Happy New Year, Fruit Cake, Cookies and a Christmas Bash

First off I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year. May this new year brings much needed peace to the world! I cannot imagine that the year has flown by so fast and its already another bright new year! I still remember celebration Y2K - year 2000! Lo and behold - its already the year 2008!


Image Source: 123greetings.com

Christmas this year for us was pretty low key! A lot of lounging on the couch and catching up with some good movies. Plenty of food and some company made it a very relaxing time for us.
At home I baked the usualy butter cake, fruit cake and some cookies that I've been wanting to try for a while. So here goes some simple home tested recipes...

Fruit cake
I remember while I was growing up we ate this cake from the Indian bakeries all the time.. it was called "Tutti Fruity cake" - the name being derived from the little tiny bits of fruit or tutti fruity that is in the cake. I used the same basic pound cake recipe and just added fruit mix to it!


Delicious Fruit Cake

You will need:
250 gms All purpose Flour (Maida)
250gms Sugar
250 gms Butter (comes upto 2.5 sticks of butter)
5 eggs (1 egg for every 50 gms)
Vanilla essence
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup Fruit mix (available in the baking aisle in any supermarket)

Method:
Cream the eggs and the sugar together until light and fluffy. I use my hand mixer on speed 3. Add the baking powder and the vanilla essence and beat until well blended. Then slowly beat in the flour until well blended. Use a spatula to bring in the sides and blend well. Grease a bundt pan or cake pan with butter and pour/spoon the batter in the pan.
Pre heat convection oven to about 375 degree F. Bake for about 45 minutes at 375F or until well browned on top. Stick a fork in the cake and make sure it comes out clean to check if it is done.
Cool the cake on a cooling rack. Serve warm or when it is cool!


Fruit Cake

Note: For regular buuter cake or pound cake, just omit the fruit mix and follow the same recipe as above!

Masala Cookies
I remember eating these cookies from bakeries in India and it always amazed me how good these tasted. For a long time now I have been wanting to try baking these cookies at home. This finally saw the say of the light the other day when I baked a batch of these yummy cookies!


Masala Cookies - Delicious as an evening snack

You will need:
All purpose flour or maida - 1 cup
Butter - 1 stick or 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
about 1 tsp of sugar to taste (optional)
5 green chillies - chopped or minced fine
a few sprigs of cilantro chopped fine
a few curry leaves chopped fine
1 tsp grated ginger
Curds or Plain yogurt - 2 tbsp

Method:
In a mixing bowl, mix the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Thaw the butter into a soft consitency at room temperature. Add the butter to the flour mixture and slowly mix with your finger until the hwole flour mixture is crumbly. Then add the chopped chillies, cilantro, ginger and curry leaves. Blend in with the flour mixture wiht your hand. Then add the yogurt and mix everything into a thick dough. Do not knead a whole lot. Cover with a lid and let sit for about 10 minutes. Then make small rounds and flatten between your palms into cookies. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake in a pre-heated convection oven at 375 F for about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack. Can be served warm or can be stored in a air-tight container to be served later.


Wanna try a bite???

And finally wanted to share some pictures with you guys of a Christmas Bash that took place a friend's house... the food speaks for itself!


The menu was a typical South Indian Christmas lunch - Appam with coocnut milk, Fried Prawns, Cutlets, Raita, rasam, Stuffed idlis, Cauliflower gravy, Fish Kozhambu, Shrimp Fry, Chilli chicken, White Rice and Curds.


All served traditionally on a Plantain Leaf (fake one here ;-)



Thanks to my friends Natasha, Anita and Reni for the lovely pictures!

Again wishing all my dear friends a great year ahead! Thanks for stopping by.