VEGAN / EGGLESS CHOCOLATE & VANILLA MARBLE CAKE

Things are all good here. How about you,all? We are very busy planning our Someone Little's Big Day,which is this month.The menu is fixed and now we have to get other things done. As the days are approaching  our Baby's Big Day,I am kind of feeling sad thinking he is no more a tiny fellow! He will be a year old ! How fast the time flies, right?
Sigh!!

I baked this cake well over 2 months ago and the photographs were still in my camera until last week. It's not that I don't get the time to write here, it's just that I chose to spend more time with Ian Vaava. He needs me much more than my blog baby!
Oh well! I changed something on the blog today. Did you see it yet? No? It's something on the right hand side bar. Okay, now that you just saw it, let me tell you... Jobin did it :-)

This cake is quite good for the fact that it doesn't use butter,milk or eggs! It's not that we prefer eggless bakes, its just that I like to try different recipes to compare with the ones I've made in the past. When I saw Hetal & Anuja bake this up, I made a note in my mind to try it out because it looked very simple and delicious!

The texture and taste for this cake is spot on. It is intensely chocolate-y and at the same time vanilla-y! The batter for both the flavours are almost the same. Look at the recipe closely and you will see what I am talking about. So it's just the mixing part that's left! I prefered making a bundt cake and topped it with some Chocolate Ganache. You can frost it or eat it plain. It is delectable, either way!

CHOCOLATE & VANILLA MARBLE CAKE
Ingredients:
Chocolate cake batter
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon coffee granules
1 cup hot water
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoon oil

Vanilla cake batter
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup hot water
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoon oil

Method: Preheat the oven to 350/180C. Prepare a 10-12 cup capacity bundt tin.
For both the batters, the method remains the same. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, mix together the wet ingredients.Now, combine the wet and dry together until you get a smooth batter. Once both the chocolate and vanilla batter is made,pour them alternately into the pan and swirl the cake batter with a butter knife gently, for the marbled effect. Bake for 35-40 mins or until done. Cool completely.Frost as desired.

I made this for a friend of ours when they came home for dinner,on a Friday night. They loved the cake and she asked me if it's okay if she could take some home with her! I was more than pleased to do so. Ian Vaava as always, enjoyed each crumb of this cake. I baked the same cake, again in a weeks time for Jobin's  niece's First Holy Communion. Everyone seemed to have liked it! :-)

I am hoping to be in full swing action,on the blog, very soon!
 

MOIST EGGLESS VANILLA CUPCAKES

I don't usually care for the amount of eggs in a recipe I am about to try because I love eggs,especially hardboiled eggs.When I say hardboiled,it should be perfectly hardboiled.No rubber like yolks for me,please!Okay,now lets get back to the topic. Well,Kannur is not a place where you can get wonderful ingredients for baking.I know it,so Amma and myself stock up really well. But on how on earth will we know that there will be shortage of eggs,especially in a place where there are atleast 3 bakeries on a street!

Well,it happened.Kannur town was out of eggs,for almost a week and that was too long for me to wait,without baking a cake of some sort. Our house is swamped with guests these days,to see our Ian vaava. So we need something,and when I say something,it has to be homemade because Amma & I cannot think of serving  anything storebought to our guests.

The hunt for something eggless started.I found way too many recipes online but only a few grabbed my attention. When I chose this recipe,it reminded me that I had tried out the same a few years ago and found the cake to be very oily.I thought of giving it a second chance and it worked just fine.

I had some buttercream with me,from the movie star's cake,so tinted it pink and used it to decorate the perfect cupcake tops.I usually don't go for such lavish decor on my baked goods for our daily consumption but since it's for the lovely folks who are visiting us,I didn't think twice.

MOIST EGGLESS VANILLA CUPCAKES
Recipe by Nita Mehta as seen on Recipe on Click


Ingredients:
300g all purpose flour
250 ml thick plain yogurt
150-180 g granulated sugar
125 ml oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Method: Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350F. Line your 12- cup cupcake tin.

In a large bowl,beat the yogurt until smooth.Add granulated sugar and beat till dissolved completely.Add baking powder,baking soda and mix to combine.Leave aside for 5 minutes or until frothy.Add oil,vanilla and beat to mix.Spoon in flour little by little and fold it into the batter.Beat with beaters for 30 secs to make the batter smooth and lump free.Pour into tins and bake for 25-30 mins or till done.Cool in the tin for 5 mins,remove and cool completely before frosting.

For the Vanilla Buttercream recipe,click here.

Ritchie loved the frosting and mentioned that he likes cupcakes with eggs better.I found these to be really moist and perfect for eggless days!

EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE with ALMOND PRALINE TOPPING

So this must be the 100th time I'm talking about our Chicago trip. As you all know by now, we celebrated Easter in Chicago with Jobin's cousin and family.It was good fun.We both ate so much yummy homemade goodness for every single meal! It was like a seafood festival for me! There was seafood in every possible dish...I'm talking about the Malayali curries like Chemmenum Mangayum,Chomanna Meen Curry,Ayila Varuthathu,Chemmen Olathiyathu etc. The Easter lunch was a potluck so there was an enormous spread of Kallappam, Kappa Biriyani,Mutton Curry,Thorans, Mezhukkupuratti's, Rice, Puddings etc. I ate continously from the time I woke up till I went to sleep. Burp!

We left early morning on Saturday and took this cake with us as a surprise for his cousin who was celebrating his b'day that day. When we reached there, I got plenty of time to make the puddings for the Easter lunch that I had signed up before. Jobin helped me with the prep work as we were expecting around 40 guests. I made the Chocolate Biscuit Pudding and Cold Frost Pudding. Then after all that, we set out the cake and candles and waited for the birthday boy who had gone hiking with his cousins.

When they came back, he was in for a surprise because it's been 2 years since he cut a cake at home as he was away in other countries for his studies. The cake was a big hit and no one even felt that it lacked eggs or was made eggless. So I didn't bother telling anyone, except for the next day when an Aunty asked me for the recipe :-)

I have made this cake before and it was enjoyed by all who ate it. The almond praline topping is a quick fix of mine whenever I need a topping for a cake or a pudding. I love the crunch it gives the soft cake beneath it. It hardly takes anytime to make but the effect it has on your palate is worth enjoying! Amma uses praline a lot for decorating puddings and also in her Praline Vanilla Sponge Gateau.

EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE with ALMOND PRALINE TOPPING
Recipe for the cake: Anushruti
Recipe for praline: Amma

Ingredients:
For the cake
1 1/2 c flour
1/4 c cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp sugar
1 tin condensed milk
150g butter, melted
1 tbsp vanilla
1 c water

Method: Preheat the oven to 300F/ 150C and prepare an 8 inch cake tin.
In a large bowl,mix the dry ingredients together. Add the melted butter and other wet ingredients to it and beat on high till there are no lumps, about 1 minute. Do not overbeat. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 25 -30 mins.Cool in tin for 5 mins and then invert onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

For the praline recipe, refer here

Assembly: Place the cake on a serving plate and cover it with a Chocolate Ganache (half qty). Sprinkle the praline over the cake and cover the sides too, if you like. Decorate the top  with rosettes/ stars using whipped cream. If you like, you can make some Lacy Oatmeal Cookies and pile them up in the centre.

This cake was loved by all irrespective of age & gender ;-) It has a nice texture with a delicate crumb. No one would ever guess it's eggless unless you mention it to them. This cake can be layered or used as whole, like how I did here. I am sure I will be using this cake again! If you want, you can bake them into cupcakes but keep an eye on the timing when you do so. It is delicious on it's own or you can dress it up with some icing and serve alongside with some real good vanilla ice cream. If you want to get adventurous, go drizzle some caramel sauce too!

{ VEGAN } AVOCADO CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES with AVOCADO FROSTING

I was supposed to remember that I was supposed to send some cupcakes with Jobin to work on Thursday, as he had signed up to bring a dessert for a potluck. He said he wanted something small that he could carry along with him on his way to office. Last time, I baked him these yummy Vanilla Cupcakes with Glossy Chocolate Frosting. This time he suggested Madeleines and I agreed to it 100% because I love baking those dainty things.

So after our trip,he casually reminded me on Wednesday that I should be getting the dessert ready for him on Thursday morning. That's when the reality struck me. There were no eggs, no butter and hardly any milk left in the fridge. Now, Target (a supermarket) is like a 10 mins walk through the skyway but I didn't think about it, rather chose not to :-) I told him that we can go shopping once he is back from work and I can make the batter and leave it the fridge which would give me those nice Madeleines with a fat belly.
Later, when I was alone at home, I realised that it's better if I could bake something and get it ready by evening than wait till the next morning because I know what a sleepyhead I am.

So when we went grocery shopping with our cousins in Chicago, our veggie bags got mixed up and I realised it only after we got back home to Minneapolis. I saw a bag filled with Avocados along with some bananas. I didn't know what I was going to do with it because I am not an Avocado lover. Forget about loving it, I don't like it at all. I don't like fruits which are tasteless in it's raw form. Anyhow, I put it along with my other veggies into the fridge thinking I shall do something with it,someday.

And I did do something with it, not very long after that! :-) Since I was butterless & eggless I thought of using Avocado because I have heard about how buttery that fruit is. We call it butter fruit in Kerala. So I went online and searched for some recipes and I was rewarded with this simple chocolate cupcake recipe and a super duper easy chocolate frosting recipe with Avocados! I decided to go ahead with it , so I called him up and told him my plans of switching from Madeleins to Cupcakes. Jobin lets me make the decision when it comes to food, so this time it was no different :-)

VEGAN AVOCADO CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
Recipe source: Joy the Baker Cookbook
Makes 14 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c flour
1/4 c cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 Avocado, mashed up
1 c sugar
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp vinegar
1 c water

Method: Preheat the oven to 350F/180C and line a muffin tin .
In a bowl,mix flour, cocoa, baking powder & baking soda together. In a large bowl, mix avocado,sugar,oil, vanilla,vinegar & water.Add the dry to the wet and fold it using a spatula until the batter is mixed well. Pour out 1/4 c of batter into each muffin cup and bake for 18-20 mins or until done. Let it cool.

VEGAN AVOCADO CHOCOLATE FROSTING
Recipe source: not quite Betty Crocker

Ingredients:
1/4 c cocoa
1/2 avocado
75 g sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Method: Blend all the ingredients together in a mixie/food processor until creamy and smooth. Decorate the cooled cupcakes with the frosting.

I used an offset spatula and just smeared the frosting over each cupcake. If you want to pipe it, I would suggest that you double the recipe.Also, you can flavour the frosting with espresso,orange extract, peppermint extract etc.

So he knew the cupcakes had avocados in it. When he got back from work, he found me frosting the cupcakes so I asked him if he wanted to taste test one. He obliged, like always and took a bite of it. He nodded in agreement when I asked him if they were good. After chewing down one half of the cupcake, he asked me what's the frosting made of...a question I was waiting all this while to answer. When I told him it had just avocados, cocoa & sugar, he was definately surprised! I don't think he thought I would go that far with that fruit :-)

This frosting kind of sets and loses it's sticky property so this is perfect to pack and send it to wherever you want!The cupcakes were super moist and the frosting was rich and creamy.No one would guess it has what it has :-)

LACY OATMEAL COOKIES

This cookie is addictive!! You just cannot stop at one. If you think Potato chips are addictive, try one of these...I'm talking from my experience :-) Do I sound like a grandmother now? I baked these cookies to take with us to Chicago, to share with our family there. It was the first time I was baking something so thin, so light and so brittle. I don't think I would have handled anything so carefully other than my wedding bouquet in my entire life!



Everytime I feel like trying out something new,I first go through my navy blue recipe diary and if I don't get an inspiration, I turn towards the internet for answers. This time, it was no different. I knew I wanted to try out some new cookie, something which wasn't heavy or chunky but something light yet new. I've seen these kind of recipes many times before but never thought of trying it. I always wondered if I would get it right because these are so fragile and you need to really monitor the baking time and temperature.

Having baked quite a lot of finicky things successfully, I decided to go ahead with what I saw. I always had a thing for very delicate objects. It could be a well embroidered handkerchief or a tablecloth. If I see such stuff, I look at it, turn them over, look how they have knotted the stitches behind because the Grandmother in me wakes up then :-)

These cookies were no different. I felt it was a piece of art. I don't know if you can feel it just by looking at the photographs but when you bake one, hold it in your hands and look at the sky through it, you will see how lacy and thin it is. It's beautiful. It's super crunchy at the egdes, slightly chewy in the centre and toffee-ish to taste. The original recipe called for an egg but when I made the cookie batter, I used an extra one to get it to the loose consistency the recipe called for.

LACY OATMEAL COOKIES
Recipe source : Merely Marie
Yield about 50 cookies

Ingredients:
1 c oatmeal
1/4 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 c sugar
1/2 c butter,softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method: Preheat the oven to 325 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper/silicone mat.( I am not sure if butter paper sprayed with oil would work here as a substitute for parchment. )
Cream butter and sugar for a minute . Add eggs and vanilla and beat again till blended. Tip in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.It will be a slightly loose batter. Pour 1 teaspoon of the batter at a time onto the baking sheet atleast 2 inches apart from each other and bake till the edges turn golden brown, about 9-10 minutes. Remove the sheet from the oven and peel the cookies carefully. You can shape them as tuiles,rolls or leave it as is. It will harden as it cools so work very quickly.

It is loaded with oatmeal but when I tasted it, I felt it tasted like coconut cookies. Jobin didn't agree to it but later, after pestering him and all who ate those cookies, they said even they felt so...maybe because of the chewy texture of the oatmeal. These cookies can be used for decorating cakes,placed on top of ice creams/ sorbet etc.It can also be rolled, filled with sweetend cream and served as dessert. When you do so, make sure you serve it immediately or else the cookies will get soggy from the cream.