The White Ramekins

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Lemon Rosemary Ricotta Olive Oil Cake…To My Sister

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For there is no friend like a sister in calm or stormy weather; To cheer one on the tedious way, to fetch one if one goes astray, to lift one if one totters down, to strengthen whilst one stands.

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I have known her for 30 years now. And she’s been a constant of my life. However tough the times may have been and however difficult the paths may have been. It’s a bonding which we share, that’s getting stronger and stronger as the days pass by. And everything else is just secondary to that.

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No matter how many arguments we had since childhood, she has always loved me from her heart and that love has have the strength of keeping us near, not by the distance, but by the hearts. She’s the one joy, dear God has gifted and I know this blessing will stay for ever.

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She’s my best friend, who has helped me through my difficult times. Her comforting words have been my strength and I know, those words were meant to be nothing but the power to battle the tough times.  And not just the strength to fight the world, those advises and caring words have filled my life with beautiful and sweetest of memories and those memories will always be eternal.

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And when it comes to expressing my silliest of feelings or confessing my blunders or goof-ups, I know she’s the one I don’t have to think twice. Because she’ll keep my secrets and still be there to help me with a smile and no frowning. Almost like a cool shade of a big tree.

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Having a sister is like having a best friend for life.

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And this Raksha Bandhan festival, I am dedicating this post to my best friend for life, my constant support in life, My Sister!  For those who are not aware, what Raksha Bandhan is, it is a festival which celebrates the relationship of brothers and sisters. This pious Indian festival is marked by the tying of a Rakhi, or holy thread, which comes in many colors, by the sister on the wrist of her brother. And brother vows to protect his sister from all the evils and odds in her life.

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My sister enjoys a lot of my baking, so I baked her this wonderful moist and light Lemon Rosemary Ricotta Olive Oil cake. Another marvel from Smitten Kitchen. That got my sister completely smitten too! And this made me feel happier that she liked it to the last bit. This airy and light bake got pretty fragrant from the Meyer Lemons and fresh rosemary I got….some special ingredients for the most special person of my life…..happy happy I am!

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I added some almonds flakes in addition to Smitten Kitchen’s recipe, which accentuated the flavors of lemon and rosemary and made the cake look all the more prettier! The only sad thing I did was, I halved the recipe. Now I wish I would have made the full recipe. And I know, this cake will definitely be a keeper in our family!

Lemon Rosemary Ricotta Olive Oil Cake

Recipe adapted minimally from Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Ingredients

1/2 cup full fat fresh ricotta
40 ml olive oil
100 gm sugar
1/2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 large egg
100 gm all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup almond flakes
Confectioner sugar for dusting

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C and butter an 8 inch spring form pan.
  2. In a bowl, whisk together ricotta, olive oil, sugar, lemon zest and rosemary to make smooth paste.
  3. Beat in egg and combine well.
  4. Sift the salt, baking powder, baking soda and flour right over the wet ingredients and mix with a spoon until just combined.
  5. Pour the batter into prepared pan. Top with almond flakes and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
  6. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes and then loosen the sides of the pan and let cake cool completely on a wire rack with base of pan intact. Dust with confectioner sugar when ready to serve.

Banana Marbled Loaf Cake

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Banana Marbled Loaf Cake

Last one week had been tremendously busy and I had been away from this space from quite sometime. My family including my parents, sister, brother and nieces and nephew were here for over a week. And I took one week off from work. I did quite a many baking and  frozen recipes. Though I managed to take some hurried shots of the goodies I made for the kids, I barely got any time left for posting them up here. I spent my morning playing with kids, afternoon baking/cooking in kitchen and evenings in going out for shopping or eating out with family. It was busy but it was hell lot of fun.

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I ordered my copy of award winning baker and cookbook author Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From my home to yours few days back, after sweet Ruchira, recommended the book. Flipping through the pages, I realized that she was right. “You wouldn’t need any other baking book, after you have this one in your collection.” {Though I know, it would be impossible to resist buying more books… 😛 }

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The recipes are immensely inspirational and easily doable at home. Along with every recipe, Dorie has also given tips to play around with ingredients to create a new version from the original, effectively leading to a higher number of recipes in book. This book is a must buy for every home baker!

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Puzzled with so many recipes, which I wanted to try from the book, my cute little niece made my problem resolved in just few seconds. She pointed her finger to few of the recipes from the book, one for a day, for the whole week. And if you’ve happened to read my previous post on Chocolate Yogurt Cake, you must have known that how much she only likes chocolate desserts.

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So the obvious choice for her would have been with chocolate involved in it in some way or other. So we made muffins, loaves and cookies, with dear chocolate. Though we also made some ice creams and frozen pops also, which I’ll be posting about later.

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This banana marbled loaf cake was the first one to be baked, as kids were really fascinated by those white and black swirls of cake together, after they saw the picture in the book. Swirls didn’t came out that clean, as they should have been. May be I did swirls a little extra, making the batter a bit more muddy. But kids still enjoyed the cake a lot. I did tweaked some of the ingredients in the book {omitted rum, cut down the amount of butter and eggs and compensated that with increasing milk}. It came out super moist and delicately sweet with bananas and had a subtle hint of nutmeg.

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Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 stick plus 2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 ripe bananas, peeled
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
grated zest of 1/2 lemon
110 gm dark chocolate, chopped
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 160 degree Celsius and butter and flour an 10 1/2 x 4 x 2 1/2 inch loaf pan. Place the pan on 2 regular baking sheets and keep aside.
  2. Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and nutmeg.
  3. In a small bowl, mash the bananas with lemon juice and zest.
  4. Melt the chocolate with 2 tbsp of butter together in a microwave oven or on a double boiler.
  5. In a separate bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer, until pale and fluffy. Beat in both the sugars, for about 2-3 minutes.
  6. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla.
  7. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half of the flour mixture, mixing until it is just incorporated.
  8. With mixer running, pour in the  milk and when it is blended, fold in the remaining flour mixture.
  9. Scrape down the bowl and mix in the mashed bananas.
  10. Pour little less than half of the batter over cooled melted chocolate and stir to blend.
  11. Drop alternating spoonfuls of both the batters into the prepared pan, then taking a table knife, swirl the batters together, taking care not to overdo it.
  12. Bake for 1 hour and 20 to 30 minutes with pan over baking sheets, until the knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. If cake starts to brown to much, cover loosely with a foil tent after 40 minutes of baking.
  13. Once done, transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let cool in pan for about 15 minutes before unmolding, then cool the cake to room temperature.
  14. In a bowl, whisk together sugar, egg, coffee, yogurt, chocolate, oil and vanilla, until well combined.
  15. In an another bowl, sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  16. Add the flour mixture to wet mixture and whisk to make a smooth batter.
  17. Pour the batter into prepared pan and bake from 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of cake comes out clean.
  18. Let it cool in pan for 15 minutes and then invert on to wire rack to let cool completely.

Lemon Curd & Blueberry Gateau

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I am back with yet another recipe on lemons this month. Tart, citrus and refreshing juiciness of lemons is what goes really well with the contrasting hot scorching summer days. And lemons are the real saviors, when we have touched 37 degrees already here in Delhi. Good enough to keep us going.

Lemon Curd & Blueberry Gateau

I had some lemons left in fridge from the last week’s recipe, lemon drizzle cakelettes. And I had no clue, what to do with them except squeezing them over my salads or in my cool glass of lemonade. So, I whipped up some tangy, luscious lemon curd.

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The recipe was a no brainer and I was happy that I didn’t get any traces of scrambled eggs nor I felt the need of straining the curd. I just let that sit in fridge for a couple of days, before the weekend came. And I was all set to rock the kitchen.

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It was Parul’s birthday when we last met at blogger’s table a week ago and sweet Ruchira made her a wonderful lemon ricotta and blueberry olive oil cake. Such a light and moist cake. It had me smitten. It feels so good that food brings people closer and inspires them.

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Lemons and blueberries, a perfect pairing. And I knew, that I had to have baked a cake with these two wonderful fruits. And you know, how much I love baking with fruits.

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Sadly, we don’t get fresh blueberries here in India, so I had to resort to frozen ones. And it didn’t matter much, as I cooked them into a compote. A generous squeeze of lemon juice, and the berries were back to life. Plump and lively.

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For the cake, I made a sweet vanilla butter sponge cake, which complemented the tart lemon curd very well. A dollop of whipped cream and the blueberry compote made it more lavish and delish.

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Lemon Curd, recipe adapted from JoyOfBaking.com

Ingredients

2 large eggs
100 gm granulated white sugar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp butter

Instructions

  1. Whisk together eggs, sugar and lemon juice lightly in a bowl and let it sit on a double boiler on medium heat.
  2. Cook, stirring constantly (to prevent it from curdling), until the mixture becomes thick.
  3. It will take approximately 10 minutes.
  4. Once it becomes nice and thick (will coat the back of a spoon), remove it from the double boiler and add the butter and mix to incorporate it well into the lemon curd.
  5. Place a cling wrap directly over the lemon curd and refrigerate for up to a week.

Blueberry Compote

Ingredients

1 cup frozen blueberries
juice of one lemon
4 tbsp granulated white sugar

Instructions

  1. In a saucepan, add 1/2 cup of blueberries, lemon juice and sugar and mash the berries with the back of a spoon.
  2. Simmer the saucepan for 3-4 minutes until the sugar dissolves and the mixture starts to boil. Take off the heat and add remaining berries to the saucepan and let them sit for a while until the compote cools down completely.

Vanilla Sponge Cake

Ingredients

For The Cake
100 gm salted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
1 tsp tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk, room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

For The Filling
1/2 cup of lemon curd {recipe above}
blueberry compote {recipe above}
1 cup cold heavy cream
2 tbsp confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla powder/extract

Instructions

  1. For the cake: Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Butter a 9-inch round cake pans; dust with flour, tapping out excess.
  2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda in a bowl.
  3. Beat butter and sugar together in a bowl, until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour. Beat in vanilla.
  4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake, about 40 minutes, until the skewer inserted in the middle of cake comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack, and let cool in pans for 20 minutes.
  5. Run a knife around edge of cake, and invert onto rack; and let cool completely.
  6. For the filling: Whisk cream with confectioners’ sugar until medium peaks form.
  7. Slice cakes in half horizontally. Spoon 1/2 of the whipped cream over bottom cake layer. Spread over the lemon curd. Top with remaining cake layer, pressing gently. Spoon over remaining whipped cream on top of the second cake layer and top with blueberry compote, letting all the juice drip down through the edges.