Berry Almond Tarts

The moment I saw this Delicious Berry Tart in Bakedbree I know I will be going to make them.
And if you are planning to make this go to Bree's blog and check the beautiful pictures of the tart and also the beautiful step by step pictorials.

But then that time the berries were just not in full season and they were still a tad expensive, so I waited till they were fully in season then I know they will be cheaper.
And anyway I am a sucker for anything frangipane, and this one resembled like that and I knew I would make it sooner or later.

Of course when I served the tarts, for hubby I served with chipped cream as he loves to have it with fruit tarts.
We loved the tarts and I am sure I will be making them again as it is so easy to make plust they are so good.

• 1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons (130g) butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
• 1 Tablespoon orange zest
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 1 1/2 cups almond meal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 2 cups berries
• Method:
• Put the butter, sugar, zests, and vanilla bean in the bowl of an electric mixer. Cream for 6 to 8 minutes or until light and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally.
• 
  
• Whisk together almond meal, flour, and baking powder. Set aside. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Take the bowl off of the mixer and fold in the almonds
• Scoop the batter with an ice cream scoop into 6 paper tart pans or an 11-inch fluted tart pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
• Add the berries and gently press into batter.
• 
  
• Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown. (If you bake in a large tart pan, it will be closer to 45 minutes. (Mine was baked in 25 minutes. So i thing it depend on your oven and your tart shape)
• 
  

Strawberry & almond cheesecake sponge

There was a time when I always made a cake for Sunday afternoon coffee and I used to take them to my inlaws home and the cake would be finished in a flash as we were always with some 7 for coffee and then If by chance there was some left over she would keep the rest for the next day for them.

If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know that she passed away last year and now for sunday coffee we have gone down from 7 people to just 4 ( ok mostly 3 as Shyama is only there for coffee ifshe come home for weekend)

And mostly we end up buying cake if it is just 3 of us as Hans would be saying to me why you want to do all the work making a cake as we are just 3.
So ususally we end up buying tarts/ cakes these days from the bakers .
And i was fed up paying too much for the small cakes plus they are too sweet etc... and I go on grumbling about it, so I ended up making this cake for one sunday.
And I kept the rest in my FIL's fridge saying he can have a slice for next day and also to give for Niece when she come there.
The cake is really good and moist. And as strawberry season is still going on there it was a good way to use the delicious strawberries.
Mu cheese went to the bottom so next time when i make this cake i will add more than half of the cake batter and then add the cheese mix.

Recipe Copied from BBC Good Good

Ingredients.

• 175g butter, really soft, plus extra for greasing
• 250g caster sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 200g self-raising flour
• 50g ground almonds
• 75g full-fat natural yogurt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 250g strawberries, hulled and sliced
• handful flaked, toasted almonds

For the cheesecake blobs

• 200g full-fat cream cheese
• 25g caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the base and sides of a deep 23cm cake tin with baking parchment. Mix the ingredients for the cheesecake blobs together in a bowl until just combined – be careful not to overmix or it will become runny. Set aside.
• Put the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, ground almonds, yogurt, vanilla and a pinch of salt in a large bowl, and beat together until smooth using an electric hand whisk.
• Scrape half the cake mixture into the tin, then scatter with half the strawberries. Use the back of a teaspoon to create dips in the surface of the cake and dollop in spoonfuls of cheesecake mixture – saving about half for the top. Cover with the remaining cake mixture, being careful not to disturb the cheesecake and strawberries below. Scatter with the remaining strawberries and spoon on the remaining cheesecake mixture, using the same method as before.
• Scatter with almonds and bake for 50 mins-1 hr or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool for 20 mins in the tin before turning out. Delicious served warm or cold

Cranberry And Marzipan Cake

 

I think this is the first year I have not done any christmas baking or even soaked the fruits for a traditional cake.
The reason for the cake is that the only person who really love christmas cake in my home is just me. The rest will eat a slice only because I took all that effort to make it.
They all prefer the christmas cake ( roll)  with butter cream etc...

And anyway this cake was not made because it is christams season, I made this last month as I had left over cranberries and I was looking for a cake recipe in the baking books I have and found in one of my new addition of baking book which is from The Great British Bake Off Every day I love the show and every year I am glued to the screen when they show each week.

 



Ingridients:

150 gm cranberries ( thawed if frozen) I used fresh
100 gm unsalted butter softened
60 gm sugar ( I added 30 gm)
200 gm Marzipan grated
3 medium eggs at room temperature
120 gm ground almonds
120 gm plain flour ( plus 2 tbsp for sprinkling on the cranberries)
2 teaspoon baking powder
25 gm flaked almonds
Icing suagar for dusting ( i didn't do)

1.  Heat your oven to 180°c /350°F / gas 4.
Chop the cranberries fairly coarsley . Set aside untill needed.

2. Put the soft butter and sugar into a mixing bowl and beat with a hand held electric mixer untill light and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the grated marzipan beat trhoughlty untill very smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides from time to time.

3. Beat the eggs in a small bowl with a fork untill broken up, then gradually add to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition and scraping down the bowl as before. Gently stir in the ground almonds with a spoon.

4. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and fold with a sppon. As soon as the flour as been incorporated, carfully fold in the cranberris ( before that mix the extra 2 tbsp flour to the cranberries this is a trick i do when making cakes with fruits)
Avoid over mixing at this point stop as soon as the cranberries look evenly distributed in the cake mixture.

5. Scrape the mixture into a prepared cake tin ( 20 cm round pan) spread evenly.
Scatter the flaked almonds over the top.
Place in the heated oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes untill risen and golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
If you think the cake is getting too brown you can loosley cover the cake with a aliminium foil andother trick i always use making cakes.

6. Set the tin on a wire rack. Run a round blades knife around the cake to loosen it from the tin, then carfully unclip the tin side and leave the cake to cool completley.
Once cold , wrap in  greasproof paper or foil and stone in a air tight container overnight.
The flavours are better if you eat the cake next day that is why the recip say to do the above thing.
Dust with icing sugar before serving.

 

Passion Fruit Curd Tartlets

Remember my Passion Fruit Curd whichI sad is so easyto make and so Delicious.
These tartlets are made by using the delicious passion curd.
Till I made this curd recipe I always thought that sweet curds were something I won't make anymore as when ever I made them they were too runny etc...
But this one is totally different and it really worked. Recipe here.

The recipe is from one of my favourtie Baking Diva Mary Berry from her book Baking Bible.
And she has written in her book that these tartlets are quiet crumbly to handle and eat.
And I so much agree while i was handleing the finished tartlets they were so fragile I thought I will break them :-)
But they are so worth making as the taste is so good.

 

 

For the Shortbread ( Tartletts) These make 10 small tarts)

100 gm Softend butter
50 gm sugar
50 gm semolina
100 gm plain flour

For the filIing
I used the Passion fruit curd.

For the meringue topping:

1 Large egg white
4 tbsp of sugar.

1. Make the tartlets.Soften the butter in a bowl, add the sugar, semolina and flour and work together to form a smooth dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes.
2. Prea heat the oven to 150° c/ Fan 130°c / Gas 2.
   On a lightly floured worksurface, toll out the pastry to just under 5 mm ( I/4 in) in thickeness. Cut the circled according to the tartlet pan size you are using. Press the circles gently into the tart pans. Prick the base well.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or untill firm and golden ( mine to less minutes). Leave the tarts in teh tine to harden slightly then ease out of the tine and leave it to cool completley on a wire rack.
4. Just before serving spoont he passion fruit curd.
   
   Pipe the meringue onto the tarts and use a blow torch to give them a caramalized effect.
   
   For the Meringue toppin:

whisk the egg whites in a free-standing mixer until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed. Add the caster sugar a little at a time, still whisking until the meringue is stiff and glossy.

Passion Fruit Curd

 

After almost three months, I had a whole afternoon just for myself, well it was me time from four in the afternoon today.
As usual I went by my FIL's home sat there for a hour or so and talked to him. ok he talks and I listen.
He is 86 years old and he has so much things to say mostly about the second world war, then his life in the police , his life with my MIL it goes on and on,
I have heard these stories in the last months so many times, but he still get excited about talking about all these stories that I just listen, just to make him happy .
When my MIL was still there if he talked too much she would say Brick be quiet now stop talking all your old stories.

So after saying bye to him and to Couscous ( the pet dog ) I walked towards the shopping street and  went to most of the shops.
Looked what they have new, or just walked around in the shop did a bit of shopping. And I was so pleased to have done that and now I am back home I said I will atlast write a post for my blog.

I love passion fruit, In kerala we used to have passion fruit in plenty and when we got them we used to just cut open them in half and add a bit of sugar and eat the pulp , there are even times if the fruit was not that sweet we used to add a bit of salt and eat the pulp.

Few weeks back when I went to the store and I saw passion fruit well I bought two packs and in my mine I said ok now is the chance to make passion fruit curd as I have been wanting to make them for a while.

Must say this is such a easy curd to make and the recipe is from BBC Good Food and I must say this recipe is a keeper.
Don't get panic if it doesn't get thick fast, have patience, things like this you can't do in a hurry.
If you just follow the recipe good you will end up getting a delicious passion fruit curd.

 



Ingredients

200g/7oz passion fruit pulp, about 6-8 ripe passion fruits

3 large eggs

140g butter, diced

250g golden caster sugar

2 tbsp cornflour

Method

1. Put the passion fruit pulp in a food processor and whizz to separate the seeds from all the juicy bits. Scrape into a sieve set over a medium saucepan, pushing through as much pulp as you can. Reserve 2 tbsp of the seeds, then discard the rest.
2. Add the remaining ingredients to the pan and set over a low heat. Whisk until all the butter has melted then, using a wooden spoon, stir constantly until the passion fruit curd has thickened to a similar consistency as lemon curd. Don’t be tempted to turn the heat up to speed up the process as the eggs will curdle; make sure you stir right around the edge, too, as this is where it might catch first.
3. Sieve the curd into a clean bowl to get rid of any eggy bits that may have curdled. Stir in the reserved seeds and cool, before spooning into jars and chilling. Curd will keep in the fridge for a week

Raspberry Chocolate and Almond Cake

It has been a wonderful long weekend as Ananda some of you may know her from the blog A pinch of Love came to our place for weekend and it was so much fun to have her at home and cooking and also we made macarons, she wanted to learn how to make them so we maked them together but as we were so busy we didn't had time to fill them.
We drank cocktails, ate so much food that in that even one evening we were all so STUFFED that we just were like no moreeeeeeeeeee eating like this :-)
We went for shopping for baking stuff, then went for prop shopping in a second hand shop and then went to one of my favourite shop for buying new props, and Ananda went wild there as she found so many things she loved.

The day before she came I had made this cake as it was a religious holiday here and as usual we go to my FIL's place for afternoon coffee and recently I have restarted baking cakes to take that side as we were getting fed up by the cakes from the bakers.
Before I used to take the whole cake but now from 7 to 8 ppl for the coffee time it has reduced to just 4 so now a days I just take half the cake and keep the other half here .

In the recipe it is written serve with whipped cream but I din't had any cream so didn't do it thought Hans was going one saying that it would have been so good to have the cream as he loves whipped cream.

Recipe is from last months Delicious Magazine.

150 gm Unsalted butter, softend to room temperatur
150 gm sugar ( I used only 90 gm)
2 large eggs
150 gm Self rasising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder ( in the recipe they didn't use it but I added) add to the flour
50 ml whole milk
150 gm almond powder
135 gm dark chcolate chip ( used chocolate chunks)
150 gm fresh or frozen raspberries ( I used 170 gm and frozen one, take them our just before you want to fold into the cake)
25 gm flakes almonds
Icing sugar to duseµDouble cream to serve

1. Preaheat the oven to 180°c / fan 160°c. Grease and line a 20 cm cake tin.
   In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar untill pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time beating well adding a spoon of flour after each addition. Beat in the milk to combine.
2. Fold in the remaining flour, the ground almonds, chocolate chips and raspberries. Spoon into the cake tin, then sprinkle over the flaked almonds.
3. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes untill a skewer pushed into the center comes out clean ( although chocolate might stick to it), coool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completley. Dust with the icing sugar and serve with cream.

Tip: After 40 minutes if the cake is getting too brown I cover the top of the cake loosley with a foil and then bake for the rest of the time.

 

Strawberry & Rhubarb crumble

I love crumble and I must admit I love a good crumble in winter easpecially when it is so cold outside and then you are staying indoors and around coffee time you make a crumble ans enjoy and you have the feeling that your whole body just gets warmed up by eating the crumle.

So then you all must be saying why am I posting a recipe for a crumble when it is so hot outside.
Simply because if I have to wait for winter time to make this particular crumble I won't be able to as I won't have good strawberries and rhubarb so now you all know the reason why I make the crumble.

We loved the crumble, the day when I made the crumble Shyama had to go to her university library as she is doing her bachelor paper and most of the book she need they don't lend so you have to look up everything in the library itself. But when she came home that evening she asked me Mama I saw your crumble in FB which you posted today and they were looking so good, do you have something left and me why were you looking to fb while you were in the library and she is like ofcourse I check fb there too.
The recipe said if you like serve with ice cream, I think it is a must :-)



I took the recipe from BBC Good food Magazine

For the crumble

• 140g plain flour
• 50g ground almonds
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 100g butter, chopped
• 25g flaked almonds

For the fruit layer

1. 85g golden caster sugar
2. 1 heaped tbsp cornflour
3. 450g strawberries, hulled and halved if large
4. 450g rhubarb, cut into chunky lengths
5. v
6. Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. To make the crumble, mix the flour, ground almonds and sugar in a bowl, then rub in the butter as though you are making pastry. Tip the mixture onto a large baking tray and spread out evenly. Create little clumps in the mixture by pinching it together with your fingers, then bake for 10 mins.
7. Meanwhile, make the fruit layer. Mix the sugar and cornflour together in a large bowl, then toss in the berries and rhubarb until well coated. Tip the mixture into a pan and cook over a gentle heat, stirring until the fruit softens a little and any released juices thicken.
8. Tip the fruit mixture into an ovenproof dish, scraping in all the thickened juices. Add the flaked almonds to the crumble mixture, then scatter over the top. Bake for 20 mins until the fruit is tender and the crumble golden. Leave to cool slightly, then serve warm with vanilla ice cream, if you like.anilla ice cream, to serve (optional)

 

 

Mango Strawberry Daiquiri

I love cocktails, If I could I would drink them every day, but then that is just stays like a wish, as mostly cocktails are made here at home on weekends.
If it is good weather then I double love to drink them ,but we have not been having that much good weather here so in the end even if it is little but sunshine is there one is really in a good mood and in the friday evening I will be like yes cocktail time.
Here it is strawberry season and mostly there is strawberries at home from the market so one day I was like well I have strawberries and what drink to make,
Then I got this idea I do have mango pulp in tin ( if i had fresh ripe mangos I would have used them) so why not make a Daiquiri with this combination.
And I must say we love it, I have made few times after making this for the first time.



Ingredients.
50 ml Rum
10 ml lime juice
20 ml sugar syrup (optional)
4 to 5 strawberries
1 big tablespoon of mango pulp
Crushed Ice

Pour the rum, lime juice, sugar syrup, strawberries and ice into a blender and process at slow speed for 5 seconds, then at high speed for 20 seconds. Pour into a chilled glass  decorate with a strawberry and enjoy the drink.

Strawberry Cream Tarts

This year the strawberry season was late and also the prices are higer , maybe because of the bad weather we have been having here.
But must say I love strawberries, I could eat them straint one by one, Hans and Shyama though they would prefer if i serve the strawberries with whipped cream.

Ofcourse I do wish strawberries didn't had any season and they would be there whole year around, they are available whole year but I think they are the best when it is in season as any other fruit and aslo price tag is much better when they are in season :-)

According to James the Best way to make shortcrust pastry that crumbled in th emouth texture is to do it by hand rather than the machine.
I have noticed when I make short crust pastry the tart shells do shrink a bit maybe because of the butter so make sure your tart shells are deep enough.



For theRich Shortcrust pastry: Source

200 gm plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp icing sugar
100 gm cold butter,cubed
1 egg beaten
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp iced water

1. Mix together the flour , icing sugar and salt. Add half of the cubrd butter to the flour.
Gently and swiftly, rub the fat into the flour untill it resembels coarse breadcrumbs.
Add the rest of the butter and mix untill it is the size of small peas. Make a well in the center of the dry indgridients.
2. Mix the egg with the lemon juice and water and gradually pour into the well a little at a time, rubbing it through your fingers, untill it forms a dough ( you many not need all the liquid)
Turn out into a flour board and knead lightly intill smooth. Shape into a ball, wrap in a cling film and fefrigerate at least 30 minutes.
3. To line the moulds, roll the chilled pastry into a circle using a litle flour so thatit don't stick to the board using the help of the rolling pin , roll the dough onto the pin and then unroll into the butterd tin or mould. Gently press in plces using your fingers.
4. Line the pastey cases with grease proof paper and fill witrh baking beans ( i use dry chick pea). Blind bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and the discard the grease proof paper and baking beans and then further bake for 5 minutes or untill the tart shells are baked fully.
Leave the tart shells to cool completley before you fill them. ( I remove the shells from the tin after 10 minutes and then leave it to further cooling.

For the filling.
300 ml full fat cream
2 tbsp of icing sugar
400 gms of fresh strawberries.
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whipp the cold cream together with the sugar and vanilla extract untill they are soft peak.
Spoon the whipped cream to each tart shells and then decorate with sliced strawberries.

 

Lime Cranberry Pound Cake

The weather is getting colder day by day , last night I could hear that the heating system was automatically (when we go for sleep we regulate the degrees and if the living get colder then it goes on) going on as it must have been so cold in the night.

Not that I can complain as I am tucked comfortably in the warm bed.

But I am a light sleeper and when the heating systme goes on it make a kind of noise.

Any way Hans had to go for a rehersal so we got up early, well early to our standard and if i write them time here you all will say that is early for you my god by the time Finla you are awake half of my work is done :-) )

So was just awake and I was walking to the kitchen when I heard the phone rings and It is my sis in India, and

I tell Hello and

sis say Guess what I am making ,

Me You are baking your christmas cake

Sis , No I am making Kalkus ( it is a sweet made with flour, egg, and fried and then coated with sugar syrup etc...then she says after this I am aslo going to make Diamond cuts, yet another sweet which is made in kerala during the holidays.

I ofcourse so Jealous wish i could make all these things , I want to, but I can't as no body is going to eat them and I will be the one ending up eating all this sweet things.

Now this conversation has nothing to do with this recipe which I am posting but I just wanted to give how my daily life, is, one sis rings me to say what she is making, then the other sis and I when we talk to each other what do we talk about baking, dishes we are making, or what we are going to make :-)

One of the first baking website love even before I started my blog is Joy of Baking, I know if you love baking you won't be a stranger to this site.

I think the whole word knows about it as it is so good, I have made so many bakes from there and it always comes out perfect.

And this Lemon Cranberry Pound Cake was no different too.

I have made this cake so many times but I have never blogged about it, and this time too I was not planning to blog hence no step by step picture, but then as it was looking so christmasy I thought why not.

I don't have a pciture of slices as I made this for last sunday and as usual on sundays I take my bakes to my in laws place for afternoon coffee. And every time I take my bakes there there is always a slice or two cut because I do that for taking pics for the blog, but this time I thoguht I will take it in one piece :-)

It is such a easy cake to make and really moist and so delicious.

I did some  variation which I have noted in different color

Do check the original post as there is lots of tips for making this cake.



Ingridients.

For the cranberries:

 1/3 cup (80 ml) Lemon juice ( I used Lime)
2 tbsp brandy ( Used 4 tbsp )
1 cup ( 115 gm dried cranberries) ( I used 160 gm)

In the recipe it was written to add above indridients in a pan and boil etc, but what I did was put all the above ingridients in a glass bowl , and whacked in the MW for 2 to 3  minute and then drained it and let it cool down, keep the drained liquid

Do this step first before you start with your cake mix.

 Pound Cake:

3 1/2 cup ( 455 gms ) all purpouse flour
1/2 tsp ( 2 gms) baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup ( 227 gms ) unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups ( 600 gm ) granulated white sugar ( I used only 300 gm as my family don't like the cake to be sweet plus I added more sugar for making the thick frosting)6 large eggs
2 tbsp lemon zest ( I used Lime)
1/2 tbsp of pure vanilla extract
1 cup (240 gms) sour cream or youghurt ( I used sour cream)

 Lime frosting optional ( I did)

I am writting down what frosting I did as the original one had a lighter frosting and no liqueur

200 to 250 gm of powdered or  icing sugar
Few table spoon egg white ( if you don't like to use fresh eggs you can use egg white powder, i use the egg white as then the icing gets hard)
Few tbsp of Orange ligueur ( I used Manadrin Napoleon)

 For Pound Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Butter and flour (or spray with a vegetable oil and flour spray) a 10 inch (25 cm) bundt pan. If using a dark colored pan, reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

 In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add lime zest, vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

With mixer on low, add 1/3 of flour mixture, alternating with the sour cream, about 1/2 cup at a time, beating just until batter is smooth. (You will have three additions of flour and two of the sour cream.) Stir in the drained cranberries.

Pour batter into bundt pan and smooth the top. Bake for approximately 60 - 75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Let cool 5 minutes and then lightly brush the top of the cake with half of the reserved cranberry liquid. After 10 more minutes loosen sides of pan with a sharp knife and invert onto a wire rack. Immediately brush the top and sides of the cake with the remaining cranberry liquid.

Cool the cake completely before frosting

Frosting:

 In a bowl, combine the sifted confectioners sugar, table spoons of egg whites ( add first 2 tbsp of egg white and then if you want more add more) with the orange liqueur .
I wanted to have a real thick frosting than in the recipe.

Spoon the frosting over the top of the cake, allowing the icing to drip down the sides.

I also decorated with some extra cranberries on top too.
Let the icing dry before covering and storing.

This cake can be frozen. However, if freezing, do not cover with the lemon frosting

 

Black Berry Margarita

In August Shyama was doing Summer job and she was lucky enough to get a summer job in the City Hall public Library ( this is is second year) .

She loves working there as she like people who she works with.

All her friends do summer job for a month, that is normal here.

I guess it is also good for parents as we never have to give pocket money for her and anwyway she is really carefull with her money, she is like she is saving up for going for a world trip after her studies :-)

Anyway it was 31st of August and her last day of work and we decided evening we should celebrate her last day of work with a cocktail and some snacks. And here we love any excuse for a party.

So I made these Black Berry Margarita .

Recipe is for 1 person

 



3 tbsp of blackberry sauce ( I used some 250 gm of blackberry, added a splash of water and then puredd it and ssieved it so you don't have the seeds) with this much i could make 6 glasses, i didn't weigh so can't give you the excact amount i used,plus keep few aside so that you can decorate it when you serve them)

50 ml Tequila

20 ml Triple sec ( i used this, but if you don't have this you can also use Cointreau)

10 ml lime juice

10 ml sugar syrup ( the recipe said 20 ml, the first glass was made with 20 ml and we thought it was a bit sweet so when we did the second serving used only 10 ml)

Shake all the above ingridients in a cocktail shaker and pout into a Margaritta glass with loads of crushed ice.

My ice was not crushed that good as i was too lazy but when i make next time I will sure crush it more.



Strawberry Cream Cake

It is still summer holidays and we are enjoying having Shyama at home ( ok not the she is continues home as she is doing her summer job for one month in the library here )

And as Hans is in holiday too he and I have been going to place here around but then cycling, the longest we have cycled till now is 25 km. I don't thing it will get longer than that.

I know I have been missing out on you lovely posts and I will have to miss it till the begning of september .
I had plans to post something healthier, but after seeing the pictures of the cake both my sisters have been asking for the recipe.

Ok this is a cake I made to take to my inlaws place for a sunday coffee and we all loved it.

If yor are a vegetarian you don't have to use the gelatine in the cream, I use it as it as i have heard the bakers use it so that they can keep the cake for longer so the cream does'nt run.

You should moist the cake with the liquour of you choice if you don't have strawberry liquour, but what ever you are using you must moisten teh cake otherwise the cake might be too dry.

For the Sponge:

Sugar 150 gm ( I used 120 gm)

Eggs 250 gms ( usually 5 eggs, depending on the size)

Flour 150 gm

Vanilla Extract 1 tbsp
Baking powder 1/2 tsp

1 pinch of salt
(There are times when I melt butter and add to the batter to make the cake more moist this time I didn't do )

Preheat the oven to 200° c.
Line and grease 9 inch round cake tin, when it comes to inches I have no idea aobut the measurement , I used a 22 cm cake tin.

In a large bowl add he eggs, sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl and beat together ( I used a hand mixer)  till it gets very thick to a ribbon texture, this will take 8 to 10 minutes.
Sift the flour and baking powder together, do this twice so that there is no lumps.
Fold the sifted flour mix into the egg mixture using a metal spoon or spatula ( I used a spatula) you should be carefull when you fold just be gentle, don't be in a hurry.
Pour tha batter into the tin.
Bake fro 25 tà 30 minutes , to know if it is baked insert a toothpick and that should come our clean, then you know it is done.
In my Oven the cake was done in 24 minutes so I guess it depends on your oven.

 Let the cake cook for atleast 10 minutes in the tin and then remove it from the tin and leave it to cool completley before you decorate the cake and do the filling.

 500 gm strawberries
750 ml full fat cream cold
3 tbsp powder sugar ( if you like a sweeter cake you ave to add more powder sugar here at home we don't like that much sugar on a creamy cake so add the sugar according to your taste)
4 to 5 tsp water (Only use this water if you are using gelatine)
3 tsp gelatine powder
Combine water and gelatine and MW for few seconds and mix everything well.
Few tbsp of strawberry liqueor ( if you don't have this you can use rum or any other drink )
Few drops of red food coloring.

In a bowl add the cream, food color and sugar and using a hand mixer whipp the cream when it is a bit thick add the gelatine in a small stream, whipp the cream till it is really thick.

Assembling the cake
Slice the cake horizontally .
Sprinkle both the piece wtih the strawberry liquer.
Slice 300 gm strawberries and mix with couple of table spoon of the whipped cream.
Spread this mix on top of a cake layer.
Take the other piece of the cake and press on top.
Use the rest of the whipped cream for spreading the whole cake and also for decorating the top of the cake.
Slice the rest of the strawberries and decorate the side of the cake.
Keep in the fridge for one hour and then slice and enjoy the cake.