R' Coffee-honey-cashew cake

Hmmm...both A and I were suddenly yearning to eat a coffee cake. Now that I have the werewithals (an OTG - a diwali gift from A), I googled to look up a recipe and I found as expected tons of recipes of cakes to eat with coffee...all sorts of cake. Not the recipe I was looking for which was well...a cake with coffee. So, e-mailed R for a recipe for cake with coffee as an ingredient (and honey too, A added) and trusty R promptly sent back one and subsequently revised the proportions for a very small cake mould which would fit inside my small OTG. And yesterday, with shaking hands, heart thumping wildly, I tried it out.

You will need:

Flour: 1 cup

Baking powder: 1 tsp

Clove and cinamon powder: 3/4 tsp

Ground nutmeg: 1/4 tsp

Chopped walnut/almond/cashew: 1/3 cup (I used cashew. R's says walnut is the best but others will do.)

Instant coffee: 1&1/2 tbsp

Hot water: 1-2 tsp

Powdered sugar: 1 cup

Honey: 1/4 cup

Eggs: 2 lightly beaten

Butter: 150 gms

Milk: 1/4 cup

Here's How:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, ground spice and a pinch of salt ina bowl.
2. Add the chopped cashew.
3. In another bowl mix the sugar,honey, butter and water and coffee well.
4. Then add the flour spice to it along with egg, milk.
5. Mix to form a smooth batter.
6. Grease a mould and pour the batter in to it and bake for 40-60 minutes till a knife inserted comes out clean. (I baked the cake for 40 minutes at 210 deg C).

Note: Lightly dust powdered sugar on top of cake or Spread coffee cream on top of the cake

For coffee cream: Mix 250 g butter, 2& 1/3 cup icing sugar, 3tsp heaped instant coffee, 6 tsp hot water well, to form a creamy paste and spread on cake top with a spatula or cut the cake horizontally into two and use it to sandwich it.

(I didn't do either....just served the plain cake as is, fresh from the oven).

How simple the above recipe reads doesnt it? And it is too. But if I described my process...it would take pages and probably be a primer on how not to do it but despite or perhaps inspite of it all, the cake was quite OK. It was rapidly eaten up and pronounced quite good for a first effort. And what's more, if I can do it...so can anyone...So try it out.

Thanks to A for mental support.

Thanks to R for the recipe, long distance encouragement including answering three phone calls on silly issues like I have added the milk before the water or how does one grind the nutmeg etc?

Thanks to J who didnt say anything at the enormous amount of dishes to be cleaned although she did say that while this cake is nice, the one didi (R) sent was BETTER!

My very own Yogurt dessert

Have come up with my very OWN recipe. Yes its quick, its ludicrously easy, and its only yogurt. But I did it myself. Yahoo... Dear readers, you must be wondering at this point that I must be either completely nuts or egotistical. Neither really. I have this idea deep within me, that I am not much of a cook. And have never really tried very hard to overcome that bias deep within me. I make elaborate preparations but lose steam mid way. I have huge compilations of recipes collected from all over. But can never seem to find them. On the rare occasion that I cook for anyone other than A, I get R to make up a simple do-able menu for me. There were three other dishes that I cooked along with this yogurt dessert. Those I leave for another time.

First, as the name suggests, you will need yogurt. Millions do it on a daily basis through out India and elsewhere. But the problem was, that I was not among them. My cook would do that for me. And today, she had left by the time the milk arrived (rather late in the day). I tried to look it up on the web..and the two links I found (both american) mentioned using a thermometer to check the temperature of the milk etc. Now, that is not something I have seen my mother, or mother-in-law or my maid do. I knew the basics, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Without a thermometer that is.

You will need:
Milk 250 ml (I used double toned milk)
Sugar 1tsp
Vanilla essence
Yogurt to seed
Pistachio nuts: 5-6 coarsely chopped
Honey

How to

1. Heat the milk. Add 1 tsp of sugar to the milk. Remove from fire when it boils. Let the milk cool to room temperature.
2. Add 1/2 to 1 tsp of yogurt to seed, in the pan you are going pour the milk into. I was going to have a guest for dinner. So, I poured the milk into three small terracotta jars (the size of a small teacup).
3. Add 1-2 drops of vanilla essence in each of the jars. Cover with foil and set aside (inside a microwaver or like I did, on top of the refrigerator).
4. Once the yogurt sets, put it in the fridge for chilling. The yogurt set in about 4 hours time (It might take longer if the weather is cold).
5. Just before serving, add the crushed pistachio nuts, and sprinkle honey on top.

PS - There must be a similar recipe for this; But I came up with this myself. And that, has to be an event and a rare one at that.

PS2 - Dear R, Have I made the grade then?