Steven Spielberg is one of
my most favored directors of Hollywood. Among all his movies, Schindler's List
is a chef-d'oeuvre, one of his prized creations still evoking the same kind of
amazement and anguish even 20 years after its release. During my first time
watching the movie, I was not old enough to appreciate the directorial brilliance
but still the scene of a small girl in red coat roaming around, indifferent to
her surrounding, in the midst of chaos unfolding on the streets and later in a
scene her dead body being piled on to a mass grave chalked an impression on my
mind. Years later while watching the movie for the second time I was able to
put together the fragments of what I understood from last time watching it to
how brilliantly Spielberg had crafted the scene to pull the two worlds into one
single shot; one caught in a web of mass destruction and another completely apathetic
to the horror unfolding around. That during the shooting of the film, Spielberg
was emotionally affected betrays in his statement: “America and Russia and
England all knew about the Holocaust when it was happening, and yet we did
nothing about it."
I have read and seen a lot
a movies and novels based on holocaust and each one of them left me gasping in
horror at the revelation of the macabre side of human character. Perhaps no
other animal except the homosapiens unleashes such unimagined barbarity on its
own kind. The last of Schindler's list survivors Leon Leyson died last week
aged 83. It's strange of Leon to hardly have ever spoken about his experience
of surviving the holocaust until this movie got released. Strange that he
thought people would not be interested in his story.
Over to the recipe,
Strawberry Sponge Cake is a two tier cake sandwiched or stuck together with a
layer of strawberry jam or any favourite jam or jelly of yours spread in
between. Each bite of this cake is pure pleasure, taking you to seventh heaven.
Ingredients:
Cooking time: 50 minutes
ü 2 cups self-rising flour
ü 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
ü 1/2 cup strawberry jam
ü 4 eggs
ü 1 cup milk
ü 175 gm unsalted butter, melted
ü A pinch of salt
ü 1 tsp strawberry extract
ü 2 tbsp confectioners' sugar
Method:
1) Grease two 9 inches
round layer cake pan with butter and flour. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C.
2) Now in a mixing bowl,
beat together butter, sugar and eggs till the mixture is light and fluffy.
Add milk and strawberry extract, beating well after each addition.
3) Add a pinch of salt
into the flour and gently pour the above egg mixture into the flour,
carefully mixing in with the help of a spatula.
4) Divide the mixture
into the pans and place them on the same shelf in the center of preheated
oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes till the tops are browned evenly and toothpick
inserted at the center comes out clean.
5) Remove from the oven
and let stand for 1 minute. Loosen the cakes from around the edges using a
plastic knife and turn onto a working surface. Sandwich the cakes together
with strawberry jam.
6) Spread a bit of jam on
top of the cake dredged with confectioners' sugar.
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