Sour Cream Banana Cake

I had sour cream and over-ripened bananas waiting to be used. So, I found this lovely recipe that uses all the ingredients available in my pantry and refrigerator. It served as a decent potluck dessert. 

It is a supremely moist and mild cake. If you like bananas (or banana bread), I highly recommend this cake. 

My icing is melted dark chocolate chips mixed with some sour cream

German Chocolate Cake

I don't think I will ever run out of the wide spectrum of chocolate cakes and chocolate-based desserts. In keeping with tradition, I baked a German Chocolate cake recently. I have never had german chocolate cake before, but I have had the icecream version. I'm not a big fan of coconut and chocolate, but the cake turned out with a good balance between the two. I used this recipe as the base, and adapted it to make just two layers of chocolate cake (instead of three layers), and the creamy coconut-pecan filling. The filling recipe is straight forward and accurate. I didn't change anything except to use low-fat evaporated milk. 

I was quite excited about using special german chocolate for this cake (I used Baker's german chocolate bar), because I expected the chocolate to taste distinctly different. But there didn't seem to be anything different about german chocolate... in fact, I thought it wasn't as chocolately as Ghiradelli's dark chocolate bars. Still, the cake was extremely moist and mildly sweet. The filling/frosting makes up for the sweetness quotient. 

With a dusting of german chocolate

 The chocoholic husband approved this cake and recommends it. 

Lemon Pickle

There are many ways to pickle fruits and vegetables. However, the base ingredients remain the same; more or less. The Indian Pickle has plenty of oil, salt, and chilli powder, no matter the recipe (unless the pickle happens to be sweet). 

Here is another version of pickling lemons. I wrote about an earlier version which involves marinating the limes/lemons for a week. This method is a little simpler. The lemons are cooked before being pickled with the spices. 

Ingredients:

1. 6 juicy lemons (whole lemons)
2. 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
3. 1.5 - 2 tablespoons salt
4. 2 tablespoons (or more) chilli powder
5. 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
6. 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
7. 1/2 teaspoon hing / asafoetida
8. 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Preparation:

1. In a pot, boil around 4 cups of water (enough water to immerse the lemons in)
2. When the water is hot, add the whole lemons. Cover the pot with a tight lid and allow the lemons to cook for 10 minutes in the boiling water.
3. After 10 minutes, remove the pot from the heat, keep the lid closed and let the lemons continue to cook for another 10 minutes in the residual heat. Then, drain the water and allow the lemons to cool. 
4. When cool, cut the lemons into bite-sized pieces. Add the cut lemons (with their juices and all) into a bowl and coat them with salt and turmeric. Sprinkle the salted lemons with the chilli powder. 
5. Heat 1/4 cup sesame oil and splutter a teaspoon of mustard seeds in it. Pour the hot oil and mustard seeds on top of the chilli powder and mix everything well. 
6. Dry roast a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds along with Hing until the fenugreek begins turning dark brownish red and releases its aroma. 
7. Grind the roasted seeds and hing to a fine powder. Mix this powder into the spiced lemons.
8. Let the pickled lemons cool. Then, transfer to a clean, air-tight jar. Pour a tablespoon of sesame oil on top of the pickle, close the jar and refrigerate. 

It will take a couple of days for the flavors to completely meld into the cooked lemons. 

Paal Peda (Milk Fudge)

I came across this nice instructional video for preparing Paal Peda in the microwave. It looked easy to prepare and a little low on fat and sugar (well, relatively). So, I tried it out yesterday and it turned out pretty decent. 

Originally, full fat milk is slowly heated with sugar and some butter until the fat thickens and comes  together. It is then rolled or shaped into fudge like pieces. My grandmother used to make awesome theratti paal (another name for this in the South). And it used to be my favorite sweet when I was growing up. I think of her every time I catch a whiff of its smell or name. 

Anyway, due to lack of sufficient time, I resorted to the microwave version. For a 5 minute version, it is actually pretty good, but it lacks the slightly caramelized milk flavor that comes from hours of patiently heating/stirring milk. One of these days, I will surely try the authentic version of this sweet. 

Several of my aunts are known for their microwave Paal Peda. They usually use just one ingredient - a few cans of sweetened condensed milk. The condensed milk is repeatedly heated in the microwave (heat-stir-heat-stir---loop) until the condensed milk can be rolled. In this recipe, 1/2 stick of butter and 2 cups of milk powder are used along with a can of condensed milk to follow a similar procedure. Only three ingredients and 5 minutes of your time - it can't get easier than that!

Tiramisu Cake

The husband's birthday cake this year was a Tiramisu cake. I followed the recipe from Deb from Smitten Kitchen, and it turned out great. It's a great way to get all the flavors of Tiramisu through a traditional looking cake. The recipe is fool-proof if you follow every single step. Two layers of soft sponge cakes are soaked in coffee-syrup, and then frosted with mascarpone-coffee-cream icing.  A minor addition of mine wad to add a teaspoon of almond extract in addition to vanilla extract, and other coffee fixings to the frosting.  A dusting of cocoa on top rounds the Tiramisu flavor nicely. The frosting can be eaten as is :)