Instant Microwave Banana Nut Cake

I've resumed cooking. It was something I had to do to bring in a sense of "normalcy" into my life. Attempting to cook in the serviced apartment without a pressure cooker was an experience in itself. I realized how much I took my kitchen in Gurgaon for granted. But I also realized that healthy meals are possible even if you have almost no appliances and only three utensils.

After we moved into our apartment, the first set of boxes we opened were the ones which would help me start cooking. Slowly, all my appliances came out of their boxes and I was thrilled to see the pressure cookers, the mixer-food processor and my wet grinder. Once I got into the groove of day to day cooking, I started missing baking. And I started missing my oven. For the moment, I only have a basic microwave. I decided to stick with it for the time being and invest in a combination oven in a couple of months. But (my friends know this) I needed to bake to feel really normal.

I've only baked two cakes in the microwave before this. I also don't have a fully stocked pantry as yet. So, I quickly stocked up on baking powder, baking soda and some vanilla essence. I started scouting for more microwave cake recipes with easily available ingredients. My research brought me to cooks.com and I found a banana nut cake recipe that seemed to call out to me. I decided to improvise with what I had on hand and also made several substitutions to make it a very healthy cake.

The final result was fabulous. The cake wasn't crusty on top, but I know not to expect that from a microwave cake. The texture of the cake was as good as, if not better than, most banana cakes I have baked in the past. This recipe is a sure shot keeper.

1/4 cup Oil

1/4 cup Low Fat Milk

1 Egg

1 Ripe Banana

1/2 cup Jaggery, grated

1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour

1/4 cup Flour (Plain)

1/2 cup Mixed Nuts, chopped

1/4 cup Raisins

3/4 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

In a blender jar, beat the egg until fluffy. Add the banana and blend until there are no lumps. Add the jaggery, oil and milk and blend again. Add the flours along with the baking powder and baking soda and blend for a minute or two.

Grease a microwave safe baking dish. Pour the batter into the dish and stir in the chopped nuts and raisins. Bake on high (800) for 8 minutes. Allow to stand for 10 minutes. Cut into slices and dig in.

I'm glad to be back to cooking, baking and blogging as well. I'm even happier to be able to send this to an event I regularly participated in: The Monthly Mingle. This month, Deeba of Passionate About Baking is hosting this event and I am sending this to Deeba as my entry to Fruit in Baking.

Chocolate Walnut Cake

Baking! Everytime I start to bake, I wonder why I don't bake more often. I'd love to experiment with flavours and try new cakes. But I do have a waist at this moment and I'd like to continue to have it in my possession. In the last couple of weeks, I have been baking a cake for every occasion, big or small. I baked a banana nut loaf to take to a friend's place for breakfast, a carrot cake last week when some friends invited us over for lunch, a banana raisin loaf when another friend had us over. It seems to be the simplest thing to carry with us and it is also the most appreciated.

While I have made chocolate walnut brownies and muffins, I had never tried to make a cake with this combination. I was tempted to try and I was very happy with the result. I got two 6 x 6 cakes from this mixture. I frosted one with some readymade Pillsbury chocolate cake icing and multicoloured sprinkles and I left the other alone. Both cakes were delicious. I made sure I shared them with friends.

3/4 cup Flour

1/6 cup Cocoa Powder
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 cup Sugar
a Pinch Salt
1/4 cup Oil
1 Egg
1/2 cup Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/3 cup Walnuts, chopped and toasted
 
 

Prepare two 6x6" square or one 8" round cake tin by greasing and flouring them.

 

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).

 

Beat the egg in a large bowl. Add the oil, milk, sugar and vanilla. Beat again. Sift the remaining dry ingredients together and add them to the liquid mixture. Fold in the walnuts.

 

Pour the batter into the prepared tin(s) and bake for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.

 

Cool on a wire rack and cut into slices. Enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea.

 

Cakes and birthdays go hand in hand. Here's wishing my dear brother H a very happy birthday!

Eggless Chocolate Walnut Muffins

There's something nice about muffins. Something that makes them better than cake. I have not figured out what that is. It could just be that good things come in small packages. Whatever it is, I can't resist these little beauties. As I was off to Mumbai for a couple of family functions, I made these muffins to take with me for the extended family.

1 1/2 cups Flour

1/3 cup Cocoa Powder

3 tsp Baking Powder

1 cup Sugar

a Pinch Salt

1/2 cup Oil

2 tsp Egg Replacer (dissolved in 2 tbsp of water OR 2 Eggs)

1 cup Milk

1 tsp Vanilla

25 Walnut halves

Sift all the dry ingredients for the muffins together into a food processor jar with the dough blade. Pour in all the liquid ingredients and run the processor for 2 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare the muffin pans by lining them with paper muffin cases.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin cases. Decorate with the walnut halves. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

But these sweet little beauties are also being sent miles away to celebrate the wedding anniversary of my parents. Many happy returns of the day Amma and Appa!

Banana Chocolate Chip Walnut Muffins

Happy Birthday Sachin!

We went to Kasauli to spend the "birthday weekend". But just as soon as we returned home, even though the birthday was almost over, I baked a blueberry cake. Birthdays just aren't complete without the customary "cake cutting", are they? I haven't had a chance to post the pictures of the cake I baked for S. That would warrant a separate post.

For today, I leave you all with a quick simple recipe of one of my favourite muffins. The addition of chocolate chips and walnuts take these otherwise plain banana muffins to an altogether different level.

1 3/4 cup Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
¾ cup Brown Sugar
1/3 cup Toasted Walnuts, chopped

1/3 cup Chocolate Chips
3-4 Bananas (overripe), peeled
1/3 cup Oil
2 Eggs

Sift the dry ingredients together. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Prepare the muffin pans by lining them with paper muffin cases.

Combine the bananas, eggs, oil and brown sugar in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, blend all these to a rough paste. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and add the toasted walnuts and chocolate chips. Mix well and pour into the prepared muffin cases.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy these muffins warm (but I must tell you they taste great the next day or so). I was lucky I had some left over 2 days after I'd baked them. So, I really know. On that really sweet note, S, I wish you a very happy birthday and happiness always.

Pumpkin Walnut Soup

At one time, I only knew how to make a few basic soups. The summer of ’92 changed all that. I had 14 weeks of vacation and nothing to do. I started trying out new soups. Many years and many cookbooks later, I must say that this is now what I’d consider an “area of expertise”.


Since I make soups almost every night, I find that all the pictures look the same. Or do they? To add to this, we seem to drink the soup from the same bowls. And since I take a picture just before we eat it, I even forget to dress the coup up before taking a picture.


Without further ado, I present this foreign soup with very Indian flavours.


2 cups Pumpkin, cubed
1/4 cup Walnuts, chopped
1 Onion, diced
1 tbsp Oil
¼ tsp Chilli Powder
1/3 cup Milk
A pinch Garam Masala
Salt and Pepper to taste


Heat the oil in a pressure pan. Add the onion and fry for a minute. Add the chilli powder and garam masala and fry for another minute. Add the pumpkin and walnuts along with 4 cups of water and pressure cook for 3 whistles.


Drain the liquid and pour it into a pan. Blend the pumpkin-walnut mixture in a liquidizer and pour the contents back into the reserved liquid. Bring the soup to a boil over a low flame. Add the milk, salt and pepper and serve hot.

P.S. I used the yellow pumpkin (kaddu/parangikkai) in this recipe.

Walnut Raisin Cake

The New Year is here. Although we couldn’t see it very clearly when it came (the fog caused it, not the spirit), it did eventually dawn on us. We went on a really long drive to Karnal, gave our car for servicing and headed towards The Haveli for lunch. Hot sarson ka saag with makke ki rotis, some paneer methi malai (a dish I have vowed to recreate at home) with tandoori rotis and some namkeen lassi to end the meal.

I am so glad we started the year with a long drive. We barely took any trips in 2008 and we’re determined to go out and see more of this part of the country before we head back south, whenever that is.


Here’s a simple cake that seems perfect to welcome 2009. The recipe makes two cakes, so you can keep one and give the other away, spreading some cheer along the way. (It is actually a walnut raisin cake, but I had some chopped apple that I had to use up, so I threw it into the batter.)

3/4 cup Milk
1/2 cup Oil
1/4 cup Apple(optional)

1/2 cup Walnuts

½ cup Raisins
2 cups Flour
1 cup Sugar
1 tbsp Baking powder

1 tsp Vanilla
1 Egg
1/4 tsp Salt

Heat oven to 350 F. Prepare two 8" cake tins by greasing and flouring.

Mix milk, oil, vanilla and egg in a large bowl until well blended. Stir in the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Beat until well blended. Add the raisins, walnuts and aples , if using. Pour the batter into the two cake tins. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Here's to a safe and contented 2009! My heartfelt wishes to you and yours.

Basil Walnut Pesto

I have experimented with several types of pesto. A few years ago, I hadn't tasted it. Now, it features quite regularly on our menu. While at one time I thought of it as a mere pasta sauce, I now use it as a salad dressing, as a spread for garlic toast, as a dip. What I love about pesto is how the flavour changes with each ingredient. This walnut pesto is a favourite with small bites of garlic bread.

1 cup Basil Leaves

1/3 cup Walnuts, toasted

4-5 pods Garlic

5 tbsp Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Grind together all the ingredients to a coarse paste. You may pound them in a pestle if you wish. Add the olive oil a little by little to facilitate the grinding.

Store in an airtight container. You could use this in many ways. As a pasta sauce or salad dressing. Check out little bites of toast at my namesake's blog. While you're at it, do check out the blogs of other marathon runners as well: DK , Siri, Srivalli, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha, Divya M, Lakshmi, Lakshmi Venkatesh , Sripriya, Viji, Kamalika, DK, and Pavani

Coffee Walnut Cake

I love coffee. When I say that to people, they think I drink endless cups of coffee made my way. In reality, I have a cup a day. No more, no less. Not really, there are those days when I don't have any coffee, but I doubt there are days when I drink more than one cup. So when I had a friend staying over, I made 2 cups. But she left in a hurry as we woke up very late. I didn't want to drink an extra cup. And I abhor drinking coffee made from the previous day's decoction. Fresh is my mantra! So I stuck it in the fridge and decided to think about what to do with it.

A couple of days later, it was my colleague's birthday. I wanted to try a differently flavoured cake. I thought of orange. Laks suggested apple. I thought about making the apple cake but remembered that my colleague wasn't too kicked about an apple cake when we'd discussed it. When I opened the fridge for something else, I saw the coffee sitting there and right then it hit me. I thought, "A real coffee cake".

The cake was just about everything I thought it would be. I added some walnuts to the batter which gave some crunch to this lactose free cake.

1 cup Flour

1/2 cup Sugar

2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda

a Pinch of Salt

1/2 cup Coffee Decoction

1/4 cup Oil

1 tsp Coffee Essence

1/4 cup Walnuts, chopped

1 Egg, beaten

Sift all the dry ingredients for the cake together into a food processor jar with the dough blade. Pour in all the liquid ingredients and run the processor for 2 minutes. Blend in the walnuts.

Prepare an 8 inch round cake tin by first smearing a little butter all over the tin and then dusting it with flour. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 30 minutes at 350 F.

Cut into wedges and serve with a glass of cold milk. If you love coffee with coffee, enjoy a wedge of this cake with steaming hot cup of coffee.

As it turns out, Meeta is hosting her popular Monthly Mingle this month and she's picked Coffee & Tea as the theme. How wonderfully convenient for me! And now it is time to see what my fellow bloggers are up to. Puffing and panting? Or going strong? Check them out for yourself: Siri, Srivalli, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii, Anu, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha, Divya M, Lakshmi, Lakshmi Venkatesh , Sripriya, Viji, Kamalika, Pavani

Banana Nut Muffins

Six months ago, I hadn’t tasted a Banana muffin. I’d been hearing a lot about it and I finally made it last December. I have a much better recipe now (adapted from Abigail Johnson’s The Weekend Baker). I made this one morning to take with us on a long journey by road. Although the NH1 from Delhi to Amritsar is full of Dhabas, Café Coffee Days and McDonald’s, this was a just-in-case measure.

We had a couple of muffins fresh from the oven, but they tasted much better the next day. (Maybe we were just hungry after driving for 3 hours.)

1 cup Flour

¾ cup Wheat Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

¼ tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Salt

¾ cup Brown Sugar

2/3 cup Toasted Walnuts, chopped

3-4 Bananas (overripe), peeled

1/3 cup Oil

2 Eggs

Sift the dry ingredients together. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Prepare the muffin pans by lining them with paper muffin cases.

Combine the bananas, eggs, oil and brown sugar in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, blend all these to a rough paste. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and add the toasted walnuts. Mix well and pour into the prepared muffin cases. This recipe makes about 18 muffins.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

After eating these muffins, I doubt I'll ever buy one at Barista the next time I'm there. I find them so easy to make that I now stash away two bananas from each purchase just to make these muffins. Try them, I am certain you'll fall in love with these little baked goodies.

Date-Walnut Mini Cakes

I’d been wanting to make a date and walnut cake for a very long time. I finally made mini cakes on Saturday. We were invited to a pot luck party to watch the semi finals of the IPL. I am least interested in cricket, but the food and wine got me enthusiastic. So, I made some savoury tarts and these date-walnut mini cakes. I didn’t go with any specific recipe although I’d downloaded a few. These didn’t turn out too sweet and they were served at the party with ice cream. (Someone asked me if I can conduct classes!! I am so thrilled!!) This recipe made 30 cupcakes in all.



2 cups Flour
4 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 cup Jaggery
1 tsp Salt
¼ cup Oil
¼ cup Date Syrup
2 eggs
1 cup Milk
¼ cup Dates, chopped
¼ cup Walnuts, chopped



Sift all the dry ingredients together into a food processor jar with the dough blade. Pour in all the liquid ingredients and run the processor for 2 minutes. Blend in the dates and walnuts.


Grease a muffin pan or line with paper cases. Pour spoonfuls of the batter into the muffin moulds. Bake for 20 minutes at 350F.

I'm sending these to Mansi over at Fun and Food for Meeta's Monthly Mingle, the theme of which is Appetizers & Hors D’oeuvres. I’d also like to send these over to Meeta herself as she celebrates her birthday. I’d sent some brownies over last year. I do hope she likes these mini cakes as well.

Banana Nut Loaf and a Personal Note of Thanks

I was always told that the journey was more enjoyable than the destination, that that was the way with life. When I embarked on this journey, I had no destination in mind. I was sitting at home in the middle of the week as I got the day off for Buddha Poornima. Barely two days after starting a new job. I quit the one I had even though the commute was a mere 3.5 km and chose this one 27 km away. As most people who have interacted with me through this medium would know by now, I love my job. Anyway, I had absolutely nothing to do and, as always, I was blog hopping. Then I did it. It was one of those “spur-of-the-moment” decisions. I didn’t give the URL or the blog name much thought. I didn’t give anything much thought that afternoon. The only thing I thought about was the background colour. It had to be green as this was going to be a vegetarian blog. Cliché!


Why am I thinking of that afternoon today? All that was a year ago. That, my dear friends, is the whole point of this post. The Singing Chef is a year old today. The last 366 days were eventful, to say the least. I shared, I explored, I laughed, I cried. And it wasn’t just about food. Food, at times, seems incidental. But I’m amazed at the friends I’ve made across the globe. People I have never met (except one), but people that I can call, email, chat with. And all the while get the feeling that these are people I have always known.


The journey was initially slow, with a little skepticism here. Then suddenly went into the 5th gear with one Saturday seeing 17 posts on my blog. Participation in events added to the enthusiasm and then it was confirmed. I was thoroughly addicted. The month of July 2007 saw 53 posts while this year’s YTD count is a mere 50. Thank heavens for work. Else, I would have run out of ideas months ago and this would have become one more of those “also ran” blogs. I got well meaning advice from some friends and with time, I have settled on between 10 and 15 posts in a month.


Events in the food blogging arena are really something else. From sending my very first entry to WBB, I have come a very long way and I’m actually guest hosting it next month. I have been a regular with several events: WBB, RCI, JFI, AFAM, TST, MBP, A-Z and I try to participate in as many as I can. At one point, I’d fret over trying to make something to fit in. Now, I’m wiser. I’ve even reached a point where I have loads of dishes in drafts and I just match them to events. But at the end of the day, if I can’t participate, I know that it is not the end of the world. I know that my fellow bloggers won’t be mad at me. I know I won’t be shunned by the blogging community.

The love I’ve received won’t be forgotten in a hurry. The acceptance, the appreciation, the adulation is what I’m thrilled to get. The love and the friendship is what I’m grateful to have. The gifts I’ve received will be cherished forever. It has been a great year, and it couldn’t have been even a tenth as great had it not been for all of you. I cook more, share more, and learn more with each passing day. Thank you all.

Here’s a simple, healthy cake to celebrate this big milestone.

1 cup Flour
¾ cup Wheat Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
¾ cup Jaggery, grated
2/3 cup Toasted Walnuts, chopped
3-4 Bananas (overripe), peeled
1/3 cup Oil
2 Eggs

Oil and flour for lining and dusting


Heat the oven to 350F. Grease and dust a loaf tin.

Sift the dry ingredients together.

Combine the bananas, eggs, oil and jaggery in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, blend all these to a rough paste. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and add the toasted walnuts. Mix well and pour into the prepared cake tin.

You can omit the egg and use 2-3 tsp sour curds and 1/2 tsp baking soda.

Bake for 35-40 minutes (or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean). Cool on a rack for a few minutes.

Cut into slices and share with all your blogging friends. (Also send it to Not Quite Nigella's Banana Bread Bake-off.) My lactose intolerant friends can have a big slice of this lactose free cake.

Happy Birthday Singing Chef. I am, both, proud of and grateful for, what you have come to mean to me.

Pumpkin Cake

This month has been very busy for me. I thought last November was the month that would have the least number of posts, but it does look March might replace November. If not, it is likely to give November a good chase. While I am hosting an event this month, my own blog has seen very few posts. I am cooking and baking. In fact, slightly more than usual. But I haven't been finding the time to blog as often.

After seeing Sig and Nupur's posts on Taste & Create, I went to Myamii's blog, For the Love of Food, to sign up for this month's event. This is an event that pairs up willing bloggers and then gets them to create one dish from their partner's blog. I was paired up this time with Ben of What's Cooking. I went to his blog and got carried away for a bit. Then I realized what I was there for. I browsed through a predominantly meat based blog to find something that I could create. I decided the dessert section was best for me. And then I found what I was looking for.

I made a few changes to Ben's Pumpkin Cake and made what he calls a bread. But since I don't frost 90% of my "cakes" I will call this a cake for now.

1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Oil
2eggs
1cup Flour
1 tsp Cinnamon Powder
1/4 tsp Ginger Paste
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup Pumpkin, cooked and mashed

1/3 cup Walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Grease a 9 inch cake tin.

Beat the eggs, oil and sugar together. Add the dry ingredients and stir until well mixed. Add the mashed punpkin and beat for a minute. Stir in the walnuts. Pour the batter into the greased cake tin and bake at 350°F for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and cut into wedges.

We devoured a couple of wedges almost as soon as I cut the cake and it was very tasty. It was just the way cakes ought to be, not too sweet, light and moist. This recipe is a keeper!

Happy Easter all!

Maple Banana Walnut Loaf

I grew up in Madras. It remains my favourite city in India. I can defend it to the last drop of blood I have flowing in my veins, should the need ever arise. Thankfully, I doubt I'd have to. I have so many wonderful memories linked to that wonderful city. I have lived almost all over the country except the East. I have enjoyed living in most cities that I have called home since I left Madras. Delhi/Gurgaon is the only exception. I lived here before and when I left, I almost swore never to come back. I do remember telling my mother that I'd love to come back in 5 years' time as long as I'm making at least three times my (then) salary. Little did I know that my words would come true. I left in 2001 to come back in 2006, married to S. To a place I had never liked calling home. And after about a year and a half here, I still don't. One of the things I realize now is that I keep comparing this place to Madras. So, this time around, since I knew we were here for a fixed period, I decided to focus on the things that I do like, few and far between as they may be.

Most of my childhood memories are linked to Madras. The school I went to. The college where I realized I could be all that I wanted to be, if only I tried. The part time jobs I held that helped partially fund my years at University. The bakery from where my birthday cake arrived promptly, year after year. This bakery was also where where we'd rush after dance classes before catching the IIT bus back home. Adyar Bakery House is one place that I will never be able to forget. Their cookies and puffs were beyond description, but it was their cakes that really took the cake. They don't make much of the stuff they used to. They're probably changing with the times. I loved their walnut cake and tea cake. When I was going through my books to find a nice loaf to bake, I came across this recipe which instantly transported me to Sardar Patel Road in Madras.

I modified the recipe to make this loaf today.

1 cup Flour

3/4 cup Atta(Whole Wheat Flour)

1/3 cup Brown Sugar

2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

2 medium ripe Bananas, mashed

1/3 cup Maple Syrup

3 tbsp Oil

2 Eggs, beaten

2 tbsp Milk

1/4 cup Walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350F (180 C).

Grease and flour or line a loaf tin.

Combine the flour, wheat flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, mix the mashed bananas, eggs, maple syrup, oil and milk until the mixture comes together. Pour this into the dry ingredients and mix until the dry ingredients are mositened. Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf tin. Sprinkle the chopped walnuts and bake for 50-55 minutes.

Today happens to be the birthday of one more of my partners in crime since my college days: Mangalam. It is almost amazing to see people call the college I went to the most boring of colleges in Madras. The four girls that I have been closest to over the last decade and a half all happened to be in the same college. And three of them walked into my life right there. I have enough and more memories linked to these friends that have Madras as the backdrop. And sometimes I wonder if I might have had as much fun back then if it wasn't for these girls. So, here's to you Manga. I hope you have a wonderful year ahead.

Fruit Cake

There are cakes and then there are cakes... and then there is the fruit cake. The market always fills up with fruit and plum cakes this time of the year. And I while I have this strong urge to buy a cake and eat it, the urge to bake my own is stronger. This year, while I began preparations for my cake in the first week of December, the thought of making caramel put me off. You might all remember the mental fatigue that I experience when I am faced with a slightly arduous task. This seemed to be yet another classic example. I wanted to bake my cake a week before Christmas, so we could eat it on Christmas Day. I finally got down to it on Christmas Day. The picture above is of the cake I've saved for tonight. The one below is of the cake we devoured the very day it was made.

This recipe has been in my family for about 20 years now. And I made it almost every year from the time I discovered it. And exactly where did I discover this oh-so-simple recipe? On the reverse of a Rex Baking Powder label. I think this was about a year after I took an active interest in baking. I figured the recipe had one major error because of which I got pristine white cakes year after year with a generous sprinkling of fruits. The recipe asked me to mix the sugar and water and then boil it to form caramel. It just formed sugar syrup. After a few years, I started burning the sugar to form caramel and from then on I got a totally different avatar. And we were hooked.

This year, however, I made a few more changes to the recipe. I soaked my dry fruits in rum instead of in lime juice (and used twice the quantity of dry fruits and nuts the original recipe called for). I also substituted brown sugar for white sugar.

2 cups Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 cup Dry Fruits (figs, apricots, prunes, raisins, currants and sultanas), chopped
1/4 cup Candied Peel
1/4 cup Tutti Fruiti
1/2 cup Mixed Nuts (Walnuts, Cashews, Almonds), chopped
1 cup Dark Rum (optional - you could use 2 tbsp Lime Juice to soak the dry fruits)
1 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
4 eggs
3/4 cup Oil
3 cloves
1 tsp Cinnamon Powder

For the Caramel:
1/2 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Boiling Hot Water

Soak the dry fruits, candied peel and tutti fruiti along with the cinnamon powder and cloves in 2/3 cup rum for anywhere between 24 hours and 1 year. (I soaked them for 3 1/2 weeks.) Do remember to remove the cloves before using the fruits.

When you are ready to bake the cake, start by making the caramel. In a heavy bottomed pan, place the 1/2 cup of sugar and heat slowly. The sugar will begin to melt. Stir this mixture with a spoon slowly as the caramel forms. When all the sugar crystals have melted, slowly add the boiling water and stir to form a smooth mixture. Cool this completely.

Sift the flour along with the baking powder. In a mixing bowl, add the oil, eggs and brown sugar and beat well. To this, add the flour mixture, the fruits and the nuts by turns. Whisk well and then add the cooled caramel.

Grease and line two 8 inch baking tins and divide the batter between the two. (I used a loaf tin and an 8 inch square tin.) Bake at 190 C/375 F for about 50 minutes. When baked, make small slits in each cake and pour the remaining rum over them. While this cake is delicious straight out of the oven, try storing it for a week before consuming it. (To do this, wrap the cake in foil and then cover it with cling film.) This cake ages beautifully. In the past, I've never been able to save it long enough as it always disappeared in 2 days. This time around, I have put one cake away and we'll cut it at midnight tonight. A friend ate her bit last night and told me it was wonderful. I really can't wait.

I couldn't have chosen a better item for my last post of 2007. The time of the year demands such a cake and I got a chance to share one of my most treasured recipes with all of you. It is by far the simplest recipe for a fruit cake that I have come across and it tastes divine. Off this goes to Lakshmi and Latha of The Yum Blog as my second entry to AFAM - Dry Fruits.

Just as I have always believed that one can find love in the most unusual of places (and my own life stands testimony to this), I firmly believe that one can find the best of recipes in the most unusual of places. If only we cared enough to look!

Happy New Year!