Chili Cheese Cornbread

Can I repeat the same picture from last post to say how sorry I am? I don't think so. And sorry means that you won't repeat the mistake. I have been repeating the same mistake again and again. So until I fix it on my side, I wouldn't say anything. Hopefully, all of you are good and eating well.
I have been having a lot of fun and friends, work, people, relationship, and life in general have kept me busy.

Cooking is something which relaxes me every day. In my always moving life, cooking is something that stays on my side. I went to Kerala for my birthday. I went home for Diwali. I also visited Chennai very recently and friends have been visiting throughout. Food is always an integral part of all my trips. These days I have a good balance of outside food and home cooked food.

I am posting a chili cheese cornbread today. As you all know, breads are my favorite. Also, Jamie Oliver is my favorite. And this is one of his creation. I follow him on Instagram and I could not take this bread out of my mind, even when it was out of my sight. One amazing thing about this bread is that it is baked with baking powder and not yeast. So, there is no kneading effort required. There are no yeast nightmares. The combination of maize flour, caramelized onions, crunchy corn, chili, and cheese works amazingly well. The bread will be crunchy from outside and really spongy and soft from inside. Obviously, let's not talk about the aroma that fills the house when the bread is being baked. It is something that you need to experience on your own.

I had it with salad and oh my god!

Let me get started with the recipe. I have drooled enough.

Chili Cheese Cornbread
Adapted From:  Chili Cheese Cornbread

Ingredients:

1. 320 g Maize flour/cornmeal - Basically the granular yellow maize flour and not the white powdered corn flour
2. 250 ml full fat milk
3. 100 g grated mozzarella (original recipe calls for 140 g grated cheddar, mozzarella worked wonders)
4. 2 thinly sliced onions
5. 2 corn cob
6. 1 tsp baking powder
7. 6 tbsp flour
8. 3 green chilies - remove the seeds and fine chop
9. 4 large whole eggs, beaten ( I used 5, as the eggs were small)
10. freshly ground black pepper
11. freshly ground Italian seasoning - optional
12. some butter
13. salt to taste
14. olive oil, for greasing

Steps:

1. Heat a pan, add the onion to it and let them caramelize.
2. While the onion is caramelizing, take out the corn kernels from the cob. To do this, hold the corn upright down on the plate, and run a knife from top to bottom. When the onion is caramelized, add the corn kernels to the pan. Let them cook for five minutes. Take the pan off heat.
3. Preheat the oven at 200 degree Celsius.
4. Add the beaten eggs to a bowl. Add the maize flour, flour, salt, baking powder, a large portion of the cheese, cooled down onion & corn mixture, green chilies, and the milk to the eggs.
5. Mix the mixture properly and season with salt, black pepper and Italian seasoning.
6. Prepare a baking tin of size 22 cm or two smaller ones by greasing them with olive oil and covering them with parchment paper.
7. Pour the mixture into the baking tins, and bake for about 35 minutes.
8. After 25/30 minutes, take out the baking tins and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on the top.
9. Let the bread cool down for 15 minutes or so.
10. Serve hot with soup, salad or whatever you wish.

This bread was amazing. All the ingredients were like made for each other.It is one of the easiest breads to make.

Go ahead and bake :)

Focaccia Caprese

As I unwrap this amazing wonder from Laurel's kitchen, the aroma from yesterday's focaccia still hovers over my mind. The house was filled with the heavenly fragrance. Yeast was devouring its food and gluten was boasting its control. Read this article to find out how the aroma of fresh baked bread can make us kinder to strangers.

Bread means something more to me. As Vikrant parsai rightly said, "If you find bread and water in the desert, you are bound to find God somewhere too".  I can not agree more. 

And what a bread it was! So delicious, soft, flavorful and easy to make. I had it with tomato and spinach soup and it was a sumptuous meal. Then I had it again for breakfast today. I was very satisfied with the outcome of this bread. I have stumbled upon Focaccia Caprese quite a few times. Fellow bloggers post this bread often and I wanted to bake this bread for a long time now. If only, we would do what we wanted to do there and then. I know that day will come in my life. 

Focaccia is my favorite bread. I have posted different focaccias (Masala Focaccia, Garlic and Rosemary Focaccia) before and all were delicious. I have baked them over and over again and they have never disappointed me. 

I will soon start taking deeper dives into the bread book and will bring a lot more wonderful breads to you. Till then, have fun with this focaccia caprese and let me know if it amazed you the way it amazed me. 

Focaccia Caprese

Recipe Adapted from: Aparna

Makes 2 Focaccias

Ingredients:

For the dough:

1. 3 1/2 cup (450 g) bread flour (I used all purpose flour and it turned out just fine)

2. 2 tsp active dry yeast/instant yeast (you will have to proof the active dry yeast before mixing it)

3. 1 tsp salt

4. 1 1/2 tbsp sugar

5. 1/4 cup olive oil + some for greasing

6. 1 - 1 1/2 cup (240 - 360 ml ) warm water

For the topping:

1. 3 - 4 ripe large tomatoes - slice them

2. 15-16 pieces of fresh mozzarella (I didn't have mozzarella and used cottage cheese, worked well)

3. fresh basil leaves to sprinkle and garnish on top (I didn't have fresh basil so I increased the dry basil in the herb oil)

For the herb oil:

1. 1 tsp garlic paste

2. 1/4 cup olive oil

3. 1 tsp red chilly flakes

4. 1 tsp dry oregano

5. 1 1/2 tsp dry basil

6. salt to taste

Steps to prepare dough:

1. Proof the yeast first. Dissolve a pinch of sugar in 1/2 cup of lukewarm water. Now dissolve the yeast in it. Keep this mixture aside covered with a towel for 5-7 minutes.

2. Sieve the salt, sugar and flour together. Add olive oil and yeast to the flour. Now add water slowly and keep mixing the flour meanwhile. Amount of water you need will depend on the quality of flour, humidity etc.

Mix and knead the dough till the point it becomes soft, elastic and just short of being sticky. I needed about 1 1/4 cup of water.

3. Grease a bowl with olive oil and place the dough in it. Cover the bowl and let it proof for one hour.

Steps to prepare the herb oil:

1. Mix all the ingredients together and keep aside. 

Steps to make the bread:

1. Preheat the oven to 210 degree Celsius.

2. Take out the dough and divide in into two parts. Take a baking try and cover it foil. Grease the foil with olive oil. Now bring the dough pieces to rectangular shapes and to a thickness of about an inch. You can shape the dough with your hand to give the bread a rustic shape. Poke the dough with fingers on regular intervals to give it a classic dimpled effect. Let it rise for 20 minutes.

3. Brush the bread with herb oil. Bake it for about 15-20 minutes or till it turn golden brown.

4. Brush the bread with herb oil again. Place the cheese and tomatoes on the top. Drizzle the remaining herb oil on the top of the bread. Bake it again till the cheese starts melting or for about 5-7 minutes.

5. Serve hot.

  Have fun baking and eating :)

Submitted for YeastSpotting

Stuffed Baked Potato Baskets

A simple idea when implemented can turn into something amazing.

Hard work and continuous persistence can make you achieve great things. 

Perfection is at the end of a steep and rough path. But oh my my! What a destination it is to be at!

This post is again a result of an inspiration. The world of media and internet is overwhelming. You can see and share whatever you feel like. I am a part of certain groups on fb where some really inspirational stuff is shared. The world of food, is an amazing world to be in. Cooking, exploring, trying out new ingredients, trying out new cuisines, using the same ingredient differently, different styles of cooking and what not -- this is what I dream about and this is what I do.

Well, I saw these potato baskets on such a group. They were empty when I saw them.
I filled them up with more love and more food.

The one below looks like a hat. It is funny, beautiful and delicious.

I made 4 different types of stuffed potato baskets. They were amazing. My friends ate them wholeheartedly. They are a keeper. These baskets are very good for a quick bite, an evening snack or a fancy party snack. They could also be a very attractive snack for kids at their parties.

This post has taken a lot from me. I had to make these baskets three times to get them perfelectly out of the muffin pan. I cracked the trick eventually. Certain pictures might confuse you and are in contradiction with the steps described below. In the steps, I describe that the stuffing has to be put in after taking out the baskets from the muffin pan and then I bake them for some more time. Though, certain pictures show the stuffing in the baskets while they were still in the muffin pan. Follow the steps and do not get confused. I tried these baskets all the possible ways and the steps describe the best possible way to make them and take them out cleanly and perfectly. If you put the stuffing in the baskets while they are still baking in the muffin pans, it will be very hard to take them out of the pan.

I wanted to take a lot of pictures (as you can see). I want to improve my photography skills. Now, I am starting to settle down a bit so I also intend to buy a lot of props and a new camera, a lamp and a reflector. I hope all goes well. A lot of thought has gone into this post -- you can see the three philosophical sayings at the beginning of the post.

These baskets are lovely. Stuff them up with any ingredient of your choice. Eggs went amazingly well with these baskets. The baked potato and the baked egg combination is killing. Trust me! Mushrooms and cheese also went really well. You can stuff them up with just cheese also. I think aubergine mash will also go very well with these baskets. I have not tried this combination yet. I ate a few of them without any stuffing and the taste of baked-crunchy potato was yummy. They can also be eaten with just mayonnaise. Slurp!

So go ahead. Follow this recipe and let me know how it turned out.

Stuffed Baked Potato Baskets
Makes 6
Recipe Adapted from: Potato Baskets

Ingredients for potato baskets:
1. 3 medium size potatoes - peeled and grated
2. 3 tbsp corn flour
3. 2 tbsp oil/olive oil
4. freshly ground black pepper to taste
5. salt to taste

Ingredients for mushroom/capsicum stuffing:
1. few button mushrooms/1 capsicum - chop in chunks
2. cheese (I used a soft cheese similar to feta)
3. freshly ground black pepper
4. salt to taste

Mix the ingredients and the stuffing is ready.

Ingredients for tomato stuffing:
1. 3-4 fresh basil leaves
2. 1 tomato - chop in chunks
3. a large pinch of dry oregano
4. freshly ground black pepper
5. salt to taste

Mix the ingredients and the stuffing is ready.

Ingredients for egg stuffing:
1. egg (1 per basket) - Break the egg separately without destroying the yolk.
2. freshly ground black pepper
3. salt to taste

Steps:
1. Mix potato, salt, black pepper, cornflour and oil properly.
2. Grease a muffin pan.
3. Place the potato mixture in the muffin pan alongside the walls.
4. Bake the baskets in a preheated oven for 10-12 minutes at 200 degree celsius. Keep at the top shelf.
5. Take out the potato baskets from the muffin pan and place them on the baking tray (covered with aluminuim foil ). You have to be really careful here. Use a butter knife/rear end of a fork/knife to take out the baskets from the muffin pan. Remember to take them out before the top edges of the basket start to crisp out. As when the edges crisp out, they stick to the pan and it becomes difficult to take them out.
6. Fill out the potato baskets with different stuffing. For the egg stuffing, just place the yolk in the basket with some of the egg white. Sprinkle salt and black pepper. I also baked one of the baskets with just some egg white.

7. Bake the baskets for another 15 minutes or till you see the stuffing has become golden brown. The egg would have been baked by now.
8. Serve hot with sauce, ketchup or just some cheese shavings on top.

Empty Baskets.

 If you see closely, the baked yolk has a thin glossy film on the top. 

The baskets were amazing. Go try them yourself and let me know how they turned out.

Disclaimer: Certain pictures might confuse you and are in contradiction with the steps described. In the steps, I describe that the stuffing has to be put in after taking out the baskets from the muffin pan and then I bake them for some more time. Though, certain pictures show the stuffing in the baskets while they were still in the muffin pan. Follow the steps and do not get confused. I tried these baskets all the possible ways and the steps describe the best possible way to make them and take them out cleanly and perfectly. If you put the stuffing in the baskets while they are still baking in the muffin pans, it will be very hard to take them out of the pan.

Tomato, Basil, Cheese Calzone

I love calzones. I have a soft corner for Pizza and Calzone. Actually, both were part of a personal project that I was doing. That explains the extra love. I have been making calzones for months now. Though I never got a chance to post them.

It is very difficult for me to list out something that I don't like to eat. Once, I and my sister were discussing about what we like and what we don't. I could not list even a single food item that I don't like. Ah wait! There was one, dry cabbage curry. My sister said that she will cook it for me and she was sure that I would like it too. She is always so confident about these things. She knows I love the Indian curries and dry vegetables that she prepares. She is an amazing cook, much better than I am. She has more experience too. I love watching her when she is cooking. And when I do, I always learn a thing or two.

I make pizza quite frequently and most of the times the dough turns out to be a little extra than required. I keep it in the fridge for later use and make calzones with it. The first calzone I made, was a mushroom and onion calzone. It turned out to be amazing and I became crazy. I made all kinds of calzones thereafter. The one over which everyone drools is the chocolate calzone. I will post that soon. It is not a complex/detailed recipe but I like to create some curiosity. Chocolate calzone takes you to another world. You feel like you are flying with open wings in the clear blue sky. Summer breeze starts blowing all around and nothing seems to be better. Believe me or sue me. ;) Just Joking.

I made pizza pie and pizzas on Thursday and there was some extra dough which I kept in the fridge. I went to Ooty with friends for the weekend. Ooty is a good place. It was sunny throughout and it was less greener. But the air was cold so the temperature was not that high. It was an amazing drive. There were a lot of memorable moments and walks. Aaah! I will never forget those. When I am up at a height, I am myself. Heights give me a high that nothing else gives (Assume we are not talking about food). Not a lot of people know that about me. But I have written poems on being at a height and enjoying the walk up to the summit.
Here is one for you: Heights

Ooty is known for homemade chocolates. We bought a lot of them. We went to Coonoor also. Coonoor is another hill station not far off from Ooty. It is known for its cheese farm. We could not go to the cheese farm and neither were we able to contact them. So, we searched for some homemade cheese in Ooty itself. We found a shop which sold local cheese. I and my friend bought a lot of cheese. The one I use in the recipe is a roasted garlic and paprika cheese. It is kind of like feta but even softer. We also bought aged cheddar, montasio style cheese, pepper honey and lemon & ginger marmalade. Shopping for food is always fun. I do it alone almost always. But this time when we entered the shop he was the one who suggested to roam around and buy a few things. I was surprised and so damn happy. It happens very rarely that I get company to roam around a food store with someone whilst the other person is also enjoying the process and is actively participating. The feeling was amazing. Our friends were busy buying clothes so we took enough advantage of the time.

So now you can imagine that I had a nice weekend and have good memories. Travel and trips bring people closer. They also expose you to certain traits of people that you have been ignoring. But you realize that there are certain things which can't be ignored. Maybe they are an important part of his/her being and not yours. Well, I can keep talking about travel, trips, mountains, heights, sky, people etc. but there is a lot more that I want to share with you.  Enjoy this tomato, basil, cheese calzone.

Let me pour out the recipe.

Tomato, basil, cheese Calzone
Makes 1

Take the dough recipe from here: Vegetable Pizza with Homemade Dough

Ingredients:
1. 1 tbsp olive oil
2. 2 plum tomatoes - cut in chunks
3. 1 green chilly - chopped finely (can avoid)
4. 5-6 fresh basil leaves
5. Soft cheese - Use as per your taste (I used a soft cheese. I used about 7-8 small cubes of cheese)
6. Freshly ground black pepper - as per taste
7. salt to taste
8. oregano to taste

Steps:
1. Heat up the olive oil in a pan. Add basil to the oil when it is hot.
2. Add tomatoes and green chilly to the pan after a few seconds.
3. Saute the tomatoes on high heat for about 2 minutes.
4. Season with salt, black pepper and oregano.
5. Roll out a ball of pizza dough. Keep it thin.
6. Spread the tomato on one half of the rolled out dough.
7. Add cheese on the top of the tomatoes.
8. Apply water on the edges of this half using your fingers. This will help in binding the edges closely.
9. Close the other half of the rolled out dough over the tomatoes and cheese.
10. Bind the edges of the dough using you finger and water. Hold one end of the edges (both the layers) and give them a twist towards the inside. Keep going like this till you reach the other end. Use water if dough is sticking to your hand.
11. Take aluminium foil and sprinkle some flour on it.
12. Keep the calzone on the foil.
13. Brush the calzone with water or egg white. The top of the calzone will cook slowly now and will be crispier. The color will also be brighter.
14. Pre heat the oven at 200 degree celsius. Place the calzone in the baking tray of the pre heated oven.
15. Let it cook for about 10-12 minutes or till the point it browns up.

Serve hot.

The calzone was delicious. The crust was light and crunchy and the inside was flavorful. Really, tomato, cheese and basil is an amazing combination. I highly recommend you to make this.

If the tomatoes are very juicy, some of the juices may run out. If possible, cook the tomatoes in the oven for sometime. That would take some of the moisture out. Bind the edges of the calzone tightly. I had a loose connection somewhere and the tomato juices came out. It turned out fine in the end though. So what are you waiting for? Go, go go!

Pizza Pie (Deep Dish Pizza)

I saw this pie somewhere and could not stop myself from making it.

Sometime back I did a lot of research on Pizzas for a personal project. I think that's when I became a much bigger fan of Pizzas. I love them. Though I am very specific  about my pizza. There is no such pizza as bad pizza but I like the thin crust style the most. There has been one more change now. I usually don't order pizza, I make them at home.

For dough, I have my favorite Jamie Oliver recipe which I love and am glad that I discovered it and tried it. A dear person, Cliff, shared a tomato sauce recipe with me recently, which I gladly tried and am happy that I did.

This is not exactly a Chicago style deep dish pizza. This is a pizza pie. It is about one inch tall and is thin crust. I loaded it with two layers of cheese and lots of vegetables and the yummy tomato sauce.

This Pizza Pie gives an instant high. It looks interesting and tastes amazing. The pie had a great crust and in the middle it was all gooey and cheesey.

It is a must try recipe for everyone. The process of making the pizza was so interesting, obviously the eating part is always fun. ;)

Pizza Pie
Recipe Adapted From: Deep Dish Pizza

Pick up the pizza dough recipe from here: Vegetable Pizza with homemade dough. It makes about 3 medium and one regular size pizza.

For Sauce:
Makes sauce for about 4 pizzas
Recipe source: Cliff Garzzillo

Ingredients:
1. 7-8 medium sized tomatoes
2. bunch of fresh basil leaves
3. Freshly ground black pepper
4. Oregano
5. 5-6 tbsp Olive oil
6. Salt to taste

Steps:
1. Crush the tomatoes and mix with all the other ingredients in a baking pan. Check if the tomatoes taste fine. Add a tsp of sugar if tomatoes are very sour.
2. Cook for about an hour at 180 degree Celsius in the oven. Alternatively you can also cover and cook on gas until soft and all mashed up.


Vegetable Topping:
You may use any kind of topping you like. I am putting down what I used.

Ingredients:
1. 200 g button mushrooms - Chop in chunks
2. 1 big capsicum - Chop in chunks
3. 1 large red onion - Chop in chunks
4. 2-3 green chilies - Finely chopped
5. freshly ground black pepper
6. red chilly flakes - to taste
7. salt to taste
8. oregano - to taste
9. 1-2 tbsp olive oil

Steps:
1. Saute the vegetables in the olive oil for 3-4 minutes. Add mushrooms just a minute before.
2. Sprinkle the seasonings as per your taste. Do not put salt yet. Put salt just when you are about to assemble the pie as mushrooms release a lot of moisture when salt is applied.

Other ingredients:
A lot of grated cheese. I used Amul Processed Cheese. You may use Mozzarella, Cheddar or any other kind.

Steps to assemble:
1. Roll some dough out. It should be enough to cover a 9 inch pie pan. Roll as thin as possible.
    You may have your pie pan of some other size in which case you  need to roll out accordingly.
2. Grease the inside of the pie pan with olive oil. Grease well so that the pizza pie does not stick.
3. Cover the pie pan with the rolled out dough. Remove the extra dough from the edges.
4. Spread cheese in the pie pan.
5. Spread vegetables on top of cheese. Garnish with salt now.
6. Now roll out some more dough. Roll as thin as possible.
7. Spread this over the vegetables (Refer the pic)
8. Spread sauce on the top of this layer. You can garnish with some chilly flakes.
9. Spread another layer of cheese.
10. Bake at 200 for about 40 minutes or until done. If you see that the bottom is not crisp or cooked properly, take the pie out of the pie pan (by now pie would be crisp and sturdy) and place it directly on the baking tray. Cover up the top with aluminium foil if it gets browned up but the base is still not cooked. Cook for few more minutes. (It happened with me. I took a few pictures and then realized that the base needed some more cooking. I then put the pie back in the oven. That explains the darker color of a pie piece. Rest of the photos were taken before these final few minutes of cooking )

As the pictures suggest, it was completely amazing. I thank all the people who have been the inspiration and source of recipes. In fact, I thank myself for making this and giving me this opportunity to eat such awesome stuff. ( A short thank you note.. ;))

Have a fun weekend guys. :)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

When you live with a five year old you need to make cookies. I am making it sound like a punishment but it was so much fun. I made two different types of cookies and my niece helped me. I put a chair for her in the kitchen and she was standing on it through out. We had lots of fun. When you are doing something that the kids like they become very generous with kisses, hugs and what not. Do remember to take out time from all the cooking to take full advantage of the situation. ;)

I had made these cookies even before Christmas but getting a chance to post them now. These cookies fall into the category of soft, chewy and thick cookies. I don't know about you but I am the one who likes soft and chewy cookies. No other kind of cookies can please me. Maybe that's the reason the other chocolate filled cookies couldn't win my heart. They were not chewy, less softer than these and one could easily break them. I would put up the recipe for the chocolate filled cookies as well very soon.

I shaped the cookies differently this time. I made the cookies jagged head. The cookies had a rough and cranky surface which added to the texture and the looks. The softness and the texture of the cookie was enhanced by the melted butter, extra egg yolk and the brown sugar. I absolutely love the brown sugar texture in all the dessert. Be precise with the measurement and the shaping steps and these cookies will surely rock your world.

Lets hear out the recipe for these cookies and let them be their own judge.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 24 large cookies

Recipe Source: Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:

1. 300 grams all purpose flour

2. 1/2 tsp baking Soda

3. 1 1/2 stick butter or 170 grams butter

4. 200 grams dark brown sugar

5. 100 grams granulated white sugar

6. 1 egg + 1 egg yolk

7. 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

8. 150 grams semi sweet chocolate chips

Steps:

1. Mix in the dry ingredients (all purpose flour, baking soda) together and keep aside.

2. Melt the butter and beat in the brown and the white sugar in it either by hand or an electric beater.

   I do it by hand and that's why I powder the white granulated sugar before putting it in the butter. 

   It takes much less time to blend in the powdered sugar in the butter.

3. Now add in the eggs and vanilla extract and blend well.

4. Add the dry ingredients to this mixture. Also add the chocolate chips.

5. Make a dough out of this mixture.

6. Pre heat oven to 165 degree celsius. Cover a baking tray with parchment paper.

7. Take about 50 grams of dough in your hand. Make a ball out of it and break the dough ball into half from the center. 

   Rotate both the halves by 90 degrees to bring the rough surface upwards. Join both the halves at the bottom by sticking them together

   and make them into a single ball. Make sure that you don't even out the surface while doing this.

8. Bake the cookies for about 20 minutes until they start to crisp out on the edges. They will be 

   golden brown in color, edges would have started to harden out and the centers would still feel soft.

9. Take the baking parchment out of the oven. Let them cool. If you try to take the cookies off the parchment paper

   when hot, the cookies would break. Take them off once cooled.

10. Serve with milk or just like that.

These are my most favorite cookies. I still remember their taste in my mouth. Make them and keep them in an air tight container. 

Have fun baking and eating :)

Lemon Syrupy cake

Its time to bake some cake. I haven't been able to bake this cake for a while as we had a lot of other sweets at home. Homemade Gulab Jamun was obviously one of them ;). So as soon as the sweet stock went down a little I jumped in the kitchen and turned on my oven. You don't need any excuse to bake a cake, you may need one for not baking it though :).

This was a very soft, moist and lemony preparation. I have been planning to try the sweet and sour combination for a while. Well, my sister loved it and I did too. I ate like two big pieces of it and skipped dinner. Phew!!

Lemony Syrupy cake
Makes 6 big pieces (10x4 inch tin)
Recipe Source: Lemon Syrupy cake

Ingredients:
1. 125 g butter
2. 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3. 2 whole eggs
4. 1 lemon zest
5. 3/4 cup all purpose flour
6. 2 tsp baking powder
7. 4 tbsp milk (direct from refrigerator or at room temperature)
8. 4 tbsp lemon juice (about 1 1/2 medium size lemon)
9. 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Place the butter in a bowl and keep it inside the oven (warm mode) for 30 seconds so that the butter can melt a bit. Now pour in the granulated sugar and whisk the butter and sugar together. Keep whisking till you feel that the sugar has almost melted and the mixture has become fluffy. You may need to keep the bowl in the oven for 30 seconds or so every now and then to heat up the butter a bit. This would help in dissolving the sugar faster. Let the mixture sit for about 2 minutes so that the sugar dissolves properly. I was whisking continuously, eagerly waiting for the sugar to melt. When I rested the mixture for a while (I was actually resting my arm ), I realized the sugar has melted.

Now add the eggs one by one and beat well. Put in the lemon zest. Mix the flour and baking powder in a separate container and pour them in this bowl. Whisk the contents of the bowl till the mixture has taken the form of a fine paste. Now add the milk. Milk would give liquidity to the mixture. I always use milk as a safety weapon when I am in trouble and it has never failed me. So when you are baking a cake or making some brownies and you feel that the batter has thickened up/doesn't look right or the sugar-butter mixture looks overheated, pour in some milk and see the results.

 I baked the cake in an Oven Toaster Grill (otg). Pre heat the otg at 180 degrees. Grease a tin of size about 10x4 inches. Pour the mixture in the tin and keep inside the otg for 10 minutes or till you get a nice golden crispy top. While the cake is cooking make a syrup of the sugar powder and lemon juice in a pan on a low heat. Let it cool. Check the cake if it is done using the usual "toothpick coming out clean" method.  Now when the cake is ready, poke holes all over the cake and pour over the cooled syrup evenly. Let the cake sit for a while.

The wait would be difficult as the whole house will be full of a beautiful lemony and buttery flavor. Actually we started eating the cake right from the tin itself  :-). It was simply wow!! The sweet and sour combination worked out really well for my tastes.

Have fun baking and eating guys. :)