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.

Cashew Brownies

Eggless Cashew Brownies

I firmly believe that you can never have enough brownies. Brownies are traditionally made with walnuts but cashews taste as good. For me brownies have to deliciously chocolaty and so I prefer using melted chocolate rather than cocoa powder. Chocolate makes the brownies denser and tastier.

I have to bake everyday because my son wants to take cake with him for tiffin. For him it has to be chocolate all the time. And it makes me happy to see his face light up every time I bake a chocolate cake. He is my muse and my inspiration.

Ingredients

1 12 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup chopped chocolate

3 tbsp butter

½ cup curd

¼ tsp baking soda

1 cup castor sugar

½ cup chopped cashews

½ cup butter, softened

3 tbsp milk

Line and grease a 8”cake tin. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Put the chopped chocolate and 3 tbsp butter on a double boiler and melt the chocolate. 

Whip it well and keep aside to cool. 

Beat the sugar and ½ cup butter till pale and frothy. 

Add the milk and beat some more. 

Add the melted chocolate and mix well. 

Add the baking soda to the curd and once it froths then add to the batter. 

Sieve the flour and baking powder and fold into the batter. Pour into the baking tin. Sprinkle the chopped cashews on the batter. 

Bake for 30-40 minutes. If you feel the cashews start burning then place a foil on top after 20 minutes. 

Karachi Bakery Biscuits

Karachi Bakery Biscuits

The Mahabharata was fought over distribution of land.

 Lord Rama left home to honour his father’s promise as he didn’t want his kingdom to be divided.

 Don’t worry I am not going to preach a sermon or tell you about the epics. My point is division or batwara. It has been the bane since ages. And it is happening in my home now. The fight is not over land or money or assets. It is over a box of Karachi Bakery Biscuits. And it is no laughing matter!!

We had friends from Hyderabad who would get us these lovely Fruit biscuits from Karachi Bakery every time they came back from vacation. And hubby and I would squabble over them. Now they are moving away permanently and we have this last box of the biscuits. 

Last box!! Oh dear!!! No more Karachi biscuits for us!! And so this last box has become a bone of contention between us two. We have argued and fought over the last little broken bit and divided the biscuits. Every day we count them carefully to ensure that the opponent has not pilfered away something from the other.

But how long will this last? The biscuits will soon be consumed. And so I had to learn how to make these.

I read the list of ingredients on the box. 

Wheat flour, tutti frutti cashew bits, salt and sugar are fine. The two main problems were the hydrogenated vegetable fat and milk solids. I had neither. The vegetable fats might be something akin to Dalda. And the milk solids might mean “khoya”. So it was time to improvise.

I remember making a tart in which I used shortening in the base. And the base turned out to be so very “khasta”. I use this word for lack of an equivalent in any language. It means the crumbly texture. So I decided to use half butter and half shortening.

Next came the milk solids. How many of you like to eat milk powder? I do! And I remember reading on the packet that it contains milk solids and sugar. Also I had read recipes using milk powder and the response to those were good. So milk powder it was.

Here is my interpretation of the Karachi bakery Biscuits!!

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour (you can use wheat flour)

25 gms milk powder ( roughly 6 small sachets of milk powder)

50 gms butter

50 gms shortening

½ cup castor sugar

½ cup tutti frutti

¼ cup cashew bits

1 tsp salt

Cream the butter, shortening and sugar till it turns pale. 

Add the tutti fruutti and cashew and mix. 

Take the milk powder. 

Sieve the flour, milk powder and salt. Add to the butter mix in two batches. Use a spatula to incorporate the flour in.

 Do not overbeat. The idea is to gently bring together the dough. 

Keep patting it together and slowly form a long log with sharp edges. It is not supposed to be round. 

Wrap the log in clingfilm. Put it in the freezer for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees. Take out the log and cut equal sized slices. 

Place them a bit apart on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. 

Eggless chocolate cake

Eggless Chocolate Cake

How many cakes have you baked in a day?

Well recently I had to bake 4 three tiered cakes and I ended up making 12 cakes for that. After the first 3 I started working on automation. Sieve, whip, bake!! And the simple recipe helped a lot. The cakes turned out awesome.

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups cake flour

¾ cup sugar

4 tbsp cocoa powder

½ cup boiling water

½ cup curd

¼ tsp baking soda

¾ tsp baking powder

½ cup oil

Line and grease a 9” cake tin. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

To make cake flour take regular flour, remove 2 tbsp flour and add 2 tbsp cornflour.

 Mix curd and baking soda and keep aside. Mix the cocoa powder and boiling water to a smooth paste. Bring to room temperature. Beat the oil and sugar together for 2 minutes. Add the curd mix and whip. 

Add the cocoa paste and mix well. 

Sieve together cake flour and baking powder. Add to the batter and fold gently. 

Bake for 25 minutes. Your cake is ready. 

This is a great cake for layering into celebration cakes.

Eggless Chocolate Cake

Eggless Chocolate Cake

I have many friends who demand only eggless cakes. Personally I feel that cakes with eggs rise better. They have better taste and texture. However what friends want they get. 

So I have been trying out different eggless options. There are so many egg substitutes. You can bake a cake with milkmaid, with yogurt, with oil, with flax seeds. I always tend to add some milk to the batter as I find that it improves the cake tremendously.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups cake flour

1 cup sugar

5 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup hot milk

½ cup oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a 8” cake tin.

Boil the milk and add the cocoa powder. Whisk well to make a smooth paste.

Sift together flour and baking soda. Beat together oil and sugar. Add the vanilla essence. Add the cocoa-milk mixture and mix well. Fold in the flour gently. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes. The cake is ideal as a tea time cake. Cut slices or wedges and enjoy!!

Eggless Fanta Orange Cake

Eggless Fanta Orange Cake
 

Every cake has its story. This cake of mine has one too.
I have come home to my mom after almost a year. My old room, my things, my books, all make me nostalgic. I remember those days of carefree existence. I was blessed to have grown up under the fond care of my grandparents. Truly there is no comparison to their selfless love. 

One of the things I came across was my grandmother’s orange juice strainer. It was commonly used before the advent of juicers. They used to be these triangular pokey tops on a fluted bottom, something like a shiv linga (oops am I being religiously incorrect??). However I remember many sunny afternoons sitting and straining oranges. You put half an orange on top and squeeze and turn. 

Sitting on the dining table were some plump oranges. I, personally am not fond of fresh oranges. Its smell puts me off. I was dying to use that apparatus so I decided to make a cake. An orange cake. So what else is new about that? Hmmmm !!!

I had often heard of a coco cola cake. So why not make a Fanta cake. And what else!! Serious head scratching session. Orange colour and orange tutti frutti to go with the theme. The idea was forming in my head and I could visualise a plate full of delightful orange taste and colour.
What about the topping? Sugar glaze sounds nice but orange and chocolate are a killer combination. Here I cheated a bit and used Hershey’s chocolate syrup. If your kiddo likes it then you can print it!!! Mine did and so here you go with the recipe!!

Ingredients
 
2 cups flour
½ tbsp. baking powder
½ cup oil
1 cup powdered sugar
juice from 1 orange
½ cup Fanta or any orange soda
½ cup curd, beaten
Pinch of orange food color
½ cup tutti frutti

Sift together flour and baking powder. Roll the tutti frutti in the flour. This way they wont sink to the bottom of the cake.
Beat together the oil and powdered sugar. Add the Fanta and orange juice, beat a bit and then add the beaten curd. 
 

Make sure no lumps remain. Now add the flour and tutti frutti mix. Pour the batter into a greased 8” cake tin.
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Bake the cake for 20-25 minutes.
You can serve the cake just like that as it is soft and delicious. You can also drizzle some sugar glaze or chocolate syrup.
Enjoy!!!

Tipsy Pudding

Tipsy pudding

Don’t worry this pudding does not make you tipsy and you will not fall down after having it. 

Why is it called Tipsy Puding? No idea!! What I do know is that this is a very easy recipe and is loved by one and all. 

The best thing about this dessert is that it is better made a day prior to a party and it tastes even better a day after the party. Trust me this recipe is for keeps. 

It is a very sneaky way to add fresh fruits if you have fussy eaters at home. You can add fruits such as apples, bananas, pears, tinned pineapples, etc. I have specifically mentioned tinned pineapples because using fresh one is a disaster for desserts. Fresh pineapples have an enzyme called bromelain that makes it bitter. The tinned processed pineapples are sweet. 

Ingredients

1x8” basic eggless vanilla cake
400 ml Amul cream
1 cup powdered sugar ( you can add more if you want it sweeter)
1 apple, chopped fine (do not peel)
1 banana, chopped fine
3 pineapple rings, chopped fine ( use tinned pineapple)
Nuts and raisins for garnish

The pudding is basically about layering the ingredients. 

Slice the cake into two layers. 

Sprinkle some sugar syrup on the cake slices. If you are using tinned pineapples then you can use the juice in the tin. 

Beat the Amul cream with the sugar till the sugar dissolves. Now add the chopped fruits and mix well.

Take a pudding dish. First put a layer of cake. Then layer with half the fruit-cream mix. Then put the second cake layer and top with rest of the fruit-cream mix. 

Garnish with nuts and raisins. Wrap the pudding dish with cling film and refrigerate till ready to be eaten.

 I make this dish often for parties and I make them the night before and keep refrigerated for 24 hours. This gives the cake time to soak in the cream and flavor from the fruits. It makes the pudding tastier.