Poppy Seed Cake !


My yoga teacher yesterday presented me with a yoga belt and very sweetly mentioned it was a gift in return for the chocolates I once offered him. So I offered to bake him a cake, something that he can’t easily buy of a bakery store in India. A couple of weeks back I found Deborah Madison’s recipe for a Poppy Seed Cake from her book ‘Vegetarian cooking for everyone’. I was waiting for the right occasion to try it. Today I am back home at 4 pm and what better thing do I have to do then be in my kitchen. With the Bombay rains tapping on my window, today seems perfect.

So how should I describe my new experiment? Lets put it this way - this cake is so so yummy ! Perfectly moist. Just a little crunchy and not so sweet.

The original recipe uses black poppy seeds, I didn’t have enough in stock at home and couldn’t find it at my neighborhood grocery store, so I just used a mix of black and white poppy seeds (posto, the one we use in BengaIi food) I had handy, and for the buttermilk I substituted it with equal qty of curd that I had leftover from yesterday.

I am going to go and have another piece with my honey lemon Chai and in the meanwhile you try this one out, it is just perfect !!!



Ingredients
  • ·      1 cup poppy seeds
  • ·      ½ cup milk, heated, but not boiling
  • ·      2 cups all purpose flour
  • ·      1 tsp baking powder
  • ·      1 tsp soda bicarb
  • ·      2 eggs separated
  • ·      110 gms of butter
  • ·      1 cup granulated sugar
  • ·      2 tsp vanilla essence
  • ·      1 cup buttermilk
Method
  • ·      Preheat oven at 190 degrees C.
  • ·      Combine the poppy seeds and the hot milk and set aside
  • ·      Separate the eggs, egg white and yolk, whisk the egg whites with electric hand mixture, whisk attachment, till it forms firm white peaks. About three minutes on medium to high setting.
  • ·      In a separate bowl whisk the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy about 3 minutes at medium setting. Add the egg yolks and vanilla essence to the butter and sugar mix and whisk again with paddle attachment for another two minutes.
  • ·      Drain the milk from the poppy seeds, discarding the milk. Add the drained poppy seeds and the buttermilk to the batter. Beat until well combined.
  • ·      To the batter add flour, baking powder and baking soda. And mix well using the paddle attachment at lowest setting until well combined.
  • ·      Into the batter now gently fold in the egg whites using a wooden spatula until well combined.
  • ·      Transfer the batter into a 9” round cake tin or 10” bundt cake tin like the one I used.
  • ·      Bake for 50 minutes.
  • ·      Leave the cake in the mould for about 10 minutes, then take it out and leave to cool on a rack before slicing it.




Comments

  1. Venu18 July 2012 at 00:09

    Made my husbands day great recipe
    Pl post some more sweet nothings!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lemon Rice with Cucumber Raita

Image
When I was a baby, I was particularly fond my cousin (Shrutika didi) I idealized her, followed her everywhere and wanted to do everything she did. Didi, cooked very well. Chocolate balls, macaroni hot pot, strawberry gelatin these are treats from my childhood all lovingly introduced by her. My initial desire to cook was inspired by her. I was in my teens and too busy in my own life, so I missed the early growing years of my niece (Shrutika didi’s daughter Siddhika). But then one day I met this little girl (she may have been 8-9 yrs old) at a party, she was sitting with her arms around my dad (her nana) on a very crowded banquet table. She was half his height and 1/5 his size, but she had him twirled around her little finger. The twinkle in her eye, her beautiful smile, and very mischievous expressions was magnetic. We started our relationship on that day.  Together we did endless trips in the middle of the night to ‘Mannat’. You guessed it right, it’s the actor Shah Ru
Read more

Bhatti ka paneer : Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Bombay..

Image
Bhatti ka paneer : Taj Mahal Hotel We all headed to Masala Craft/ Taj Mahal Palace Bombay for a family dinner a couple of weeks back. Chef Hemant Oberoi’s masterpiece. Happens to be my favorite fine dinning for Indian cuisine. The the langarwali dal, lasooni palak, peepaywale chole and the bhatti ka paneer, yum !! The paneer so soft it melts in your mouth, spiced up with the perfect masala. Curiously I asked the attendant if I could have a word with the chef and try my luck getting the recipe from him. True to Taj’s hospitality and warmth what I was presented in return was something I’ll cherish on my bookshelf, a collection of recipes from the Taj. The hotel by all means lives up to its founder’s values. The warmth, hospitality and generosity are impeccable and it does make a happy difference to our lives. I have tried the recipe several times at home since, shared them over my kitchen counter with friends and family and believe me its perfect!!! The pane
Read more

Chocolate Brownie

Image
Celebrating siblings & more..... It is the day after, the day after Diwali, Bhai Dhooj   ! 3 Decades and pluses years ago incidentally or accidently I was born on this day, so dramatically if I may so say my brothers are my world, and what I assume is understood it is my most favorite day on the calendar. Bhaiya, Harsh Bhaiya, Saket, Ankit, Monu, Varun and Niket, each one of you mean the world to me. The chocolate brownie recipe that I am sharing today is a favorite with most of them, I served it today with my homemade Strawberry Ice cream (the recipe of which I’ll share someday later), and packed some Diwali hampers for the others. I must confess the recipe is a borrowed one from a Nigella Lawson’s show I saw on TV, it is always and always a super hit. Preheat oven at 225 degrees C Ingredients 375 g of Amul Butter 375 g of dark or medium dark cooking chocolate 350 g of castor sugar 6 eggs 250 g of all purpose flour 1 tsp of Vanilla essen
Read more