We are fast approaching the last ten days of Ramadan, SubhanAllah… I can’t fathom how fast the month is flying. It is always the case during this month. May Allah make us reach the final ten days of Ramadan, and let us observe Lailatul Qadr, in the best way possible… After all, it is the night worth more than 1000 months (Surah Al Qadr), which is huge! Sharing a beautiful Hadith regarding this night:

Are there times when you crave for sweets during Ramadan? Usually my sweet cravings during the month of Ramadan is limited to a dosage of custard and jelly once or twice a month. But this time, I had this very strong craving to have chocolate cake, and I took that chance to bake a cake that I had bookmarked for a really long time. It is a moist chocolate cake but with a dose of malted drink powder like Horlicks, Ovaltine, or the likes. I learned a fact that the origin of this cake is from Nandos in Pakistan, which serves a chocolate malt cake in their dessert range. They don’t have it here.

Horlicks is something I always have in my fridge. It is my guilt pleasure. So when I had an Iftar at my brother’s place, I baked and took it along. We ate the whole cake over two days, since it is a little heavy yet so fulfilling, Alhamdulillah. One word of warning though – don’t expect it to have a heavy malty taste, it just has a small edge to it. However the cake is quite moist. Please keep your slice out for it to cool and the buttercream to be a little melty, that is when it tastes the best. Off to the recipe…

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Chocolate Malt Cake

Course Cakes and Muffins

Cuisine International

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Servings 12

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cococa powder
• 1/3 cup malted milk powder Horlicks, Ovaltine, etc.
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs large, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup buttermilk refer notes
• 2/3 cup boiling water
• 1 tbsp instant coffee powder

FOR FROSTING

• 120 GM butter softened
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup malted milk powder
• A pinch of salt
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 - 2 tbsp cream or milk
• Chocolate for topping

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and set aside 2 x 9 inch baking pans.
• In a big bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Add in the sugar and give it a good whisk.
• Make a hole in the center. Crack in the eggs and add in the oil, buttermilk and vanilla extract.
• With an egg beater, on a low speed setting, beat till the batter is combined.
• Melt the coffee into the hot water and pour into the batter. Just beat till combined. The batter will be runny.
• Divide equally into both the pans and bake for 20-30 minutes till the center comes out clean.
• For making the buttercream, beat the butter till soft.
• Add in the cocoa and malted milk powders along with the vanilla and salt and beat.
• Now add in the icing sugar and beat in slowly till it combines. Add in the cream or milk to loosen the icing.
• Refrigerate the icing till use.
• Once the cakes are baked, flip them onto a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely.
• Ice the cake as per your liking. I spread a thin layer in between both the cakes, did a thick layer on top and used the remaining to cover the sides.
• Top with pieces of chocolate and enjoy.

Notes

The cake is moist at room temperature. 

If keeping it in the fridge, bring to room temperature and enjoy. It tastes better then. 

The post Malted Chocolate Cake | Chocolate Malt Cake {One Bowl} appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

Life has been a crazy rush, Alhamdulillah, that the blog is clearly taking a back seat. I am travelling home next week, and I am trying to see if I can squeeze in at least a couple of posts before I give the blog a break till we come back, In Sha Allah. The summer this time is really hot and uncomfortable. I read somewhere that this is the hottest the earth has become ever since mankind has come into existence. Allah knows best… We already had very hot months of May and June, and these two months aren’t going to be the easiest. It is a relief that we are going home, but back home, it has been raining very heavily. Rains are beautiful till a level but after that they start invoking a little fear in your hearts. The invocations prescribed during those times are quite heavy – from asking Allah to make the rain beneficial to asking Him to let it rain around us and not on us… SubhanAllah…

Coming to today’s recipe… My brother bought in a bottle of chocolate fudge sauce that was expiring in a couple of months. I usually don’t buy stuff like that, because we hardly use it in our routine. A bottle of Nutella, OK, but not fudge sauce… Hehe… As he got it in, I was wondering what I could do with it. Hersheys being the “baap” of chocolate syrup – though I used a local brand – I ended up searching on their website and found this link. I further found in the same link that the recipe was updated from what it used to be on the pack ages ago. I decided to try the old recipe. The only changes I made was to reduce the sugar and add a little salt. Lots of eggs, the whole bottle of syrup and just lots of gooeyness – that is how I would rate this recipe. It is soft inside, with a little caky texture. It reminded me of the sticky brownies I baked sometime ago. So if, like me, you end up with a near expiry bottle of chocolate syrup, you know what to do.

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Chocolate Syrup Brownies | Easy Chocolate Sauce Brownies

The brownies to make when you have an unused bottle of chocolate fudge sauce...

Course Brownies

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 16

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 4 eggs room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar increase upto 1 cup
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• A pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 bottle chocolate syrup 16 oz

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line and grease an 13*9 inch pan.
• Beat butter, eggs and sugar till well combined.
• Add the rest of the ingredients and fold in till the batter is moist.
• Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes till the top is firm to touch.
• Take out and cool completely before slicing and serving.

Notes

You may add nuts and/or chocolate chips in this brownie. I didn't use. 

The post Chocolate Syrup Brownies | Easy Chocolate Sauce Brownies appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

Ramadan and Eid came and went in a blink of the eye. I don’t even know how to express my feelings over the past one month. Nowadays, it is like by the time you accept the way you feel, it is already time for the next event to happen. The way that time is flying is crazy and even more makes us realize that maybe things are set to change soon. May Allah make it easy for all of us… Aameen…

I first baked this cake when I was with my sis in US in the summer of 2021. I guess you realize that I am very much not over it. With my parents there B with family on a very short trip – they are expected to be back in a couple of days – I miss it even more. Anyway, while we made apple cakes to distribute to our neighbors for the Eid-ul-Adha that time – which I have to bake one very soon and post it on the blog sooner than later… – we baked this sheet cake to carry with us to the last destination for that day, which was their first set of friends when they landed in the US. The group has around 11 families, and I must say, what a friendly and fun group that is! Each time we would meet up at somebody’s home, I always had a really good time, Alhamdulillah… The cake literally disappeared after dinner. I then baked it again when going to B’s house and we all ate the cake up. They had the leftover over the next couple of days. Hehe…

I adapted the recipe from here. It is a nice all-butter banana cake with a mildly sweet cream cheese frosting. It is perfect for get togethers and just the perfect cake to go with tea for your evening parties. Since baked in a 13×9 pan, the thickness is perfect for those who don’t want to eat a lot of cake. If I could, I would have baked and had this all the time, but alas, I don’t have a bunch of folks who enjoy banana bread… Hehe… Off to the recipe…

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Banana Sheet Cake | Banana Butter Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Course Tea Time

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Servings 8

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 125 gm butter softened
• 1/2 cup sugar can increase for sweetness
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs large, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 large ripe bananas mashed, roughly one cup
• 1/2 cup yogurt

FOR FROSTING

• 200 gm Philadelphia cream cheese one tub
• 50 gm butter softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar refer notes
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and flour a 13x9 inch pan and set aside.
• Sift together the floor, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and set aside.
• In a bowl, beat the butter and sugars till light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time and beat.
• Add the vanilla and banana and beat.
• Add half the flour mixture and the yogurt. Fold in well.
• Add the remaining flour mixture and fold till batter is all moist and there are no lumps.
• Spread into the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes till the skewer comes out clean in the center.
• Cool completely before frosting.
• To make frosting, beat all ingredients till well combined and light. Spread over the cooled cake.
• Slice and enjoy!

Notes

The sugar quantities mentioned make a mildly sweet cake. Add more if needed.

You can use sour cream instead of the yogurt. 

Add more icing sugar if you feel the frosting is not sweet, can add upto 2 cups. 

The post Banana Sheet Cake | Banana Butter Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

Hmm, where should I start? Of late, it has been very difficult to be committed to the blog. Somehow, my energy is getting expended everywhere except the blog. Maybe I am feeling burned out or maybe genuinely, I am not getting the time. But when I actually think about it, there was a time when the blog was priority to me. Cooking for it, clicking for it and posting for it was all that my mind would be thinking about, despite having work and family to take care of. Any new recipe would instantly excite me, any new challenge would let my head go into overrun mode, as to what to cook for that challenge. I used to post almost every day barring the weekends. When I went on vacations, I scheduled posts and went, and then would constantly check back to see and read feedback. Those were the times I enjoyed blogging without thinking too much…

But right now, I feel overwhelmed. If you have a blog, then you need to do your posts as per SEO standards so that Google would crawl onto it. If you want to grow on Instagram, then you need to be a literal reel churning machine, and that too playing the latest trending music, which sometimes literally grate on my nerves. Then there is Pinterest, there is Google Stories, YouTube and TikTok, and what not! Instead of being your own self, the need is to follow set guidelines so that whatever you do will grow. Maybe that is why I really don’t feel like blogging these days. Even though I still don’t follow any of these set rules, my mind is dismayed that my blog isn’t even growing or going anywhere.  I so can’t wrap my head around shooting my meals. I lose the pleasure of cooking then. More than that, I hardly make any specials these days because we are all having our own dietary restrictions, plus I guess my girls are having a growing-up crisis, that they can’t stand my food. So you can imagine my horror, of having a label of “a food blogger” but with folks who don’t eat my food…

In short, I seem to have lost it. I really want to feed my blog, try new recipes, get excited about clicking and posting, but somewhere, I don’t feel like it anymore. My head doesn’t want to concentrate only on food. Maybe, I am suffering from a mid-life crisis, along with my girls. It was easier to cook before – HD and B would eat my food and critique it, my ex-colleagues would always give a word of encouragement for my bakes, and my girls were too small to even comment. Life is different now, and I feel like cooking has become more of a chore than a delight. Any task, even something passionate, can change into a burden if the mood changes. I don’t want that to happen with cooking, however this is exactly what is happening. I cook only for survival and only food that my folks will eat, even if it means just repeated stuff. I don’t want to break my head as such anymore. I just want to spare myself from heartache…

But then how can I just let my blog be ignored? I can’t. So, you will see me posting here and there, albeit erratically. I will still come and peek, do some updates on old posts and do some new posts too. I won’t just let it go; I will still cling on to it. This week marks ten years of blogging – double digit figures! I am patting myself for holding on to the blog for such a period of time. I never expected myself to. Every of my yearly posts have showed my dwindling interest, but I still kept at it despite reducing number of posts. But this time, the slow down looks real and to stay for some time. I guess I can. My blog is a house of 1700+ recipes, which is not a small task in itself. At times, I can’t believe I did it. Starting this blog primarily to move my recipes from a general blog I had to having its own domain and a self-hosted space, I have come a long way, Alhamdulillah. But I have no energy to be pulled into the rat race of doing hundred things to make my blog work. It actually makes me lose my interest, rather than enjoying it as my passion. I refuse to get drawn into it. I am content with what I have, and I trust my content will carry itself forward in the long run… InShaAllah…

Just like all my yearly posts, this time’s post is special. My sister and B loves cheesecakes, so much that most of my cheesecakes on the blog, like the dates honey cheesecake, DDL cheesecake and the Nutella cheesecake were majorly enjoyed by them. Last year – oops, nope, the year before, we are already in 2023! – when I visited my sister, she wanted me to make a cheesecake. I managed to make one the day before we were flying back, and it was this baked cheesecake with a burnt top called the San Sebastien Cheesecake. Of course, I clicked pictures, but they were so bad that I decided to give it a miss to post on the blog. When I reached back and switched on my phone, my nephew sent me a Whassap voice note, “Ummi, this is the best cheesecake ever!” I instantly knew I had made a winner. My sister couldn’t stop raving about how creamy and delicious it was. So that means I had to repeat making it for B, the other cheesecake lover.

A little bit about this cheesecake – it is said to have been invented in a cafe in San Sebastien, Spain. It is also called “Burnt Basque Cheesecake” or “La Vina Cheesecake” – Basque is the place in San Sebastien where the cafe called La Vina invented this peculiar cheesecake. I am sure to have confused you, but that is what my search on Google says.   Unlike other cheesecakes that are slow baked, this one is baked at higher temperature to get the burnt top. Not only that, the presence of more eggs than usual gives the cheesecake a very custard like flavor. Whatever said and done, if baked cheesecake is your thing, then you have to try this one. You will never go back to eating regular cheesecake. It is that delicious, that melt-in-the-mouth, that addictive… Many cafes here serve it with chocolate sauce or red velvet sauce, but trust me, this hell of a cheesecake can hold itself on its own, without any sides. What is the other thing I like about it? No crust! I am not a fan of the crust in cheesecake, so here you don’t have to discard anything, or take extra effort to make a crust. Just makes life easier… Hehe… So for your next occasion, bookmark this cheesecake and try it! Trust me, you will be blown, like we all were…

And before I forget, along with the blog, my little girl Azza celebrates her birthday today too! She was born two years before the blog, and I still can’t understand how I actually started doing this blog when she was in her terrible twos. Maybe, I did it to blow off steam. Alhamdulillah, time is literally flying and sometimes I have a lump in my throat thinking how much she has grown up. She had been tiny for a really long time and then suddenly had this growth spurt, that I find it hard to accept. May Allah keep our children steadfast and make them the coolness of our eyes… Aameen Ya Rubb… All I can wish for her is a good future with faith and hope…

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San Sebastien Cheesecake | Burnt Basque Cheesecake

Course Dessert

Cuisine European

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 4 hours hours

Servings 8

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 420 gm cream cheese 2 tubs, like Philadelphia - use full fat
• 250 gm thick cream
• 4 eggs large, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar increase for sweetness
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a 9 inch round pan with three pieces of parchment paper, one on top of the other, hanging out the pan for easy lifting. Brush butter between each of the paper to stick together, set aside.
• In a bowl, combine all the ingredients and beat on meduim speed with a hand beater for five minutes till the mixture is homogenous.
• Pour into the prepared pan.
• Bake for 50 minutes to one hour. Broil the top for 3-5 minutes till it looks burnt.
• Take out the cheesecake and allow it to completely cool in the pan.
• Transfer to the refrigerator and let it set for another 2 hours.
• Enjoy cold as is or with a drizzling of chocolate sauce - though it isn't necessary!

A

The post San Sebastien Cheesecake | Burnt Basque Cheesecake appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

It is time for the last recipe of this year, Alhamdulillah. What a roller coaster of a year it has been, but I am telling myself to be grateful for whatever I have and have not been blessed with. We are so used to looking at what has not happened, that we forget that these can be blessings as well. With hope and trust that the upcoming year will be better, let me move to the last post of this month’s Bakeathon with a sub-theme of “Main Ingredients five and below”. I am just relieved that I did a decent job with the theme, though all my posts deviated way more than what I had initially planned. But all I am bothered right now is that I did thirteen posts and that is all that matters.

Day before yesterday, we – ie. me, Priya and Huma – went to meet Mayuriji who is here on a short visit. We have met her a few years ago, so it was not the first time. Despite the gap, we instantly clicked and had a lovely time. I baked these jam bars to gift her as well as my buddies. The best thing about these bars are that they will be loved by anyone who eats them. They feel like a no-guilt version of a jam sandwich, due to the presence of oats in it. The butter makes the crust really crumbly and delicious too. I love Bonne Maman jams and used the strawberry preserve one in these bars. My next try will be with their apricot preserve and I will add some almonds for an additional bite too. Since jam is a regular in my pantry as I make these sandwiches for breakfast at least once a week, putting together these bars were a literal cake walk. Hehe… Off to this simple recipe, and InShaAllah, meet you next year…

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Easy Jam Bars

Course Cakes and Muffins

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Servings 8

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 125 gm butter softened
• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp brown sugar refer notes
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 250-300 gm jam of choice I used Bonne Maman Strawberry Preserve

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line an 8 inch square pan, with enough baking paper to pull out.
• In a bowl, combine all the ingredients except the jam. Bring together till it feels like a dough.
• Transfer 2/3rd of the mixture onto the prepared pan and flatten out.
• Add the jam all over and spread to make a flat layer.
• Sprinkle the remaining mixture all over and press lightly with your hand.
• Bake for 30 minutes or till the top looks golden brown and set.
• Take out from the pan by pulling out the bars and cool onto a wire rack completely.
• Cut into 16 squares and enjoy it as snack.

Notes

Increase the sugar if you want it more sweet. The jam usually takes care of the sweetness.

You can use any jam of choice. If not berry, I would love to make these with apricot jam.

If you want an additional nutty edge, you can add around 1/4 cup of sliced almonds on the top while setting the flour mixture on top. 

The post Easy Jam Bars appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

We are almost hitting the end of the year. Is it just me who is feeling the jitters? As far as I am concerned, I feel like 2022 is a year that I achieved hardly anything. There were so many things that I thought I would do, but when I look back, I feel that I am seeing a blank canvas. Whether it is on career front or the blog front, I don’t feel like I have done much. But sometimes I feel it is OK. There is no point in lamenting that things haven’t worked our way. Many times, things aren’t meant to work our way anyway. However, it isn’t all negative this year though. It is upto us to train our mind to see positives in the negatives as well. It ain’t easy but ain’t difficult either…

Of late, the climate has been amazing. It has started to feel like winter. We had some rains for the last couple of days, which caused that lazy chill in the air, that makes you want to just sleep all the time. Hehe… I can’t exactly say “sweater weather” even though my sweaters are out waiting for a chance to be used, but there is a nice coldness in the air and that urge to have hot chocolate and loads of tea/coffee most of the time just to keep warm and awake… And that is why scones are one of the best things to bake when you have such chilled evenings, because they make the perfect warm bites for your cup of tea or coffee… This is my post today for this year’s Bakeathon with the sub-theme “Main ingredients 5 or less”. Can you believe we are already on the last leg of this series? Wow…

A couple of friends asked me whether I would be interested in doing an impromptu tea at a park during one of the weekends. Now I love being in parks or mountain sides for meals. Whenever my parents come, much to the irritation of D, me and umma always cook lunch and move out. We then stop at a park or a rest area on the way and enjoy our food there. Even though D doens’t like the idea of having food outside in adjusted conditions, he still wouldn’t mind. We usually make something like fried rice or vegetable pulao along with chilly chicken or dry chicken fry to take along. I also bake something along at times, like I made the cornmeal muffins. I was missing that feel, so the invite was well received. I baked these scones – that I roughly adapted from here, since I was sure that scones aren’t something that my friends would have had.

They really loved it. It was mildly sweet and went very well with the cup of tea in that beautiful climate. One of them carried the leftovers home. I left a couple of them at home for the folks to enjoy. HD and B really liked it. The pecan has to be the star. It is not a nut that is used quite widely, so I guess that is what helped. Pecans go amazingly well with cinnamon and butterscotch flavors, so overall these scones were a big hit. I loved the idea of brushing the cream on the top of the scones. It gave it a beautiful golden hue and a slight caramelized flavor as well once baked. Off to the recipe…

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Butterscotch Pecan Scones

Course Breakfast/ Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup corn flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 70 gm butter cold, cut into small pcs
• 1 egg large, room temperature
• 170 gm cream pack, divided
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup butterscotch chips
• 1 cup pecans roasted and roughly chopped

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking pan and set aside.
• In a bowl, sift flour, corn flour, baking powder and salt.
• Whisk in the brown sugar.
• Add the cut cubes of butter and rub it in with your fingers till the mixture represents bread crumbs.
• Toss in the butterscotch chips and pecans into it and mix.
• In a bowl, whisk together the egg, 1/2 cup of the cream and vanilla till homogenous.
• Add into the dry ingredients and just bring together to shape it. Just ensure that all the dry ingredients are moist.
• Transfer onto the baking sheet and shape into a round shape with equal thickness. Cut into 8 peices of equal size and put a small separation between them.
• Brush the remaining cream generously on top of all the scones.
• Bake for 20 minutes. Take out, transfer to a cool rack. Enjoy the scones warm.

The post Butterscotch Pecan Scones appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

December automatically means fruit cakes, even if you don’t want it to be. Somehow the market floods with plum cakes, date cakes and what not. I am not a fan of storebought cakes. They are sickeningly sweet and I don’t like the patch that it leaves on the tongue once done with a slice. However, for trial sake, I have been trying some fruit and nut cakes at home, like this eggless one and the Kerala style one. I am for one who loves baking with fruits, so there is a whole tag with recipes, if you want to check.   So when I am doing the Bakeathon this month with a sub-theme of “Main ingredients 5 or less”, how can I not bake a fully stuffed fruit and nut cake?

The cake is a basic butter cake recipe. I have roughly adapted the recipe from here. In supermarket chains like Lulu and Carrefour, you can find these nut mixes that make life very easy, when you want to bake something like this or make granola. I prefer to go for the premium range as they will have more nuts and lesser raisins, but you can choose as per your choice. Since there is no soaking involved, you can just directly use the nuts into the cake and enjoy them as soon as they are baked. Since this cake takes a bit longer to bake, make sure to cover the top portion with a foil, just to ensure that the top doesn’t get burned.

There was a big blooper for this cake. I realized that I used a much smaller pan only when I had almost finished transferring the entire batter into the pan. I anyway went ahead with it. What then happened was a literally volcano eruption in the oven. I got some free “biscottis” from the batter that spilled out into the tray below. Ah, they were really delicious, mind you! Lesson learned – always keep your eyes and mind open while doing anything in the kitchen to avoid such goof-ups! Hehe… Off to the recipe…

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Easy Fruit and Nut Cake

Course Bakes

Cuisine International

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Servings 8

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 125 gm butter softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs large, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250 gm mixed fruits and nuts from the roastery
• 1/4 cup milk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line a large loaf pan or 9 inch cake tin.
• Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy.
• Add eggs one at a time and beat with each addition to incorporate.
• Add the vanilla and spices and beat.
• In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Add 3/4 flour mixture and milk and beat just till combined.
• Toss the mixed fruits and nuts into the remainder flour. Add into the batter and fold till fully incorporated.
• Pour into prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or till skewer comes out clean. To avoid the top from burning, lightly cover with aluminum foil after 45 minutes to baking.
• Once done, cool in pan for a little while or till the cake detaches from the sides of the pan.
• Flip onto a cooling rack and cool completely before slicing and serving.

Notes

I used the mixed fruits and nuts that you can buy in the roastery or the spice section in major supermarket chains. It will usually be a mix of cashews, pistachios, almonds and a lot of raisins. You can use any mix that you want, even the ones with seeds. 

The post Easy Fruit and Nut Cake {No Soak!} appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

Ever since I started blogging, making a flourless chocolate cake has been on my agenda. It never happened until I melted butter and chocolate for making brownies, before finding out that I had no flour to add. After feeling a little desperate for sometime, it suddenly clicked me that I could simply make it into a chocolate cake without any flour. The only problem with it? It is heavy, decadent and absolutely sinful! This is my next post in the Bakeathon this year under the subtheme “Main ingredients five or less”.

I had already baked a flourless cake for one during one of my previous Bakeathons, which I enjoyed all by myself. This one was calories shared. The cake may not look like it would be enough, but trust me, one small slice goes a long way. I kept just one slice for each of us and send some to B and his family and then cousins who came over. With a cup of black coffee, this cake is simply bomb. It is heavy on chocolate and butter, with some eggs and a little cocoa powder to just allow it to hold shape. I urge you to make it when you have a crowd to share. We didn’t even have the patience to do any sides, but add some whipped cream and fruits, or ice cream with caramel syrup, and you will surely be in sweet heaven. Hehe…

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Flourless Chocolate Cake

Course Cakes and Muffins

Cuisine European

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Servings 10

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 175 gm butter
• 200 gm dark baking chocolate
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 4 large eggs room temperature
• 1 tsp coffee optional
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a 9 inch springfom pan and grease well.
• Melt the butter and chocolate till done.
• Whisk in the cocoa powder till no lumps and allow to cool completely.
• Add in the sugar and beat till combined.
• Add one egg at a time, beating with every addition. Finally add the rest of the ingredients and beat well. The mixture will be thick and glossy.
• Pour into the prepared tin.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes till the top looks cracked.
• Take out and allow to cool completely. Cut into small slices and serve with black coffee.

The post Flourless Chocolate Cake appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

It took me a while to realize that the most hit recipe on my blog was the Simple Vanilla Muffins, overtaking the Chocolate Biscuit Pudding that held that place for a long time. It was a recipe I adapted from a pack of butter, and I am very glad it is doing well. Having said that, it was then I realized I didn’t have a basic chocolate chip muffin recipe! How could I? Chocolate chip is a favorite for even those who are not fans of chocolate as such. The perfect opportunity came when I had to bake something to send with Azza when she was visiting a friend of hers. So there you go, the easiest chocolate chip muffins you could ever make! This post goes to the Bakeathon 2022, with a sub-theme of “Main Ingredients 5 or less”.

The recipe is a very straight forward mix and pour recipe, with not much work. Firstly whisk the dry ingredients together, coat the chocolate chips in it and then fold in the wet ingredient mixture. That is it! Since the muffin won’t rise a lot, you can fill the cups to the brim. I actually ran out of chocolate chips while making these muffins. Of course, how can you call this a chocolate chip muffin when there is just little in it? Hehe… A couple of updates you can do is to use buttermilk instead of regular milk to make it more soft, and to use butter instead of oil to make it more rich. I kept the sugar to bare minimum, which you can increase. Azza’s friend and family really loved the muffins. They mentioned that they are not really fond of sweet stuff, so them liking it was a bonus. Off to the recipe…

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Easy Chocolate Chip Muffins

Course Cakes and Muffins

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar increase for sweetness
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup oil
• 2 eggs large
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a 12 muffin pan.
• In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk in the sugar.
• Add the chocolate chips and coat into the mixture.
• Whisk the milk, oil, eggs and vanilla in a pitcher till well done.
• Pour into the dry ingredients and fold till the entire batter is moist.
• Divide equally into the muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes or till a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Cool on a rack completely. Enjoy!

Notes

You can use melted butter instead oil.

I have used lesser chocolate chips since I ran out of it. 

 

The post Easy Chocolate Chip Muffins appeared first on The Big Sweet Tooth.

While putting a list of recipes to try for the Bakeathon this year under my sub-theme of “Main ingredients 5 or under”, cornbread was always on my list. I still have my packs from the US and thanks to the long expiry dates, I have no pressure to finish my stock soon. After having tried the pancakes and the muffin, I have been wanting to make the cornbread recipe on the pack but then my family’s lack of interest in bakes made me take a backseat till this series had to happen. Even within the wanting to bake the cornbread, there was a twist…

The day I decided to bake the cornbread, I took out my milk from the fridge to curdle it to make buttermilk. I then noticed that the milk was smelling odd. So basically, I had sour milk in hand and I was upset that I will have to discard it. That is when some searches on Google and I was assured that sour milk goes perfectly well in recipes using buttermilk, since it is anyways spoiled with a little tinge of sourness. What a hurray moment! Got to make the cornbread and didn’t have to throw the milk… On a side note, my heart aches when I throw away leftover food. It makes me feel really bad. Anyway, I used that curdled milk to make the cornbread and there was no inkling of it. Hehe…

I baked the cornbread recipe from the pack with some changes – upped the cornmeal and reduced the all-purpose flour, used less baking powder and used butter instead of oil. Cornbread is usually very mild in sweetness, so if you want sweeter, then add a drizzle of honey or maple syrup to enjoy it. However, it is usually eaten in South American households with savory dishes like fried chicken or chilli con carne. Be your own guest and eat it the way you want. As you can see, I enjoyed it on its own with a cup of coffee over breakfast. Off to the recipe…

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Old Fashioned Cornbread

Course Breakfast/ Dessert

Cuisine South American

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Rafeeda AR

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup cornmeal I used yellow
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 egg large
• 1/4 cup butter melted
• 1 cup buttermilk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line an 8 inch pan with baking paper hanging out.
• In a mixing bowl, add the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and whisk together to incorporate.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together egg, butter and buttermilk till nicely done.
• Add into the dry ingredients and fold with a spatula till the whole mixture is moist. Do not overmix.
• Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean from the center.
• Cool in pan for five minutes. Enjoy warm...

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