Rum Ball

Each time we go home to Kolkata we make it a point to visit Nahoum’s in New Market. This store has been at this place from 1916. Rulers have come and gone, the country has changed it’s boundaries, cities have changed name around it, but Nahoum has stuck to it’s origins. My favorite at Nahoum is their rum-balls. It is an European delicacy that had reached the shores of Kolkata via the British. It is generally made in the bakery with the left over cake/cookie crumbs bound together with chocolate and flavored with rum. Rum-balls taste the best after a few days of making them when the taste of Rum matures.

It had been some time since I last sent some goodies with my husband for his team-mates. Generally I send some Bengali sweets like Rasgulla/Sondesh but this time I thought of making a fresh batch of Rum-ball. Even though the rum-ball has it’s roots in Europe, it takes me back to my roots in Kolkata.

Ingredients

• 500 gms. chocolate cake
• 100 ml. golden rum
• 4 tbsp. dark raisin
• 4 dried plums
• 4 candied cherry
• 10 roasted almonds broken roughly
• 3-4 tbsp. powdered sugar or honey
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder ( plain or Dutch processed)
• 1/2 + 1 cups semi sweet cooking chocolate bar ( instead you can use 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips)
• 1 cup white chocolate chips or white cooking chocolate
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter

Procedure

If you are making chocolate cake don’t use it on the same day. Use after a day or two so that the cake becomes a bit dry.

Cut all dry fruits into tiny pieces and soak them in 30 ml. of rum.  Best if you can soak it overnight.

Cut cake into small pieces and put it in a blender. Give them a very quick pulse to make coarse crumbs. Put all the crumbs in a big mixing bowl.

Now take the soaked dry fruits in the blender and give a very quick run of a second or two to just crush them. Just make sure you do not process the nuts into a paste.

Add the crushed dry fruit mixture to it along with powdered sugar,cocoa powder and rum. mix thoroughly with a spoon.

Now take half a cup of semi sweet cooking chocolate or chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and warm it up for 30 seconds. Give it a stir and heat it up for another 30 seconds. Take it out and mix it with a spoon. If it is already melted fine, else you can again heat it up for another 10 or 20 second. Remember to take it out and stir it every 30 seconds, else the chocolate will burn and become unusable.

Add the melted chocolate to the cake mixture little at a time and keep mixing. You will notice that after mixing the ingredients together, the batter is quite sticky. To prevent your hands from becoming a mess and to ease the process of making balls chill the mix for at least 30-45 minutes.

Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and let the mixture cool in the refrigerator for about 30- 45 minutes till it hardens a little.

Take it out and shape them into 1 inch balls with your hands. Place them on a cookie tray lined with butter paper.

Once you are done, then comes the glazing. Take 1 and 1/2 cup of dark chocolate and 1 tsp. of unsalted butter in a microwave safe bowl and heat them up for 30 seconds. Stir it and again heat it for another 30 seconds. Take it out and mix well to make a lump free chocolate glaze.

Dip each ball in the glaze of melted chocolate, making sure that the entire ball is coated with chocolate. Using a fork remove the ball from the glaze allowing any excess glaze to drip back in the bowl.

Place the glazed ball on the cookie tray lined with butter paper. when you are done place the tray in the refrigerator to allow the chocolate to harden.

By this time mix 1 tsp. of unsalted butter with white chocolate chips and make a white chocolate sauce following the same procedure as described before. Let it cool down a bit then pour it into a pastry bag. Cut a small hole in the corner and drizzle it over the rum balls.

Christmas Fruit Cake

One of my friends invited me to her home for Christmas and I planned to bake a cake for everyone. I generally make Christmas cake by soaking dry fruits in Rum. Since there were a few kids around I decided to make the cake alcohol free. Also this recipe doesn't need you to soak the dry fruits in advance and therefore doesn’t need prior planning. Bake it, when you need it!

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 cup roughly chopped dry fruits (plum, black raisins, apricot, cherries, orange zest, almonds)
• 250 ml. of orange juice
• 250 ml. apple juice
• 3 tsp. rum flavor
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 100 gm. butter at room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. spice powder ( 1 tiny piece of cinnamon, 2 cloves and 1tiny piece nutmeg ground to a fine powder)

Procedure

In a sauce pan mix half of orange and apple juice and stir well. Add chopped dry fruit mixture to it and simmer them in a low flame till all the juices are dried up. Turn off the heat and allow it to cool. Now add 1tsp. of rum flavor to it and mix well.

Take out two table-spoons of fruit mixture and smear them with a spoon of dry all purpose flour.

In a separate bowl sift  all dry ingredients ( flour, baking powder and spice powder) together.

Now in a big mixing bowl cream butter with sugar till fluffy. Now add egg one by one and continue to beat until completely integrated. Pour the rest of the apple juice and 1 tsp. rum flavor to it and mix once again. Now add dry flour and dry fruit mixture to this batter and gently fold into it.

Grease a 10 inch nonstick loaf pan and spoon the cake mixture. Sprinkle the dry fruits that you have separated out on top.

Bake it for an hour in a preheated oven at 375F.

Remove cake from oven and place on cooling rack. In a cup mix rest of the orange juice with 1 tsp. rum flavor. Baste the top with this mixture and allow to cool completely before you turn it over. 

Store the cake in an airtight container or eat fresh.

Marble Cake

[Updated post]

One of the things we dis-allow or severely limit our child from having is high-fructose corn syrup. This is present in most commercial sweet food, hence I land up having to make sweet stuff frequently at home.

Now my daughter is down with fever and is in general refusing to eat most things. However, even her fever cannot down her sweet-tooth. So I took the easy route and made her some wholesome cake. It looks as (or more) good as it tastes and makes a great school snack as well.

Ingredients

1. 2 cups all purpose flour
2. 2 cups powdered sugar
3. 150 gms of unsalted butter
4. 3 eggs
5. 1 tsp vanilla extract
6. 2 tsp baking powder
7. 3-4 tbsp of cocoa powder

Procedure

Pre heat you oven at 350F. In a bowl sift together flour and baking powder and keep them reserved.

Bring butter to room temperature. In a large mixing bowl using electric or hand mixer beat the butter till it becomes smooth and creamy. Gradually add sugar and continue beating till the mixture is light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.Beat in the vanilla extract with the mixture.

Now alternately add flour mixture and milk to the batter and beat in low speed. After preparing the batter divide it into two portions and pour them in separate bowls. Stir cocoa powder in one portion the second portion will remain as is.

Place the batter into a prepared baking pan by alternating spoonful of vanilla, chocolate. Once you have finished with your batter, take a table knife or wooden spatula through the batter in a swirling motion to marbelize it. Don't over-mix.

Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for 45-60 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow it to cool on a wire rack before you remove the cake. Serve it warm or at room temperature. This cake can be preserved at room temperature for upto 3 days.

 

 

Lemon Cake

One of our hiking tradition is to stop on the way at a Starbucks. Among other things we always pick up their lemon pound cake. On the hard hike up, we look forward to munch on those cakes high up in the mountains.

Cakes are in general heavy and is not something which I enjoy on hot days. However, I realized that I like the lemon cakes on the hot hikes because it has a refreshing flavor. So now in summer I generally favor baking these over other rich fruity cakes.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour (maida)
• 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup white granulated sugar + 1/4 cup
• 4 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• Zest of 1 lemon (Grated yellow skin of firm and plump lemon)

Procedure

Preheat oven at 350F and place the rack at the center of the oven. Butter a 9” cake pan and then line it with a wax paper.

In a bowl beat butter and sugar with an electric hand blender until they are light and fluffy.

Beat in the vanilla extract. Now add eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the pan as needed.

In another bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and lemon zest. add the flour mixture in three batches alternating with lemon juice. Mix till you get a smooth batter.

Pour the batter in the prepared cake pan and bake for about 45 minutes. Insert a toothpick at the center and take it out. If it comes clean your cake is done. Let it cool and then invert it on a plate.

Grind 1/4th cup of sugar into a fine powder and sprinkle it through a strainer on top of the cake.

Its ready to be enjoyed with some nice light tea.

Blueberry Cup cakes

My daughter has an inherent interest in cooking. Whenever I am doing some research for a recipe, she always hangs around “contributing” in whatever way she can. Which mostly involves fetching stuff.

One day she expressed the desire to make something from scratch. Cooking is in general a not very child friendly activity. However, baking in general is safe until the last step where a grown up can easily help, putting in and taking stuff out of the oven. So I gave her a recipe for making cup-cakes and she made the whole thing on her own (with help operating the oven). It came out really really well. Some of our friends who came visiting right after couldn’t even believe that the little one had made them.

Ingredients

• 1and 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter at room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Procedure

Pre heat oven at 350F.

In a mixing bowl mix butter and sugar till they are fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat till the mixture is light and smooth.

In another bowl whisk flour with baking powder. Add this dry mixture to the butter mixture in three intervals. If you feel the batter is too hard you can add little milk to it.

Add vanilla extract and blue berries and fold in.

Line cup cake tray with cup cake liner and pour the batter in with an ice cream scoop. The cups should be half filled as the batter will rise.

Bake it for 15 to 20 minutes.

Take it out and enjoy.

Merry Christmas with Rich Fruit Cake

This is the time to fill up your hearts with Christmas carols, cakes and candies. This is the time of Santa’s annual visit. My daughter is diligently tracking Santa’s progress across the world using Norad’s website. He apparently has already delivered 4 billion gifts (as of the time of writing this post :))

In our childhood there wasn’t the concept of rum-cake or the usage of a lot of spice powders in cake. My mom used to make a simple fruit cake in the pressure cooker. This year I decided to recreate the same recipe but in a oven.

Ingredients

1. 1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
2. 2/3 cup granulated sugar ( I used less sugar to adjust the sweetness of the dry fruits )
3. 1/2cup unsalted butter at room temperature
4. 3 large eggs ( Yolks and white separated )
5. 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
6. 1 cup mixed dry fruits ( I have used the following, you can add your own favorites )
1. Raisin
2. Dried cranberry
3. Cashew
4. Sliced almonds
5. Glazed cherries

Procedure

Preheat the oven at 350F.

Sieve all purpose flour and baking powder. Take a spoonful of this dry mixture and mix with all the dry fruits. This will prevent the dry fruits from sinking during baking.

In a mixing bowl whisk the egg whites with a hand mixer until soft peak forms. It takes about 2 minutes. In a separate bowl beat egg yolks with butter and sugar till it becomes creamy.

Now alternatively add the dry ingredients ( flour + baking powder ) and egg white to it. Gently fold them into the mixture using a spatula until incorporated.

Add dry fruits to it and once again fold them into the prepared batter. Transfer the batter in a greased baking tin and bake for 30 minutes in the oven.

Insert a knife at the center to check if the cake is done or not. If the knife comes out clear it means it is done. If not bake for few more minutes.

Cool it on a wire rack before you cut and serve.

Enjoy with your friends and family and have a Merry Christmas!!

Stone Fruit Cake

Approaching Christmas means baking time :). All the stores around are filled with baking supplies and I didn’t need any more prompting!!

Stone fruit cake which is a favorite of mine is made with “stone fruits”. These are fruits with single large seeds at their center (like stones). Examples would include plum, peach and apricot. The cake looks nice because the procedure of making it ensures that the fruits do not sink to the bottom of the cake, but rather peek out of it from the top.

Ingredients

1. 200gms all purpose flour (maida)
2. 150gms granulated sugar
3. 100gms butter + extra for greasing the pan
4. 2 large eggs
5. 2tsp. baking powder
6. Stone fruits of your choice. (It is better to avoid canned fruits. since they are ultra moist, the cake will become soggy)
   1. 1 peach (taste peach and other fruits. If sour adjust the quantity of sugar)
   2. 2 apricots
   3. I used few dried cranberries along with them.

Procedure

Preheat oven at 180F. Prepare a baking tray lined with a butter paper.

Whisk flour and baking powder in a bowl. Cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed for 3-5 minutes till light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time and scrap down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

Add the flour mixture in two increments, mixing just until a soft, smooth dough forms.

Divide the dough into two portions. One slightly larger than the other. Allow the smaller portion to chill in a refrigerator.

Dollop the larger portion onto the lined baking pan. Pat the pan to spread it around.

Cut fruits into small pieces. Scatter them over the batter. Generously sprinkle sugar on top of them if they are sour.

Take out the chilled batter from the refrigerator and dollop small balls of dough over the fruit with a spoon.

Now transfer your baking tray inside the oven and bake for 30 – 40 minutes or till they turn golden brown.

Cool before you serve. Since this contains fresh fruits this needs to be refrigerated for preservation.

Eggless Mango Cake

My daughter’s school celebrates international cultural night every year. In her school there are 38 different native language speaking students. Representatives from these cultures setup booths and each student brings in a food item so that everyone gets to enjoy food from all across the world. It’s pretty amazing to walk down the hall and see their booths and then eat Mediterranean baklava, Indian bisi-bele-bath and Japanese sushi in one seating.

This year me and my friend Laxmi decided to make some fusion food. Coupling Mango into an eggless cake.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup semolina (sooji)
2. 1 cup sweetened mango pulp (canned or freshly made)
3. 1/2 cup granulated sugar
4. 1/4th cup unsalted butter at room temperature
5. 1tsp. baking powder
6. Golden raisins ( optional )

Procedure

Preheat oven at 350F.

In a bowl mix sooji with baking powder and keep aside.

Take a mixing bowl and mix butter and sugar till its creamy. Gradually add mango pulp to it and give a real good mix.

Now slowly add sooji mix to it and stir to combine. Sweetness of mango pulp varies with different brands, so it is better to check the sweetness and adjust at this point.

Grease a 9 inch baking pan and pour the cake mixture into it. Bake it in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove and allow it to cool on a wire rack.

Cut it into squares and serve. I didn’t put  raisins for my daughter’s school event keeping in mind that some students might have allergic reaction. But it really looks good when you decorate each square with golden raisin.

The same cake I made for a friend’s dinner party.

Swiss Roll

My daughters school is closed for mid-winter break. That means there’s a steady stream of her friends dropping by for play-dates. The little ones are very picky about their food and frank about their opinions :). I strive my best to make them happy and swiss rolls with their variety of colors and filling provide the perfect opportunity to do so.

In this blog I have shown two different types of swiss roll, one with white cake and nutella combo and the other chocolate with strawberry cream combo.

Ingredients

1. For cake sheet
1. 1/3 cup all purpose flour
2. 3 tbsp. corn starch (corn-flour)
3. 3 tbsp. cocoa powder OR all purpose flour
4. 1/2 tsp. baking powder
5. 1/2 cup + 1 tsp. powdered sugar
6. 4 eggs (yolks and white separated)
2. For Filling
1. 4 heaped tbsp of cool whip
2. Your choice of spread: 4 tbsp. strawberry jam / strawberry relish / Nutella
3. Butter paper
4. Jelly roll tin as shown below. I didn’t have one handy so I used a cookie tray of 17” by 11”

Procedure

Preheat oven at 450F and place the rack in the center of it. Butter or spray non stick vegetable spray on a baking pan and line it with a butter paper. Butter and sprinkle flour on the surface of the butter paper.

In a small bowl whisk flour, corn starch, cocoa powder, baking powder and keep it handy. Corn starch gives a nice texture to the cake, if you don't have it replace it with equal quantity of flour. Coca powder (ingredient 4 options)  makes for a chocolate roll sheet, in case you use all-purpose flour you’ll get a white cake sheet.

Separate the egg yolks and egg whites and keep them in separate bowls.

Bring them to room temperature before you start mixing. In a large mixing bowl take egg yolks and sugar and beat them with hand mixer on high speed till they are creamy, pale yellow and fluffy. It takes almost 5 minutes to get this consistency. Now beat in the vanilla extract

.

Now gradually add flour mixture to it and fold in gently with a rubber spatula till it is just incorporated.

In a clean bowl take the egg whites and beat until foamy. When it will form a stiff peak, you will know that it is done. Beating separately makes the sponge cake elastic which enables the cake to be rolled out without cracking.

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter with a rubber spatula.

Remember not to use the electric blender to the batter once you have added flour to it.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake for about 8-10 mins.

Immediately after removing sprinkle some sugar with the help of a strainer over it and turn the cake over into a clean dish towel.

Remove the butter paper and sprinkle some more sugar over it. Now roll the cake along with the towel from the short end and allow it to cool on a wire rack.

Lets make the filling by the time it becomes cool. In a bowl mix cool whip with strawberry preserve or jam and keep it in the refrigerator.

You can make your own cool whip by beating 250 ml of whipping cream along with 2 tbsp. of sugar in a electric mixture for about 5-7 mins.

 

Assembling

Unroll the cake, spread the filling evenly and reroll. Cut into medium thick slices and serve.

		Assembling the Roll VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

The final product based on your choice of cocoa powder  or all-purpose flour and strawberry jam vs Nutella looks as follows.

Plum Cake

I used to travel over Taratolla in Kolkata to go to my college. During Christmas I used to see a bunch of ladies hanging out infront of the bakeries with large bags (big shopper) in their hand. I never quiet figured out what they were doing until the day I chanced upon an acquaintance doing the same. She solved the mystery, they were waiting for the baker to bake their cake. Since few had oven at home, they’d bring the ingredients  of the cake and get it baked at the bakery.

Thankfully we have it easy, the only waiting I need to do is for the oven timer to go off. But let me tell you that with the aroma of the cake filling the house, it’s hard to wait.

Ingredients For Rum / Wine soaked fruits

You can use any fruits and nuts of your choice. Here is the list that I have used for my cake

1. Cashew
2. Almond
3. Raisins
4. Black current
5. Dried blue berry
6. Dried cherry
7. Dried Prunes
8. Dried Apricot
9. Dried Fig
10. Candied tutty fruity mixture

I used almost 3 cups of these fruit mixture and soaked them in Rum / red wine for a week. The longer you soak the better it tastes. If you don't like to use alcohol you can soak in either orange or grape juice.

For the caramel

1. 1 cup brown sugar
2. 1 cup water

In a pan bring the water to a boil and let it simmer on low heat. In a separate pan take the brown sugar and keep on a low heat. Soon it will start melting. Wait till the sugar melts completely. Once it melts add the boiling water to it and stir really vigorously so that it doesn’t stick at the bottom. Let it simmer till this becomes thick. Now allow it to cool.

For the cake

1. 2 cups all purpose flour (Maida)
2. 1 cup powdered sugar
3. 150 gm. of unsalted butter
4. 4 eggs
5. 1 cup orange juice
6. 2 tsp. baking powder
7. 2 tsp. vanilla extract
8. Spice  powder made of the following which will later be referred as CNMC powder
   1. A pinch of Clove powder
   2. A pinch of Nutmeg powder
   3. A pinch of Mace powder
   4. A pinch of Cinnamon powder

Sieve flour and baking powder and mix with all dry spices and keep aside.

Take a big mixing bowl and with a hand mixer beat sugar and butter till they are light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat till they mix in.

Add half of the flour mixture and fold it gently with a spatula. Do not use electric mixer/beater after you add the flour.

Add in the caramel. Add orange juice and vanilla extract.  Mix well. Now fold rest of the dry ingredients into it. Finally toss the soaked dry fruits in 2 tbsp. of dry flour and  mix them in the cake batter.

Pre heat the oven at 300F.

Line a baking pan with butter paper and pour the cake batter. Cover the top of the pan with an aluminum foil. Bake for 60 mins. The covering with the foil helps to prevent the over-browning of the cake top.

Lower the temperature to 250F and bake again for 20 - 30 mins without the aluminum foil. Insert a skewer, if it comes out clean it means the cake is done. If not you need to bake for some more time.

Once done take it out and allow it to cool completely. Remove the butter papers once it is cold. Brush it up with little more wine / rum. Wait for atleast 24 hrs  to mature.

Decorate and serve.

Tutty Fruity Cake

 

Since Kolkata was the capital of British India, the resident British inculcated the concept of Christmas cake into the general population. Bongs as they are, are always ready to pick up all sorts of food, especially if that is sweet.

Around Christmas during our childhood our parents used to buy these sweet cakes on their way back from work. One common source was the bakery of Great Eastern hotel in Waterloo Street. So we associate waterloo with cakes rather than with Napoleon. I still fondly remember those shiny yellow cellophane wrappers on those cakes.

Here’s how I now make them, sans the cellophane.

Ingredients

1. 2 cups all purpose flour/maida
2. 1 cup packed brown sugar
3. 1 cup powdered sugar
4. 4 eggs
5. 200 gm. unsalted butter
6. 2tsp vanilla extract
7. 1 cup orange juice
8. 2tsp baking powder
9. 1/4th tsp. salt
10. 1 cup candied fruit mix (available in baking section or online as here)
11. Buttered parchment paper (available in all super markets).
12. 1 cup of an assortments of dried fruits and nuts like raisins, currants, dried cranberries, apricot, fig cashew. almond.

Procedure

Start the oven for preheating to 350 F. Then begin the work below.

Butter a 9 inch baking pan. Line the bottom of the pan with buttered parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add orange juice and vanilla extract to it. Now fold this into all the candied and dried fruits and nuts.

In a separate bowl whisk flour, salt and baking powder and fold this into the cake batter. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake it in the oven for almost an hour. Insert a toothpick or a skewer, if it comes out clean it means your cake is done. If not reduce the temperature to 300F and continue baking for another 20-30 mins.

Remove from the oven and keep on a wire rack to cool completely.