I always have problems with national recipes if I never tasted them before.
Kheer is one of my favorites, it is much better than american rice pudding and is quite easy to make. I also like carrot halva, but even after 10-20 times trying to make it I cannot get it right
If you are good baker, you can try following cake, almost every woman back home bakes it:
1 glass of sugar,
4 large eggs (or 6 small)
1 cup of white flour
Preheat oven to 400 degrees (190-220 celsius)
separate egg whites from yolks (must be done very carefully, it is better to separate 1 egg at a time). Beat (use mixer) egg whites until it turns into a foam and increases 5-6 times in volume. start addting 1/5 cup of sugar at a time and keep beating. When sugar dissolves, add another 1/5. All together it will take about 5-10 minutes and egg whites should look almost like this:
Put egg whites aside and quickly beat yolks (30 sec)
Mix in yolks into beaten egg whites (slowly and carefully)
when mixed well, mix in flour - 1/5 cup at a time.
pour the mixture into cake pan (pan should be dry and clan, you can line it with parchment paper) and place in the oven.
This is the best shape:
It is very important not to shake the cake in the oven and keep the temperature stable, therefore it is recommended not to open oven for first 30 min. In about 40 min cake should be done, check it with toothpick (it's ok if it will look dark). Cake should increase in volume and should be about 10cm tall. When cake is done, carefully (don't shake)remove it from oven and let cool for 15-20 min.
Remove from pan and cut into 2 layers (you can use
thread to cut)
Now you can use any cream to decorate it.
I ususally sprinkle bottom layer with rasberry syrup and use either whipped cream (home made) or butter cream to decorate.
To make butter cream beat one can of condenced milk with 100-150 gramms of butter. (I know it is very fat, but is too yummy and goes well with wallnuts).
If you are using whipped cream sprincle more syrup (any syrup) to make cake a bit softer.
Ok, now we are done.
To make lighter version of the cake, before putting it to oven, mix in 1 cup of sour apples peeled, and cut into small peices.
Bake same way, but it won't need any decoration.
[ December 27, 2005: Message edited by: Sania Marsh ]
[ December 27, 2005: Message edited by: Sania Marsh ]