Eggless Vanilla Almond Cake -Super Moist and Super Simple !

Eggless Cakes can be a task to put together before and after baking as many a times the cake crumbles much before you put it in your mouth ! It can be disappointing in the end when the cake fails to bind and then one needs to whack their brain and use the crumbly cake as a pudding base or worst make balls out of it and fool yourself to have some laddoos :) I have had my share of failures with eggless baking and hence i tread this path with utmost care and sometimes hesitation ....

I do eat eggs when I don't see them and desserts are the BEST way to conceal them ! However my mother-in-law and husband do not eat them in any form , visible or invisible ! It was Amma's birthday last Tuesday and I decided to give her a befitting treat. I searched for recipes online and tweaked this recipe by the Secret Ingredient , voila I had a perfect birthday surprise ready !!

This cake comes super moist and if you follow the steps correctly , you do not have to scrape the bottom of the tin , it comes out that clean ! The sweetness of this cake is also perfect for people who aren't much into sweets , however I enhanced this by frosting it with almond flavoured whipped cream and tinned fruits such as pineapple , cherry and peach ...The result was heavenly and polished off in a jiffy :)

Ingredients

1.5 cups all purpose flour (maida) + 1 tablespoon for dusting 
1/4th teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon of Baking Powder (*)
1 teaspoon of Baking Soda     (*)
3/4th cup condensed milk 
1 tablespoon Distilled White Vinegar
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence (*)
1 teaspoon Almond Extract (*)
1/4th cup melted butter 
1/4th cup Canola oil (*)
3/4th cup chopped Almonds , Pistachios , Raisins , Walnuts and Cashews (*)

For the frosting you will need 

3/4th cup whipping cream
5-6 teaspoons of sugar 
1 teaspoon of Almond Extract
Tinned fruits to garnish 

* The original recipe had 11/2 teaspoons of Baking powder and 3/4th teaspoon of Baking Soda
*The original recipe had 11/2 teaspoons of Vanilla Extract while I made it 1 teaspoon of Vanilla and 1 teaspoon of Almond Extract.
*The original recipe uses Vegetable oil while I used Canola oil
*One can use nuts as desired.
*All the ingredients should ideally be at Room Temperature.

How to put it together 

Sieve the flour ,salt , baking powder and baking soda for about 3 to 4 times and keep aside.
Add condensed milk , butter , oil , Distilled white vinegar , Vanilla and Almond Extract to a bigger bowl and blend well.
Add the flour mixture little by little as well as milk should be added in steps.
Mix well and keep adding the flour mix and milk in steps. Make sure there aren't any lumps.
Fold the nuts into the cake mix, do not whip them in.
Grease a 9 inch cake tin using oil or butter and dust it well 
Preheat the oven for 10 minutes at 200 degree celsius.
Bake for 20-30 minutes at 180 degree celsius , I got my cake done at 20 minutes , hence it is good to keep an eye on the cake 15 minutes from putting it into the oven .

Frosting the cake
Whip the cream till soft peaks occur.
Add sugar , Almond Extract and whip.
Use a flat bladed knife to dress the cake with the whipped cream mix.
Drain the tinned fruits and garnish .
Let the cake cool and stand in the refrigerator overnight for best results.

Bon Appetite !!

Eggless Baked Cheesecakes in myriad flavours

I had my first cheesecake at a friend's birthday party , I was curious as it appeared different from other cakes and when i had a bite I was sure that it was something different and delicious ! I was too embarrassed to ask as I deciphered that I was perhaps the only one who didn't know what a cheesecake is all about. In my mind I was thinking of how much sugar would go to make cheese taste from salty to sweet and how did the base come so well , didn't the already baked biscuits burn when baked again....I had many questions on my mind but as i said I refused to be labelled the dumbest of the lot .......

Internet came to my rescue and I learnt that there is something called 'cream cheese' which is used specifically to dish out the very heavenly form of cakes;cheesecakes! I also learnt that the biscuits are processed in a food processor , mix with butter and/or cinnamon and pressed to the base and sides of a spring form cake tin and then refrigerate this overnight to yield the perfect base. Now the challenge was to figure out which of the eggless recipes (I am ok with eggs in desserts but my husband is an astute vegetarian). I stumbled upon this blog written by a certain Kosha Vaishnav , it had minimal ingredients , was very easy with the way she managed to describe it and eggless ! I confess that I was happier because my last name while I wasn't married was Vaishnav too ! Her blog is one to add to your reading list , I suggest.

Here is a link to her blog
 http://www.vitchen.com/blog/2013/03/14/classic-cheesecake/

 I made changes to her recipe and I made this cheesecake thrice . I modified it to reduce the sour cream and cream cheese content and increase the base content , cookies or crackers I meant . I also used digestive biscuits and walkers short bread butter biscuits in equal measures as Graham crackers aren't available in Beijing. I also used custard powder instead of cornstarch as that is readily available on my kitchen shelf. However this recipe as a base is great to begin with !

Serves : 8-10
Preparation time : 20 minutes + overnight refrigeration required for the base
Baking time : 45-60 minutes
Tips : Ensure that the all the ingredients are at room temperature , the Cream Cheese and Butter must be softened (keep them out for longer, no need to microwave them)

For the Cream Cheese top you will need

1 pack 8 ounces cream cheese (I used Philadelphia Cream Cheese)
1 1/2 cups of Sour Cream
1 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 tablespoons Custard Powder
1/4th teaspoon Sea Salt

For the base you will need

2 cups of crushed cookies (I took digestive and walkers shortbread round cookies)
1 stick of butter (100 grams) melted
2 teaspoons of Cinnamon

How to prepare the Base

Process the cookies well in a food processor or put them in a ziplock bag and grind them using a rolling pin. 
Add cinnamon while the cookies are still in the ziplock bag or process with the cookies incase you are using a food processor.
Add the cinnamon-ground cookie mix to a round 9" spring form cake tin
Add the melted butter and mix well. Press the mixture on the base as well as on the sides , see that there are no spaces. This should be ideally done using hands.
Refrigerate this overnight and take it out from the refrigerator 30 minutes before Baking.

How to prepare the Cream Cheese Mix

Beat the softened cream cheese till you see a smooth texture , it would be take 3-4 minutes using an electric beater at high speed.
Add the sour cream ,sugar, custard powder  and beat for another 2 minutes.
Now blend in vanilla extract , lemon juice and salt and mix well . Ensure that the sugar has been dissolved completely and there are no lumps in the mix.
The above mix can be tailored by adding flavours of one's choice. I modified it to turn this cake into a Mango Cheesecake , Strawberry Cheesecake and Blueberry-Pineapple Cheesecake.Here are the ways I adopted to turn the plain cheesecake into a more gorgeous and heavenly treat !

The final steps

Preheat the oven at 200 degree celsius for 10 minutes. Bring down the oven temperature to 180 degree celsius now.
Pour the cream cheese mix onto the refrigerated base and bake for 45-50 minutes ,sometimes it needs 60 minutes or more as well. Watch for cracks on top which means that the topping has  been baked well. Switch off the oven and let the cake cool completely.
Let it stand in the fridge overnight before you serve.


For Mango Cheesecake
1 cup of Mango Pulp to be mixed with the Cream Cheese Mix.

For Strawberry Cheesecake

1/4th cup of Herschey's Strawberry Syrup (You could add upto 1/3rd cup). Cut down the sugar to about 3/4th cup incase you do not prefer it to be too sweet.
Fresh Strawberries to Garnish

For Blueberry -Pineapple Cheesecake you would need

2 tablespoons of blueberry Jam to be mixed in the Cream cheese mix. One might want to tone it down to 2 tablespoons of jam and/or make the sugar to 3/4th cups. I put 3/4th cup of sugar while the jam to be 2 tablespoons and it came out perfectly suitable to my taste buds.

2 Tablespoons of Caanned Pineapple syrup

3-4 rings of drained canned pineapple and blue berry jam for garnishing.

Mango Shrikhand / Amrakhand / Mango Mousse in Desi style

India is a land of amazing diversity,be it in languages , clothing , food , customs and traditions. The vast array of cultural experience that India offers is overwhelming. I hail from Gujarat , the land of the Asiatic Lions , Mahatma Gandhi's birth place, business-mindedness , embroidery , Bandhej , Kesar Mangoes and Narendra Modi. Gujarat offers a wide variety of food and a Gujarati meal is perhaps the most comprehensive meal as it offers everything ranging from 'roti' (bread) , 'shaak' (curry) , 'daal' (lentil soup) , 'bhaat' (rice), 'kachumber' (salad) and 'chaas' (buttermilk). On special occasions sweets such as 'barfi' (fudge) , 'kheer' (rice pudding) , 'Gajar no halvo' (A dessert made of grated carrots , cooked in milk , mixed spices and sugar) , 'Shrikhand' (A form of mousse made out of hung curd , sugar and can be tailored to be of different flavours). 

I had guests at my place who hail from the Southern belt of India, a while ago. The couple was raised in Mumbai and hence had a good deal of exposure to Gujarati food and people owing to the sizeable Gujarati population settled there. I called Archana (the friend whose family I was to have over) to ask if they had any food preferences or allergies , she expressed her love for Gujarati food and Shrikhand in particular. I honestly didn't know to make it as way back in India I enjoyed the store bought one and the one that my mother crafts to perfection . I did know the theory a bit , but the practical was far from my knowledge and hence I called my mum and she gave me this very wonderful recipe that I modified a bit (No I don't follow rules at all , I bend them every time !). She gave me the recipe to make Elaichi Shrikhand (Cardamom flavoured Shrikhand) while I actually tweaked to make it into Mango Shrikhand or Amrakhand ! This is how to whip a delicious , creamy Shrikhand . 

Serves : 6-8 people 

You will need 

1.2 kgs of yoghurt 
1 cup of Sugar (This may vary depends on how much sweet you would prefer)
8-10 strands of saffron
1 tablespoon of warm milk
2 teaspoon of pistachio-almond-cashew-cardamom-nutmeg powder.
1 cup of Mango pulp

How to put it together 

Hang yoghurt in a clean , muslin cloth till the water is completely drained. It would take about 8 hours for the water to drain. I usually tie the cloth on the kitchen tap , but if the weather is hot it is good to keep this in the refrigerator.

Soak saffron in about a tablespoon of warm milk . Let it stand for sometime , mix this with fingers , milk will turn yellowish if the saffron strands are mixed well

When the water is drained , one would see a creamy texture. Add the dried nuts powder , sugar , mango pulp , saffron mix .Beat well with an electric hand blender (Trust me,using this makes life much easier!) till the sugar dissolves completely. Add more sugar , mango pulp and dried nuts powder if you wish to.

Garnish with pistachio , cashew and almond slivers , serve cold.

Fig and Almond Smoothie

Raising twins can be daunting and divine in the same breath. Taking care of their smallest of needs can be quite overwhelming .While they are young and only on a milk diet it is easier to handle than they actually start gaining a sense of taste and hence the fussiness that comes along with it. My girls started solid food when they were seven months old , they tend to get very choosy at times and anything repetitive is unacceptable. I hence ending up looking up the internet for recipes that could be enjoyed by my darlings as well as ones that aren't too difficult to put together. This is one such recipe , that could be had for breakfast or even as dessert drink post lunch. It isn't too difficult to make and has all the good things like figs , almonds and other nuts that make it a nourishing concoction ! One could even replace certain ingredients to reduce the richness in terms of calories. 

Ingredients 

1.5 cups vanilla ice cream (one could use homemade yoghurt too)
2 tablespoons honey (might need more if the ice-cream is replaced with yoghurt)
8 figs soaked overnight
8 almonds soaked overnight (separately)
1 cup milk or as per required thickness
Pistachio and/or almond slivers for garnishing 

How to put it together 

Soak figs overnight , peel the soaked almonds

Add honey to it and crush the fig-almond mix well in a blender.

Blend well once milk and yoghurt/ice-cream has been added

Pour in wide mouthed transparent glasses 

Garnish with pistachio and/or almond slivers .

This recipe makes about 4 servings

Vegan Date and Walnut Cake !!

I love eggs where I can't see them , desserts are a good means to satiate my sweet tooth and hide things that do not make me feel guilty of stepping out of the bounds of vegetarianism . My husband on the other hand is a strict vegetarian and he doesn't fool himself or people like how I do :)

He once confessed that he loved eating cakes and pastries as a child , that point of time the awareness that it might contain eggs hadn't dawned on him , he added. The moment he learned that baked goodies might contain eggs , he shunned them completely until I began baking eggless treats for him . This Date and Walnut cake has all the elements of a cake with eggs and it is quite hard to believe that it is an eggless one. My twin girls love it and I have made it thrice since I learnt how to make it, a couple of weeks ago , my girls , my husband and my parents all love this easy , vegan and delicious cake. I thought it would be good for people who read  my blogs to know of something that is Vegan , delicious and very easy to put together . Here it is ...

Serves : 8

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour (maida)
1 cup sugar
1/4th teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup vegetable / canola oil
2 cups of water
1 cup pitted and finely chopped dates
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon honey (optional)

How to put it together

Sieve flour , baking powder and baking soda 3-4 times and put it aside.

In a saucepan add water , oil . dates , salt , cinnamon , nutmeg and sugar .Heat the above mix , stirring occasionally. You shall see bubbles on the side in about 10 minutes .Now reduce the flame and cook for 20 minutes.

Cool this mix completely and then fold in the flour , chopped walnuts and honey. Mix well

Grease a 9 inch cake tin and pour the batter in it.

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees for 10 minutes , reduce the oven temperature to 175 degrees now and bake till a skewer inserted in the cake comes clean

Let the cake cool , serve with whipped cream . You might want to top it with  some cinnamon sugar as well , while serving !

Apple Cinnamon Muffins with Lemon flavoured Cream Cheese Frosting

Ever since i moved to China , I have been hosting a bevy of people partly because of my husband's job and partly because I love having people and treating them with an array of home cooked delicacies. There was a time when I wasn't even a decent cook , I had been preoccupied with a career and many other things that took my attention away from cooking. I quit my job before I moved to Beijing with my husband. Now i am a Stay at home mom to my lovely twin baby girls. I have a tremendous family support coming from both sets of parents and thus it gives me ample space and time to pursue things that I really like to. 

Coming back to the Apple and Cinnamon muffins , I at the risk of sounding pompous would confess that it is hard to find a match to these muffins that I bake quite often very effortlessly. The credit for the recipe goes to internet (I don't remember who posted this recipe and where , however my sincere gratitude to the person who thought of such a marvellous recipe and to the internet who brought it forward for me to see). Apple and Cinnamon makes a heavenly combination , I made it a notch higher this time when i frosted it with lemon tinted cream cheese frosting , I also sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top and placed a glazed cherry to add not just to the looks but also to the taste of these absolutely irresistible muffins.  If you aren't a fan of cream cheese or just wish to avoid the extra work that needs to be put in to get the frosting in place , let me assure you , these muffins standalone can be quite a feast !! i won't make you wait more now , here is the recipe ...

Ingredients 

2 cups all purpose flour
A pinch of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder 
1 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups white sugar (you could tweak this based on how much sweetness you wish to add)
4 large eggs
1/4th cup orange juice
1 cup canola oil
3 teaspoons cinnamon powder 
1 teaspoon nutmeg powder 

For the apple sauce you will need 

4-5 large apples peeled , cored and cut into small pieces
1 cup water
2 teaspoons of cinnamon (I love cinnamon so I add extra , you might want to avoid)
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
3 tablespoons of sugar

For the lemon frosting 
1 cup softened cream cheese
2 teaspoons lemon juice ( could add more based on the tanginess that one desires)
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup of icing sugar
Cherries and Cinnamon sugar for more gorgeous looks

How to make the apple sauce

Heat the apples , water , cinnamon and sugar in a saucepan. Keep stirring for a while and after that let the apples cook till there is a very little crunchiness left. The water could be avoided completely , however if added ,please ensure that the end result isn't too runny. Add lemon juice when the sauce cools down .

How to put together the muffins 

Sieve flour , salt , baking powder , baking soda , powdered cinnamon and nutmeg well and keep this aside.

Beat the oil and sugar well such that it forms a creamy mix.

Add the orange juice and mix well 

Whisk in the eggs without overbeating to the sugar-oil-juice mix.

Fold in the flour-salt-nutmeg-cinnamon-baking powder-baking soda mix that we sieved earlier.

Finally add the apple sauce and mix well .

Grease/line 12 muffin tins and pour in the mix.

Preheat the oven for 10 minutes at 200 degree celsius and then bake for 30-40 minute at 180 degree celsius or until a skewer inserted comes clean. 

How to frost

Beat the cream cheese -lemon juice - sugar - whipped cream using an electric beater till soft peaks are visible. One needs to beat for 5-6 minutes in order to achieve this.

Now use a flat bladed knife and top the muffins (make sure they are completely cooled) with the frosting . One could use the cake decorating equipment too. 

Add a cherry on top and sprinkle some cinnamon sugar if you like an extra dash of cinnamon.

Very Berry Parfait - Easy eggless dessert recipe

Very Berry Parfait 

I had my Chinese teacher coming home for lunch on Saturday , it gets tough as many Chinese people do not prefer too much of sugar and hence Indian sweets do not work very well for desserts. I have 14 month old twin daughters and hence cooking can be quite a task. on top of that when one has to think hard and cook ,it gets tougher .I love making desserts but most of the recipes that I knew or had already tried needed a lot many ingredients and which meant rounds to the supermarket. I chanced upon a parfait recipe on the internet and modified it based on what was available in my refrigerator.

Ingredients (Makes about 6 tall glasses)

2 cups Greek Yoghurt (I used the yogurt I set at home on a regular basis , Greek Yoghurt can be quite rich and heavy on the pocket too)

2-3 tablespoons Honey or Maple syrup (I used both and this depends on taste)

2 cups frozen / fresh berries (I used frozen blackberries as I had it in my freezer , one could use fresh or frozen strawberries , cherries , blueberries ..)

1.5 cups Coarsely ground cookies/Graham crackers / Digestive biscuits (I had digestive biscuits)

2-3 tablespoons of water

Sugar (as per taste , I used about 2-3 teaspoons)



How to make 

Heat the berries with water in a saucepan over medium heat , you would see the berries sizzling and making a sauce in about 10 minutes. Let this cool completely.

Take one cup of Yoghurt and mix it with honey and/or maple syrup. You could add more if you need it to be sweeter.

Take the other cup of Yoghurt and add 3 tablespoons of the berry sauce and mix well . This can be tangy and hence if needed add sugar. I added 3 teaspoons and it suited us well.

Coarsely grind the cookies in a food processor. 

Take six tall glasses and add the berry sauce to its base. Layer it with the sweetened yoghurt , followed by the cookie mix , followed by the yoghurt that was mixed with berry sauce. Repeat the layers to yield a very good looking and delicious dessert which doesn't burn a hole in your pocket and is low on empty calories.