Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Cereal Killer


That title applies to the recipe in more ways than one.

Not only does it effectively decimate your reserves of cereal, it will also give you a fat and cholesterol overload if you don't share it with many others, and fast.

Because there are six eggs and two cups of sugar in this. Not to mention four-and-a-half cups of cereal and one cup of cashew nuts.

And when you consider the original recipe also had two bananas and a cup of coconut in it, this may just qualify to be called a 'somewhat lite' or rather, 'just a little liter' version.

The story, of course, begins the usual way - of good intentions gone amok. Travel brings me face to face with several Bircher Mueslis at breakfast time at the hotels I stay in. Impatient one that I am, I didn't dig deep but just hurtled ahead one fine day and bought a pack of fruity muesli. "My own recipe" for Bircher Muesli (dunk muesli in curds/yoghurt; overnight, if you can wait) soon palled and I was left with a packet of overpoweringly fruity-smelling cereal that I didn't know how to use up.

The words 'bake' and 'cake' kept popping up but the recipe proved hard to find. Was I going to be the pioneer and grind up cereal to bake a cake? It did seem so - all the "muesli" cakes I saw, the muesli only seemed to play a role in muffins or topping or bars; I wanted it to be a one-shot clean-up and continued searching - till I came across the above recipe. Funnily enough, that was also born out of necessity - the original recipe had called for vanilla wafers but there hadn't been any, and cereal it was!

The downside and the upside

Suffice it to say it was a hit. One person deemed it "first class" and the tub of cake I took to work today was cleaned out, with several compliments. They WERE being nice, but not being kind, so I think you can try it too, if you have cereal to get rid of, or even if you want a different kind of cake.

I'm no baker so I don't know what went wrong or right - the cake took almost two hours to bake and it was dense and moist.

Sugar - 2 cups sugar
Butter - 1 cup, softened
Milk - 1/2 cup
Fruity, honeyed muesli made of toasted oats and wheat flakes - 4.5 cups
Eggs - 6
Cashew nuts - 1 cup
Vanilla essence - 2 tsp
Lime juice - From 1 lime

Preheat oven to 150 C/ 300 F.

Cream sugar and butter until creamy.

Grind cereal as fine as possible.

Add to the creamed mix little by little. Mix.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.

Add milk, mix. Add the vanilla and lime juice.

Fold in the nuts. Pour into a baking dish (sorry, I don't know the dimensions - I just used my largest as it seemed an enormous amount of batter) and bake till a knife comes out as dry as possible!

31 comments:

  1. OMG-6 eggs and load of sugar, u re a serious killer with this recipe. Poor collegues :( is it one of de-cluttering consequence?
    But it looks dense and sinful.

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  2. that cake looks good killer or not.

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  3. the cake looks so perfect and yummy!!

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  4. hm, never seen this, a real killer.. :)

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  5. Killer indeed, but in a delicious way. Haven't heard of Cereal cakes and I haven't baked any cake for a long long time now. This sounds really intriguing and I want dessert.

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  6. you are a dyed in the wool journo :-)

    I have a whole bottle of muesli...maybe :)

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  7. This sounds delicious! :)

    Thanks for sharing.

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  8. Cham, yes, de-cluttering consequence, artery-clogging too!
    Indo, thanks
    Uma, thanks
    Seena, :-)
    Soma, it's very, very heavy, have to go easy on it, maybe a few crumbs at a time!
    Raaga, :-) I'm sure you'll come up with a winner!
    Karine, thanks!

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  9. That is one huge recipe - but all relative I say. Compare it to a mithai recipe and it sound positively healthy - so go for it! :)

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  10. mmm since u have soaked up the muesli it might not be suitable for a cookie. But I couldn't see any baking powder/soda which would have made it more fluffier. Migth b thats the reason for the density. But with all theingredients it must have tasted wondeful Last week I made a cake with very less baking powder (ran out of it but discovered by 12 in the night with the batter almost ready ). I could imagine the density by that! Since you have polished off all the cereals and the cake bought compliments too, this recipe should be a keeper ;)

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  11. Miri, yeah, you're right!
    Ni, I didn't soak the entire cereal for the Bircher muesli, just two tsp. The ground stuff was dry, powder. And yes, as the original recipe didn't say anything about baking powder, I didn't use any, though I thought about it a lot. As I don't know much about baking, I stuck as much as I could to the recipe and didn't even try to substitute the missing ingredients with anything.

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  12. The cake looks moist, so it should be good :) So what if it's calorie laden, we live just once!

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  13. I see it and I think it looks good.....that is a huge cake that you baked considering the amount of flakes....Oh yeah..you forgot to pass a tub to someone who stays a stone's throw away!

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  14. You soaked muesli in curd and it still smelled fruity???

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  15. Real killer, Sra!Looks terrific!

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  16. LOL! Yeah, I agree with the comment above that the cake looks good, killer or not. heh heh heh.

    Paz

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  17. Nice pun in the title there!

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  18. OMG 6 eggs, dead !!! But seriously for a good reason. Looks mighty good and I am not being JUST nice ;-)

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  19. Looks sinful and super delicious! who would have thought Muesli in cake ... very nice ... would totally not mind being killed so!

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  20. This looks like the kind of cake that oozes butter when cut. I do like them in small servings.

    Wonder if a little leavening would have lifted it a tad and lightened it up. A batter this heavy would need two hours in a slow (300f) oven. My Dundee cake required as much baking, even w/ minimal baking powder.

    Love your title - so many delicious ways to play with it.

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  21. Ce'Real' killer.....looks yummylicious....

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  22. I am not going to say anything. At all. :I
    But I want to know how big a slice you ate!

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  23. What a unique way to use up cereal and that looks very moist & delish.
    Fun name too :)

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  24. I was impressed by the title...fyi i don't know cooking!!!

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  25. Ah but you can always say that muesli is healthy and fruits innit!!

    but man, you are original. i see muesli everyday and i would have never even thought of cake. heck any form of cooking it come to think of it.

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  26. awesome name for this! it made me smile :)

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  27. Jyothsna, :-D That's what I tell myself but it's also the attitude I'm trying to fight - easy to pile on the kilos, and I can't afford any more.
    Notyet100, thanks!
    Rachel, I didn't think it was worth it, I could only taste the sugar.
    Jayashree, no, that was just soggy! The muesli itself is fruit fibre variety or something, and smells fruity.
    Shri, thanks! Wish I'd got really good pix.
    Paz, How are you?
    TBC, thanks, it was an inevitable pun, and one that has been used in other situations, as I found in Internet search :)
    Bong Mom, Everyone else except me found it good, so what, I managed to get it out of the house!
    Sheetal, ha ha - now I have a small pumpkin to exhaust, maybe a pumpkin cake is next
    Susan, hardly that kind of cake. I did notice the recipe didn't have any baking powder and I was so afraid of it flopping, I just went with what I had. There seems to be some music group/album with the same title.
    Lubna, thanks.
    Anita, Well, on a binge, I ate three small slices in rapid succession, but that's about it.
    Laavanya, yeah, it was moist, v heavy even in my palm.
    Teendudes, Thanks. Cooking is fun when you can do it at your pace.
    Cynic, as I found out, it's not v original, muesli in cake!
    Veggie Belly, glad it made you smile!

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  28. So this was the 6 egg muesli cake! Seems a success all around at the end of the day.
    Seems a little rich for me to bake though (don't have an office crowd to share it with LOL.
    Any other ideas on what to do with muesli?

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  29. Ha ha lol 'cereal killer'...sounds very delicious to me:)

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  30. Aparna, can't believe I'm giving you advice but there seem to be many muffin recipes, and for cakes with muesli crusts :) It was terribly rich, couldn't eat it unless I was on a tear
    Malar, delicious in small doses, though I ate three pieces in a binge.

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