Category Archives: Dessert

Egg-less Date and Raisin Cake

Among the several delicious cakes that my mother bakes, a special treat is her egg-less date and raisin cake that she makes on special occasions.

Date and raisin cake

Date and Raisin Cake

Time taken: 1 ½ hours + 3 hours (for marinating the dried fruits)

Serves 8 – 10

Slice of date cake

Ingredients:

  • Dates – 1½ cup (when chopped) or 300 g (before chopping)
  • Raisins – ½ cup (100 g)
  • Wheat flour – 2 cups
  • Semolina – ½ cup
  • Low fat vegetable oil margarine (e.g. Flora) – 1 ½ cup (250 g)
  • Brown sugar – 1 cup
  • Condensed milk – 1 cup (vegans can use almond cream or cashew nut cream or coconut cream as a substitute)
  • Vanilla essence – 2 tsp
  • Mixed 3C spice powder (Cardamon, Cloves and Cinnamon) – 1 ½ tsp
  • Sri Lankan Tea – 1/3 cup
  • Baking powder – 2 tsp
  • Baking soda – ¼ tsp + pinch (for marinating the dried fruits)

Method:

  1. De-seed the dates and chop them. Place the chopped dates in a bowl, together with the raisins.
  2. Add 1/3 cup of strong black tea, pinch of baking soda and the mixed 3C spice powder to the dates and raisins bowl. Cover and keep aside, for 2 – 3 hours, letting the dried fruits marinate in the tea and spice mix.
  3. Whisk together the margarine and sugar, adding the condensed milk or vegan substitute. If whisking by hand, add the ingredients slowly while continuing to whisk. If using a blender, blend the three together for about 10 minutes.
  4. Add the vanilla essence to the blend and mix.
  5. Sift the flour, semolina together with the baking powder and soda.
  6. Stir in the sifted flour and semolina gradually into the bowl of blended margarine, sugar and milk and mix.
  7. Add the marinated dried fruits to the batter and fold.
  8. Transfer the cake batter into a baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 140⁰C/284⁰F for about 1 – 1 ¼ hours.
  9. Remove from oven and let it cool, before slicing and serving with some hot Sri Lankan tea or coffee.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Passion fruit and banana cake

Last week, when my mother bought some passion fruit, I had mentioned that I had seen a delicious looking orange and passion fruit syrup cake recently on Poppy’s Patisserie. The very next day, my mother had baked a tangy, crunchy passion fruit and banana cake. The crunchiness is from the baked passion fruit seeds inside the cake.

I would like to share my mother’s recipe for this delicious dessert cake today.

Passion fruit and banana cake

Passion fruit and banana cake

Time taken: 1 hour

Passion fruit cake

Ingredients:

  • Passion fruit – 4 large or 5 medium fruits + 1 (for topping)
  • Banana – 1 (local varieties: kolikoottu or anamalu)
  • Wheat flour – 1 cup
  • Semolina – ½ cup
  • Oats – 3 tbsp
  • Sugar – ¾ cup + 2 tbsp (for topping)
  • Low fat vegetable margarine – ½ cup
  • Water – ¼ cup
  • Baking powder – 1 ½ tsp
  • Baking soda – ½ tsp
  • Rose essence – a drop

Method:

  1. Sift the wheat flour and semolina together with the baking powder and baking soda. Keep aside the dry mix.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk the margarine and sugar by hand, using a large spoon.
  3. Mix the passion fruit pulp, including the seeds, and the oats with the water in another bowl to make a wet mix.
  4. Stir in the wet mix into the bowl containing the whisked margarine and sugar and continue to whisk.
  5. Add in the finely chopped banana and the drop of rose essence into the bowl and mix.
  6. Stir in the dry mix into the large bowl of the wet ingredients gradually.
  7. Pour the cake batter into the baking tray.
  8. Pre-heat the oven and bake at 140⁰C/ 284⁰F for 45 mins.
  9. Beat the pulp of 1 passion fruit together with the 2 tbsp of white sugar and pour over the baked cake, while still hot from the oven.
  10. Serve warm for dessert.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Jaggery and coconut cake

My mother makes scrumptious cakes. Some of my favourites are the basic butter cake and the chocolate cake. However, on this site, I will share a cake recipe or two of my mother’s that is both vegan and made with typically Sri Lankan ingredients.

Today’s recipe is that of my mother’s jaggery and coconut cake. The key ingredient here is the jaggery.

Jaggery and Coconut cake

Time taken: 1 hour

Makes 12 – 16 pieces if baked in a 6”x6” baking pan

Jaggery and coconut cake

Ingredients:

  • Grated jaggery (palm or kithul) – 1 cup
  • Water – 1 cup
  • Low fat sunflower oil margarine (Flora, for e.g.) – ¾ cup (150g)
  • Wheat flour – 1 cup
  • Semolina – ¼ cup
  • Roasted coconut – ¼ cup
  • Coconut powder – 1 cup (100g)
  • Cardamom – 4
  • Vanilla essence – few drops
  • Baking powder – 1 tsp
  • Baking soda – ¼ tsp
  • Cashew nuts – ½ cup, chopped or a little for sprinkling (optional)

Method:

  1. Mix the wheat flour, semolina, baking powder and baking soda and keep aside.
  2. Put the jaggery, margarine, water in a blender. Add the vanilla essence and crushed cardamom seeds. Blend for about a minute or two.
  3. Then, add the coconut powder and roasted coconut to the mix in the blender and blend for another minute or two.
  4. Pour the batter into a mixing bowl.
  5. Stir in the flour mix gradually into the batter and mix well.
  6. Add the chopped cashew nuts and mix.
  7. Pour the batter into the baking pan and sprinkle some chopped cashew nuts on top.
  8. Bake in a preheated oven at 140⁰C/ 284⁰F for around 40 – 45 minutes.
  9. Serve with some Sri Lankan tea or fresh fruit juice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Wattalapam Jelly Pudding

As part of the Eid special series,

(e) Wattalapam jelly pudding

Originally from the Sri Lankan Malay cuisine, wattalapam has become a dessert that is made by all communities in Sri Lanka.  This recipe of my mother is an adaptation of the traditional wattalapam into a jelly pudding.

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves 4

Wattalapam jelly pudding

Ingredients:

  • Thick coconut milk – 1 cup (this can be obtained by blending ¼ cup freshly scraped coconut with 1 cup of water)
  • Egg – 1 (can use 2 tbsp corn flour as a substitute)
  • Jaggery – ½ to 1 cup, depending on taste
  • Cardamom – 3 or 4, crushed
  • Vanilla extract – 2 tsp
  • Agar agar – 2 tbsp
  • Hot water – 6 tbsp

Method:

  1. Mix the coconut milk and jaggery.
  2. Lightly whisk the egg before adding the jaggery-milk mixture. Blend the mixture well.
  3. Add the crushed cardamom and vanilla extract to the mixture.
  4. Cook the pudding mixture on low heat, stirring continuously, for about 10 mins.
  5. Remove the thickened mixture from the heat and keep aside to cool.
  6. Take 2 tsp agar agar powder and mix with 6 tbsp hot water.
  7. Beat the agar agar mix into the slightly cooled pudding mixture.
  8. Cool and refrigerate.

Recipe Source: Raji Thillainathan.

Fried rice

To celebrate Eid al-Fitr, my mother prepared a special lunch today: fried rice with potato curry, stuffed chilli fry, salad and wattalapam jelly pudding. So today, I will share my mother’s recipes for all five dishes, which comes under experimental and fusion cooking, in a series of posts.

Eid lunch special

(a) Fried rice

Cooking time: 30 mins

Serves 4

Fried rice

Ingredients:

  • Basmathi rice – 2 cups
  • Carrot – ¼ cup, chopped
  • Green peas – ¼ cup
  • Leeks – ¼ cup, chopped
  • Onion – ¼ cup, chopped
  • Mixed 3C spice powder – Clove, cinnamon, cardamom powder – 2 tsp
  • Kesari powder – ½ tsp (Can use biryani powder or saffron or turmeric powder)
  • Low fat margarine – 50g or 3 tbsp
  • Cinnamon – 1 ~ 2’’ stick
  • Rampe leaf/ pandan
  • Salt, to taste

Method:

  1. Put the rice in a rice cooker and add water to about an inch above the rice surface. Add a cinnamon stick, rampe leaf and a little salt and cook the rice.
  2. Sprinkle a little salt on the chopped veggies and keep aside.
  3. Heat the margarine in a pan on low heat.
  4. Add the mixed 3C spice powder and sauté for 2 seconds before adding the chopped vegetables.
  5. When the veggies become tender, add the kesari powder.
  6. Add the cooked rice and mix well.
  7. Serve hot.

Recipe Source: Raji Thillainathan.