Ringing in the new year...a little too late!!!

It's 2013 already, and I still haven't finished all those things that I started in 2012 and vowed to finish. I think the days went by too fast!!! So, I've decided to get my mum to help with the stitch kits and knitting (It's amazing what she can do with a few hours and a needle and some thread). Now that I have a little bit of free time on my hands, I can concentrate more on this year's resolution, which is to not ignore my blog anymore. I promise to post something at least once a month.

The past few days have been hectic with a lot of functions to attend. I was busy cooking for these. For a cousin's wedding I made some Fig Sauce for dessert. It was polished off so fast, I just got a teeny taste of it. Oh, and lot's of compliments too from all the relatives, which of course made me very happy. Now, I do not have a recipe for this as I did not make notes while cooking. I know what you'll say...LAZY!!! But seriously, I was actually harried, as I had to make this in bulk. Then there was another cousin's engagement I baked the cake for them to cut.

White velvet cake with vanilla buttercream...this is the half finished cake, I added some more decorations after I took this picture

I followed Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe and made some changes to it. I used vanilla buttercream to ice the cake, with the left over icing I piped some rosettes all around. The cake stand ( I it found in Bangalore a few months ago and I am so in love with it) my Dad n I decorated it with some of the flowers from my mum's garden (mom wasn't around...so I went about cutting flowers in her garden).

I baked a double colored cake for some kids at a neighbor's place, said neighbor had dislocated his arm and my Dad wanted to pay him visit. Here's a picture of that cake.

This is the cake before it went into the oven.

I know, looked prettier before it went into the oven, but it makes up for that with the taste.

I will put up the recipe for this later, as there are some changes that I need to make. And then there's the brownies I made for my cousins's engagement. I am really sorry I don't have a picture. We ate them all. They were soooo gooood! Recipe in my next post, I promise.

Overall it's been a good few days, guess I can't complain. Until next time....Cheers! and Happy Baking!!!

Spiced Peaches in syrup

Yesterday I made a promise to myself, am going to try and finish whatever I started this year. (Except knitting, I still can't purl). And to finish all the things I started, I need to remember what it is that I started doing. Now, that's going to take some time, as I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday! So, while am at it, I thought about posting another recipe on the blog. This time Spiced Peaches in syrup would be the best thing, what with Christmas around the corner and all.

The idea for Spiced Peaches in syrup came to me when I saw Nigella ( The original Domestic Goddess) make this on her TV show. She gave these peaches in tiny jars as Christmas gifts. Nigella made these using canned peaches, but I wanted to try them using fresh ones.  So when I saw peaches in the supermarket, I just had to make them. They are quite easy to make and it tastes really good. And you have to agree, they make very nice gifts too.

When I made these last year, I did not have all the spices that Nigella used; so I made some using whatever I had on hand. So here's the recipe I used to make this yummy treat.

Recipe for Spiced Peaches in syrup

Ingredients:
4-5 Ripe Peaches (halved but not peeled)
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Granulated sugar
2 cm piece Ginger (sliced)
1 stick cinnamon
3 cloves
2 star anise
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1/2 tsp dried mint
1/4 teaspoon Sea salt or Maldon salt
Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon

Instructions:
1. In a large sauce pan, bring the sugar and water to a boil. Add the halved peaches, cut side in. Add all the spices, lemon juice and zest.
2. Let the peaches cook, about 10 minutes or so. Check with a skewer to see if the peaches are cooked.
3. Once the peaches are cooked, strain and reserve the liquid. Place liquid in the same saucepan and boil until syrupy.
4. Take the peel off the peaches and drop them back in the syrup and allow to cool completely. Store in a airtight containers and refrigerate.

Note: Nigella serves these with roast ham or cheese. I prefer to eat them as they are, or with ice cream.

It's almost the end of the year and am back with a new post. I know it's been a really long time. But I really have been busy. I've been trying out recipes, reading the books that I've hoarded over the years and never found time to read, painted some glass, tried to learn how to knit and gave up ( for some reason, I cannot learn how to purl), got some really old Anchor stitch kits lying in some old cupboard and tried my hand at that too. And since I did not complete any of the above except baking, I think I have ADD. Overall, I cannot comment on the past year, there were some high's and some low's. But it was fine I guess. Any way moving on to what I love most, baking, let's talk about Lemon Syrup Cake.

I first saw this cake when Julia made it on Masterchef Australia Season 3. I love anything that has lemon in it,
So I just had to try it. I searched for Julia's recipe, and couldn't find anything. Fortunately, for me, I found another recipe  by Thanh of eat, little bird. Believe me, this cake is so good, it'll blow your socks off ! Thanks a lot Thanh for an amazing recipe. My Dad and I always fight for a piece from the edges.

Lemon-Syrup Loaf Cake

Ingredients

For the cake:

175 g (6 oz.) Plain Flour

125 g (4.5 oz.) Unsalted Butter

175 g (6 oz.) Castor Sugar

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

Pinch of salt.

4 tablespoons Milk

For the Lemon Syrup:

100 g (3.5 oz,) Icing Sugar

Juice of  1& 1/2 Lemons (large sized) (Approximately 6 tablespoons)

Zest of 1Lemon (Approximately 1 tablespoon)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a loaf tin.

2. Sieve together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

3. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add lemon zest and beat in eggs one at a time. If the mixture starts to curdle, add a tablespoon or so of flour and mix well.

4. Add the flour mixture into the wet mixture and then mix in the milk.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes , until the cake has risen and is lightly golden in colour.

6. In the last 10 minutes  of baking time, make the lemon syrup by dissolving the icing sugar in the lemon juice, in a small saucepan on medium low heat. Heat the syrup gently until you have a clear liquid.

7. Remove cake from the oven, but not from the tin. Using a skewer, puncture the cake all over. Spoon hot syrup evenly over the cake. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a wire rack. 

Note:

I always use extra lemon zest in the batter, it's just the way I like it. Also, I always make more syrup than the recipe calls for, since I like my cake drenched in lemony goodness.

You can reduce the amount of sugar if you want, but I like the  extra sweetness just fine.

In the picture above, I have added candied lemon zest on the cake. You can leave that out if you want. Also, I've baked the cake in a square glass dish.

You can also try making the cake with limes instead of lemons. Tastes just as good.

Until next time, Happy Baking!

For my very first post here's the recipe for Chocolate Wontons

I made these first for a neighbor who had a party at her place. These little parcels filled with chocolate are very easy to make and taste wonderful.

What you'll need:

1. Wonton skins- 12 nos. (I made these myself they are pretty easy to make, but if you get them...it'll save you some trouble!!!)

2. Good quality chocolate nuggets- 12 pieces ( I used Cadbury's Dairy milk...it's good enough but you could use chocolate chips as well...Dairy milk dries up quick and will not melt again.)

3. Water about 1/4 cup 

4. Cornflour - 1 pack

5. Oil for frying

6. Powdered sugar for dusting over the wontons.

How you make it:

1. Dust your work area with cornflour. Roll the wonton skins till they are very thin (thickness of the wonton skin should be approx 1-2 mm). Each wonton skin must be dusted with cornflour before you stack the next one on it, or it'll just stick together.

2. Take one wonton skin..be sure to dust the work area with corn flour often. Add a drop of water on the wonton skin, spread it with a spoon ( Using a pastry brush makes this easier). Place the chocolate nugget slightly off center and fold the corners so you have a triangle. Use water to stick the edges together.

3. Heat oil in a wok. Test with a piece of wonton skin, if the skin turns golden brown within a few seconds, it is ready. Fry the wontons till golden brown. ( Make sure all the edges of the wontons are sealed well, or else the chocolate will leak through and burn...really bad flavor!)

4. Place the fried wontons on a paper towel so that all the excess oil is absorbed. Dust with the powdered sugar and eat 'em hot..:)