Double Chocolate Fudge Macadamia Marble Cake

I should really have called this the 'Macadamia's Lost Her Marbles' cake. How else would you describe a cake born out of nervous energy and a craving for chocolates, nuts and everything decadent? Sigh!

It was past midnight I think, when I decided to bake. Anything to escape from 'actual work' ;)
And since I didn't have the patience to follow any particular recipe, I just threw in this and that on-the-fly. You can see my complete lack of focus in the frosting and decoration :D Mybad!

But it turned out ok, so I decided to let it materialize here.

And Chech? When you read this, look at the date and REMEMBER what you FORGOT.
Hmmpfhh!



Anyway, You Will Need:
Eggs – 5
Butter – 250 gms
Maida – 250 gms
Sugar – 250 gms
Cocoa/coffee – 4 tsp (mix the powder with half of 1/4th cup of milk)
Milk 1/4th cup
Baking Powder – 2 tsp
Vanilla essence – 2 tsp


Preparation Method:

1. Let the butter soften at room temperature

2. Powder the sugar

3. Separate the egg whites from the yolks

4. Cream together the butter and sugar

5. Add the egg yolks to the above mixture

6. Beat well

7. Sift the flour along with the baking powder onto a clean dry dish (sift 3 or 4 times to get rid of the air pockets)

8. Add this to the butter mixture

9. Add the vanilla essence

10. Beat the egg white till stiff and add

11. Separate the mixture into two halves

12. To one half add the cocoa (or coffee) and mix well

13. You now have two colored mixtures - one light and creamy and the other a dark chocolaty.

14. Add some chopped cashew nuts to the creamy mixture and chopped macadamia nuts/almonds to the chocolate mixture



Layering The Cake pan:

Scoop the mixtures alternatively into the prepared cake pan, making inch-wide stripes with the cream and dark dough so that you have a cream strip followed by a dark strip



Repeat till you cover the entire pan

When you’ve lined the pan, take a fork and lightly run it in a zig-zag motion over the mixture, once horizontally and once vertically.



Meanwhile, preheat the over to 180 degree Centigrade

Bake for 30 minutes or until the edges start leaving the sides of the pan


Frosting:
For the frosting, I followed THIS recipe, only I added some dark cooking chocolate for the middle layer of frosting.


Assembling The Cake:
- Ummm, you can go ahead and indulge in some creative license ;)

- For this one, Make two separate cakes in 9" pans

- Spread the frosting with dark chocolate evenly on it


- Sprinkle some nuts and dry sweetened coconut flakes

- Place Cake 2 on it and press down lightly but firmly


- Spread the normal frosting evenly, including sides



- Decorate with strawberries, sweetened coconut flakes, and whatever you can think of at the time ;)

(For the chocolate coated strawberries, simply melt some milk chocolate and coat the strawberries with it)



P.S. I'm going to dedicate this to my 'parasite' friend who's sold his soul to the devil ;)

Chilly Chicken For Fire Eaters

Sometimes I think the only reason people come to visit me when I go home, isn’t to go huggy kissy on me but to eat Latha’s food. Sigh!

But hey, who cares as long as I get to do the honors first :D

This is (she claims) her original recipe for chilly chicken. And I have to agree. I’ve never quite had the same taste elsewhere. But a note of warning: You might want to adjust the spice level, because her’s always leaves me gasping for water after the first few bites.

And since I like gasping I follow her proportions to a T :|

;)

Anyway, You’ll Need:

For The Marinade:

Boneless chicken cut into small cubes – 2 lb

Maida/All purpose flour – 3 tablespoons

Cornflour – 2 teaspoons

Chilly powder – 1 ½ teaspoon

Freshly ground pepper – ½ teaspoon

A small pinch of red food color – optional

A small pinch of ajinomoto – optional

Egg – 1 large

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tablespoon

Soy sauce – 1 tablespoon

Tomato sauce – 1 ½ tablespoon

Juice of one lime

Salt to taste – Add less than the quantity you normally use, because Soy Sauce is salty. You can add more later after you mix everything.

For The Butter Fry:

Unsalted butter - 1 ½ teaspoon

Green chillies slit lengthwise - 10

Curry leaves – 15 leaves

Method Of Preparation:

- Combine all the marinade ingredients together (except chicken)

- Check the salt and spice proportion

- Add chicken and mix well

- Refrigerate for 30 minutes

- Deep fry on low to medium heat – I burnt them this time :(

- Remove and keep aside

- Now in another pan, heat the butter

- Add the green chillies and curry leaves and fry for two minutes on medium heat

- Remove and empty the contents on to the fried chicken

- Toss well and serve

My Favourite Mallugirl's Microwave Kalakand

I’m a die-hard fan of microwave sweets! :D

Anything easy and tasty is welcome. ;)

And thanks to Mallugirl, my friends and I pigged out this weekend.

Love ya Mallugirl!

The only ‘customization’ I did was cook it for an extra minute or two, and add macadamia nuts instead of pistachio

:D

Check out her original recipe here.

Thakkali (Tomato) Chutney

Hostel food used to be unbearable!! Its only saving grace was the “gunpowder” and tomato chutney which we were doled out in less than generous rations. Sigh.

But the nuns didn’t know they were dealing with hooligans here :D not mere kids.
Every night, after ‘lights out’, we used to sneak into the kitchen.
Loka was the gang leader of sorts for our gastronomic expeditions (where are you now Lux ??! I still have the coin. Can’t believe we’ve lost touch ! )

Err, I digress.

So, *ahem* we’d raid the kitchen, find the preserved chutney and snack on it with raw carrots and bread.

Well, yeah… desperation has peculiar taste buds me friends :D

Anyway, here’s my recipe for Tomato Chutney. I clung to this one after many failed permutations and combinations. :D You can save this for a week or two - if it lasts that long. It goes well with Rice, Roti, Bread… err, ditch the carrots though ;)

P.S. Next time I’ll post the gunpowder recipe…

You Will Need:

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

1 teaspoon asafoetida powder

3 dry red chillies

1 cup curry leaves

10 ripe tomatoes, chopped

20 pods of garlic, finely chopped

A small piece of ginger, minced

2 teaspoons chilly powder

1/2 cup oil

Salt to taste

Method Of Preparation:

- Heat the oil

- Temper with mustard seeds

- When they begin to sputter add the fenugreek seeds and sauté for a 30 seconds in medium flame

- Add the red chillies, garlic, ginger and curry leaves and sauté for 6-7 minutes

- Next add the tomatoes and salt

- Cover and cook on a low flame for 10 minutes, stirring once in between

- Open the lid and add the asafoetida powder

- Cook uncovered until the oil starts to separate and the mixture begins to thicken

- Add the chilly powder and stir for 5 minutes

- Cool and refrigerate in air tight containers.