Barely Chocolate Pound Cake

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Ayesha Sheharyar

Mom had her morning cup of tea in her hand today. She looked a little wistfully at her cup and said,” I should have picked up a cake from the bakery yesterday “. “Why mom? You just have to ask me and I’ll bake one”, I replied in my best chirpy, good Samaritan voice. “No chocolate?” She asks. “No chocolate”, I promise. Mom doesn’t have the time to bake herself, so all the baking in my house is done by me. Since my sisters don’t move their lazy butts to the kitchen. Anyway, I did bake a cake. And it had just two tablespoons of cocoa powder. That’s not really chocolate, just a food color sort of addition. And the chocolate ganache drizzled over the cake was on the cake and not in it. So that again, wouldn’t make it a chocolate cake. “This is brown, Ayesha”, mom sighs. “Mom, it’s not chocolate…errr….just barely chocolate”.

What You need(Cake)

2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp cocoa powder

How to go about (Cake):

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.Flour and grease the baking pan.
Add the dry ingredients in one bowl. Sift these.Set aside.
Add eggs, buttermilk, butter and vanilla essence in another bowl. Whisk them.
Whisk all the ingredients in a single bowl.
Pour in the mixture and set to bake.

Ganache For Drizzling

Add 3 oz dark chocolate in a microwavable bowl. Let this melt in a microwave. Remove this bowl from the microwave and immediately add 2 tbsp butter. Mix this mixture with a spoon. Drizzle over the cake.

Cookie Love

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Ayesha Sheharyar

Hello lovelies and lovelaas( lovelaas for males). Since English is not my mother tongue, I would be given a little leverage when I run off the track, or wouldn’t I? Anyway, this cookie recipe I’m sharing is an extremely tried and tested one at our place. So tried and tested that it has become completely run off the mill. But that doesn’t do away with the fact that these cookies are always high in demand at our house. I usually make them plain(Without cocoa powder, chocolate chips) but this time my chocolate love elbowed its way even into my cookie baking prowess.

Ingredients:( For approx 2 dozen + small ones,depending on size)

3/4 cup butter(softened to room temperature)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cup all- purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp lemon zest (optional-if you like the lemoney scent )

Extra

I divided my dough into 3 parts. In the first part I kneaded in cocoa powder(1/4 cup). In the second part I added chocolate chips. The third part was left plain(I decorated these ones with roasted almonds after cutting out shapes).

How to go about it :

Add sugar,butter and whisk these together in a bowl.
Add the egg and vanilla and whisk well.
Mix the flour, baking powder, lemon zest and salt
Mix all the above ingredients in one bowl. Knead well.
Refrigerate for 3-4 hours or more.
Take the dough and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough
use the cookie cutters, to cut out shapes as desired.(Personally I love hearts)
Set to bake
Bake until the cookies get firm. Don’t over bake.

The last picture is of eclairs and chocolate truffles that a cousin bought on his way back from London…….! I just totally love chocolates. Excuse me while I devour this loveliness .

You’re not hungry by any chance, are you ? 😀 😛

Sweet Rice Pudding!

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Ayesha Sheharyar

Sweet rice pudding is a wonderful dessert that is made from minimum ingredients and is therefore uncomplicated. I loved it as a kid and still adore it at 18. P.s Its so easy to make yet tastes so amazing especially when garnished with almonds and crushed cardamom.And since I like to celebrate my lazy days with minimum effort and lovely food, I am super infatuated with this dessert 😛

Ingredients:

2.5 litre milk
1/4 kg rice
15 cardamom crushed
300 g white granulated sugar
15- 20 almonds for garnishing (Crush half of them)

How to go about it

Soak rice in 2 cups water for 1.5 hrs
After having soaked them for 1.5 hrs, blend them in a blender(along with the water in which they were soaking)
Bring the milk to boil in a large saucepan
Put blended rice into the boiling milk. Stir for 5-7 minutes to incorporate rice into milk.(Stirring is important as the mixture can get stuck to the bottom of the pan)
Reduce heat levels. Leave this mixture to simmer for 1 1/4 hr. HOWEVER keep stirring on regular intervals all this while, to prevent sticking and burning.
When the rice and milk mixture has reached thick almost homogeneous consistency, add sugar and stir to incorporate it.
Put crushed cardamom and almonds into it. Stir.
Pour the mixture into pudding bowls.
let it cool in fridge for 1 hour or more.
Garnish it with whole almonds.
Serve.