Wholesome Red Velvet Cake

Wholesome Red Velvet Cake

I am guessing most kids like cakes, not necessarily ideal though. My child is no exception but I have always made him aware that cakes can be junk food and do harm over time. I do not like to keep him away from indulging but like to keep it least harmful and where possible, try to make it healthy. I have tried to include millet, wholewheat and with help from some refined flour, this cake is super moist and soft (hopefully the clicks show that). It does make quite a good snack and is quite filling. Having said all that, it is not just for the kids, it is equally enjoyable for adults as well. Here is the recipe...

¾ cup beetroot puree

¾ cup self rising flour

½ cup wholewheat flour

½ cup ragi flour

1/3 cup sunflower oil

½ up brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 bar of dark chocolate, broken into pieces

About 4 teaspoons coco powder

1/3 cup milk

2 tablespoon yogurt

Beat together sugar, beetroot puree, oil, milk and yogurt then add vanilla extract

Sift the flours, baking powder and coco powder together and add to wet mixture

Add about 2-3 tablespoons water and make a batter, add the chocolate pieces, mix and put into well lined and greased cake tin

Bake in preheated oven at 180degC for about 20-25 minutes. Skewer inserted will come out clean.

Carrot Cake with Curd Cheese topping (eggless)

Carrot Cake (Eggless)

I have been seeing Rachel Allen’s cake diaries whenever I get time these days. I have become her fan as she makes cake making seem so simple and easy. The other reason I like her recipes is because I think it is easier to make it to my taste and preference i.e. reduce fat and eggless etc. I saw her making this carrot cake and knew straight away that I have to make it. Her recipe called for couple of eggs and loads of sugar. I thought this could be my opportunity to try other egg substitutes.

Although I am a food blogger, sometimes I am a bit wary of trying new ingredients for fear of allergic reactions. After some deliberation and postponing for a long time, I finally gave flax meal a try. Flax meal is nothing but ground flax seed. Flax seed has incredible health benefits ranging from high fibre content to providing some good fat. When some flax meal is mixed with water and allowed to sit for a short time, it forms a gelatinous fluid and this is what makes it a good egg substitute. However, it is said to impart a nutty flavour and said to make the baked dish dense. In this case, it was not a problem for me so went ahead using it. I replaced one egg with flax meal and other with milk.

Her original recipe called for cream cheese icing, however, I did not want to add that much fat and chose to make hung curd. Or those who do not know hung curd or curd cheese, take a colander and put a kitchen towel on it and pour the yogurt and sit on a deep dish so the liquid from yogurt drips. To prevent it from going sour, sit this in the fridge.

I chose almonds and mixed dry fruits instead of walnuts and loads of sugar. I cut down the sugar quite a bit this way. I also reduced the oil but I think it could be reduced further as this is an incredibly moist cake. Addition of wholemeal self rising flour was also my tweak. In the end, the cake was incredibly moist and you will not know it is eggless. The icing was irresistible and I was in love with the cake. This is my favourite cake I have ever created. A must try!

2 grated carrots

100g self rising flour

75g wholemeal self rising flour

1/3 cup milk

1 tablespoon flax meal

75g chopped almonds and mixed dry fruits

½ teaspoon baking powder

160ml oil (2/3 cups)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon or cardamom or mixed spice

Pinch of salt

120g soft brown sugar

2 tablespoon water

For icing

300g yogurt hung to make curd cheese

2 tablespoon icing sugar

Zest of 1 orange

Preheat oven to 150degC. Line and grease a loaf tin

Mix the flax meal with 3 tablespoon hot water and keep aside

Sift the flours and add salt, sugar, nuts and dry fruits, baking powder and spice powder

Add the milk, flax meal mixture, carrot, oil and water as required to make a batter to spooning consistency

Pour this into the loaf tin and bake for about 1 hr 10 minutes, the top will be nice and brown

Cool in the tin for about 10 minutes then on the rack

For the icing, mix together all ingredients mentioned and spread it on the cooled cake

Fresh Apricot Cake (Eggless)

Fresh Apricot Cake
While growing up in India, I did not get a chance to see or try a number of fruits. One of those was apricots. I do remember having dried apricots but not fresh ones so when I saw them here, I was quite excited. I did buy a box of fresh apricots though I was not sure if we will use it up. I was then tempted to bake something with it and chose to make a cake. It is more a breakfast cake as they can be quite filling and ofcourse quite nutritious. If you like cakes sweet, then add more sugar. I quite liked the cake and think I will make it often, although may use tinned apricots rest of the year.

5-6 apricots, cut into slices
¾ cup all purpose flour
¾ cup wholewheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon soda bicarbonate
¾ cup orange juice with pulp (juice from two oranges)
¼ cup yogurt
1/3 cup margarine/butter/oil
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoon vinegar
2 tablespoon mixed peel
2 tablespoon black currants or any other dried fruit of choice
3-4 tablespoon water

Whisk together the orange juice, sugar, oil/butter/margarine and sift together baking powder, soda bicarbonate, flours and add to the orange juice mixture

  

Add yogurt, mixed peel and currants, mix until combined. Add little water to make a batter to dropping consistency

Add vinegar and mix lightly

Line a cake tin with baking paper and arrange chopped apricots on the bottom

Pour the cake batter into the tin and tap gently about ten minutes

Bake in a preheated oven at 180degC for 30-40 minutes, until skewer inserted in centre comes out clean

Cool in tin for five minutes then transfer to cooling rack and cool completely



Strawberry Cheesecake (Low Fat without cream cheese)

Strawberry Cheesecake


After my first baked cheesecake attempt, I felt more confident that I could experiment with a bit complicated baked dishes. I was fancying the mango cheesecake and thought I should make some soon. I remembered to stock mango pulp but had not bought enough cream cheese to make cheese cake. Well, it is not a part of my shopping list usually but that particular week I had ordered some thinking I will make cream cheese frosting for an important cake I was going to make. I then tried buying flavoured yogurt and thought that will be a good experiment, also keeping the fat content low. However, call it my luck, I could not find any flavoured luck in the local shops. I did manage to buy just a four pint bottle of semi-skimmed milk. I later read online that some people struggle to buy cream cheese in many parts of India as it is not very popular. As paneer is far more popular and also can be made at home, I went for a paneer based cheesecake. I somehow have reservations about using agar agar etc. in dishes, may be I just need to get over the mental block, but that’s something for later. I stuck to baking the cheesecake and prepared the paneer by curdling the semi skimmed milk using lime juice. I drained and refrigerated the paneer overnight as I did not have time to make the cake the same evening. I used couple of spoons of greek yogurt to add some texture, you could use hung curd instead or skip it. The final colour was not as lovely as the strawberry pulp itself but who cares, it tasted divine. I did not have butter on hand so used low fat spread to make the base too. This time, my wee one loved it too! Do check out the mango cheesecake post for more tips on making cheesecakes. I checked the calorie difference between the cream cheesecake (low fat) and this version made with paneer, the latter is about 60cal lower than former and almost only half the saturated fat is present.
275g paneer
2 tablespoon greek yogurt
2 ½ tablespoons all purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
1 cup strawberry pulp
For base
12 digestive biscuits
2 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon sugar

Crush the biscuits in a Ziploc cover or food processor. Add melted butter and a tablespoon sugar and mix well so you can pat it on the base on a lined springform cake tin

Bake this in a preheated oven at 180degC for 8 minutes

In a food processor or mixer combine the paneer and sugar and mix well

Add the strawberry pulp and mix until combined

Add the flour and mix until just combined

Add yogurt and mix until just combined

Pour this mixture over the baked biscuit base and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. You know it is done when the edges brown and the centre is still wobbly/jiggly when tapped on the side

Leave it in the oven (with oven turned off) to cool for about two hours and wrap in a cling film and refrigerate for atleast a night

Black Forest Cake

Black Forest Cake


It was a special person’s (actually two of them) birthday and every year I would make a gift for them. This year however, circumstances did not allow me to find the energy and time to make a gift. For time being, a handmade cake was going to be it. However, I did take a lot of effort and care to make the cake and decorate it as well. I am not usually a frosting or cake decoration person because we do not usually like cakes loaded with sugar and cream. As the occasion was special, I chose to make a special cake. I chose a black forest cake, eggless though and had to make couple of substitutes. Usually it is made with dark chocolate and cherries. My wee one picked up couple of milk chocolates for baking and insisted we buy them so had to use those up. Not complaining because it was a good brand of chocolate at very little price. I had no cherries on stock as it is not a fruit we normally buy and substituted it with strawberries. I used evaporated milk instead of plain milk as it has about 605 of the water content evaporated and is thicker than regular milk. This makes teh cake taste slightly richer. Usually the whipped cream is sweetened with couple of spoons of sugar spread between layers of the cake. I chose to spread a layer of cream as well as melted chocolate to suit our preference. I also did not add sugar to the whipped cream, you could if you like but be gentle while mixing. The cake was a instant hit and am super chuffed with the result!

2 cups all purpose flour
4 tablespoon cornflour (refer notes below)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoon vinegar
8 teaspoons coco powder
1 cup caster sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
100g butter, melted
1 can evaporated milk
6-8 tablespoon water

Decoration and assembly
1 tub whipped cream
1 pack of chocolate, grated
½ pack chocolate (about 75g)
2 tablespoon milk
Few strawberries or rasberries or cherries

Sift together the flour and cornflour atleast twice. Then add baking powder, baking soda, coco powder and sift well so the flour mixture is aerated

In a separate bowl, bring together the sugar (caster and brown) and melted butter until combined

Add the evaporated milk and blend together

Gradually add the flour mixture until just combined. Add vinegar and mix briefly

Transfer to lined cake tin, tap gently about ten times to release excess bubbles and bake in preheated oven at 180degC for 30-40 minutes. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. I rested the cake in the oven for further 10 minutes with oven turned off. Then cool outside for five minutes before transferring to cooling rack

Start the decoration only after cooling the cake completely. Slice the cake into two halves

Melt the half pack of chocolate along with couple of tablespoon milk in a double boiler

Spread this on the bottom part of the cake. Allow to cool

Take some whipped cream and spread on the chocolate already spread

Place the top part of the cake and spread whipped cream on the sides of the cake

Spread whipped cream on the top of the cake. Also put some whipped cream in a piping bag and make your own designs. Cover the cake with grated chocolate and cherries/strawberries/raspberries

Notes:

I chose to use my own cake flour, which is for every cup of all purpose flour, remove two tablespoons of flour and replace with cornflour. If you chose not to do this, skip the cornflour in the recipe and use just 2 full cups of all purpose flour

Make sure you keep the cake, cream and chocolate in the fridge every now and then else the heat could disrupt the workability

You will have to store the cake in the fridge as it is decorated with cream

For ease, I bought readymade whipped cream instead of buying heavy cream and whipping it myself