Srilankan Style Christmas Rich Cake

This post is by Mrs.Shyamala Sivaraman

Today, I would like to share one of my heirloom recipes as I call it which was passed down to me by my mother (this has been a treasured recipe for decades now). She was an expert at baking the Traditional Christmas Rich Cake. (Srilankan Style). This is truly a recipe to be treasured and I owe to my Amma today, without whom I wouldn’t be who I am.

I also thank KP Balakumar of Home Bakers Guild, An online forum exclusively for Home Bakers, for having given me an opportunity to get nostalgic and pen down my background with a recipe. To view, please click the link the below.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/homebakersguild/745850262123810/?notif_t=group_comment_reply

Ingredients for soaked fruits:

400 gm green raisins, 300 gm black raisins, 300 gm sultanas, 300 gm black currants, 300 gm dates, 400 gm pumpkin preserve, 200 gm glazed cherries, 100 gm ginger preserve, 100 gm candied peel, 200 gm cashew nuts, 1 cup mixed fruit jam, 2 cups caramelized sugar syrup, ½ cup bees honey, 2 tbsp rose water, 1 cup rum, 1 tbsp rose essence, 1 tbsp almond essence, 1 tbsp vanilla essence, 3 tbsp cake spice powder.

Method to soak the fruits:

Pick & clean all the variety of raisins etc. Wash & dry under fan. Stone the dates. Wash & dry under the fan. Chop all the fruits & mix with the rest of the ingredients except cashew nuts. Soak for 2- 3 months. The taste, colour & texture improve with the number of days the fruits are soaked. Mix the chopped nuts before adding to the cake mixture.

Ingredients for the cake spice powder:
¼ cup cardamoms, 1/8 cup cloves, ¼ cup cinnamon pieces, ½ a nutmeg, 1 tbsp mace.

Method for the cake spice powder:
Dry roast all the spices separately except the nutmeg. Grate the nutmeg & grind all together to a smooth powder. Sieve & store in bottle. Use as required.

To prepare the trays:

Line 13”/9” or 12”/8” trays with 4 layers of paper & with 1 layer of buttered butter paper.

Ingredients for the cake:
225 gm butter, ½ tsp salt, 350 gm powdered sugar, 225 gm semolina, 12 yolks of eggs, 6 whites of eggs stiffly beaten, 2¼ kg soaked fruits, essences & cake spice powder as per requirement, 2 tbsp cocoa powder.

Method to prepare the cake:
Roast the semolina lightly. Cool & mix with butter & keep aside. Separate the whites of eggs & beat all the whites with salt until very stiff. Beat the yolks & the powdered sugar together to a thick paste. Mix in the semolina & butter mixture & beat well. Add the fruits & add more essences & spice powder as required. Add the beaten egg whites & mix gently with hands. Pour into prepared trays. Bake the cake at 175°c temperature for 45 minutes. Reduce temperature to 160°c & bake for 10 more minutes until the cake is firm.

Ingredients to drench the cake:
1 cup sugar syrup, ½ cup rum

Method to wrap & store the cake:
Bake the cake & cool. Make syrup & cool. Add rum to the cooled syrup. Mix well & drench the cake all over. Cut into pieces, drench syrup on all sides & wrap in butter paper. This can be stored for more than 6 months. In cool climates can be stored for a year. Usually when we make wedding cake with this recipe the couple, store the cake for their 1st anniversary.

Fruits soaked.

Soaked fruits after 3 months

Cakes filled into trays

Cakes baked & ready to be drenched in syrup

Cakes sliced & wrapped

Cakes wrapped as Bon-Bons

Baked Cheese Cake

One of the best Cheese cakes I have had as a kid was when Amma brought from someone known to her when I was 5 + or so. I still remember taking an Auto Rickshaw along with her to somewhere on TTK Road, Alwarpet and getting back late in the night to our home in Nandanam to just delve into the amazingly soft textured cake ....Oh yea! It was the Cheesecake. I can still feel the taste in my tongue.

Till date I have never had such delicious Cheesecake and the worst part is Mom does not remember who she purchased it from. When I entered my 30's I found some places that sold Cheesecakes off the shelf but nothing could beat the authentic taste that I had as a child (to me that was and is authentic) :-) Even what mom makes could not match up to that taste and texture.

I am an extremely lazy person specially when it comes to trying out dishes verbatim from any cook book and I really don't enjoy browsing for recipes and trying them too. This probably owes to the fact that I have always been a keen observer of what mom taught and prepared. Most often I tend to go random on my cooking but certainly palatable. So I found this book on some 101 Desserts lying in my shelf along with a few others that Amma had given to me (It wasn't of much use to her and she thought I would religiously try them out). I am sure this book has been lying in my shelf for more than 6 years and I decided to flip through it last year and surprisingly a few recipes really caught my eye (well cos they were easy to make) :-) One of which was the Cheese Cake. I have always dreaded the thought of making a Cheese Cake cos of the preparation of Cream Cheese from scratch. But when I read this recipe, I knew it would be a crack through the very first time.

And it was a big hit one midnight when my son Anubhav and I decided to try it last year when Amma was away on holiday. Subsequently, I prepared this yet again when my brother visited me and that's when Amma also tasted it and she gave me a green signal. I found a super difference in the texture the 2nd time around. Today, I decided to make a couple of Desserts for a Potluck with my Besties from a Moms Forum https://www.facebook.com/groups/wondermom/ and some of my friends really motivated me to give this recipe. I had to give up my laziness and write this out for you all specially for my friends! I thank mom's friend Lakshmi for having presented her with such a possession which is mine now. I will ensure that I share some recipes as and when I try them.

Ingredients:

4 Eggs (Separated)
1 Tin Condensed Milk (Preferably Milk Maid)
2.5 Tbsp Corn Flour
Juice of 3 Lemons
2 Tbsp powdered biscuit (Marie Biscuit or Homemade Butter Cookies)
1 Tbsp Butter

Method:

1. Preheat your oven in 180 degrees or 200 degrees and grease your baking dish well
2. Beat the yolks until creamy and add the condensed milk, corn flour & the juice of lemons and beat well after each addition
3. Beat in the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed
4. Fold in the stiff egg white into the condensed milk mixture
5. Sprinkle half of the powdered biscuit into the greased tray and then pour the mixture. Top it by sprinkling the rest of the powdered biscuit.
6. Bake at 180 degrees or 200 degrees for 30 - 40 minutes (Mine was done at 200 degrees for 30 mins and I use a Sunflame OTG)

Note: I added 1 tsp vanilla essence to the mixture as well to enhance the taste.

Hope all of you try this out and experience some delicious goodness to your taste buds as much as all of us did. Some pictures for you guys.

Today's Baked Cheese cake for Potluck turned out
just as yummy as the one I tasted decades ago

Yet another try earlier this year and it was awesome
with a smooth texture

The very first time I tried prior to baking
(I did not have Marie Biscuit so used Chocolate Wafers)

Anubhav helping me bake at that hour brought me a lot of joy

Baked Cheese cake in 2013

Sliced for us to delve into and it was yummy but was soft 

Bread Pudding - A Midnight's Dream

It was nearing 11pm last night and I was finishing up some official work. Kids were already fast asleep and there was a silence that engulfed our home. Satish was yet to come. I was glancing through a Nestle page on Facebook and came across a picture of Milk Maid (the lipsmacking condensed milk by Nestle). OMG I wanted to immediately make myself a Dessert using condensed milk that I had at home. I was trying to think what I could make quickly and thought of Bread Pudding that I had always wanted to bake. I had tasted this at a few restaurants and at my neighbour Sangeetha's place. I wanted to bake my Bread Pudding with condensed milk but ended up using evaporated milk that I had from the evening.

I quickly put together all the ingredients and whipped it up and put it in the oven. I was super excited while it was getting baked and by which time Satish got back and I couldn't wait for it to get baked. Almost after 55 minutes, my Bread pudding was ready and I quickly let it cool and finished one entire slice exactly at midnight. WOW.....Total MIDNIGHT DREAM COME TRUE!

I am going to try out the same using a bit of liquer just meant for adults. Keep watching out for this page for more.

Ingredients:

6 Bread slices

1 tbsp Butter

11/2 cups Evaporated milk

2 Eggs

1/2 cup Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder

Few gratings of Nutmeg

Raisins & Sugar to sprinkle

Method:

1. Cut 4 Butter Bread slices into two pieces each and place on the baking dish/tray. Ensure not to leave any gap inbetween

2. Mix the evaportaed milk, eggs, sugar, essence, nutmeg gratings & cinnamon powder in a separate bowl and beat well. I also melted a bit of butter and added to this mixture. Don't beat it too much

3. Pour the mixture on top of the Bread slices till the bread soaks

4. Crumble 2 more slices of bread and sprinkly them on the first layer

5. Pour the balance mixture and sprinkle some sugar and top it with raisins

6. Place the baking dish/tray in a pre-heated oven at 175 Degrees Celcius and bake for 30 mins

7. Check after 30mins and continue to bake for another 15mins

8. Prick the pudding with a knife and if it comes out clean, then it is done. Else you may leave it to bake for another 10mins until the top turns golden brown and crisp

9. Let it cool a bit and serve it warm

Tips:

1. For those of you who do not like cinnamon in their pudding, may choose to avoid it or add less

2. For an adult party, you may want to sprinkle some Rum or Irish cream on the bread. I am going to try and post the recipe soon as well

3. My friend Uthara said that she adds cardomom powder which you may want to add as an alternative to Cinnamon powder

4. I have heard people say that we need to add 3 - 4 eggs but I wanted mine without the smell of egg and hence added only 2 eggs. You may choose to add more as per your taste

Milk Toffee - An ultimate delicacy

This sweet is a favourite among all my family members and a whole lot of others too who have had a chance to taste this. I tried out this sweet with my moms (a perfect teacher) help at the age of 13. It turned out to be good & the motivation from her was immense. Today as a teacher myself, I hear my students often saying that most mothers dont allow their daughters to venture into the kitchen in fear of them getting the Kitchen messy. But my mom let me cook & ofcourse with her strict instructions. I cherish those moments. I owe 100% to her for what I am today and I miss her too immensely.

This recipe has the unique taste of condensed milk with the aromatic flavour of cardomoms melting into your mouth instantly. This is an all time favourite sweet specially during the Diwali season in our household. Being my first blog, I wanted my first recipe which I tried on my own to be my first contribution for readers. I dedicate this to my guardian angel - My Mother.

Ingredients:



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Ingredients for Milk Toffee



1 tin condensed milk

400 gm sugar

¼ cup water

100 gm butter

3 tbsp chopped cashew nuts

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp cardamom powder

Method:

1. Grease a 11”/7” halwa tray & keep aside

2. Mix water with sugar in a heavy pan & set on moderate heat

3. When sugar dissolves, add condensed milk & stir continuously

4. Add butter a tbsp at a time & continue to stir

5. When the mixture turns thick add nuts, essence & cardamom powder
6. Drop a little mixture into a bowl of water

7. The mixture has to form a ball & when dropped should retain its shape

8. Immediately pour into the tray & spread evenly

9. Cut into squares while still warm

Tip: Sugar syrup for sweets, toffees and candies must be cooked to the right consistency. Overcooked syrup will harden the toffees.



Irresistable Milk Toffee

The above entry goes to Radhika's Tickling palates:Announcing Diwali special sweets and savories