Vanilla Dream cake

Some cakes are just happy coincidences. I am always on a baking spree. My dining table always has some cake on it.

When at times I am unable to bake due to whatever reason I buy cakes to eat. Though I hate most of the commercial store bought cakes yet it goes to show how important a place it has in my life. And then I love tweaking the recipes. Many a times it has ended in disaster. My fur baby Leo has helped me finish off those disasters of mine. And sometimes those tweakings work like a dream.

I was all set to bake a cake. I knew I wanted something basic and simple. My son always..and like always…wants only chocolate cake. It is fine for him. He is young with a strong metabolism and he can digest anything and everything. But I have to keep in mind that I am not getting any younger. That does not mean that I start baking all those healthy vegan stuff. I love my cakes the old fashioned way. But yeah a little concession here and there. So I decided on a vanilla pound cake. But I quailed at the idea of equal amounts of butter and sugar. I reduced those two a bit. Then the batter got pretty thick. So I added milk. I had trepidations. But then I though milk, butter, sugar, flour and eggs. I mean how much could go wrong?

And nothing went wrong. Everything worked like a charm. The cake was baked very evenly. And the texture..OMG!! It was as if I was eating a cheesecake. The texture was a bit dense but it was soft, warm and melt in your mouth. And the biggest testament was that my chocolate loving son ate chunks of this white cake which he would otherwise have shunned. So I christened this cake the Vanilla Dream Cake.

Ingredients

½  cup butter, softened

¾ cup milk

¾ cup sugar

1 ¾ cup flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.

Sift together the flour and baking powder. Beat the butter and sugar till creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla essence. Fold in the flour gently. Pour into a greased and lined baking tin. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

Mango Semolina Cake

The Mango Semolina Cake has been doing the rounds of social media for quite a while. And since the mango season was upon us I decided to make one too. The semolina basically absorbs up the mango puree and the grains become soft. After you bake it the texture remains a bit sticky but then the texture always changes depending on whether you are using all purpose flour or whole wheat flour or in this case semolina. The cake turned out quite interesting. Definitely something I would bake again.


Ingredients

1 cup semolina
2 mangoes, skinned and pureed
¼ cup oil
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup+1 tbsp sugar ( the mangoes add to the sweetness)
Preheat the oven to 175 degrees. Mix together the semolina, sugar and baking powder. Now add the oil and mix. Add the mango puree and mix well. Let it sit for half an hour so that the semolina soaks in the mango. Now pour into a greased loaf tin and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Yellow Marmalade Cake

There has been a long hiatus in my baking. For the last two months life has been hectic. Packing and moving to a new place, setting up home, adjusting, compromising. And in midst of all this chaos my baking stopped. But I cant live without cake. So I had to buy cakes to satiate my soul. I realised, again, how bad the store bought cakes are. Sure if you go to a gourmet patisserie you will get wonderful bakes. But the everyday bakeries and mass produced commercially packaged stuff is horrible.
All my stuff was still packed. I had no weighing scale, no butter paper, no whipping cream, no spatula. But I had to bake. So i bought a jar of marmalade, some flour and eggs. I had one basic round tin with me and my trusty oven. I looked up Julia Child’s recipe, tweaked it a bit and finally let out a sigh of relief. Life is good again!


Ingredients

1 ¼ cups flour
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp melted butter
2/3 cups sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 tbsp orange marmalade
2 tsp sugar

Beat the egg whites till foamy. Add the 2 tsp sugar and whip till soft peaks form. Keep aside.
Sift together flour, cornflour and baking powder. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar till pale and frothy. Add the marmalade and whip some more. Now add ¼ of butter, mix, then ¼ of flour, mix and then ¼ of egg whites and fold. Slowly incorporate these three in the same way in four batches. Do ot whip or over mix. The egg whites should not deflate.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a 8” cake tin. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 30 minutes. After the initial 20 minutes cover the cake tin with an aluminium foil so that the top does not get burnt.

Double Streusel Cake

There is streusel cake and then there is double streusel cake!!

Double the fun!!

Streusel is a German word meaning “sprinkling” or “topping”. Streusel is a mixture of flour, butter, sugar, sometimes with cinnamon or coconut mixed in it. It adds a crunch to the soft cakes. Use it on cakes, cupcakes, pies and see the difference it makes!

Ingredients

For the cake

1 ½ cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¾ cup castor sugar

½ tsp vanilla essence

¼ cup oil

1 egg

¾ cup milk

For the streusel mixture

¾ cup brown sugar

4 tbsp flour

3 tbsp melted butter

2 tsp cinnamon powder

Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Line and grease an 8” cake tin.

Mix together the streusel mix ingredients and keep aside.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add the oil and mix with your hands till it looks like breadcrumbs. Beat together milk , sugar and egg. Gently add to the flour mix.

Pour half the batter in the tin. Spread half the streusel on top. Pour rest of the batter and then sprinkle rest of the streusel. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Banana Coconut Cake

Eating fruits is a good habit. Specially bananas. Unfortunately we are not a fruit loving family. Dozens of oranges and bananas keep lying on the table. As the bananas keep getting blacker ad spotted i console myself thinking that spots are good. The spottier the banana the healthier it is. And finally they turn mushy. Sigh!!!
But this cloud does have a silver lining. We might not be a fruit eating family but we sure are a cake eating one. I try to incorporate all kinds of fruits and vegetables in them. Carrots, pineapples, oranges, pears, mangoes, bananas,  zucchini everything goes into my cakes.
This is a banana and coconut cake. I have used desiccated coconut here. However i have found that freshly grated coconut tastes better. You can add walnuts and raisins if you want. I have not because my son does not like them in his cakes.


Ingredients

1 cup desiccated coconut
¾ cup milk
1 ½ cups flour
½ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup castor sugar
½ cup oil
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
Mix the coconut and milk and keep aside.

Sift together  flour, cocoa powder and baking powder.

 Beat together the sugar and oil. Add eggs one at a time and mix well. Add the mashed bananas. Add the coconut and milk mix. Beat well. Fold in the sifted flour.

Pour the batter into a greased and lined loaf tin. Bake for 50 minutes.

3 Chip Brownie

There is something about Brownies. Whenever I see one in a shop I have to try it out. Whenever I see a new recipe I have to bake it. For someone who loves chocolate a brownie is the ultimate decadence.
I have often been asked what the difference is between a brownie and a chocolate cake. Both have flour, eggs and cocoa powder. The difference lies in the proportion which changes the texture. You might have noticed that brownies are denser and fudgier while cakes are lighter and spongier. Generally brownies have more cocoa powder or chocolate and cakes have more flour. The brownies are dense in the middle and tend to be heavy.
Since chocolate is a key component in brownies I decided to make most of it. Instead of just dark chocolate I used 3 kinds of chips- dark choc chips, white choco chips and butterscotch chips. This made the decadent brownie “decaden-ter”!! if you don’t have choco chips you can simply grate the two kinds of chocolates, melt them in a double boiler and add to the batter. Top with cashews if you want. I have added the cashews to the batter


Ingredients

100 gms dark chocolate chips
100 gms white chocolate chips
½ cup butterscothch chips
½ cup oil
½ cup butter
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup castor sugar
4 eggs, beaten
½ cup cashews, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Mix together sifted flour, baking powder and sugar.
Melt the dark choc chips with butter and oil on a double boiler. Whisk well and keep aside. After it cools down a bit add the beaten eggs and mix well. Fold in the flour mix, butterscotch chips and chopped cashews. Pour batter into a cake tin. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.

Basic Cake

Basic Cake

This is a basic cake that can be your fall back thing in dire times. It often happens in my house that my husband sprigs guests on me unexpectedly. Cooking a meal in matter of hours is not a trouble at all. However when it comes to dessert I am loathe to serve some packaged or processed stuff. I feel that even the simplest of home made desserts are better than getting something from the market. 

Somethings that can be made quickly are Tipsy pudding, mousse cakes, tarts. If nothing else a combination of cake, jelly and custard also tastes nice. However one basic thing you require is a basic cake. And when you are in a hurry the last thing you want is to bring out cups and spoons and keep measuring ingredients.

This basic cake has a very simple count of ingredients. The three main things, flour, butter and sugar, are in equal proportions and you don’t have to spend too much thought in making the batter. This is a buttery white cake which tastes great in combination with whichever dessert you are planning.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups flour

1 ½ cups butter

1 ½ cups sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

Line and grease a 9” cake tin.

Cream together the butter and sugar till pale and frothy. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add the essence. Sift together flour and baking powder and add to the egg mixture. Pour the batter in the cake tin and bake for 30 minutes.

Strawberry Cake

Strawberry Cake

 I got 3 packets of fresh strawberries today. Yaaayyy!!! And ever since then I have been imagining what all I can do with them. 

So first up on the agenda is a simple Strawberry Cake. The cake is a simple vanilla cake and I have garnished the top with halved strawberries. As the cake bakes the strawberry flavour is infused in the batter. It will not be overly strawberry like but with each bite you can chew on the baked glazed strawberries. 

There is something so fine about fresh fruit be it the taste or the fragrance. And there are so many fruits that can be incorporated into cakes, fresh, mulled or pureed. Berries are always a good choice for cakes, be it blackberries, strawberries, mulberries, etc. 

Once we were driving from Bhatinda to Dehradun during the strawberry season. The foothills near Dehradun are good grounds for this berry and all along the roadside we found vendors selling strawberries by the kilos. The only problem with this fruit is that it bruises easily. So out of the 3 kilos we bought we could actually eat only the topmost layers. The ones below went bad the very next day. Learning from that experience I decided to make cakes and smoothies and finish off this lot as soon as possible. 


Ingredients

100 gms butter
1 ½ cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 egg
½ cup milk
1 tbsp vanilla essence
6-8 strawberries, halved

Preheat the oven at 170 degrees Celsius. Line and grease a 8” cake tin. 

Beat the sugar and butter  till light and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Add the milk and vanilla essence. 

Sift together the flour and baking powder. Fold into the egg mixture. Pour the batter into the cake tin. Place the halved strawberries on the cake. Sprinkle some sugar on the strawberries.

 Bake at 180 degrees for 10 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 160 degrees and bake for 30 minutes. 

Supernaturally Decadent Chocolate Cake

Supernaturally Decadent Chocolate Cake

Why supernatural? It has the most amazing midnight black colour. It has the most out of this world unbelievable chocolaty taste. And because you simply cant resist it. 
(An adaptation of the Hershey's Chocolate Cake recipe)

Ingredients

1 ½ cups flour
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cups cocoa powder
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
¾ cup milk
2/3 cup hot water
½ cup tooti frutti

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder and sugar. Mix together eggs, oil, milk and vanilla essence. Beat well. Add the hot water. Beat again. Fold in the dry ingredients. Add the tutti frutti. 
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 45 minutes. 

Eggless Chocolate banana coconut sweet bread

Eggless Chocolate banana coconut sweet bread

Ingredients

1 cup flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/3 cup desiccated coconut
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1/3 cup oil
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 bananas, mashed
1/3 cup raisins
½ tin milkmaid
1 tsp vanilla essence


Beat together milkmaid, oil, vanilla essence and both the sugars. Mix together flour, cocoa powder, coconut and baking powder. Add the flour mix into the milkmaid mix. If you feel the batter is too dry ad a few tablespoons of milk. Add the raisins. 
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Pour the batter into a loaf tin and bake for about 30 minutes. Be sure to check after 20 minutes as to how much more time you require. 

Steamed Orange Chocolate Cake

Steamed Orange Chocolate Cake

After one and half hour of badminton every day in the evening I somehow drag my tired body home. It is impossible for me to think of cooking anything for the evening. Sitting with a hot, steaming cup of tea in my hand, as I go through my recipe book, this steamed cake catches my eye. 

I have never eaten or baked a steamed cake. I wonder how it will turn out. The combination is a classic orange chocolate one. So what could go wrong?

 But do I steam it in a water bath? There are no oven temperatures mentioned. So maybe not an oven. And I don’t have a large enough pressure cooker.

 What to do? How about the momo steamer. I am an avid momo eater and I have a big enough steamer. So here goes or nothing. 

Its steamed cake today. 

And I wonder where I got the energy from!!!

Ingredients

¼ cup butter
½ cup sugar
½ cup milkmaid
2 tbsp orange juice
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla essence
½ cup flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda

Mix together butter, sugar, milkmaid and orange juice in a pan and put it on medium heat. Stir till the sugar dissolves. Cool it a little. 
Beat the egg with the vanilla essence and add to the cooled milkmaid mixture. 
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Add to the pan. 
Grease a 5 inch springform pan. Pour the batter in the baking pan and steam for 40 minutes. 

The cake was delicious. It was so unlike a normal cake. It didn't rise much and had the texture of pudding. It was gooey, chocolatey and stick to your teeth rich.