EasyEaster bak1ng

From traditional European treats to an Aussieclassic, celebrate Easter in style, writes GAURAV

MASAND

ForChristians,Good Friday marks the end of 40daysof Lent, whi.leEasterSunday,marking theresurrection,isthe rimeto celebrate!Butno matter if youcelebrate Easter or not,herearesomelip-smacking recipesperfectforpartiesandfamily reumoas.

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Black Forest Cake

Impressive and rich, Black Forest cake is always a crowdfavourite; this family recipe will never let you down.

Ingredients

For cake (Double layer)

1 ½ cup condensed milk

1 cup self-raising plain f our

1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour

½ cup cocoa powder

¼ tsp baking soda

½cup/ 100g butter

2 tsp vanilla essence

¼ cup brown sugar

½cup milk

For filling

2 cups heavy cream

2 tbsp caster sugar

½cup morello cherries, chopped

10-12 maraschino cherries for garnish

Dark chocolate

Bowl for whippingcream and electric mixer attachments, kept for 1 hour in freezer

Method

Melt the butterand beat it with sugar until mixed.

Add condensed milk, vanilla essence. Beat togetheruntil you get a smooth mixture.Add the dry ingredients with milk and mix with electric mixer. Grease two pans evenly with butter. Divide and pour the mixture equally in two pans and bake in a pre-heated oven for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Using an electric mixer set on high speed, whip the cream with sugar, until medium to stiff peaks form, for about 1 minute. Do not overbeat.

Spread 1/3cream mix on one cake and top with chopped cherries.

Add the second layer of cake and spread 1/3of whipped cream evenly on the cake.

Grate a dark chocolate block with mandolin slicer.

Spread the chocolate on the sides and top of the cake.

Addthe remaining whipped cream to a piping bag and decorate the cake.

Refrigerate for4-5 hours.

Garnish with maraschino cherries and serve.

"Hot cross buns, Hot cross buns, one a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns." This old English nursery rhyme, associated with the end of Lent, is a favourite childhood memory. These buns are a crowd favourite and usually eaten on Good Friday

Ingredients

2 cups plain f our

1 cup wholemeal flour

¼ cup currants

3½ tsp dry yeast

30g melted butter

½ cup water fordry yeast

1 ½ cup lukewarm waterand milk mixture

2 tsp spice mix (cinnamon, nutmeg)

Ginger, small piece

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp salt

¼ cup self-raising f our (for the cross)

Method

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Add sugar to lukewarm water, mix until it dissolves.Toactivate the yeast, add to sugar water mixture. This will make the mix frothy and yeast willactivate within 15 minutes.

Add this yeast, water and milk mixture, along with currants, to the four. Knead the dough, this willbe sticky at the start. Addmelted butterand remaining ingredients. Keep dough aside for 30 minutes to rise

Once it has doubled in size, punch it down and knead it again.

Divide the f our into 9 equal portions, give them a roundshape and arrange them on a baking tray with some space in between the buns.

Let them rest for 30 minutes. You will see thedough rise and the sides might touch each other.

Mix self-raising flourwith 1 tablespoon of waterto form a paste, and add it to a piping bag. Mark a cross on the buns with the paste.

Bake the buns for 10 minutes at 225 degrees and a further 6-7 minutes at 200 degrees.

Check the readiness by inserting a toothpick. If it doesn't stick to the dough, the buns areready. Serve fresh with butter or fruit preserve.

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Upside Down Plum Cake

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Australia is blessed to have a bounty of sweet plums at this time of year. Enjoythe seasonal producewith this delicious cake recipe

Ingredients

¾ cup condensed milk

1 cup self-raising plain f our

¼ cup wholemeal self-raising f our(can replace with 1/3cup plain self-raising flour)

¼ cup/ 50 grams butter

2 tsp vanilla essence

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp milk

¼ cup brown sugar (for glaze)

350gm Satsuma plums (or any variety of plums with red flesh)

Method

Cut 4-5 plums in thin slices, and the rest into small pieces.

Heat the sugar with an equal quantity of water.Let it cook until it forms a thick and brown glaze. Line a spring form cake tin with baking sheet, including the sides. Spread plum slices in concentric circles, glazing them with sugar. Melt the butter; beat together with sugaruntilmixed.

Combine with condensed milk and vanilla essence.

Beat tillyou get a smooth mixture. Add thedry ingredients and themilk. Mix with an electric mixer.

Pour the mixture evenly into the cake tin and bake in a pre-heated oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

Let it cool for 15 minutes

Place cake on a plate upside down Garnish with fresh plum slices Best served with ice-cream.

POORNA

STARRING: Rahul Bose, Aditi lnaamdar, Dhritiman Chatte1ee and Heeba Shah

DIRECTOR: Rahul Bose

At one crucial point in thetelling of this I simple and heart-warmingtale of a tribal girl's climb from the pits of poverty I to Himalayanheights, Rahul Bose, I playing an uprightbureaucrat, asks the little Andhra girl what is her purpose for I climbingEverest. I

I "I have no purpose_ Ijust wantto do it," shetells her mentor honestly. I

The simple confessional articulation exemplifies this film's mood. So rich in its message, so far-flung in its intentions and purpose and yet so intimate in treatment and execution, Rahul Bose wins youover with his honesty of purpose_

There are no duplicitous bones in the structure of this film.

Sure, there are passages in this motivationaltalethat follow the rags- to-richestrajectory with textbook-ish precision. Butthe heart is inthe right place, bringing to the narrative a kind of non-negotiable integritythatis at once compelling and winsome.

Authenticity is thekey tothe cogency of Bose's vision. He chooses actors and locations as trueto the original milieu as cinematically possible. The restjust follows.

Thenarrativesweeps us into an emotional realism that is at once sparse and dramatic, pumpingupthe saga of resilience andhumanism with vignettes and frames that form a panoramic arc overthe film's rugged landscape.

Poorna's saga begins in an impoverished villageof Andhra Pradesh and ends on the world's highest summit - Everest. It is an ambitious arc, navigated andtemperedwith a lavish affection for the downtrodden and an absence of patronisingpride in depicting the rise of a young underprivileged girl to heights of glory.

Little lshaan in TaareZameen Par had his Ram Shankar Nikumbh to steer him into the light Poorna has Praveen Kumar, a bureaucrat who belongsto that rare breed of civil servants who still believes hetook on thejob with the purpose of improving lives of the underprivileged. I've read some very strange comments on how Rahul Bose has casthimself in a self-glorifying role.

Wait is that againstthe law? To play noble characters? Has that been declared a cognisable offence by a social order thatthinks cynicism is cool?

Itis easyto getcynicalabouta character whose heart bleeds for those who are notgiven one square meal a day.There is an emotionally surcharged moment in the narrative wherethe conscientious bureaucrateats a midday meal with schoolgirls to get a feel of the awful food thatis served up by government-funded canteens. Rahul's Praveen Kumar doesn't flinch as he swallows morsels ofthe garbage Uunk food atits purest?)

But we do.

Throughoutthetelling ofthis inspiring tale of a girl who won't buckle under the pressure of poverty and cynicism, Rahul gives usthe portrait of a bleak landscape litup by a distant hope. He is theartiste who won'tjudge a value system that condemnsthe downtrodden to doom. But he won't condone it either. He can laugh with Poorna at her poverty - don't miss the sequence where the girls atthe boarding school giggle and compare each other s poverty - but he won't laugh at her condition.

Poorna is a little gem with a big heart. It has many virtues. Aditi lnaamdar who plays Poorna is a prized find. So is young S. Mariyaas Poorna's spunky buttragically vanquished cousin_ The scenes showing the two girls bonding are so heart-warming as to make us overlook thefilm's obvious faws of overstatement.

However, some of the other actors in incidental roles seem to have come on boardjustto feel good about themselves for helping a noble cause.

Thefilm is shot with minimum fuss and optimum feelings. Whenlittle Poorna stoodatthe peak ofEverest,I feltI was standing uptherewith her. Gloriously triumphant and hoping that what Majrooh Sultanpuri wrote 45 years ago for ajustsocialorder would cometrue soon:Kitne din aankhen tarsengVKitne din yundi/tarsenge/Ekdin tohbaadal barsenge/Ae mere pyaase diVaaj nahin toh ka/ mehkegi khwabon ki mehfil.

Take a bow, Rahul Bose. Poorna is not just a tale of the triumph of the human spirit.We all have a Pooma inside us waitingto conquer our own Everest.

Subhash KJha