Pumpkin Spice Short Cakes

Happy Halloween to all out there who celebrating. Seattle is looking so gorgerous and splashed with colors like oranges, red and green.. maples leaves, apples, pumpkins.Well, I am not a big fan of pumpkin but since it's season to celebrate thought will bake some....

1/2 cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree (I prepared it at home you can also use canned)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground nutmeg

Prepare cake pans: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat cake pans with softened butter and set aside.

Make the batter: Cream butter until smooth in a large bowl with an electric mixer set on medium speed. Add the sugars and mix until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until the mixture is smooth and light. Set aside. Combine the pumpkin purée, buttermilk, and vanilla in a medium bowl and set aside. Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and nutmeg in a large bowl and set aside. In thirds, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to the butter mixture, blending well after each addition until smooth.

Bake the cake: Pour batter into the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean -- 35 to 40 minutes. Cool the cakes in the pan on wire racks for 30 minutes. Remove cakes from pans and return to the wire racks until completely cool.

Aloo Palak ~ Potato Spinach Curry

A big thanks to Manju @ Mirch Masala  for introducing me to  "Full Circle Farm". I'm glad that I found this service. A box of fresh Vegetables and fruits on every wednesday morning at doorstep oh! no grocery shopping.. I'm we are loving it. This week delivery included fresh Spinach, Idaho potatoes and I can't think of any other recipe than "aloo palak" which is quick and simple to go with chapathis, pulkas or even with plain white rice.

Ingredients:
1 Bunch of Palak/Spinach
1 big Potato cut into cubes
1 big Onion chopped
2 Tomato chopped
3 Green chilies
Fresh ginger slice(Crush & paste using pestle mortor)
2 Garlic cloves(Crush & paste using pestle mortor)
1/2 tsp Coriender powder
1/2 tsp Cumin powder
1/2 tsp Garam masala powder
1/2 tsp Red chili powder
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
Whole masala( 2 Cloves, 3-4 Peppercorns,1" cinnamon, 1 small cardamom, 1 tsp cumin seeds)

Boil water and cook palak and green chilies until the leaves are soft and tender. Let it cool
In a heavy pan heat 3 tbsp oil add whole masalas and cuminseeds. when seeds starts splutters add chopped onions and saute for a min.
Once the onions are golden add ginger-garlic paste and saute.
Now add all the powders and mix well.Let the masala and onions combine well.
Add potatoes,tomatoes mix well add salt and reduce the heat, cover and cook until the potato soft(occasionally saute)
Meanwhile, Grind the palak and greenchilies to fine paste.
Once the tomatoes and potatoes are well combine finally add the ground palak-paste (add water depending on how thin the curry you want)and cook for 5-10 mins in low flame
Serve with hot pulkas, rotis,chapathis.

Fall and Upside-down Apple Cake

Halo! how are you all doing? last month on been busy..got a new job and life has become routine but I'm loving it. My favourite season is approaching and thought of baking a season's apple cake.
This recipe is from the Cookbook"Food and Wine".

Ingredients

Apples
 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
Pinch of salt
2 Golden Delicious apples-peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
Cake
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
Glaze
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon milk

1.PREPARE THE APPLES: Preheat the oven to 350° and line the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl, blend the butter with the brown sugar and salt. Spread the mixture evenly in the lined cake pan. Arrange the apples wedges in the pan in 2 concentric circles.

2.MAKE THE CAKE: In the same bowl, whisk the flour with the sugar, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, mix the eggs with the milk and vanilla. Add the mixture to the dry ingredients along with the melted butter and whisk until smooth. Scrape the batter over the apples and spread evenly. Bake the cake in the lower third of the oven until golden and springy and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
3.Transfer the pan to a rack and let cool for 30 minutes. Run the tip of a knife around the inside rim of the pan. Center a serving plate over the cake; carefully invert the the cake and plate. Remove the pan and peel off the parchment paper. Let the cake cool completely.
4.MAKE THE GLAZE: In a small bowl, stir the confectioners' sugar with the milk and drizzle it over the cake. Cut into wedges and serve.