Sunday, July 17, 2016

Honey Cake(yumm,indian bakery style)

This is an easy-to-make recipe, and it tastes great. It's a simple cake made from scratch, flavored with honey and Jam.
Dry ingredients:
All purpose flour-1 cup
Powdered sugar- 3/4 cup
Baking powder- 1/2 tbsp
Orange/lemon yellow color-a pinch
Wet ingredients:
Butter/oil- 1 cup
large eggs- 2
Milk-2.5 tsp
Vanilla essence-¼ tsp
Honey syrup:
Honey:4 tbsp, sugar:3 tbsp, water-80 ml
Jam spread:
mixed/strawberry Jam:4 tbsp, sugar:1 tbsp, water:1 tbsp
Desiccated coconut(for sprinkling as per your taste)
Process:
1)In a bowl sift all the dry ingredients.
2)In another bowl add all the wet ingredients and beat them thoroughly.
3)Now,add all the dry ingredients slowly into wet mixture until the batter is well combined.
4)Place the cake batter into prepared cake pan.Bake the cake and let it cool.
5)Meanwhile when its cooling,prepare honey syrup and jam spread.In a pan add honey,sugar and water.Heat until sugar is dissolved, till it forms a thick syrup.
6)Once the syrup is done you can shift it to a small bowl and prepare jam spread in the same pan.Heat sugar,water and jam until sugar is dissolved completely till it reaches a spreading consistency.
7) Cake,desiccated coconut,honey syrup and Jam spread-keep all of them ready.
8) Pour honey syrup over the cake and spread the prepared 'Jam spread' all over the cake and sprinkle some desiccated coconut as per your taste.
     **let the cake sit for an hour or so after pouring honey syrup and before spreading Jam so that the cake absorbs all the honey syrup and becomes moist.
Yummy Honey cake is ready..!!
Cake measurements: Above measurements are good for a 8-inch loaf pan/double your measurements for a 9 inch cake.
Oven temperature: 350 deg F, for 30 min/until toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.
Storage: Store it in refrigerator and re-heat them for for few seconds before eating.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Marble Cake(vanilla and chocolate cake mix)

Confused to eat vanilla or chocolate cake?Then this is for you..!!
This cake looks complicated but it's actually one batter divided into two portions and then melted chocolate is added to one portion.

Ingredients:
Dry ingredients:
  • semisweet chocolate chopped/chocochips -1/3 cup
  • all purpose flour-1 cup+2 tbsp
  • granulated white sugar- 1/2 cup+2 tbsp
  • baking powder- 1 1/4 tsp
  • baking soda-1/4 tsp
  • salt- 1/4 tsp
Wet ingredients:
  • unsalted butter/oil-0.4 cup
  • eggs- 2 large (room temperature)
  • vanilla extract- 3/4 tsp
  • plain yogurt-3 tbsp(room temperature)
  • milk- 1/4 cup(room temperature)
Process:
1) Keep all the ingredients ready at room temperature.
2) In a bowl beat butter/oil and sugar until well combined. Now add eggs one after another and beat thoroughly. Add all the dry ingredients(except chocolate) into wet mixture and mix the batter well.
3)Now melt the chocolate using double boiler method/in microwave.
4)Remove a little more than half of the batter and place into a separate bowl. To the remaining batter stir, or beat, in the melted chocolate.
Now, you have vanilla and chocolate cake batters.
5)Place the batters into the prepared cake pan by alternating spoonfuls of vanilla batter with the chocolate batter.
6) Then, with the end of a knife, gently draw swirls through the batter to marbleize it. 
           Don't over mix.
7) Bake the cake and let it cool.
You can just enjoy the cake as it/dust it with some powdered sugar/chocolate ganache.
Cake measurements: Above measurements are good for a 8-inch cake pan.
Oven temperature: 350 deg F, for 30 min/until toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.
Storage:You can store it at room temperature for 3-4 days/in refrigerator if you want to store them for a week or so. Re-heat them for for few seconds before eating. 


Thursday, June 9, 2016

Eggless Orange cake(with wheat,healthy,moist,quick)

  If you are looking for a healthy,moist fruit cake you should try this.This cake is very light and one can have 2-3 pieces easily.This is simple,quick and perfect for a light dessert/with tea.
Ingredients:
Dry ingredients:

  • whole wheat flour-1 cup
  • baking powder-1/2 tsp
  • baking soda- 1/2 tsp
  • orange zest- 1/2 tsp
  • a pinch of salt

Wet ingredients:

  • orange juice-1 cup(fresh is preferred/you could use store bought juice,i made with fresh juice)
  • powdered jaggery/powdered sugar-1/2 cup  (use powdered jaggery if its available, you could make it more healthy)
  • Olive oil/any flavorless oil- 1/4 cup
  • vanilla custard powder-1 tbsp 
Process:

1)Pre-heat the oven to 350 deg F.
2)In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients and in another bowl mix all the wet ingredients.
3)Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture in smaller proportions and mix until well combined.
4) Prepare the cake pan(spray some oil and dust it with some flour so cake comes out easily).
5) Pour the cake batter into prepared cake pan.
6) Once the cake is out of oven it looks like this.Don't worry if there is a crack on the top layer we are gonna flip it upside down.
Oven temp: 350 deg F, bake for 25-30 min/until toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.
Cake size: Above measurements are good for a 6"cake pan,you could use 1.5 times of measurement for a 9"' cake pan.
Icing: You could decorate it with some whipped cream/butter cream icing/tastes great as it.
Storage: You can store it at room temperature for 3-4 days/in fridge if you want it for a week or so.



Friday, June 3, 2016

Eggless Chocolate cake(butter less,eggless,less oil,no condensed milk) with handcrafted leaves

 Looking for a tasty egg less chocolate cake without condensed milk like me? Here you go..!!

Ingredients:
Dry ingredients:
All purpose flour-1.5 cups,sifted
sugar- 1 cup
Unsweetened cocoa powder -3 tbsp,sifted
baking soda-1 tsp
salt-1/2 tsp
Wet ingredients:
Olive oil/any flavorless oil (like sunflower,canola) - 5 tbsp
white vinegar- 1 tbsp
vanilla extract-1 tsp
cold water-1 cup

Process:
1) In a large bowl add all the dry ingredients and mix well.
2) Add oil,vinegar,vanilla and cold water into dry mixture and mix it well until there are no lumps.
3) Bake them-i wanted to do a layer cake so i divided the batter into half and baked them twice since it a 6 inch pan.But you could use a regular 8/9 inch cake pan.
4)Put some butter cream icing in between. click here for butter cream icing recipe
5) Place the other layer on top of butter cream icing as shown below.

Icing: Hand crafted leaves. how to do handcrafted leaves

Cake size: Above measurements are good for 9"cake/for two layered 6"inch cake.
Storage:It can be stored at room temp for 3-4 days and up to a week in fridge.
Oven temp: 350 deg for 25-30 min until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Serves: 6 people


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Hand Crafted leaves(with chocolate)

Try this beautiful handcrafted leaves which can be used in decorating cakes/cupcakes/pudding/any desserts.

Ingredients:
  •  Chocolate chips/any chocolate of your choice
  •  Leaves
Process:
1) Prepare any cake of your choice-preferably a layered cake because these leaves look great on layered cakes.
 2) Heat some water over stove in a saucepan.
 3) Put chocolate chips/chocolate of your choice over the sauce pan and let it melt.It shouldn't take more than a minute. Stir in between.
    DON'T OVER HEAT THE CHOCOLATE.
 4) Mix the melted chocolate thoroughly and let it cool.Don't let it sit for long time it becomes hard.
If it had become hard heat it again.
 5) Take leaves of any shape of your choice and wash them thoroughly.Wash twice/thrice until you are sure they are very clean.
 6) Dry them using a paper towel.
 7) Use backside of the leaf.
 8) Put the chocolate on the leaf using a painting brush/spoon/hand. But,make sure it doesn't go beyond the edges of the leaf.
 9) Similarly do for all the leaves and keep them in freezer for 2-3 minutes(until they are set). 
 10) Peel the chocolate slowly and gently away from the leaf.
 11) Once they are all done place them over the cake/pudding. Prepare few extra leaves sometimes they might break. :)

Egg Puff

 Try this simple,quick and yummy egg puff. This tastes much great than store bought puffs.
Ingredients:
  •  Tomato Onion curry  Click here for recipe (add less water, it should be dry)
  •  Puff pastry sheets-available at Indian grocery store in the frozen section( i know about united states,not sure of other countries but you can check out in frozen section). 
  •  Boiled eggs cut into half
Process:
1) Puff pastry sheets look as shown below.
2) Prepare onion tomato curry and keep it at room temperature.
 3)You can cut the pastry sheet into half/use as it. I prefer small puffs anytime so i cut them into half
 4) Put some tomato curry on the pastry sheet and place egg on it.
 5) Seal it well,use water so that the edges stick well.
 6) Use a fork to seal it completely.
 7) Bake them.
 In the main pic, i have sealed in such a way egg is visible(you can do like that if you are interested,but they tend to go apart very easily so i would prefer using above sealing method).

Storage: Leftovers can be stored in fridge for a day or so.
Oven temp:For about 25-30 min/until they turn golden brown color all over.