Eggless Mango Semolina Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup - Mango Puree 
1 cup - Semolina (Suji) 
1/2 cup - Sugar 
1/4 cup - Oil (I used coconut oil) 
1 tbsp - Curd  
1 tsp - Baking Powder 
1/2 tsp - Baking Soda  
1 tbsp - Milk
Slivered almonds and pistachios (for garnishing - optional) 

Directions:

• In a bowl, add in all the ingredients except baking powder and soda. Mix well and let the batter rest for 20 min.
• Add the baking powder and soda to the resting batter and mix well. If the batter is too thick, then add 1 tbsp milk.
• Transfer the prepared batter to baking dish, lined with parchment paper.
• Sprinkle sliced almonds nuts on top.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 30-35 mins.
• Once ready check with tooth prick stick. If it comes out clean, then cake is ready to serve. 

Recipe adapted from healthykadai.com.

Pumpkin Cake

So finally I decided to venture into pumpkin recipes. I baked this cake early on a Monday morning, for a pumpkin loving friend. I added loads of chocolate chips on top to make it extra special. I had taken the cake to my friend’s place for lunch. After our lunch, before I had reached home, my friends have started to ping me with messages, asking for the pumpkin cake recipe. So this recipe was a definite hit.

Pumpkin Cake:

Yeilds: One 9x9 square cake

Recipe adapted from Yammies Noshery.com

Ingerdients:

1 ½ cups -  pumpkin puree (I used canned pumpkin puree)

2 eggs + 1 egg white

3/4 cup - vegetable oil

1 ½  teaspoon vanilla

1 ¼  cups - sugar

1 ½ cups – plain flour

1/2  teaspoon – salt

1 teaspoon -  baking soda

3/4 teaspoon - baking powder

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ cup – chocolate chips

¼ cup – chopped walnuts

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 180ºC.
• Line the bottom of a 9"x9" square pan, and grease the sides.
• In a bowl, add sugar and oil, mix well. Combine the pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Mix well.
• Combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Add to the wet ingredients and mix just until combined.
• Pour into the greased pan, sprinkle the chocolate chips and chopped walnuts on top.
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool before removing from pan.

Petit Fours with Fondant roses

I make a lot of cupcakes, so much so that friends call me The Cupcake Queen. So I have been trying out new techniques to get me out of a rut. And this was my first try with petit fours. 

I was to meet a few of my friends for brunch last week. We were doing a potluck, and I had volunteered to bring dessert. So I baked a plain eggless vanilla cake the day before, and also made some fondant decorations.

The next morning I quickly whipped up some chocolate butter-cream and put the petit fours together. I had to travel almost 1.5 hours to get to my friend's place, and my friends where very glad that my tiny little cakes survived the trip in hot sun! 

Chocolate Ganache Cake

This was the cake I baked for my hubby's birthday last week. He is a huge chocolate fan. So a cake smeared with chocolate ganache sounded like a good idea! 

I baked 3 plain vanilla cakes with a 6" pan. And layered it using chocolate ganache as filling and frosting. Making the chocolate ganache is as easy as eating it :) and it also holds well in the humidity.

Chocolate Ganache Recipe:

Directions :

Thickened Cream - 1 Cup

Baking chocolate/semisweet chocolate chips - 2 Cups

Unsalted Butter - 1 Tablespoon(Optional)

Vanilla Extract - 1/2 Tablespoon

Method:

• Place the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. If using chocolate bar, chop into small pieces.
• Heat the cream on stove until boiling.
• Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and mix well. 
• Make sure all the chocolate has melted without any lumps.
• Add the softened butter and vanilla to the chocolate and  mix well. (If any lumps prevail, heat it for a few more seconds in the microwave, and mix well.)
• Cool the ganache in the fridge for a couple of hours.
• Whisk the thickened gaanche with a electric beater before use. 

Note:

• The ratio of the cream can be increased to make a thinner ganache that can be poured over your cake to form a glossy finish.
• I used Wilton 2M icing nozzle for the rosettes on the top of the cake, and used the back of a palette knife to make the stripes along the sides of the cake.

Marbled Red-Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

This weekend, we are meeting some friends for dinner. One of them loves cakes and pastries. We used to attack the dessert table at buffets when we were on vacations. So I thought this would be a good opportunity to bake something new and pass it on to her and others.

I was a little nervous when I put these brownies inside the oven. But when I took the first bite, it was so good! I got out my cookie cutter and started cutting out cute little hearts! You could just cut small squares with a knife, but these hearts were too cute!

Pouring the cheesecake mixture on to the brownie layer.

All set with pretty swirls, ready to go into the oven...

Cutting out cute little hearts, with my pink sandwich cutter.

Marbled Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Yield: 30 hearts  (2 inches)
http://chitra-frommykitchen.blogspot.sg/

Ingredients:

Red Velvet Layer:

1.5 cups + 2 tablespoon - Plain Flour
1 cup + 2 tablespoons - Sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons - Cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon - Salt
1/2 teaspoon - Baking powder
1 1/2 - Eggs
1/2 cup - Sunflower oil
2 tablespoons - Milk, divided
2 teaspoons - Vanilla extract
1 teaspoon - Red food coloring
1 teaspoon - White  vinegar

Cheesecake Layer:

250 grams - Cream cheese, softened (I used one package of Philadelphia Block Cream Cheese)

1/4 + 2 tablespoons - Sugar
1 - Egg
1 teaspoon - Vanilla

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 180C (350 degrees). Line a 9 x 9 baking pan with butter paper. See Notes below.
• In large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Add salt and sugar. Set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, 1 tablespoons milk, vanilla extract, red food coloring, and white vinegar.
• Combine the dry and wet ingredients, until completely combined. Do not over mix.
• The batter will be a really thick, but don't worry, that's what you want.
• Remove 2 table spoons of the batter and place it in a separate bowl.
• Whisk in the remaining 1 tablespoons of milk (into the 2 tablespoons of batter you just took out). Set aside.
• Pour the remaining batter into the prepared baking pan. Using a spatula, smooth out the batter to reach all the edges.
• Now, beat together cream cheese and sugar until fluffy, about 2-4 minutes.
• Add eggs and vanilla, beating until combined and there are no lumps.
• Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the red velvet layer and smooth mixture till it reaches all the edges.
• Drop spoonfuls of the remaining red velvet batter (that you mixed with milk) onto the top of the cheesecake layer.
• Drag the tip of a knife through the red velvet and the cheesecake layers to create swirls.
• Bake for 30 minutes, rotating half way through, or until a tooth pick inserted, comes out dry. 
• Let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.
• Use a medium sized heart cookie cutter to create the perfect hearts. Or cut into squares. 

Note:

• I used a glass Pyrex dish, 13” in diameter.
• And I lined the glass dish with butter paper.
• Because I was baking with a glass dish, I reduced the temperature to 325 degrees, and baked for 45 minutes. 

Almond Bars

Made some delicious almond bars this weekend. Hubby was playing a cricket match with his team. And it went on for the whole weekend! So I was home all weekend working on my overdue craft orders.

On Sunday hubby’s team won the match! He mentioned during their lunch break, that they were in the finals and were about to win. So I wanted to make something for him to celebrate when he came home.

Almonds are his favourites! I have some wonderful almonds that my aunt brought from Malaysia. I wanted to make something special with those almonds. And hence these almond bars. 

The recipe called for flaked almonds,but I wanted to use the whole almonds that I had. So I soaked the whole almonds for a 3 hours in warm water, and then peeled the skin off. I cut the peeled almonds into thin slices. This is a time consuming project, and not really necessary, unless you have almonds at hand. Otherwise it is better to just buy some flaked almonds.

The super easy recipe is from http://www.aspoonfulofsugardesigns.com/. I loved how simple the recipe was. The almond bars were heaven! They were chewy, soft and super moist! The brown sugar and the slivers of almond gave the bars a deeper level of richness to them. Hubby loved it!

Ingredients:

Makes 8 big bars

1/4 cup - butter

1 cup - brown sugar

1 - egg

3 tablespoons - honey

3/4 cup - plain flour

1 teaspoon - baking powder

1/2 teaspoon - vanilla extract

1/3 cup - flaked almonds

Directions:

• Heat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).
• Line a square pan with baking paper.
• Melt butter in a heat proof bowl, in the microwave for 30 seconds.
• Add brown sugar and honey, and stir until well combined.
• Stir in egg. Mix well.
• Combine flour and baking powder, then stir into the mixture.
• Add vanilla and fold in almonds.
• Pour batter into pan and bake for 23-28 minutes, or until golden.
• Cool in pan and then cut into pieces. 
• Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Strawberry CupCakes

This is a very late post. I made these strawberry cupcakes for valentines day. But since I just started this blog, I am posting this recipe now.

I wanted to do something special for valentine’s day. I had this recipe for strawberry cupcakes and strawberry cream cheese frosting for a long long time. But the recipe seemed a bit complicated so I kept putting it off. But now I was bored with muffins, so wanted to try cupcakes with frosting! And valentine’s day seemed a perfect excuse for it.

The baking of the cupcakes were easier than I thought. But the frosting part gave me a migraine! I made a mistake of buying ‘spredable cream cheese’ instead of ‘block’ cream cheese. And so my frosting was too runny, for me to pipe it on the cupcakes. But it tasted so good, and I hate to waste good frosting, so I ended up spooning the runny frosting on top of the cupcakes.

I passed the cupcakes to friends, and they all were so thankful for the lovely valentine’s gift! They cakes were so moist, and so pink on the inside! I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the cakes. But they were so pink and yummy! Especially with the cream cheese frosting!

Strawberry CupCake:

Yield: 3 dozen cupcakes or 3, 9 inch round cake pans.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Butter
• 2 & 1/2 cups Sugar
• 5 Eggs, separated
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 teaspoon Red Food Coloring
• 1 & 1/4 cups Pureed Strawberries
• 3 cups Cake Flour, sifted
• t teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• pinch Salt
• 1 cup Buttermilk 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, beat butter with sugar for 3 minutes.
3. Add egg yolks one at a time, then the vanilla, food coloring and strawberries, beat for another 3 minutes.
4. Sift dry ingredients and add to butter/egg mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
5. Mix just till combined.
6. In another bowl and clean beaters, beat egg whites till stiff and add in an increment of 3 to cake batter, being sure to fold in thoroughly but gently.
7. Bake for 18 or so minutes for cupcakes and 20-25 minutes for 9 inch round cake pans

Cream Cheese Buttercream

Ingredients

• 1 - 8oz Cream Cheese, room temp
• 1/2 cup Butter, room temp
• 1/3 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 teaspoon Red Food Coloring
• 1 lb. Powdered Sugar

Cooking Directions

1. In a medium bowl, add cream cheese and butter, whip till light and creamy, about 3 minutes.
2. Add liquids and blend.
3. Slowly add powdered sugar while mixing, (to keep the sugar from decorating your counters and appliances, not including you.)
4. At this point you may need to add more powdered sugar. You are trying to achieve a medium stiff consistency. Whip for several minutes.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

I LOVE Chocolate Fudge Cakes! I love the rich deep chocolate that just melts in your mouth! I dont really like chocolate candy bars, but i love the chocolate flavour, weird.

We were having a friend over for dinner. Since it was just one dinner guest, I had some extra time to try out some new recipes. I tried out two new recipes, Aloo Tikkies, which I will be posting soon. And the other one was for dessert. This was the first Fudge cake that I have tried, and did not have high hopes for it.


I was intrigued by a recipe from http://junglefrog-cooking.com/chocolate-fudge-cake/. There seemed to be tricky steps involved like melting the chocolate, and whisking the egg whites! But thought to give it a try. Oh boy! This cake is amazing! It tastes best warm, with a little bit of whipped cream and raspberries.

 

My dinner guest loved it, and we did have about half a cake left over. But Hubby and me finished it over the weekend! I was glad that I baked it in a class cake pan, because I was able to just store it in the fridge and heat it up in the microwave when necessary.

CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKES

Ingredients:

185 gr good dark chocolate, chopped
185 gr butter
4 eggs, split
110 gr. sugar
55 gr ground almonds
3 tbsp flour
pinch of salt
3 tbsp sugar, extra

Directions:

• Heat the oven to 180°C.
• Put chocolate and butter in a saucepan and, on a very low fire, stir untill melted and smooth. Set aside.
• Mix eggyolk and the sugar and whisk untill light and creamy. Add the chocolate mixture, almonds, salt and flour and mix with a spatula.
• Whisk the eggwhites untill forming stiff peaks. Add the sugar slowly untill the mixture is shining. Mix the eggwhites through the chocolate mixture with a spatula.
• Grease an ovenproof dish or 6 ramekins of about 250 ml each.
• Put the mixture in and put them in an ovendish.
• Pour hot water into the dish so the ovenproof dishes are halfway in the water. bake for 25 minutes or untill they are done.
• They should be baked on the edges and outside but still slightly soft on the inside.
• Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream!

For 6 people.
Enjoy!!