Sponge Cake

 

I had tried many different recipes for sponge cake and it was never a success for me. I had lost hope in making this cake and by chance i landed up in a blog "Veena's Art of Cakes". I am a huge fan of baking either it be cakes, cookies or any normal dishes. I always think that what can i bake today in my microwave...Iam that big fan.

Coming back to Veena's blog...Its so amazing to see how she decorates her cakes. Her blog is definitely a school for all who love to bake and is a novice in baking cakes. When i saw the recipe for sponge cake in her blog, i felt it to be very easy to make. I thought, one last time, i will try out this cake.

My daughter's exams were going on, so i kept a bookmark on the recipe to try it out later. She told me that on the day her exams ended, she would like me to bake a special cake for her. So i thought i will bake her this cake. 

On the day her exams ended, i tried out this recipe and to my surprise, it came out excellent, awesome.....I was fed up trying different recipes for a sponge cake, lost hope and when at last it came out absolutely right, i was feeling top of the world - like i had climbed Mount Everest. I think you can understand why i felt so...

How to describe this cake??...mmm.....It was very soft, spongy, melt in mouth and of course tasty. My daughters were very happy and they enjoyed the cake a lot. It was finished within an hour. I had to hide two pieces for my husband to taste. 
 
I thanked Veena a lot when i was enjoying the cake with my family. I will be trying more of her cake recipes in future...So stay tuned guys, u have lots of cake recipes coming up in near future.
.
.
.
.
Friends, Come Close.......................this picture is tempting, isnt it?

 
Recipe Source: Veena's Art Of Cakes

Ingredients

230 gms Self Rising Flour (check the notes)
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
230 gms Butter (unsalted, room temperature)
200 gms Sugar (powdered)
4 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla essence


Method

• Sieve self rising flour and baking powder. Keep this aside.
• In a bowl, beat butter and sugar till creamy in texture using an electric hand beater.
• Add eggs and vanilla essence. Beat again till everything is combined properly.
• Now add flour + baking powder mixture into it little by little and mix nicely using a wooden spoon.
• Pre-heat oven at 170 degree Celsius in convection mode.
• Grease a cake tin with butter and line a butter paper in it.
• Pour the prepared cake batter in it 
• Place the cake tin in the pre-heated oven for 35 - 45 minutes. Check in between with a tooth pick, whether cooked or not.
• Once it is cooked, give a standing time of 5 minutes.
• Later, take off from the cake tin and let it cool on a wire rack.
• Once cooled, cut into pieces and serve.

Notes: 

• Self Rising Flour can be bought from stores.
• It can be made at home also with the All purpose flour/Maida.
• For 1 cup Self Rising Flour...Substitute is....

Remove 2 tbsp flour from 1 cup All Purpose Flour/Maida and add 1 tsp Baking powder + 1/4 tsp Salt

Thanks for visiting

Happy Cooking!!

Dates Cake (Egg less and Butter less)

This is a soft and moist butter less and egg less cake with the goodness of dates in it. This cake is very easy to make and tastes awesome. I am posting lots of pictures of this yummy cake....so sit tight...you are going to enjoy it.... :)

As my family said.... it tastes like gulab jamun. I added little less sugar as mentioned in the quantity, as dates has its own sweetness. 

Now-a-days, i take the ingredients for baking, according to the gms and ml and not by cups unless the recipe demands. I read somewhere that for baking cakes, the ingredients has to be accurate using gms and ml and if we convert it into cups there will be a slight difference in the quantity. So i would suggest you to take the ingredients according to the gms and ml, but again its your choice....

I don't know how to describe about this cake...Try it out by yourself and you will come to know.

Recipe Source: Sharmis Passions

Ingredients

1 cup (135 gms) Maida/All Purpose Flour
18 Dates (de-seeded, brown or black coloured)
3/4 cup (185 ml) Milk
3/4 cup (165 gms) Sugar
1/2 cup (125 ml) Oil
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tbsp Nuts (chopped, any nuts of your choice, optional)


Method

• Soak the de-seeded dates in little milk and keep this aside for 15 to 30 minutes.
• In the mean time, sieve together maida and baking soda. Keep this aside.
• In a deep bowl, add sugar, milk and oil. Mix it well using and electric hand beater till the sugar is completely dissolved. Keep this aside.
• Grind the soaked dates into a fine paste and add this into the milk mixture. Beat it again till everything is well combined.
• Now add the maida-baking soda mix into it, little by little. Mix well using a wooden spoon, till everything is combined properly.
• Add the chopped nuts and mix once again.
• Pre-heat oven at 175 degree Celsius in convection mode.
• Grease a cake tin with butter or oil and line a butter paper in it.
• Pour the prepared cake batter in it 
• Place the cake tin in the pre-heated oven for 35 - 40 minutes. Check with a tooth pick whether cooked or not.
• Once it is cooked, give a standing time of 5 minutes.
• Later, take off from the cake tin and let it cool on a wire rack.
• Once cooled, cut into pieces and serve. 

Thanks for visiting

Happy Cooking!!

Tutti Fruity Rose Ice Cream

Who doesn't like Ice creams? I am sure you all love it as i do...In Ice Creams, all flavours are my favourite, but one of the most favourite is Tutti Fruity. I like the sweet fruit bite that we get while enjoying the ice cream.

Long time i was planning to make this ice cream. I gave a twist to the normal tutti fruity ice cream with a rose flavour. It was AMAZING...I must say that....Very tasty and full of flavours...I will try to explain how it tasted....A spoon in your mouth....first flavour that you will get is of the rose....when it dissolves the fruit flavour pops out as you bite on those tutti fruities...Hope i have given justice to this wonderful ice cream by describing it.

Lot of description about this ice cream, isn't it? Friends...this is a must try dessert...You will definitely like it...So here goes the recipe....

Check the notes before making this recipe... 


Ingredients

1 cup Vanilla Custard (home made)
2 cup Milk
1 cup Full cream milk powder
5 tbsp Rose syrup
250 ml Fresh Cream
2 drops Red food colour (optional)
1/2 cup Tutti Fruity
1 tsp Vanilla essence or rose essence


Method

• Boil milk and cool it to room temperature. Keep this aside.
• In a blender, put homemade vanilla custard along with 1 cup milk, milk powder, essence and rose syrup.
• Blend well till everything is combined properly.
• Pour it into a bowl and mix in the rest of the milk.
• Beat the fresh cream in the same blender along with some milk mixture for about 1 minute and add it into the bowl.
• Mix well using a wire whisk. Add the red food colour. Mix again.
• Add the tutti fruity and mix again.
• Pour this mixture in an ice cream tin or an air tight container. You can see that the tutti fruity that you added in it has settled down in the bottom of the container. Don't worry, later on when you mix, it will be evenly distributed.
• Keep this in the freezer for about 2 to 3 hrs. Every fridge has different levels for cooling. So keep checking.
• Before it is fully set, take the ice cream out and mix it thoroughly with an egg beater (preferably) or spoon.
• Again put it in the freezer. Continue the same process once again.
• You can see that the tutti fruity is evenly distributed in the ice cream.
• After 3 to 4 hrs (again it depends on the fridge) when the ice cream is set, take out and serve.

Note:

• The store ice creams has a creamy texture. You can get this texture by mixing the ice cream in between the freezing process. So don't forget to mix in between. This makes a lot of difference to the ice cream.
• If you are making ice cream using an ice cream maker, you can skip the mixing activity.
• I made the vanilla custard using the ready made custard powder you get from stores.
• I did not add any sugar as the rose syrup has lot of sweetness on its own. Moreover, the milk powder too has sweetness. So need of sugar in this ice cream.

Zooom in.....A closer look....

Thanks for visiting

Happy Cooking!!

Ragda Pattice

This is a famous street food enjoyed in many parts of India. It is actually a healthy dish if made at your home.

When i bought the white peas from the store, i was not sure what to make with it as it was new to me. I searched through Internet and came to know that the famous ragda samosa, ragda pattice all are made with this ingredient. I was so happy, because we all loved these dishes from the chat shop. I made this dish and it tasted much better than the one which we enjoy at the shop. Moreover it is healthy as we are preparing it at our home. Not Joking....Try it yourself and you will come to know... Its really taste....

Recipe source: Tarla Dalal

Ingredients

For making Ragda

1 cup Dried White Peas/Saffed Vatana
1 Onion (medium, finely chopped)
1 tbsp. Oil
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
1 tbsp. Coriander powder
1 tbsp. Cumin powder
2 tsp Red chilli powder
2 tbsp. Coriander leaves (finely chopped)


For Pattice

2 cup Potato (boiled, peeled and mashed)
2 tsp Ginger - Green chilli paste
1 tbsp. Cornflour
Salt to taste
1/2 to 1 tsp Oil



For serving

10 tsp Green Chutney
4 tbsp. Dates and Tamarind Chutney/ Meeti Chutney
4 tbsp. Onion (finely chopped)
8 tbsp. Sev
4 tbsp. Papadi
Coriander leaves for garnishing
1 tsp Red chilli powder


Method

To prepare Ragda : - 

• Soak dried white peas overnight. Drain the water and pressure cook it in fresh 2 cups of water till soft and nicely cooked. Keep this aside.
• Heat oil in a non stick pan. Add mustard seeds and let them splutter.
• Now add onion and saute till golden brown colour.
• Add the cooked white peas, salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and red chilli powder.
• Mix well and let it simmer for approximately 5 minutes. While cooking press the mixture with the spoon in between.
• Add water as required and when everything is combined properly, add coriander leaves.
• Mix well and take off from heat.
• Ragda is ready.

To prepare Pattice : - 

• Mash the boiled and peeled potatoes, very smooth and soft without any lumps in it.
• Add salt, ginger-green chilli paste and cornflour. Mix well again so that everything is combined properly. (Mixing nicely the mashed potatoes is very important or else the pattice won't come out nice)
• Now rub your palms with little cornflour and take a golf ball sized potato mix. Spread it between your palms and fill it with little green chutney in the centre. Roll it again into a ball, press lightly to form like a tikki. Make pattice like this with rest of the potato mixture and keep them aside.
• Heat little oil in a non stick pan and place the pattice on it. When both sides turns golden brown colour, take off from heat and keep them aside.
• Pattice is ready.

  

To serve Ragda Pattice (individual servings) : -

• Place 2 pattice on the serving plate. Pour a generous quantity of the hot ragda on top of it.
• Put little meethi chutney on top of it. Then the green chutney, next little finely chopped onion.
• On top of it, put little crushed papadi, sev. Add more chutney's on top of it.
• Sprinkle little red chilli powder and some coriander leaves.
• Ragda Pattice is ready to serve. Serve it hot...

* I usually take the quantity of the ingredients as per my taste. So you can always adjust the spices as per your taste*


Thanks for visiting

Happy Cooking!!

Shezwan Chilli potato

This is another Chinese side dish made with potatoes. It is very tasty and best enjoyed with fried rice or noodles. It can be served as a starter too. All Chinese cuisine lovers like me would love this awesome and easy dish.

As the name suggests, this dish is bit spicy. As me and my kids like medium spicy food, i adjusted spices according to that. You can always increase the spices as per your wish. Shezwan pepper is added to give that extra spice and different taste to this dish. If you don't have them, don't worry...if you dont add them also, it will taste really good.

This dish is adapted from Sanjeev kapoor. He is an amazing chef and i like almost all his recipes. (Click on the link to see a video on how to make this dish)

So friends....with no delay...here's the recipe....

Recipe source : Sanjeev Kapoor 

Ingredients

5 Potato (cut into slightly thin wedges)
2 tbsp + 1 tbsp Cornflour
1 Onion (medium, sliced)
7 Garlic cloves (crushed)
2 Dry red chilli (cut into half)
8 Shezwan pepper (optional)
2 tsp Red chilli paste (see notes)
Salt to taste
1 tsp Soy sauce
1 tbsp Tomato ketchup (optional)
1/2 tsp Sugar
Spring onion greens (cut into small pieces)
1 tbsp Vinegar
Water as required
Oil for deep frying
2 tbsp Oil


Method

• Peel and cut the potatoes into slightly thin wedges and parboil them in water by adding little salt.
• Drain water from the parboiled potato wedges and keep them aside.
• Heat oil in a kadai for deep frying.
• Add cornflour on the parboiled potato wedges and mix well so that all of them are nicely coated.
• Put the potato wedges in the hot oil and fry till they become golden brown colour.
• In the mean time, heat 2 tbsp oil in a non stick pan. Put the dry red chillies. Stir fry for a second.
• Now add shezwan pepper and then add onion. Saute for sometime.
• Add crushed garlic and saute well.
• Now add red chilli paste and little water. Mix well.
• Add soy sauce, tomato ketchup, sugar and salt (don't forget that we have parboiled potato wedges with salt, so adjust salt accordingly). Mix well.
• Take 1 tbsp cornflour and mix little water. Pour this mixture into the kadai. Saute well.
• Adjust water. Mix well.
• Put the fried potato wedges into the kadai and mix well so that each of them are nicely coated with the gravy.
• Put some spring onion greens and vinegar. Saute well. Take off from heat.
• Serve it hot with fried rice or noodles.

Notes:   To make Red chilli paste:

• Boil kashmiri dry red chilli in some water. 
• Drain and grind them into a smooth paste.

   

* I usually take the quantity of the ingredients as per my taste. So you can always adjust the spices as per your taste*


Thanks for visiting

Happy Cooking!!

Linking this recipe to Julie's flavors of cuisine-chinese

Chocolaty Halwa

This is a yummy and chocolaty dessert which is exactly not a cake nor a chocolate. I would love to call it as a "Chocolaty Halwa". Taste amazing. The top portion is crunchy while the down portion is soft and smooth like a halwa.

This is actually an experiment which I did and turned out to be wonderful. The mixing of the batter has to be done fast, as there is a tendency of the chocolate to harden. So before starting to make this dish, prepare your tin, preheat your oven and then start doing the mixing.


Ingredients

87 gms White Chocolate
57 gms Butter (in room temperature)
50 gms Sugar (powdered)
1 Egg
1/4 tsp Vanilla essence
1/4 tsp Baking powder
65 gms Maida/All purpose flour
50 gms Almonds and cashew nuts (chopped)


Method

• Sieve maida and baking powder together and keep this aside.
• Prepare the cake tin by spreading a butter paper in it and grease it using butter.
• Chop white chocolate into small pieces and put it in a microwave safe bowl.
• Microwave - power HIGH for 1 minute.
• Mix well using a steel spoon till it becomes a smooth paste with no lumps.
• Into the chocolate, add butter and mix well. Now add sugar and using an electric hand beater, beat it till the sugar is completely dissolved. ( as we are adding powdered sugar, it will take only 1 minute)
• Now add egg and vanilla essence. Beat again.
• Preheat oven in convection mode at 180 degree Celsius.
• Add maida+baking powder mixture and mix using a wooden spoon or beater.
• Add some of the chopped nuts in the batter and mix again.
• Pour the batter into the prepared tin. Sprinkle the rest of the chopped nuts and some small pieces of white chocolate on top.
• Place it in the preheated oven for about 30 - 40 minutes. When the top portion becomes golden brown colour, take out from the oven and let it cool for sometime.
• When it is completely cooled, turn the cake tin upside down and gently peel off the butter paper from it.
• You will see that the down portion will not be set completely, don't panic, it is the way we want.
• Cut it into pieces and serve.

I turned one piece of this chocolaty halwa upside down, so that you can see the texture....doesn't it look soft and smooth....

Thanks for visiting

Happy Cooking!!

Nutribar

This is very nutritional and healthy bar which can be enjoyed by both kids and adults. Choose the dry fruits and nuts of your choice and include it in this recipe. 

My family is a big fan of Nutribar which is available in stores. We buy a lot of them and within 1 or 2 days, it will be finished. I always wanted to try making them at home. Even tried also, but was not successful.

This recipe i got from Sharmilee's blog. She has a good collection of recipes. As a last trial, i tested this recipe and to my surprise...it clicked. It tastes similar to the Nutribar which we used to enjoy.

I love to call it by the same name ' Nutribar '. A perfect sweet for kids. I added more of dry fruits and reduced the quantity of honey and sugar. So its up to you, make changes as you wish and the result will be great.

Recipe source: sharmispassions

Ingredients

1 cup Oats
1/4 cup Cornflakes
1/4 cup Honey
1 tbsp Butter
1/2 tbsp Sugar
1 tbsp Water
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence (optional)
1/2 cup Dry fruits and nuts (i used dates, raisins, cashew nuts, walnuts and almonds)


Method

• Dry roast oats, cornflakes, dry fruits and nuts for sometime (till it gives a good aroma) and transfer it into a bowl and keep this aside.
• In the same pan, add butter. When it melts, add water, honey, vanilla essence and sugar. Mix well and let it simmer till it starts bubbling.
• Now add the oats and nuts mix into it and mix well till everything is combined properly.
• Transfer it on to a butter paper and spread it using a wooden spoon. Press it nicely and make it into a square or rectangle shape.
• Let is rest for about 5 minutes.
• Now cut it into small square or rectangle bars. 
• Bake it at 200 degree Celsius for about 7 minutes. This will help the bars to become more crispy. But its optional.
• When it cools down, store it in an airtight container.
• Enjoy them with milk, coffee or tea.

* I usually take the quantity of the ingredients as per my taste. So you can always adjust them as per your taste*


Thanks for visiting

Happy Cooking!!