If you love eating, you can surely be a good cook, but to be an excellent one, you should have good critics at home. For that I owe to my husband and my children.

I dedicate this blog to the young ladies - "the starters".

Monday, December 22, 2008

Orange Yogurt Cake



Ingredients

Flour (maida) - 2 cups
Baking powder - ½ tsp
Butter - ¾ cup
Sugar - 1 ½ cup
Eggs – 3
Yougurt - ½ cup
Orange juice - ½ cup
Orange zest - 1 tbsp
Vanilla essence - ½ tsp
Salt - ¼ tsp

Preparation

Add baking powder to the flour sieve twice
sprinkle orange zest in the flour and keep aside.
Powder the sugar and mix well with soft butter.
Separate egg yolks and white.
Add the yolks and salt to the butter sugar mixture
beat to a silky consistency.
Beat egg whites to its peak and keep aside.
Add yogurt, orange juice and vanilla essence
spoon by spoon and whisk well.
Fold in the egg whites .
Now spoon by spoon add in
flour and baking powder mixture.
Grease the baking pan with butter and dust with flour.

Pre heat the oven at 180 .
Bake the cake for 45 to50 minutes.
After 45 minutes insert a skewer and
if the skewer comes out clean, the cake
is done. If it is sticky keep again in the oven for
few more minutes.
Let the cake pan cool on the wire mesh for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes remove from the pan
And brush it with orange glaze.

Orange glaze

Orange juice -3 tbsp
Sugar - 6 tbsp
Rum -1 tsp
Butter - ½ tsp
Mix sugar in orange juice and keep on low flame.
Take out from flame and immediately add rum and butter.
Brush the glaze on the cake for sweet and golden colour.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Christmas Cake with Royal Icing



"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace,
good will toward men!"

Merry Christmas to all my friends!

For recipe, refer to my previous posts
(Christmas cake, Tea cake and Royal Icing).

Monday, December 1, 2008

Panettone( Italian Sweet Bread)



Panettone is a sweet Italian bread traditionaly
cupola(dome)shaped, made mostly during
Christmas and New Year.

Legends and history add to its popularity.
One story dates back to 15th century Court of
the duke of Milan, where a kitchen boy, 'Toni', baked
a sweet bread for christmas and the court cook presented
it to the guests as a sweet dish.
In appreciation,this sweet bread was named -
Toni's bread (Pan de Toni).

There are lots of variations found in this recipe.
Almost all the ingredients used in christmas cake is
included in this recipe.

In Italy this bread is served mainly with a
glass of wine and 'cream of mascarpone' made from
mascarpone cheese.

'Panettone' is truly a bread of luxury.

Ingredients

Flour - 2 ½ cups
Sugar - 1/3 cup
Dry yeast – 2 ½ tsp
Salt -1/4 tsp
Warm milk - ½ cup
Soft butter – ¼ cup
Eggs - 3 large
Raisins - 1 cup
Orange zest - 1 tbsp

Preparation

In a cup of warm milk add 1 tablespoon of
sugar and dissolve yeast;
keep aside to rise in a warm place.

Take a large bowl beat eggs, add the remaining sugar, salt, butter,
the doubled yeast in milk, raisins and flour. Mix well and pour
into a greased, dusted baking dish, cover it with a warm
moist cloth.
Keep in a warm place again for the dough to double for about
2 to 4 hours.
Preheat the oven and bake the bread for 35 minutes.
As soon as you take it from the oven, with a skewer, pierce
the top of the bread all over and pour hot rum syrup.
After about 10 minutes remove from the baking dish .

Serve panettone with plain soft butter and a glass of wine.
This sweet and soft panettone will be a
great hit on your christmas table....

Rum Syrup

Rum - 1/3 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Combine rum and sugar and bring to a boil.
Turn off the flame and pour the rum syrup hot on the bread.

All the ingredients specially yeast should be fresh and
in room temperature for best results.