Moist Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

Cake
300g of all purpose flour
100g of cocoa powder
400g of castor sugar (I have used 300g only)
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of vanilla extract
250ml of hot water
250ml of vegetable oil
250ml of low fat milk
3 large eggs

Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda and keep aside for later use.

In a mixing bowl beat eggs with sugar and vanilla extract then add water, vegetable oil and milk. Now add in the sifted dry ingredients gradually without over mixing the batter.

Pour this batter on a baking pan which have been applied with butter and flour (I have used bundt pan), dust off excess flour and bake this cake for 30-45 minutes at 150 to 170 degrees depending on your oven requirement. The cake is done when you insert a skewer and it comes out clean, let the cake cool overnight or at least few hours before pouring the ganache.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting

50ml of cream

200g of dark chocolate

1 tbsp of butter

Melt all dark chocolate and cream over double boiling method, once chocolate is perfectly melted add in butter for a glossy look. Let the ganache cool before pouring over the cake and decorate upon your creativity.

See how glossy is the ganache 

Do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

Walnut Chocolate Chunks Brownies

Every-time I go shopping for pantry items, I have always wanted to try Pillsbury's ready made brownies mix. Its super easy to make and awesome, fudgy delicious brownies. I have added some chopped walnuts to give perfect brownies, finally my dream came true....hehehe...

Ingredients:

1 pack of brownies mix
1 cup of chopped walnut
75 ml of water
30 ml of oil
1 egg

In a bowl, mix everything together, pour into a 9x9 greased square tin and baked for 20 minutes on a preheated oven at 150 degrees. Once baked let it cool before cutting and serving the brownies. Now our Hazelnut Chocolate Chunks Brownies is ready to be served!

Yummy yummy brownies

Egg-Less Prune Cake

I'm so obsessed of prune and making Prune Cake, once I tried making this cake, I coudn't resist the flavour of the cake loaded with prunes and spices. This time I made it without adding any alcohol in it but I have substituted brandy for fruit flavoured essence. Anyone who tried this cake will never say NO to it, you will definitely love the taste of it. Now let's get to the recipe;

Ingredients:
1 cup of prunes
1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup of canola oil
11/2 cup of flour*
1 tsp baking soda*
1 tsp nutmeg powder*
1 tsp allspice powder*
1 tsp cinnamon powder*
1 cup of prune flavored yogurt
1 cup of hot boiling water
1 tsp vanilla essence

Boil the prunes for about 10 minutes to soften the prunes

for easy mashing moment

Drain the water and mash the cooked prunes with a fork, you don't have to 

mash everything too smooth, do leave some chunks for better texture

In a separate mixing bowl pour oil, sugar and mix well, you don't have to use a mixer to incorporate this cake mixture, using wooden spatula is sufficient. The recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar but I have reduced to half a cup because the prune is sweet and I have added flavored yogurt.

Then sift all the dry ingredients marked * and stir into the sugar and oil mixture

Add mashed prune, prune flavored yogurt and hot boiling water to the cake mixture,
Ree have used buttermilk but I substituted with yogurt and water.

Pour the cake mixture in a 8' buttered cake pan and bake at 150- 170 degree for 30-40 minutes depending on your own oven. Mine I baked at 150 degree for 35 minutes

Our Egg-less Prune Cake is now cooling and can be served once you remove it from the mould. 

Do try and let me know how was it!

Salted Brownies

I made another favorite of my Dearest Husband's Brownies for Valentines Day, this time I sprinkled some salt on the cake batter to give a great taste to the brownies but before going to recipe, I would like to share a poem that I wrote many years back. This is an unique poem it's a Tamil poem written in English, I apologize to those who can't understand but its all about love. It may seem funny because I can't read or write in Tamil but I wrote this 10 years ago out of love, nothing planned, all of sudden I had the inspiration to write.

Etho Oru Vegathil Unai Kanden

Mayanggi Poi Nindren

Nee Yennidam Varavillai

Naanum Unnai Vidavillai

Nee Yen Munnil

Nee Yen Kannil

Nee Yen Kanavil

Nee Yen Manathil

Ninaikavum Mudiyamal

Marakavum Mudiyamal Thavikiren

Nee Varuvaaya

Unnai Tharuvaaya

Naan Kaathirupen

How is my poem? Okay now without wasting anymore time, let me share the recipe for today;

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup of unsalted butter

1/2 cup of white chocolate (chopped)

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 1/2 cup of soft brown sugar

3 large eggs beaten

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup of all purpose flour

1/4 cup of chocolate chips

1/2 tsp of salt

Melt butter and white chocolate on double boiling, remove from the water bath add cocoa powder, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Mix everything well and fold in flour and pour on a buttered square or rectangle cake pan. Finally add the salt over the batter, using a stick swirl the salt over the batter. 

Bake this mixture for 35 minutes at 150 to 170 Degree brownies should not be baked like cake it should be slightly wet so 35 minutes will be accurate, once the brownies bake let it cool before cutting and serving it. My husband prefers to have it warm and sometimes with vanilla ice-cream.

Dust with cocoa powder before serving or plain depending on your preference

Do try and let me know how was it!

Custard Marble Cake (Eggless)

Of late, I have been so crazy of baking this makes me to search for unique recipes from blogger friend's space. I have saved more than 100 blogs which I visit almost everyday, so one of the blog I visit without fail is Priya Ranjit's Cook Like Priya. The other day I saw Priya posted an unique cake baked with whole wheat flour and custard flour, I told myself I'm definitely trying this recipe no matter what as I had all the ingredients needed for this cake in my pantry. Thank you so much Priya for sharing such a wonderful cake with us.

This is a special cake and would be loved by people who are health concious and looking for a light and fluffy cake. Let's look at how to make this cake;

Ingredients:

1 and 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour/atta

1/4 cup of all purpose flour

3/4 cup of custard powder

2 tbsp of cocoa powder

1 and 1/4 tsp of baking soda

1 and 1/2 cup of milk

3 tbsp of vegetable oil

1 tsp of vanilla extract

3/4 cup of sugar

Sift baking soda, whole wheat flour, all purpose flour and custard powder and set aside.

In a mixing bowl add sugar, oil, vanilla extract, milk and mix until the sugar is almost dissolved. Slowly add in the dry ingredients little by little until it forms a smooth batter. Now take out 1/4 part of the batter and mix the cocoa powder to it ( I have mixed cocoa powder with little milk).

I have used a loaf pan to make this cake, you can use any cake pan of your choice. Butter the sides of the loaf pan and pour all the original batter to this pan, then pour the chocolate batter in the middle of the original batter and make swirl with a chopstick or knife to form the marble effect to the cake.

Bake the cake in pre-heated oven (pre-heat for 10 minutes) for 150 to 180 degrees depending on your oven's requirement for 35- 40 minutes. The most important part of baking this cake is that you have to leave the cake for minimum 2 hours or overnight to have soft and fluffy cake.

Unmould the cake and cut into slices and our Custard Marble Cake is ready to be served. Do try and I'm sure that you will love it!

Moist Banana Cake

I have been planning to bake banana cake for a long time but buying it has been very tough as I didn't get the exact type I was looking for. Two days back, I managed to buy some and immediately planned to bake my favourite cake. The most important thing to get a perfect cake is the mashing of banana to a very fine and smooth paste then let it oxidize for at least 30 minutes to get wonderful cake after baking the cake. Mine didn't turn out as expected as I didn't have the patience to wait for it to oxidize perfectly but the cake was so yummy and finished in two days.

Now let's look at how to bake this yummy yummy cake;

Ingredients:

1 cup of mashed bananas (I have added 2 cups)

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1 and 1/2 cup of plain flour

1 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1/4 cup of milk

3/4 cup of soft brown sugar

3 large eggs 

A pinch of salt

Sift plain flour, baking soda and baking powder, keep aside.

Beat brown sugar, salt, vegetable oil and eggs until fluffy then add vanilla extract. Now alternately add the dry ingredients with milk. Finally add mashed bananas and fold in to the cake batter.

Pour the batter into a buttered cake pan and bake for 35-45 minutes at 150-180 degrees or until the cake is well baked. 

Let the baked cake cool for at least 2 hours before cutting and serving it. Now our Moist Banana Cake is ready to be served. I prefer eating the cake chilled, do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

Guest Post by Priya Suresh: Vegan Christmas Fruit Cake

I thought of sharing this Festive Season with all my fellow blogger friends and all my other friends who visit my blog, you must be thinking how I do it? Simple, I have requested a few of my fellow blogger friends who I admire their blog and recipes to do Guest Post for my blog from 23rd December 2012 until 1st of January 2013. Who said it is difficult to celebrate Christmas and New Year with all my friends all around the world?

Now coming to the first post, I have requested Priya Suresh of Priya's Versatile Recipes to share her wonderful recipe here. She never said NO and gladly sent this post to me, I visit her blog everyday just like the name of her blog all her recipes are versatile and makes one go drooling the moment you take a look at her clicks. The recipes in her blog is easy enough for any new cook to try in their kitchen. Now let us see what she has to say;

Cooking specially and doing a guest post for a co-blogger is definitely an interesting part of this virtual world, few days back I got a message from Arthy asking whether I can do a guest post for her. Her message made me happy and immediately I said ok for making a guest post for her. I visit her space almost everyday since few months and love her variety of drool worthy foods particularly her malay foods, I have bookmarked few to try especially her prawn sambal, as I love sea foods very much. 

Coming to the guest post,she said she want something perfect for this festive season, I know I'll be making a fruit cake for her and finally decided to make a vegan version.Thanks to Arthy for giving me a wonderful chance to make this guest post.

Ingredients:

2cups All purpose flour

1cup Whole wheat flour

1cup Avocado Puree

1cup Oil

1+1/2cups Packed brown sugar

1tbsp Flaxseed powder

1tsp Baking powder

1tsp Baking soda + 1/2tsp for cooking fruits

1/2tsp Cinnamon powder

1/4tsp Clove powder

1/4tsp Ginger powder

1/4tsp Nutmeg powder

3tbsp Honey

1tsp Vanilla essence

1/2cup Water

2cups Dry fruits (chopped finely,i used dates,black & golden raisins,apricots,pineapples,prunes and tutti frutti)

1/2cup Nuts (chopped finely)

2tbsp Orange zest

Grease a round cake pan with oil and line a baking sheet.

Sieve the flours with baking powder and baking soda and keep aside.

Mix the flaxseed powder in  three tablespoons of warm water and keep aside.

In a pan, heat the dry fruits,sugar,honey,water in low flame until the sugar gets dissolves, then put the flame in high and bring it to boil.

Put the flame again in low and cook for half an hour,so that the dry fruits will gets well cooked, put off the stove and add the 1/2tsp of baking soda,mix it and keep it aside.

Preheat the oven to 300F.

In a bowl, take together the avocado puree,oil,flaxseed mixture,vanilla essence and spice powders and mix, now add the cooked fruit mixture,orange zest and nuts,mix everything well.

Add the flours to this mixture and mix gently with a spatula.

Transfer this cake batter to the already prepared cake pan and bake cake for an hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Let the cake gets cool completely .

Dust with confectioner's sugar and enjoy.

Thank you so much Priya for sharing this recipe with us, God bless you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family.

Strawberry Swirl Cake

Christmas is just around the corner, I'm so excited about it. I'm planning for a small celebration with my family and as another step to Christmas I baked a wonderful and delicious cake, Strawberry Swirl Cake. I don't want to go on blabbering here let me take you to the recipe;

Ingredients:

1 cup of all purpose flour

1/2 cup of castor sugar

1/2 cup of soft butter

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of rose essence

1/4 cup of evaporated milk

1/4 cup of strawberry filling

2 drops of red coloring (optional)

2 large eggs

In a mixing bowl, whisk egg, sugar and butter until fluffy. Now add in rose essence, red coloring and evaporated milk. Now add baking soda, baking powder and all purpose flour and mix until everything are well incorporated. 

Pour the mixture in a baking tray depending on your preference and finally add the strawberry filling on top of the cake mixture, using a stick swirl the filling in the cake mixture to get a perfect swirl once baked. Then bake the cake at 150 degrees for 40 minutes.

Once the cake is perfectly baked let it cool before  you unmould the cake and cut into slices. Now our Strawberry Swirl Cake is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Christmas Cake

I love Christmas my whole life, for me the best festival in the world would be Christmas. Fun filled, joyous and full of love is how I would describe this festival. Even though I don't celebrate Christmas but the month December always bring lots of excitement and joy for me, be it the movies aired on television, the cakes and cookies, decorations and gifts.

This year I have planned to make a Christmas cake for celebration at home so my mixed dried fruits  have been soaking in brandy for the past 3 days, I know usually minimum 6 weeks is needed to get the best out of soaking this dried fruits. But since this is the first time I'm making this cake so I don't have that much of patience to wait for 6 weeks.

Okay now let's check how I made this cake;

Ingredients:

500g of dried fruit (assorted)

2 cups of plain flour

1 cup of fresh orange juice

1 cup of soft brown sugar

3 tbsp of treacle/ honey

1 tbsp of orange zest

1 tsp of nutmeg powder

1 tsp of cinnamon powder

1 tsp of mixed spice powder

1 tsp of baking soda

1/2 cup of brandy

150 g of butter

A pinch of salt

2 eggs

Boil dried fruits, butter, brown sugar, orange juice, treacle, salt on a low flame until it bubbles, 

then add baking soda at this moment more smaller bubbles will be formed, 

turn off the flame and let it completely cool

In another bowl, sift plain flour, nutmeg powder, mixed spice powder, cinnamon powder and keep aside.

Once the fruit mixture completely cool, add eggs and mix, finally add the dry ingredients to this mixture and fold in  orange zest well, no need to whisk or beat for very long. 

Grease a baking tray and pour in the cake mixture and bake at 150 degrees for 30-45 minutes depending on your own oven. Once baked let the cake completely cool, leave in refrigerator for at least 2 days before cutting and serving the cake.

But I couldn't wait for another 3 days to post this picture so had to cut a small piece out to show to you. For the best taste and moist you can apply brandy on the top layer of the cake for 3 days.

Now our Christmas Cake is ready to be served. Do try and let me know it was!

Orange Butter Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour

1/2 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice

1 cup of castor sugar

1/4 cup of chocolate chips

1 cup of good quality butter

2 tbsp of orange zest

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of baking soda

1 large egg

In a mixing bowl whisk sugar and butter until fluffy then add egg and vanilla essence. Now add orange juice, orange zest, baking soda, baking flour and finally flour then mix everything well. Grease a baking tray and pour the cake batter and  add chocolate chips on top of it. Bake cake at 150-170 degree for 30- 45 minutes depending on your oven's requirement. Mine calls for 150 degree baked for 30 minutes.

Once cake baked let it cool for at least one hour then unmould and cut and serve the cake. Your whole house will smell fabulous with the cake baking in the oven.

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Orange Flavored Chocolate Moist Cake

I have been planning to bake a cake for my colleagues today as I couldn't bring any of Diwali cookies, not because I don't want t share with them but I had only empty containers. We had given out cookies for relatives and neighbors who came to visit us. So for my colleagues I have baked an Orange flavored Chocolate Moist Cake, this is a very moist cake and it just melts in your mouth.

I have got this recipe from sis Love2Cook's blog, actually I planned to bake moist chocolate cake but while mixing the batter I saw Oranges in my fridge I thought of adding it to my cake, Orange and chocolate is a very good combo to go together. Now let us take a look at how to bake this cake;

Ingredients:

100 g of all purpose flour

50 g of dark cocoa powder

200 ml evaporated milk

50 ml of freshly squeezed orange juice

180 g of granulated sugar (I have used brown sugar)

1 tbsp of orange zest

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of baking soda

180 g of butter

2 eggs

In a bowl sift all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder and set aside.

In another bowl, whisk butter and sugar until fluffy then add egg one by one and mix everything well. Then add vanilla extract, orange juice, evaporated milk and orange zest, mix everything thoroughly.

Finally add the dry ingredients that have been sifted little by little and mix well without any lumps. Grease a baking pan and pour the cake mixture into the pan and bake at 170 degrees for 45 minutes  (My oven calls for 150 degrees 30 minutes only).

Once baked cool the cake completely before applying any toppings to the cake. 

For Chocolate Ganache topping:

100 g of cooking chocolate
5o ml condensed milk

2 tbsp of butter

Double boil the cooking chocolate once melted add the butter for a glossy shine.

Egg-less Strawberry Yogurt Custard Cake

I was planning to bake a cake, but I don't know what cake to bake, so I went roaming into my kitchen to see what are the ingredients I can use to bake this cake. I found a pack of custard powder unused for two weeks now, then I saw strawberry filling and strawberry flavored yogurt. I have never baked a custard cake before but I'm going to do it today.

This is a lovely cake, very simple and easy to bake. Now let us see how I baked this;

Ingredients:

1 cup of wheat flour

1/2 cup of custard powder

1 cup of brown sugar

1/2cup of strawberry yogurt

1/2 cup of strawberry filling

1/2 cup of melted butter

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of baking soda

1/2 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 150 degree for 10 minutes.

In a mixing bowl, add in sugar and butter and mix together until sugar is almost dissolved. Then add in yogurt and custard powder, mix everything now add flour, baking soda and baking powder. 

When all the ingredients come together add in strawberry yogurt and filling, incorporate the mixture and finally add the milk little by little until you get the right consistency of a cake mixture. 

Pour the cake mixture in a cake pan and bake for 35-40 minutes at 150 degree or adjusting to your oven.

I have use ramekins to bake mine. Cool the cake before serving, you can serve with strawberry sauce or custard sauce depending on your preference.

Do try and let me know how it turned out. It tastes awesome and you just 

have to follow the exact measurement I have used for this cake.

Eggless Brandy Prune Cake

Lately I have been so tempted to bake cakes, today's cake I baked for our potluck party at office tomorrow, which have been requested by my best friend Hanan. He asked me to add Brandy to the cake, I have never tried baking any cake with rum or brandy before. So for that I have altered my previous Egg-less Prune Cake accordingly, click here for step by step pictorial.

Let's look at the recipe now;

Ingredients:

1 cup of mashed prune

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of canola oil

1 tsp allspice powder

1 tsp cinnamon powder

1 tsp nutmeg powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup of Brandy

A pinch of salt

1 cup of water (save water from prune boiling)

Sift flour, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg powder and baking soda, set aside. Add 1 tbsp of Brandy to mashed prune and let it marinate for 30 minutes.

In a mixing bowl, pour oil add sugar mix well then fold in the dry ingredients. Add vanilla extract and salt, now add the mashed prune mix well. Finally add in the water with balance 1 tbsp of Brandy mix well and pour the batter in baking pan and bake at 150 degree for 40 minutes. 

The temperature and baking time depends on the size of your baking pan and most importantly your oven, I have used 8 inches baking pan. Revert the cake on a cooling rack and cut into desired size an d now our Egg-less Brandy prune Cake is ready to be served.

Do try this recipe and let me know if you like it.

Eggless Prune Cake

I love prune so much, I still remember of my schooling days when mom buys prune, I will be the first person to open the package and eat it. Even before others realize mom bought prunes, I would have finished quarter of its content. I'm a notty girl....

I had a box of pitted prunes unopened from last week and wanted to try something new, prune cake would be the best dish to try. Today the moment I woke up, I began searching for the recipe and found Ree Drummond's blog The Pioneer Woman Cooks. OMG, I just love what I saw there, she shared her great grandmother Iny's Prune Cake recipe.

Ree, I'm very sorry for making some alterations to your recipe, as I made changes according to my family's taste.  I baked an eggless Prune Cake, but all the credit goes to you and not forgetting your great grandmother Iny. My husband loves the cake and asked me to bake this cake again soon.

We just love the taste of the spices added in this cake and not forgetting the prune.Thank you so much for sharing it with everyone, Ree. For those of you whose looking for the original recipe from Ree please click here. Okay without wasting anymore time let us look at how I have baked Ree's Great Grandma Iny's Prune Cake.

Ingredients:

1 cup of prunes
1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup of canola oil
11/2 cup of flour*
1 tsp baking soda*
1 tsp nutmeg powder*
1 tsp allspice powder*
1 tsp cinnamon powder*
1 cup of prune flavored yogurt
1 cup of hot boiling water
1 tsp vanilla essence

Boil the prunes for about 10 minutes to soften the prunes

for easy mashing moment

Drain the water and mash the cooked prunes with a fork, you don't have to 

mash everything too smooth, do leave some chunks for better texture

In a separate mixing bowl pour oil, sugar and mix well, you don't have to use a mixer to incorporate this cake mixture, using wooden spatula is sufficient. The recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar but I have reduced to half a cup because the prune is sweet and I have added flavored yogurt.

Then sift all the dry ingredients marked * and stir into the sugar and oil mixture

Add mashed prune, prune flavored yogurt and hot boiling water to the cake mixture,
Ree have used buttermilk but I substituted with yogurt and water.

Pour the cake mixture in a 8' buttered cake pan and bake at 150- 170 degree for 30-40 minutes depending on your own oven. Mine I baked at 150 degree for 35 minutes

Our Egg-less Prune Cake is now cooling and can be served once you remove it 

from the mould. Ree  iced the cake with icing which I didn't do as this cake 

is so delicious and so nice to eat even without the icing.