Thursday, September 25, 2014

Eggless condensed milk cake | Eggless sponge cake



PS: I am a beginner in frosting the cake, so please bear with me until I perfect the art.

It's raining cakes & cupcakes at my home. I baked 2 large cakes and about 45 cupcakes for my son's and hubby's birthday. Both their birthdays are in the same week. It was a baking fiesta for me at home.

I normally use the yogurt/curd recipe to make the eggless vanilla sponge cake, but this time thought of making it rich using condensed milk and butter. I prefer this over the yogurt one. I have made it many number of times and it is always a hit at home :)


This is a basic sponge cake. You could frost it however you want or have it as is. I have tweaked the recipe a little as I did not have orange juice at home.

Preparation Time: 5 mins
Baking Time: 35-45 mins
Recipe Source: My Diverse Kitchen


Ingredients: This cake yields about 16 pieces (I made it in 9" round tin)
Dry ingredients:
AP flour/Maida: 2.5 cups
Baking Powder: 2 tsp
Baking soda: 1 tsp
Salt: A pinch

Wet ingredients:
Sweetened Condensed milk: 14 ounce can or about 400gms
Butter: 3/4 cup or 1 & 1/2 sticks
Water: 1 cup
Vinegar: 1 tbsp
Vanilla Extract: 2 tsp



Method: 
Preheat the oven to 350F or 180C.
Grease the baking tray using a non stick baking spray.
Sieve all the ingredients mentioned under the dry ingredients section.
Melt the butter.

To the melted butter, add the condensed milk, water, vinegar and vanilla extract.

Mix gently and keep them aside.
Scoop the dry ingredients to a mixing bowl & mix them gently. Make a well in the center of the flour.
Pour the mixed liquid over the flour & mix. Use a whisk or a spatula to mix them. Do not whisk. Just mix them gently.

Once both the ingredients are mixed well, pour the batter to the greased baking tray. Little lumps here and there is okay.

Tap the tray and bake the cake for about 35-45 mins. Mine got done in about 42 mins.
Remove the cake from the oven & allow to cool for 10-15 mins on a cooling rack.

After 15 mins, run the knife on the edges of the cake & flip the baking pan over the cooling rack.
Tap the bottom of the pan gently and remove the baking pan. The cake will slide off easily.

Allow the cake to cool for a minimum of 1 hour before slicing them.
To frost the cake, you need to cool the cake for couple of hours.


I frosted the cake with the left over chocolate butter cream icing and sprinkled some powdered sugar. I decorated it with some chocolate chips and the cake is ready.

Notes: 
  • Baking time of the cake depends on the kind of baking pan/tray used. If you use dark colored pan like the one shown above, the baking time will be more. If using a aluminium foil or thin aluminium tray, the baking time will be less. So, keep a close eye on the cake after 25-30 mins. 
  • To check if the cake is baked or not, insert a toothpick to the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, your cake is done.
  • You could use Nestle's Milkmaid to make this cake. 
  • I will give the chocolate frosting recipe in my coming posts. Stay tuned!

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Ribbon Pakoda | Ribbon Murukku | Indian deep fried snack: Gokulastami Recipes


Are you wondering why I am posting a Gokulastami recipe now, when the festival was over about a month ago. Hold on.., for few of us... the festival is not over yet. We are celebrating the Gokulastami (Krishna Janmastami) on the coming Monday (15th September 2014).

I noted down the ribbon pakoda recipe during my visit to India. When I searched the internet, I found many recipes for ribbon pakoda. Each of them was different. Hence, I went ahead with what I had noted down. It came out very crisp.



Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: About 30 mins

Ingredients:
Rice flour | Akki hittu: 1 cup
Gram flour | Kadale hittu: 1/2 cup
Butter: 1.5 tbsp, melted or softened
Salt: As needed
Asafoetida | Hing: a pinch
Pepper powder: 1 tsp
Water: As needed

Other ingredients:
Oil: For deep frying



Method:
Add the rice flour, gram flour, salt, asafoetida, pepper powder to a mixing bowl.Add the softened butter.

Mix well. The flours should get coated with the butter.
Add water little at a time to the flour mixture and make soft, non sticky dough. The dough should be smooth but non sticky.

Heat the oil in a wok for deep frying.
Grease the murukku maker. Use the ribbon pakoda plate. Add the dough to the murukku maker.

When oil is hot, press the ribbon murukku directly on to the oil. Cook it on a medium high heat until it turns golden brown.

Flip the pakoda & cook on both sides.
Drain the ribbon pakoda on a paper towel. Repeat pressing the pakoda & frying until the dough is over.

Cool the pakoda & save it in a air tight container. Can be stored for about 10 days.



Notes:

  • As soon as the murukku is dropped in oil, the oil makes a "shh" sound and you see lots of bubbles in the oil. As the murukku gets cooked, the sound reduces to zero & the oil becomes clear.
  • You could use about 2 tbsp of hot oil instead of butter to make a vegan version.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Red Chutney for Mysore Masala Dosa | Fiery hot garlic chutney


The specialty of the Mysore Masala Dosa is the spicy red chutney that is smeared on the hot dosa. I have got many requests for the red chutney recipe. This time when I visited India, I got many versions from my relatives. Here is one of the versions I tried & loved it to bits!

PS: My red chutney doesn't look exceptionally red, because I did not have the less spicy version of the red chili (Kashmiri Chili or Byadagi Chili: These add a rich color to the chutney keeping it less spicy).

The Mysore masala dosa recipe can be found here.
The potato curry | aloo sabzi | palya recipe is here.

Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking Time: Nil


Ingredients: (Yields about a cup of chutney)
Roasted Gram dal | Putani | Daliya: 2 tbsp
Garlic: 3-4 lobes, refer notes
Onion: About 1/4 cup, diced
Red chili: 4 nos of spicy variety (Guntur Chili) & 4 nos of Kashmiri Chili
Tamarind : marble sized
Oil: 1/4 tsp
Salt: As needed



Method: 
Soak the red chilies and tamarind in warm water. Use about 1/4 cup of water. Let it soak for about 20-30 mins.

Heat oil in a wok. When oil is hot, throw in the diced onions. Saute the onions until they become translucent. This should not take more then 2-3 mins. 

Scoop out the sauteed onions. 
Add the soaked chilies, tamarind, garlic, sauteed onions, salt to the blender jar or food processor. Add the red chili soaked water & make a smooth and thick paste out of it. 
Scoop out the paste & chutney is ready. You could store this in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. 



Notes:
  • If you are using Indian garlic, use about 7-8 lobes, as Indian garlic is comparatively smaller in size. 
  • If the onion is non pungent, you could skip roasting the onion & use them raw. I generally use them raw in India while roast them here in US. I feel the onions are more pungent here. Pungent onions make the chutney bitter. 

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