Battenberg Cake - No Eggs In the Cake

 I seem to have fallen into a pattern of neglecting this space and giving excuses for that. However, my husband and daughter do not agree and push me hard enough to post here once in a few months or so. They try hard to coax me to make an attempt to keep this going.
 My daughter, especially, goes that extra step to persuade me by sharing her cooking and baking. This is one such post that was 100% hers. She baked this cake a few days ago for their weekend snack and shared her photographs. They were so eye catching that I asked her to make a blog to be put up here.
 She said that when they moved to the new city and she was still getting her home in some order, she wanted to do something enough to break the boredom. While she was looking through recipes to bake, the Battenberg cake caught her fancy. Since they both like chocolate and the flavour of coffee, she alternated for the traditional bright colour layer with the brown checkers.
 Known by many names, like church or chapel window cake, chequerboard cake and domino cake, the Battenberg cake is said to have been named in honour of the marriage of Princess Victoria, grand daughter of Queen Victoria to prince Louis of Battenberg in 1884. However, there are some early examples of this that go by a variety of names. The Neapolitan roll, a similar cake contains more squares than four.
 The American version of the battenberg cake is the checkerboard cake that gets the name because while sliced it resembles the board of the game. a typical one alternates vanilla sponge and a chocolate cake and is covered with rich chocolate buttercream icing.
 My daughter made the cake as well as the marzipan without eggs. For the cake, she followed this recipe posted here sometime ago. she used the recipe for one cake but divided it in two half cakes to make the layers. She had used parchment to separate the cake batters and baked them in one cake tin. She said she was not able to take pictures of the process.
I found Traditional Battenberg in Mandi Mortimer's Blog very descriptive, with pictures of how to bake, layer and roll in the marzipan, the post is very helpful.

Battenberg Cake - No Eggs Recipe

The following is my daughter's mail that I have copied verbatim

This recipe is a twist on the traditional Battenberg cake, which is usually made with an almond white cake, and the pairing sponge is a pink one made with a couple of drops of red food color in the white cake batter. I didn't want to be using artificial food coloring, hence the dark chocolate cake. 

You can use any cake recipe you'd like - as long as you can get the size of the cakes right.

Ingredients: 

For the cakes:

All purpose flour - 200 grams.

Cocoa powder - 2 tablespoons. heaped

Sweetened condensed milk - 1 tin (13.6 oz)

Butter - 100 grams

Baking powder - 1 teaspoon

Baking soda - 1 teaspoon

Aerated soda - 150 ml (reserve an extra splash to slacken the chocolate batter if needed)

Almond extract - 1/2 teaspoon

For the marzipan:

Almond flour/meal - 2 cups

Granulated sugar - 1 cup

Icing sugar - 1 cup 

Splash of milk (approx. 1/8 cup) to bind

To assemble:

A jam of your preferred flavor 

Method: 

- To start, make the marzipan. Sift into a big bowl, the almond flour and icing sugar, to get rid of lumps. 

- Add the granulated sugar and mix well 

- Add the milk and knead till the dough comes together

(The marzipan may be quite sticky - if so, add a little more almond flour as you knead) 

- Store in an airtight container in the fridge until you are ready to use

Making the cakes: 

- Preheat the oven to 350F and grease an 8in square tin. Fold a long piece of parchment paper in half along its width, and form a pleat the same height as your tin, to partition your square tin into two equal rectangles. You will be able to bake both cakes side by side.

- In a big mixing bowl, beat together the condensed milk and the butter. 

- Add the almond extract 

- Sift together the flour, baking powder and the baking soda 

- Add the flour mixture and soda alternatively to the beaten butter and condensed milk, beating well after each addition 

- Separate the mixture into two equal parts - use a weighing scale to do this accurately, so that your cakes are even when baked 

- Fill one half of your prepared tin with the white cake mix 

- To the remaining half, fold in the cocoa powder. If your mixture feels a bit stiff, add a little splash of the remaining soda to slacken (you could also add a tbsp. or two of espresso instead, if you'd like - dissolve instant coffee in hot water and add it once it is cool)

- Fill the second half of your tin with the chocolate mixture 

- Bake the cakes for 45-50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean 

- Cool the cake slightly in the tin, and transfer on to a wire rack to cool completely 

To assemble the Battenberg:

- Trim the cakes, and stack them one on top of the other. 

- Using a serrated knife, slice the cakes along their lengths into batons. Depending on the size of your tin, each cake can be sliced into 2 or 3 pieces 

- Line up the batons, alternating the colors to form a checkerboard, and stick them together with a slathering of the jam 

- To roll out the marzipan, sprinkle your work surface generously with icing sugar, and roll into an approximate rectangle. It needs to be wide enough to cover the length of the cake, and long enough to wrap completely around. 

- To ensure the outside of the marzipan is clean and free of icing sugar, once rolled, I flipped it over so the sugar dusted side is on the inside of the cake 

- Place the cake in the center, and slather on more jam, to help the marzipan to stick 

- Bring the marzipan up from both ends, to meet at the top of the cake, and join the ends. 

- Trim off any overhangs, and flip the cake so that the seam is at the bottom. 

- And you have a beautiful checkered cake with a mildly sweet marzipan icing.

- The cake is best stored in the fridge, and will keep well for about a week in an airtight container.

Enjoy the cake with your favourite cup of tea.

Home Made Strawberry Ice Cream

"Strawberry season is on and it is at it's peak" announced a flyer the postman dropped into my daugter's mail box last week. The U-pick farms are not very far from their home, about half an hour's drive away. So we decided to go enjoy the fun activity on the week end, and oh my, enjoy - we did. We were unable to stop picking the juicy ripe strawberries (and a few unripe for photos). It  was hardest to resist popping some into our mouths. We ended up picking two large crates and brought home around 6 kilograms strawberries. 

What would you do with so many, way more than you can consume? Freeze! Yes, we did the same. We were motivated to use them when they were fresh for there will always be another week, in some other season. So the strawberries went into as many dishes as we could think of. This ice cream was one.
Just three ingredients, a little patience and a wee little work are all you need to get the strawberries come together in this delightful dessert. The below makes quite a volume, but you may keep it in the freezer and enjoy over many days.

Home Made Strawberry Ice Cream

Makes 2 litres
Ingredients:
Fresh strawberries 1&1/2 cups
Sweetened condensed milk 1 tin(aprroximately 400 grams), 1&3/4 cup
Heavy whipping cream 2 cups (1 pint/16 fluid ounces/ approximately 475 millilitres)

Method:
Rinse the strawberries, remove the stem and pulp them in a blender.
Place a large bowl and the blades of a hand mixer in the freezer for about an hour.
In this large bowl pour the heavy whipping cream and run the hand mixer on medium speed till stiff peaks appear in the cream. Watch carefully not to over do the whipping.

Transfer contents of the condensed milk tin into a large bowl, pour in the strawberry puree and mix well.
Gently fold the strawberry and milk mixture into the whipped cream.
Cover the bowl tightly and place it in the freezer.
Take the ice cream out after three hours, stir briskly to remove ice crystals. Place it back in the freezer.

Repeat the stirring after three hours two more times.
Serve and enjoy.

 

Mango Ice Cream

It is summer, so the time to look forward to mangoes. There seem to be no particular season for the fruits in where I live, but the mangoes that are available during the season have richer taste in them. Most varieties I get here have a thin, and long stone, more flesh and some varieties are a bit fibrous. They are all quite sweet once you remove the skin. Unlike those which I relish in India eating whole with the skin on, these have a tart skin that have to be sliced off. The tree at home gave us about three or four large fruits at one go and I was tired making milkshakes and lassi every other day. I had already done the amrakhand that was inside the refrigerator and the mango sorbet just got over three days ago. So it was time to think of anything other than these. It had to be ice cream then, don't you agree?

I have a small booklet of recipes from Milkmaid, Nestle India. Among others there was a recipe for mango ice cream which I looked up. The ingredients listed gelatine which I found unsuitable for us. Still, I decided to use the recipe and try my luck with some custard powder for substitution. then I chanced upon many recipes that did not use any stabilizer. The ice cream looked very nice too. Thus from various recipes I had read, I adapted partially Tarla Dalal's Mango ice cream recipe and the one from the booklet I had.
The ice cream did not last even a few days, needless to mention. This was an every afternoon dessert that my husband tried hard to keep to a scoop, looking forlornly at the reducing quantity with each scoop.

Mango Ice Cream

Ingredients:
Makes 1 litre
2 -3 large mangoes that have less fibre/ peeled and chopped to achieve 2 cups mangoes
384 grams/ 1 tin of condensed milk
1/2 litre milk
2 teaspoons custard powder
1/8 cup sugar ( adjust according to how sweet the mangoes are)
1 teaspoon juice of lime

Method:
Peel mangoes, cut them in small cubes.
Add the sugar to the mangoes and puree them together in a blender.
Keep 1/4 cup of milk aside and put the rest to boil.
Stir in the custard powder into the 1/4 cup milk to a lump free mixture.
Add this to the warm milk and soon as it thickens a bit, remove from the fire.
Allow this milk to cool.
Whisk the condensed milk and blend the milk and juice of limes. Using a wire whisk, whisk the mixture. This way it gets well aerated.
Gently add in the mango puree. Mix them well and transfer to a freezer container. Cover with a tight lid and place it in the freezer for four hours.








Take the ice cream from the freezer and whisk again. Repeat this thrice at two hour intervals. This makes smoother ice cream. Return the container to the freezer.
Scoop out the ice cream on to serving bowls and enjoy.

Amrakhand - Mango Flavoured Shrikhand

I had been away from active blogging for some time now. It was a medical emergency that I was in India and having recouped my health well, I am home and to routine. I thought I shall start this new beginning with a sweet dish.
Shrikhand is a popular dessert in the western states of India. It is made of just two main ingredients namely hung curd and sugar. It could be flavoured with saffron and cardamom. It was not introduced to me, who had not travelled far from South Indian states, until my late teens. We were visiting our uncle in Bombay and he bought us shrikhand and few other mithai from a popular shop near where they lived. Today I do not recall taking to the taste, much, despite being fond of sweetened curds. Many years down, we picked up a branded pack of shrikhand flavoured with cardamom, which is when possibly I acquired the taste.
There are versions that a fruit pulp is blended into the curd cheese and sugar added to it. My dish today is the amrakhand which hung yoghurt is blended with mango pulp.
During the season, my fruit vendor offered me two large, juicy and sweet mangoes. I made the sorbet with part of the pulp, mousse and this shrikhand. There was enough for the two of us to last three or four days in mango mania.

I have used in this recipe, some condensed milk. In the warm weather, my home set yoghurt tends to get a bit sour. Using condensed milk is optional. You may place the yoghurt in a strainer with a bowl underneath it and leave it in the refrigerator to drip. You may need to increase the quantity of sugar and adjust according to how sweet your mango is.

Amrakhand - Mango Flavoured Shrikhand
Makes about 750 grams /6-8 servings

Ingredients:
2 litres of home set/ store bought, thick, natural yoghurt
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup sugar powdered very fine
1 cup mango pulp blended very smooth

Flavouring:
Few strands of saffron mixed in a tablespoon of warm milk
2 pods of cardamom powdered


Garnish:
Chopped pistachio nuts
Chopped almonds
Few pieces of cubed mango

Method:
Pour the yoghurt into a cheese cloth. Gently turn the cloth to allow the whey to drip. Place the bundle in a strainer, over a bowl and allow the whey to collect in the bowl.
You may choose to hang the bundle from a height and collect the whey in a bowl placed underneath.
Place the bowl and strainer with the yoghurt in the refrigerator for a few hours until all the whey has drained.
Remove the curd from the cheese cloth into a large bowl.
Puree the mango to a very smooth blend. Add the sugar to the pulped mango.
Add to the curd cheese, condensed milk and blend with a whisk.
Put in the saffron and cardamom and give another whisk.
Gently add the mango and blend until desired consistency and colour is achieved. I used up the entire pulp and my amrakhand was not very thick. This shrikhand was a smooth blended fruit and yoghurt mix.

While serving, garnish with chopped nuts and cubed mangoes.
Serve chilled.
When mangoes are not in season also, if you are able to purchase canned mango pulp, you might enjoy the amrakhand.

Varagarisi Badham Payasam - Kodo Millet and Almond Payasam

The Navarathri festival just got done with last week. During the nine days, I make different sweet dishes for each day and a legume based simple stir fried dish that we call sundal. I have with me a list of the specific neivedhyams offered as given to me by an elderly neighbour in Madras. He was a scholarly old man who was associated with eminent people in the literary field. This list was shared by one such person to this uncle. Thus I use it as THE guide. That list is just a part of all the special dishes that are prepared, while the payasams and sundals complement the menu.
During my recent visit to home, my sister told me that my cousin's doctor recommended her a diet with millets and that they find cooking them easy and that they enjoy them. There were magazines that were pouring in recipes and nutrient information that piqued my interest. Also, while I was there, the Government was promoting use of millets. There were organised events that promoted cooking and using of millets. I gave in and picked small quantities of most of those available in my local grocer's shelf. The dhobi who comes home to press our clothes purchased, picked and cleaned a few for me. she also instructed me how to cook them.
I packed whatever I had found and when I displayed my lot, the other one person whom I will have to share was skeptical. I was determined, however, and introduced them in dishes that they may blend well. Thus chola dosai (shorgum crepes), kudhiraivali ven pongal (savoury pongal with barnyard millet) etc. became regular dishes. Then with the advent of the festival, I announced to him that I am venturing a little further, and venture I did with relish. I cooked a few sweet dishes with millets going  more on a whim and fancy. Thankfully, I also knew to play them safe and I have a few recipes that we liked and decided were worthy of putting on this space.
Today's recipe is an attempted vegan dish which can also work with regular milk, though I prefer this version. I made this a bit thick in its volume so much as pudding; one may adjust to make it more of drinkable texture.

Kodo millet and almond payasam

Varagarisi Badham Payasam

This recipe makes 600 ml payasam that is creamy and has a slightly thick body.

Ingredients:

¼ cup kodo millet/ varagu arisi

10-12 numbers almonds whole

½ cup powdered jaggery

1 cup first extract of coconut milk

Cardamom powder, nutmeg powder for flavouring

Almonds and cashews toasted in a little coconut oil for garnish

Method:

Soak the almonds in water, remove the peel.
Pick, wash and soak the kodo millet for about 20 minutes. Alternately you can run it in the mixer and make a coarse powder that can be added directly to the almond paste later.

Dissolve the jaggery in warm water, strain to remove impurities. Place it in a saucepan and boil until the rawness subsides.
Meanwhile, grind the soaked almonds and millet to a fine paste adding sufficient water.
Transfer the paste to a heavy bottom pan, add about 1 and ½ more cups of water and cook on a medium to low flame stirring regularly. The millet-almond mixture will easily thicken and form lumps if unattended.

Cook this for about 10 minutes, adding more water if necessary until they cook to a creamy semi solid mass.
Pour in the jaggery syrup, mix well and finally add the coconut milk.
Cook until they blend well and just about until the coconut milk has lost the raw flavour.
Add the cardamom and nutmeg powders. Stir them into the payasam.
Remove from the heat.
To make the garnish:

Heat two teaspoons coconut oil, drop the broken cashews and slivered almonds. Toss until they are golden and fried until brittle.
Garnish the payasam with the above.
Notes:
If you need to double the recipe, adjust the jaggery , not exactly double but a little less.
I was going vegan with the recipe, but I am sure ghee will add to the flavour.
Cut slivers of coconut tossed in ghee/oil will also be good in the garnish.
I usually add a hint of dried ginger (about a pinch of finely powdered chukku) to most vellam based payasams. Since I used nutmeg, I opted that out in this.

Serve warm or chilled. 

Tweak as you like, adjust sweetness and liquid levels to your liking and enjoy the payasam. The chilled payasam, that had the pudding texture and the time to absorb the flavours,
tastes good that would leave one wanting another helping.

Mango Sorbet - Giving in to Mango Madness

There are mangoes everywhere, quite a few varieties here, though I am not able to know them by name. The vendors also do not give the name by variety, they are more willing to suggest what will taste better and such. There are two varieties that are big in size, one with a hard rounded stone within and the other contains a thin, yet long seed. Both of these are fleshy enough that when pulped they yield well. These mangoes are certainly not the sweet ones we get back home that we might want to eat them as fruit. I make milkshake or lassi and my husband is more than happy with the sugar there.
The other day when I picked up two and made the mousse, a friend sent us two more only slightly smaller. These had a thicker outer skin and a more yellow flesh. Just then I was putting mail in folders and Tarla Dalal recipe links were in a folder. I got into going through the mailers and this mango recipes links mail appeared, flashing some nice pictures. Reading through, the sorbet seemed easy to make with very few ingredients and not much work to be done. So sorbet it had to be with the mangoes that we did not consume. They needed the make up to be relished.

Mango Ginger Sorbet
Adapted from Tarla Dalal : Mango ginger sorbet

 

(Made with pulp from two large mangoes- yield filled a 1 litre Icecream tub)
Ingredients:
Approximately 850 ml of pulped mango
1/4 of a cup sugar (measured and then powdered)
2/3 cup water
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon rind of lemons
1 to 2 tablespoons grated ginger (optional)







Method:
The above measures are approximate and can be adjusted to taste and the sweet content in the fruit.
Adding ginger is optional, but I recommend as it adds a nice flavour to the otherwise very sweet fruit sorbet.
Wash and peel the mangoes. Slice them.

Dissolve the sugar in the water and when it is boiling add the ginger. Allow the ginger to cook in the syrup for a few minutes. Remove from the fire and allow to cool down to room temperature.
Place the sliced mango in the jar of the blender and adding the sugar -ginger solution, blend them well.
Transfer to a freezer safe container.
Add the lime juice and the rind of lemons. Mix well.
Place it covered in the freezer for 4 to 5 hours.
After five hours, take out the sorbet and whisk to break down the ice crystals.
Return to the freezer. Repeat the process twice more after an hour or two.
Few minutes prior to serving, place the container in the refrigerator section.
Scoop out into individual cups and garnish with cut mango pieces if available.

A very refreshing cold sorbet can be just the thing you might want on any hot summer's day.

Bitten by the mango madness bug - Mango Mousse

Mangoes and summer go together and in India, we try to make the most of it. In the Southern part of India, we get varieties that spoil us for choices. During summer holidays, my grandmothers used to buy a whole basket from the vendor who would sell them on streets. This ensured that we ate one whole mango in a day. We have never thought of making anything with them; eating them whole, licking off the juice that drips to our elbows and trying to shave the stone within clean with the teeth was such pleasure. Only later, we found that there were other varieties and large in size mangoes that were pulped to juice and served as a refreshing drink in wayside stalls.
Here in Africa, there seems to be no specific season. I have seen trees laden with fruits even as late as November.
Come April, every other vendor seemed to be stocking the mangoes and offer you for cheap prices that you cannot deny them. However, I try to keep their pressure well contained, explaining that we are a small family and we can come back to them to replenish supply. These mangoes however, come not even close in taste to the ones I am used to. They are very good for juice, lassi and other such servings - to eat them plain is just about okay, nothing to yearn for.
We picked up two large fruits after much persuasion from the vendor and recommendation from my driver. I planned to make sorbet with them for guests who dropped in for dinner. Plans did not work well so I had them sitting on my counter. That is until I read three posts that made me opt to try mousse or panna cotta. I chose to make the mousse.
I used hung curd and agar agar in the recipe. There are recipes that use gelatin, greek yoghurt and such. I do not get greek yoghurt here and thus chose to make hung curd.
The measures are very approximate as I had no clue how much agar agar will be needed and went by intuition. Also how much sugar depends on the sweetness of the mangoes.So read the ingredients list and use your discretion if you choose to make them. It really does not change that it is one thoroughly enjoyable treat for those who love mangoes.

Mango Mousse
Makes 4 sumptuously large servings

Ingredients:
550 ml mango pulp (two large mangoes, skinned, stone removed and pulped in the juicer)
1 tablespoon crushed agar agar
3/4 cup warm water
200 grams hung curd (Hang 1/2 litre curd tied in a cloth to drain liquid)
1/4 cup sugar (measured and then powdered)
200 ml light whipping cream
For garnish:
Few pieces of mango cut in cubes
Few raisins

Method:
Dissolve the agar agar in the warm water for thirty minutes.
Run the mango pulp and sugar together in the blender and blend well.
Remove about three tablespoons of the mango mixture in a bowl and heat over low heat.  Leave the rest in the blender jar.
When the pulp is warm, strain the agar agar solution into it and cook until it thickens.
Quickly add it to the blender jar and run a couple of minutes to combine, before the agar thickens further.
Transfer this to a bowl.
Place the hung curd in the jar of the blender and run the blender for few minutes until the curd has become creamy in it's own liquid.
Fold in this cream into the mango pulp and whisk until the mix is fluffy.
Whip the cream until soft peaks are formed and fold this also into the above mixture. Gently blend them all together.

Transfer into serving glasses and chill them in the refrigerator for few hours.
Garnish with the mango cubes and the raisins.
Serve chilled.

And I did make the sorbet too. So I am really giving in to the mango madness.

Meanwhile, over two weekends my husband decided to pep me up to be more attentive to the blog. On that account he went around looking for making boards for my photographs. He cut the wood and painted them.

He has a few ideas brewing in his head; though I do not know how I may use those if he makes them, for now I am going with the flow. this has been in my mind for sometime now, though I have not been actively posting recipes. Left to me I would have been saying this but would not have acted upon it. Now, I have to respond to this enthusiasm by making it work with my photos.