Luxor4u

Countessa requested this. Here's my cake recipe that will keep moist even if it is left sitting out in hot weather for a couple days in the pan covered with a towel.

Basic White Cake

Amount Ingredient
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5 eggs
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup vegetable oil, semna or butter
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 vanilla packet

This simple cake can be mixed and baked in a single pan. Beat eggs in pan and stir in yogurt, milk and oil. Add the dry ingredients to the liquid
ingredients gradually, stirring after each addition with a fork to incorporate. This can be done with an electric beater as well. Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown and a fork inserted in center comes out clean.

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You can add grated lemon or orange peel to it too to give it some extra flavor, or add nuts or dried fruit as well.

:tu: GD!!! I've got all those ingredients to hand so am just off to give this one a try!!!

Well, I made this on Monday evening and we finished the last of it today - I can definitely give this recipe the thumbs up!!! What's more, I sent down a few slices to my mil who phoned up to tell me how delicious it was.....result!!!!

My sil especially liked this cake recipe. Pleasing the mil is always a good thing too.

Did I ever post my lentil recipe? That one my mil raves about and says is the best lentils she ever ate in her life. And the funny thing is it was something I came up with when I was too lazy to cook lentils in the proper way and wanted to do the absolute minimum of preparation!

Oh...I don't think I've seen your lentil recipe, so if you could post it, that would be great!!

For two people (obviously this can be increased), take two handfuls of yellow lentils, approximately 5 peeled whole garlic cloves (do not mince them, but you can press it to get the skin off if necessary in which case it should break into at most 2 or 3 pieces but not mincing them is important for the flavor), and some shorba (can be Maggi or the leftovers from boiling chicken or meat). Put this all in a pot, bring it to a low boil until the lentils are tender, and then serve. That's the entire recipe. You can't get lazier than that, and according to my mil, not any better either!

That's very similar to how I make it - only difference is I add a couple of onions and then whizz the whole thing in a food processor when it's done. (My husband likes it with some chopped fried onion and a sprinkle of cumin on the top)

Crikey!

Is that all you put in your lentil soup!??!

Mines like an extravaganza - even when I cook it the quick way it's still an extravaganza!

This is how I make mine the fast way:

Roughly chop onion, whole bulb of garlic broken up into cloves but skin left on, Start to fry in olive oil. Slice tomatoes, potatoes and carrots and also start to fry. Add few handfulls of lentils and drop those in and stir to coat in all the other frying stuff. Add green coriander leaves and dash of cumin. Add stock, lots of it. Boil for ages and then blend and sieve. Garnish with minced garlic fried in a bit of butter. Serves a whole army.

The fast way is take all ingredients - dump in pan all at once, boil and blend.

Pureeing is the kiss of death in my opinion. Turns it into something a bit like glue paste. I originally made it that way, but then one day I think the food processor was dirty and I didn't feel like cleaning it in order to puree the lentils! It started with me being too lazy to mince the garlic as well so I just threw in the whole cloves, and hence with those two lazy acts, my recipe was born.

When boiling meat or chicken, an onion usually goes in the pot so that winds up in the lentils as well if I use the shorba to make it. But I don't go out of my way to add onion if it isn't already in the shorba.

Countesssa-Have you ever made French onion soup? Minus the bread and cheese is easier of course. If your husband likes fried onions he might like that. I've got a good recipe that allows you to make a large batch of onion soup base that you can then freeze and just add extra water to when it comes time to serve the meal. It also makes a good topping for roqaq, although I often do my roqaq extravaganza style like Goddess' lentils-I throw in tomato, peppers, carrots, onions, garlic and other vegetables into the soup I am going to pour on the roqaq.