Orange and Polenta Sponge Cake

This cake is soft, spongy, and has a little bit of a texture because of the polenta, making it a great cake to have with tea. I used less sugar but you could add more if you prefer things sugary sweet.

You'll need:

1 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup golden caster sugar

4 eggs

1 cup flour (I used Brown Rice flour, but regular flour would do as well)

1 cup finely ground polenta

2 tsp baking powder

Zest & Juice of 2 oranges (I used canned oranges, so used the syrup instead)

Orange slices for topping (optional)

Beat the butter and sugar till light.

Add eggs and mix well.

Sift in the flour and baking powder, then mix in the polenta.

Add the orange zest and juice at the end and make sure everything's incorporated well.

Put in a greased pan and into an oven preheated at 170 deg C. It takes about 40 minutes to cook.

It made 6 cupcakes and one 8-inch cake.

I used a convection microwave. On the convection setting, it took 20 minutes for the cupcakes to cook and 25 minutes for the cake. It has a nice toasty top and I preferred to eat it warm.

Once the cake cools, top it with orange segments

Eggless Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

I wanted to send some cupcakes for my husband's team at his office after a successful project, but didn't have any eggs at home. A quick search led me to this recipe which I altered a little. It was easy to make and very tasty.

For the cupcakes:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cornstarch
*1/2 cup sugar 
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup yogurt (don't use the whey)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk

*(It's low on sugar because the frosting is very sweet - if making only cupcakes, add 1/4 cup more sugar)

Cream the butter and sugar well - just over a minute, then add the vanilla and mix some more.
Sift all the dry ingredients into a separate bowl.
In another bowl, mix the yogurt and milk.

Add the dry and wet ingredients into the creamed butter alternately, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.

Once all ingredients are incorporated, put into cupcake moulds and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg Celsius for about 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool completely before topping it with the frosting.

It gave me 12 medium cupcakes.

Frosting:
200 gm unsalted butter at room temperature
200 icing sugar (sifted properly)
Food colouring (optional)

Cream the butter and sugar well. Make sure there are no sugar lumps as it will interfere when you pipe the frosting. I used a piping bag, but you could also lather it on with a spoon, or improvise and use a ziplock bag with a tiny cut in the corner.

Add sprinkles for joy!

Strawberry Muffins

It was just supposed to be plain berry muffins, but we topped it with some cream cheese icing, and baked it in a large muffin mold to make it into a great birthday surprise.

You need:
A cup of finely chopped, or mashed, strawberries (and some more nicely sliced ones for garnishing - optional)
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs and stir some more. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Line muffin tray and pour about 2 tbsps of batter in each cup.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for about 15 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes.

If you are using the cream cheese icing, let the muffin cool completely (30 min or so) before spreading it over.

Makes about 10 medium-sized muffins

Lemon Cake

The original recipe was for cupcakes, but I decided to go for a full cake.

For the cake:

In a bowl, whisk
1/2 cup butter (room temp) and
2/3 cup caster sugar

Add 3 eggs, one at a time, whisking it well.

Then add 1 tsp Vanilla and zest of 1 large lemon

In a separate bowl, sift:
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Keep 1/4 cup milk on the side.

Starting with the flour, mix 1/3rd part of flour then milk alternatively into the batter, mixing well after each addition.

Pour this mixture into a lined tin and bake at 180 deg C for about 30 minutes. You need to check the cake after 20-25 minutes if it's done, else the extra time in the oven will make it dry.
(Mine turned out a little dry, so I sliced the cake in half horizontally and poured 1/3 cup fruit juice on it and let it soak. It helped some.)

Lemon Curd:

In a steel bowl, placed over a pan of hot (not boiling) water, whisk
3 eggs
1/3 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup caster sugar

Keep whisking it to avoid formation of lumps and curdling of eggs. It takes about 7-8 minutes for it to cook. Keep a bowl and sieve handy. Right after you take the bowl out from the heat, sieve the mixture into the waiting bowl. This ensures that the curd doesn't continue to cook in the hot bowl.

After a few minutes, add
4 tbsp butter (at room temperature)
1 tbsp lemon zest

Cover and set aside to cool, then refrigerate. Covering the bowl is important else it will form a layer on top.

I assembled the cake by layering the lemon curd between the two slices of cake, and topping it with the cream cheese icing. 

Pumpkin Cupcakes

This was the first time I tried making cupcakes and I messed up the measurements from the original recipe - I used more than double the requirement of the pumpkin puree. The result was not bad though. It turned out more like a pumpkin pudding with a crisp outer layer and a soft center. Next time I will try the actual thing (as mentioned below).

For the cupcakes:
Boil and puree about 100 gms of fresh pumpkin. Keep aside to cool.

Mix till smooth:
1 cup sugar 
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)

Then add 2 eggs (at room temperature) and whisk again.
Add 1 tsp vanilla (I scraped 1/4 tsp beans from a fresh vanilla pod instead)

In a separate bowl, sift together
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground clove

Now alternately mix the puree and then the flour into the cream mix in 3 parts.

Line the cupcake tins and pour about 2 tbsps of the batter for each cup.
Place in pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C for about 20 to 25 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack.

For the icing:
1 cup icing sugar
About 1 cup of cream cheese (110 gms) [at room temperature]
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp butter (at room temperature)

1 tbsp lemon zest (optional)

Whisk all the ingredients till smooth.

Once the cupcakes have cooled down, spread the topping on it evenly and refrigerate for an hour before eating.