Plain cake

Cake is everybody's favorite and when you make it at home it has  extra special something in it - love. Many of my friends are worried about making cake and think it to be a big task. I would never agree to this. As far as I have known it just involves simple blending in of ingredients and baking till done. No magical tricks in here except that you might want to be a little precise with the measurements

I have made this cake for small get-togethers, family- get-togethers, friends, relatives, especially mil and yes it has been all time favorite. And I sure I remember it tight that it has always needed more servings with smiles on brightly lit faces

This here is a recipe for simple plain cake. It serves perfect for an evening snack or tea time. Add different things each time for simple but different taste change... say cashews, walnuts, raisins, tutti-frutti etc. We have cashews as our favorite but we love blending in other stuff too

Update : 10/12/12 Nowadays we make more of tutti-frutti cakes as that has become niks favorite addition to cake. Also he loves to dust it and add to the batter. Never to forget mentioning that he loves to help in every bit that he can. I love him soooooooooo much

This is what u'll need....

Maida /All-purpose Flour - 1 cup

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Baking powder 1 tspn

Eggs - 3

Unsalted Butter - 3/4 stick 

Pineapple essence - 1 tbspn
For garnish - broken casehws/ raisins / broken walnuts / tutti-frutti

Here is the stir....

• Grease a baking pan thoroughly with little melted/softened butter. Make sure you dont leave any spots here and there. Sprinkle a tbspn of flour in the pan and swirl it all around to dust the pan evenly evenly all over. Set is aside till the batter is ready

• Preheat the oven at 180 degrees to be ready to bake the perfect cake

• Time to get the dry ingredients together. Measure a cup of flour - this could be tricky. Make sure you dont heap the cup with flour. Secondly dont tap the cup on the counter to accomodate more flour. The best way is to pick a cup of flour and level it gently it with a knife for the perfect measure. We will then sieve it to make it more light

• Add a tspn of baking powder to it and sieve them together a couple of times to make it airy and to avoid any unwanted lumps in the batter. Let this sit aside while you mix in  the wet ingredients

• Butter should be at room temperature. So the best would to remove from the fridge leave it outside on the kitchen counter for and hour or so

• Cream butter and sugar together to make it more like a sticky paste

• Break eggs one by one and add to the butter mixture. Add it one at a time and blend them  really well. When all 3 eggs are blended well add a tablespoon of pineapple essence. This helps take away unwanted odor that might creep in due to the eggs

• Get the flour mixture ready. Drop in little at a time and blend well. I do it in three batches to keep it slow and smooth. If I add the dry flour all at once I risk the chances of having flour flying around and messing up my entire counter given me too much of extra worh which I hate. So best would be to add little flour at a time and mix well before adding more

• If you planning for garnish then this is the right time. Whatever you add, just make sureto  coat/dust it with flour before you add them to the batter. This keeps them from sinking to the bottom so gives an even spread inside the cake

• Pour the cake batter into the greased baking pan and place it in the oven in the middle rack. We would love an even cooking so dont leave it too close to the top or the bottom

• Bake at 180 degrees for about 22-25 mins or till a toothpick comes out clean

Note:

• Dont blend for too long as it would make it too airy causing the cake to drop in the middle after it is pulled out of the oven
• Be precise on ingredients and their measures
• I prefer less sugar. If you want you can try 1 cup
• Sift flour and baking powder couple of times to make it airy which helps the cake puff up and stay light