Winter Comfort - Bake It Halal

With the chilly days and Winter break the best comfort comes in baking; the warm gooey cookies, chocolate cake, banana bread or spice cakes. Baking along with your children, family or friends not only brings closeness, it brings fond memories.Bake and enjoy the recipes below!

Soft Chocolate Cake

160 Grams Butter

200 Grams Sugar

150 Grams Flour sifted
50 Grams good quality cocoa powder, sifted

1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup sour cream

½ cup warm prepared espresso

Preheat the oven at 325 F and grease 8 inch round cake pan with butter and dust lightly.

Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl.
Beat butter and sugar for at least 15 minutes. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Add the vanilla, sour cream and espresso and mix it. Add half the flour mixture and on slow speed of the mixer fold into the batter, mix in the rest of the flour mixture and increase the speed to medium to get a smooth batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes till the center of the cake is springy or inserting a toothpick it will come out clean. Remove from the pan on a cooling rack.

Quick tips-
-Flatten the dome on the baked cake by placing a heavy wooden chopping board while the cake is still hot and in the pan, this way you’ll get a flat cake. Keep it for a minute only.
-Sour cream helps to moisten the cake and no crumbs.
-Baking soda in chocolate cakes helps in getting a soft texture.

Decorate with Chocolate Ganache when it’s cool and serve with your favorite coffee!

Ginger Cookies

This amazing recipe is my mum’s and were always everyone’s favorite!

50 grams Butter or margarine

50 grams good quality fancy molasses

50 grams sugar

125 grams all purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground dry ginger sometimes I’ll crush fresh ginger piece about 2 inches

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Line the cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Preheat oven at 325 Fahrenheit.

Beat butter, sugar and molasses until soft and fluffy. Fold in the flour, ginger pd and baking soda. Bring it out on a lightly dusted board and bring the dough together, you might have to add a tablespoon more of the molasses to help the dough come together. Divide the dough into two and roll out each ball to 1/8 inch thickness. Using a 3 inch round cookie cutter cut out and place it on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove, cool completely before serving, you can store the leftovers (if any) in an airtight container.

Spice Cake

160 Grams Butter

200 Grams Sugar

200 Grams Flour

1 teaspoon Baking powder.

4 Eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla powder, extract or essence

1 teaspoon dried ginger powder

1 teaspoon of spice powder- 1 clove, a small piece of nutmeg ( a size of a small pea)

2- 1″ pieces of cinnamon, 3 cardamoms. Dry roast the spices in a frying pan, cool and grind to a fine powder.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and grease an 8″ round cake pan.
Sift the flour and baking powder in a bowl and add the ginger powder and spice powder.

Beat butter and sugar for at least 15 minutes to get a smooth mixture. Add eggs one at a time till well blended, add sour cream and vanilla extract. Mix for a minute and add the flour mixture in two batches, running the beater on low. When all the flour mixture is added increase the speed to high and mix well to get a smooth batter. Pour into the prepared pan and bake on the center rack for 30-35 minutes or when lightly patted the cake center is firm and springs up back. Remove from the oven, let it sit for five minutes before turning it over on the cooling rack. Dust lightly with icing sugar and serve with hot spice tea (Indian Chai).

Soft Chocolate Cake

Ginger Cookies

Spice Cake

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