Category: Cakes

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

It has been close to three weeks that I wrote any article but have been posting pics on the site.  Two reasons one is  Bakesngrub venture setting up is taking time and lot of teething issues and to top it all I have two brats who have their summer vacations on . All mothers will relate to this aspect if you have two kids at home 24/7 so what can happen. Delhi Heat also forces you to keep them indoor.  To keep kids occupied we have been experimenting a lot with food, the mother and kids have made Nutella cake in a mug,  oreo biscuit cake, maggi tikki and lots of amazing stuff. These may not be my recipes but adopted from internet and made some variation to suit our palette. But what I am sharing with you all today is special recipe downloaded by my kids and they wanted me to try with them and be their taster. I tried getting the source but there were many version as kids had just noted it down on paper. So here it goes Nutella Cake in microwave in a Mug

Ingredients

• Nutella- 3tbsp
• Sugar- 2tbsp
• All purpose flour/Maida-4 tbsp
• Milk- 4-5 tbsp
• Oil- 2tbsp
• Coco powder – 2 tbsp
• Baking Powder- ½ tsp
• Choco chips- 2 tsp or even grated chocolateMethod:

1. Take a Big Coffee Mug which is microwave safe. Brush, it with oil
2. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Sieve it or whisk them together (Sugar, Flour, Oil, Coco Powder, Baking Powder)
3. Add the wet ingredients and make it smooth paste. Check the consistency and increase or decrease the milk
4. Pour the batter in the mug
5. Microwave around 2 min or 15-20 seconds more or till it is done
6. Remove from microwave or let it stand for 2 min in microwave.
7. Serve hot in the mug itself with fresh cream, ice-cream or chocolate sauce

It turned out really well. Thanking the person who made this recipe and my Kiddos loved making it . These days they just pop it after dinner as desert and only need someone to pull it out from micro as it is very hot.  Go ahead and make with kids or just surprise yourself with sudden desert after a meal

Since it has been a long time, I thought I will give one more recipe again it is not mine I used to make it with Parle-g biscuits but I saw it with Oreo biscuits.  Take about 15-20 oreo biscuits and grind them in mixie with 1 cup of milk and 1-2 tbsp of sugar. Pour in microwave safe bowl which has been brushed with oil.  Add ¾ tsp of eno once the batter is in the bowl or ¾ tsp baking powder. Microwave for about 3-5 min or till the cake is done. Let it stand for 5 min and then cut it

Hope you all enjoying making these recipes. I promise to be more regular. Pics may not be too good as kids took it

Cupcakes are every ones favorites these days . The way our little 7 year old princess describes it helps you to control you piece size so you will not grow fat. She loves making cupcakes and decorating with me. That is the only time we are fond of each other is while making cupcakes together. She follows me like a lovable puppy, ready to do anything for cupcakes. She motivated me to come up with a recipe that is easy for kids to make. It is called one bowl quick mix recipe. You can do any variations with flavors but you will not go wrong with it.

You will need

• 2 eggs
• 125 gm butter
• ½ cup castor sugar
• 125 self rising flour ( or 110 gm Plain flour+ ½ tsp BP)
• Milk – 2-4 tbsp..
• Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
• Flavorings — u can add melted white chocolate or 1 tbsp coco powder or any essence or color to the flavor u want

Method-
All goes in a bowl and we beat it for 2 min and it is ready to be put in cupcake molds

Bake in a pre-heated oven for about 15- 20 min till firm to touch.

We had made chocolate cup cakes with coco powder in the it and then decided to give it a twist, Mom and daughter did some butter cream frosting as my little angel wanted to make them like a flower for her favorite aunt’s birthday surprise. So we mixed butter, vanilla essence, icing sugar with purple and orange marmalade. You can see how pretty they look.

They are instant hit with kids. You just need to get creative how to twist the base and frosting. All the best.

Chocolate is the biggest discovery by the Central Americans (trying to sound informative!) which is very rare and everyone loves it. It just melts a bad mood, lifts your spirit and put you in happy mood. My mum’s chocolate cake was the most amazing cake she used to make. The first smell we used to get when coming back from school and we could only get a piece if we put our bags in place and have our lunch. It used to be given to us as treat. I still remember my mum’s first round oven which used to be there and we would keep peeping in to see how much the cake has risen. This is a basic recipe of chocolate cake which I think she got from the oven book and then improvised. I stole this recipe when I was 12 years and she had gone out and made it on my own:-)

So I guess it will be easy and can be done by non bakers.

Rule that I remember even now things should be at room temperature and oven should be preheated at 180 degrees.

You would need 1.5 cup maida and 1.5 tsp of Baking Powder and 5 tblsp of cocoa powder (replace one spoon with 2 spoons of grated chocolate if you want it more chocolaty).

Sift them together.

Beat ½ oil or 125 gm butter with 3 eggs.

Add the dry mixture to the butter bit. If the mixture is thick pl add milk. You will need more in winter. Typically up to ½ cup. Batter should be in flowing consistency.

Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 min or till the toothpick comes out clean.

My kids just love this cake till date and it is big hit. I made it for my sons first birthday and he just could not resist eating it.