Yummylicious tea time cup cakes

Cup cakes are always a delight to bake and instantly devour. I made some simple cup cakes without any frosting, not to add more calories.  But, added some choclate chips  and nuts to some. This is one of the perfect cup cake recipe which cannot go wrong and courtesy of joyofbaking.com .  I made some slight variation to the original recipe.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour  - 1 1/2 cups  
Sugar  - 2/3 cup granulated sugar
Eggs  - 3 large eggs
Butter  - 1/2 cup or 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
Milk - 1/4 cup
Nuts of your choice
Chocolate chips
Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Vanilla extract -  1 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp

Preheat oven to 350 deg.

In a bowl, add butter and sugar and beat it until light and fluffy.  Once the mix is done, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add the vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, add the flour,salt and the baking powder and blend well.

Add the flour mix and the milk alternatively to the butter sugar mix, beginning and ending with flour.Divide the mix and add chocolate to some and nuts to the rest.

Fill in the muffin cups and bake for 16-18 minutes.  Insert a toothpick to check if it is baked. Once done, remove it and keep in a rack to cool.

You can have it plain or top it with frosting. I preferred having it plain with tea.

'A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes that he has the biggest piece' - Ludwig Erhard

Awesome awesome banana bread or cake??? Tooo good

A beautiful morning and a mood for baking.   Off to the kitchen and saw some ripe bananas in hand, having recalled a banana bread recipe which I had bookmarked, rushed to have a look at it. It belonged to Sunitha of Collaborative curry with the original recipe here.   After seeing her clicks again, there was no second thought in my mind but to bake it then and there. With such basic ingredients and a very simple procedure, one can dish out a gorgeous cake like this.  Of course, I could not term it a 'bread', for it did not possess any typical bread qualities, the texture was more of a cake including the deep honey color.  Added some walnuts as I love to have crunchy bites in between the soft texture.

Butter       1 stick
Sugar        1 cup
All purpose flour    - 2 cups
Eggs    - 2
Bananas - 3 mashed well
Walnuts chopped - 1/2 cup
Baking soda - 1  tsp
Vanilla essence  - 1 tsp

Mash the bananas well with a fork, this works better than anything else.

Mix the baking soda in 1 1/2 tbsp water and keep aside.

Mix butter and sugar until fluffy.

Keep adding the other ingredients one by one to the butter sugar mixture and blend together.

Bake at 375 deg F for an hour.

The aroma of the bake fills the house and do not be surprised if it invites the neighbours to your doorstep.

Very contagious,one cannot stop eating with just a slice,so beware!!!!  After seeing this cake disappear, I would call this one  the perfect ' Gone in 10 minutes'.

Thanks Sunitha for a wonderful recipe.

When baking, follow directions.  When cooking, go by your own taste.  ~Laiko Bahrs

Zesty Lemon cake with raisins

I have been wanting to bake a lemon cake for quite sometime and nothing could have been better than baking it for my mom's birthday. It was an instant hit and the freshness of the lemon lingers in your tastebuds for a long time.

Ingredients:

Flour - 1 1/2 cups

Sugar - 1 cup
Butter - 1 stick
Eggs - 2
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Lemon zest grated - 2 tbsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Lemon juice - 6 tbsp
Buttermilk - 12 tbsp
Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp
Raisins - 1/4 cup
For the glaze:
Confectioners sugar - 1 cup
Lemon juice - 2 tbsp

• Sugar butter mix: Cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy.  Slowly add the eggs one at a time and then add the lemon zest too.  Keep it aside.
• Flour mix: Sift together flour,baking powder and the baking soda and salt and keep it aside. 
• Lemon buttermilk mix:Combine  lemon juice,buttermilk and the vanilla extract and keep it aside.
• Add flour and lemon buttermilk mix to the sugar butter mixture alternatively beginning and ending with flour. Add raisins and gently mix.
• Heat the oven to 350 deg. and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, checking on and off.
• Once the cake is done, allow it to cool.
• For the glaze, mix confectioners sugar and the lemon juice until smooth and pour it on the cake and allow it to fall over.

Zesty lemon cake is all set to devour. I am sure you would want to make this over and over again.