The White Ramekins

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Strawberry Almond Olive Oil Traybake

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Strawberry Almond Olive Oil Traybake 4

Winters are definitely departing. You would be missing that chilling nip in the air. And I am not craving for cinnamon hot chocolate at bed time or a a bowl of comforting hot soup after work, the way I used to feel just few days back. Spring has officially arrived. Fruits, vegetables, flowers. You can spot the drift in weather everywhere.

Strawberry Almond Olive Oil Traybake 1

And the markets are flooded with this wonderful fruit of the season. Strawberries are all over, even the web. And I am thankful, that these days we get enough produce of the fruit as compared to the way it used to be a couple of years ago. I can remember, that a punnet of fresh strawberries was considered to be something exotic in those times.

Strawberry Almond Olive Oil Traybake

Being kids, we really used to enjoy our scoop of strawberry ice cream, without even bothering about that imitated flavor. Spotting a tiny bit of real fruit in there, used to be a bonus, which every kid would like to celebrate.

Strawberry Almond Olive Oil Traybake 3

But now, it’s in abundance. And they’ll last till end of March. And I am hoping to make as many things as I can this time with these gorgeous berries. Starting this year, I made strawberry jelly and served it on the New Year’s eve party. This time, I decided to make this beautiful traybake, almost like a teacake which is mildly sweet and is having the goodness of olive oil and almonds.

Strawberry Almond Olive Oil Traybake 2

Ingredients

225 gm sugar
4 large eggs
240 ml light olive oil
1 tsp almond essence
Zest of an orange
200 gm all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
40 gm ground almonds
250 gm strawberries {hulled and sliced}
1/4 cup flaked almonds
Icing sugar to dust

Instructions

  1. In a bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder and keep aside.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together, until they start to look pale and creamy (around 5 minutes).
  3. Add in the oil and almond essence and orange zest to egg mixture and beat well to incorporate.
  4. Sift the flour and then almond powder into the egg mixture and mix with a rubber spatula, until the flour is all incorporated, ensuring not to over mix.
  5. Line a 20 cm x 20 cm x 5 cm pan with parchment paper and pour the batter into the pan.
  6. Tuck in the cut strawberries loosely into the batter. Sprinkle the flaked almonds on top.
  7. Bake the cake in 180 C preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes, until the skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
  8. Let the cake cool in the tin. Once completely cooled, cut it into 16 squares and dust with some icing sugar on the top.

Apple Pie Muffins

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Apple Pie Muffins

The warm and earthy aroma of cinnamon is just right for this chilly weather. These days I wouldn’t mind a generous sprinkle of this gorgeous sweet spice on my french toast in breakfast, a mug of latte in afternoon or a glass of hot chocolate just before the bedtime. I am in love with it’s soothingly sweet aroma.

Apple Pie Muffins 2

I had a sudden craving for a classic apple pie on this Friday evening. And it was sudden that I could not wait for the shortcrust pastry to chill in fridge, rather I wanted something very quick. I didn’t want to step out either, the cold winds were threatening me to stay inside.

Apple Pie Muffins 1

But the craving needed to be satiated soon. And then my mind started working on it’s own, thinking about the substitutes too. Hmm…how about an apple cake? Nah…that would take some time either. How about turning that into tiny cakes. Yeah…that works. Quick, simple and satisfying. And the best part…I could enjoy them again in breakfast next morning. Yay!!!…let’s whip up some buttery moist apple muffins. A quick search led me to this recipe on AllRecipes. Going by the reviews, I zeroed on to this one.

Apple Pie Muffins 3

I modified the recipe a bit, replaced some of the plain flour with whole wheat flour, and powdered oats for the crumble topping. The result was buttery, moist muffins with big enough apple chunks to bite into and with the most desirous sweet aroma of cinnamon. And did I tell you that I also ran out of paper cups, so snipped some brown paper out of my craft box and made these easy and rustic looking handmade paper cups. And in case, you are interested in that too, cut any paper of your choice into 8 cm x 8 cm square, tuck that roughly inside the muffin tray holes with the help of a glass and pour the batter right into. And later you could also tie them up with some thread or ribbon too.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups diced apples
1/2 tsp salt {skip, if using salted butter}

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup quick oats, powdered
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp butter, melted

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius. Line a muffin tray with 12 paper cups.
  2. In a large bowl, stir together 1 1/4 cup plain flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt.
  3. In a separate smaller bowl, mix together the egg, buttermilk, 1/2 cup melted butter, vanilla and 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar until sugar has dissolved.
  4. Pour into the flour mixture and sprinkle the diced apple into the bowl as well. Stir just until everything is blended. Spoon into the prepared muffin tin, filling the cups to the top.
  5. In a small bowl, stir together 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/3 cup powdered oats and cinnamon. Drizzle in 2 tablespoons of melted butter while tossing with a fork until well blended. Sprinkle this over the tops of the muffins.
  6. Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the tops of the muffins spring back when lightly pressed.

Chocolate Almond Pear Cake

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Chocolate Almond Pear Cake 7

Get me a chocolate cake when you come home Mama. No other flavor please !!! These are the words which I get to hear from my 4 year old sweet little niece on Thursday nights when I would be going home on weekend. Chocolate has spelled it’s magic over the little girl. She wouldn’t mind asking for a second helping. Though her mother wouldn’t let her loose. Which is good in fact, because there has to be someone who keeps a tab over all the pampering a kid gets.

Chocolate Almond Pear Cake

And truly, it’s not just the kiddo who gets all the fun. There is a parity when it comes to reward. The acceptance of a chocolate cake by a 4 year old is as huge as getting your food reviewed by a renowned critic. And in order to survive the criticism, it lies on me to get a good recipe every other time. I came across this dark chocolate cake with pears sometimes back, if I can recall correctly, it was last year when the pears had left the market. And I was left with no other choice but to wait for the next autumn.

Chocolate Almond Pear Cake 2

But this time, I got engrossed in too many other activities; restaurant reviews, blog events, a failed attempt to move from wordpress.com to wordpress.org {more on that later}. And that recipe never re-occurred to me, even when the carts and shelves were loaded with this sweet fragrant fruit, until I got the call from my niece on last Thursday.

Chocolate Almond Pear Cake 4

This cake has got lots of brown sugar, which not only gives it a dark color but also a hint of caramel infused through deep and intense flavor of a good quality cocoa. And the soft and mushy chunks of pear make it more moist, because of which it can be kept for 2 days. In case, you want a bit of crunch as well, feel free to add nuts of your choice, like I added chopped whole almonds. And the best part is that you get an excuse of baking this cake more often because of all the healthy ingredients which go in to; brown sugar, olive oil, almonds, pears. So don’t stop yourself from baking this, if you are thinking it as just another chocolate cake.

Chocolate Almond Pear Cake 8

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup boiling water
1 cup olive oil
2 cups brown sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 pears diced
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Instructions

  1. Whisk together flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and keep aside.
  2. Add cocoa powder to boiling water and mix well.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, sugar and vanilla extract.
  4. Beat in eggs one by one until smooth.
  5. Add half of the flour mix into egg mix and beat well.
  6. Add in cocoa liquid to the batter and add rest of the flour and mix well.
  7. Fold in the chopped almonds and pear.
  8. Pour the batter in a 9 inch greased spring form cake tin and bake for about 1 hour at 180 degree C preheated oven, until the tester inserted into the center of cake comes out clean.
  9. Let cool in tin for 10 minutes and then invert on to wire rack to let cool completely.
  10. Sprinkle some icing sugar over top, while serving.