Carrot Cake - tasty low calorie baking recipe

Carrot Cake
If you have been wondering how to get your little bundle of joy to eat carrots without a fuss, here's the answer. This easy to make carrot cake recipe is one that is absolutely irresistible(tested and certified to be child friendly). My daughter who is a real fussy eater just loved it and the cake was over before I knew it. With absolutely no butter added this definitely is one that would interest you too.

Carrots are known to be very rich in beta carotene (that's where they get their colour from), Vitamin A, antioxidants, dietary fibre and minerals. High in nutrition and great in taste this quick and easy baking recipe is one that you would love.
Ingredients:
Flour - 1/2 cup
Grated carrots - 1/2 cup (dry over a kitchen towel or tissues to remove the excess water content)
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Oil- 1/2 cup
Eggs -2
Baking powder - 1.5 tsp(not heaped)
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
Walnuts - 1/4 cup (optional) (I did not add)

Method:
1- Sieve together the flour and the baking powder. Add in the sugar, oil, eggs(one after the other), vanilla essence, baking powder and the grated carrots. Mix well to form a smooth batter.
2- Grease the baking dish and pour in the batter.
3- Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 mins at 180 deg celsius(or between 4 and 5).
4- Cool on a wire rack and cut into slices.
5- Serve with sweetened cream or plain.

This carrot cake goes out to my event "Baking for Beginners-II". Looking forward to all those delicious baked goodies.

Eggless Chocolate Banana Cake

Eggless Chocolate Banana Cake
Baking is what is on my mind these days. In fact, so much so that I have added improving my baking skills on my "to do" list for this year(a new year resolution in advance). As part of a tasty step towards my resolution I decided to begin with Madhuram's absolutely irresistible vegan chocolate banana cake. I had bookmarked it egglesscooking.com a few days back and just had to bake it. There was no way I could hold on any longer.

The baking experience was truly amazing with my entire house coming alive with the aroma of freshly baked cake. Chocolate is definitely my favorite and thus, this beautiful chocolate cake recipe with a lovely picture did catch my attention. The dash of banana in it truly added the spectacular twist that made it a wonderful treat. Thanks Madhuram(and congrats on the arrival of your little bundle of joy), it was absolutely wonderful and my family loved every bit of it.

I liked it so much that I went on to bake it a second time. Practice makes perfect is so very true. It turned out even better the second time and proof for that was it got over even before I could think of clicking a few snaps:). This can also be adapted as a chocolate cupcake recipe with or without frosting. This is surely a great addition to my repertoire of simple cake recipes that taste heavenly. My oven is surely going to be working overtime with so many cake and other baking recipes that I have bookmarked in the recent past.

Coming to the recipe, this is a treat for the vegans too with no milk. I used allpurpose flour instead of whole wheat flour. From the quantity of hot water mentioned in the recipe, I took out a little to add to my banana for a smooth puree. For the rest, I stuck completely to Madhuram's recipe.

Eggless Chocolate Banana Cake Recipe
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Sugar - 1 1/2 cups
Cocoa Powder - 2/3 cup
Baking Soda - 1 1/2 tsp
Oil 1/4 cup
Hot Water - 1 1/2 cups
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
Bananas(puree) - 1 cup (I used one whole large banana)

Method:
1- Sieve all the dry ingredients together. Now slowly add in the wet ingredients one by one to ensure a smooth lump free batter.
2- Preheat the oven at 180 degrees. Let the cake bake for approximately 45 minutes. The time would differ from one oven to the other, thus, inserting a toothpick around the time is the best way to check if your cake is done or not.

Lemon cake - all that I could save

Summers and lemons sure have a strong connection. The bright yellow is one colour we do associate with summers and the refreshing fresh lemons are in plenty this time of the year. For squashes, pickles, drinks, puddings and satisfying several other creative urges is the yellow and vibrant lemon. The lemon cake is what I decided to make the other day. This is not one that I make regularly as I was a little apprehensive of how my little chef my daughter would accept the taste of lemon in a cake.

Cakes she loves but watching me grating the lemon zest into the cake batter was not one that she could digest easily. However, once the cake was baked she couldn't resist trying it. And yes, She loved the cake. She said "Amma , I like this lemon taste that comes right at the end". OOH was I relieved or happy:)
I too loved the lemon flavor and the taste that came in between the vanilla flavor. The cake came out moist and perfect. The only thing was by the time I decided to click a snap I had only this one slice left:(

Again was I happy or sad? Happy yes, the happiness and satisfaction that you get from seeing that your family loves what you cooks is truly something else. So cheers to the lemon cake it is. will get to baking one sooooon...the response at home has been truly encouraging.

Ingredients:
Flour- 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp(not heaped)
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Eggs -3
Butter - 1/2 cup (about 60 gms)
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Zest of lemon - 1/4 tsp (be careful while grating that you take only the yellow and don't grate in the white portion under the yellow)
Yellow colour - 2 drops (optional) (I prefer not to use colour)

Method:
1- Sieve all the dry ingredients together.
2- Cream the butter and sugar and slowly add in the dry ingredients.
3- Add the vanilla essence, colour(optional) and the lemon zest. Fold.
4- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes till done.

Marble Cake and end of the baking event

Have had a great time receiving all the entries for the baking for beginners event. Each one of them has made me droll over them and truly inspiring to put on those mittens and get baking. I am sure the round up would be of great help and get many like me waiting like me to actually take the plunge and begin home baking. To bring a sweet ending to the event I decided to give the Zebra Cake at Passionate about Baking a try and was amazed at the results. Firstly, I must admit that I have been just admiring the huge variety of baked dishes and the lovely pics on this blog. The Zebra Cake or Marble cake as I prefer to call it(as I didn't get the Zebra stripes so well but the taste was amazing and the cake disappeared in no time).

I made the cake with half the measure of the ingredients given in the original recipe as I wanted to make it in my rectangle cake tin and the original recipe would turn out too big for my tin.
Ingredients:
Eggs - 2
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1/2 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Self-raising flour - 1 cup (I used plain flour + 1 tsp baking powder)
Dark cocoa powder - 4 tbsp

I omitted the salt and used 4 tbsp of drinking chocolate instead of dark cocoa powder. With the drinking chocolate got the dark cocoa color and the taste did appeal to my daughter too.

Method:
I mixed together all the ingredients with a beater in a bowl. Divide it into two halves and to one portion add the cocoa powder and mix till well blended. Pour the cake batter in a pre-greased cake tin in alternate layers. Pour the white mixture in the centre of the tin, then pour on top of it the chocolate mixture. Alternate. The first time I made it in my excitement tried to mix it with a fork to get the stripes. Do not mix the batter it spreads on its own and turns out beautifully.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes in the oven. Take out and cool on a wire rack. They would go well with tea or coffee and with a scoop of vanilla ice cream it is yummy.

Apple Cake - a delicious treat anytime

Having a lot of apples in my refrigerator was the motivating factor to searching for interesting apple recipes. I definitely wanted to bring out the apple in more interesting forms. When I saw this recipe from Sarita who is such a wonderful cook, I knew that this is one I just had to try. The 3 tbsp butter (only that much!! wow) was definitely an added attraction.

Apple cake is one that I have never tried before and so thought it would be time consuming and the anxiety of "will I get it right the very first time". With me when I try a new recipe , if it doesn't turn out well I rarely have the patience to try it out a second time.
This apple cake however, did turn down all my apprehensions in no time. Preparation took hardly anytime. Just about 10 minutes to peel and chop the apples into small pieces and get all the ingredients mixed together. Just 45 minutes in the oven and I was truly proud of my baking skills. Thanks Sarita.

I am sure you would love trying this tried and tested apple cake for sure. It is a wonderful treat as a tea time snack. It makes for a great dessert idea when served with a scoop of ice - cream.
Ingredients(the below is the original recipe, my changes are mentioned below)
3 tbsp softened butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (I didn't add)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I added 1/4 tsp)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (I added 1/4 tsp)
3 cups peeled and chopped apples
1/4 cup walnuts whipped cream or ice cream (optional)
Method:
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in egg and vanilla.
Combine the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Add to creamed mixture. (Batter will be thick and sticky)
Stir in apples and nuts. Mix well.
Spread into a greased baking dish.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpich inserted in the center comes out clean. (For me it took 45 minutes)
Serve warm or cold, with or without ice cream.

I however, did make a few changes to suit my taste. Just couldn't help myself from making some changes my style.
-I do not like the spicey flavor in my cake so eliminated the spice totally.
-Added in a few chopped nuts and raisins to give it a richer taste.
-I skipped the salt and instead used the salted butter that I had ready in my refrigerator.

This goes to Ruth's "Bookmarked Recipes".

Eggless Microwave chocolate cake in 7 minutes

Monday morning is here and time to check out the happenings in the blogging world over the weekend. Logged in as usual and guess what?...yet another award awaits me at my blog. What better way to begin a week?

Thought of beginning the week with a sweet treat. An easy and quick recipe this is my tried and tested formula to a quick cake. A microwave cake was something that always raised a lot of curiosity, however, was a little skeptical about trying one. However, after tasting this at my friend's place all those fears were put to rest and this has come to be my go to recipe when I am short on time and still want to make a cake. This is a perfect recipe for a tea time serving and also makes for a great dessert combined with a scoop of vanilla cake and topped with some chocolate syrup and chopped nuts. This is also a wonderful pick when you are entertaining and have vegetarian friends or those having an egg allergy.

This is a recipe from my friend Anju (who is a great cook herself)that I have tried over a hundred times and has proved to be a never fail recipe for me everytime. This is one that my husband and daughter love and so the cake does the vanishing act within minutes of being out of the oven. Just takes 7 minutes in the oven. Once you have decided to make it, this delicious cake would take you all of 15 minutes (including preparation, cooking and standing time) from the ingredients stage to the first bite.


Ingredients for the Eggless Microwave Chocolate Cake
Maida - 1 and 2/3 cups
Sugar - 1 cup
Cooking Oil- 1/2 cup
Milk - 1/3 cup(cold milk)
Curd - 1 cup
Cocoa - 6 tbsp *
Soda bi-carb - 1 tsp (not heaped)
*I prefer to use 3 tbsp of cocoa and 3 tbsp of drinking chocolate or else feel the cake turns out slightly bitter and does not agree with the sweet taste requirements of kids.If you are making it only for adults you can stick to only cocoa and also add a tsp of rum to add to the flavour and taste.

Method for making the Eggless Microwave Chocolate Cake:
1-Sieve maida(all purpose flour) and soda bi-carb together.
2-Mix in all the ingredients and make a smooth batter.
3- Pour into a greased microwave proof utensil and cook for 7 minutes(the time may vary slightly from one oven to the other so do keep a watch after 5 minutes).
4-After it is done, let stand in the oven for 5 minutes. Take out and let cool.
5- De-mould, cut and enjoy.

This cake is my entry to Siri's event of "Frozen Yogurt".

Coming to the Yummy Blog Award. It is always an acknowledgement of your work and a great way to interact with other blogger friends. Thank you Sireesha for the "Yummy blog award".

As per the rules I have to list four sweets that I like and here goes:
Caramel custard
Microwave eggless chocolate cake recipe (given above)
Payasam and the Bengali delight Rasogolla
I would like to keep the chain going and forward this award to some of the yummy blogs that I have come across.
1- Suma Rajesh of http://sumascuisine.blogspot.com/
2- Sig of http://blog.sigsiv.com/
3- Archy of http://archysrecipes.blogspot.com/
4- Anupama of http://food-n-more.blogspot.com/