“Victoria Sponge Cake”

   (click on the pictures for a larger Image)

10,000 and more!!!!

Thank you to all my Freinds and Members who have joined my FB  Group.

Thank you for supporting me and taking "YOUR" Group high across the Globe over the 10,000 number :D

Love you all!!

 

I baked this cake to share the happiness with you all and my lovely daughter decorated it saying it should be shiny and attractive :)

 

 

 

 

 

The Elephants are a symbol of festivity and a power, in this case a powerful number of 10,000 : )

 The round earth ball signifies all my friends around the globe, the candles are the warm lights which enlighten our hearts and souls and the Jennie lamp to fulfill your wishes in the future :D

 

 

 

 

I wanted to try this “Victoria Sponge Cake” since a while but it kept pending.

As the 10,000 mark on my fan page was coming near and I had invited my Family friends the same evening so I thought it’s the best time to bake it now or never : )

It's fun enjoying it together:)

 

So this is how it looks when you cut it, it is

 spongy.....spongy....spongy....and spongy !!!

Have no other words to describe you should make it yourself to believe me :)

 

 

 

 

Victoria Sponge Cake is a very English cake with very simple ingredients but if made the right way it is the best cake one can have with or without tea. Its soft and spongy structure and then the Raspberry filling makes it the Top Class Cake!

 

 

My Mom used to make this Sponge cake at that time when we had no oven and she had this round silver cake form and I remember she used to beat 6-7 eggs for that, the cake seemed so yellow, now I know it was because of the egg yolks, and the aroma of that cake was just awesome.

 

It was *The Sponge Cake* of that time, made on the hot plate (tawa) kept on the stove on a very low heat covered with a thick cloth so it stays warm.

I had forgotten the right way of it just knew it were many eggs and butter :)

With the passing time one forgets so much and can't recall the exact recipe but have that light vision and as soon as i get some helping hints it's there

 

Look at that Raspberry jam oooooozing out ...Yummmmmmy!!!

 

 

Well then I googled to search for this cake and came across this  site which was the nearest to the original sponge cake  so I  just increased my ingredients in grams and followed the rest instructions.

 

 "Thanks a lot to the blog owner for sharing this recipe"

 

I just made it the classic way with Raspberry jam and castor sugar and it is in fact really very spongy.

You really press on the top and it really pops up back and this happens when you really beat and beat and beat and beat ….. I can tell you how much time I spend doing this :

 

 

15 minutes for Butter

15 minutes for eggs

BUT used a wooden spoon to fold in the mix of flour and baking powder as this is important or you will have thousands of holes on your lovely cake.

Here’s the link to the site:

 http://mooeleven.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/classic-victoria-sponge-cake/ 

(THANK YOU)

I weighed the eggs I had and took all ingredients according to that, so here are my measurements:

 

220 grams of flour

2tsp baking powder

220 grams of sugar

220 grams soft butter

2-3 tsp milk

1tbs Vanilla essence

300 gram Raspberry jam

Castor sugar for topping

Do try you’ll love it for sure!
Here the steps of making it, copied from "mooeleven.wordpress.com.

Classic Victoria Sponge Recipe (for an 8″ round cake)

3 eggs (You will need to weigh them in their shells.  Mine weighed 180g)
Exactly the same amount of butter, caster sugar and self-raising flour.  (If you only have all-purpose/plain flour, add 1 teaspoon of baking powder [5g] per 100g of flour.  Apologies US friends – I think that equates to 1 tsp baking powder for just over 3/4 cup of flour).
Raspberry jam (home-made is lush!)
* Grease and line two 8″ sandwich tins.
* Preheat your oven to 160 degrees C (320 degrees F).
* Weigh out your ingredients. (Remember, it is the weight of the eggs in their shells you will base your recipe on). So, if you have eggs that weigh 180g, you will need equivalent weights of butter, sugar and flour.
* High sift your flour into a clean bowl, twice!
* Quickly beat together your eggs in a cup.
* In your free-standing mixer, or using an electric hand whisk, beat your butter until pale and fluffy.
* Add your sugar and beat.  Beat it some more.  Beat the living daylights out of it!
* Gradually add your eggs, a little at a time.  Beat, beat, scrape down, beat, beat and beat.  If your mixture curdles, you are being darn impatient!  This part takes time, but is vital to a light sponge.  Set aside 10 minutes for this part.
* Make a cup of tea.  :)
* When your mixture is ‘together’ and isn’t curdling, high sift your flour into the bowl and, by hand, fold it in.
* Spoon the mixture between your two cake tins.  For a perfect sponge, weigh the mixture evenly in each tin!  Spread it round.
* Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until light golden brown.  The top should spring back to the touch and the edges should be pulling away from the sides of the tin.
* Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then turn onto a cooling rack.
* When cool, fill with raspberry jam and sandwich the cakes together.  Sprinkle with caster sugar. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chickpea Polau (Channy ka Polau)

 (click on the pictures for a larger Image)

 

 

My most Favorite Polau after the Sandali polau of course : )

Chickpeas come from the Middle East/ Oriental Cuisine, high in protein and fiber they are the best supplementary to the main meals. I have always loved Pea and Chickpea polau just with a simply Salad Raita(yoghurt Dip) and Potato cutlets as a side dish.

The aroma rising from the kitchen when it is being cooked is indescribable : )

I make it very often with all sorts of curries as we can taste the curry more intensively when the rice is not too heavy and spicy

 

 

My method is the one I adopted from my Mama darling and I have never done any changes in it so it stays MY HOME recipe and now I am sharing with you all so you can also taste the yummiest Chickpea polau ever : )

Mom used to soak and boil the dry chickpeas, I also boil and freeze but  I am not so efficient all the time so use canned ones too : )

 

 

 

 

I have my fixed ratio for rice which is so perfect that I never had any blunders Alhamdolillah!

I take 2 cups of rice and 2 glasses of water or you can use the same cup and take 2 cups for each cup of rice, means in this case if you have 2 cups of rice then 4 cups of water.

My cup is around 110 g and my glass fills in 200ml

The rice cooks fast as we soak it in luke warm water

 

So here we start off to make our Polau

2 cups Basmati rice ( soak in luke warm water15 minutes before you have to cook)

1 tin of boiled chickpeas (800gr drained and washed)

1 large onion (fine siced

1 tbs ginger/garlic paste

3-4 tbs yoghurt (well beaten)

1 tsp white cumin seeds

2 black cardamom

6-7 black peppercorn

5-6 cloves

¼ tsp cumin powder

¼ tsp red chili powder

2 tsp salt (included for the rice )

¼ cup Ghee or Oil ( I use oil)

3-4 pinches of yellow color Or

Safaron if at hand

 

 

 *heat the oil in a broad pot

*add the black pepper, cardamom and cloves and let it splutter

*sprinkle the cumin seeds and fry till they give aroma, don’t let them burn!

*now fry the sliced onion in the oil till golden brown

* we fry a bit more than normal golden so we have a nice color for the rice

*after the color has turned, add the GG paste and stir well till the smell of it is finished

*now mix the spices in the yoghurt and pour this in the pot and stir good

*the yoghurt will leave a bit of water and the spices will mix in with the onion

*add the drained chickpeas and stir all gently on a low heat

*the chickpeas will absorb the yoghurt gravy and all will see dry

*now pour in the water for the rice, give it 2 boils and then add the drained rice

*set on a high lame with the lid covered, then turn down the flame

*when you see just bubbles on the surface turn down the heat to the lowest number/flame

* mix the color in  some drops of water and sprinkle at 3 different places and cover with a light wet kitchen towel and press the cover tightly so it steams well

* the rice is usually ready in 10-15 minutes

* just remove the cloth so the rice does not get softer in the steam

* loosen the rice form sides carefully with a steel slotted spoon (Kafgeer)

It is ready to serve, sprinkle some garam masala when you dish out, gives a super aroma.

 

 

 

Enjoy the Rich divine Poalu

 

Soft Chicken Koftay (Chicken Balls in Curry)

                                         (click on the pictures for a larger Image)

In my time like 100 years back : ) Koftay were only made of beef or mutton mince, then with the time we learned new dishes and new ways of making more elaborating dishes, likeChicken meat is a daily use in many families and of course one gets new ideas to make something different.

My Mom used to make Potato Koftay and that was quite new for many :) Now I make Chicken koftay which is new to my friends lol…

 

 I had invited my family friends for Iftaar so I made these. As I bought the chicken fillet and asked my butcher if he could make me a nice medium mince out of it , to my surprise which I did not know, he said Sorry Maam it is not allowed to make mince of chicken meat… Huh….

 That’s weird, anyway, I came home, took my sharpest knife, made small tiny pieces and put all in my grinder and gave it a twist 2-3 times and viola my fresh super mince was ready : )

Chicken meat is dry comparing the beef or mutton so we need to add good spices which make it soft. The best is if we buy the leg pieces and then use the mince of that as it is the greasy part but then this is also a long process.

 

After making the mince, here’s what I did for the chicken balls:

 

Soaked 2 white bread slices in luke warm water

Grinded 1 large onion

Sliced 2 large onions (for the curry later)

Made a puree of 2 tomatoes (for the curry later)

Now we start:

 

700 g chicken mince

1 ¼ tsp salt

1 level tsp red chili

1 tsp cumin powder

½ tsp garam masala

2 tsp of yoghurt

2-3 green chilies (grinded)

A handful of chopped fresh coriander

 

*take a big bowl, add all the above given ingredients in the mince.

*press out the water from the slices and mix them crushing with hands into the mince

 *add the grinded onion, green chilies and the coriander

*grease your palms before you start to make the balls as this dough is soft and will stick to hands

* make balls of your choice, I like them a bit small not the XL one : )

*Shallow fry them on a medium heat as they get fried quite soon and can turn a bit dark if we don’t keep them turning and rolling.

*keep aside and start making the gravy

For the gravy you need:

2 tomato’s Puree

200 gr yoghurt

1 tsp slat

¾ tsp red chili

¼ tsp turmeric

½ tsp cumin powder

½ tsp coriander powder

¼ tsp garam masala

1 tbs tomato paste

1tbs of whole garam masala

(cloves, black pepper corns, 2 black cardamom)

¼ cup oil (including the left over from the balls)

 

*heat the oil and fry the sliced onion till nice golden brown, take it out and let it cool down

*now crush it with hands and add it to the tomato puree

*add this to the blender and mix in all the rest ingredients given above

*blend into a smooth paste

*now add the whole garam masala in the hot oil and let it splutter till it gives aroma

*pour the paste in the pot and let it cook with a lid then open and stir till the water and juices dry and you see a nice fresh gravy

*add the koftay to it and stir  so all gets mixed up and the gravy takes a nice fresh red color and the oil shows up from the sides

*now add water to your choice, I like it thick so I added just 1 ½ glass, let it cook so the koftay absorb the spicy gravy.

*Turn off when it gets the required consistency.
*as you can see These stay light in Color and are not the dark like the red meat koftay

*sprinkle fresh chopped coriander and serve with Chapatti or rice

*I made the Chickpea Polau as it is the best combination with it

 

 

                                       Make and enjoy the delish taste!

 

 

 

 

 

**Creamy Fruit Cream**

 (click on the pictures for a larger Image)

 

 

The easiest ever quick dessert and equally very delicious.

We always had a bowl of this very delicious cream throughout Ramadhan as it is so very soothing in Iftaar, the chilled taste is very refreshing!

 

Yes it is made in the full fat cream but well then we don’t have to eat the whole big bowl na and just 3-4 spoons of it are enough to give you the refreshment : )

Almost everyone has tins of fruits and creams in store a very good substitute for Fruit Salad too.

 

 

I have started making it with yoghurt, just mix in half quantity of yoghurt, this makes it light and we save some % of full fat too.

I have made it using quark too,(cheese curd) and it tastes good enough, just avoid adding all the juices of the can as this makes it very runny and you will not enjoy the real taste.

You can surely cut in fresh fruit but then make it sometime ahead so the fruit is totally mixed up with the cream, as then it is at its best: )

Here’s how you make it

 2 tins of thick cream

Sugar to taste

¼ cup of plain yoghurt

1 tin of mixed fruits in juice (800 gram)

 

* mix the cream/yoghurt/sugar

*drain the fruits

*mix in the cream

*add some of the fruit juice for flavor

* be careful not too much as then it will get runny

*keep it in the freezer for a cold shock if you have less time

Or else it’s chilled in 2 hours :)

Enjoy the creamy flavor, you can top with whipped cream or jelly but this here tastes divine only as is :)