PASSIONFRUIT ORANGE WHOOPIE PIES

There are some fruits that I like to eat and some in the form of drinks. Passionfruit is one such fruit. I liked it only in the juice form,until I baked these chubby pies. Daisy Mummy is our unlimited supplier for passion fruit juice. It's so tasty and addictive. This time when we reached India , we visited her and she sent us home with 2 big bottles full of it. Appans sister , my Mammaie,also served me enough to fuel myself for those days we stayed in Kothamangalam .

One of the first sweet something I ate after reaching America was a whoopie pie.A pumpkin flavoured one from a mall in Virginia.I ordered it for it's name.It called out to me. Jobin bought it for me and I really liked that tiny cross between a cupcake and a cookie. The filling was so delicious that it haunted me every now and then.

Almost 3 years flew past by and now,only after coming to Kannur did I bake a batch at home.It was just too good! The texture is definately cake-y. It shoudn't become crisp like a cookie(well,then where's the difference!).The filling that I've used here is a passionfruit butter/ curd. It's very quick and easy to make. You can sandwich these and store in an airtight container and they will stay good for 3 days.I was afraid if it would get soggy,but it didn't.

So have you all soaked your fruits for the fruit cake yet? I did a while ago and the cakes are now maturing. I love visiting our friends and family this time of the year in Kerala as we are almost always served a fruitcake,to munch on. What do you generally serve your guests at this time of the year?

PASSIONFRUIT ORANGE WHOOPIE PIES
Recipe from Taste.com.au

Ingredients:
100 grams salted butter,softened
1 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoon freshly grated orange rind
1 egg
2 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk

Passionfruit butter:
2 passionfruit
50 g butter,softened
2 eggs,lightly whisked
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 teaspoon cornstarch
Orange icing:
1 1/2 c icing sugar
2-3 teaspoon orange juice

Method: Preheat oven to 180C and line 2 cookie sheets.
In a medium bowl,cream together butter,sugar,orange rind until pale and creamy.Add egg and beat until well combined. Add flour,baking soda and buttermilk in alternate batches and stir until just combined.Spoon level tablespoonful of the batter onto the cookie sheet,5 cms apart leaving room for spreading.Bake for 8-10 mins,turning the sheets halfway to ensure even baking.Bake until puffed and golden.Set aside to cool for 5 mins and then remove from the tray. Repeat with the remaining batter.

For the passionfruit butter,add all the ingredients into a small saucepan and cook on low heat for 5 mins until it boils and thickens.Transfer it to another bowl,cling wrap it and chill for 30 mins.
For the orange icing,mix together the ingredients to form a thick paste.

Sandwich the cooled whoopies with the passionfruit butter and spread some orange icing over it. Icing will set as it cools.

I cannot let go of my favourite month,December without posting atleast one recipe on my blog! That too when I baked something so simple and delicious. Jobin is here with us and we are busy travelling right now,so there won't be much activity here until next year.
Wishing you all my dear readers a very Merry Christmas!

A CAKE FOR A MOVIE STAR!

The past few weeks have been excitingly busy with baking classes,cake orders,friends and family calling by & me coming up with another original recipe for a cake.So in between these, I recieved an order for a cake for the newly married movie star,Samvritha Sunil. They wanted a layered chocolate cake with Vanilla buttercream,for the chocoholic star! She celebrated her birthday a day before her wedding day,October 31st to be precise.
So that's the cake,you just saw above :-)

MY LEMON YOGURT CAKE

Ibaked my very own cake,for the first time! When I say that, I mean, I didn't use anybody's recipe but my own proportions to bring it all together.Don't ask me how I got till there...it was a long bumpy ride on a very dull Thursday. Fortunately the end result was mind blowing that being sad the whole day didn't matter after all! All the thoughts, worries and confusions yielded in an awesome sauce lemony cake!
OK. I have to tell you that long story and I am not going to cut it short :-)

Last Thursday was quite eventful at home, on the lines of baking. I tried my hand at baking a piped cookie whose dough was just not pipe-able so I rolled them into small balls and baked it. It came out just OK and not so good as the recipe stated. It was a butter cookie and there was a lot of butter in it. I cannot waste butter even if I have to waste the rest of the ingredients. Yeah! I'm like that.

So after a so-so butter cookie, I thought I'll do something to get me going.It's been days since I've been longing to eat a lemon flavoured cake. The hunt was on for a good recipe but seriously, I couldn't get one. During our many e-mails throughout the day, Jobin mentioned he was going for out with his colleagues after work and will be late to get back home. I got that email right after that stupid cookie and when all my search for the perfect lemon cake came to a full stop.

I whined. I wrote back saying 'I'm sad.I want to eat a nice plain lemon cake.I cannot find any recipe.Tried baking a cookie. Flop aayi. Sad.' I mean, seriously...when there are so many food blogs and recipe websites, how is it that I cannot find one recipe which sounded good to me??? Most of them had some sort of a topping going over the hot cake and I didn't want that extra sugar going into our bodies, if I could help it. So I thought I'll compromise and start on with Amma's recipe for her famous cake. That was the beginning...just the beginning of everything!

I took out my brand new digital weighing scale that I was sent for a review and started off measuring butter and sugar. I dumped them into my Reddie to do it's work. Then I moved onto measuring the flour and I painstakingly realised that I was short on it! The butter and sugar was busy creaming up and I don't have enough flour! Ok, let's move onto Plan B...I shall make do with some wheat flour then. Hmph! Ok, now grab the eggs...and for some strange reason, I knew there were not  many eggs left in the fridge. Sadly,it was true.I looked back at my Reddie and couldn't even think of dumping that butter!

Seriously, that was not my day! I am usually very careful and pull out all the ingredients before I start baking and I have no clue what was going on with me that day! I was so let down that I couldn't get a simple cookie right and finally this cake too? Like I said before, the end result changed everything! :-)

RIA'S LEMON YOGURT CAKE
My own recipe

Ingredients:
180g unsalted butter, softened
240g sugar
3 whole eggs plus 1 egg yolk
Zest & ( 3 tbsp ) juice of  1 lime or lemon
200g maida/all purpose flour
40g whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp yogurt

Method: Pre-heat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F. Line a 9 inch baking tin.
In a bowl, whisk together flours, salt, baking powder & baking soda.In another large bowl, beat together butter and sugar till creamy,for 2 mins. Add the eggs one by one and beat for 30 secs after each addition. Add the lime juice and zest and beat for 30 secs. The mixture will curdle but it doesn't matter. Add the flour mix and beat to incorporate. Add the yogurt and beat on high for a minute or two. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 1 hour 10 mins. Your oven timings maybe different, so keep checking from 45 mins.

*Updated on 26/4/2020 - Over the years I revised the method for making the cake batter. Add all the ingredients into a bowl and beat it on high speed using a hand mixer for 2 minutes.

• My current oven bakes the cake in 45 minutes.
• You can use 4 whole eggs instead.
• You can use 240 grams of maida/ all purpose flour instead.
• My 1 cup flour measures 120 grams and 1 cup sugar 200 grams. 

I always dreamt about creating my own cake recipes and never did I even dream that it would be through an accident, a very careless accident! I've actually had a successful accident a while ago and it grabbed me 1st place at a competition too! So, no complaints with accidents! ;-) Don't worry, this cake wouldn't stick to the bottom of your pan as you saw in a photograph above, I was just piling up the crumbs into the tin after I got the cake out of it.

This cake was so so soft that I feared it would crumble in my hands when I unmoulded it. The lemon taste was spot on and the cake was so buttery & incredibly moist! I am so proud of myself ! :-) It really is a wonderful delicious lemon yogurt cake!