Victoria Sponge Cake

Ingredients
Eggs 4
Caster sugar 225g
Self-raising flour 225g
Baking powder 2 teaspoon
Unsalted butter at room temperature 225g

Strawberry or raspberry jam
Whipped double cream

Victoria Sponge Cake

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan.
2. Grease and line two 20cm/8in sandwich tins. Use a piece of baking paper to rub a little butter around the inside of the tins until the sides and base are lightly coated, then line the bottom with a circle of baking paper.
3. Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl, add sugar, flour, baking powder and butter.
4. Mix together until well combined with an electric hand mixer (you can also use a wooden spoon), but be careful not to over mix. The finished mixture should fall off a spoon easily.
5. Divide the mixture evenly between the tins.
6. Bake the cakes on the middle shelf of the oven for 25 minutes. Check them after 20 minutes.
7. To assemble the cake, place one cake upside down onto a plate and spread it with plenty of jam.
8. If you want to, you can spread over whipped cream too.
9. Top with the second cake, top-side up.
10. Sprinkle over the caster sugar.

Naan Bread

Ingredients(makes 8 small naan bread)
375g/13oz plain white flour
¾ tsp baking powder
1½ tsp salt
200ml/7fl oz full-fat milk
15g/½oz sugar
1 free-range egg, beaten (you will only need half the egg)
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Naan Bread

Recipe

1. For the naan bread, mix the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. 
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, sugar and half the beaten egg, then add this to the flour mixture and knead lightly until it comes together to make a soft dough (take care not to overwork the dough). 
3. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
4. To cook the naan bread, pour the oil over the rested naan dough and turn it a few times so it is evenly coated. 
5. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and roll out each one on a lightly oiled surface into a circle about 9cm/3½in in diameter. 
6. Gently stretch out the circles of dough to form the traditional teardrop shape, or, alternatively, roll them into 10cm/4in circles.
7. Place the naan bread on the preheated baking tray and bake for 4–5 minutes, or until they are starting to brown on both sides. 
8. You might need to turn the bread to make sure it colours on both sides.

Nankhatai

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup – Maida (flour)
1/2 cup – Caster sugar
1/2 cup – Ghee, at room temperature
1/4 tsp – Vanilla essence
1/2 tsp – Powdered cardamom
Slivers of pistachio and almonds, for topping

Recipe

1. Using your hands, rub in the cardamom powder with the sugar until it’s fragrant.
2. Now, add the ghee and mix until light and creamy. Add vanilla essence and mix well.
3. Sift the maida and add to the mixture.
4. Using your hands, knead the mixture into a slightly crumbly dough.
5. Shape the dough into tiny balls.
6. Flatten the biscuit slightly, and add a chironji or almond sliver to the centre. I couldn’t find any chironji in Bengaluru, and so went without.
7. Bake at 170 degrees Celsius for 15-18 minutes.

Bhindi Ghosht

Ingredients

Lamb or Mutton - ½ Kg
Okra (Bhindi) - ½ Kg

Onions - 2 medium (sliced)
Tomato - 1 (chopped)
Cardamom - 2
Ginger -  1 inch (finely chopped)
Garlic - 3 cloves (finely chopped)
Tomato Puree - 1 can
Coriander Powder - 1 and ½ teaspoon
Shaan Karahi Masala - 1 teaspoon
Chilli Powder - ½ teaspoon
Salt (to taste)
Oil - 4 table spoon
Water - ½ cup
Jalapenos -3 (slice vertically on one side)
Fenugreek((Methi) Leaves dried - 1 table spoon

Bhindi Ghosht

Recipe

1. Add oil to a wok (Karahi), when it is hot add onions.
2. Fry till the edges starts to turn golden brown.
3. Add carom (Ajwain) seeds, fry for another 15 seconds.
4. Add ginger garlic, and fry till it leaves oil.
5. Add tomatoes puree, saute till it leaves oil.
6. Add coriander powder, shan karahi masala, chilli powder and salt.
7. Add chicken and cook for 5 minutes.
8. Add water, cover and cook till it is tender.
9. Add jalapenos and dried Methi leaved in the end.
10. Cook for another 5 minutes.

Lagan Seekh - One Pot Minced Meat Delight

Ingredients

250 g - mincemeat
1 tsp - Butter or 1 tsp - oil
1 - Onion
1 tbsp - Garlic paste
1 tbsp - finely chopped Green chillies
1 tbsp - finely chopped Coriander leaves
1 tbsp - finely chopped Mint leaves
1 - Egg
salt to taste
pepper powder

Lagan Seekh

Recipe

1. Put garlic paste, coriander leaves, mint leaves, salt on top of the mincemeat and mix it well.
2. Marinate for an hour.
3. Cut onion and deep fry it in oil.
4. As soon as it turns golden, remove it from oil and keep it aside.
5. It is known as birasta.
6. Beat egg with pepper powder and salt.
7. Take flat pan and grease it with butter/ oil and spread about half quantity of a beaten egg on the pan.
8. Mix half birasta and marinated mincemeat dough. Press lightly to spread throughout the pan.
9. Spread the remaining part of the beaten egg on the dough.
10. Cover the pan with foil and bake in the oven or on the gas for 25 mins.
11. Garnish with birasta, capsicum, tomato and carrot.

Coffee Walnut Cake

Ingredients

For the sponges

• 340g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
• 340g caster sugar
• 250g plain flour
• 90g walnuts
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 6 large eggs
• 3 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1.5 tbsp boiling water

For the frosting / topping

• 750g icing sugar
• 250g unsalted butter
• 4 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 2 tbsp boiling water
• 2 tbsp milk
• approx 9 walnut halves for decorating

Equipment needed

• 3 - round sandwich tins (20cm)
• Baking parchment
• Stand mixer or electric hand whisk
• Food processor
• Offset palette knife
• Silicone spatula
• Sieve
• Kitchen scales
• 2 x wire cooling racks
• Display plate or cake board

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 180oC / 160oC Fan / Gas Mark 4 (I have a fan oven so all my recipes are tested at the fan temperatures). To make the sponges, grease and line three 20cm sandwich tins with baking parchment. If you only have one or two tins, you can still do the cake, but you’ll have to do the baking in batches
2. Weigh out the walnut halves and dry fry in a frying pan over a medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the oils start to release the walnut aroma. Set aside to cool while you prepare the rest of the sponge mixture
3. Beat together the sugar and butter with an electric hand whisk, or a stand mixer if you have one, until they are light coloured, smooth and creamy. Beat in each egg thoroughly, one by one (rather than dropping them all in together). If the mixture starts to split, just add a tablespoon of flour and continue beating – this will bring the mixture back
4. Dissolve the coffee in the boiling water and fold this into the wet mix
5. Weigh and measure the flour and the baking powder and put into a food processor. Add the cooled walnuts. Blitz thoroughly until all the nuts are incorporated and form a light, fine powder
6. (If you don’t have a food processor, you can try crushing the walnuts as small as possible by putting them in a sandwich bag and whacking them with a rolling pin but it will be difficult to get them fine enough to work in the cake)
7. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture using a silicone spatula, making sure to mix any flour that ends up at the bottom of the bowl. Be gentle when you’re folding in the flour – you don’t want to knock out any air you’ve incorporated into the mix through all that whisking!
8. Divide the mixture evenly between the three tins. Smooth out the surface of the sponge mixtures with an offset palette knife and bake for about 23-28 minutes (keep an eye on it from 20 minutes), or until a cocktail stick comes out clean when poked into the centre of the sponge
9. Remove from the oven and when the tins have cooled enough to handle, take the sponges out of the tins and set to cool on wire racks
10. While the sponges are cooling, prepare the coffee butter cream icing. Weigh the butter into a bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk until soft. Gradually add the icing sugar and continue to mix. Make up the coffee and beat into the mixture. Add 2 tbsp milk if you need to loosen the butter cream a little more
11. Once the sponges have cooled, if they have raised middles, slice the tops flat with a bread knife (I usually spread a bit of the icing on the off cuts to taste a secret preview of the final cake)
12. Put the bottom sponge on your display plate or cake board. Neatly spread about 1/3 of the butter-cream icing onto the bottom layer of sponge using an offset palette knife. Try to spread evenly, and right up to the edges of the sponge, so you can see a neat line of icing once the top layer of sponge goes on
13. Add the next sponge and repeat. Turn the top layer of sponge upside down and lie on top of the spread icing; pressing down gently, and scraping off any excess icing that squidges out of the middle
14. Using the offset palette knife, neatly spread the remaining icing on the top of the cake and garnish with the remaining walnut halves.