Yippee!! I too can bake!!

 


















It was a shame that I could not bake a cake from the scratch.... for my amma always made excellent cakes and biscuits at home even when an electric oven was a rarity in most homes in Kerala...Before she was gifted her first oven, she baked cakes on some specially made iron stands which were kept inside a pressure cooker...Seeing all her trouble, my father gifted her with the first oven, a huge round one with a glass top, from Johnson& Johnson!I dont think that product is still in the market...she still wipes and keeps it shining and it remains a silent witness in our kitchen, to many cooking sagas unfolded!! Anybody who comes to the kitchen is first curious to know abt this grand old lady in the kitchen ,and my mom still uses it to do the 'dum biriyani' etc for it is quite large in its capacity.

I have been drooling and watching all the awesome cakes,muffins,and cookies prepared by my fellow bloggers like archana,pushpa and several others.... and have always wanted to try....Did try too in my own way... but my eggs would never become fluffy and my cream never made any soft peaks...my cakes were very whimsical, either too soft hearted or too stone hearted!!Sometimes my cakes had to be served as cookies and at times my cookies were powdered in the mortar and pestle, as my teeth had no insurance!But I silently kept trying, whenever I gathered enough courage afted each casualty and this time, yippee!! I was successful enough to share my recipe with my fellow bloggers... So here is how I baked these small cuties,Raspberry Nut Muffins, shall I call?:

Ingredients:
Flour-200g
Sugar-75g
Raspberry-75g
Butter-50
egg-1, lightly beaten
vanilla Essence-1 tsp
Milk-1/2 cup
Baking powder-1/2 tsp
Baking soda-1/2 tsp
Nuts-50g(chopped

Method:

Whisk the butter and sugar till they become soft and creamy.Add the egg. Whisk softly and then add the vanilla essence. Give another whisk.Fold in the flour,baking soda and baking powder with milk and whisk together until smooth.Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the muffin tray.Make a base of raspberry and nuts in each muffin base.Now pour about 1 1/2 tbsp batter into each muffin base.Bake at 180 C for nearly 30 minutes or until the muffins puff up and come out soft.(I kept on poking the poor muffins to find out whether they were ready!! But next time I wont disturb them much!!) Cool it on a wire rack and serve it with a blob of raspberry jam and a cup of coffee or tea!

This is quite a useful tip that

Archana

has given me regarding the flour, which has always been quite confusing with the multitude of names in the market...It might be useful for several uninitiated bakers..
"For baking cakes, the best results are obtained with " cake flour", which is a low gluten wheat flour( Lower the gluten, softer the cake). If you can't find cake flour, use " Pastry flour" which has a slightly higher gluten content than CF, but it is still very good. AllPurpose flour has intermediate gluten levels, so that is made to fit all different kinds of food preps, you can make a decent cake with it too. Self raising flour is premixed with baking powder ( usually 1 cup flour + 11/2 tsp bp). Use this flour if the recipe calls for it. Most of the time recipes call for different proportions between flour and bp, so it is good to have just the flour without any added leavening agents. Atleast in the US terminology, AP flour and Plain flour are the same. When you are making bread, use a high gluten flour like bread flour. You can make decent breads with AP flour too."

  













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