Marble Cake

Ingredients

Plain Flour (maida)  -  3 ½ cup

Baking powder  - 3 tsp

Butter  -  1 cup

Powdered sugar – 2 ½ cups

Eggs   -  4 cups

Buttermilk   - 1 cup

Vanilla essence  -2 ½  tsp

Salt

Caramelised sugar  - ½ cup

Cocoa powder  - 2 tbsp

To  caramelise sugar

Take two sauce pan. In one,  pour half cup of

water and keep on slow fire.  Simultaneously in

in another sauce pan, spoon in a teaspoon of

butter and half a cup of sugar and keep on

low flame and let it caramelise. As the the

sugar caramelise, and gets dark colour, pour in

carefully - boiling water from other sauce pan.

Turn off the flame and let  it cool.

Preparation

Sieve,   flour  and  baking powder twice and keep aside.

Beat powdered sugar and butter to get a smooth

texture.  Add eggs one by one and mix well.

Now  add  vanilla essence, salt  and pour in ¾  of the

 buttermilk and reserve quarter  of the

butter milk to use later.

Now spoon by spoon fold in seived flour.

Pour half of the batter in another

mixing bowl to make a chocolate batter.

Pour in caramelised sugar and cocoa powder

and mix well.

Both vanilla and chocolate batter should have

same consistency. If needed add the reserved

buttermilk to the thicker batter.

In the baking tray in the centre pour a tablespoon

Of chocolate batter , and on top of it pour a tablespoon of

Vanilla batter. It will spread naturally as you pour on top.

Repeat the same process till both the batter is over.

Tap slowly the baking tray on the table to release

any air trapped in the batter.

Bake it in a pre- heated oven 180c for 40 to 45 minutes.

Insert a skewer in the centre of the cake and check

if the skewer has come out clean or bake till the skewer

comes  out clean.

A beautiful cake with its layers!!!

Chakka Kumbil Appam (jackfruit Appam)

Ingredients

Sweet   jack fruit   - 2 cups
Rice  flour   - 1  cup
Semolina      - 1/2 cup
Sugar            - 3 tbsp
salt
Bay leaves (vazhana ela)
Toothpick

Preparation

Make a  cone (kumbil) shape  with each  green bay leaf and tooth pick  and keep aside.
Remove the seeds from the jack fruit.
In a mixer bowl,  make a smooth paste of the sweet yellow jack fruit.
In a bowl, put rice flour, semolina, sugar, salt and jack fruit paste and stir.
If needed One or two table spoons of milk can be added. 
It depends how much the Jack fruit is ripe.
With a spoon pour the mixture into each bay leaf cone and 
keep in a steamer for 20 minutes.
Serve as it cools.

As the Appams have the natural  flavour of jack fruit and bay leaves, no other flavours are required.

There are two types of jack fruit - Varikka and Kuuzha.
Varikka – has a thick texture.
Kuuzha – has a thread like texture as it ripens.
To make Appam  from Kuuzha - jack fruit, sieve the jack fruit and ensure that there is no thread.