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Whole Orange Semolina Cake With Rosemary Syrup

January 20, 2015 by TheWhiteRamekins

whole orange and semolina cake with rosemary syrup

I am back with yet another cake recipe this time. In my first post this year I mentioned (although, I have said this umpteen number of times  previously as well) that I love to bake cakes. Simple cakes with no fuss recipes are the kind of desserts which I am always ready to whip up. It brings happiness to me more than anything else.

whole orange and semolina cake with rosemary syrup

And being a food blogger, I feel imperative to bring together the seasonal fresh produce into my cakes and bakes. Whenever I go to market for buying the groceries, my eyes keep looking for the fresh produce which is available right there in season for the reasons a) seasonal fresh produce have the power to transform a good recipe into a remarkable one without much of an effort needed and b) they are economical on the pocket too.

whole orange and semolina cake with rosemary syrup

whole orange and semolina cake with rosemary syrup

T’is the season of oranges! We get loads and loads of them in winter, and of different varieties too. They are vibrantly colorful and deliciously juicy, which are definitely needed to perk your mood up on a cold mauve day of winter. A dear friend of mine has a beautiful crop of these tiny little kumquats every year during winters. And she is gracious enough to offer me these beauties almost every year now.

whole orange and semolina cake with rosemary syrup whole orange and semolina cake with rosemary syrup

They are hellishly pucker-y yet amazingly fragrant. I candy them, make marmalade with them and add them to the cakes too. This time I combined them with other sweet variety of oranges and made a whole orange cake with them. This is not the first time I am making a whole orange cake. I have tried the Nigella lawson’s recipe a couple of years ago and that was just amazing. That one was gluten free too.

whole orange and semolina cake with rosemary syrup

But this has got semolina in it and is sweetened using orange and rosemary syrup. This being a syrup cake, I believe has got the Turkish influence. It’s a cross between an pudding and a cake. And did I mention that it has got no butter or oil. Probably, it gets the natural fat from the orange skin which goes into making this. And that makes it quite lighter in texture. Taste wise it is very similar to the orange and kamquat gluten free cake, which I had made previously. This has got marmalade like bitter aftertaste, which gets mellowed down by the sweet orange and rosemary syrup which is soaked into. 

whole orange and semolina cake with rosemary syrup

Whole Orange Semolina Cake With Rosemary Syrup
2015-01-20 08:54:29
Whole Orange Semolina Cake With Rosemary Syrup
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For the cake
  1. 600 gm oranges (mix variety)
  2. 1 tsp baking powder
  3. 6 eggs
  4. 200 gm caster sugar
  5. 150 gm fine semolina
  6. 150 gm ground almonds
  7. 1 1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
For the syrup
  1. 600 gm sweet oranges
  2. 100 gm caster sugar
  3. 125 ml water
  4. 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
  5. 2 tbsp orange flavored liqueur (optional)
  6. 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
For the cake
  1. Place unpeeled oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil. Boil covered, 1 1/2 hours or until oranges are tender; drain. Cool.
  2. Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Grease a 9 inch springform pan line with parchment paper.
  3. Trim and discard the ends from the oranges. Half the oranges and discard the seeds. Process oranges into a smooth puree, including rind.
  4. Beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl for 5 minutes or until thick and creamy. Stir egg mixture into orange mixture. Mix in the baking powder.
  5. Fold in the ground almonds, semolina and rosemary. Spread mixture into a pan.
  6. Bake cake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Stand cake in pan for 45 minutes before turning onto a cake plate.
  7. Make rosemary syrup (instructions follows).
  8. Spoon hot syrup over warm cake. Serve cake warm or at room temperature.
For the syrup
  1. Remove rind from one orange with a zester into thin strips and remove rind from the other orange using a vegetable peeler into long broad strip. Juice the oranges.
  2. Place sugar, water and juice in a small saucepan over low heat; stir, without boiling until sugar dissolves.
  3. Add the orange rind and rosemary sprigs and bring to the boil. Boil for 5 minutes, until syrup thickens. Remove from heat, add liqueur if using.
By Himanshu Taneja
The White Ramekins http://thewhiteramekins.com/

Filed Under: cake Tagged With: baking, food, fresh produce, low fat, oranges, whole orange, winters

Roasted Pumpkin & Apple Soup

November 3, 2014 by TheWhiteRamekins

roasted pumpkin & apple soup

It is Roasted Pumpkin & Apple Soup, we started our soup season this time, officially. And this one is perfectly placed, as both pumpkin and apples mark the fall season so aptly. As we start nearing winters during the months of late October and early November, I start eating more of soups and some hearty grain warm salads in weekday dinners than my usual Indian fare of chapati and veggies.

roasted pumpkin & apple soup

Generally, it is mixed veggie soup, which I cook more often, with all the seasonal green vegetables we get during months of winters. To be true, this is a recipe which is out of sheer inspiration, I have been gathering from pinterest these days. I have been spending more time on pinterest than anywhere else, at least in the virtual world.

roasted pumpkin & apple soup

I have been seeing a lot of pumpkin recipes lately, with halloween just passing by last week. If you ask me, I don’t have any clue, what halloween is all about. Why do people get dressed up in the most creepy way possible. But whatever it is about, it brings a lot of saffron colour all over. It’s a color of courage and happiness, however creepy the festival is. At least, I look at it this way.

roasted pumpkin & apple soup

I picked up this recipe of roasted pumpkin & apple soup from Katie Quinn Davis and adjusted it to my taste and preferences. It came out beautifully flavored, with a mild sweetness from pumpkin and the little tartness from the granny smith apples. As opposed to topping my soup with crispy bacon, I chose to keep it vegetarian and had it with some fresh tomato and corn salsa.

roasted pumpkin & apple soup

My local grocer went out of stock for goat cheese, so I substituted it with feta instead. I think, it worked pretty well, considering both goat cheese and feta have got sharp tangy flavor, only difference being in the texture, which didn’t matter once blended into the soup.

roasted pumpkin & apple soup

It’s a recipe, which I probably keep for the weekends, when I have got enough time to roast the pumpkin and apples. And this one wins my heart truly, with it’s mild and fruity flavor. 

roasted pumpkin & apple soup

Roasted Pumpkin & Apple Soup
2014-11-03 09:21:31
Roasted Pumpkin & Apple Soup
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Ingredients
  1. 1kg pumpkin, peeled, seeds removed, cut into 3cm pieces
  2. 1 tsp cumin seeds
  3. 3 tsp chopped mix herbs
  4. 4 tbsp olive oil
  5. 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, cut into 3cm pieces
  6. 1 onion, chopped
  7. 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  8. 5 cups vegetable stock
  9. 120 gm feta cheese
  10. Lightly toasted pumpkin seeds and tomato corn salsa, to serve
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
  2. Place the pumpkin, cumin, herbs and 2 tbs oil in a large bowl and season, then toss to combine. Tip onto the tray, arrange in a single layer and roast for 15-20 minutes. Add apple and cook for a further 10 minutes or until tender.
  3. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 2 tbs oil in the frypan. Add the onion, garlic and a pinch of salt, then cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes until softened.
  4. Transfer to a blender with pumpkin mixture, 2 cups stock and half the cheese, then whiz until smooth. Return to pan with remaining 3 cups stock. Cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes until reduced slightly. Season with salt and freshly crushed black pepper.
  5. To serve, sprinkle fresh tomato and corn salsa, pumpkin seeds and remaining feta cheese over soup.
By Himanshu Taneja
Adapted from What Katie Ate
Adapted from What Katie Ate
The White Ramekins http://thewhiteramekins.com/

Filed Under: Soup Tagged With: apples, Cheese, comfort food, fall, food, pumpkin, soup, winters

Strawberry Cornmeal Crumb Cake

February 20, 2014 by TheWhiteRamekins

Strawberry Cornmeal Crumb Cake

Coming from north of India and that too being a Punjabi, cornmeal has been a quintessential flour of our diet. Especially during the chilly winter days, we start eating flat breads made of yellow cornmeal slathered with homemade butter and gently cooked mustard greens, more famously known as Makki ki roti and Sarso ka saag, which I think is synonymous to every Punjabi.

Strawberry Cornmeal Crumb Cake

And my mother, she’s really sentimental about this one dish. But you must be thinking of why am I going so much gung ho about the cornmeal flat breads and the cultural values it has in a north Indian meal, while the title of the post says something else. Actually, when I saw this recipe in Smitten Kitchen’s cookbook for the very first time, I was taken aback, thinking how could one make a dessert out of something which I have been thinking all these years could only be used in savories.

Strawberry Cornmeal Crumb Cake

This made me thinking on other notes too, of surprising my mother. That yes, you could bake a cake out of the cornmeal as well. Though I had presumptions too, thinking of the “Oh God! What has happened to my boy” look she would be giving out to me.

Strawberry Cornmeal Crumb Cake

But I still wanted to surprise her by baking this cake. I am already a great fan of Smitten Kitchen’s. Her recipes haven’t failed me ever, so I was confident. Only thing I was doing different was using strawberries as opposed to blueberries in the original recipe.

Strawberry Cornmeal Crumb Cake

Knowing that strawberries have more water content and through the learning of previous failures with these juicy red berries, I cooked them with cornflour before adding them to the cake. And that did work.

Strawberry Cornmeal Crumb Cake

The cake came out to be bright yellow colored with a red contrasting berries in the middle. Texture wise, it’s a hearty yet flavorful cake, which we all enjoyed to the fullest!

Strawberry Cornmeal Crumb Cake

Ingredients

Cake

100 gm butter, at room temperature
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp lemon zest
1/2 cup sour cream

Filling

1 1/2 cup strawberries, hulled and chopped
3 tbsp cornflour

Streusel

1/2 cup sugar
6 tbsp all purpose flour
2 tbsp cornmeal
2 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

  1. For the filling, in a non-reactive saucepan, add the strawberries and corn flour and simmer for 10 minutes, until berries are thick and cooked. Set aside to let cool completely.
  2. Preheat the oven at 180 degree C and butter and flour an 8 inch springform pan and keep aside.
  3. For the cake, whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
  4. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar in a bowl, until pale and fluffy, around 2 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl, after each addition. Add the vanilla and zest.
  5. Fold in half of the flour mixture, followed by half of the sour cream, followed by another half of flour mixture and sour cream.
  6. Spread the cake batter into the prepared pan. Spread the strawberry filling on the cake batter in pan.
  7. In a bowl, combine all the ingredients for streusel with a fork, until it resembles a coarse sand like mixture. Scatter the topping over the strawberry filling.
  8. Bake the cake for about 50-60 minutes, or until top is golden brown and the tester into the center of the cake comes out clean.
  9. Cool the cake in pan for 5 minutes and then loosen the sides of the pan and let cake cool on a wire rack completely.

Filed Under: cake Tagged With: baking, baking with fruits, coffee cake, cornmeal cake, food, strawberries, streusel cake, winters

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Hi! I'm Himanshu - a home chef who loves to cook, bake, style and photo shoot... Read More…

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