There are days when you are so happy that you want to share...with everybody and anybody. Today is one such day. My best friend is expecting a. It may not be so normal to experience such huge joy for someone else addition to family. But I do ..I feel it so fervently..I wish I could whiz by the oceans and landmass separating us to just give her a hug. Fifteen years is a long time. And we are still best friends. Glancing back there are so many memories. When I sometimes acknowledge the speed with which life has changes in past few decades, it is these old school memories of mine which are a comforter.
They were the days on edge of innocence. And I am glad to say I weathered it well. Without becoming bad and cynic. Well bad is a very subjective word anyways. But at least my parents never felt I was becoming wayward. I was blessed with a good bunch of friends with share passion and interests. And that is perhaps the reason we have stayed such good friends. With them i realize that you do not need to talk everyday, share every bit to remain friends. Beyonds oceans and distances, if we school friends talk over phone or exchange one email..it is like old times.
We went our separate ways after school. But there was a reunion, 5 years later. And what a riot it was. We were 6-7 of us back for 3 days in the same surrounding we had spend four best years of our lives. Those three days are a real treasure for me now. We gossiped into the early hours of the morning, lunched at our old school canteen and drove into the mountains. In some ways the days whizzed by and in others they are so full of memories that they feel stretched out. I am just glad that it happened. And now the second one from that group is going bring another life into this world. It is incredible and yet so commonplace.
I may go on rambling in this manner without thinking that few of you might be waiting for the recipe. Well since we are talking all baout friends today, let me share one recipe from a friend of mine(from another four fun filled years of graduation), who has inspired me to start cooking cakes again.
About 7-8 years back I used to make cake. At the time i didn’t even know how to cook tea, i cooked cake. The reason being it did not involve going near the stove/gas. My father feared my I would leave the outlet open or something of the sort. But fortunately we had a solar cooker. So you see we were doing your bit for environment at a time when global warming was not a buzzword. Though I have to admit , my mother didn’t have the patience to cook a full meal in solar cooker. She wanted to get the cooking bit finished in one go. Not wait for 30 mins for the lentils to boil, another 30 for them to cook with seasoning. So it was in this neglected solar cooker that I started making cakes. I cannot remember who taught, perhaps would have been another friend :-). But I would beat the cake batter to death (there were no whisking attachments in mixers those days) and just pour and put the tin in the solar cooker. And rest all was left to nature. And what wonderful cakes they were turned into. IT was a source of pride for me..and a consolation for my mother to know all was not lost and I may cook a square meal for myself someday :-). And then I left home for further studies, the solar cooker was damaged in transfer from one city to another and hence came to end my cake baking madness.
Until this fateful new year’s eve. I had this cake and the dormant craving for cake reared its head again.
So herez to FRIENDSHIP!!!
They were the days on edge of innocence. And I am glad to say I weathered it well. Without becoming bad and cynic. Well bad is a very subjective word anyways. But at least my parents never felt I was becoming wayward. I was blessed with a good bunch of friends with share passion and interests. And that is perhaps the reason we have stayed such good friends. With them i realize that you do not need to talk everyday, share every bit to remain friends. Beyonds oceans and distances, if we school friends talk over phone or exchange one email..it is like old times.
We went our separate ways after school. But there was a reunion, 5 years later. And what a riot it was. We were 6-7 of us back for 3 days in the same surrounding we had spend four best years of our lives. Those three days are a real treasure for me now. We gossiped into the early hours of the morning, lunched at our old school canteen and drove into the mountains. In some ways the days whizzed by and in others they are so full of memories that they feel stretched out. I am just glad that it happened. And now the second one from that group is going bring another life into this world. It is incredible and yet so commonplace.
I may go on rambling in this manner without thinking that few of you might be waiting for the recipe. Well since we are talking all baout friends today, let me share one recipe from a friend of mine(from another four fun filled years of graduation), who has inspired me to start cooking cakes again.
About 7-8 years back I used to make cake. At the time i didn’t even know how to cook tea, i cooked cake. The reason being it did not involve going near the stove/gas. My father feared my I would leave the outlet open or something of the sort. But fortunately we had a solar cooker. So you see we were doing your bit for environment at a time when global warming was not a buzzword. Though I have to admit , my mother didn’t have the patience to cook a full meal in solar cooker. She wanted to get the cooking bit finished in one go. Not wait for 30 mins for the lentils to boil, another 30 for them to cook with seasoning. So it was in this neglected solar cooker that I started making cakes. I cannot remember who taught, perhaps would have been another friend :-). But I would beat the cake batter to death (there were no whisking attachments in mixers those days) and just pour and put the tin in the solar cooker. And rest all was left to nature. And what wonderful cakes they were turned into. IT was a source of pride for me..and a consolation for my mother to know all was not lost and I may cook a square meal for myself someday :-). And then I left home for further studies, the solar cooker was damaged in transfer from one city to another and hence came to end my cake baking madness.
Until this fateful new year’s eve. I had this cake and the dormant craving for cake reared its head again.
So herez to FRIENDSHIP!!!
Banana Cake
Ingredients
3 medium bananas
300 g self-raising flour
150 g soft butter
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
150 g soft brown sugar or can be normal castor sugar as well. Brown one gives a better look
2 medium eggs
Put all the butter and oil in a bowl and microwave it for a couple of minutes.
Peel the bananas and mash them with a fork until they are like pulp. I guess you could use the food processor as well.
Place the butter and brown sugar into a mixing bowl and blend together with a fork.
Add the Flour to it.Mix the banana pulp into it.
Line a baking tin with baking parchment or just grease it.
Pour in the mixture
The Gas should have been headed on mark 6 for 20 mins (I am not sure what temp that would be..but what works for normal cakes in your oven would work for this was well)
Put the tin in the oven.
Approx baking time is 30-40 mins.
3 medium bananas
300 g self-raising flour
150 g soft butter
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
150 g soft brown sugar or can be normal castor sugar as well. Brown one gives a better look
2 medium eggs
Put all the butter and oil in a bowl and microwave it for a couple of minutes.
Peel the bananas and mash them with a fork until they are like pulp. I guess you could use the food processor as well.
Place the butter and brown sugar into a mixing bowl and blend together with a fork.
Add the Flour to it.Mix the banana pulp into it.
Line a baking tin with baking parchment or just grease it.
Pour in the mixture
The Gas should have been headed on mark 6 for 20 mins (I am not sure what temp that would be..but what works for normal cakes in your oven would work for this was well)
Put the tin in the oven.
Approx baking time is 30-40 mins.
The trick as my friend told me was to mix it all with a fork while making a figure of eight. that is the best way to incorporate air into the mixture.
So here is the toast to friendship...with a banana cake.
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