Honey Spice cake with Caramel frosting

For the cake

• 2 eggs
• 3 cups wholewheat flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon (toss 2 cloves in when you grind if you can)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbs butter (salted)
• 1 tbs orange zest
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup honey

Preheat oven to 250C. Combine butter and zest in a saucepan over medium heat, until butter sizzles. Beat eggs and sugar together till fluffy. Add honey and then butter-zest mixture. Keep whizzing. Add milk. Now mix all the remaining ingredients in a bowl and fold them into the wet mixture, by hand. (This bit I forgot, maybe that's why I ended up with something resembling dough?) Bake in greased pan for 30-40 min. Remove from pan and cool.

For the icing

• 1/4 cup butter (salted)
• 1/3 cup milk (original called for heavy cream, none in house, I v lazy...)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup icing sugar (I used powdered white sugar and it's a little too sweet)

Mix butter, milk and brown sugar in pan over medium heat. Keep stirring as you bring to a boil. Once it's bubbling nicely, take off fire and set aside for 5-10 min. Whisk in the icing sugar. Pour over cake, and put in fridge to set.

The cake is from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and the icing from Taste and Tell.

Both have been slightly adapted.

Momma's Special Deepavali Chocolate Barfi

Every year this barfi was the highlight of our lives. Seriously. Bouncing around the kitchen in unbearable excitement so we could eat the scraping and poke the goo before it set. This year I got her to direct me to make it and voila! Le recipe. I am told it is also called 3 cups barfi, and you can replace the cocoa with ground almonds, cashews, anything you want.

1 cup besan (chickpea flour)

2-2.5 cups sugar (depending on how sweet you want it and whether the milk powder is sweetened)

1 cup milk

.25 - .5 cups milk powder

1 cup cocoa powder

1 cup ghee

equipment: 1 thick bottomed kadhai (wok), nonstick is possible but we make it in stic, with a big metal ladle for scraping so think about it.

big ladle/spatula the round kind with holes in it

a wide metal plate with a lip

Mix the milk powder into half the milk, and the cocoa into the other half. Set aside. Grease the plate with ghee and set aside. Mix the besan and sugar together in the kadhai, then add the ghee and mix it up well. Put it on a medium flame and keep stirring. The ghee will melt and the sugar will dissolve and eventually it'll become a smooth paste. Add the milk powder mixture. Keep stirring. In about 7-8 minutes, add the cocoa mixture. Keep stirring. (There's a LOT of stirring!) The mixture will start getting lighter, thicker and much heavier. Stir and stir, lifting from the bottom and turning it over.

Yes it will hurt. you think halwais are born with those biceps?

You'll see that the residue on the kadhai is turning light and crumbly. Around now, the mixture will start to come together, and when it's like a gooey ball it's done. Take out into the greased plate and flatten - we use the bottom of a cup similarly greased with ghee. Cut into diamonds/squares and allow to cool.

nomnomnom

Kitteh made a Quiche (Spinach and Mushroom)!

Wow long time.

Serves 4

For the Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups flour (I used wholewheat, but use whatever)
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup butter (the more the butter, the flakier the crust)
• Ice cold water as needed

For the filling:

• 1 packet mushrooms (in india now so those be the measures)
• 2 bunches spinach
• 1 medium onion
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• grated cheese to taste
• garlic, salt and spices to taste (I used oregano and basil, but paprika would also go well)

To make dough:

Put the flour and butter in a deep, wide bowl and begin to slash with a knife or two, so you end up with a mixture that looks like crumbs. I swear I never thought this would work, but it does! Add cold water bit by bit to form a soft, but not sticky dough. Roll it out into a circle, to fit your pie-dish. Remember it has to go along the sides too. Place in the dish and prick all over with a fork. Bake at 250C for 10-15 min depending on browning and how sure you want to be that the bottom is COOKED. Remove to cool.

To make filling:

Slice mushrooms. Set aside. Finely chop onions. In a skillet, heat some olive oil (or whatever), and add garlic (crushed. I used paste) and onions and brown slightly. Add mushrooms, salt and spices, and toss nicely. Cook covered for a few minutes. Once the mushrooms start leaking liquid, cook uncovered, tossing occasionally. Wash spinach and remove stalks - unless you like them. Tear or chop - doesn't matter much cos it shrinks so much - and add to mushrooms. Toss about and cook till liquid evaporates. Meanwhile, beat egss, milk and salt in a bowl, and add grated cheese. Once veggies are over, add them to eggs and milk, and pour entire mixture into pie shell. Bake at 200C for 30 min. Test with a knife to see if it comes out clean, if not bake till that happens. Remove, allow to cool a bit, slice and serve!

Alternate fillings: Sausage and cheese, ham and cheese, random veggies, mushroom and potato (substitute one large potato peeled and sliced for the spinach. Add early on so it cooks soft.)

Carrot cake

4 eggs
1 cup brown/white sugar
125g melted butter (I like it salted)
1 cup milk
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 or 4 cups grated carrots (how carroty do you want to be? :D)
1 cup raisins

Beat eggs till fluffy. Add sugar. Beat. Add melted butter. Beat. Add milk. Mix. Add baking powder and flour. Mix. Ad cinnamon. Mix. Add carrots and raisins. Mix. Bake in greased tin at 200C for 30-40 min. Keep an eye on it!

Hummus!

No tahini but we did it anyway!

8-10 cloves garlic
2 and a half to three cups of boiled chana/garbanzos/chick peas
3 tbs olive oil
1 tbs sesame seeds
salt to taste
lemon juice
water to get consistency

Toss the garlic and sesame seeds in 1 tbs oil for about 5 minutes. Put everything in a blender. Whizz. Add water to ger desired consistency. Remove, drizzle with lemon juice. Eat.

Pesto!

Strange pesto it is too.

2 cups of basil leaves - pack them in as tight as possible
1/2 cup of whole cashews
4 cloves of garlic
salt
roughly 4 tbs olive oil (I just put it in to keep the consistency)

Stick in blender/food processor. Whizz till you get the consistency you want. Eat.

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

When I was a kid this was my FAVOURITE cake, which amazed the parents since I was also pathologically addicted to cream and icing. Hee. Imagine my joy when I grew up and invented a recipe!

Prep time: 20 min
Cooking time: 40 min with some watching

4 eggs
250g flour
150g butter, salted (well I like the salty touch, use unsalted if you like)
150ml milk
250g sugar
1 heaped tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp pineapple essence
1 tin pineapple slices, drained
2 tbs sugar and tichy bit of water
An electric beater
A steel baking dish, preferably round
1 flat dish larger than the bottom of the baking dish, with about 1 inch of water

Beat the eggs, however you like. I used to separate and whatnot, but I found it makes barely any difference. I stick the beater on high and whizz em till they get frothy. Beat in the 250g sugar. Melt the butter and pour it in. Beat some more. Add milk and essence. Beat. Add flour and baking powder. Beat. When little bubbles form as you beat, you may stop.

Put the 2tbs sugar and tichy bit of water in the steel baking dish and heat on high flame till it caramelises. Use the tongs and keep turning the dish about 2 inches above the fire. The caramel can get dark. Turn off fire and put baking dish into the dish with water, making sure first that the caramel is evenly spread about the bottom. Place pineapple slices in whatever pattern you like. Eat leftover pineapple :D Pour in batter and bake at 150 deg C. If this is a stupid tiny electric oven like mine, use it on the bottom setting until the cake rises to the top of the dish. Then put on the top but watch it! I just burnt mine. Basically keep checking on it and testing with knife to see if it's cooked.

Loosen sides with a knife and upturn on a serving dish. Voila! Caramelised pineapple slices on top of cake!

Serving suggestions: custard or vanilla ice cream. Also fabulous cold the next day.