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!
 

{ 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 :-)