Celebrating 100th post with Birthday Cake (Eggless)

This is my 100th post and I am celebrating it with the cake that I baked for my daughter's birthday. My journey in the food blog world was pretty slow, but I hope the visitors enjoyed the recipes that I posted here.

20th September is my daughter's birthday and I had a desire to bake a cake for the occasion. Again problem is to bake an eggless cake. After some research and trials I followed this recipe for cake. It turned out great. The cake was moist and fluffy. Let me write down how I did and I would also like to write down the recipe here once again.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar (I did not have apple cider vinegar, I guess you can use white vinegar too)
1 ½ scant cups plain soymilk
2 1/8 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 1/8 cups sugar
½ cup oil
1 ¼ tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven at 350 degrees F. Grease two 9" cake pans with butter. Line the bottom with wax paper. This helps in removing the cake from the pan easily.

Take vinegar in bottom of the measuring cup and fill with soymilk which should make one and half cups. Mix well and set aside for few minutes. You should see that the mixture will curdle.

In a bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Add oil and vanilla extract to the soymilk mixture and pour the mixture into the dry ingredients. Mix such that everything is well combined and you don't see any lumps. Divide the batter into both the pans.

Bake in the middle rack for about 20 to 25 minutes. Place the cakes pans on the wire rack and let them cool. Place them in the refrigerator to cool them completely.

For Frosting:


6 tbsp butter (room temperature)
1/4 cup milk
4 cups confectioner sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat butter until it is smooth and creamy. Add 2 cups of sugar, 2 tbsp milk and vanilla extract. Beat until it is smooth. Repeat the same with the remaining sugar and milk, adding 1 cup sugar and 1 tbsp milk at a time. The frosting should be smooth, creamy and fluffy. I took little portion aside and added green colour to that (this is to write the letters on the cake). To the rest of it I added pink colour.

Take the cakes out. I cut one of the cakes to level it, but I was not successful at cutting it properly. Reason could be that the cake was still warm. I did not have enough time to cool them completely. Next time when I make I may want to invert the cake bringing the bottom on top. Place a portion of frosing on the top and spread with spatula. Place the other cake on top of this and place the remaining frosting on the top of this cake. Spread on the top and sides with this frosting using spatula. Level it properly. I took the green colour frosting in an icing bag and wrote the letters and slightly decorated the cake.


I am sending this to my own event Sunday Snacks with the theme being Bake it.

Baked Bread Rolls

I had Natures own 7 Whole Grains bread in my refrigerator and was close to expiration date. I was making Grill cheese sandwich or toast it and eat with cream cheese. But still had more than half the packet so I planned to make these bread rolls. These are usually deep fried in oil, but I wanted a healthier version with healthy bread. So, I baked them. They were not too crispy but were good enough to have them as snack. Here is the recipe:


For Stuffing:

2 medium potatoes
1 small onion
1/4 cup green peas
2 green chillies
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
2 tsp coriander-cumin powder
1/2 tsp amchur powder
salt as per taste
a pinch turmeric powder
1/2 tsp channa dal
1/2 tsp urad dal
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
few curry leaves

1. Peel and boil potatoes in salted water. Drain and keep them aside.

2. Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan and add channa dal, urad dal and mustard seeds. When the dals turn golden brown colour add curry leaves, green chillies, onion and saute until onion is transluscent.

3. Add the ginger-garlic paste, coriander cumin powder, amchur powder, turmeric and saute for couple more minutes.

4. Add boiled potatoes and stir well until everything is well blended. Mash the potatoes with the back of the spoon slightly. Add little salt and mix well.

For Bread rolls:

8 slices of Bread (you can use any bread of your choice)
water to dip the bread

Dip each slice of bread in water and immediately squeeze out the water. Place a big spoon full of curry in the middle of the bread and roll it to cover the curry. Place it on a non-stick cookie pan. Make sure the rolled ends are placed down so that they don't open up. Continue the same procedure with the rest of the bread slices.

Pre-heat oven at 375 degrees F. In the mean time place the bread rolls in the refrigerator. Once the oven is ready, coat each bread roll with little oil and place them in the oven. Bake for about 30 minutes. Set the oven to broil and place the bread rolls on the top of the rack and wait for just few seconds. This is to bring little colour to the top of the bread rolls. Hot hot bread rolls are ready to be snacked on.


This goes to my own event Sunday Snacks with the theme Bake it.

I would like to send this to Dhivya vikram of Dil se for her event called Diet Foods. To make it more healthier and to add protien to them, make the stuffing with some legumes or with paneer or tofu.

Dum Aloo

Once my brother bought Dum Aloo from frozen section in an Indian store. I liked the taste so much that I wanted to reproduce it at home. I noted down the ingredients from the box and came up with this recipe. I must say I was pretty impressed with the way it turned out. Everybody at home liked it, especially my brother. Here is the recipe:


10 baby potatoes
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp kasuri methi
Cilantro to garnish

For Masala paste:
1/4 cup peanuts
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp poppy seeds
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tbsp coconut fresh grated
1 small onion
1 tbsp coriander cumin powder
1 1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 cup tomato puree
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 serrano pepper or green chillies
salt as per taste

Peel and prick with fork on baby potatoes. Boil them in salted water until they are tender. Drain and fry them in little oil until they turn slightly golden brown.

Slightly roast peanuts, sesame seeds and poppy seeds. Take them into blender and add the rest of the ingredients for masala. Blend them into a fine puree.

Heat 2 to 3 tbsp oil in a pan and add cumin seeds, let them splutter and then add the puree, salt and let it cook until oil seperates. Now add the boiled baby potatoes, kasuri methi and let it cook for five more minutes and turn off the heat. Garnish with cilantro and serve with either roti or rice.