Cake Lollipops / Cake Pops (My Way) - Happy Friendship Day!!

Cake pops are balls made out of crumbled cakes , coated with candy melts / chocolate on the outside pricked in a lollipop stick. Ever since I saw the site bakerella......making cakepops were a dream to me. Last week the bug bit me hard that I wanted to try it right away....I know we dont get candy melts here, I didnt even have the lollipop sticks or the cooking chocolate. So let me admit, this is a fool proof method for making cake pops but sure a delicious lollipop :) Now before my cake pops story let me wish all my readers and friends a very happy friendship day!!

Friendship day was at its best during college days.....No enough space in the wrist for even bangles.....so much of friendship bands, wishes,cards, gifts and what not?! After I entered into the corporate world, friendship day was just another day except for the wishes through phone calls.....to close friends.

Its been years I've flipped through the greeting cards that I had received. I felt nostalgic while dusting down the bags for taking the cards and bands for this post. It just took me a while to those days.....a short rewind I would say! Will that not be nice if we have a rewind button in life?! :)

Now coming back to cake pops : I discussed the idea of making it with my friend who owns a sweet cum bakery shop.....he gave me few tips and suggested to use cooking chocolate...I tried in Nilgiris(the only store I get all my baking items in CBE) but no luck :( But the cashewnut me ;) went ahead with milky bar even after his warning. I made the cake balls as per the instructions, melted the chocolate and dipped the cake balls...then came the disaster the cake balls stuck to it and started crumbling :( Hearing me a bit upset, my friend even said he will courier the cooking chocolate...But being a working mother getting only weekends for the luxury of clicking and making ready for special posts like this......I coudnt accept his offer. Special thanks to him for encouraging me to try again even after this flop. I will surely try the cakepops, the orginal way and post it here :)

Then came the idea of making the cake pops my way!! And all smiles there I went and made the cake pops with the remaining cake balls and clicked it too :) I made a simple frosting and drizzled few edible color beads on the already made cake balls. I used the toothpicks to make it like a lollipop and here is the cakepops in my very own way!! This is the first time I am trying to frost using a nozzle....and was pretty excited to do it.

As a food blogger I always have had the thought of using mittu for my pics but as a mother its a big NO :) But this time I took few pics with her and I should say she cooperated so well as she was keen on admiring the cake pops and I utilised it completely :)

Cake Lollipops / Cake Pops Recipe:

This makes 4 cake pops

Ingredients :

For the cake balls :

• Chocolate cake - 1 piece
• Butter - 2 tbsp
• Icing Sugar - 3 tsp

For the frosting:

• Butter - 2 tbsp
• Icing Sugar - 3 tsp
• Food color - a drop (I used pink)
• Edible Color beads - 1 tsp

Method:

1. First crumble the cake, keep aside. Mix butter and icing sugar and beat well until fluffy. Add the butter sugar mixture to the crumbled cake and mix well. Gather to form small balls. Refrigerate atleast for 2 hours.
2. Then for the frosting mix butter, sugar and food color. Beat well, fill them in piping cones with a star nozzle and pipe it on the refrigerated cake balls. Just drizzle colored beads. Your cake pops are ready!!

The actual method:

After the cake balls are ready refrigerated, melt the chocolate and dip one end of the stick into the melted chocolate, tap off the excess and insert into the rolled cake balls pricking a little less than half way. Again refrigerate it for 30mins to make it set. You cake pops are ready to be enjoyed!! :)

My Notes:

• The cake balls should be as firm as possible says bakerella so refrigerating atleast for an hour is surely recommended.
• Use cooking chocolate or candy melts for the outer layer.

Hope you all had a great sunday and a friendship day! See you soon with the next post, till then have a great week ahead!

Eggless Banana Muffins (Eggless Banana Nut Muffins)

I know many of you might get surprised when I say I dont like bananas in their true form. The only disguise of banana I can have is in the form of milkshakes but after trying these banana muffins I changed my mind :) I found the url while googling for banana muffins and I instantly tried it by halfing the measurements and it came out soo good.

Eggless Banana Muffins Recipe

Recipe Reference : Paajaka

Ingredients:

• Flour - 3/4 cup minus 1 tbsp (125 gms)
• Banana - 2 big sized (I used moris yellow variety like the ones in the pics)
• Oil - 1/4 cup (60 ml) - You can replace with butter too
• Granulated Sugar - 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp (65 gms)
• Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp (optional)
• Walnut finely chopped - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Sieve maida, baking soda and baking powder atleast twice, keep aside.
2. Peel the skin of the banana and mash them well (I grinded it to a smooth paste). Add oil, milk, vanilla essence and mix well. Fold in sugar and mix well until sugar completely dissolves.
3. Add sieved maida , baking powder and baking soda mixture and mix well until a creamy mixture is formed. Add the chopped walnuts, reserve little for topping.
4. Preaheat oven to 190 deg C. Meanwhile spoon the mixture in the muffin tray till 3/4th, , add in the remaining walnuts and bake it for 20-27mins. Check in after 25mins and bake accordingly.

My Notes:

• I have tried with the same measurement with 1/8 cup of oil and 1/8 cup of milk instead of full 1/4 cup oil and the muffins texture and tastewise there was no much of difference.
• You can use any type of banana, I used Moris yellow variety. Adjust sugar according to the banana variety you choose.
• The muffins raise up well in the first 15mins of baking itself. For the above mentioned measurement I got 5 medium sized muffins.
• It is very soft and fluffy and keeps well for 2 days.
• Dont skip adding nuts the crunchiness is too good with the banana flavour.

When I tried it for the first time the top was cracked, though I took these set of pics, I thought I have gone wrong somewhere so didnt mean to post it. Once when I saw banana muffins in a famous english bakery here the top was fully cracked, also after discussing with friends I made up mind that I had not gone wrong anywhere. And now me and hubby who are so aversed to banana enjoy these muffins to the core.

My hubby tasted these muffins and just loved it that he wanted another batch the next day itself :) Its kind of addictive the vanilla essence with the banana flavour tastes out of the world. Though vanilla essence is not given in the orginal recipe we liked the blend of flavours so I recommend adding it.

As usual my texture showing technique ;)

My only plight while baking muffins is the muffin liners as the ones I had were too small for the muffin tray I own so this time I didnt use liners at all. Now finally I've found one that fits my tray though not so colorful and fancy. Wait for my other muffin posts to see them in action :)

Eggless Mango Cake / Mango Loaf Bread

I wanted to utilise the mango season completely and no mango recipe collection is complete with a mango cake...Agree?! I have seen mango cakes, muffins and bread in so many blogs and when I wanted to try I went ahead searching for them. The one that suited my constraints(Yes I wanted a low fat version) was the mango banana bread from litebite. I am always amazed by her low fat baking goodies that I went ahead to try this with few modifications to suit my taste and it turned out super good.

Eggless Mango Cake (Mango Loaf Bread)

Recipe Source : Litebite.in



Ingredients:

• Maida - 1 cup (150 gms)
• White Rava(fine variety) - 1/2 cup (100 gms)
• Mango - 1 big sized
• Walnuts chopped - 2 tbsp
• Granulated Sugar - 3/4 cup (200 gms)
• Curd - 1/4 cup (60 ml)
• Olive oil - 2 tbsp
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Salt - a pinch
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Chop the mangoes and puree it without water to get a thick pulp. Keep aside.
2. Sift maida, baking soda, baking powder and salt atleast twice for even spread of baking powder and soda.Now add rava to the maida mixture, keep aside.
3. In a seperate bowl, add oil,yogurt, mango pulp, cardamom powder,sugar and mix well till sugar is completely dissolved.
4. Now add the curd mango mixture to rava maida mixture slowly and mix until a thick batter is formed. Add chopped walnuts and mix once. Reserve 1 tbsp of walnuts for topping.
5. Preheat the oven at 190 deg C for 10mins. Meanwhile grease the pan with little oil and sprinkle maida. Arrange butter paper if you use it(I use for most of the cake for easy unmoulding).
6. Transfer the batter to the cake pan. Top the cake batter with remaining chopped walnuts and bake it for 35-40mins at 190 degree C.In my OTG it took exactly 40mins for the mango bread to get baked.
7. The top would have turned to a golden brown color by this time. Check with a toothpick in the center of the cake and if it comes out clean then ur cake is done.Cool it for atleast 15mins before you unmould and slice them

I dont miss to use a butter paper these days as its mess free to unmould and cleaning the pan is also easy. For the tart mould I didnt even grease but still unmoulding was super easy.



My Notes:

• I used a bread loaf pan and 3 small tart moulds.You can use a normal cake pan but see to it that the pan is as big as to hold the batter only to 1/2 or slightly more than the pan .
• The baking time totally depends on the cake mould and the oven, usually my bread loaf pan takes a little longer so it took me 40mins. So keep an eye after 30mins and then extend baking time accordingly.
• The cake in the tart moulds were done in 20mins. Only the bread loaf pan took 40mins to complete.So if you are planning for muffins it will take just 20-30mins.
• Adding sooji gives a wonderful texture to the cake. Mango and cardamom combination is heavenly so dont skip it.
• The orginal recipe calls for only 1/2 cup sugar but I felt my mangoes were not that sweet so I used 3/4 cup and it was perfect.
• As the cake uses mango pulp, it keep well only for 2 days. Dont refrigerate the cake, as it would become hard.

Mango, curd and rava gives a wonderful texture to the cake/bread that the cake came out beyond my expectation that everyone loved it at home. The nutty crunch in every bite tasted out of the world...yummmy.

The mango bread looked so lovely that my camera didnt stop clicking at all :) The smell of the mango cake while it was baking was too gud that I cudnt move out of the kitchen. Usually I like cutting cakes into pieces and when it comes to slicing breads I just luv them and this cakes texture was just perfect to make slices. Trust me and go ahead to try this cake.

Making a blog post has become like one of my daily chores these days and I feel so much contented after making each new post and each comment I moderate justifies the hard work I put in for that post. Thank you readers :)

Eggless Custard Powder Snack Cake - Step by Step Recipe

I tried this cake long back and was totally impressed with it. This recipe is a winner as it withstood my experiment ;) Yes as usual I reduced the butter totally and the cake came out just awesome. Most of the time I make sure my baked goodies are low fat so that we dont feel the guilt of enjoying them but yeah there are exceptions always....:)

After my successful try with custard powder in biscuits I went ahead with this custard powder cake as I got very tempted seeing in many blogs. But when I saw it in Divyas blog I tried it the same day as I cudnt resist myself anymore.....:)

Eggless Custard Powder Snack Cake Recipe:

Recipe Reference : Divyas Cook Book

Ingredients:

• Maida / All Purpose flour - 1 and 1/2 cups (225 gms)
• Vanilla flavoured Custard Powder or Cornflour - 3/4 cup (100 gms)
• Baking powder - 1 1/4 tsp
• Granulated Sugar - 3/4 cup (200 gms)
• Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp (only if you are using cornflour else skip it)
• Butter - 2 tbsp
• Milk - 1 and 1/2 cups (375 ml)

First add milk in a bowl add butter mix well.Next add vanilla essence and mix again with a whisk.

Then add the sugar, mix till it completely dissolves. Alternatively you can powder the sugar and then add so that it dissolves quickly. Sieve maida, custard powder and baking powder then add them to the milk butter mixture. Sieving is always done to avoid any dust particles and also to ensure even spread of the baking powder.

Mix until a creamy batter shown below is formed. Then grease a baking pan(I used a 4X4 inch cake pan) with a butter paper and pour the batter into it. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C for 10mins and bake the cake for 35-40mins. Test by inserting a toothpick in the middle of the cake before you switch off.

Cool it completely for atleast 20mins then cut into pieces. I halved the orginal recipe and choose a smaller pan accordingly.

My Notes:

• As I wanted a low fat version I used demerara sugar so my cake was a little brown in color.You can use normal sugar too.
• Since my cake mould was a bit smaller , my cake was done in 40mins. But the orginal recipes says it might take 45mins and might extend upto an hour depending on the oven type and cake mould you use.
• I have reduced the butter totally and added more milk instead. The result was a very soft tasty cake.
• As the name says snack cake, the sweetness is slightly lower than the usual cakes. So you can increase the sugar to 1 cup if you prefer a sweeter cake.
• The top and bottom slightly browns up giving it a golden yellow in the middle.

I just topped up with some left over choco chips. It is a perfect snack time cake as the sweet is very mild making it ideal with a cup of coffee or tea. The cake was over the same day I baked it so I can promise you on the taste.

The custard flavour gives a very nice flavour to this cake.If you dont have custard powder just substitute it with cornflour and vanilla essence and it gives the same result. When I started trying out custard powder I disliked the taste but slowly started liking it and now have been trying many pudding combinations using it.

Eggless Choco Coffee Cake

I made this cake in Feb for our wedding anniversary but didnt post it as I reserved the post for Rajis (fondly called as Raks) birthday tomorrow :) as she loves coffee cake too. I kept up this surprise as I tend to spill the beans everytime I talk to her ;). Yes I cant keep secrets with friends even when surprises are called for...but finally did it for her :)

Happy Birthday dear Raji!!

Raji fondly called as Raks in the blog world never fails to amaze me everytime she posts a recipe. She is my best critic when it comes to food photography which has made me improve so much. My guru when it comes to DSLR doubts, we both have the same brand so discuss even the technical specifications of the camera.

So here is a virtual treat for your birthday , hope you enjoy it and have a great day tomorrow!

Ingredients:

• All Purpose flour - 2 cups (300 gms)
• Baking powder - 1 and 1/4 tsp
• Granulated Sugar - 1 cup (250 gms)
• Butter - 1 tbsp
• Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
• Condensed milk - 1 tbsp (optional)
• Milk - 1.5 cups (375 ml)
• Coco powder - 1 tbsp
• Instant Coffee powder - 2 tbsp (I used Nescafe sunrise)

Method:

1. Sieve maida, baking powder , cocoa and coffee powder twice for even mixing and keep aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, add milk, vanilla essence, butter, sugar, condensed milk and mix well until sugar completely dissolves. Now add the sieved maida mixture little by little and mix well until a creamy batter without lumps is formed.
3. Preheat oven at 180 deg C for 10mins. Grease the baking tin with butter and maida, tap the excess flour, pour the batter in the tin such that the batter is more than 1/2 or close to 3/4th of the tin and bake it for 35-40mins.
4. Insert a fork in the middle of the cake to check if the cake is done. If it comes out clean then your cake is ready.
5. Allow it to cool for 10mins then invert the tin, the cake will demould itself perfectly.

My Notes:

• You can add 3tbsp of coffee powder and omit coco powder completely.
• It is a teatime snack cake so it is mildy sweet. You can increase the sugar to 1.5 cups if you want the cake to taste like the regular cakes.
• You can also add chocolate sauce as topping or have the cake as such.
• The coffee and chocolate(coco) flavour compliments each other so well.
• Choose a tin such that the batter is more than 1/2 or close to 3/4th of the tin.

Coffee flavour is everyones favourite at home except amma but she too enjoyed the cake as it had the chocolate flavour in it. If you like ur cake to be mildly sweet with the soft texture then this is for u. And must say, it is for all choco coffee lovers!

Eggless Vanilla Sponge Cake | Step by Step Eggless Basic Cake Recipe

I've always been looking out for a basic egg less version of vanilla cake as I've already posted a egg version of vanilla cake. And this recipe from Nita Mehta cookbook is sure a keeper. It comes out perfect every time. I made this before new year eve and could reserve only 2-3 pieces for click sake after the distribution to neighbors and friends.

Ingredients:

• Maida - 1 and 1/2 cups (225 gms)
• Thick Curd - 1 cup (250 ml)
• Granulated Sugar - 3/4 cup (200 gms)
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 and 1/4 tsp
• Cooking oil - 1/2 cup (125 ml)
• Vanilla essence - 1 and 1/2 tsp
• Milk - 1 tbsp (just for brushing the top)

Method:

Sieve maida twice and keep aside.Cream sugar and curd until sugar completely dissolves. Add baking powder, baking soda to the creamed mixture and mix well.

Leave aside for 5 mins and you can see the bubbles appearing. Now add vanilla essence,cooking oil and mix well.

Next slowly add maida in portions at a time and blend with wet ingredients. Beat well with a whipper until creamy and thick.Preheat oven to 200 deg C for 10mins. Meanwhile grease a butter paper, lay it in the cake tin or loaf pan and pour the batter to the tin and keep it ready.

Bake in preheated oven at 200 degree C for 10 mins, then reduce temperature to 180 deg C and bake it for 30-35 mins or till a fork inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Just brush the top of the cake with 1 tbsp milk, 10mins before the ending time to get a nice polishing glaze. Allow the cake to cool down for 10mins, then invert and remove the butter paper. Then cut/slice them into pieces and enjoy!

Have updated the pics with stepwise. I baked this cake in a round cake tin for hubbys bday as this is his favourite cake :) You can use a loaf pan and bake the cake too.

The cake is moist and very soft , which keeps the same softeness and moistness for a week.

My Notes:

• Do not try to reduce oil and curd, I tried once to reduce oil and the cake was a great flop ;) But still there is one way add 1 and 1/4 cups of curd and 1/4 cup oil, I assure you with the same results.

• Also after the batter is ready, dont allow the batter to sit for more than he preheating time as baking soda reacts faster. I have a reader who gave me this tip as her cake went hard as she kept the batter for 30mins after mixing.



• And while inserting fork or toothpick try checking in the center if its cooked completely or not.If suppose even after the specified time, the center of the cake isnt cooked and is slightly sticky?! dont worry just cover the top of the cake with butter paper and bake it for 5more mins,it will be perfect. The butter paper covering will avoid more browning on top at the same time the center will be cooked perfectly.



• Dont doubt on using curd, the taste of curd is totally not shown in the cake. You can use homemade curd or use nestle curd which is very thick and works good too.



• You can use icing sugar too, I used normal sugar only. I felt 3/4 cup of sugar was enough but the orginal recipe called for 1 cup. If you have a very sweet tooth then use 1 cup of sugar.



• As I always mention select a pan such that the batter is close to 3/4th of it or slightly above 1/2 of it. And the time for baking depends on the cake pan and oven too mine got baked in exactly 35mins.

Eggless Vanilla Chocolate Chips Cupcakes

Its really nice to see the blog world flowing with christmas recipes. It sure creates the festive mood within us. Here is my treat for christmas : Eggless Vanilla Chocolate Chips Cupcakes. Ever since I got the muffin pans after a great search, hubby was complaining that I didnt put it to good use after the Eggless Dates walnut muffins. So looked out for a basic eggless vanilla cupcake recipe and this one was apt for my search. Needless to say the taste, it was yummy! My little one enjoyed it to the core and my happiness knew no bounds :)

Ingredients: [ Recipe Source : My Diverse Kitchen ]

• Maida - 1 and 1/2 cups (225 gms)
• Cornflour - 1 tsp
• Butter - 1/4 cup (50 gms)
• Granulated Sugar - 3/4 cup (185 gms)
• Milk - 3/4 cup (180 ml)
• Vanilla essence - 3/4 tsp
• Salt - 1/2 tsp (if using unsalted butter)
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Chocolate chips - 1.5 tbsp

Method:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, cornflour and salt together atleast twice to make sure they are evenly distributed. Keep aside.



2. In a wide bowl, cream the butter and sugar using a whippe r(yayy finally I own one too) until the sugar is completely dissolved, Keep aside. Add vanilla essence to the milk, mix well and add the milk to the creamed butter sugar mixture. Beat it well until its light and creamy.



3. Now add the flour in 2 parts to the above creamed mixture and mix well. The batter will be very creamy like shown in the below pic. The consistency is inbetween thick and runny.



4. Add in the chocolate chips reserving half a tablespoon alone for the topping. Just fold in gently, dont overmix.



5. Arrange muffin liners in the pan and spoon the mixture to fill 3/4 of the muffin pan. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C and bake it for 25-30 mins until a fork inserted comes out clean. The top will be lightly golden brown, and mine got done in exactly 27mins.



6. Allow it to cool on wire rack for 10 mins and then enjoy your cupcakes.

This is sure a kid pleaser. I just halved from the orginal recipe otherwise I followed almost the same. The result was fluffy and soft cupcakes studded with chocolate chips, it was pretty as well. The cupcakes are slightly crusty on the top and soft inside as perfect as the bakery plain cakes.

This can be used as a keeper for basic eggless vanilla cake too. Next time I am planning to try a vanilla sponge loaf cake with doubling the measurements from this. I got 7 large cupcakes since my muffin pan holds only 6 I used a mini tumbler like cup for the 7th one. My OTG can only hold medium sized cake tins and muffin pans so my 1 cup measures accordingly as I dont have the patience to bake in batches :)

This is the first time I am very happy with the outcome of an eggless vanilla version of a cake. Last time when I tried with curd as egg substitute it was a super flop but guess I might have gone wrong in measurements, sure waiting to try and get it right next time atleast.

Hubby always teases me when I half the cake like this to click, he says why do u dissect the cakes ;) But I have the habit of doing this to see the texture inside and to show it to you :)

My Notes:

• The orginal recipe called in for cake flour. So if we are using normal flour, it asked to add cornstarch as substitute.But I didnt have cornstarch or was not aware of it, so went ahead with cornflour and it succeeded too.



• Adding chocochips is purely your choice, If you want just use them for topping alone.



• The cake will rise up fluffy in the first 15mins itself. The top turns to golden brown only in the last stage may be after 15-17mins.



• The cupcakes were soft even the next day, infact more softer and tastier.



• You can even frost the cupcakes or make it plain like what I did. If you are making frosting for the cake reduce the sugar in the cake or dont add sugar in the frosting.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!