Masala Coffee Cake

Masala Coffee Cake

Flour, Eggs, Sugar and Spice……….a tasty cake that’s low on cholesterol too………..isn’t that nice.

Ok, lame attempt at rhyming. I baked a cake that can be called as my recipe for the first time. I have baked several cakes following other recipes ( and following them to a ‘T’) but this time, I tried to bake a cake as I please……………and succeeded:).   Hurray  !! Ok, let me not brag too much………..I admit the idea was my Mom’s but …………..Mummy had baked a cake with strong clove flavor which was in turn inspired by masala coffee. To me, Mummy’s masala coffee was a revelation too :))

I made a smaller cake (I was experimenting;), not sure, it would turn out this good! )

The recipe: Ideal for 9″ round pan or even a 9″x 5″ loaf pan

• cloves ground 1 Tbsp/ 10 cloves of cloves ground fine
• nutmeg  ground 1/2 Tbsp.
• ginger ground 1 tsp./fresh grated ginger 1/2 tsp.
• instant coffee 2 Tbsp.
• sugar 6 Tbsp.
• milk 1 Tbsp.
• water 1 Tbsp.
• egg whites 4
• margarine/ butter 1/3 cup
• sugar 2/3 cup
• vanilla extract 1/2 tsp.
• all purpose flour 2/3 cup
• whole wheat flour 1/3 cup
• baking powder 1 Tbsp.
• baking soda 1/2 tsp.
• cashews, raisins and chocolate chips for garnish

Instant coffee, ground nutmeg, ground ginger and cloves ready to be ground in my shining mortar and pestle

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare the pan by greasing the pan and coating it with flour.

Mix the cloves, nutmeg and ginger with water and heat in the microwave. Add milk, sugar and coffee to the hot spices. I whipped the coffee really well to make it quite foamy. It changed its color from very dark brown to very pale brown. I even earned myself a blister in trying too hard:).

Spice mix with water and coffee

Coffee well beaten up!!

Beat the egg whites till soft peaks form. Set it aside. Beat margarine and sugar well. Add vanilla extract and beat again. In a large bowl, mix the flours, baking powder and baking soda. To the flour mixture, add the beaten margarine, sugar mix. Next, fold in the egg whites and the beaten coffee. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 22-25 minutes.One could add the dry fruits in this batter as well, but I added the garnish after the cake was kept in the oven for 20 minutes.

Here’s my cake batter………..

And, voila……….spicy masala coffee cake is ready!!

…………And here’s my delicious masala coffee cake……….Enjoy!!

This is my entry to Sunita’s Think spice…Think cloves event hosted by  Canela & Comino ……….author of wonderful Peruvian food blog.

Daal ka Dulha

Hi, Not that I have started looking for a dulha or groom for my daughter already. Daal ka dulha is the name of a favorite recipe of mine. After eating 3-4 types of pasta that I had been making for my mother, Mummy (with a smile) asked me if I had made daal ka dulha in the recent past? I had completely forgotten about daal ka dulha these years.

I mentioned pasta cause daal ka dulha comes closest to pasta in North Indian cuisine (of course leaving vermicelli aside). This recipe can also be called a very crude form of Daal bati……….but crude really:)).

Daal ka Dulha

Recipe:

Initial tempering:

• Oil 1/2 tsp
• cumin seeds 1/2 tsp.
• turmeric powder 1 tsp

For Daal:

• Toor Daal 2 cups
• Water 6 cups
• sugar 1 tsp
• salt to taste

For Dulha:(This is the ratio for making roti dough.About 1/10th is used to make the dulhas in the daal given)

• Whole wheat flour 4 cups
• water 1 3/4 cups
• salt (optional)

Final tempering:

• Oil (preferably ghee) 2 Tbsp
• asafoetida 1 tsp
• cumin seeds 1 Tbsp
• red chilli powder 2 tsp

Ok, this is a quick, simple one. Begin by making plain simple toor daal as detailed in my everyday daal post Arhar daal.  That is : add the initial tempering, add daal ingredients and give two whistles in a pressure cooker.

Make the whole wheat dough (which is basically roti dough). The directions for making the dough is detailed  in  Beginning with the staple: The ROTI . The important part of this recipe is making the dulha. Take a small ball in the and thin it it out with fingers. One could use a rolling pin, but traditionally hands were used to flatten the dough ball. Once you have made it quite thin. Apply a dropful of ghee or oil in the center of the flattened disc. Bring  four ends of the disc together and pinch making a flower like shape.  The shape is very important as it allows the daal to seep in and soften the dulha. 6 to 8 dulhas can be made per person.

When the cooker is safe to be opened, open the cooker cover. Add the dulhas  while the daal in the cooker is hot, otherwise the dulhas don’t soften properly. Close the pressure cooker and give two more whistles. When the pressure cooker is cool enough to be opened, add the final tempering. The plain daal also tastes more delicious than usual. One could try adding this in everyday daal to see if they like the taste of it before making a complete meal only of daal ka dulha.

And daal ka dulha is ready to be served. A drop of ghee in individual servings adds a lot of taste. Anybody fond of pasta should like this, though this is quite an old simple recipe concocted when women of the house would be in a hurry. There are other varieties of dulhas like stuffed about which I will post soon. This is the simplest form. This is also my entry in Lights Out, Knives Out event  hosted by Celine Asril. This is a great earth hour event in which no electricity is used in cooking. Well! in this recipe, no electricity is used (apart from using an electric stove) nor are any knives used:)

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Daal ka Dulha with pickle………..fabulous afternoon meal

Finally, my turn to announce the arrival of spring

 

The same tree laden with snow a few months back is now bursting with leaves

 

Freshest Green

Most of the people reading this post must have already noticed the arrival of spring this year. I have taken this long to write in my post:). Actually, spring came early to my home. Our daughter was born in February completing our family. My son is quite excited and pleased with his baby sister but both of them do end up competing for my attention. I am looking forward to some excellent years ahead filled with love AND sibling rivalry. Hopefully, the sibling rivalry part will remain at its minimum. I have never experienced that personally (not that I missed it at all being an only child) so it will be a new experience for me too……

My parents were here to help me during my delivery. It was great being able to spend some time with my parents again. That just got me thinking……………that my time with my folks is such a sweet, distant memory today. I am glad I could spend quality time with my parents as I was growing up. I would not trade that time for any amount of money or luxury. 15-16 years sounds like a long time but with kids growing up, I am sure, time will just fly. THAT sometimes, makes it all worthwhile for me to stay at home. No, I am not advocating staying at home with kids. There is no one correct answer to the debate that should women stay at home to take care of children. All I am trying to say is that being able to stay at home with the children makes ME personally feel more secure and proactive about their growing up. So, all the above will also serve as an excuse for me not writing in the blog for so long! Even I like visiting blogs which are more regular with their posts and keep coming up with new stuff. But, my kids these past months, really left me with hardly any time for anything else. I am sure, with my daughter, nearly 3 months old now, I will be able to sneak in time for my new posts:)

Well! this has been a long one……thanks for reading it:).