Nothing goes better with a cup of tea than a few tea cakes. Long a favourite around the globe, tea cakes are a sweet treat enjoyed by the adults and children alike. Different countries and customs have different styles of cakes. But the tea cakes, we are familiar with, resemble small versions of traditional cakes, designed to be a light tea complimented by hot black or grey tea.
TEA CAKE CREATIONS
There are all manners of tea cakes from those resembling simple cookies to more ornate petit fours. To serve the cakes properly, you should arrange them on a piece of a serving ware along with other small food items such as tea sandwiches and fruit and pour yourself a cup of hot tea. Then you can sit back and enjoy your afternoon snack in the way it was intended.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
RICH CHOCOLATE EGGLESS CAKE
Ingredients:
Milkmaid 1/2 tin or 200 gm
Drinking Soda 100 ml
White Butter 60 gm
Sugar 1 tbsp
Maida 100 gm
Cocoa Powder 25 gm
Baking Powder 3/4 tsp
Soda-bi-carb 3/4 tsp
Vanilla Essence 1 tsp
Method:
1. Sift maida with cocoa powder, baking powder and soda-bi-carb (meetha soda) and keep aside.
2. Mix sugar and butter in a big bowl and beat well.
3. Add milkmaid and beat well.
4. Add half of drinking soda and half of maida mixture to the above batter and beat well.
5. Add rest of soda and rest of maida and beat well. While you beat the batter, see that bubbles are
formed. This makes the cake very soft and spongy.
6. Pre-heat the oven at 180 C. Grease a cake mould with oil, specially the edges, very well.
7. Pour the batter in it and bake in oven at 150 C. After 25 minutes check by inserting a knife's tip in
centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, your cake is done.
8. Switch off the oven and let the cake be there for 15 minutes, take out and serve hot.
9. Do not refrigerate these cakes and do not keep open in air. Keep them covered. The shelf life of
this cake is 2 days.
10. Share how it turned out.
Milkmaid 1/2 tin or 200 gm
Drinking Soda 100 ml
White Butter 60 gm
Sugar 1 tbsp
Maida 100 gm
Cocoa Powder 25 gm
Baking Powder 3/4 tsp
Soda-bi-carb 3/4 tsp
Vanilla Essence 1 tsp
Method:
1. Sift maida with cocoa powder, baking powder and soda-bi-carb (meetha soda) and keep aside.
2. Mix sugar and butter in a big bowl and beat well.
3. Add milkmaid and beat well.
4. Add half of drinking soda and half of maida mixture to the above batter and beat well.
5. Add rest of soda and rest of maida and beat well. While you beat the batter, see that bubbles are
formed. This makes the cake very soft and spongy.
6. Pre-heat the oven at 180 C. Grease a cake mould with oil, specially the edges, very well.
7. Pour the batter in it and bake in oven at 150 C. After 25 minutes check by inserting a knife's tip in
centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, your cake is done.
8. Switch off the oven and let the cake be there for 15 minutes, take out and serve hot.
9. Do not refrigerate these cakes and do not keep open in air. Keep them covered. The shelf life of
this cake is 2 days.
10. Share how it turned out.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
FAQs While Making A Cake
Our mind always try to find out easier ways to do things than the given ones. But its true to say that there is no short cut to success. Put your time effort and most importantly, your heart to give your best. I have been taking baking classes for so many years and I have to always answer the following questions:
1. What if I put milk in place of drinking soda ?
Every ingredient has its own importance in a given recipe as every ingredient contributes in its own way to get a soft and yummy cake. All ingredients in a recipe are proportionate to each other, in measurements and also in taste. If any of them is disturbed, you'll not get the desired results.
For example, drinking soda has fizz and helps to make cake spongy but if we put milk, you'll need something to replace that fizz. Then how much to increase baking powder to accomodate that fizz is a big question. Then you keep on trying different measurements till you get desired result. To make it easy for you I have been doing this try and error method for years and came out with perfect recipes which never fail.
2. What if I do not have time to beat all ingredients one by one and rather put all the things together in a mixer grinder ?
There are always three possibilities: to get good result, better result and the best result. To get the best out of what you do it is always advisable to follow every step in the method given. It hardly takes ten minutes more but reward is much bigger.
3. What if I do not measure the ingredients by grams and instead measure them in cup to make it even easier ?
Try to be as accurate as possible and avoid taking approximate measurements to get desired result. Otherwise experiment at your own risk. Buy a weighing machine of 2 kg and always enjoy the cake you'll make.
4. What if I do not pre-heat the oven ?
Well if you do not do so, the cake does not turn out to be spongy. If you keep the batter at room temperature in the oven, it settles down before it gets start to bake. Whereas if oven is pre-heated, batter immediately starts cooking, makin the cake soft and spongy.
5. What if I do not sift the maida ?
This is like asking: What if I do not mix water in poster colour and start painting ?
Of course to colour with a brush smoothly you need to add water to it. Similarly every step has its own importance beyond any explaination.
6. What if I bake the cake in microwave oven ?
These recipes are suitable for oven only, for microwave the recipe should be altogether different. My personal experience is that cakes turn out much much better in an oven than a microwave.
If you have any other question or doubt than post it here on the blog, I am always there to help.
1. What if I put milk in place of drinking soda ?
Every ingredient has its own importance in a given recipe as every ingredient contributes in its own way to get a soft and yummy cake. All ingredients in a recipe are proportionate to each other, in measurements and also in taste. If any of them is disturbed, you'll not get the desired results.
For example, drinking soda has fizz and helps to make cake spongy but if we put milk, you'll need something to replace that fizz. Then how much to increase baking powder to accomodate that fizz is a big question. Then you keep on trying different measurements till you get desired result. To make it easy for you I have been doing this try and error method for years and came out with perfect recipes which never fail.
2. What if I do not have time to beat all ingredients one by one and rather put all the things together in a mixer grinder ?
There are always three possibilities: to get good result, better result and the best result. To get the best out of what you do it is always advisable to follow every step in the method given. It hardly takes ten minutes more but reward is much bigger.
3. What if I do not measure the ingredients by grams and instead measure them in cup to make it even easier ?
Try to be as accurate as possible and avoid taking approximate measurements to get desired result. Otherwise experiment at your own risk. Buy a weighing machine of 2 kg and always enjoy the cake you'll make.
4. What if I do not pre-heat the oven ?
Well if you do not do so, the cake does not turn out to be spongy. If you keep the batter at room temperature in the oven, it settles down before it gets start to bake. Whereas if oven is pre-heated, batter immediately starts cooking, makin the cake soft and spongy.
5. What if I do not sift the maida ?
This is like asking: What if I do not mix water in poster colour and start painting ?
Of course to colour with a brush smoothly you need to add water to it. Similarly every step has its own importance beyond any explaination.
6. What if I bake the cake in microwave oven ?
These recipes are suitable for oven only, for microwave the recipe should be altogether different. My personal experience is that cakes turn out much much better in an oven than a microwave.
If you have any other question or doubt than post it here on the blog, I am always there to help.
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