Pillow Cakes

Hello All! I am back from an extended hibernation mode.

Thank you so much for your patience and continued patronage. I see some likes cropping up on my Facebook page every now and then. I am very grateful for that and it is a reminder for me to share the joy of cooking with the online community.

Well, there really is no specific reason for being away from the blog, I think I was just overwhelmed with the entire parenting experience all over again!

I was just reminiscing to my elder daughter about all the yummy baked goods I used to make for her and ended up showing the blog, while my little one saw all these pictures for the first time, that I had baked cookies and cakes and brownies, she had a forlorn look on her face. At that instant I decided to resume blogging as she is now slightly older and independent and is also very helpful around the kitchen. She was thrilled.

Little tummies need to be filled and "yummy yummy food for the tummy" is always being cooked, but not being photographed and blogged about.

I did not have the luxury of plating up and photographing, simply for lack of time and/or not being able to find my phone. Two kids need digital baby sitters you see and my phone serves me well.

So what better way to get back on the blog than with a tasty and quick breakfast option for lazy Sundays!

I honestly wanted to make better use of the sandwich maker and was looking at recipes I could use it for and came across these easy breakfast/snack options.

The little one does not have a sweet tooth and is a very picky eater. But chocolates, cakes and ice-creams are always welcome on her palette.

So let us go back to the delicious pillow cakes baked in the sandwich maker.

I picked a recipe that called for whole wheat flour. I just omitted the sprinkles and used a piece of dark chocolate for the filling. You can skip this if you please.

Recipe

Ingredients
Whole-wheat flour - 1 cup 
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1
Milk - 1/2 cup or as needed
Oil - 3 tbsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Chocolate pieces - if using

Icing sugar for sprinkling

Butter for greasing the sandwich-maker plates.

Method

1. Mix oil, sugar, vanilla and egg in a bowl until combined.
2. Now add in flour, baking powder and fold gently.
3. Pour milk and fold gently till smooth batter.
4. Heat the sandwich maker and grease with some butter.
5. If making plain cakes pour the cake batter into the moulds to the brim.
6. If using chocolate filling, pour a little batter, place a piece of chocolate and cover with another layer of batter.
7. Cover and let it cook for about 5-6 mins. 
8. Remove form mould, dust with icing sugar and serve. 

The sandwich-maker's ready indication may over cook the cake. Keep a watch on the progress and remove the cakes when they are golden brown. 

Verdict:
When served hot these cakes just vanish, each kid downs about two of these easily. Need I say more?

Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt Cake

Is there anything called over-indulgence with respect to bundt cakes? As the new owner of bundt pans it is indeed natural for one to try out various recipes. This is with a large bundt (12-cup) pan.

I once again turned to Divya's blog for a chocolate-cinnamon-bundt cake.

Ingredients
Butter – ½ cup

Water – 1 cup

Vegetable oil – ½ cup

Cocoa powder – 5 tbsps[I used Cadburys]

Plain flour – 1 ½ cups
Wholewheat flour – ½ cup

Sugar – 1 1/2 cups

Salt – ½ tsp

Buttermilk – 1 cup (replaced 2 eggs with half a cup of buttermilk)

Baking soda – 1 tsp

Cinnamon – 1 ½ tsps

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Method

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). I set it to 180 degrees C.

Grease a large bundt pan with cooking spray.

Put butter, water, oil, and cocoa in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, whisk together both flours, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well.
Then, add the buttermilk and baking soda.

Add the cinnamon, and vanilla to the batter. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake 35-40 minutes.[Mine took 10 minutes extra]. Allow cake to cool completely in the pan.

Verdict: Wonderfully rich and moist cake. But I usually prefer cakes that do not use oil. That is just my taste I suppose. But for the glossy look and moisture in the cake, I loved the taste.

Eggless Hershey's Marble cake

What does one do with a bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup lying the pantry unopened and the little one refusing to have milk shakes made from it. Well there are a lot of things one can do with all that syrup, but the little one was more interested in having a marble cake... And as always the little one wins...

Recipe adapted from Hershey's website

Ingredients
1 cup Hershey's syrup
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 3/4 cups APF
3 eggs - substituted with 3/4 cup whole milk for eggless 
1 1/4 tsp baking soda, divided
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sugar (the recipe says 2 cups sugar, but I reduced it)
1 cup butter

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degress F or 180 degrees C. Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan.

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until fluffy. Add the milk and beat well. Stir together flour, 1 tsp baking soda and salt and alternately with buttermilk to butter mixture, beating until well blended.

Measure 2 cups into a small bowl, stir in syrup and remaining 1/4 tsp baking soda. Pour chocolate batter over vanilla batter in pan. Use a wooden spoon and gently swirl the batters to create the marble pattern. Do not over mix. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. I omitted the glaze or frosting that the recipe suggests.

Verdict: The cake was yummy. Need to say more? 

One bowl Mocha bundt cake

I did not believe it when fellow bloggers told about how addictive bundt pans are. As the new owner of a couple of bundt pans, I now see myself fascinated by them more than any other pan in my shelf.

I did a quick search on my fellow bloggers recipes for bundt pans. I narrowed down on Divya's recipe and used it verbatim.

One-bowl Mocha Bundt Cake

Ingredients

Brown Sugar - 1 cup

Butter - 60 gms,at room temperature

Egg - 1

Milk - 1/3 cup

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Instant coffee powder - 1 tsp

Cocoa powder - 1 tbsp

Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degress C and flour a 6-cup bundt pan. 

In a large mixing bowl, add all the ingredients and beat for 3-4 minutes. 

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the tin,on a wire rack for 30 minutes.Loosen the edges and center and invert the cake on to the wire rack and let it cool further.

Slice and serve. 

Verdict: Easy simple recipe for a great tasting coffee cake. Serve with evening tea/coffee and devour the heady combination of coffee, cinnamon and cocoa.

Marble Cake

Pantry clearance time. I had set out to make this marble cake several times to clear up the bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup, and each time my little girl would ask for something else. This time she asked for marble cake herself and I decided not to waste an opportunity. It is an exciting and anticipatory moment when you slice the cake to find out how the marble pattern has turned out.

Recipe source - Hershey's kitchen
I made some minor modifications to the recipe.

Ingredients
Hershey's chocolate syrup - 1 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Yoghurt - 1 cup
Eggs - 3
All-purpose flour - 2 3/4 cups
Baking Soda - 1 1/4 tsp
Vanilla exract - 2 tsp
Butter - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 1/2 cups

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F). Grease a 12 cup bundt-pan.
Sift the flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
In another large bowl, beat sugar and butter with the vanilla until fluffy and light (3-4 minutes).
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
With the mixer in low speed, add the flour mix and yoghurt alternately, starting and ending with the flour (3 additions of the flour and 2 additions of yoghurt).

Transfer two cups or less, of the vanilla batter to another bowl. Add the chocolate syrup and mix well to make the chocolate batter. Add the 1/4 tsp of baking soda to the chocolate batter. Spoon the vanilla batter into the prepared bowl, into a thin layer. Next add a layer of chocolate batter and then the vanilla batter again. Use the back of a wooden spoon and swirl the batter lightly around. Do not mix.

Bake for 60-70 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely in the bundt pan before removing the cake. Slice and serve plain.

Verdict Super spongy and soft textured cake with a lovely crust. I loved the texture of this cake. I felt there wsa too much chocolate batter. The next time I make this cake, I am going to use 1 1/2 cups of vanilla batter to make the chocolate batter.

Red Velvet Cake

Every huge happening in life is a bittersweet experience, each bestowing us with a share of joy and demanding some sort of sacrifice or compromise. College, the first job, marriage, motherhood - yes wonderful milestones, but requiring minor if not major adjustments to our lifestyle, habits, environment and so on. But what matters at the end of the day is that the experiences themselves leave us with a sense of inner peace and calm and help us grow better as humans.

Home baking and food blogging changed my life... I try to squeeze in my hobby into my already demanding schedule, and end up double timing often. But the sense of satisfaction that comes from following my passion is unparalleled and makes all this chaos worthwhile. 

I made this "red velvet cake" for my husband's b'day. I had decided to frost it with white chocolate ganache. The red velvet sponge turned out perfect. But the ganache was funny. I will get to that story in a bit. So this was a bittersweet experience too. A perfect sponge with an imperfect frosting. Well, that is life!

Recipe Source (JoyofBaking.com)

Since I followed the recipe for the sponge to the t, I will omit repeating it here.

About the ganache. I had read on blogs and other cooking websites that the dark chocolate ganache recipe can be used to make white chocolate ganache too. Having that confirmation, I just proceeded to make the ganache with the following proportions:

200 grams - white chocolate

3/4 cup - whipping cream

2 tablespoon - unsalted butter

The actual proportions for white chocolate ganache to be spreadable or for it to set is: 

340 grams of white chocolate and 45-60 ml of cream. Butter can be omitted. (info source: Ganache problem). The next time I plan to use these proportions.

But no one even noticed the runny ganache. The frosting was so yummy and so was the sponge. 

Verdict Do try the red-velvet sponge and the contrasting cream-cheese or white chocolate frosting. It is a feast to look at. 

Eggless Tiramisu - Baking Eggless challenge for the month of April

Life throws a lot of challenges at us. People in our lives throw a good share of those challenges. We sometimes deal with the people who throw challenges or deal with the challenge itself. When folks belonging to a baking group throw challenges at us, we need to deal with the challenge; there is no option to deal with the challengers ;) just kidding. A few kitchen disasters would not hurt us at all... Infact, it is a great learning experience. I am never worried about stuff that does turn out well. Of course a failed attempt in the kitchen would defeat the purpose of making a blog-post. But I can always give it a second shot and post it when the attempt is successful and document the mistakes in the first attempt and mitigation measures taken in the second attempt. Life is infact a learning process, sometimes the learning curve is a little bit longer, but it is perfectly alright for it to be so... since, the journey is more enjoyable definitely.

So I was mentally prepared to face a disaster with eggless tiramisu. Let me confess, I have not made the version with eggs. I have only tasted a slice of tiramisu long back and I assumed there were two layers of biscuit with crunchy nuts alternating with smooth, stiff cream. So I was very nervous with this challenge. I even thought of cheating, by making and eggless sponge cake and layering with mascarpone cheese. But no fun in winning a challenge having cheated, right? So I decided to make the eggless Savoiardi biscuits. If they turned out fine, I would make the mascarpone cheese. If the cheese turned out fine, I would assemble the tiramisu. As you can see, it did turn out fine :).

Without making this a philosophical post, let me get to the recipe. As always, the version with eggs first. The sources of each of these are linked in the title.

Home-made Svoiardi: Recipe source Home Cooking In Montanna

Ingredients:
3 eggs, room temp
6 tbsp - sugar
1 tsp - vanilla essence
3/4 - cup cake flour, sifted*
2 tbsp - powdered sugar a couple of drops orange oil(optional)** (Omitted this)
*You can use all purpose flour and replace 2 TBS of it with 2 TBS corn starch...then sift it together. **Especially good for fruit based desserts, otherwise omit
Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat. Sift flour...maybe a couple of times.
2. Separate eggs in 2 bowls.
3. To the egg yolks, add 2 TBS sugar and vanilla extract( or drops of orange oil or other extract, if using).
4. Whip until pale in color and thick...4-5 minutes. Set aside.
5. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually, add 4 TBS sugar. Beat until the egg whites form firm peaks that are glossy and smooth.
6. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold about a third of the whipped whites into the yolks to lighten them up. 7. Add half of the remaining whites over the yolk mixture and then sift about half of the flour over the egg whites. Gently fold until the ingredients are barely combined.
8. Add the rest of the whites over the yolk mixture and then sift the rest of the flour over the whole mixture. Fold gently until combined.Try not overdo the folding, otherwise the batter will deflate and lose volume... and then the ladyfingers will be flat and not spongy.
9. Fill a pastry bag (with a plain tip about ½-inch wide...or a plastic bag with end snipped off) with the batter.
10. Pipe the batter into 3-4 inch long strips.
11. Sprinkle some confectioner’s sugar over the surface of the savoiardi biscuits... and wait for 5 minutes. The batter will absorb a bit of the sugar.
12. After 5 minutes, sprinkle yet a bit more powdered sugar. This will give the biscuits that crispy shell.
13. Bake the ladyfingers 7 to 8 minutes or until lightly golden brown and have puffed up.

Home-made Mascarpone Cheese: Recipe source Baking Obsession

Ingredients:
500 ml - thick cream
1 tbsp - lemon juice
Method:
Bring 1 inch of water to boil in a large skillet. Reduce heat to medium low, so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet.
Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. Do not expect the same action as you see during ricotta cheese making. All that the whipping cream will do is become thicker, like a well-done crème anglaise. It will cover a back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. 
Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). 
Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.

Assembling the Tiramisu: Recipe source Taste

Ingredients:
2 cups strong black coffee
1/2 cup marsala, see note
3 eggs, separated
1/3 cup caster sugar
250g mascarpone cheese
300 ml thickened cream, lightly whipped
1 large packet of sponge fingers (Savoiardi biscuits)
Cocoa, chocolate shavings for dusting

Method:
1. Pour coffee and marsala into a shallow dish. Set aside.
2. Beat egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl with electric beaters until pale and thick. Add the mascarpone and whipped cream, mixing gently until just combined.
3. Beat egg whites in a medium bowl with electric beaters until soft peaks form. Using a large metal spoon, gently fold eggwhites into the mascarpone mixture.
4. Dip enough biscuits into the coffee mixture to cover the base of a 19cm square ceramic dish. Cover the biscuits with one-third of the mascarpone mixture. Repeat layers 2 times, ending with the cream. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Dust generously with cocoa and serve.

Note:  Variation: Marsala can be replaced with orange juice if preferred.

Eggless version

I made the savoiardi biscuits a week before making the mascarpone. Someone at home downed half the savoiardi biscuits over the week and I did not have enough biscuits for the proportions of cream given above.

So I had to scale down the cream mixture to assemble in 2/3 rd of a loaf tin. Please see the assembling section for the proportions.

Savoiardi Biscuits (Eggless)

Ingredients:

6 tbsp - sugar 1 tsp - vanilla essence 3/4 - cup cake flour, sifted* 2 tbsp - powdered sugar a couple of drops orange oil(optional)** (Omitted this)
Replace the 3 eggs with the following:
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup almonds, coarsely powdered

*You can use all purpose flour and replace 2 TBS of it with 2 TBS corn starch...then sift it together. **Especially good for fruit based desserts, otherwise omit

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat. Sift flour...maybe a couple of times.< 2. Whip the butter and 6 tbsp of sugar until pale, fluffy and light.
3. Add the coarsely powdered almonds to the butter mixture and mix until just combined.
4. Add the vanilla essence and orange oil.
5. Slowly fold the cake flour into the almond-butter mix.
6. Do not overdo the folding, else the biscuits will be chewy and not crisp
7. If the mix is too hard, add a tablespoon of milk at a time.
8. The consistency of the dough should be such that you can pipe out fingers and it will retain shape.
9. Fill a pastry bag (with a plain tip about ½-inch wide...or a plastic bag with end snipped off) with the batter. 10. Pipe the batter into 3-4 inch long strips. 11. Sprinkle some confectioner’s sugar over the surface of the savoiardi biscuits. This will not be absorbed as the batter is not the spongy one with eggs. 12. Bake the ladyfingers 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly golden brown and have puffed up. These need to be baked longer than the one with eggs since the almond butter mix takes longer to bake.

Mascarpone cheese

Followed the same recipe as above.

Assembling the Tiramisu

Ingredients:
3/4 cup strong black coffee
1/4 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed
Half the mascarpone cheese made with the above recipe
1/3 cup caster sugar
200 ml thickened cream, lightly whipped
1/2 packet of sponge fingers (Savoiardi biscuits)
Cocoa, chocolate shavings for dusting

Method:
1. Line a loaf tin with cling wrap. Use a 10 inch square aluminium foil and fold it four ways. Place the stiff aluminium foil diving the loaf tin into 1/3 and 2/3 portions.
2. Place the savoiardi biscuits in the tin and then determine where you need to place the divider.
3. Pour coffee and orange juice into a shallow dish. Set aside.
4. Whip the cream until soft peaks form.
5. Add the mascarpone cheese and sugar and mix until just combined with the cream.

6. Dip enough biscuits into the coffee mixture to cover the base of a loaf pan. Cover the biscuits with one-third of the mascarpone mixture. Repeat layers 2 times, ending with the cream.

5. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Dust generously with cocoa and chocolate shavings and serve.

Verdict: It does get disappointing when some  attempts fail, but do not give up. There is always a learning or two one can carry and it is very rewarding and fulfilling when you are successful. So being afraid of trying is not the right approach. I am sure all you home bakers out there agree with me on this one. The tiramisu tasted close to the one I had so many years back. It brought back fond memories of college days when one would eat without a care for the calorific value of foods.

Banana Cranberry Cake (Low Fat)

Low Fat baked goodies always entail some oil and definitely sugar. Although the calorie count in a low-fat cake is less than a butter cake, if you are planning to stay away from oil completely, then it still does not help. I got a wonderful book from my dad last week - Rosemary Conleys - "Complete Hip and Thigh Diet". The best thing about this book is the variety of recipes that suit any lifestyle but still low on fat and sugar.

I picked this recipe up from the book, but adapted it since I did not have sultanas in hand. The cake is called "Banana Sultana Cake" in the book.

For the benefit of diet freaks out there, I am not going to babble any more. So here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Bananas - 5 large and ripe, mashed
All Purpose Flour - 1 1/2 cup
Whole Wheat Flour - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Brown Sugar - 3/4 cup
Cranberries - 1/2 cup

Yes that is right. There is no butter or milk in this recipe.

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180 degress C. Grease and line a loaf tin or 8 inch cake tin.

Sift the APF and wheat flour with the baking powder. Keep one table spoon of the flour mix aside.

Add the brown sugar to the mashed bananas. Add the flour mix to the bananas mixture and whisk with the mixer until combined.

Toss the cranberries in the tablespoon of flour kept aside earlier. Mix the cranberries into the batter.

Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. The crust should be light brown in colour. 

Verdict: This is listed in the book as a dessert recipe for dinner, or for breakfast. Baking this cake was an eye opener for me. The smoothness of the bananas replaced the butter perfectly. The top was perfectly cursty and the inside had the smooth yet curmbly texture. 

Eggless Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake - Eggless-baking February Challenge

My tryst with frosting cakes is not much to boast about. I have had the icing bags and nozzles for two years now and I have hardly used them. Firstly, baking the cake in the limited time I have on weekends is challenging enough, with a little pair of hands bungling the recipe unknowingly in her zest to help her mommy bake the goodies. Secondly, waiting for the cakes to cool down hardly happens. She wants a bite of the stuff immediately as soon as the cake is out of the oven. Thirdly, she might want to help me with the frosting too and thus I might finally snap at her after the prolonged attempts at bungling, sigh! I guess, I am the world's worst mom. She shows so much zeal and care to help me out and I call it bungling :(. 

Anyways, I have frosted cupcakes with buttercream a couple of times, and a bundt, pound cake with buttercream. I have used ganache once for an eggless chocolate cake. I have never used whipped cream to frost cakes. So why am I delving into statistics? To apologize in advance for any offensive attempts at frosting in this post!

This recipe seriously gave me jitters. I did not want to frost with buttercream. I certainly did not want to make 2 cups of buttercream and use it on a large cake. 

I decided to make the batter without adjusting the original recipe except for the eggless variation; I then decided to make two small 6 inch cakes and a host of cupcakes. I made just 1 cup of buttercream, and frosting 4 cupcakes and one 6 inch cake. 

As always, the original recipe from Hershey's goes first. I shall present the cake recipe only in both the original and eggless form. The frosting is normal chocolate buttercream and the recipe is from Hershey's verbatim.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
2  eggs
1 cup milk
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups sugar

Method
1 Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2 Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. 
Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. 

Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3 Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. 
Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. 
Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

Variations
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. 
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. 
Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. 
Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. 
Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. 
Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

Now for the eggless version.

Eggless Variation

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup milk powder  + 1/2 cup milk (See Note)
1 cup milk
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar

Method
Heat oven to 180 degress C. Grease and flour two 6-inch pans and some cupcake moulds.
Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
Dissolve 1/2 cup of milk powder in 1/2 cup milk and keep it aside. Add milk, milk powder paste, oil and vanilla to the dry flour mix; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. 

Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. I used 2 small round cake moulds (5-6 inches) and 6 cupcake moulds.
Bake the small cake moulds for 40-45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. 
Bake the cupcakes for 22-25 minutes. 
Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. 
Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

Note I used Nestle's sweetened milk powder and so I reduced the quantity of sugar by 1/2 cup. Since adding 1/2 cup milk to the milk powder made the batter even thinner, I wonder if I should have just used the milk powder without the additional 1/2 cup milk. 

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING


1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.
Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

I halved the recipe for the frosting and made 1 cup of buttercream. I used it to pipe some roses and stars on one 6-inch cake and 4 cupcakes. I still had about 1/4 cup buttercream. I plan to use it as a spread on bread within the next couple of days.

Verdict: The batter was too thin and I felt, I could have just used milk powder instead of dissolving it in another 1/2 cup milk. The texture was fine and the cake tasted good, except that one cake sunk in the middle.

Eggless Orange-Chocolate zebra cake

 Zebra cakes are never out of fashion are they? How about a twist to the original zebra cakes instead of Vanilla and Chocolate? Well here is the Orange-chocolate zebra cake and it is eggless too. The only  with this is, that we need to make the two batters separately unlike the original zebra cake, where we mix the batter for both layers together and then add cocoa to a portion of the batter. I picked this up from Aparna's blog. The reason I made this was to test out the effectiveness of my new convection microwave oven. I wanted simple, no-fuss proven recipe, and one that I am familiar with, with respect to the structure of the cake and the crust. This seemed a perfect fit to my requirements.

Ingredients:
For the orange batter:
Flour - 1 1/4 cup
Sugar - 2/3 cup
Orange juice - 2/3 cup + 1/3 cup
Oil - 4 tbsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Orange essence - 1/2 tsp
Vinegar - 1 tsp

For the chocolate batter:
Flour - 1 1/4 cup
Cocoa - 2 tbsp
Sugar - 2/3cup
Milk - 2/3 cup
Oil - 4 tbsp
Vinegar - 3 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Bbaking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp 

Method: 
In a large bowl, add all the ingredients for the orange batter and mix well. In another large bowl mix all the ingredients of the chocolate batter. 
I used freshly squeezed orange juice, from kinnow oranges. I added the extra 1/3 cup, as I felt the orange batter was a little too thick. 


Butter and flour an 8" cake tin. I lined the pan with parchment paper. Starting with the chocolate batter, use a large spoon to deposit a spoonful of batter in the middle of the pan. Do not attempt to spread the batter. Use another large spoon and deposit a spoonful of orange batter in the middle of the pan, over the chocolate batter. The batter will start spreading. Keep alternating between the orange and chocolate batters, till both are consumed. 

Bake at 190 degress C in a preheated oven for 45 mins to 60 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert the cake onto a wire rack and let it cool down completely before slicing in wedges. 

Verdict: The texture came out good. The layers turned out very well. The cake was well baked in the prescribed time and temperature. So I concluded that the convection microwave oven is working alright. Yippee! More bakes to come from the oven with love... stay tuned!