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. 

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.

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.

Veg Puff/Curry Puff

 Planning a quick appetizer for your party?Love puffs? Try this simple and quick recipe which tastes delicious.
 Ingredients:

• Vegetable curry(any dry curry of your choice like paneer burji/mix veg curry dry,I chose aloo mutter for my veg puff)-should be dry not gravy type.  click here for recipe
•  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). 

Process:

 1) Puff pastry sheet looks as shown below.Make sure you take it out from the freezer at least 
1-1.5 hour before you start making them.(since they would be in the freezer it will be tuff to handle them,once it reaches to room temperature you can easily take them apart and cut into half).

2) I made veg and egg puffs at the same time but, you could just prepare vegetable curry and keep it ready 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) Place the vegetable curry you prepared on the pastry sheet.(look on left hand side in the pic)

 5) Fold the puff pastry sheet and seal it using fork as shown below.

 6) Seal all of them and bake for 25-30 min.

Storage: You can store the leftovers in fridge for a day or so.

Oven temp: 375 deg F, for about 25-30 min/until they turn golden brown color all over.
NOTE: Put some aluminium foil/wax paper on the pan you are baking so that the baking tray lasts long otherwise, sometimes it leaves some brown (burnt)marks on your tray.So make sure you line it with some foil/wax paper. But its not mandatory just a suggestion to make your tray lasts for long. :)