Category: Cakes

Since everyone loves cakes and are open to trying new recipes, here we
go with another Whole Wheat Cake with Orange which is a healthy cake for
all fitness freaks and gives added Vitamin- C.

Recipe:– This recipe will give a cake of approximately 475 gm and give the
best result with fresh oranges. As you all know I am a believer of making
cooking simple so this is also one pot recipe with no beater and is eggless.
I have not tried this with eggs at all. I felt eggs would overpower the orange
flavour.

Ingredients

1. one cup Whole Wheat flour
2. one tablespoon Corn flour
3. half teaspoon Baking soda
4. half teaspoon Baking powder
5. one pinch Salt
6. half cup cup Castor Sugar
7. 1/4 cup Cooking oil (can not be replaced with butter)
8. one cup or 200 ml Fresh orange juice or Tetra pack one
9. one teaspoon Orange zest or ½ tsp orange essence or 1 tbsp marmalade

Methods

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degree C.
2. Sieve the dry ingredients- whole wheat flour corn flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and keep aside. Sieving is very important for airing the mixture
3. In a bowl take the wet ingredients- castor sugar, oil and orange juice. Beat well with Hand.
4. Add Orange Zest/ Essence
5. Now add the sieved flour mixture and mix softly in cut and fold in one direction
6. Mix everything very well with a spatula and check there should be no lumps in the cake batter
7. Pour the batter in a lined or greased cake tin of about 6 inches.
8. Bake in a preheated oven for 180 degrees C for 30-35 minutes or till the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Cool the cake before cutting slices

After all that hard work, treat yourself with a big slice of the decadent cake with tea or coffee.I PROMISE eating a big ol’ slice will be worth it!!

P.S. add some chocolate chips to attract kids,trust me it works all the time… 😉

This recipe holds a lot of nostalgia, passed down from my mom, who insisted on feeding my kids healthy. It’s a simple one-pot recipe, no fancy equipment needed.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Oil (not to be replaced with butter or ghee)
• 2 Cup Whole wheat flour
• 3 Cup Red Grated Carrot  ( preferred Red winter)
• 2 Cup Sugar
• 4 Eggs Or replace with 1 cup to 1 cup and ¼ cup milk
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 1 tsp Baking soda
• 1 tsp Garam masala
• Walnuts and almonds for garnishing

Method

• Put all the ingredients and mix with hand.
• Pl note donot use any beater or spoon as it will break due to thickness in the batter
• If using eggs beat them slightly with fork and add to mixture
• Bake in pre heated oven for 40- 45 min at 200 degree Celsius. Time may vary esp. for eggless one as it take time. Tooth pick should come out clean
• Pl note the recipe is for 1kg cake
• Points to remember
• I donot recommend using this with orange carrot but if doing pl use All purpose and Whole wheat – 1 cup each and sugar cannot be reduced
• Batter has be to falling in lumps and not a flowy one You need to be extra careful on eggless batter that u donot overmix or add extra milk otherwise cake will get brunt feeling. Pl add slowly the quantity of milk. It can vary due to the quality of whole wheat also.

Happy Cooking and Build the Mom and Kids bond.

It’s joy of cooking with kids and making memories with laughter and warmth of the bonds been built that motivates me to do stuff with them

Having lived and worked a decade down south, as a family we all have developed a taste for Ragi. 15 years back Ragi was not so much known in North India but more used in South for their regular eating. Our cook in Bangalore used to make amazing Ragi dosa, kheer and other stuff. Then as we moved to Delhi the kids choices changed and they had also moved to become teenagers.  Chocolate is their favourite choice and so I decided to experiment with Ragi and Whole wheat chocolate cake.  Tried many recipes and came out with this version.

 It turns out yum, initially I did not tell the kids but now they love it so much that they demand it.  No guesses here the mother will be very happy.

This recipe makes about a 500 gm cake and you will need 7-8 inch pan

Ingredients

1. Ragi Flour- ¾ cup
2. Whole wheat flour/All-purpose flour – ¾ cup
3. Coco powder- 2 tbsp (Could be replaced with drinking chocolate/Bournvita)
4. Oil- 2/3 rd cup ( one could use butter but I prefer oil)
5. Curd- 1/3^rd cup
6. Milk- ¾ cup
7. Sugar- 1 cup (you could use normal sugar, brown sugar or jaggery)
8. Vinegar- ½ tsp
9. Vanilla essence- 1 tbsp
10. Baking powder-1 tsp
11. Baking soda-½ tsp
12. Salt- 1/8 tsp

Method

1. Sieve the dry ingredients Ragi, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Please do this step 2-3 times to ensure you incorporate air in the mix.
2. Mix sugar with dry ingredients
3. Mix the wet ingredients in different bowl – Oil, Milk, Vinegar, essence and curd. Please whisk the curd before mixing with the other ingredients.
4. Now slowly pour this in to dry ingredients bowl which has sugar. Mix lightly with hand as you do not want air which has been incorporated in flour should be lost.
5. Once mixed please pour in greased tin and bake in Pre heated oven for 25-30 min at 180 degree.  Skewer should come out clean once inserted.
6. Remove from oven and cool.

One could do little chocolate frosting by adding molten chocolate or any other frosting over it . It tastes yum either ways.  I have tried replacing curd with egg but it does not come out that well so would suggest stick to curd for this.

Brownies – the name itself gives so much happiness. It is every chocolate lover’s favourite. Lot of people have been asking for this recipe.  It is very easy to make, you just need to follow the right temperature of ingredients and baking time. You will get the amazing crinkled top.

Ingredients

• Butter 115 gm- cut in cubes
• Dark chocolate (preferably compound) 125 gm/1 cup
• Castor sugar 1 cup
• 2 eggs- room temperature
• Flour/All purpose flour/Maida – ¾ cup
• Cocoa powder – 1 tbsp
• Vanilla essence -1 tsp

Method

1. Pre heat the oven at 160 degree.
2. Take an 8-inch brownie pan. You need to line it with parchment paper or aluminium foil. Cross the paper and it should be hanging out. It needs only to be greased with oil
3. Melt the chocolate and butter by double boiler method. Chocolate should be grated or cut in small pieces and butter in cube sizes.
4. Remove from heat and whisk the sugar. By doing this you are lowering the temperature
5. Add eggs and essence.
6. Stir in flour and cocoa powder
7. Bake in Preheated oven for 25 min to 30min at 160 degree. Inserted toothpick to check may have moist crumbs as toothpick will not come out clean due to chocolate
8. Take out the brownie along with paper/foil and let it cool for 3 to4 hours. Remove the paper and then cut the slices.

Enjoy the brownie.

Tips- Paper should be hanging outside enough so that you can take the brownie out easily from the tin.  Let it cool completely before you remove paper and cut.

In this lockdown we are struggling to use over ripe bananas and my son is always behind me not to waste food. We got fed up eating his whole wheat banana chocolate mug cake so decide to make a proper cake and share with some of my friends in the time of social distancing. Again a simple one but healthier

Ingredients

• Whole wheat flour- 1 cup
• Brown sugar- ½ cup
• Over ripe bananas mashed- 3
• Oil- 1/3 cup
• Eggs -2 ( you can skip eggs and add ½ cup curd and 1tsp Baking Soda)
• Pinch of salt
• 1tsp Vanila essence
• 1+1/2 tsp Baking powder
• ½ cup nuts, choco chips etc of your choice

Method

1. Beat the oil and sugar together in a bowl
2. Add eggs one by one and then the banana
3. Now add Flour, Baking powder, Vanilla essence and lightly fold in the mixture
4. Add the nuts and put in a cake tin of 7 inch
5. Preheat the oven at 180 degree and bake the cake at 180 degree for 35-40 min or till toothpick comes out clean
6. Let the cake cool before you take it out

Suggestion : In case you want a chocolate flavour in it then reduce the flour by 1 tbsp and Add coco powder in place of it. In nuts I prefer walnuts compared to other nuts, but you can use any.

Ginger and winter go hand in hand . I used to remember mom baking this amazing ginger bread with eggs for break fast. The smell was too heavenly. During the winter season I do make this at-least once a week or when I have some guest over. My kids also like it but not as bread but more as cake.

This has no essence, all the flavours are natural.

Ingredients

• 125 gm butter
• 3/4 cup pancake or maple syrup or golden syrup
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups self rising flour
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground mixed spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom)
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp Baking soda
• 2 eggs well beaten ( u can replace with 1/2 cup yogurt in case you do not want to use eggs)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree and get a loaf pan or 8 inch pan ready
2. Put the butter, maple syrup, sugar in a sucepan over low heat. Once the butter is melted add milk and stir it. Let the mixture cool
3. Sift the flour, ginger, spices, salt and soda.
4. Beat the eggs and add to the dry flour mixture. Mix well
5. Now add the cooled butter mixture and stir until well combined
6. Pour the batter into cake pan and bake for 30- 35 min
7. Cool it before turning it out.
8. Serve it plain or buttered or topped with lemon icing

The best part of this cake is the smell. My hubby and kids usually can’t wait for it to cool and gobble it quickly. My family prefers it plain but you can top with seeds or nuts of your choice.

Do try this while the season lasts.

I just love the Christmas spirit. It could be the army influence that from childhood my mom and me loved decorating the house with Christmas tree and doing up the various kind of goodies. This tradition continued with me even now and staying many years in Bangalore with lots of my Christian friends. I really enjoyed doing these Christmas hampers for everyone. Donuts used to be an all time favourite. Sometimes you do not want to wait to do donuts with yeast and wait for fermentation. My mom had a recipe for donuts without yeast which she used and I often use it when I want to meet the sudden craving for donuts.

Ingredients

• All purpose Flour ( Maida) – 1 cup
• Baking Powder – 1tsp
• Baking Soda – 1/2 tsp
• Castor sugar- 1/2 cup or powdered sugar
• Butter – 7gm
• Thick yogurt- 3 tbsp
• Warm Milk to knead ( 3-4 tbsp)
• Oil for frying
• Garnishing- Chocolate, cinnamon, sugar

Method

1. Sift the dry ingredients – Flour, Baking Powder & Baking Soda
2. Add sugar
3. Add butter
4. Mix thoroughly till you get crumbly texture
5. Add yogurt and milk and knead into a dough
6. Let it rest for some time for better results
7. Roll the dough and cut do-nut shapes with a do-nut cutter
8. Heat oil in pan and deep fry them golden brown
9. Garnish with melted chocolate or dust them with cinnamon or sugar

They turn out very soft and yummy. In case you want to use egg then drop the curd & replace with one egg. You can even use ready made frosting or ice-cream as a garnish.

Hope you enjoy making this, and wish you a Merry Christmas

After my kids’ recipe of cake in a mug, lot of mothers wrote to me or sent me a message that the recipes were wonderful and kids loved trying them. It feels really great when people get back to you and good feedback is so motivating.  But they wanted a healthier version of cake which they do not mind kids eating again and again. Had to put the thinking caps to figure out what could be done

The other problem that I face and I am sure other mothers would be facing  too that we want to feed our kids a fruit and esp Banana. We all know it is loaded with vitamins, minerals and lot of health benefits but the fruit is too naughty like our kids. It becomes dark and over ripe very fast. Kids need an excuse not to eat if it is black or soggy or it is not firm enough to eat. What you do with these bananas. I freeze the bananas to use later for my cakes or use one of these recipes to make a cake. It is whole wheat recipe so hope fully now the moms will be happy and kids because of chocolate. Pl note this recipe is small portion. I made 4 individual big muffins from this

Ingredients

• 5 to 2 over ripe Banana
• 2 tbsp olive oil or any other oil
• 4 tbsp castor sugar
• 6-8 tbsp of milk
• ½ tsp vanilla essence or Banana essence
• ½ cup Whole wheat flour or All purpose flour / Maida
• 3-4 tbsp Coco powder
• ½ tsp Baking Powder
• Pinch of salt
• Nuts or Choco-chips (optional)

Method:

• Mash the Banana well
• Sieve the dry ingredients Flour, coco powder, BP, salt and keep aside
• Take a bowl add the mashed banana, sugar, oil and about 5 tbsp of milk, essence. Mix well
• Add the dry ingredients
• Mix well with spoon and if you find the batter too thick pl add 2-3 tbsp of milk. The reason we controlled the milk portions is lot of time banana give the fluid as size may vary.
• Pour in greased mugs or four- five small bowls
• Bake in pre heated oven for 15-20 min at 180 degree Celsius
• You can also put chocochips before baking or nuts of your choice
• Serve them hot with some whipped cream or ice cream

My kids love this version of cake and lot of time they will unnecessarily fuss to eat so that I make this cake for them . Hope the Mom and  Dad are happy that kids are going to eat fruit with whole wheat