Chocolate Bread / Cake

Chocolate bread is a delicious bread/cake that tastes great with a cup of tea or as a dessert when served with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top of it. The process of making this bread is very similar to the pound cake recipe (I had shared the recipe sometime back). Sometime back, I had brought a book named "Cake Bible" by Rose Levy Beranbaum from the library. I found this recipe in the book and decided to give it a try. It was a huge hit at my place. Since then I have made this bread so many times.

Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake topped with Chocolate Ganache

I love baking and  my love for it is increasing everyday. I don't need any particular occasion to bake but yes, on every special occasion I like to bake something special. Yesterday, was our marriage anniversary :) So decided to bake something special for the special day. There were some ripe bananas lying on the counter top. So decided to combine chocolate and banana to make a decadent  CHOCOLATE BANANA BUNDT CAKE. This is a delicious , moist cake and can be put together in no time. This recipe makes a big cake , ideal when you have guests over.

Eggless Black Forest Cake

Black Forest cake is a very delicious and popular cake. It consists of layers of chocolate cake and in between these layers, whipped cream and cherries are placed. The cake is then covered with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Finally cherries are garnished on the top.

Eggless chocolate cake

I am on a baking spree...:)..When i had posted the recipe of chocolate banana cake, many of my friends had asked me for a egg less version of it. So this is a yummy chocolate cake that does not use eggs. Its very easy to make and hardly takes anytime in the preparation. This cake can be served as is or just dust it with some icing sugar. But if you want give it some added richness, top it with a chocolate ganache.

Chocolate banana cake

Banana is a yummy fruit and very nutritious.It is also a fruit that kids love to eat (even picky eaters like my son:)). So it something that is always on my grocery list . Bananas that are too ripe are not too pleasant to eat. For such situations,I resort to baking.Chocolate banana cake is one such recipe where in you can use ripe bananas.  This cake has the goodness of bananas plus it has chocolate...yummmy:)  

EASY FRUIT CAKE

Yeyyyyy I am back. I know its been more than a year since my last post . I had been tied up in  some personal  stuff so took a break. I had been drafting the posts but never got around to posting them. So now i am back, and what better way to make a comeback than to post an amazing sweet treat FRUIT CAKE. I tried this recipe for the first time during Christmas. The result was just awesome. I have made it so many times since then. This cake tastes better the next day but you can very well eat it soon after it gets baked , if you cannot resist:)

Easy fruit cake does not contain alcohol and is also called BOILED FRUIT CAKE since most of the ingredients are boiled in the process of making the cake. This is a very easy to make cake that does not need any stand mixer or gadgets like that .

So here is the recipe. Try it and enjoy .

Source:Joys of baking

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup (210 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup (240 ml) water
• 1/4 cup (55 grams) butter diced
• 1 tsp (2 grams)  cinnamon powder
• 1 tsp (2 grams)  dry ginger powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups (300 grams) seedless raisins
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
• 1 tsp (5 grams) baking soda
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup (150 grams) candied and chopped mixed peel

Note: When baking, see to it that the measurements are accurate.Rather than using the cup measurements , i focus more on their weight in grams. So it would be wise to invest in a good kitchen weighing scale for perfect baking.

METHOD:

• Preheat oven to 350 F( 180 degree C). If you are using a dark coated pans, then preheat the oven to 325 F (160 degree C).
• Butter or spray with a nonstick spray, a 9 x 5 x 3 inch (23 cms  x 13 cms x 8 cms) loaf pan. I use PAM nonstick baking spray.
• In a large saucepan,heat over medium  the brown sugar, spices, water, butter and raisins. Bring it to a rolling boil. Boil for 5 minutes and take it off the heat. Keep it aside to cool down to room temperature.

• When the mixture has come to a room temperature, stir in the lightly beaten eggs, flour, baking soda, vanilla extract and the candied fruit.

• Pour in to the prepared pan and bake for 55-60 minutes until the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

• Remove the loaf pan from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.

• Cover and store for a few days before serving. This cake can be frozen.

I tried making a video , so go ahead and check it out :)

ENJOY!!!

Eggless banana bread/cake

I had posted a recipe on BANANA BREAD earlier. But many of my friends asked me if there was a way to make this bread with out the eggs. Finally got one such recipe, tried it and loved it:)..made some changes to the original recipe but stuck to the most part. The original recipe calls for blending the bananas in to a puree while I like to mash them leaving them lumpy. This gives a nice texture to the bread.

So here goes the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:
Note: All measurements are based on the US measuring cup and spoon sizes where 1 cup = 235 ml

1. Wheat flour: 3/4th cup
2. All purpose flour: 3/4th cup
3. Sugar: 3/4th cup
4. Baking soda: 1 tsp
5. Salt: 1/2 tsp
6. Apple sauce: 1/2 cup
7. Milk: 1/3rd cup
8. Butter : 4tbsp
9. Bananas: 2 large ripe
10. Walnuts (toasted and chopped): 1/4th cup
11. Vanilla essence: 1 tsp

METHOD:

1. Mash the bananas with sugar, milk and vanilla essence.
2. Melt the butter and keep it aside.
3. Mix in all the dry ingredients like wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking soda, salt and the chopped walnuts.
4. Add the melted butter, apple sauce and the banana mixture to the dry ingredients.
5. Mix with a spatulla lightly until everything is well mixed.
6. Preheat the oven 350deg F.
7. Take a bread loaf pan and spray some PAM baking spray.
8. Pour the batter in the loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes or until the toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Time of baking varies from oven to oven.

Note: Instead of making a bread , you can make similar banana muffins. To make the muffins blend the bananas in a blender to make a puree and do not added chopped walnuts. Pour the batter in the muffin moulds and then bake for 20-25 minutes.

To view the recipe of the banana bread using eggs , click here.

Pound cake

Pound cake is a cake which in the olden days was said to be made from a pound of each of 4 ingredients: Flour, eggs, butter and sugar. This as you would have guessed by now will make a a lot of cake, much more than a family can consume. Nowadays the pound cake recipe  has  changed.When I found this recipe , I decided to give it a try immediately. The reason being , firstly i love pound cakes and secondly because you can use pound cake in different ways... making it totally versatile. You can eat the cake as it is with tea. It also takes good when you slightly toast it and eat. I also use it as a base for my strawberry shortcake:). The important part of this recipe is to have have the eggs, milk and butter at room temperature.

2 minutes eggless instant chocolate brownie / cake

April 29th... hmmm  well everyone remembers the day. Yep.. It was day of Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. But the for me the day is all the more special. Yes... its my wedding anniversary:) This year it was on the Friday.. so you can call this time it was an anniversary weekend:).

We had already planned to eat out at an Italian restaurant for dinner. hence I  wanted to cook something special for lunch.I decided to make three items taking to considerations all of ours likes. So for Manish I decided to make Ragda pattice as he is a very big chaat fan. You give me any time of masala rice I am happy. So golden corn pulav for me. Last but not the least for dessert i decided to do something with chocolate as my son Aditya is a "chocolate boy". Since i was slightly pressed for time, I went searching for a quick recipe. Ah.. ha.. i found the answer in Prathy's blog " The chef and her kitchen". This  2 minute eggless chocolate cake/brownie is great recipe. It came out great in the first attempt and I am sure it will come to my rescue on many occasions when i have unexpected guests:) The best part of this recipe is that it needs very less ingredients and has very little prep work. I did not make any changes to recipe except i put the cake batter in just one ramkin and not 2 as in Prathy's recipe. You can divide the batter in to 2 ramkins but make sure to reduce the cooking time as it would get cooked must faster.This recipe is so easy that even your kids can do it with minimum help from you:)



Ingredients:(makes 1 ramkin or cup brownie/cake)

1. 2 tbsp flour
2. 2 tbsp melted butter (I used the salted butter. If you use unsalted butter make sure that you add a pinch of salt to the batter)
3. 4 tbsp icing sugar or powdered sugar
4. 2 tbsp milk
5. 2 tbsp semi-sweet chocolate chips
6. 2 tbsp cocoa powder
7. 2 tbsp finely chopped walnuts
8. 1/4 tsp Vanilla Essence

Method:

1. In a microwaveable bowl, melt the butter and let it cool. Now add the milk and vanilla essence to it and mix well.
2. Now mix in the flour, cocoa powder, sugar powder(or icing sugar) and salt (ONLY IF USING UNSALTED BUTTER).Mix well.
3. Now fold in the chopped walnuts and semi-sweet chocolate chips.
4. Pour the batter in to a ramkin or a cup and microwave on high for 1 and half minutes. Let it stand for a couple of minutes.

Enjoy it while its warm . I served mine with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of it.

Note: Cooking time may vary depending on the power rating of the microwave.
I am submitting this to the "tried & tested " event.

Banana bread/ banana cake

This is my second submission to the "Tried & tested event". As I was going through Prathy's blog, i came across this post on Banana bread/cake. I actually happened to have some ripe bananas, hence decided give it a try immediately. Baking is always a fun thing at my place as my son is totally involved and has such a blast.This bread/cake is perfect accompaniment to coffee or tea.I was so happy that it came perfect in my first attempt. Indeed a great recipe!!


Ingredients:

1. 3 nos  large ripe bananas(approx. 1 lb )
2. 1 and 3/4 cup  all purpose flour (approx.230gms)
3. 1/2 cup unsalted butter
4. 1 tsp baking powder
5. 1/4 tsp baking soda
6. 2 large eggs at room temperature
7. 1/4 tsp vanilla essence 
8. 1/4tsp salt
9. 3/4 cup white granulated sugar (approx. 150 gms)
10. 1 cup walnuts slightly toasted.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and place the oven rack to the middle position.Butter and flour the bottom and the sides (use can even use the nonstick flour spray) of a loaf pan (9x5x3 inch) 
2. Melt the butter and let it cool.
3. Coarsely chop the toasted walnuts.
4. Mash the bananas with fork or a masher. Its ok if they are slightly chunky.Add the sugar to this bananas and mix well.
5. In a large bowl sift flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder.Add the toasted walnuts to this. 
6. In another bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add melted butter (cooled) to this. Also mix the vanilla extract. and mix well.To this add the banana and sugar mixture.
7. Now lightly fold in the wet ingredients (as in step 6) to the dry ingredients (as in step 5) just until combined and the mixture is thick and chunky. It is important not to over mix the batter. You do not want it smooth. Over mixing will yield in a tough  rubbery bread.
8. Scrape the batter in to the prepared pan.
9. Bake until the bread(the crust or the outer layer of the bread) is golden brown and the toothpick comes out clean. It takes about 55 to 60 minutes.(This time may vary from oven to oven. So keep an eye on the bread as soon as you hit the 50 minute mark)
10. Once baked, keep on the wire rack to cool and then remove from the pan.
11. You can serve the cake at room temperature or slightly warm.

Note:

• Instead of walnuts, you can use other nuts like pecans, almonds etc.As a variation you can even use raisins or semi sweet chocolate chips.
• The original recipe used 1 tsp ground cinnamon but i did not use it as my hubby does not like the flavor of cinnamon in cakes. hence it omitted it but you are welcome to use it.
• You serve it slightly warm with coffee or tea. you can even serve it with some vanilla ice cream on top of it.
• I have even tried making this cake with vegetable oil instead of butter and it turns out equally good.