Celebration Chocolate Cake for New year 2011!

Chocolate cake is my fav so love to try different versions of it, though this moist chocolate cake is always my fav and only now I have perfected it after so many tries.

This chocolate cake with eggs is the recipe I saw from Nithis space and bookmarked it. Having confirming it with her twice(becos most of my choc cake attempts fail for the first time), I baked it for my friends before leaving Chennai. This cake is a keeper as this is the first time I am getting a perfect chocolate cake in my first try...I gave her link to my sisinlaw, she too tried it and gave me good feedback. So to me this is sure a no fail recipe and as her caption says it is perfect chocolate cake.

The first time I remember calling Nithya was to ask about the muffin pans and never felt I am talking to her for the first time. I've always admired her presentation skills the area I struggle so much. And I'm glad to have known such a creative and friendly person.The strain she takes for every post OMG I can never imagine to go that extra mile anytime. Kudos to you Nithi!

Ingredients:

• Maida - 1 and 3/4 cups (250 gms)
• Eggs - 2
• Milk - 1 cup (250 ml)
• Cooking Oil - 1/2 cup (125 ml)
• Boiling water - 1 cup (250 ml)
• Powdered sugar - 1 and 1/2 cups (250 gms)
• Cocoa powder - 3/4 cup (100 gms)
• Baking powder - 1.5 tsp
• Baking soda - 1.5 tsp
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla essence - 2 tsp

Method:

1. In a bowl, sift together maida, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder atleast twice to ensure even spreading.



2. In a seperate bowl,Beat eggs till fluffy, add milk, oil, boiling water and vanilla essence and beat well using a whipper or electric mixer.



3. Now add the maida cocoa mixture in parts to the egg milk mixture and mix well making sure no lumps are formed. The batter is little runny.



4. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and flour the baking pan and pour the batter and bake it at 180°C for 30-35mins. Check if a fork inserted comes out clean, then your cake is done.



5. Cool on wire rack for 15 mins and then slice it into pieces. The cake is ready to have it as such or frost it.

My Notes:

• I dont prefer frosting so made frosting just for a piece of cake alone with 1 tbsp butter, 1 tsp cocoa powder and 2 tsp sugar.



• This cake measurement is actually for a layer cake type with 2 cake pans but since I wanted it plain and small I measured with a small cup accordingly. So if you are planning to use 200gms as 1 cup then you may need 2 cake pans.



• The batter is runny but after getting baked its perfect. The cake was very soft and did raise well.

The texture and softness of this cake is simply stunning that you cant stop with one piece. And I am sure this would be close to the bakery ones if made layers and frosted. Have in mind to give it a try but dono when?!

New year is fast approaching and it seems to me like 2010 went so fast. I pray for good health and prosperity for all in the coming year too.

Wishing you all a very happy new year 2011 !!

Tutti Frutti Cake

I should say this is the best softest cake I've ever baked...Thanks to Parita for such a wonderful recipe for sure its a keeper. I've adjusted the recipe a little bit with the quantity of eggs and butter. By now I have tried/experimented the cake 3-4 times and this is the only cake that withstood all my experiments ;) Because when baking the same cakes with same procedure which had turned out perfect the last time, I have flopped the cake. I feel the batter consistency is the most impt, for this reason I used to think, to take stepwise for baking atleast but laziness wins me :) But I have tried my best to explain it in detail for beginners like me.

This one so far all the times it came out perfect....*touchwood* it has got me so many credits and appreciations from my neighbours and family esp my hubby. I am planning to get it baked and take it to my office collegues as I am confident with this cake.

By now I have started experimenting using flax powder as egg replacer, and it works out perfect each time. Only thing is that I am able to find out even the very mild smell it leaves out, but trust me only I could identify it and I was surprised to see everyone else enjoying every bite.

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour/Maida - 2 cups (300 gms)
• Granulated Sugar - 1 and 1/4 cups (300 gms)
• Tutti Fruitti - 1/2 cup
• Unsalted butter - 2 tbsp
• Milk - 3/4 cup (200 ml)
• Egg - 1 at room temperature
• Flax seed powder - 1 tbsp [I used one egg and flax powder as another egg replacer. Flax seed powder substitute for 1 egg - Mix 1tbsp with 3 tbsp of water leave it for 3mins till a sticky mixture is formed. ]
• Baking powder - 2 tsp
• Baking soda - 1 tsp
• Vanilla essence - 3 tsp
• Cashews - 2 tsp [just to sprinkle on top]

NOTE :

• If you dont have flax seed powder just substitute egg with it. So totally 2 eggs for this cake if you are not using flax seed powder.

Method:

1. Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda twice atleast and keep aside.



2. Combine butter and sugar until creamy, it may take around 2 to 3 mins. If you are using 2 eggs add one egg at a time and beat well. If you are using flax powder water mixture just strain it and add it to the butter sugar egg mixture.



3. Add in vanilla essence and mix well. Now add in the milk beat well till all is combined.Next add the flour, baking powder, soda mixture.



4. Finally fold in tutti frutti's , mix gently, do not overmix. Pour the batter in the pan and pat it on floor to ensure the batter is even on all sides of the loaf.



5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a loaf/cake pan. Bake for 35-40 mins until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven, cool completely and then slice.

The soft cakes with the tutti frutti in each bite hmm it was heavenly.

My Notes :

• The batter is lil watery and running close to dosa batter dont panic like me :) it would be perfect after baked.



• I have tried it with one egg(with no flax seed powder replacement) too and it worked fine....It was super soft like the one I got in the pics and tastewise no compromise at all. The only difference I found was it didnt raise as the one with 2 eggs, tastewise texturewise no difference at all.



• If you are adding flax powder after mixing it with water - while adding it to the cake filter it using a strainer else the brown color would spread all over the cake.This is also done to avoid the domination of flax seed powder flavour to the cake.



• Check after 30 mins because mine got baked in 35mins. Do not overbake, it may harden the cake the next day.



• Make sure you select a cake pan/tin which holds only till half level of the batter else the center part will take more time to bake.

I have loads of tasks to complete this weekend, writing the todo itself took me more time hope I complete half of it as I planned. Happy weekend and have a achieving week ahead!

Basic Vanilla Sponge Cake for a celebration!

Hurray! A new cocoon for sharmispassions....Yes from blogspot, sharmispassions has moved to its own domain www.sharmispassions.com...It almost took 2 weeks for me to get convinced to go ahead with this name for .com....becos reading more about SEO (Search Engine Optimisaiton) confused me to opt for a change....I was with around 20 names to shortlist....but then finally I felt this name was my identity in this blog world and wanted it to remain the same :) so went ahead with it! This is the final post with 'blogspot' watermark :)

It was my long time thought to move to my own domain but something or the other took more priorities that stopped me from doing it.But I was particular not to delay further and this should happen in June as its a special month for me....yes my lil one is nearing her 1st bday on June 19th.... its even more special as she was born on my fathers bday....What more blessing can I ask out of life?!

And finally here I am with my dream come true :) Thanks to all my friends and readers for all ur encouragement and support....wishing for the same in future too!! Waiting to hear ur feedback or suggestions. The transition and redirections are not completely over....its in process but that doesnt affect anything on the front end...But do let me know if you have any problems!

Its celebration time with this yummy vanilla sponge cake....this is hubby's favorite. To be true I made this for his bday and it was lying in drafts for a long time....dusted it out for this celebration :) Okay now going on to the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Maida or APF - 200 gms
• Butter - 200 gms (at room temperature)
• Eggs - 2
• Powdered Sugar - 200 gms
• Vanilla extract - 2 tsp
• Salt - one pinch (optional)
• Baking powder - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Sieve maida and baking powder twice and keep aside. This is for evenly mixing of baking powder with the flour.



2. Beat the eggs till soft and fluffy with a blender or mixer. The egg should be almost doubled in size showing the frothy texture on top.I blended using the normal mixer till fluffy.



3. Next, lightly beat butter and sugar together till nicely blended [The butter should be at room temperature before mixing it with sugar] Add the beaten eggs to this.



4. Mix the egg butter sugar mixture well, add vanilla essence and mix well. Now add salt and mix well again.



5. Gently add the flour little by little(may be in 2-3 parts) stirring continuously. Make sure no lumps are formed. I started first with a spatula but ended up with my hands for mixing :)



6. Preheat the oven at 180 deg C for 10 mins. Meanwhile transfer the batter to a greased tray and bake it for 30-35 mins.

Needless to say the aroma and taste. The cake comes out so soft and moist!! This is the only piece of cake I could reserve to click and test for the next day :)