Variations On A Theme

Though this is a recipe for a 'basic' vanilla cake, there is nothing basic about it. Sure it is easy to prepare and uses ingredients that you probably already have, but this is a flavourful and a deeply satisfying cake.
Over the years I have baked it umpteen times and each time with a slight flavor variation.
This post lists some of our favourite variations.
Here is a picture of a loaf baked by my daughter. She added grapefruit zest to the batter.

Basic Vanilla Cake - a template
(Minimally adapted from The Joy of Cooking.)
Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 stick (8 tbsp) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Grease a nine-inch round pan or a loaf pan and set it aside.
Mix together and then set aside the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a large bowl, beat the the butter till creamy.
Add the sugar and beat on high speed for five minutes. You may occasionally need to scrap the bowl.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
Beat in the vanilla extract and the lemon juice.
Add the dry ingredients and stir only till combined.
Pour the batter in the pan and spread it evenly.
Bake for 25 minutes (30+ minutes for a loaf pan) or till a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake come out clean.
Oven differ and so will the baking times. Regardless, do not open the oven to test for doneness before 20 minutes.

Spiced Apple Cake: 1
To the flour mixture, add ¼ tsp each of ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, ground nutmeg, and ground allspice.
Add in one cup grated apples (Fuji, Cortland, or Golden Delicious).
Bake in a nine-inch round pan for 35mins or till a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake come out clean.

Reduce the quantity of the spices to suit your tastes; we prefer a heavily spiced apple cake.

Spiced Apple Cake:2
Replace ¼ cup of the all purpose flour with an equal quantity of oat flour.
To the flour mixture, add ¼ tsp each of ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, ground nutmeg, and ground allspice.
Add in one cup apples (Fuji, Cortland, or Golden Delicious), cubed.
Bake in a nine-inch round pan for 35mins or till a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake come out clean.

Reduce the quantity of the spices to suit your tastes; we prefer a heavily spiced apple cake.

To make the oat flour, I run regular (not quick cooking) oats thru the food processor.

Lemon Poppy Seed
To the cake batter add in 1 tbsp lemon zest (packed) and 1 tsp poppy seeds.
Bake as directed above.

Orange Walnut
To the cake batter add in 1 tbsp orange zest (packed) and 1/3 cup finely chopped roasted walnuts.
Bake as directed above.

Upside down cakes
This batter can be used to make pineapple, apple, pear, peach, or plum upside down cakes.
Grease the bottom of the pan, sprinkle a little bit of sugar (about 1 tbsp), arrange the fruit slices, pour the batter and bake for about 25-30 minutes.
Sometimes I mix in flavors that go with the fruits, such as cinnamon & nutmeg with the apples, a bit of citrus zest to go with the peaches and plums. If the fruit is flavourful, I skip any additions.

Bananas Foster upside down In an 8/9 in iron skillet melt 3-4 tbsp butter, add in about 3 packed tbsp brown sugar, a splash of vanilla extract, some rum (optional). Cook this sauce for about a minute, turn off the heat, arrange the sliced bananas, pour over the batter and bake the cake right in the skillet.

Citrus loaf
Mix 1 tbsp citrus zest into the sugar. Use the back of a spoon to rub the zest into the sugar, applying slight pressure.
Any citrus zest will work. We've tried oranges, lemon, lime, pomellos, and grapefruits.

Fruit & Nut Cake
In ½ a cup of warm apple or orange juice, add a cup of chopped nuts and dried fruits. If you let the fruits and nuts soak overnight, the flavour will be deeper but an hour of soaking time will do.
Gently fold the fruit and nut mixture in the cake batter and bake as directed above.
For a boozy version, substitute part of the juice with the spirit of choice; think Grand Marnier, rum, etc.


If you have any questions or comments, please write to me the.best.cooker@gmail.com. Thanks for stopping by.

Orange. Oats. Almond. Love

The book was renewed till I couldn't renew it yet again. At that point I decided to buy a copy for myself.
By now I have lost count of the vegan recipes I have tried from this book. When I'm not baking from it, I'm simply perusing the recipes. A good read.

The primary reason for diving into the vegan recipes is the need to cut cholesterol for everyday foods. The other and equally important reason is that I can now easily make these for breakfast. On a weekday!
The previous night I mix the dry ingredients and then the wet ingredients (separately). In the morning while the oven preheats, I mix the wet and dry ingredients, spoon the batter in the muffin pan. In under 30 mins, start to end, the muffins are ready to be devoured by the sleepyheads ambling out for breakfast. When they are awake enough to ask 'You made them in the morning?' and I get to nod and smile beatifically. Thanks Camilla Saulsbury.

While I have baked several vegan muffins from this book, the recipe here is my own but definitely inspired by this book. I either use a mixture of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour or just whole wheat flour. I did not like batch made with just all purpose flour. I know it is fashionable to favour whole wheat flour, but in case whole wheat flour does indeed produce a wonderful texture and hearty muffin.

I'm digressing but recently at a party when the topic of discussion moved to preferences in chocolate, a friend leaned over to whisper 'I know it is not fashionable to say this but I really like milk chocolate'. This was such a what-the-football moment. The thing is that I, too, like milk chocolate and am not afraid to say it. In fact, I like it a lot. (I digress while digressing; very Inception-like...a certain blogger has been been gunning down people who use 'alot' instead of 'a lot'. So hopefully she notices the space between 'a' and 'lot'.)

Orange Oat Almond Muffins
Ingredients

½ cup regular oats, give them a quick spin in the spice grinder
1 ½ cups flour (a mixture of all purpose and whole wheat flour)
¼ cup almonds, coarsely chopped
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup sugar (or more)
zest of one large orange (see notes below)
½ cup oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
juice of one large orange, add water to the juice to get one cup of liquid
1 ½ tbsp vinegar (cider vinegar is better but just plain vinegar is just fine)

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.
Mix the dry ingredients and set aside.
Mix the wet ingredients and set aside.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until combined.
(Go ahead and taste the batter to see if you need more sugar. Vegan batter, it is safe!)
Spoon the batter into the muffin pans and bake for about 15mins (oven times will vary) or till a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out nearly clean.
Cool in the pan for at least 10 mins before removing them; the muffins are crumbly.

Notes: to get more flavour out of the orange zest, rub the zest with the sugar.

If you have any questions or comments, please write to me the.best.cooker@gmail.com or tweet @cooker_baker. Thanks for stopping by.

An Agreeable Afternoon

It is a truth universally known that an invigorating afternoon cup of tea is enjoyed much more in the company of gentle ladies than when one is solitary.

Thus read the invitation. Truer words were never spoken, depend upon it.
A cup of excellent tea and amiable company; the proposed afternoon seeked to unite the two with great promise.

Confirmations were made and plans put in place without any exertions on the concerned parties; and the anticipation began.

The day arrived accompanied by a bright sunshine. We met in high spirits and good humour; eager to be in the company of like minded individuals.

Who can be in doubt of what followed? A most agreeable afternoon, delightful conversation, and considerable food. All that was now needed was a turn in the shrubbery.

My character forbade me to join company empty handed. This recipe provided the inspiration. Minor alterations were made to suits our tastes. The results were entirely satisfying.

Rout Cake
Makes about 24 small cakes
Ingredients
1¼ cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
4 tbsp butter, softened
1/3 cup) sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp rose-water (not extract)
¼ cup raisins

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Grease a baking sheet and set it aside.
Mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl.
Add the butter and make a crumbly mixture.
Mix together the egg, orange juice, and rose water.
Add in parts to the flour-butter mixture till combined. Do not overmix.
Add in the raisins.
Drop mounds of the mixture on the baking sheet. (I used my hands to form small balls of the dough).
Bake for about 15 mins or till the edges just start to brown.
Cook on a wire rack.
Enjoy with a dish of tea!

Good Day Sunshine

It was the perfect day to play with colours.
Driving back, listening to our favourite music, soaking wet and rendered unrecognizable by the colours, unmindful of the strange looks coming our way, it was liberating in a way.
All that fun made us hungry as well. Good thing I had taken along some sunshine cake. This is a new favourite, a whole-wheat orange cake.
Any baked goody that contains lemon or orange provides instant sunshine-ness, doesn't it?.

The first time I made it, it was for her.
She loved it enough to take the recipe from me. After tinkering with it a bit, she passed it back to me.
I'd say this is a work in progress, because when I made it again I tinkered with it some more.

Here is the current version:

Ingredients
1½ whole wheat flour (or 1 cup whole wheat flour + ½ cup all purpose flour)
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp + tiny pinch baking soda
½ salt
1 cup orange juice (see notes below)
zest of one medium size orange
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp vinegar

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Grease the pan (8x8 sqaure or 8in round) or line it with parchment paper
(I tend to use parchment paper)
Mix the dry ingredients.
Mix the wet ingredients.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and pour the batter in the pan.
Bake for about 30-35 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the middle of the pan comes out mostly clean.
Enjoy!

Notes
Usually, I use fresh orange juice.
This time I used undiluted orange concentrate. The deep concentrated orange flavour did veer towards a slightly bitter taste, but we loved it anyway. The tanginess makes up for the bitterness.