Eggless Chocolate Cake

CAKE!! an immediate reaction from me will be CHOCOLATE CAKE!!


CHOCOLATE being an aphrodisiac has many health benefits.Cocoa and Dark Chocolate help in reducing blood sugar and cholesterol. So dnt think about the calories and diet and go for a huge piece of a chocolate cake.
Here is a simple and tasty recipe tried, experimented from the original recipe by NITA MEHTA. Hoping you all will like it.

Preparation time: 40 minutes

Difficulty level: Low

Serves: 6

INGREDIENTS:

EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE

Condensed Milk (Milk Maid)            ½ Tin

Cream / Milk                                    ½ Cup

Oil / Butter                                                  ½ Cup

Sugar (Powdered)                            ¼ Cup

Plain Flour (Maida)                          1 Cup

Cocoa Powder                                 ¼ Cup

Soda-Bicarb                                    ½ Tsp Level*

Vanilla Essence                               Few Drops

MOCHA GLAZE ICING

Cocoa Powder                               4 Tbsp

Butter (Softened)                           2 Tbsp

Sugar (Powdered)                          1 Cup

Coffee                                          1 Tsp

TO SOAK

Cola or any other flavoured drink or plain sugar water          ¼ Cup     

METHOD      

• Sieve maida with cocoa powder, soda-bicarb and baking power. Keep aside
• Mix together sugar and milk-maid. Beat the mixture well with a hand beater (For atleast 6-7 mins) or electric beater
• Add oil or butter to the mixture and mix it well.
• Add the milk or cream(preferably cream) along with vanilla essence.  Beat well for 3-4 minutes.
• Add the sieved Maida mixture gradually and slowly to it. Fold in the maida into the mixture gently. Beat this mixture for 3-4 minutes till the mixture is smooth and light (consistency be thick as well as drippy)
• Grease a Microwave proof dish with oil/butter and dust it with a bit of plain flour.
• Pour the chocolate batter into the dish.
• Microwave  it for 4 minutes 30 seconds. As a test to check if the cake has cooked thoroughly insert a skewer/toothpick/knife into the cake. If it comes out clean then the cake has cooked. If not give it an additional 30 seconds in the microwave.
• Let it cool. After the cake has come to room temperature topple the cake onto a plate.
• cut the cake in half and soak with cola   

FOR THE ICING

• Microwave 4 Tbsp water in a bowl for 1 minute. Add coffee and mix. Add the cocoa and butter to it and mix well. Return to the microwave and microwave it for 1 minute or till the butter melts.
• Gradually add the icing sugar or the powdered sugar and mix well
• Glaze the cake with icing. decorate it with walnuts/chocolate shavings/gems with whatever your heart feels at that moment.
• Refrigerate till the Glaze sets. Serve with ice cream 

HANDY TIPS
* Level means you take an entire tea spoon and then with your finger you reduce the contents in half.

1. Like me if you are not sure about your knife skills when it comes to cutting the cake in half here's a easy way, tie a thread across the cake and slowly pull it from one side. Be very careful while pulling the thread. To much force and the thread will break and the cake will not be cut to perfection. 
2. If you do not like chocolate then substitute cocoa powder with cornflour and voila!! you have an EGGLESS VANILLA CAKE.
3. For the topping for VANILLA CAKE you can melt strawberry jam in microwave using 2-3 tbsp of water and pour on the cake.

BON APPETIT

Handy Kitchen Manual

This section called Food-O-Facts is dedicated entirely to handy kitchen tips and useful facts. Ever had the problem of missing ingredients.? Or maybe you added too much of something to a dish. Well this is the section you should look into.
                    
                                   Here are two really handy tips to make your life easier in the kitchen.

TIP #1:  Garlic Peel-A-Thon

Those pesky garlic pods are not budging from out of their skins.?  Have tiny mountains of garlic cloves waiting to be peeled and you are struggling to peel one with garlic juice smeared all over you.? Well heat those pesky pods for 10 secs in the microwave and you'll have them out of their skins faster than clothes off Sunny Leone. Another method is to soak them in warm water for 10 minutes. But this method can make the garlic lose some of its essence and flavour so tread with care.

TIP #2: Salty Affair

 

You forgot your glasses in your room and misread the recipe and added a tablespoon of salt instead of a teaspoon.? That forever loose top of your salt shaker decides that its time to take a swan dive into your cooking along with a generous dollop of salt? With hardly an hour left to your dinner party you are still walking around in sweatpants, result being you added salt an extra time.? Well the solution to your problem is here. Excess salt can be combatted by adding a teaspoon of sugar(Read TEAspoon not TABLEspoon), some diced potatoes or some diced tomatoes. This sucks the salty disaster right out. 

 

 

 

 

Photos courtesy Google Images.

Bread Pudding With Toffee Mocha Sauce

The best way to do away with that really stale loaf of bread and that nagging sweet tooth is to prepare bread pudding. All it takes is a few simple ingredients, around 20 minutes and a nice empty stomach.

The bread pudding recipe was originally residing in the recipe books of my great-aunt Mrs. Prema Maller. This pass-me-down recipe has been modified at least a dozen times before it reached this stage.

Preparation time: 20 Minutes
Difficulty level: Low
Serves: 6

Bread Pudding:
Ingredients:

Stale Bread(Crushed)          4cups

Milk                                    1 cup

Sugar                                 4 Tbsp

Vanilla Essence                5-6 Drops

Cashew Nuts (Chopped)        ¼ Cup

Almonds (Chopped)            ¼ Cup 

METHOD:

•  Mix all the ingredients together to form a thick batter.
• Take a pan and grease it with butter or oil. Pour the batter into the greased pan.
• Steam it for 15 minutes. 
• For serving Turn it over onto a serving dish after it comes to room temperature.

TOFFEE MOCHA SAUCE

 Ingredients

 Full Fat Milk                        ½ Cup
 Instant Coffee Powder              ½ Tsp
 Vanilla Essence                     4-5 Drops
 Cream                                 2 Tbsp
 Butter (Unsalted)                 1 Tbsp

METHOD:

• In a deep pan melt the butter, then add all the other ingredients.
• Cook and reduce the mixture down till a thick sauce is formed. 
•  Pour the sauce on to the bread pudding. Serve warm. Garnish with blanced almonds.

Handy tips:

1. If you do not have an idli steamer or a normal steamer then you can take a wok with water. Place a stand in it and keep the greased pan on the stand. Cover the wok with a huge plate for the steam to get collected.
2. In case the bread pudding does not come out of the pan then you need to tilt the pan to an angle and insert the edge of the knife at the sides and slowly turn the pan. This will help loosen the Bread pudding. Later try turning the pan to get the Bread pudding out intact.

BON APPETIT