Date and Fruit Cake

Sometime between Christmas and New Year, S and I were invited to a dinner party. For us, it was an impromptu invitation. Until about 5 or 6 in the evening, we had no idea that there was a party nor that we were invited to it. And I usually can't think of what to take, especially at such short notice. Since I had some rum soaked fruits handy, I decided to make this easy date and fruit cake. I was told it was tasty (by S' colleagues). I didn't get a chance to sample this cake at all. I baked two of them in aluminium take away containers. I took one to the party and S took the other to work the next day.

1 cup Flour
1/4 cup Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Baking Soda
a Pinch of Salt

1/3 cup Date Syrup (mixed with 1/3 cup warm water)
2-3 tbsp Oil
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 cup Dry Fruits (soaked in rum, optional)
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 dry fruits.

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.

The cake has a Christmas Cake sort of appeal without any of the fuss. It is also quite healthy, low in sugar and fat, with the goodness of dates and other dry fruits. It is the perfect cake to celebrate Appa's birthday. By the time you see this post, my parents will be with us. I have tried very hard to be with my family every year in his birthday. (I used to make it a point to be there for Amma's birthday, until in 2001, she went to Bombay to attend a wedding about a fortnight or so before Appa and I had planned to go.I missed her birthday then, and somehow have not been very regular since. I still try. The only time I missed being with Appa on his birthday was in 1984, when he was in the U.S. and our visas took ages to come, so we joined him only later that year.) We shall celebrate the day in the best posible manner.

Happy Birthday Appa!

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.

Light Fruit Cake to celebrate

Not many can have a father

Who’s half as great as you.

Others might try, but they fall shy

You’re a top-notch father, it’s true.
So that’s why on your birthday,

I want to make sure you know,

I admire your sincerely and love you dearly,

And those feelings continue to grow.

I came across this wonderful poem on a site called http://www.poemsource.com/ and this poem was penned by Karl and Joanna Fuchs. And I could relate to the emotion. I am in Chennai to celebrate, among other things, Appa's birthday. I owe this man a great deal. He has always stood behind me in everything I've wanted to do. Pushed me to excel in just about everything I did. And as far as helping me hone my culinary skills, while he always maintained that he can "boil water without burning it", he has been a willing guinea pig. The man who ate semia upma and told his then 13 year old daughter it was delicious. Much later I realized that I'd used twice the amount of water I should have. A lot of my initial cooking happened when Amma was out of town and that meant that H and Appa were left to my "raj". While on the face of it, he may have thought I don't really care about his likes and dislikes, one word of appreciation from him can put me on cloud nine for a long long time. And so, while I didn't exactly learn any cooking from him, he taught me a lot.

I baked a cake late last night ans brought it with me this morning. The first thing we did after entering the house was to have him blow off the candle and cut the cake.

1 cup Raisins

1 cup Apricots

1 cup Figs

1/2 cup Sultanas

1/4 cup Currants

1/4 cup Dates

1/4 cup Candied Peel

1/4 cup Glace Cherries

1 cup White Wine

1 cup Dark Rum

3 cups Flour

1 cup Oil

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

1 tsp Cinnamon Powder

1/2 tsp Nutmeg Powder

1/4 tsp Clove Powder

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup Sugar

Soak the dry fruits for at least 2 days in the white wine and rum along with the spice powders.

Heat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Prepare two 8" cake tins.

Sift the dry ingredients. Add the oil and sugar and beat well. Add the beaten eggs with the essence and then fold in the flour mixture. Stir in the fruits along with the liquid and then divide the batter into the cake tins. Bake for 45 minutes.

As India celebrates her Republic Day, we celebrate the other occasion that makes the 26th of January ever so special. Happy Birthday Appa!

Incidentally, this is my 200th post. I can't believe I've reached a double century. It is thanks to all of you.

Fruit Cookies

One of the books that I picked up recently was The Cookie Book. It has over 300 recipes. I tried a few muffin recipes from this book, but wanted really to make cookies. I think what put me off was the 6 letter word I found in almost each recipe: butter! I finally decided to bring the butter out from the deep freeze and put it to use. I'd promised my team some baked goodies to celebrate a mini milestone. So, I thought, why not??

These chewy cookies are a real treat and considering how many cookies I got (roughly 50), I felt the 1/2 cup butter was understandable. When I see 1/2 cup, I feel like the entire 1/2 cup is going into one cookie and I think that's what puts me off. I modifed the recipe that I found in the basics section of the book. I remembered Anita asking me to try cookies with half and half (flour and wheat)

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, softened

3/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour or Atta

3/4 cup Flour

1/2 cup Sugar

1 Egg, beaten

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

1 cup Candied Fruit Bits (Papaya, Pineapple, Mango, Apricots)

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).

Beat the sugar and the butter until fluffy and add the essence and the egg and mix well. Fold in the flours and gently stir the fruits in.

Grease a cookie sheet and drop spoonfuls of the dough on to the sheet. Leave ample space in between each cookie.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and then store in an air tight container.

Off this goes to Nags of For the Cook in Me who is hosting this month’s A Fruit A Month event. I even bought a raw papaya to make something savoury, but the baker in me took over.

Date Bars

I had been thinking for a long time about this month's A Fruit A Month (AFAM) event. Do I have a recipe that I can share? Do I try making date pancakes? Or should I stick to good old bhel puri? I thought about it for a while and then thought some more. And I remembered this recipe that's been in my drafts for almost as long as I can remember.

This is one more of Amma's recipes. She learnt this at baking class. It is relatively easy to make and tastes so good that you really have to exercise self control to not eat up the entire batch when it is freshly made.

For the base:

2 cups Flour

1/2 cup Butter

4 tbsp Powdered Sugar

2-3 drops Almond Essence

For the topping:

150g Dates

4 1/2 tbsp Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

A pinch Salt

2-3 drops Almond Essence

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Lime Rind

2 tbsp Raisins

2 tbsp Chopped Nuts

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Combine all the ingredients for the base. Press the mixture into a tray that is greased and lined with butter paper. Bake at 170 C for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop the dates and cook with 1/4 cup water until soft. Allow to cool. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Beat the brown sugar along with the eggs. Mix in the flour mixture, dates, lime rind, almond essence, vanilla essence, nuts and raisins. Spread this over the baked base and bake again for 25-30 minutes at 170 C.

You really have to make these and sample them to realize how yummy they can be. (As always, the pictures aren't exactly the best.) I am sending this to Chandrika of Akshayapatra for this month's AFAM.