Sometimes flavour inspirations come in the most random, yet obvious, ways. Take this Banana Espresso loaf for example.
Tag: cake
Pistachio Cake (Gluten Free)
Do you know I love hosting people at home? It’s one of my favourite things to do for people I am close to. It doesn’t need to be any specific occasion, just a normal weekend or even weekday dinner (if work isn’t too crazy). I love to cook a nice meal for them and we usually end up having a super time eating, drinking, playing games and generally chattering non stop. Best way to spend a evening or even a lazy afternoon, don’t you think?
For New Year’s Eve last year (welcoming 2018), I decided it will just be much easier to call people home and avoid the usually NYE madness. I invited around 15 people and after much research and debating (with myself), decided on serving a mediterranean menu. Being the uber enthu cutlet I am, I planned an extensive menu : hummus, souvlaki, falafel, meatballs, moussaka, chicken wings and cake. It was a lot of food! I cooked for 2 whole days, but loved every minute of it! While the savoury courses were relatively easy to finalize, I struggled for a long time to come up with the dessert. I didn’t want to do traditional sweets like baklava because they are super tough and I’ve never made them before. Cakes are my strength and I figured it would be easy to go that route, given I figure out flavours that work. Much research later, I landed on pistachio as my hero ingredient for the cake. And what a cake!
Easy Almond Cake
Almonds are my favourite! They have this amazing nuttiness and aroma about them that make them suitable across cuisines and courses. You can use almonds in salads, in chicken dishes, have them as is, salt them, roast them etc etc. But my favourite way – almonds in dessert! Candied, pulsed, as garnish, in cookies – all such great ways to incorporate this healthy, delicious ingredient!
This cake recipe is a super easy way to bring almond to desserts. It is a simple sponge, with some almonds thrown in. Pretty much 🙂
My Favourite Chocolate Cake
The first thing I ever baked was chocolate cake. I must have been around 4-5 years old. Both my grandmoms used to bake for us during vacations. We used to help with whisking the eggs (no electric whisks back then), folding the batter and of course tasting a large part of the batter before it went into the oven 🙂 Over the years I have baked many a chocolate cake (box mix and from scratch) and eaten more than many times my weight in cake too. A nice, moist, midly sweet chocolate cake is such a delight! Such a mood uplifter too! This cake recipe is something I have been baking for a few years now and is my absolute go-to. For general cake feelings, for birthdays, for mood improvement, for showing love – you name it, this cake does it!
Whole wheat and jaggery spiced cake
After baking a ton of the regular all purpose flour desserts, I felt like I should bake something a little healthier. That led me to think of flavours that work together while keeping the cake minimally sweet, yet moist. It was raining and I was sipping on masala chai while figuring this question out. Absolute movie feels no?
The best tea for rainy days is Masala Chai. Not too sweet, perfectly spiced and just so comforting. That gave me an idea. What if I marry these two ideas – a healthier dessert and chai flavours? Whole wheat + masala chai spices + jaggery. Should work right? It does! So well! 🙂 *Happy Dance*
My Tuck Box 