Eggless Chocolate Cake

It was my birthday yesterday, but unfortunately Mom has turned pure vegeterian this month (Karthik masam). So had to do a good search for an eggless cake which could taste as good as the real cake. Luckily, found this really simple and easy recipe on www.trustedrecipes.com. It is very very easy to make and makes a decent cake!

Ingredients:

• 2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup butter or margarine softened
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whisked yogurt (curd)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup warm milk

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).
• Lightly butter two 9-inch-round baking pans or one 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Dust its sides of cake pan(s) with cocoa powder. In a large bowl, combine cocoa, sugar, flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add whisked yogurt, a very few spoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture alternately with milk. Pour into prepared pan(s).
• Bake until cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25-35 minutes. Cool in pan(s) for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edges to loosen cake from pan. Invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.

I prepared two of these cakes as my elder daughter loves a layered cake. And I am not yet very successful in preparing the perfect chocolate icing, so I took the easy out and used Hershey's chocolate sauce instead :)

• Place the first cake upside down and smear it with the chocolate sauce and place the second cake over it.
• Pour some more chocolate sauce over the second cake in an irregular fashion to get a design of sorts. I was going to spread it out evenly but my daughter felt it looked better as modern art :) I must say I agree with her :)
• You can go ahead and decorate it with any cake decorations, but I chose GEMS (again, influenced by my daughter's love for GEMS). I gave P2 the chance to get creative and she ended up giving the finishing touch to my birthday cake!!

Home made Bread

I am total fan of home made buns!! I remember mom making these for us when we were kids...........the lovely aroma of the fresh yeast and the baking..........is so very nostalgic!!! I wanted my kids to have similar memories :) So off I started on my quest for the perfect bread recipe! And I found it at my favorite place................the Travel & Living channel!!! Rachel Allen - Bake :) Lovely show with some great recipes and tips on baking!

Well, the recipe I perfected is:

Ingredients:

Flour (maida) - 250 gms

Yeast - 10gms (dried yeast) or 2ogms (fresh yeast)

Warm Water - 100ml

Olive oil - 4 tbsp

Salt - 1 tsp

Sugar - 3 tsp

Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp (optional - I am a die hard fan of cinnnamon, so that's why it is featuring here. You can omit it if you do not want it)

Method:

1. Mix the salt and cinnamon powder (optional) into the flour. This has to be done before adding the yeast, as direct contact with salt will kill the yeast.
2. Add sugar to the warm water (not hot, just lukewarm), mix well. Add the yeast to this mixture and wait for a few mins till you see the yeast bubbling on the water surface.
3. Add the olive oil to this yeast mixture and mix well. Add this emulsion the the flour and knead to a soft dough.
4. The dough initially will be very sticky. Keep kneading with a good amount of force and add a spoonful of flour if required. By the end of 5-6 mins, the flour should be well kneaded and soft and fluffy.
5. Grease a deep bowl, place this dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl and keep in a warm place for around 2 hours.
6. After 2 hours, the dough would have fluffed to twice its size. Punch the dough into the bowl and knead well again. Make into desired shapes and keep aside for another 30 mins.
7. Bake these at 175 degrees centigrade for around 10 mins.

Delicious, fluffy buns ready!!!!