I get a little confused when I do these 'double' posts - I mean do I talk about the cake rusks first or the Eid 'potluck'? It's a tough choice - excuse me while I use some sophisticated eeny-meeny-miney-mo to decide.
Okay, Eid Eats! it is. Readers of my blog (I love you) will remember that we have done this before, twice before to be precise. This year, just like last year, it is hosted by Asiya at Chocolate & Chillies and Henna at My Ninja Naan and the premise, as always, is simple. It is a 'potluck' where we ask our blogging friends to 'bring' any recipe that they would make for Eid. Sweet, savory, traditional, or entirely new - it is always so much fun and some of my favorite eats have come from this foodie get together!
The rules if you will are these:
1.) Make any dish of your choosing that you would make for Eid, write a post and have it ready for the 3rd of July 2016, you are also welcome to add your links until the 6th of July. Please submit only 'new' recipes!
2.) Our posts will also be live July 3rd 2016. You can link back to our blogs i.e. My Ninja Naan, Flour & Spice and Chocolate & Chillies through a link party we will set up and use the button above in all of your posts
3.) Remember to check out and leave comments on participating blogs!
4.) Please use the hashtag #EidEats2016 on your social media posts so we can follow along there too!
Now with the business of partying out of the way (lol) let's talk about cake rusks shall we? This recipe is adapted from Henna at My Ninja Naan. I know all of you know her by now so introductions are unnecessary, but since she is one of my blogging besties I have to just throw out there that I love her to bits and am so happy to have her (and her blog) in my life.
Ode to Henna done, let's go back to the Cake Rusks. These are a classic Pakistani tea time treat. Where Italians make biscotti we essentially twice bake our cake. The first time will render you a delicious vanilla cake which is so good that I will probably make it just like that this summer and top it with some jam. The second baking turns that sweet vanilla cake into a crispy crunchy less sweet classic cake rusk which is perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. I halved the original recipe and used a 8*8 square pan to bake the cake. It did lead to some less pretty looking pieces, but fortunately those somehow magically disappeared.
In all other respects I went with the original recipe and it has that classic bakery taste. Big plus of making your own? That you don't have 50 humongous ones staring at you for months on end. Another plus? You can have some fun with it. In the future I think a simple substitution like using a vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract would take it to the next level! You could also go the biscotti route with lots of add ins - would love to hear what you come up with!
- ½ cup butter softened
- ½ cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cups all-purpose flour
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Preheat oven to 350°F.
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Beat the butter and sugar until light creamy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
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Add vanilla and baking powder and mix well. Add all-purpose flour and mix until there are no clumps of flour left over.
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Pour batter into a greased 8*8 pan, and bake for 22-25 minutes. Check for doneness at 22, and then bake more if needed.
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Remove cake and allow it to cool for 20 minutes.
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Once it is cool you have two choices: you can slice the cake across and then cut into ½ inch pieces and bake OR you can cut the cake horizontally across to create 2 8*8 pieces and then slice those for more dainty rusks.
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Line the sliced cake on an ungreased cookie sheet, sliced side-up, and bake at 300°F for 14 minutes on each side for slimmer slices and 25-28 minutes on each side for thicker ones. Check for brownness a few minutes before time and if you've hit upon that magical golden brown earlier then flip the rusk over.
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Cool completely before storing in an airtight container. Lasts for 2 weeks.
