Happy Easter!!

Wishing you all a fun and happy Easter. To celebrate,Tassia and I decided to do something different this year and made some chocolate cupcakes and some Orange cakes.

The orange cake was a big hit and we would like to share the recipe with you so here goes...

Ingredients
Sugar 200 gms
Self Raising flour 250 gms
Butter 200 gms
Eggs 4
Orange rind 1/2. Tsp
Orange juice 120 ml
Marmalade 1tbs

Beat the eggs and sugar. Add the butter and keep beating . Then add the rind , juice , the marmalade and beat. Add the sieved flour and mix . Pour in greased tray and bake at 170 deg till ready.

When cooled, add the topping ( see below). This can be done on individual squares or on the whole cake.

Topping

Icing sugar. 200 gms
Orange juice. 30 ml

Put the icing Sugar in a bowl and add the juice slowly till you get the required pouring consistency. It should be smooth and thick.
Pour on the cooled cake . Allow to rest. The topping will set in a little while.
Decorate with strands of lemon,lime and orange rind.

Healthy chocolate hazelnut cupcakes

Nigel is a big fan of nutella. So what would be a better birthday cake for him then a chocolate hazelnut cake. I dint have a lot of time so I made cupcakes since they bake a bit quicker. While we did have some people over, I knew that we would be eating a lot of the cupcakes and I wanted to try and make them a bit healthier so I used wholewheat flour, honey and ricebran oil instead of refined flour, white sugar and butter. They turned out pretty good:-)

However it was a birthday cake and what kind of birthday would it be if there wasn't a bit of indulgence? So I did soak the cupcakes in rum and frost them with nutella(which was brilliant, if I do say so myself :-). Quick and delicious!)

So here is the recipe I used for the cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 eggs
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup rice bran oil
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or grated chocolate (you can use milk chocolate if you prefer)
1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour

Fosting: Nutella spread
Rum for soaking the cupcakes(you can leave this out if you want)
Hazelnuts for decoration

Method:
Whisk eggs,oil and honey.  Mix in orange juice.  Fold in sieved flour and cocoa. Gently fold in the chocolate. Pour mixture into cupcake tray and bake in a preheated oven for about 20 minutes. Each oven is different so make sure you watch the cupcake to ensure the are not overcooked.

Once cooled, drizzle with rum, top with nutella and garnish with hazelnuts

A sunday afternoon with blueberry muffins

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon then sitting on the couch with a book, a hot cup of tea and freshly baked blueberry muffins!

As mentioned in a previous post, I have been experimenting with trying to make all time favourites like muffins healthier. Everybody loves cakes, and whats better than finding a way to be able to eat them more often!

Inspired by a a recipe  from a cookbook I recently found called "Have Your Cake" by the Australian author Emily Rose, I have tried making muffins by replacing butter, sugar and white flour with oil, honey and wholewheat flour. I did not have orange juice so I added a little apple cider vinegar for the acidity...And the result:- An addictive morning or afternoon snack!

Decadent Sanrival

I found this picture on my phone from last Christmas. Its my mum's famous Sanrival which is an indulgent cashew-nut meringue butter cream dessert cake. One bite and you know there is no going back! :-)

To learn how to make it, contact Fatima Moniz on +91 9370275702 or 0832 2776035 to find out when the next Sanrival making class is.

Vanilla Butter Cake which Chocolate Ganache and Strawberry Topping

Here is one of my mum's recipes I used, to make a birthday cake for my cousin Lyell.
It was deliciously sinful!

Ingredients

Flour: 300 gms
Butter: 200 gms
Curds: 100 gms
Eggs: 6
Vanilla:1/2 tsp
Baking soda: ½ tsp
Hot water:2 tbs
Sugar:300 gms
Chopped dark chocolate: 250gms
Full cream: 1/3rd Cup

Cake

Beat the sugar and butter. Add the eggs and beat until fluffy .Add curds and beat. Add the

sieved flour with b. soda, then the hot water and fold. Bake in a greased and floured mould until cake leaves the side of the tin and skewer pierced into the cake come out clean.

Topping

Mix the chopped dark chocolate and the full cream in a bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir mixture until smooth and shiny. Set aside and allow to cool a little. Inhale the aroma for that nice fuzzy feeling. Spread around cake and decorate with sliced strawberries.