LIME POUND CAKE for Sweet Punch - Season 2

Do you know how this cake got it's name? In the olden days the main ingredients used for baking this cake measured a  pound each in weight. So one pound flour, one pound butter,one pound eggs,one pound sugar plus the other teeny-weeny bit of leavening agents made the original cake. Amma's Marble Cake is a perfect example for the 'real' pound cake. But these days, things recipes are way too different from the original but the name remains the same.

No complaints whatsoever because this cake was a decadent one. Soft, buttery, lime-y with the perfect crumb! Our apartment was filled with the aroma of citrus when the cake was baking. I would never trade it for something else. Do you like naturally- flavoured cakes or do you like it plain? I like both depending on what mood I am in, mostly. I know one thing for sure, I love cakes, be it simple or decorated.

I had plans of making a simple lime drizzle over this cake but later chose not to. I loved the way the cake looked when it came out of the oven. It had a lovely crack on the top, perfect for a Perfect Pound Cake. I sometimes like the natural designs cakes have on top, like this Sunflower patter on my One Bowl Vanilla Cake. A lot of you thought that it was a deliberate move from my side,no, it wasn't. The oven did it :-)

Coming back to the topic, our baking group, A Sweet Punch completed a year of it's existence and we are starting the Season 2 with this beautiful,decadent cake. This recipe is chosen from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbum. The cake had the perfect tight crumb and the texture was awesome! You/ve got to try this one. You will fall in love!

LIME POUND CAKE
Makes one loaf

Ingredients:
3 tbsp milk
3 large eggs
Juice & zest  of 1 lime
13 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 c sifted cake flour
3/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 F and prepare a loaf tin.

In a bowl, whisk together milk, eggs and lime juice. Reserve.
In another mixing bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together (which includes the lime zest).
Add the butter and half the egg-milk mixture to it and mix till the dry ingredients are moistened.Beat on medium speed for a minute. This will help in aerating and developing  the cake's structure. Scrape down the sides.
Add the remaining egg-milk mixture in 2 batches beating for 20 seconds in between each addition. Scrape down the sides again.
Pour the fluffy batter in your pan, smooth the surface and bake for 55 mins or till done. If you are using a fluted pan/bundt pan, keep a check on the baking time (from 35 mins onward).
Cool in the tin for 10 mins, turn out onto a cooling rack and let it cool completely.
Slice and devour!

Verdict: I made this over the weekend for the family who was visiting us. I cut them into thin slices and they vanished! On the Fourth of July, our friends came over and we grilled some Brats & Chicken Wings. I had saved some cake for the occasion, so this time, I served 2 slices each per person with Balsamic Roasted Strawberries, a drizzle of roasted strawberry syrup and a nice big scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream to beat the heat. It was yummy! Serve it any way you want, it will be delicious!

Later we walked along the river and watched the fireworks sitting on the stone arch bridge. It was breathtaking. I took this picture last year when we went to the Farmers Market nearby. It's a beautiful bridge with the Mississippi flowing beneath it.

CHOCOLATE & VANILLA BAVARIAN CREAM GATEAU

Ihave no idea what took me so long to update this little space of mine after his birthday. Anyways it's better late than never : D The weather here is changing everyday. Finally we got to see some greenery on  the otherwise skeletons of trees. But this morning I woke up to see a gloomy sky giving way to heavy lightning and thunder and I was as happy as a peacock! Every time the sky gets gloomy, I see myself longing for heavy thunderstorms and rain.I'm just like a peacock, who does a rain dance with it's beautiful feathers (not that I have any) every time it's about to rain :)

This was Jobin's 2nd cake for his birthday. I thought of mixing up 4 of my favourite components while making a gateau : Simple Sponge, Soaking Syrup, Bavarian Cream & Ganache. You can never go wrong with this combo. The cake & filling was very light and the soaking syrup moistened the cake beautifully. I set the cake in a loaf tin as I didn't want the same old rectangular/square/round birthday cake this time. I'm sure I'll return to my favourite round very soon :-)

'A Sweet Punch' is completing a year  this month, so we thought of asking our members to bake whatever they like. So this is what I am sending in as my entry for this month! I still cannot believe that our little group has turned one! :-)

CHOCOLATE & VANILLA BAVARIAN CREAM GATEAU

You will need:
Simple Chocolate Sponge (Recipe given below)
Vanilla Bavarian Cream ( I made only half the quantity and omitted coffee powder from the recipe)
Soaking syrup
Chocolate Ganache

Recipe & Method for the sponge:
Beat 1/2 c granulate sugar and 3 large eggs together for 10-12 mins on high speed. I used my hand held beater. Fold in 1/4c all purpose flour,1/4 c cocoa powder & 1 tbsp cornflour. Pour into a loaf tin and bake at 350F/180C for 25 mins or till it is springy to touch. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, demould and cool completely. Slice it horizontally into 3.

Assembly:
Line your loaf tin with plastic wrap and put one layer of sponge, moisten it with the syrup and pour half the bavarian cream over it. Repeat. The last layer should be a layer of sponge.
Let it set in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours.

De-mould it and drizzle ganache over the sides and top. I didn't level the top completely as I wanted a bit of an 'old fashioned' look for the cake.Decorate with slivered almonds.Chill till needed.

Verdict: I took this cake to my relative's house that evening as we were having a get together there. Everybody was intrigued by the texture of the cake as you can see that the bavarian cream was pushed out of the cake layers that it coated the sides too. It was very moist and equally delicious! Bavarian cream is one of the easiest and tastiest filling you can make for your layered cake. I'm so hooked onto it now!

ORIENTAL PIZZA PINWHEELS ON A STICK!

Where does the time go when we have to do something for a particular date? It just flies for me and I'm sure it's the same with you. A Sweet Punch is a baking group that I'm a part of and for this month, we were supposed to bake a pizza.The toppings were left to our choice and if I'm given a choice, I can go really wild thinking about the possibilities which in the end will confused the already confused Gemini. So that happened once again, that morning as I set forth to make the pizza. The dough was made the previous day and was put to rise slowly in the refrigerator.

Now, to the topping. Bacon?Sausage?Veggies?Plain cheese? Ahem! NO way! All the 'Suryanamaskar's ' that I have been doing will go for a toss. Okay, so no cheese. Then what? I didn't want to go with the usual pizza sauce/meat filling topped with cheese kinda pizza, instead wanted something totally totally different. That's when I remembered what I baked for my nephew and niece long time ago...pinwheels on stick!

I had some smoked Italian Sausage with me in the freezer, freezing for the last 6 months. I bought it at our Farmer's Market and they are homemade sausages.Back when we bought that, I had made some filling with it for our Saturday Brunch Sandwich and it was a hit! So I just put 2 and 2 together and made the pizza :)

This dough is a breeze to make, thanks Divya for choosing this recipe.The filling is just a matter of sauteeing some red onions & sausages with soya sauce, salt and pepper.

ORIENTAL PIZZA PINWHEELS

Recipe for pizza dough : Pioneer Woman

Recipe for the filling: My own

Ingredients:

Pizza dough (I halved the recipe and got 15 pinwheels)
1 tsp yeast
4 c all purpose flour/maida
1 tsp salt
1/3 c EVOO (I used canola oil)

Sausage filling:

2 large smoked Italian sausage,chopped up into tiny bits (I used my mezzaluna for this)

Half of a large red onion, sliced fine

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

3 tbsp soy sauce or to taste ( I always use Dark Soy Sauce)

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Pizza dough:

Dissolve the yeast in 1 1/2 c warm water and set aside for 10 mins till it foams up.

Mix the flour and salt together.Drizzle in  the oil and mix well.
Add in the yeast + water and mix well to form a  ball of dough.

Oil a large bowl and dump the dough into it and rotate to coat the dough with the oil.

Cover it tight with a plastic wrap and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight.

Filling:

Heat oil and saute the onions. When it is soft, add in the ginger garlic paste and saute for another 1 min.

Add in the chopped sausage and mix well. 

Add the soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. In most cases you will not need the salt. So check and then add.

Switch of the stove & let it cool completely.

Assembly:

Pre-heat the oven to the maximum temperature for 10 mins. Dust your baking sheet /stone with cornmeal/semolina.

On a floured surface, roll out the pizza dough into a rectangle.

Spread the filling over it leaving a 1 " gap from the edges and roll it away from you, starting from the longer side parallel to the edge of the counter top. Seal the edges with water, put the seam -side down and cut into 15 slices.

Place the pinwheels cut-side down and insert skewers into them (parallel to the sheet). 

Bake for 15 mins. You can serve it hot/warm.

Verdict: That evening Jobin came back home hungry and asked me if there was something to eat. I 'offered' him these pinwheels and he just couldn't stop with one,instead he ate around 7 and skipped the dinner! The fillling is really delicious and since there was no cheese involved, it tasted more of a bread roll and less pizza, which is exactly what I wanted.

Living in the US has given me a new insight to cheese, to stay away from it atleast when I cook at home. Where ever you go out to eat, you will be eating some sort of deep-fried food or cheese/butter filled food until you want to live on salad's alone without any dressing. And I'm not a salad person until it's some chicken salad with pasta...I mean that's just an example.

So this one is without cheese, but if you want to add in some cheese, you can sprinkle it on once the pinwheels are cut and placed on the baking sheet and bake till the cheese melts and bubbles (I doubt any cheese that we get in India bubbles, though).

I have made other pizza's before -Cheese &Chilli Chicken Pizza & Tandoori Sausage,Roasted Bell Pepper & Corn Pizza. You can have a look there if you need more ideas for toppings.

With a sprained neck,

EGGLESS WHOLEWHEAT ALMOND COOKIES

This cookie has been baked over and over in my kitchen for the last 4 months. It's gone places along with me for the last 4 months.It's first trip was to California and now to our friends houses in Minneapolis.It's such an easy recipe with beautiful crunchy results! I remember posting a picture of it on Facebook, but never got to posting it here. Time and month's flew by and when it was time for me to select a 'Cookie' for 'A Sweet Punch' bake for February, I chose these simple Indian cookies.

Are you longing to get a taste of your local bakery cookies? Are you longing to have a bite of 'those' crunchy cookies your mom made when you got back from school? Or simply want to have something with a nutty crunch in it? Then these cookies can do wonders for you! I tried them simply for a change and not for wanting any of those things I mentioned above but I got all those things I mentioned above when I ate them :)

When we went to California, I met a blogger friend of mine.Magpie of Magpie's Recipes. I gave her a packet of these cookies and she loved it. Infact she has been asking me for this recipe ever since and I've never shared it with her! How mean?! ;-) The truth is,I've had plans of posting it on my blog but it never happened until today. I hope she gets to see this now :)

EGGLESS WHOLEWHEAT ALMOND COOKIES
Recipe source: Manjula's Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 c Wholewheat flour
1/2 c granulated sugar (If you are living in India, please use powdered sugar.Take about less than 1/2 cup regular sugar and powder it.)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp green cardamom powder
1/4 c chopped/slivered almonds
1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
About 2 tbsp milk or as needed (you may not need this at all)

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 360F and position the rack in the centre.

In a bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together.
Add the soft butter to the dry ingredients and mix with your fingertips.
If can form a soft dough, avoid adding the milk, if not add milk and form a soft dough.
Divide the dough into 24.Form them into smooth balls.
Flatten them slightly and place them on an ungreased cookie/baking tray.
Bake for 18 mins or until they are lightly golden brown in colour.
Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely, by then the cookies will firm up.
Store in airtight containers.

Verdict: If I make the same cookies over and over again and then bring it to a group of food bloggers to try, then this recipe has to be excellent! :) Try it for yourself and see!!

If you would like to bake with us, please send an e-mail to asweetpunch AT gmail DOT com

Announcement: A big thanks to all who participated in the Kerala Kitchen last month. We have created a new home for the event, so the round up will be posted there. This month,along with the event, we are bringing you a challenge, to make my 12-layered Chatti Pathiri :)

If you are interested in becoming a member or would like to submit your entry, please send it to magpiemails AT gmail DOT com.

We look forward to hearing from you, real soon!