. In a large bowl whisk well:  Flour, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Salt, all Spices. 

4. Peel then Grate approx 5-6 medium Carrots to yield 2 cups packed.  Grate Carrots finely to no more than 1/4 inch pieces.  Or process in a food processor until finely grated but not mush.  It is important that you peel the Carrots before grating.  You do not want the tough skins in your cake. 

5. In a medium bowl or KitchenAid bowl add Carrots, Grated Fresh Orange Peel, Drained Pineapple, Raisins (optional), Coconut Flakes, Walnuts or Pecans and mix well with a big spoon.   

6. To this mixture add the Vegetable Oil, Vanilla Extract and Eggs one at a time mixing in well then add the reserved Pineapple/peach juice and maple syrup and mix well.  Scrape down bowl often.   

7. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a hand mixer or Kitchen Aid for  about 1 minute until well mixed.  Do not over mix. 

8. Pour divided into prepared (as above) 9 inch cake pans, or 9 X 13 pan, or approximately 20 Cupcake liners filled 3/4 full or a 9 X 13 baking sheet sprayed with Pam but no parchment paper needed.   

9. Bake at 180°C for 25-30 mins for Cupcakes,  

35-40 minutes for 9 inch layer cakes and 

45-50 mins for 9 X 13 in the center of the oven.  

Half way through cooking rotate the pans for even cooking.  A toothpick will come out clean when done.  All ovens vary in timing so check at lowest time first and if not done put back in oven and recheck in 2- 3 minutes. My oven took about 30mins to bake.

10. For the icing: whip butter and icing sugar together till smooth. Then add the cream cheese and mix well. Add vanilla in last to get a smooth texture. You may add a pinch of salt if it is too sweet.

11. Allow the cake to cool completely in pan for 1-2 hrs. before removing to ice with Cream Cheese Icing.   Place 1/4 of icing between the two layers and when placing the top cake layer on, put the flat side of the cake (the bottom when it was in the cake pan) facing up for a flat top which makes a more attractive cake and easier to ice. dust with a little ground cinnamon for effect.


Challenge Accepted ??? 

Enjoy!

Tosakanth