Eggless Mango cupcake

Ingredients :

1- 1/4 cup of Wheat flour
1/4 cup Yogurt (curd)
2 Alphonso mangoes
1 cup castor sugar
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Baking powder
Pinch of Salt
4 pods of Cardamon
Pinch of Apple pie Spice
Butter 1/2 cup (Melted)

In a blender, grind the mangoes (Pulp only), curd and cardamon pods. Transfer to a mixing bowl.
Now add  the melted butter, and sugar. Mix well (Do not beat)
Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Prepare the cupcake liners. Preheat the oven at 200C.
Bake the cupcakes at 180C for about 20-25 minutes till its completely cooked.

This  was more a quick cupcake for my evening snack craving.
The cupcakes were moist and yummy.Adding vanilla extract will be preference. I preferred not to. Add your favorite frosting preferably mango flavor.

Masala Oats n Carrot muffin

 Ingredients:
Grated carrot : 2 nos
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (to your taste)
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp vegetable masala
1 egg
2/3 cup  curd
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Flax seeds to sprinkle

First mix the dry ingredients along with grated carrot. Make a well and add the wet ingredients (add water in the end). Mix gently by adding water. The mix has to be semi solid. Grease the muffin pan and fill the cups to a half first. Sprinkle the flax seeds and fill the rest of the cup with the batter.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Bake for 20mins. Cool the muffins and serve.

Moist Chocolate Muffin

Ingredients :
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sweetened coco powder ( for unsweetened, add 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup coco powder)
1 tbsp baking soda
1 egg
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
sugar to sprinkle

Mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately. Make a well on the dry ingredients and slowly add the wet ingredients and fill in your muffin tray. Fill the muffin cups half the way, sprinkle some sugar and fill the rest of the muffin cup. If you like more sugar, sprinkle some more on the top..

Preheat the oven  at 200 C and bake the muffin at 180C for 20 minutes.

I was skeptical how good the combination of yogurt, milk, oil will be but to my surprise the moist, super soft cupcake was very delicious.

Quickie Eggless Oatmeal Muffin for breakfast

When I found out that my old muffin tray will not fit my oven, I decided to  buy a small cupcake tray and thanks to Bakewala for the prompt delivery. They are super good with respect to both service and quality of the accessories that we buy.

I wanted to feel good about hogging my baked goodies also dont want to feel bad I'm hogging all fatty food. So decided to give a quick change to the usual Muffin I would love to have.
Here is my recipe for a quick eggless oatmeal muffin for all who want to feel less guilty and more good.

For a serving of 6

Ingredients:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup Kellogg's Corn flakes ( coarsely powdered)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup oats
2 tbsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup milk ( Soy or regular)
1/3 cup oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Procedure:
Always mix the dry ingredients  first the start adding all the wet ingredients. Gently mix all . Preheat the oven at 180C and bake for about 20-25 mins until the muffin is baked completely. Do check between 20-25 mins, do not over bake it for the muffin might become very dry.
Hope you like it. Post in your comments after trying it out.

Whole wheat bread pudding

Recipe for bread:
3 cups of whole wheat flour ( I used Annaporna atta)
2 1/2 tsp of active yeast
2 tbsp Sugar
1 tbsp Salt
2 cup warm water

Add all the dry ingredients and slowly start adding warm water. Mix and form the dough. Do not knead at this stage. The dough should be more like a poori dough. Knead it to activate the yeast.
Keep aside for about 20-30 mins till the dough double its size.
Knead the dough until its soft  in a gentle way . Place on the baking pan and bake at 230C for about 30mins.

Recipe for pudding
Bread
2 cups of milk
2 large eggs
1/4  of sugar
1 tsp of Apple spice mix
1/4 cup of ghee (clarified butter)
hand full of raisins


In a small cake pan place the bread in such a way there is no gap. I  used half of the bread I baked for this pudding. Drizzle 1/8th of the sugar on the bread and some raisins. Generously brush the ghee all over the bread. Now mix the milk, eggs and apple spice mix well and pour over the the bread mix. Add the remaining raisins and sugar over the pan . Preheat the oven @  200 for  5mins. Now place the pan and bake @200C for 30mins. The top of the pudding should form a golden crust and inside of the pudding should not be soggy.
Cool the pudding for 5mins before serving.

Banana bread with choco chips

I always love to have a biscuit or cake for my cuppa tea/filter kaapi.. So decided to do a banana bread. Have been having in my mind for sometime now, I can't stop myself from trying this today morning. Also, I am little concerned these days for having more buttery sugary items. So, I tried my best to go less with fatty items still do not want to miss the moisture content. After giving some thought, tried to do it this way.

5 small bananas mashed

1/2 cup tightly packed light brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

2 small quail egg

1 tsp butter

1/4 tsp salt

Mash the bananas and add sugar. All I used was a fork to mix. I did not use a beater this time. Mixing of banana and sugar release some water. Beat the eggs and melt the butter. Now to the sugary bananas add the melted butter, milk and eggs. Mix well. Mix the dry ingredients separately and slowly add in batches. Keep mixing well. 

Finally pour the batter to the pan and throw some handful of chocochips on to the top. I really like the taste of chocolate in my bread. 

Now bake at 375 F for 45mins or until the bread is completely cooked (use a tooth pick to test).

The bread tasted yummy, moist and delicious.

Mini cake pans

When I first saw a picture of a mini cake in one of my favorite baker's page, I simply couldn't stop myself from knowing more about it. After searching for a while came up with full details and went straight to Micheals to buy my new pan set. Very happy to buy my own mini cake pan sets and didn't stop there.

I tried a deliciously awesomatico cake. A vanilla cake with vanilla frosting in the center and completely covered with  yummy chocolate frosting.

Black forest cake

Few years back on an usual weekend, my bro took me to Sathyam Theater, chennai to watch a movie. It was he who first introduced me to a black forest cake. I had no idea what kind of cake it was. All I knew was, it tasted yummy.. 

Now, after I started learning baking and made a few cakes for trial, it was time to surprise my hubby. He was out of town for a conference for about one week. So that weekend, when he was returning home, I tried to bake a Black Forest cake for him and it came out pretty well. 

A busy week

Masala bun

Plain White Bread

This week has been fantastically busy with new things to try. Its always make me stay positive when I do something new and it comes out decently or pretty awesome. Be it food or knitting or any other hobby of mine, I really feel positive when the result is good. Now, this week started with baking a bread and knitting a baby set for my dearest friend. The bread became a cake and the baby set came out pretty decently. Last night, I tried to bake the bread again. It was a huge success. I also baked a masala bun which also came out pretty yummy..Now I feel accomplished.

Baby sweater and cap

Yummy Coffee chocolate cake

Call it a evil devil or dark magic or whatever cake, I simple loved my coffee chocolate cake.

Came across the recipe over allrecipes.com and wolla, my heart just fell for the name coffee... This cake has a very special ingredient - freshly brewed coffee. I have a special love for a perfect madras degree kaapi and finely ground Ethiopian coffee. So my mad love ended up in mixing an authentic madras kaapi powder with finely ground Ethiopian coffee beans. My everyday morning starts with this coffee for sure. So having some brewed coffee, the cake was ready to make(bake). For finale, I just topped the cake with Nutella. The cake just melted in my mouth.

As said earlier, you can check the link for the recipe above.

The funny part was the shape of my cake. I always try to wrap my pan with foil in order to lessen the cleaning, the crumbles and crushings on the foil really gave a funny looking cake.. :)
I always trust one say, any good presentation can make a simple dish look great, but tasting great is purely in your hands :).. Enjoy..

Eggless Ragi cake

"Eggless" tag is something I always wanted to try from the time I started baking. Never had the guts. Always felt nervous to try something without egg ( I really donno an exact reason for this fear). So finally threw all those silly fears only after I came across this recipe. I really wanted to try it once I saw this name "Ragi". I knew the starchy stuff will for sure give a good shape. So tried and tasted.

For recipe, click this link http://litebite.in/ragi-cake/

Indian butter biscuits

I never thought one of the things I would miss after coming to US would be the tea kadai butter biscuits. Every time I land home, the one thing I crave for is these biscuits. I completely spoil myself but eating packets and packets of this biscuits with my everyday coffee/tea. I try to compensate all those days of not having this biscuit. Yes, back at home we call these biscuits and not cookies. Finally, I can prepare some in my oven, I am simply loving this.


For the recipe please check the link below.
http://edivyaraj.blogspot.com/2010/05/nankhatai-indian-butter-cookie.html

Chocolate Pine nut cookies

My first from the scratch cookie. Not a bad idea!!

Everytime I buy one of those ready made cookie powders and bake them. I always wanted to try it from the scratch. Most recipe mentioned brown sugar as the "sweet" ingredient. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy brown sugar. Instead I used these
1/3 cup of powdered jaggery
1/2 cup of sugar
2 tbs of sweetened condensed milk.
I love all these three source of sweet ;)

Or simply use 1 1/2 cup of tightly packed brown sugar.

After watching so many baking shows, I learnt my first lesson. Always mix the dry and wet ingredients separately. Then mix them together in batches.

Dry ingredients
1 3/4 cup of all purpose flour
3/4 cup of Hersey cocoa. ( I chose the bitter one)
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 cup of sugar

wet ingredients
1/2 of powdered jaggery competly dissolved in 1/2 cup of water.
2 tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
3/4 cup of oil
2 tablespoon of milk

Make sure the jaggery is completely dissolved. Remove the excess lumps of jaggery before mixing all the wet ingredients to the dry mix.
Beat the wet ingredients to mix well.
Now in batches, add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix well without any lumps until the entire dry ingredients are completely blend.

Do taste you mixture for sweetness. This will help you to know how sweet you want your cookie to be.

I prefer medium sweet.
Finally to add a little crunch, I added a hand full of pine nuts. You can add almond, walnut or cashew nuts too.

Now baking time.
Preheat your oven to 375 and raise it to 425 bake for 10-13 minutes to have your cookies little crispy. If you want them soft bake for just about 8-10 minutes.
Remember not to pour too much of you cookie on your baking sheet. Else you end up getting pancake sized cookies. :)