Left with Cake scraps? Or, as in my case, leftover tea cake from the market that noone wanted? :$
Cake gets a makeover for a post school treat 😀 …. There you go – Chocolate pops!
Chocolate Pops
Take a plain cake
Powder it with your hand
Pour warm melted chocolate*
Mix it well
Refrigerate till hard
Take it out and make balls
Roll it around pop stick or ice-cream stick and roll it in sprinkles…
*Place a bowl with chocolate over a bowl of simmering hot water till the chocolate melts or else heat fresh cream and toss in, chocolate into it, mix till its melts completely
Kids simply love this one! You can even try them to make the balls and roll it in sprinkles for you!
This one will take some amount of practice before you a perfect roll. I recently tried my hand at it; though not too happy but not disappointed. Taste was perfect. Just that I didn’t get a smooth and crack free roll 🙂  …But by second time around you get a hang of it
All purpose flour / Refined flour – 90 gms
Baking powder – 1 and 1/2 tsp
Cornflour – 1 Tbsp
Eggs – 4 nos (separated)
Sugar powder – 160 gms
Vanilla Essence – 1 and 1/2 tsp
Sieve the flour, baking powder and cornflour and keep aside
To yolk add sugar powder, vanilla essence, 1 tsp of water and beat till you get a creamy in color
Beat egg whites till stiff and dry
Add the sifted flour and beaten egg white into the yolk mixture slowly in batches and mix gently with a spatula
Pour into greased 25 x 38cm swiss roll tin with a butter paper. SPread it evenly
Bake it immediately in a pre heated over at 180 degree C for 20-25 minutes
Take it out and upturn it immediately on a greased butter paper (you can add castor sugar on the butter paper also)
Remove the tin and the butter paper lining
Put another butter paper on top of the upturned cake and roll it immediately. Rolling needs to be done while the cake is hot
Keep the cake aside  and prepare your filling / icing
You can use anything for your icing – fresh cream, melted chocolates. jam, cherries, whipped cream etc etc. What I did was : Whipped butter with icing sugar and added melted chocolate to it. I coated the swiss roll with this in and out which also helped me hide the flaws 😉
* you can make chocolate swiss roll by adding 2 Tbsp cocoa powder to the flour / brandy swiss roll by adding 1 -2 Tbsp brandy to the yolk mixture
I had dessicated coconut lying in freezer for sometime. Since non of us are too much in barfi kinda sweets; I didn’t know what to do with it till an idea flashed … we love cakes..so why not a coconut cake! and Voila was it delicious!? Nah, my 1 year old was not the only taster but many other friends who passed that verdict :D. Do try it!!
Unsweetened Desiccated Coconut – 1 and 1/2 cups
Unsalted Butter – 1 cup (softened)
All-Purpose Flour (Maida) –Â 2 cups
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp
Castor Sugar – 2 cups
Whole Milk – 1 cup
Salt – 1/4 tsp
Eggs – 3 nos
Preheat the oven to 185 degree C
Prepare the tin for baking (grease and flour method OR grease-butter paper-grease method). Keep aside
Combine flour, baking powder and salt
Beat butter with mixer
Gradually beat in sugar on medium speed till creamy
Add vanilla essence to it, keep stirring
Beat in eggs, 1 at a time
Alternately beat in flour mixture and milk in 3 batches over low speed
Raise the speed to medium and beat batter 1-1/2 minutes till soft
Now fold in coconut with a spatula
Tip in the mixture into the greased mould
Bake for about 40 minutes at the temp of 185 degree C and another 10 minutes at 200 degree C (till a toothpick comes out clean)
Cool cake on a rack
Dust it with dessicated coconut
Serve
*All ovens vary so use your judgment pertaining to temperature !
Starting the first blog of 2012 on a sweet note… Oh well, I need not say anything about this cake except warn you – it is so damn yummy that you might finish it in one sitting especially if your friends and family is around.. Very simple and easy Carrot cake recipe just for you :))
To get the best result, it is highly advisable to use baking measurements – cups, spoons, scale etc
Prepare the tin for baking (grease and flour method OR grease-butter paper-grease method). Keep aside
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl
Add carrots and oil and mix well with hands or a spatula
Add eggs and blend it using an electric mixer. Start at a low speed and when blended, turn to high speed for about 2 minutes
Pre-heat the oven at 180 degree C for 10 minutes
Tip in the cake dough into the prepared tin
Bake it for about 1 hour at 180 degree C
Remove on a wire rack and let it cool
Once cool, dust with icing sugar
Serve
*I use the grease-butter paper-grease method for cake tin
** If after 45 minutes you feel the cake is way away from done. Then increase the temperature to 200 degree C for the last 15 minutes. All ovens vary so use your judgment 🙂
*** add 1/2 to 3/4 cups of chopped walnuts and you have Walnut Carrot Cake 🙂
wishing you all a sweet and delicious New year! Binge on! 🙂
This one is for my friends Akhila and Adheeth….Akhila finally I get to posting the recipe! Adheeth…its quite a simple cake recipe you can use! I will be posting more in the time to come 🙂
Ripe Bananas – 3 nos
Castor Sugar – 3/4 cup
Refined Flour (Maida) – 185 gms
Baking Soda – 3/4 tsp
Baking Powder – 3/4 tsp
Eggs – 2 nos
Olive Oil – 3 Tbsp
Milk – 1/4 cup (roughly 60 ml)
Dark Chocolate – 100 gms
Lightly beat eggs and keep aside
Grate Chocolate and set aside in the fridge
Prepare the baking dish – Grease, line butter paper and re-grease
Sift the flour with baking soda and baking powder once
Mash bananas nicely and combine with sugar
To the sifter flour add eggs, olive oil and milk and gently mic with a wooden spatula/spoon
Preheat the oven at 180 degree C
Fold in the grated chocolate
Pour into the baking dish
Bake for about 50 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean
Cool the cake on a rack before slicing
Serve warm or cold
* I had punctured few holes in the prepared cake while cooling it off and poured some chocolate sauce over it to get a marbled effect
** you can add walnuts to it after adding chocolate for a walnut chocolate banana cake!
*** I have used both baking powder and soda since chocolate is being used for this cake recipe
I made this cake for my husband’s birthday an year back and everybody had good good things to say 🙂
Chocolate sponge cake
Tinned canned cherries and syrup – ½ portion
Fresh whipped cream – 1 cup
Powdered sugar – 3 tbsp
Vanilla essence – 1/2 tsp
Grated dark or plain chocolate
Beat the cream over a tray of ice cubes with a hand beater. Do not over beat. It should form soft peaks. Fold in the sugar and vanilla essence. Mix gently.
Put some icing in a icing cone leave the rest in the bowl. Refrigerate both
Slice the cake into two halves.
Fill cherry syrup in a sprayer and spray evenly on each half. Allow to soak for 10 minutes
Spread the cream icing on lower half and cover it nicely
Place the cherries on the cream and place the other half of the cake on top
Sieve together – refined flour, baking powder and corn flour
Separate egg whites and yolks
Beat egg whites till stiff and dry (it should form firm peaks)
To the yolk add sugar powder, brandy and vanilla essence and 1 tsp of water. Beat till you get an off white mixture
To the yolk mixture add 1 tbsp each of egg white mixture and refined flour mixture and slowly and gently mix in cut and fold method. Keep repeating till everything has been incorporated
Pour this into a greased tray (greased, lined with butter paper and re greased)
Spread the mixture evenly
Bake it immediately in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 20 minutes*
*time varies from oven to oven. So check with a toothpick in about 15 minutes. If it comes out clean then your cake is done
* for a chocolate sponge cake add 20 gms of cocoa, ¾ tsp baking soda and ¾ tsp of baking powder to 65 gms maida
Tried this out yesterday after watching it made on one of the cookery show on TV albeit I made few changes of my own…. in the original recipe salt was added; however I though it wasn’t required since I was using salted butter. Also I added vanilla coz me thinks where there is egg add few drops of vanilla. I intentionally left out cinnamon powder since my husband kinda doesnt like it…hmmm whatelse did I change! Oh yeh I added ingredients going by my instinct not quite following the order that was suggested…. but the result was still good 🙂
All purpose flour (maida) – 160 gms
Butter -125 gm
Sugar – 150 gms
Apples – 100 gms (peeled and diced)
Oatmeal – 40 gms
Eggs – 2 nos
Vanilla essence – 2-3 drops
Baking powder – 2 tsp
Thanks Chitra for the easy chocolate cake recipe 🙂
All purpose flour (Maida) – 1 cup (heaped)
Sugar – 3/4th cup
Refined Sunflower oil – 3/4th cup
Baking powder – ¾ tsp
Cocoa Powder – 1/4th cup
Vanilla essence- ½ tsp
Eggs – 4 nos
For Icing:Â Chitra used the ready-made Pillsbury chocolate icing on this cake. To make your own home made icing you can use the following. Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, add fresh cream to it. Initially it will become a bit hard, but keep adding the cream and stir well, till pouring consistency is reached.
Whip the eggs and sugar together in a blender, till the sugar dissolves completely, and the consistency is slightly creamy
Then add the vanilla essence and refined oil to the egg sugar mixture, whip again thoroughly
In the meantime, sieve together the maida, cocoa powder, and baking powder
Grease a baking dish and lightly dust with maida
Gently add the whipped mixture to the flour mixture, stirring continuously, beating the mixture till air bubbles are visible on the top.
Gently pour the mixture into the greased tin and bake in pre heated oven at 180 degrees for 45 minutes.
Check with a knife to see if done, cool.
Cut the cake into two equal halves, (use a thread to get a clean cut)
Slather the icing onto both the halves, join them again
Cover the cake with the icing, place in the fridge to cool and the icing to set
Later you can dust the cake with icing sugar, using a sieve, (can use any stencil too, to create patterns)
*for a healthier version, replace all purpose flour with wheat flour. The cake will be browner but tastes equally good.
Chitra Gupta is a homemaker and a mother of two lovely kids. She believes in making food interesting and enticing through lots of experimenting. She ensures her family has healthy food through the week. However, some days she believes in some sinful indulgence too!
Picnics, parties, school lunch break and any time snack; muffins are an all time favorite for most of us! Plain sponge, coffee, chocolate there are so many way one can bake muffins! This one is with Chocolate and Walnut. The last recipe for the walnut week. That definitely doesn’t mean no more walnuts! If I come across an interesting recipe, would definitely share!
Akshayapatram 