Orange and Poppy Seeds Cake

One slice of this sunshine cake served with Tea to him…He looks at the cake, picks up the orange candy and simply murmurs “why can’t you make simple cakes” whilst chewing away the candy. Well this line also summarizes my whole hearted love for Orange cake…I just love them😅
“And now my beauties, something with poison in it I think, with poison in it, but attractive to the eye and soothing to the smell . . . poppies, poppies, poppies will put them to sleep.”…this and Dorothy sleeping away in the fields was actually running in my mind while mixing away the poppy seeds in the batter. If only the wicked witch knew our “n” number of recipes for poppy seeds I’m sure Dorothy would’ve had one less thing to worry about. Fantasy and theatrics aside, the poppy seeds actually give the cake a slight grainy texture so its not your regular orange pound cake its Magical. Did I forget to mention the orange peel candies…twinkle toes did taste them happily (I’m smiling away)❤️❤️

Preparation time- 20 min
Cooking Time- 1hr 20 min

Ingredients

175g Butter
175g Castor Sugar
3 eggs
250g Flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
Pinch of salt
40g poppy Seeds
Orange zest – 1 Tbsp
Juice of 4 oranges
Icing sugar- 125 g
Orange peel candies – 1/4 cup

Method

Pre heat oven at 160°. Beat butter and sugar, add eggs gradually, sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, mix, add poppy seeds, zest and 4-5 tbsp orange juice. Mix the batter and layer it in a loaf tin. bake for 1hr- 1hr – 10 min. Let the cake cool in the tin for 5 min, take it out on cooling rack. Make a thick paste of icing sugar and orange juice, drizzle all over the cake. Add some orange peel candies and enjoy.

Chunky Double chocolate and Gems cookies

Gems, well who doesn’t loves them, esp. Kids. When your daughter’s friend calls specially to tell that his birthday is approaching and he would like something sweet…your mind can’t help but think on lines of chocolate and gems. Amongst few goodies of cupcakes i decided to add few of these cookies. They are super easy to make and best part I involved cherry during the entire process. she wasn’t much interested with the finished product because she had already scooped the cookie batter and gems from it.

Preparation Time- 10 min
Cooking time- 10 min
Yields- 10

Ingredients

1/2 cup Butter
3/4 cup – Brown Sugar
1/8 cup- Castor Sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
1 cup Flour
1tsp Baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup gems
1/3 cup Cocoa
1 cup choco Chips

Method

Pre heat oven at 180, line the baking tray. Cream butter and sugar, add vanilla and egg. In a separate bowl sift flour, soda, salt and cocoa powder. Add dry ingredients to egg batter, fold in chips and gems. Take small portion in your hand, roll to make ball, flatten on tray. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove the tray from oven, let the cookies sit in the tray for 3-4 minutes, lift gently and let them cool on wire rack. Result soft chewy yum cookies

Coconut and Pistachio Cookies

Cookies are always a warm up for the oven and a mood lifter for our humble coffee…why am i talking in abstract…

You see neither the twinkle toes nor her daddy dear would come near these cookies. She has no interest in anything sans chocolate and daddy darling the mere mention of coconut and he’s lost interest. So these are all MINE.

They are soft, chewy and so coconutty ( I know there is no such word…but you get the essence)and best thing with Coffee❤️
One bite and you get coconut with the chewy and crunchy taste mixed with pistachio. I even tried them with Green tea and they tasted good( I’m not sure about the tea though)😀

Preparation time- 10 minutes
Cooking Time – 10-15 minutes

Ingredients

150g Butter
150g Castor Sugar
1 Egg
50g Desiccated coconut
200g flour
50g shelled pistachio
lemon zest- 1 tsp

Method

Chop pistachio, keep aside, beat butter and sugar in a bowl, add zest, egg and coconut. mix, add flour gradually to make a very soft dough. Keep the cling film ready, layer out the pistachio on it, and roll the dough log so as to cover all side with pistachio. Roll and twists the ends, refrigerate for min 1 hour or 1 day.
Pre heat oven at 180°C, cut the slices as per the need, lay on greased tray, bake till golden brown approximately 10-12 minutes.

Let them cool in tray for min 5 minutes. Enjoy and as these cookies do not have much shelf life please consume the same day.

Cherry and Cranberry Cake

The pressure of naming your child..and that lovely nickname…we were stuck with so many names in case its a girl child…But you see..the moment she was born…all I could think was calling her Cherry. since then although number of names have been doing round for my little angel…Cherry is what she is to me and she too cherishes that name. Cherry is cutest, Cherry is mumma’s doll..well now you can relate why this cake or the mere mention of cherry takes me on my happy ride. Chocolate is nowhere in this cake and I was pretty sure she won’t even touch the cake…to my surprise she not only helped me in pitting the cherries…she waited and waited till the cake was out of the oven (1hr 20 minutes u see is a long wait for her). Her joy in turning out the cake on plate..nudged my heart and quickly whisked Chocolate sauce by https://www.davidlebovitz.com/the-best-chocol/. The result…my darling actually ate a non chocolate cake…yay happy me🥰

Preparation time- 20 min
Cooking Time- 1 hr 20 min

Ingredients

200 g Glace’ Cherries
175 g Butter
175g Castor Sugar
3 eggs
zest and 2 tsp juice of orange
225 g flour
50g dried cranberries

Method

Sieve, rinse the cherries in cold water and let them dry. Pre heat the oven at 160°C, beat butter and sugar in a bowl, add zest, eggs, make the batter fluffy, add flour gradually. Chop 3/4 of cherries and keep the rest aside. Add the chopped cherries and cranberries in the batter. Mix, and layer it in the lined cake pan, top it with cherries. Bake at 160 for 1hr 20 minutes, check with skewer and if required bake further for 10 minutes. Allow it to sit in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn it out on the serving dish and serve warm with warm chocolate syrup.