Sticky toffee apple cake with cream cheese frosting

 

Ingredients

Plain flour -310 gm 

Baking soda - 1 tsp 

Baking powder - 2 tsp 

Salt -1/2 tsp

Pumpkin spice mix  

cinnamon - 2 tsp 

ground ginger - 1/4 tsp 

all spice - 1/2 tsp 

cloves - 1/4 tsp 

Nutmeg - 1/8 tsp 

Eggs – 4 large 

Granulated sugar - 100 gm 

Brown sugar - 200 gm 

Dates (Medjool dates) - 200 gm 

oil - 240 ml

Boiling water - 300 ml 

For Apple sauce 

2 apples 

water - 1/2 cup 

For Caramelised apple slices 

1 apple 

Butter - 1 tbs 

Brown sugar - 1 tbs 

Pecans - 100 gm (chopped)

Method 

Make dates puree

Place  Medjool dates in a saucepan, add some boiling water and cook it for about 10 mins until its soft and mushy. Let it cool. Puree it into a smooth puree in a blender.

Make apple sauce  

Peel, chop and cook two green apples (granny smith ) in half a cup of water until soft and puree it. 

Make caramelised apple slices – peel and chop apple into slices/cubes. In a pan melt butter and add chopped apples and sugar until sugar caramelises and coat apple slices. 

Make Cake

Mix flour, pumpkin spice mix, salt, baking soda, baking powder in a bowl. Sift it and keep it aside. 

Beat eggs and sugar for few minutes. 

Add oil, apple sauce and beat until just mixed. 

Add half of the sifted flour and gently fold in. 

Add dates puree, caramelised apple slices, chopped pecans and fold in. 

Finally add the rest of the sifted flour and fold in. 

Pour the batter into two 9 inch prepared cake tins and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for about 30 mins or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. 

Cream cheese frosting 

Cream cheese – 250 gm 

Mascarpone cheese – 250 gm 

Double cream – 375 ml 

Icing sugar – 100 gm ( or as per your sweetness)

Vanilla extract – 1tsp 

 Method

Whisk cream cheese and mascarpone cheese until mixed. 

Add double cream, icing sugar and vanilla and whip until soft peaks are formed. Icing is ready to use. 

Assembling 

Sandwich the two cakes with cream cheese frosting , cover and frost the cake with rest of the icing and decorate as you like. 

Chill the cake until ready to serve . Enjoy !

Strawberry cheese cake

 

Ingredients 

For the base 

Hobnob biscuits - 300 gm 

Unsalted butter melted - 80 gm 

For strawberry preserve ( for filling and topping) 

350 gm of frozen strawberry 

50 gm of sugar or according to your sweetness 

Lime juice - 25 ml 

For filling  

Cream cheese - 375 gm 

Double cream - 300 ml 

White chocolate -150 gm(melted) 

Icing sugar - 50 gm or according to your sweetness 

Half of the strawberry preserve 

Gelatine - 8 gm 

Water - 1/4cup

 

For topping 

Strawberry preserve 

Gelatine - 6 gm 

Water - 1/8 th of a cup 

Whipped cream - 200 ml

Fresh strawberries

Method 

Blitz biscuits in a food processor/mixie until it's a fine powder. 

Add melted butter to the biscuit and mix well. 

Press the biscuit mix into a loose bottomed cake pan ( 8 or 9 inch) and bake at 175 degree C for about 10 mins. Let it cool. 

Make the preserve by adding all the ingredients mentioned until preserve and cook on a medium low flame until it  reduces and thickens a bit. Should resemble like a very runny jam. Let it cool. 

In a small bowl bloom and dissolve gelatine in 1/4 cup water  

To make the filling, add cream cheese, vanilla and beat for few seconds until mixed. 

Add half of the strawberry preserve, melted white chocolate and fold gently. 

In another bowl whip double cream with some icing sugar and beat  until peaks are formed. 

Add whipped cream to the cream cheese mix and fold. 

Add gelatine and fold. 

Pour the filling on top of the biscuit base and let it chill for 2-3 hours. 

Topping 

Bloom and dissolve gelatine in 1/8 cup of water. Add this to the remaining strawberry preserve and mix well. Pour it on top of the cheesecake and let it chill again for few hours or overnight. 

Finally decorate the cheesecake with some whipped cream and fresh strawberries. 

Remove from the loose bottomed pan carefully and enjoy !

 

Chicken ullarthu

I tried this recipe from Akhila's blog Pepperdelight last month and loved it so much. It was a simple recipe but very flavourful. I did make few changes for our taste buds and I wanted to document it somewhere for my future use. Akhila was very kind and didn't mind me sharing it here. Thank you Akhila. You can find the original recipe in her blog , this is how I made it making few changes.

Ingredients

To marinate

Chicken drumsticks -  1 kilo

Kashmiri chilli powder - 2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Minced ginger - 1 tsp

Minced garlic - 1 tsp

Salt

Other Ingredients

Onions - 3 big ( thinly sliced)

Tomato - 1 small ( chopped)

Minced ginger - 1 tsp

Minced garlic - 1 tsp

Green chillies -2 (slit)

Curry leaves - 3 sprigs

Coriander powder - 2 tsp

Chicken masala - 1 1/2 tsp

Pepper powder - 1 tsp

Crushed red chilli - 1 tsp

Fennel seeds - 1tsp

Method

Make slits on chicken drumsticks and marinate it with the ingredients mentioned and keep it aside for at least  30 minutes.

In a non stick pan add some coconut oil and cook chicken covered by  adding just a little sprinkle of  water so that it doesn't stick to the bottom. Stir in between.  Once chicken is cooked and all the water has dried out keep it aside.

In another pan add some coconut oil and sputter fennel seeds.

Add in some crushed chilli flakes, curry leaves.

Add minced ginger, garlic, slit green chillies and saute for a minute or so.

Add thinly sliced onion and saute until it's light brown.

Add coriander powder, chicken masala and saute until raw smell goes.

Add chopped tomatoes and cook until tomatoes are mushed.

Finally add cooked chicken and pepper powder and roast chicken  for 5-10 minutes on a medium flame.

Add a drizzle of coconut oil in the end and garnish it with chopped coriander leaves.