Food Fashion Recipe Blog

Eggless Cashew Cake Lamingtons(Coconut-Chocolate Coated Cake with Jelly)

March 31, 2015 By Asha Shivakumar

Happy April!!

March was a very long month. It feels like it dragged a bit, although we were frantically driving around and quite a lot of things happening around here.

Between hubby’s travels and kids classes, managing everything was a challenge. Oh well, the laundry suffered, and so did our back yard, but that’s ok. I will admit, one thing that doesn’t ever get compromised is our food. That’s partially because I love food, and I have this crazy urge to cook something good every few hours. What is it with cravings? I guess we’ll never know. Some day it’s either a bowl of noodles or a decadent cake. The boys equally love their soul satisfying food. When a lot of things are happening, I bring the kids together to cook, and it calms all of us and takes the edge out a bit. There were many cake days last week. The little one always demands for a plain cake. Always. The teen cannot get enough of his chocolate. So here’s a Lamington.

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Multigrain Seed Fig-Nuts Energy Bread

March 25, 2015 By Asha Shivakumar

Tucked in between the jalapeno bread, onion bagels, and dinner rolls in the fresh baked section in my neighborhood grocery store is this rectangular piece of bread which reads ‘Energy Bread.’ A few years ago I bagged a few, and I have been a regular customer of this energy bread since. I cannot promise that your energy will go up after eating this, but I do like the wholeness, the texture, and the mild sweetness of the bread.

I was inspired and had to recreate it. How difficult could it be to bake them right?

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Chettinad Spicy Chicken Curry

March 17, 2015 By Asha Shivakumar

I don’t experiment a lot with family recipes. I pretty much follow a step-by-step written formula. Recreating childhood memories is an experience quite special to me. Especially when being this far away, food makes me feel at home and close to family back home.

I come from a family of great cooks. They made some delicious food and some cringe-worthy exotic food too. Curries were almost non-experimental; they cooked what the family liked and that was that. As a result, a couple of next generation home cooks ventured and branched out into different methods of cooking and different cuisines, although the food made on Sundays were some of the best. We learnt the art of making Dum Aloo(potatoes in creamy sauce), chicken tikka masala(needs no intro), hariyali chicken(green curry chicken), aloo posto(Potato dry-bengali cuisne)and many more.

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Burmese Tea Leaf salad

March 10, 2015 By Asha Shivakumar

Around this time, a few years ago, was when I started enjoying green tea. An introduction to an actual green tea salad came way later, with a lot of resistance. I am not a salad lover, let alone a fermented green tea salad… That’s a stretch.

If you visit San Francisco and you have some time to wait in line to grab a bite, do not miss Burma Superstar. The food is delicious, and the fermented green tea salad is outstanding. What I don’t enjoy is the wait (which is crazy), and it’s even worse when you go there hungry. So, you know, I had to find a way to make one my favorite salad at home. I was inspired by the excellent salad I ate there, and just had to make my own version.

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Malpua (Sweet Pancake) with Pistachio Cream(Halwa)

March 4, 2015 By Asha Shivakumar

It’s Holi!!! It’s the Festival of Colors.

I didn’t really experience Holi when I grew up. We South Indians did not celebrate it. So, my memories are just seeing few of neighbors running around and dunking each other in color.

That changed though after coming to the States. It was a Culture Adventure overload.

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Tandoori Fish and Yucca Chips

March 1, 2015 By Asha Shivakumar

Happy March!!

I’d like to believe a lot of us are creatures of habit. In my mind, there are very few things better than a nibble here and a sip there around a table with nodding heads and bouts of laughter. Conversations start and flow, taking us around a whole lot of subjects with a lot of food consumed.

The only drawback to this is you get used to this, a bit too much. A simple ritual but a fond one.

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Sesame-Creme Brulee Cake

February 24, 2015 By Asha Shivakumar

My never ending enthusiasm to minutely change the taste buds once in a while has a profound effect on how my family enjoys food. Many of us are quite familiar with Sesame laddoos; we grew up eating it. This cake is definitely inspired by the sesame laddoos. The pungent flavors, the colors, and textures are very unique, and definitely not conventional ones. The creamy custard is the crowning glory, which tops the cake to give it a perfect balance. It is absolutely out of the world delicious.

It looks impressive and is a deceptively easy cake to make.

It was an honor and pleasure to shoot for Z Gallerie, my favorite store. You can find the Cake Stands , the dessert plates, Server Set and accessories in their store or online at www.zgallerie.com.

Thank you all for you kind words and for the support that keep us all motivated to continue to do what we do. Bloggers rock!! Thanks again for stopping by.

5.0 from 3 reviews

Sesame- Creme Brulee Cake

Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 30 mins

Author: Ash

Recipe type: Cake, Dessert

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

For the Sesame Cake

1⅓ cup all purpose flour
¼ cup black sesame seeds toasted and finely powdered
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 stick or 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste or vanilla extract
2 large eggs at room temperature
½ cup buttermilk

For the NO BAKE CREME BRULEE

1 cup Whipping cream
1 cup half and half
5 large egg yolks
3 tbsp cornstarch
3-4 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean or vanilla paste
2 tbsp turbanado sugar for bruleeing

Instructions

Sesame Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a round 61/2 inch baking pan with parchment paper. Line Set aside.
In a large bowl add the all purpose flour+powdered sesame seeds+baking powder+baking soda+salt. Using a egg beater, mix everything well or you can sift everything together.
In a mixing bowl, add softened unsalted butter and whip it for 2-3 minutes. Add one egg at a time, beat till well incorporated. Add the granulated sugar and whip it for another 2 minutes on high or till it is pale. Add the vanilla paste or extract and mix.
Slowly add the buttermilk to the butter mixture and whip for 10 seconds. Do not worry if the mixture looks grainy and separated.
Add the buttermilk-butter mixture to the dry ingredients and mix till all the dry mixture is well combined. Pour in prepared pan and BAKE for 40-50 minutes. Remove and let cool completely.
YOU can leave it over night too before you top it with the creme brulee mix.

NO-Bake Creme Brulee

Mix the egg yolks, cornstarch, sugar and salt and make a very thick slurry. Add the whipping cream to the slurry and mix well until there are no lumps.
Keep a pan ad bring the half and half to a slow simmer. Add the vanilla paste or take the seeds out of the vanilla bean and add the bean to the pot. When you see small bubbles around the corner, the mixture is ready to temper the slurry.
Add the hot liquid to the slurry slowly and vigorously stir so no lumps form.
Add everything back to the pan and bring it to a very slow simmer. You will see the mixture thicken, it will take 5 minutes. Make sure it doesn't burn, so keep stirring. It should coat the back of the spoon. It should be thicker than a custard.
Take it out and strain the custard with a fine sieve. Let it cool completely, making sure to whisk every few minutes so that it does'nt form a coating. You can speed the process by keeping the custard with the pan on a shallow bowl filled with ice. Be careful not to allow the water to mix with the custard. Stir well.

Assembly

If the cake is uneven, level it lightly. Turn the cake upside down if you want. Use a wax paper to wrap at least so that the paper comes 2 inches above the top of the cake and secure with a thread. Now pour the creme brulee mixture on top of the cake. Refrigerate it for at least 2-3 hours or overnight. Just before serving, add the turbanado sugar and torch it. SERVE immediately.

Notes

I used a 61/2 inch round pan. The measurements and the time is based on the size. If you use a bigger pan, then the baking time will vary. Also, you might need a little bit more of the Custard mixture.

If you leave it in the refrigerator overnight, bring the cake to room temperature for atleast an hour before you torch and serve it.

The custard has to get thick or it is not going to set.

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Disclaimer: Thank you to Z Galleries for sponsoring this post. All opinions expressed are purely my own.

COCONUT-RED BEAN PUDDING

February 17, 2015 By Asha Shivakumar

Happy Chinese New Year!!! It’s the Year of the Goat.

A chilled smooth, silky coconut pudding with sweetened red beans is one of my favorite desserts. Served in most dim sum restaurants, it’s a popular dessert. You might forget what you ate, but never this dessert. Without a heavy texture, it’s scrumptious, smooth, and super additive. The oomph definitely comes from the coconut milk.

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CASSATA ICECREAM with EGGLESS CAKE

February 12, 2015 By Asha Shivakumar

I am immensely grateful for the chaos that happens when you have two boys who keep everyone busy around here. Our Valentine’s Day is spent with the baby bears, which gives them ultimate contentment. Everyday is a special day when we are with our loved ones, right? That said, I do like to make something special on the 14th. It’s a quiet day, with just the four of us.

This layered ice cream, with a crunch and some cushiony cake in between, is quite special. This dessert has a story, and I always love making this one at home.

All the Glassware and the beautiful Tray is from Z Gallerie. You can get everything here on www.zgallerie.com.

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Instant Jalebi – 30 minute Quick Jalebi

February 10, 2015 By Asha Shivakumar

Some things are deceptively simple; if not, you have to make it simple :). Desserts sometimes look quite deceitful, like this Jalebi. For years I was overwhelmed and never ventured out to make it. I agree, this was not my favorite Indian sweet, until I made it at home. The intense crunch with the sugary syrup coating is simply joyful, a pleasure for your senses.

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