Moist Orange Cake

I must admit I am a lousy blogger, I have a huge back load of recipes to be uploaded. I tried this cake in Feb, when oranges were available in abundance and I am blogging it now. This orange cake turned out to be delicious. It can be eaten with or without the sauce mentioned in this recipe, it is yum either way.

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 45-50 minutes at 180 degree C
Serves  6 to 7

Ingredients:

• 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour or maida
• 2 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1 cup butter softened
• 3 eggs separated
• 1 cup hung curd
• 1 orange’s zest

For the tangy sauce

• 1 ½ cup castor sugar
• ¾ cup fresh orange juice
• ¼ cup lime juice
• 1 tbsp butter
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract

Grease and dust an 8 inch baking tin and set aside. Preheat the oven at 180 degree C.

Sift together flour(maida), baking powder and salt and set aside. In a bowl beat the egg whites until peaks are formed. In another bowl beat butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg yolks and curd. Beat and add the zest. Keep beating till it is light and fluffy.

Now stir in the flour mix. Once flour mix is completely incorporated, gently fold in the egg whites.

Pour the cake mix into the greased and dusted tin. Bake at 180 degree C for 45-50 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

To make the sauce put all the ingredients together in a sauce pan and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat and let it cook for 3-4 minutes. Let it cool.

To serve, drizzle the sauce over the cake. Garnish with any fruit of your choice. Serve warm and enjoy.

Molten Choco - Lava Cake

If there is one dessert that I cannot resist, its hot choco-lava cake with a scoop of ice cream. It can lift my mood any time. I have been making choco lava cake for more than 2 years now, infact before getting married it was the only dessert i used to ever make. I have 3 versions of its recipes with little changes here and there with me but i like this one the best. You can combine it with fruits like strawberries too if u dont wanna use ice cream.

Preparation time: 20 mins + another 20 to chill in refrigerator
Baking time: 12 mins
Makes 8 medium sized cakes

Ingredients:

• 200 g dark semisweet chocolate
• 200 g butter plue little extra for greasing the moulds
• 200 g golden castor sugar or brown castor sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 egg yolks
• 200 g maida or all purpose flour
• 50 g cocoa powder for dusting moulds
• Chocolate or caramel sauce for garnishing

Grease 9 muffin moulds or ramekins with butter and dust with cocoa powder. I use food grade silicon moulds for this purpose as it is so easy to remove the cake from them. Set aside. Melt butter and chocolate together in a double boiler and stir until smooth. Leave it to cool for 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and yolks together with sugar until pale and thick. Sift flour into the eggs and beat together. Pour the chocolate mix into the cake mix in thirds, beating well between each addition.

Equally divide the batter into the prepared moulds. Chill them for atleast 20 minutes. You can even freeze the moulds for later use.

Preheat the oven to 200 degree C. Place the  moulds in a baking tray and bake for 10 – 12 minutes or just till the top seems little firm but centre is still a little wobbly. Always bake an extra mould than required to check the doneness. The centre has to be a gooey liquid.

Remove from the oven and let it sit for a minute before removing the cake from the mould. Serve with sauce and ice cream of your choice. Enjoy!!!