“The only way cheese is dessert is when it’s followed by the word cake.” Michele Gorman
Eggless Cheesecake with Mango Lime Sauce must be the easiest dessert to make. Minimum fuss, barely four ingredients, one bowl dump and quick hand whisk, can’t ask for much more in a dessert for summer. I make this often, and am constantly amazed at how versatile I can get with it. Even if summer has slipped by, please make the basic cheesecake and dress it up with anything you like – a salted butter caramel sauce, a berry reduction, a dark chocolate ganache, a homemade preserve, maybe grated chocolate and toasted nuts.
I made a series of mango based desserts this summer. Have been busy with work, some travel, loads of house work etc. Did I mention the guinea pig? Now there are TWO just because they are social animals so a pair seemed right. Then there is Coco who now eats ALL vegetables with renewed interest trying to beat the guinea pigs at their game!
In any case, that I procrastinate is quite obvious else this would have been on the blog a while ago. I made this a short while ago, and recently shared the image on Facebook and Instagram. With so many requests for the recipe, I thought I had better share it before summer sneaks by us, while a few of you can still make it.
So here you are. A quick, eggless delicious cheesecake that is a western take on an old Indian classic, ‘bhapa doi’. Make the Eggless Cheesecake with Mango Lime Sauce a day ahead, chill well, and then enjoy the compliments that come your way. Looks like a lot of work, but all this actually needs is half an hour in total. The mango sauce compliments it beautifully, and makes it look pretty too if you ‘dress it up’ a little. I had fun cutting out shapes with a sharp cookie cutter! I’ve baked this several times before. With summer stone fruit, a Mishti Doi Cheesecake for a festive feel, a Salted Butter Caramel Cheesecake, and a Dark Chocolate Orange Cheesecake too.
Quick, eggless delicious, the Eggless Cheesecake with Mango Lime Sauce is the Western take on an old Indian classic, ‘bhapa doi’. Make it a day ahead, chill well, and then enjoy the compliments that come your way. Looks like a lot of work, but all this actually needs is half an hour in total. The Mango sauce compliments it beautifully, and makes it look pretty too.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 20 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours30 minutesminutes
Servings 6people
Ingredients
Eggless Lime Cheesecake
1tin sweet condensed milk {approx 400g}
400gyogurt
2tspmilk powder
Zest of 1 lime
Mango Lime Sauce
150mlmango juicefresh/tinned
Zest of 1 lime
Juice of 1 lime
1tspcornflour dissolved in 1tbsp of cold juice
1/2tspsugar
Instructions
Eggless Lime Cheesecake
Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 6″ dessert ring with a double layer of foil to come up around the edges so the mixture doesn’t leak. You can also use a loose bottomed tin but make sure you wrap it with foil too.
In a large bowl whisk together all ingredients for cheesecake until smooth.
Turn into prepared tin and bake for 15 minutes. Leave to cool in tin, then cover and place to chill in fridge overnight.
Meanwhile, prepare the sauce for topping.
Mango Lime Sauce
Place the mango juice a in a heavy bottom pan with lime zest and sugar, and cook over medium high heat until halved in quantity. {If you like a slight hint of chili, you can add half a slit deseeded green chili for 2-3 minutes, and then discard it}
Once the juice has reduced, add the lime juice and corn flour stirring until it thickens to desired consistency. The sauce will thicken a bit more on cooling.
Cool sauce, and then chill overnight with the cheesecake. {The sauce can be made in advance}
Top with cutouts from mango slices, fresh basil leaves, flowers if in bloom. Chill until ready to serve!
“Fussing over food was important. It gave a shape to the day: breakfast, lunch, dinner; beginning, middle, end.”
Robert Hellenga, Philosophy Made Simple
Overnight Thandai Oats with Peaches & Plums, a no brainer at best. A recipe that took far too long to come, one that is the easiest and has a nice gentle touch. The home made Thandai Nut Mix adds a delightful touch, tying in well with the almond milk, sabja/basil seeeds and melon seeds. Of course, feel free to use chia seeds as they are super foods too, though imported. I use basil because they are locally available and swell up so beautifully. My sweet friend Madhuli @ My Food Court makes sure my supply of basil seeds is never ending.Peaches and almonds make for great pairing. What’s not to love about a breakfast that offers everything in a bowl? Oats, nuts and seasonal fruit? The nut factor comes in from this Thandai mix. Thandai, or sardai, is a cold drink prepared with a mixture of almonds, fennel seeds, magaztari seeds, rose petals, pepper, vetiver seeds, cardamom, saffron, milk and sugar. It’s a traditional cooler from the Indian subcontinent, one that is very popular around Holi, the festival of colour. The recipe for my Thandai Nut Mix is here on the KitchenAid India blog. There are hundreds of versions of the mix online, some more complex than others, yet most customisable to taste. Feel free to use your own, or a store bought variety, else add almond meal or chopped walnuts. If nuts are not your thing, maybe just skip them but do try this once. It’s quite gentle on the palette and ties in well with the stone fruit.Talking about stone fruit, this is the best time of the year to enjoy them to the maximum. I use them as much as I can these days. In bakes like crumbles, or trifles {as above}, just simply much through them, or then like this lemonade below. Elevate your simple everyday lemonade or nimbu paani to a Peach and Cherry Lemonade. Allow peach slices, pitted cherries and fresh mint leaves to sit in the lemonade for about an hour in the fridge. You’ll be delighted with the change in colour and gentle flavour.
What can be better than waking up to a chilled healthy and delicious breakfast on a warm summer morning. These Overnight Thandai Oats with peaches and plums are the best thing to wake up to. A no cook, beautifully balanced breakfast for a great start to the day! Oats + nuts + seeds + fruit herbs all share space in a make ahead jar. Use any seasonal fruit you like. Berries, mango, kiwi, pineapple, sapota etc.
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Prep Time 5 minutesminutes
Total Time 8 hourshours5 minutesminutes
Servings 2people
Ingredients
Overnight Thandai Oats
8tbspbreakfast oats
2tbspThandai Mix
2tbspmelon seeds
2tspbasil/sabja seeds
2tspbrown sugar{optional}
200mlmilk
Topping
2peaches,largesliced
2plumsdiced
2tbspmelon seeds
Few sprigs fresh mint
Few sprigs fresh mint
Instructions
Overnight Thandai Oats
Divide the oats, Thandai mix, melon seeds, basil/sabja seeds and brown sugar between 2 lidded glass jars. Top with just enough milk to soak the mix.
Stir gently, cover and leave to stand in the fridge overnight.
Topping
Next morning top with sliced fresh peaces and plums, scatter over with melon seeds and fresh mint
“Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.”
Anthony Bourdain
Ptasie_mleczko or Birds Milk Cake …my adaptation. With a name as intriguing as that, I quickly jotted it down as my Ukranian friend translated it out of her mothers cookbook in Sydney earlier this month. There is an eternal charm in handwritten recipes of times gone by, this recipe book is from the 1960’s. Neat, and well explained, the recipes all written In Ukrainian, talk to you, explaining each step. The measures are often in glasses from the Old Soviet Union, standardised at 200ml, a measure my sweet friend continues to use as her mother once did.
Ptasie Mleczko (Polish) is a soft chocolate-covered candy filled with soft meringue (or milk soufflé). In Russian it is called ptichye moloko (птичье молоко) and in Romanianlapte de pasăre. All these names literally mean “bird’s milk” or crop milk, a substance somewhat resembling milk, produced by certain birds to feed their young. However, this is not origin of the name; rather, ptasie mleczko is also a Polish idiom meaning “an unobtainable delicacy”. In Poland, Jan Wedel, owner of the E. Wedel Company, developed the first Ptasie mleczko in 1936. Wedel’s inspiration for the name of the confectionery came from his voyages to France, when he asked himself: “What could bring greater happiness to a man who already has everything?” Then he thought: “Maybe only bird milk.”
This must be one of the quickest birthday cakes I’ve ever made. And yet another very very delicious one. You can find my coffee take on it at the bottom as Ulyana decided to bake one for us the night before we were due to fly out. No pictures of the cake in Sydney as we were racing against time. I didn’t get too many pictures of the cake I baked here too as coming home after a vacation is always far too busy. It was however tasty as hell!!
Our trip Down Under was great fun! All trips there always are! Sydney has been one of our fave places to go when possible, and this was our fourth trip. Like every earlier trip, this too was packed and flew by like a heartbeat. This trip was short, just a week ‘long’, but we had a great time. With hosts as good as ours, the days went by driving from mountains to beaches, with great food and drinks thrown in. Mindless banter, endless shopping what with the daughter with us, too much food, overindulgence … ad before we knew it, time to fly back.
We flew in comfortably, sleeping all the way on Cathay Pacific, with a short stopover in HKG. There too the daughter shopped till we dropped for 3 whole hours. Hurriedly dug into some delicious street food, raced back to the hotel, showered and hopped onto the Sydney flight. A long 9 hour flight, some great food, Aussie wines too, Pamela’s book kept me entertained and nostalgic as we landed there into a crisp 4C at 6am. We were really blessed to see great weather the few days we were there.
We’ve done most of the iconic must see places on the earlier trips covering The Rocks, Opera House, Botanical Gardens, Tiranga Zoo {to date one of my sons fave places}, Butterfly Park, Harbour Bridge, Harry’s original van at Wooloomooloo, the Blue Mountains … and so much more. Yet a visit to the Blue Mountains is a quintessential part of Sydney for us, and that’s where we headed pretty soon. It as a freezing COLD day but we managed to stop by some breathtaking spots, taking in the gift that only nature can offer. Knocks your breath A W A Y!
We went off piste, little walkways dot the Blue Mountains, each with a signboard telling you how long it takes to get to the destination, level of ease …and more! There’s loads to do. Did I mention stunning beaches? Yes those too!Beautiful beaches, birds, crabs, shells, nature, left over pizza from the Italian pizzeria from the night before, chilled beer though not as chilly as the cold winds, great company … couldn’t have asked for more.Of course I shopped some too. It’s always good to know the ‘right’ people, who in turn know the right places…and a Sunday morning market later, I was back a happy camper. There was loads I could have gladly bought to ‘prop’ up the blog, but sense had to prevail. It was a struggle I tell you!
No trip to Sydney for me is complete without a visit to Victoria’s Basement. Though short on time, we did a quick walk through, a near impossible task in itself given the treasure trove you can find under a roof! I shopped a wee bit more here and there, constantly thinking of how much I could stuff back into suitcases. You know! Oh the choices we have to make!
With travel comes food, and most good memories are tied to taste! Knowing the right folk is great! It’s satiating to explore a country through it’s cuisine, and then comes the added bonus of exploring the flavours they brought from their native lands. So we were spoilt. Ukranian cusine filled our days alongside Aussie quintessential. Gourmet sausages on the barbeque that made the tastiest hotdogs, slow cooked {read dropping off the bone good} lamb-shanks with chickpeas and spinach, Caesar salad galore, smoked Polish sausages and cold cuts, Ukranian potato latkes with garlic and sour cream, artisan pizzas, more Aussie reds, red wine too, pancakes for breakfast with whipped cream and local preserves, cheese in every avatar to die, then more local artisanal unripened cheese as if that was not enough …Sweet stuff too, though no pictures. Fresh cherry strudel, macadamia and caramel ice cream, divine coffee gelato, berry gelato too, and then of course this beautiful Birds Milk Cake flavoured with the organic lemon from the yard the night before we flew out. I dreamt of the cake as I slept on the flight back home. I knew I just had to make one soon, my pet flavours dancing in my head.
That’s just what I did the next day for the son’s birthday. As we melted into a sizzling North Indian summer at 45C, desperately trying to hang on to memories of 12C, the crisp and beautiful Aussie winter we left behind, Ihit baking mode. This cake bridged the gap beautifully, and that is what good food & travel is all about. Makes you come full circle, flavours and memories sharing a plateful! What a delightful {and delicious} journey this food business is!
Recipe: Ptasie_mleczko or Birds Milk Cake
Summary: Ptasie_mleczko or Birds Milk Cake finds it’s roots possibly in the Old Soviet Union. A preparation for the light as air filling quite as intriguing as the name ‘birds milk’, it’s a moist and delicious cake that takes well to added flavours. Make ahead and chill for the flavours to mature. It tastes wonedrful as a fresh tray bake as originally intended to be too. Serves 8
Prep Time: 30 minutes Total Time: 1 hour {plus cooling and chilling} Ingredients:
Cake
130g butter
200ml / 1 glass brown vanilla sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
200ml / 1 glass all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
Filling
150g butter
400ml / 2 glasses milk
100ml/ 1/2 glass sugar
3 tbsp semolina /suji
2tbsp instant coffee
1 tbsp Kahlua {optional}
Topping
50g dark couverture chocolate
100ml low fat cream
1 tbsp honey
White chocolate shavings to garnish
Method:
Cake
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line 2 X 8″ round baking tins with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt. Reserve.
Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one by one, ten the vanilla extract.
Slowly fold in the dry mix. Turn batter into tins and bake for approximately 30 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Cool in tins for 15-20 minutes then cool completely on rack.
Filling
Make this while the cake is baking {or a few hours before too}
Place the sugar, semolina, coffee and milk in a heavy bottom pan. Stir over low heat until the mixture thickens. Leave to cool completely.
When the cake is ready and cool, make the remaining filling.
Place butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat until smooth and fluffy. Beat in the coffee semolina and Kahlua if using.
Assemble
Place one layer on serving platter and keep in place with an 8″ dessert ring. ladle over half the filling and top with second layer. Top with remaining filling, cover and refrigerate for a few hours {or overnight} for flavours to mature.
Take the ring off gently, top with chocolate ganache {recipe follows} and white chocolate shavings.
Chocolate Ganache
Place ingredients in a heat proof bowl and microwave 1 minute at a time until the chocolate has almost melted. Stir until smooth and glossy. Cool to room temperature before use.
“It is the food which you furnish to your mind that determines the whole character of your life.”
Emmet Fox
Kadhi {Indian vegetarian yogurt curry}. Ask me to pick my favourite Indian curry, and chances are that kadhi will be the first thing that comes to my mind. It is the best comfort food ever, leaves me deeply satiated, fills me with nostalgia right from the aromas that rise from the first tempering. As the flavours of aesofoetida and curry leaves dance wildly in the summer air, I am transported to the air cooled house of Sheela Aunty, my mothers friend from Delhi University.
She passed away several years ago, but a large part of our growing up unfolded under her wings. It is rare for even a few days to go by when we don’t exclaim like her, and then dissolve into giggles. Large-hearted, earnest, easily shocked, far too loving, the best collection of crisp summer sarees, jewellery to make the heart sing {after all she was born into one of Delhi’s leading jewelers families}, too humble, a great Indian vegetarian cook, she left a deep impact on us.
I wasn’t foodily aware or obsessed at the time she was around and still rue the fact that I didn’t get a chance to chase her with paper and pencil to record recipes …I did that a lot {A LOT} after I got married in the mid 1990’s. Pages and pages were filled and I am glad I managed some. Aesofoetida was introduced into our rather differently spiced house thanks to her.
Spices became a fascination, hing or aesofoetida ‘the spice’ I fell in love with. I have grown to love the spice, not very well known in the West, very popular with Indian vegetarian food, and extremely popular down in South India too. Surprisingly enough, you see influences of the spice in non-vegetarian cuisine in Kashmir too! {One of my favourite haunts is Khari Baoli, Old Delhi to visit the spice market seen above. That was at the Lumia shoot 2 days ago}
No tadka or tempering is complete without this magical ingredient, the nostalgia lingers on. So that morning when I looked at the Hamilton Beach MultiBlend Blender and Chopper on my kitchen counter, I didn’t have to think of what to make for lunch. With buttermilk and homemade yogurt in the fridge, I knew it was time for my favourite summer curry.
Sometimes it seems like a bit of work, the pakoras or dumplings actually but in time I have cut the work out for me. Blenders the way to go for curry always, and the Hamilton Beach Multiblender did the job to perfection. In seconds. It also cut the work out when it came to making pakoras, or the dumplings. A friend whatsapped me the other day to say she was waiting for my review as she wanted to know how the onions got cut in the bender. A 100% good I have to say! Finer than I could ever manage, and within seconds. I love that there are two separate jars, complete with blades etc which allow you to multitask!
I’ve been doing a lot more with the multiblender. Grinding oats as I develop recipes for Fit Foodie.
Whisking up delicious smoothies inspired by Aditya on Instagram. #CreateFearlessly is a great hashtag to carry. Goes in line with the ‘Good Thinking’ that spells out the Hamilton Beach line of products! ‘Really Good Thinking’. I’m loving it.
Did I tell you we’re not the only ones who are in love with papaya and smoothies this summer? There’s a little someone who shares every papaya that is cut in the kitchen. She makes a meal of quarter at least before it gets to the blender!
Then there is someone else smitten with the blender. The lad wakes up every morning in a somnambulent state and glides into the kitchen to make himself a frozen strawberry almond smoothie. Goes on to slurp his way through, enjoying it to the last drop, then even washes up the blender! On Mother’s Day, he burst into my room with a tall {and really really good} glass of Guava+Strawberry+Lychee Smoothie that he conjured up for me.Honestly, this is one kitchen companion I am enjoying fearlessly! There have been glasses of cold coffee, mango shakes, papaya flax seed smoothies, 3 batches of kadhi, buttermilk lassi, pineapple apricot coolers, watermelon strawberry delights, aam panna … and plenty more this last month.
The upside is having one kid enjoying it even more. The downside? Yes there is one! The daughter has now threatened to take the Hamilton Beach MultiBlender back with her when she goes back to uni after the vacations. #CreateFearlessly might well reach the battleground between the two kids!
[print_this]
Recipe: Kadhi {Indian vegetarian yogurt curry}
Summary: A quintessential Indian vegetarian yogurt based curry, which can be found adapted to regional taste. This is my version and it is fragrant, addictive and finger licking good. Serve this gluten free dish with boiled rice or even parathas.
Prep Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 45 minutes Ingredients:
For the curry
300g yogurt, home made or store bought
250ml buttermilk
1 heaped tbsp besan {chickpea flour}
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/8 -1/4 tsp hing {aesofoetida}
1 tsp salt
First tempering
1 1/2 tsp ghee {clarified butter}, or oil
Pinch hing {aesofoetida}
2-3 whole red chillies
Few sprigs fresh currypatta
1/2 tsp whole zeera {cumin seeds}
1tsp sarson {whole mustard seeds}
1/4 tsp whole methi seeds {fenugreek seeds}
Second tempering
1 tsp ghee {clarified butter}
pinch hing
2-3 whole red chillies, broken
1-2 sprigs fresh curry patta
1/2 tsp sarson {whole mustard seeds}
Pakoras {dumplings}
3/4 cup besan
1/2 tsp salt
pinch baking soda
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 green chilies, broken into 2-3
1/4 cup fresh coriander/curry patta, roughly chopped
1 cup oil for frying {else shallow fry }
Method:
For the curry
Place all ingredients in the blender, and process for 30 seconds until well blended. Reserve.
First tempering
Keep all the ingredients ready as listed. They need to go in rapidly, one after the other, to avoid them getting burnt. The fenugreek is the last and tends to get a little bitter on over browning, so take care.
Heat 1 1/2 tsp ghee in a deep heavy bottom pan, and add the ingredients as listed, ending with the methi seeds/fenugreek.
Immediately pour in the blended yogurt mixture. Keep over high flame until it comes to a boil, stirring often, else it will overflow {and make you weep}.
Once it comes to a boil, simmer for about 30 minutes until fragrant and cooked, stirring once in a while. Keep an eye on it on and off and it tends to come up to the rim of the pan.
Pakoras
Put the onions, green chilies and fresh coriander in the small blender. Chop for 30 seconds, stir, chop again to desired size.
Place ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Stir in enough water to make a thickish batter of dropping consistency. Whisk well with hand to aerate the batter.
Heat oil and gently drop in spoonfuls. If the batter is very thick, the pakoras will be hard. Experiment with one pakora first to check.
Fry over medium heat until they turn golden on one side, then gently turn and fry the other side. Don’t overcrowd the pan.
Drain from oil, blot over kitchen towels, and slide into hot kadhi/curry. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes so that the pakoras get nice and soft.
Final tempering {Optional. I sometimes skip this as the first tempering flavours the kadhi well}
Heat ghee in a small tadka pan {frying pan}. Throw in all the ingredients. Once they sizzle and splutter, get aromatic, take off heat and pour over kadhi.
Serve with boiled rice {with a side of papads if you like}
“Barbecue should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
Albert Einstein
Summer’s here and with it fun, healthier and lighter food. Did I forget the D word? Delicious too! There’s been quite a shift in the way I look at food, develop recipes, serve it up etc. The grains have gone whole, the sugars are less refined, usually natural or brown, and the oils are cold pressed or then clarified butter. Natural homemade white butter too. If you look at things, it’s actually a lifestyle change, teenie step by step, and it’s interesting to see how things can change bit by bit.
With developing healthy and tasty recipes for Fit Foodie, to drinking more water, upping the protein and walking the extra mile with the GOQii campaign, this year couldn’t have begun on a better note. It isn’t about losing weight and the eternal calorie count. I’ve learnt as time goes by that holistic is better, that lifestyles are better when balanced, that changes don’t happen overnight.
All this aligns with my food philosophy, being a locavore and eating seasonal. With the temperature rising, I thought I’d buy a sandwich grill. Online browsing is the best option for housebound me these days as I have work going on at home. landing up at the recently launched Home Store section of one of my favourite haunts, I was blown away by the choice.
SO MUCH CHOICE! I almost forgot what I had landed up for…. my imagination took flight. Beginning from singular thoughts of a sandwich press, the boundaries expanded and how! I shifted gears and knew I now wanted a grilling something. Oh yes, good thought now that I was also cutting back carbs. I wanted a grill! So I set off and OH DEAR! Faced with more choice, online shopping has never been better. My search for grills threw up more temptation by way of the header ‘Barbeque & Grills’. Such fun. The prices are quite reasonable too from under Rs 1000 to about Rs 5000, I found enough choice for my kitchen and home. I have never seen so many colours too.
So it was definitely this I zeroed in on an enamelware charcoal grill. Such a compact fun design, with the option of no legs {counter top}, half stand or stand on wheels, couldn’t have asked for more. Time to toss coins. Which colour? Red blue, green, white, yellow, black? Good heavens! Asked the lad at home because I oscillated between black and red. White he said with conviction, so white it was!
An outdoor grill in summer is fun, fun, fun. This one is so convenient to use and compact too. The store {can mention Flipkart} is very prompt with updates and delivers expertly. Unpacking it, I loved the packaging and the thought behind the product. Such fun… I ave myself a pat on the back for such a great choice!
So here we go. A simple herby lime barbeque chicken to inaugurate my latest online indulgence. You must go and check out the range available. There are some great discounts available that you possibly won’t find in store. Oh, and don’t forget to tell me what you went looking for, and what you eventually bought. Were you strong willed, or weak willed distracted like me, hopping from one page to another, spoilt for choice?
And I bought another something. You know my love for stoneware and black Manipur pottery. I was pleasantly surprised to see quite an extensive range of this online. To add to my collection, I bought this beautiful flat rectangular serving dish. Was a perfect fit to serve the skewers on. They’ve got an enviable range. For those who cannot make it to Dilli Haat, this is the place to go.
[print_this]Recipe: Herby Lime Grilled Chicken
Summary: A simple herby Italian chicken which is bursting with tangy, fresh flavour. The smokiness from grilling adds special earthiness to the flavours. Use the same marinade for cottage cheese, or maybe button mushrooms. The cooking time will reduce the same.
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Ingredients:
500g boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1 1/2″ pieces
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
8 cloves garlic, minced
Juice of 1 large lime
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1 tbsp dried Italian herbs
1 tbsp Ranch buttermilk dressing {optional}
2 tbsp fresh oregano
Salt to taste
Bell peppers and onions
Method:
In a large bowl, whisk together marinade ingredients. Stir in chicken pieces and mix well. Leave to marinade for 2 hours, or better, overnight.
Skewer chicken pieces alternatively with bell peppers and onions.
Fire up the grill. Grill for 7-8 minutes approx each side, as per manufacturer instructions.
“Cake is happiness! If you know the way of the cake, you know the way of happiness! If you have a cake in front of you, you should not look any further for joy!” C. JoyBell C.
It was a Peaches & Cream Cake for my father’s birthday last week. Everything was going according to plan,and I toyed around with summer cake ideas in my head. Summer is for stone fruit, and the cake would most certainly have some! Peaches! I had a kilo of them in the fridge. Cream? Yes of course; there’s always some on hand. Time for peaches and cream!!
Despite knowing that whipping cream in miserable summer heat is sure to fail, I marched ahead. At 43C, life was never going to be a cake walk in the record breaking heat and humidity we have had this summer. That the rains failed added to my misery. 75% humidity and everything looks like it’s condensing! Not the best weather to work with cream cakes in ……
…and then it was time for a power breakdown. It had been assembled but a cake needs chilling you know. I stuck the cake into the fridge and we finally left for dinner. The cake survived as power was back when we returned. I thanked my lucky stars that it held together until we cut it, well almost. It was YUM!
Oh, did I tell you I never got to my kilo of peaches? Yes that happened too. With all the unnecessary drama of no power, I just reached out for a tin of canned peaches; probably my best idea that day. Another good idea was the Crème patisserie I made for the frosting … finger licking good.
Summary: A light summery birthday cake, the crème patisserie lends a nice, deep flavour to the frosting on the Peaches & Cream Cake. Use fresh peaches or even apricots in season. The cake would work really well with mangoes too. Prep Time: 25 minutes Total Time: 1 hour plus cooling , chilling time Ingredients:
Sponge Cake {Make 2 X 3 egg sponges}
3 eggs
100g Castor sugar
70g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
pinch salt
Filling & topping
500g low fat cream, chilled
75g icing sugar {adjust as per requirement}
1 850g tin peach halves {I used Del Monte}
Crème patisserie {can be made a day before}
200ml low fat cream
pinch salt
2 eggs
1 vanilla bean scraped
50g sugar
15g cornflour
Method:
Sponge Cake
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line, grease & a 7″ loose bottomed tin.
{If your oven in big, bake 2 X 7″ cakes together}
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt 3 times. Reserve.
Beat the eggs, essence & sugar till mousse like {almost 10 minutes}.>
Lightly fold the flour in 3 goes in figure 8 movements (so as no to release the air bubbles).
Gently turn into prepared tin & bake for 20-25 minutes till light brown & spongy.
Repeat for 2nd cake.
Cool on racks completely, then slice horizontally into 2 layers each
Filling
Whip all ingredients together to medium peaks.
Crème patisserie
Bring cream and a pinch of salt to a gentle boil in a pot.
In the meantime, whisk the egg yolks and sugar with a wooden spoon in a big bowl until the mixture becomes pale and light. Stir in the cornflour slowly until it is thoroughly mixed with the egg mixture.
Pour the boiling cream into the mixture a little by little while whisking continuously to avoid curdling.
Transfer the whole mixture into a pot, with the seeds scraped from the vanilla bean {throw in the shell too}, and simmer over low heat. Stir it constantly with the wooden spoon or spatula scraping the sides and bottom until it has thickened.
Once the custard has thickened, take it off the heat, and strain it into a clean bowl. Add a dash of peach liqueur if desired. Cool, cover with cling wrap touching the surface, then chill for a few hours. This is going to be very thick.
Assemble
Drain the peaches and slice 3-4 halves for topping. Chop up the rest.
Reserve the peach syrup to moisten the sponge with.
Reserve 1 cup of whipped cream for the frosting.
Place 1 layer of sponge on serving platter, moisten with reserved peach syrup, top with 1/3 whipped cream, and 1/3rd chopped peaches. Repeat with remaining layers.
Loosen the chilled crème patisserie and gently fold in the reserved whipped cream. Don’t whisk briskly or it will become too floppy for frosting.
Taste and adjust sweetness if required. Frost the top and sides of cake with it.
Top with peach slices, chill for at least half an hour for flavours to mature.
