It’s Easter!

To me, baking is therapy. I never need a special occasion to go try my hand at cooking up a storm inside my oven! So, with this being a long weekend, it was only natural that I bake something different for Easter. The past one week had me perusing through various recipes from cookbooks, websites, blogs, et cetera, et cetera, drawing inspiration to bake something different. It was with quite some difficulty that I finally decided on what I was going to bake. Nothing fancy. A simple naked cake, with a simple fruit syrup frosting. I guess there are enough Easter cake recipes and Easter egg recipes out there already. So here is what I baked for Easter this year-

Vanilla cake with Pomegranate syrup:

Vanilla Cake:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 200g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 3 eggs (at room temperature)
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• Zest of one lemon
• Juice of ½ a lemon

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 160°C.
• In a bowl of your electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar, until they are creamy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time to the butter-sugar mixture, and beat them till they are creamy and light.
• Now, add the lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla extract to the above mixture and beat them until they are well-incorporated.
• In a separate bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder and salt.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in three additions, continuing to beat them on low speed. Scrape the sides of the bowl as required.
• Now pour the prepared batter into a mould of your choice. I chose to bake them in a Bundt pan. (Now, my love for silicone baking moulds is no secret. So I obviously used a silicone bundt mold to bake the cake 😉 )
• Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes, till a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool completely before unmolding. As I used a silicone pan, I didn’t have to butter or flour the pan. But please do butter your pan when you use a normal one. Else, your cake will stick to the bottom! 🙂

 

The Vanilla Bundt!

 

Now for the syrup.

• Juice of 1 pomegranate
• Juice of ½ a lemon
• ½ cup granulated white sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

Method:

• Mix together the pomegranate juice, lemon juice, vanilla extract and sugar in a saucepan.
• Bring the mixture to a boil, till the solution begins to thicken, but is still of pouring consistency.
• Remove it from the flame and allow it to come to room temperature.

Assembling the cake:

• Poke holes into the cake once it is completely cool.
• Pour the syrup over the cake, allowing the syrup to drip over the sides of the cake.

(Recipe inspired by an awesome creation in the Home Baker’s Guild 🙂 )

 

 

 

Vanilla cake with Pomegrante syrup

 

Cut a slice, and Enjoy it with a dollop of whipped cream! 🙂

Happy Easter, everyone! 🙂 🙂