Eggless Butterless Chocolate Cake

Last year around this time we were there in UK. My husband came home late from work and said the next day was his colleague's birthday. He tried to get a egg less birthday cake. But his efforts were futile as he didn't get anything from the outlets/shops. I wondered why shops don't sell egg less cake.



He asked me to to bake one egg less cake for his colleague. I was a bit hesitant as I am very new to baking and started baking cakes only few weeks before in that year. But I searched few egg less cake recipes on the web and found one beginner kind of recipe from Rak's Kitchen which she adapted from Chow Times. Baked it immediately and did a very simple and quick frosting. Packed it in box and sent it with the husband the next day.



Got a good feedback from his office colleagues. And today, I got this recipe and pictures when I was searching something from my PC. I never thought of posting this recipe in my blog but the pictures reminded me the memories and my wanted to record it. Now I present this recipe. Enjoy!!!

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 35-40 minutes

Serves: 12



Ingredients:



For Cake:

Plain flour / All purpose flour / Maida - 1 and 1/2 cups

Cocoa powder - 3 tablespoons

Sugar - 1 cup

Oil - 1/4 cup

Baking soda - 1 teaspoon

Lemon Juice / Vinegar - 1 tablespoon

Water - 1 cup

Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Vanilla essence - 1/2 tablespoon



For Frosting:

Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup

Butter - 12 tablespoons

Icing sugar / confectionery sugar - 2 cups

Vanilla essence - 1 teaspoon

Milk - 2 or 3 tablespoons

Chocolate vermicelli/chips and other decorative balls - for decoration

Method:



For Cake:

1) Preheat the oven to 180C for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, get all the ingredients ready and grease the pan with butter and then dust it with flour. Keep aside.

2) Mix all purpose flour, cocoa powder and baking soda together and sift it for 2 times for even mixing. Set aside.

3) Take a mixing bowl and mix water, sugar and salt. Beat till the sugar dissolves. Add lemon juice/vinegar, oil and vanilla essence. Mix well.

4) Add the wet ingredients to the sifted dry ingredients. Mix well. You will get a watery batter as a result of this.

5) Pour this to the prepared baking pan and bake it in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes. Mine was done in 30 minutes itself. So Keep on eye after 30 minutes.

6) Insert a tooth pin in the centre of the cake. It should come out clean.

7) Remove from the oven and cool down for 10-15 minutes. After 10-15 minutes, transfer the cake to a wire rack and allow it cool completely.



For Frosting:

1) Beat butter until it is creamy and foamy.

2) Add icing sugar slowly to the butter.

2) Add vanilla essence and cocoa powder. Beat well again. Add milk if you didn't get the desired consistency.

3) Keep it in the refrigerator along with cake at least for 15 minutes.

4) After 30 minutes, cut the cake into two horizontal slices and apply 1 and 1/2 cups of chocolate frosting and also on the outer surface. Level it using a long knife.

6) Stuff the remaining chocolate frosting to the icing bag and make your favourite design on top of it.

7) Cut into slices and enjoy.

Note:

1) Change frosting as per your taste. I prepared frosting with the ingredients available that time in my pantry and made a very simply frosting for the cake as I was very new for both baking and frosting.

2) Allow the cake to cool completely before applying the frosting.

3) It is not necessary to add the entire milk quantity mentioned here. Add 1 tablespoon at a time and check the consistency. If you don't get the desired consistency, then add the remaining milk. Sometimes, you don't require milk at all.

Tomato Broccoli and Carrot Soup with Cheese Bread

Winter days always makes me crave for warm and spicy food. When it comes to winter and lazy days, I always make soup, which really freshens up our minds and keeps us healthy and also make it a little different than a usual day.

So first I started thinking that I should make tomato soup and when I looked through my fridge, I saw one carrot and a small head of broccoli. So I decided to make it kind of a veggie soup, but keeping the base with lot of tomatoes.

This really tasted very good with the cheese bread which I bought it from sore and had baked it.

Method:
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1. In a heavy bottom sauce pan add butter and when it starts melting add the garlic and the onions and saute it until the onions have become translucent.

2. Now add the carrots, cover and cook for about 3-4 mins.
3. Now add the broccoli florets and tomatoes and cook for more 2-3 mins covered.

4. Off the flame, let it come to room temperature and blend these vegetables in a mixer to a smooth paste, add water if necessary.
5. Add the mixture back into the sauce pan and bring it to a slow boil keeping the flame in medium low.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste and mix it well and off the flame.

7. You can transfer the soup into soup bowls and garnish with heavy cream and fresh herbs like cilantro or mint.
8. I served this as a dinner with cheese bread that I had bought it from store, baked it and cut into thick slices to dip into the soup and eat.

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Kaju Katli / Cashew Burfi / Munthiri Paruppu Burfi

Yesterday was Karthigai Deepam (Festival of Lamps) here. It is celebrated for 3 continuous days from yesterday. Karthigai Deepam is one of the old Hindu festivals and mainly it is celebrated by people from Tamilnadu. It comes during the Tamil Calender Month of Karthigai (which comes in mid of November and mid of December as per English calender) and on the day of Pournami (Full moon day).



The story behind this festival is interesting. Once, Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma started fighting each other to prove themselves who is big and they forget to do their job. At that time, Lord Shiva appeared in front of them as huge pillar of fire and asked them to find out his head and leg. Brahma took a form of Swan(Annam, a bird) and flew upwards to find of the head of Shiva. Lord Vishnu took a form of boar (Varaham, a giant pig) and started digging the ground to find out his leg. But both of them were not able to find head / leg. They realized their mistake and understood it was Lord Shiva who taught them a lesson.



From then, Lord Shiva is prayed as Agni Linga at a place know as Thiruvannamalai about 190 kms from Chennai. Every year, it is believed that during Karthigai, Lord Shiva appeared as 'Jothi' (Holy Fire called as Agni Shetram) in this place on top of a hill . As a symbolic worship, people of Tamilnadu started to light Deepams (Diyas, candles and other oil lamps) to decorate their houses. They also offer Appam, Aval, Pori to Lord Shiva and celebrate the day with joy & love. Some people even light Deepams during the entire month of Karthigai.



Ok, now I'll come to the recipe part. This time my celebration is simple and I haven't prepared anything special for this Karthigai due to my hectic work schedule. However, I have planned to post a sweet dish which I prepared for Diwali . Hope you all enjoy this Karthigai festival.

Basic Information:

Preparation and Cooking Time: 20-30 minutes

Makes: 15 nos (Approximately)



Ingredients:



Cashew nuts / Kaju / Mundhiri Paruppu - 1 cup

Sugar - 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup, adjust as per your taste

Water - 1/4 cup

Ghee - as required to grease the plate (Optional)

Method:



1) Put Cashew nuts in a mixer/coffee maker and make a fine powder of it. Do it in a single stretch to avoid the cashews sticking with mixie jar. Also, take care not to grind too much as it releases oil most of the time while over grinding.

2) Transfer to a plate.

3) In a thick bottom pan/ Kadai/ Non-stick pan, heat sugar along with oil.

4) When it reaches the bubbling consistency (Just put a drop of sugar syrup in small bowl of water. It will not

immediately dissolve), reduce the flame and QUICKLY add the ground cashew powder.

5) Keep stirring to avoid lumps and until the dough comes out from the sides of the pan. You can also pinch and try making a small ball. If you are able to do so, then it is in correct consistency and ready to transfer to a ghee coated plate. My dough required little kneading. So, I kneaded it in a plate and rolled it in my cutting board.

6) Put cashew dough to the ghee greased plate/ cutting board/ butter paper and roll it using a rolling pin. I formed a shape after rolling using a knife to get uniform shapes of kaju katlis.

7) Leave aside for 5-10 minutes and cut them into desired shapes.

8) Enjoy.

Note:

1) Use good quality cashews for best results and use only thick bottom pan/kadai to avoid burning.

2) The consistency of sugar syrup is very important. So, be extra cautious when the sugar syrup starts bubbling. Add cashew powder at the correct time to get the perfect kaju katli.

3) If you get the silver wrap, you can coat the kaju katli with it. However, this is only for decorating purpose.

4) If the kaju dough is dry, you can add a teaspoon of milk/hot water when you knead the dough. Repeat this procedure until you get the correct consistency.

5) Greasing the plate with ghee is optional. The cashew dough itself  doesn't stick with your fingers and you can easily roll it without the help of ghee.