Whole Wheat Eggless Dates Cake

I tried eggless dates cake from Aayi's recipes today. It was so good that I finished half of it in no time :) I reserved a few pieces to take some pictures. I loved the texture and aroma of the cake. This is a must try recipe! As I never use all purpose flour(maida) in my cooking, I replaced it with whole wheat pastry flour. I also made a few changes to the recipe.

Ingredients:
Whole wheat pastry flour-3/4 cup(if you don't have this, substitute with maida)
Seedless dates-14
Warm Milk-1 cup
Oil-6 tbsp
Sugar-5 tbsp
Baking soda-1 tsp

Method:
Soak dates in 3/4 cup of warm milk for 10 minutes and grind the mixture with sugar to a smooth paste.
Add flour, baking soda, oil and remaining milk to the dates paste. Mix everything thoroughly so that there are no lumps.
If the mixture is dry, add some more milk.
Preheat oven to 350F. Pour the batter in a greased loaf pan or any oven proof pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a fork inserted in the cake comes out clean.

Next time I am going to try a low fat version without sugar and oil. I will post the recipe later.

Notes: Do not use baking powder. The cake will turn out hard.
Whole wheat pastry flour is different from whole wheat flour(aata). It is available in chain grocery stores in the US.
Adding icing will make the cake heavy and too sweet! Of course it will taste great!

This is my entry to these events:
JFI: Wheat - April 1st
MBP: Kids Food - March 8th and Coffee’s MBP event

MEC:Puddings ~ Round up

When Srivalli called for guest hosting her Microwave Easy Cooking Event, I did not give it a thought at all. But when she personally mailed me asking if I would be interested to host, I did not want to say 'No' and agreed for the first available month. And got my chance to host for Feb. Thanks Srivalli for making me take up and I enjoyed hosting. Now on to the presentation. I am listing the entries in the order I received them. Enjoy these delicious puddings and kheer...

Pudding is always associated with sweetness, at least for me. And Asha of Aromahope kick started the event entries with a savory pudding and she has made it egg less too.

Shoba of Anubhavati-Tastes from my Kitchen brings in a bowl of chilled apple kheer, prepared in 10 minutes.

Ramya of Pennin(g) my cooking has send in Aval paysam. She says its her first attempt in making payasam in microwave and the bowl of creamy payasam tells about the successful attempt.

Next is a bowl of Vermicelli payasam with a deep golden color, using the fine variety vermicelli, sent in by Raks of Rak’s Kitchen. Hop over to her place to catch the step-by-step pics of the preparation.

You have heard of pasta used in soups and salads. How about some in a kheer. Yes, Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes have come up with a mini shell pasta kheer. Priya didnot stop with one but sent two more delicious fruity kheer for the event

Priya combines mango and rolled oats to make a delicious and healthy Oats mango kheer

Another yummy combo of jackfruit and almonds in a kheer from Priya.

EC of Easy Cooking brings in Rice kheer, made the prepration of pal payasam sound simple by cooking in MW.

KC of Kits Chow comes up with a delcious sticky rice pudding flavored with osmanthus syrup. KC has gone out of the way to participate in the event by cooking in her office MW. Check out her space to find out the other suggested flavors for the pudding.

Cham of Spice-Club comes with a recipe for delicious badam kheer with tips for making blanching almonds easier too. In 10 minutes, you have delicious kheer and she says this is one of the highest cooking time, among the microwave recipes she has done.

Simran of Bombay foodie comes with a chocolate pecan pudding which can be made in flat 4 minutes. A very quick dessert.

Swapna of Cooking with Swapna sends a creamy smooth chocolate pudding. Swapna adds that it is so fast and easy, even a child can make it. A perfect treat for chocoholics.

Next we have a vegan Dalmatian eye-catchy pudding from Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen . And she calls it as Polka dot pudding, which seems apt for the coconut milk pudding.

You have heard of chocolate pudding and rice pudding. How about a combo of them. That’s what comes from Sweatha of Tasty Curry Leaf’s kitchen.

And finally my entry to the event is Chocolate pudding

I hope I have linked all entries correctly. In case of any errors or omissions, please leave a comment and I shall correct it.

Chocolate Tofu Mousse

Chocolate mousse, the dessert that I hardly resist and my weakness! Everytime I feel guilty after I eat it as most of the traditional chocolate mousse recipes would contain lots of cream and egg yolks. Somehow, there was a genius who used tofu to replace the cream and egg yolks for the chocolate mousse and that really cheer me up. Tofu! yes it's tofu which I never think that can be used to replace cream for making desserts. There are plenty of tofu chocolate mousse recipes and here I followed my favorite nutritionist Ellie's recipe.

The chocolate mousse took no time to prepare, just ignore the pictures shown with the shortcrust pastry cases and the cake base. The chocolate mousse could actually simply serve in cups or any serving dish but I just made a little bit extra for weekend. Simply blitz all the chocolate mousse ingredients in a food processor and pour into a serving dish and set in the fridge for couple of hours, job done!

I like the sourly of raspberries in the chocolate mousse as I think they go very well. So, I used raspberry puree to replace the water from the recipe as well as using the puree for the toppings. For the cake base, I was quite lazy to make the sponge cake so I simply blend together 60g egg whites, 25g ground almond, 50g sugar powder and 30g melted butter in the food processor then bake in a 180'C preheated oven for 20 minutes, simple! I find the cake is slightly thick which suppose to be in very thin layer.

As for the shortcrust pastry, I used some left over pastry in the fridge to roll it into a few chef rings and bake blind until golden brown. Here I've got a broken one and it's such a waste.

The pastry and almond cake go very well with the chocolate mousse whereas the mousse is really smooth, soft, light and my other half hardly taste the tofu until I told him. Other than using tofu for the chocolate mousse, a good quality at least 70% chocolate and cocoa powder is needed. It would definitely gives you a scrumptious dessert.

Recipe for the chocolate mousse:

10 oz silken tofu

3 oz 70% dark chocolate

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup water (I used raspberry puree, drained & seeded)

1 tbsp brandy (optional)

1/2 cup sugar (I reduced 2 tbsp for 1/2 cup)

1. In a blender or food processor, puree the tofu until it is smooth.
2. Put the chopped chocolate, cocoa powder, sugar, water and brandy (this is quite optional) in a saucepan or heat-proof bowl fitted over a pot containing 1-inch barely simmering water. Stir frequently, until melted and smooth.
3. Add the chocolate mixture to the tofu and puree until smooth and well blended. Spoon the mousse into serving dishes, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or 2.