Simple Chocolate Cake

I know, it's been a long time since I updated my blog. The posting is getting postponed for one or other reason. As I started working now I became little busy to concentrate on my blog. Or may be that's just an excuse. Sometimes we need break from any work, don't we? But it seems I've taken a long break, so decided to make a fresh start with fresh recipes.

I wish to start my fresh journey with this amazing yet simple cake recipe. My daughter made this cake all by herself with no help from me. She made it for her little sister's 9^th Birthday party that happened last Saturday. She decorated the cake so well that everyone at the party loved the decoration and of course the taste. Isn't it pretty?

Here is the recipe:

Recipe Source: About.com

Ingredients: 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (We used Whole Wheat Flour) 2 cups granulated Sugar ¾ cup unsweetened Cocoa 1 ½ teaspoons Baking Powder 1 ½ teaspoons Baking Soda 1 tsp Salt 2 Eggs  1 cup Milk  ½ cup Vegetable Oil 1 ½ tsp Vanilla 1 cup Boiling Water Preparation: Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla to above mixture and beat well with electric mixer or an egg beater. Then stir in boiling water and mix well. The batter should be thin. Take two cake pans (8-inch), grease them well with a non-stick cooking spray. Pour the batter until ¾th of the pan is filled. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Then place both the cake pans on the middle rack side by side Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. When done, remove the pans from the oven and place them on the cooling rack to allow them cool for 10 minutes in pan. Then remove from pan and cool completely. Frost and decorate as desired.

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Eggless Chocolate Cake

I made this for my daughter’s birthday. It came out so good and yummy. But I didn't decorate the cake, I just dusted it with fine sugar.

Recipe Source: All Recipes

Ingredients: 2 ½ cups All-purpose Flour 1 ½ cups white Sugar ½ cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder ½ cup Vegetable Oil (I used Olive Oil) 1 ½ cups Water 1 ½ tsp Baking Soda 1 tsp Baking Powder ¼ tsp salt 1 ½ tbsp Vanilla Extract ¼ cup semi sweet Chocolate Chips Preparation: Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour an 8 x 8 cake pan. Add sifted flour + cocoa powder + sugar + soda + baking powder + salt to a large bowl and mix well. Add vanilla + water + oil to the above mixture and mix well again.  Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour the above cake batter into the greased cake pan and bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Take the cake pan out of the oven carefully (it will be hot) and leave it for some time until it cools down. When it becomes cold, run a knife along the edges of the cake to loosen it. Transfer the cake to a serving plate, decorate as you like and enjoy the taste.

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Simple White Cake

Yummy, Spongy Cake

Last Saturday, I was taking a nap after lunch. Suddenly a touch of sweet, aromatic and delicious smell awakened me.  I instantly felt hungry! I rushed downstairs to find out that my daughter made a delicious cake to surprise me as that day was my birthday. She made the cake without taking anybody’s help. It turned out so soft and moist and of course delicious. She even took snaps for my blog. Isn’t she cute?

Here is the recipe:

Recipe Source: All Recipes

Original recipe makes 12 cupcakes or 1- 9x9 inch pan but my daughter took a small heart shaped pan that didn’t hold all the batter. So she poured the remaining batter into a cupcake pan that gave her 16 small cupcakes. (See the picture above)

Ingredients: 1 ½ cups All Purpose Flour ½ cup Milk 1 ¾ tsp Baking Powder 1 cup White Sugar ½ cup Butter 2 Eggs 2 tsp Vanilla Extract A handful of Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (My daughter added these as her own special touch) Preparation: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Meanwhile, grease a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners. In a bowl, cream the sugar and butter together. Then crack the eggs, add them to the bowl, beat well and stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the above mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk and chocolate chips and mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. If using muffin pan spoon in the batter. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven.  For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the cake and the cake springs back when touched. Remove the cake from the oven and leave aside until it becomes completely cold. Then cut into pieces and enjoy. Yummy!

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Soy Pakoda – Baked Version

In my previous post I wrote about deep-fried Soy Pakoda that tasted super good. I wanted to make them healthier by baking to minimize the usage of oil. And I succeeded and the baked pakodas tasted as delicious as deep-fried pakodas. 

I used the same ingredients as I used for the deep-fried version. Only thing I changed is the amount of oil used. Here is the recipe for this guilt-free snack.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Soy Flour
• 2 tsp Rice Flour
• A pinch of Baking Soda
• A small onion, chopped lengthwise
• Few Green Chilies, chopped fine
• Few Curry Leaves
• Salt as required
• 2 tbsp Oil  

Preparation:

Mix all the above ingredients into a thick batter by adding very little water (just sprinkle some water). Keep aside.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Meanwhile, line a cookie tray with aluminum foil. Take small portions of the batter and place on the tray in a way that the pakodas won’t touch each other (just like in the picture).

Place this tray in the bottom rack of the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the pakodas turn golden brown in color (for me it took 20 minutes). No need to turn them over in the middle. 

Then take out from the oven and leave aside to cool down.

Enjoy these guilt-free and yummy pakodas any time of the day.

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Pumpkin – Cranberry Muffins

A delicious muffin recipe for Thanksgiving

I prepared these for Thanksgiving Day and posting now after several days. I know, delayed posting!! :)

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Cranberry Pudding Cupcakes

Great tasting Cranberry Pudding Cupcakes

First of all, A Very Merry Christmas To You!! Hope you guys are having a good Christmas day. As usual my kids got some presents from Santa and some from parents. I guess Christmas is the most enjoyable holiday for kids as they get lots of presents.

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Eggless Fruit Cake

Yummy, Eggless Fruit Cake for Christmas

First let me talk about the big change I told you about in my previous post. Many of you have guessed correctly!! Yes, I am going to get my own domain from the New Year. I am so happy about it. But I am still working on it and I will give you more details soon.

I’ve been thinking to bake a fruit cake for Christmas, but most of the recipes I found on the net contain rum/brandy in them. As I want kids also (of course us too) to eat it, I wanted to omit it. I know true Christmas Fruit Cake means we have to prepare it traditionally, but hey, nothing wrong in trying this simple and yummy cake too!! It tasted so delicious and I had the satisfaction that I baked some fruit cake for this Christmas.

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Vanilla Cupcakes

Simple but delicious cupcakes

As I previously wrote, I recently joined in Sweet & Simple Bakes, where we will be given a simple baking challenge each month. This yummy challenge is started by Rosie and Maria, who whip up many mouth-watering bakes. This month the challenge was Vanilla Cupcakes. We had fun making them. As always, my daughter wanted to decorate the cupcakes and she did a very nice job, don’t you think?

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Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Great tasting Cookies

I made these for the monthly challenge of “Sweet and Simple Bakes” event hosted by Maria and Rosie. This is the first time I am participating in this challenge as I was so much attracted by the simplicity of the baking recipes they provide and also to improve my baking skills. Thanks for hosting such a nice event Maria and Rosie! The cookies have come out well and were delicious. 

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Eggless Apple Raisin Muffins

Eggless Apple Raisin Muffins

I was looking for some yummy kid treats for MBP: Kids Food and found this delicious eggless muffins recipe in Madhuram’s Eggless Cooking. It involved very limited work and I had all the ingredients on hand. I immediately adopted it and made these muffins. I must say they tasted so great and came out perfect. It was a great hit with my kids and it’s a keeper recipe for sure. Thanks Madhu for this wonderful recipe. These muffins are not only healthy as it has the goodness of apples and raisins but also yummy with the perfect blend of ingredients. It’s a great snack for small kids too! 

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French Vanilla Cookies

A simple way to enjoy Vanilla Cookies

Yesterday I felt like baking some cookies for kids. As I wasn’t so confident about my baking skills, I wanted to pick a simple cookie recipe to bake. So I searched for an easy recipe and finally landed on this French Vanilla Cookies recipe. I was attracted towards to this as the ingredients list and the method involved is simple.

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Christmas Cookies

Colorful Cookies for Christmas

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Here are some cookies I made for Christmas. We left some cookies and milk for Santa Clause, who was very pleased with the cookies (smile) and left us some presents. 

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Christmas Cupcakes

Colorful and Yummy Cupcakes for Christmas

I love the Christmas atmosphere. Christmas lights and decorations look enchanting everywhere. As the Christmas holidays are approaching, my daughter’s class held a fun-filled holiday tradition called ‘Secret Santa’, where a student is randomly assigned to another student to whom he/she gives a gift anonymously. It’s really a lot of fun to guess who your Secret Santa is! And they’re going to get these gifts and start guessing about their secret Santa on the day of the Christmas party, which is today. For this particular Christmas party, I volunteered to send some cupcakes! 

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Cranberry Bread with Pureed Fruit

Yummy and Eggless Cranberry Bread

 

As I was planning to send something for Madhuram’s Egg Replacement event, I was browsing through different baking recipes online and in my collection. Last week when I visited the grocery shop a packet of fresh cranberries caught my attention. A recipe for cranberry bread was given at the back of that packet. So immediately took it and brought home. I have never used cranberries in my cooking, so was skeptical about using them. Anyway, went with the bread recipe to see how it would taste. Madhuram has announced “Pureed Fruit” as the substitute of egg for this month’s event, I used mashed banana in the place of egg and was wondering how it would taste! But, trust me, the bread tasted so delicious and came out perfect and was smelling great. 

Check out this site for common substitutions in food.

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Pumpkin Cupcakes

Delicious Pumpkin Cupcakes perfect for Thanksgiving Party

We had a nice gathering for this thanksgiving. I have prepared these pumpkin cupcakes for this party. Kids enjoyed these cupcakes so much, not to mention the adults. The credit for decorating these cute cupcakes goes to my daughter. She enjoys helping me with cooking. I found the recipe here and made little changes. I used chocolate chips instead of chopped nuts (as one of the kids is allergic to nuts) and omitted nutmeg (actually forgot to add). 

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Eggless Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips – For a Worthy Cause

Eggless Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

Now, don’t look at me with a puzzled face if I say I never baked bread before! Yes, true! Though I am not new to baking and baked some goodies before, I never put my hand into baking bread. But, now a great opportunity has come my way to bake my first bread for a worthy cause. 

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Coconut Cookies

I made these cookies substituting eggs with Silken Tofu. I heard of tofu before but didn’t know there were so many forms of tofu. This morning only I got the idea of trying my hand at using silken tofu in baking. So made a quick trip to the grocery shop and bought silken tofu. Then I started googling for recipes that use silken tofu as the substitute, but most of the recipes I found were either pudding or soups or smoothies. So thought of trying a cookie recipe and replace the egg with silken tofu. This cookie recipe caught my attention, that involved less work and I had all the ingredients in the pantry. 

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Baked Onion Pakoda

Onion Pakoda baked for goodness

I’ve been thinking about baking pakodas instead of deep frying for several months now. But I couldn’t dare enough to try it. Finally I made these by crossing my fingers, but am surprised to see that these taste almost the same as deep-fried pakodas. I would definitely say these make a perfect snack for fat-conscious people. Try making these and let me know if you liked it or not! And the good thing is that it took only 20 minutes for me to bake these pakodas. The quantity I have given is good for two servings.

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Baked Puri

Healthy way to eat Puris

As I have promised, I am presenting the recipe for Baked Puri. I got the idea of baked puris from here. It is so simple and healthy way to cook puris. But I should tell you: these are not so soft and fluffy like deep fried puris. The baked puris taste so crunchy like papads and may taste little different than the deep fried puris. The only good point is that these are baked (I mean no oil), not deep fried! Try this only if you like crunchy stuff.

Ingredients: ½ cup Whole Wheat Flour (makes 2 puris) ½ tsp Oil Salt and water as required Preparation: Mix the flour, oil and salt. Add water and prepare stiff dough. Knead well. Divide the dough into 2 balls. Roll out into thin puris and prick with a fork to let the air out. Arrange the puris on a baking tray. Bake in a hot oven at 250c for 10 minutes or until puris become light brown in color. Enjoy these puris with desired curry or just sugar. If desired, spread butter on top of the puri and enjoy. We enjoyed our puris with vegetarian chili. The only difference is: I substituted white beans and pink beans with garbanzo beans (chick peas) and kidney beans (rajma). Rest of the process is the same.

As these make perfect breakfast item, I am sending these to “WBB-Combi Breakfasts” event being hosted by Lata of Masala Magic. This event was started by Nandita of Saffron Trail.

On a Different Note:

1. Dear friends Kitchen Flavours and Anjali have passed me this beautiful "Wylde Woman Award". Thank you so much for thinking about me friends!
2. Dear friend Suma Rajesh has passed another pretty award “ARTE Y PICO”. Thanks Suma!

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Basboosa

A delicious Middle Eastern Dessert

This is my 100th post. So I wish to celebrate this with a delicious dessert! Of course, it is not an Indian dessert. It is a traditional Middle Eastern (Arabic) dessert made of semolina flour, yogurt, and coconut. 

I took the original recipe from here. I didn’t make many changes to the original recipe. I just used cashews instead of almonds as suggested in the recipe. I also reduced the amount of time to 30 minutes instead of 40-45 minutes as suggested in the recipe. Everything else remained the same.

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