It has been a long time since I baked any cake. Though V loves cakes, I hardly bake them anymore due to my busy schedule. All I am managing is to prepare some day to day food.
Now, there were two reasons to even attempt this cake. One, we had a big batch of apples at home, which needed my immediate attention. Two, V was not keeping very well and he wanted to eat some cake. I thought of making this to cheer him up.
My last few experiments with apple cake did not go very well. I wanted to make eggless apple cake(because I am sure that will be the first question from readers when I post this). We both don’t like dense cakes and the eggless cakes almost always turned out a bit dense. So this time, I didn’t even attempt to make it eggless.
This cake came out pluffy and delicious. It tasted even better the next day. I am posting this here so that I can make this more frequently. The quantity of raisins can be increased by another 1/4 cup.
Ingredients: 3 apples 2 cups all purpose flour 1 cup vegetable oil 1 tea spn vanilla extract 1/4 cup raisins 1 and 1/2 cups sugar 3 large eggs 1 and 1/2 tea spns baking powder
Method: Preheat the oven to 350F(approx 175C) for about 10mins. Cut the apple into small pieces and grind to a paste (do not peel them). To help in grinding, add the oil. Take apple paste in a big bowl and add sugar. Add vanilla extract, mix. Mix till it forms a uniform mixture. Add eggs mixing all the time. Sieve together baking powder and all purpose flour. Add little flour mixture at a time to apple mixture, mixing it all the time. Add the raisins and mix gently. Grease a oven proof dish and pour in the cake batter. Bake for about 45-50mins or till the cake it done.
Preparation time : 70mins
Pictorial:
Dried green peas are one of my favorite dried beans, they taste quite different than the fresh/frozen green peas. I like to sneak them in wherever possible. This time when I had a bunch of soaked peas, I thought of mixing them with rice to make a one pot dish. I added eggs to it as we love eggs, but this is fully optional. Fennel seeds give a very strong and nice flavor to this dish.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup dried green peas (soak overnight and pressure cook) 1 and 1/2 cups basmati rice 5 eggs (boiled, peeled and cut into pieces) (Optional) Ghee 2 Bay leaves 2 cardamom Salt
Paste – 4 cloves 1″ cinnamon 1/2 tea spn fennel seeds (badishepi/saunf) 1/2 tea spn coriander seeds 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds 4-5 red chillies 1 tea spn garlic 1 tea spn ginger 1/2 cup onion 1/2 cup tomato Oil Salt
Method: Heat oil and add cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, onion, ginger, garlic and fry for few minutes. Add tomato, little salt and let it cook till tomato becomes slightly mushy. Add chillies and mix again. Grind it to a paste (I left it a little coarse, make a smooth paste if desired). Heat ghee and add cardamom and bay leaf. Add washed rice and fry for few minutes. Add paste, mix. Add salt, cooked peas and eggs (if using). Pour in about 3 cups water (be careful while adding water, if cooked peas have a lot of water, modify the water added at this step). Cook till done. Serve hot on its own or with raita.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 50mins
Pictorial:
