Eggless Zebra Cake

Once in a while there comes an opportunity to bake for a dear friend. RJ and I are from the same town, almost same growing up environment. Even though he comes from an entitled family, his heart is pure gold. He is down to earth and believes in working hard and paving a way for himself. This cake for a celebration of him, his birthday. 🙂

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Frosting:

200 gms Amul whipping cream

200 gms dark chocolate

50 gms powdered sugar

10 gms butter

• Gently heat the cream in a bowl.
• Remove from heat and add finely chopped chocolate.
• let it stand for 3-4 min and then mix until the chocolate melts.
• Add the butter.
• If the chocolate/butter still has lumps, put it on the gas for few seconds and take it off immediately. It only needs gentle heat.
• Mix well and let it stand. It needs about 4-5hours to thicken well.
• Using a hand beater, beat the mix for 5 min, it should increase in volume.
• Put it in the fridge for 15 min before putting on the cake.

Filling

Filling with chocolate chips

Frosting

Cake:

All purpose flour( Maida)- 2 cups

  Thick curd-1-1/4 cup

  Sugar powder-1.5 cup

  Baking soda-1 tsp

  Baking powder-1 tsp

  Cooking oil-1/2 cup

  Vanilla essence – few drops

  Cocoa powder-3 tbsp

  Milk- 3/4 cup [Put 2 tsp vinegar in it and let it stand for 10 min. It will thicken] and 3 tbsp

Method:

• Pre heat oven to 180C for 10 min on bake mode.
• Mix curd and sugar in a bowl. Mix until the sugar dissolves
• Add the baking soda and powder to it and keep it aside for 5 min. It will start to bubble.
• In another bowl, mix the milk, essence and oil.
• Sift the flour 2 times.
• Add half the flour and half the liquid mix to the curd mix. Mix with a spatula only until combined. Do not over beat.
• Add the remaining flour and liquids and mix.
• In a smaller bowl, mix the 3 tbsp cocoa powder and 3 tbsp milk.
• Add half the cake batter to the cocoa mix and mix gently until combined.
• Line a cake tin with butter paper/dust with butter and flour.
• Using same size spoon [I used 1/4 cup measures], alternate the batters in the tin to form concentric circles.
• Bake for 25-30 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Take it out of the oven and let it sit for 15 min before demoulding it.

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Do write to me, once you bake it 🙂

Cheers,

Sending this to:

 Spicing your life

Many Layer cake/Tree cake

Some days you see a picture and it stays in your mind. This picture then wants you to move ahead and give your best shot at achieving it. For me it was the picture I saw on SBS.com. This cake is a work of art and has so many delicate steps that the time at hand seems less. 2.5 hours to achieve the symmetrical layers is no joke. It is sheer love.

You shall need [Recipe adapted from SBS.com]

10 egg yolks
1.5 cups caster sugar
250 g butter, plus extra, melted (optional)
2 tsp natural vanilla extract
8 egg whites
1½ cups plain flour, sifted
3 tbsp cocoa powder mixed with 3 tbsp warm water

Method:

• In a bowl, add the egg yolks and 1/2 cup of sugar. Beat it till it is nice fluffy and frothy.
• In another bowl, beat the butter and 3/4 cup of sugar until it is pale and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and mix well.
• Now in a large dry bowl, whisk the egg whites till they form stiff peaks.
• Add the remaining sugar to the whites and mix gently.
• Mix the egg yolk and butter mix. Fold in the sifter flour.
• Now take a little of the whites and mix in the yolk, butter and flour mixture.
• Now pour all the yolk mix in the whites bowl and fold it through without knocking out much air.
• Divide the batter in two equal halves. I used 1/2 a cup measure to equally distribute.
• Mix the cocoa and water mix in one of the batter.
• Pre heat an oven to 160C.
• Grease a springform pan and add a layer of butter paper/parchment paper on the bottom. [I used a 7″ pan]
• Now pour 1/3 cup of the vanilla batter and swirl the tin to spread evenly.
• Bake for 12 min or until the sponge springs back at you.
• Take it out and put 1/3 cup of the batter and repeat the process.
• Keep a brush and melted butter at hand to grease the edges each time before adding another layer. This will make sure the cake comes out clean.
• Once the last layer is baked, insert a skewer in the center and confirm the done-ness.

• Let it cool to touch and remove from the pan.

• Cut and serve with love.

Cheers,

Eggless Dates and Apple cake with streusel topping

I have been dying to make a streusel cake for sometime now. It is noting but a crunchy topping over a beautiful cake. It is very simple to make as well.

I used dates and apples for this cake as I wanted to play around with the sugar comtent of the cake. Adding naturally sweet ingredients gave me that freedom. Here is how you can make this gorgeous cake.

You shall need:

3/4 cup… Whole Wheat flour

3/4 cup… All Purpose Flour

1/2 cup… Chopped pitted dates

1/2 cup… diced apples (I didnt peel them)

1/2 cup… Light brown sugar

1/2 cup… White sugar

1.5 tsp… Baking powder

1 tsp… Salt

1 cup… butter milk (In a cup of milk, add 2 tsp vinegar and let it stand for 5 min. Post this you shall have the butter milk ready to use)

1 cup… refined flavorless oil.

For the topping:

4 tbsp… All purpose flour

2 tbsp… Softened butter

3 tbsp… light brown sugar

Method:

• Pre heat an oven to 180C and line an 8″ cake tin and keep aside.
• For the batter, in a bowl, mix the dry ingredients (except the apples and dates) with a whisk and keep aside.
• In a smaller bowl, mix the wet ingredients.
• Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients.
• Mix well with a spatula.
• Once all of it is amalgamated, add the apples and dates and mix well.
• Pout it in the cake tin.
• For the topping, tip the flour and sugar in a bowl, use a spoon to mix through the butter.
• You should land up with a rubble of flour and sugar.
• Cover the cake batter with the topping mix uniformly and bake for 30-35 min or until the skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

streusel before being baked

baked streusel

Cheers,

Happy Birthday DH!

Made this cake for P’s birthday 🙂

More on this in a bit.
Its a 7 layer neapolitan cake.
It was a hit 😀 everyone loved it

Eggless Zebra Cake

I saw many pictures of rainbow cakes/marble cakes/zebra cakes.

But the last one caught my fancy. I just had to make it soon 🙂

The basic idea is to make the chocolate sponge mix and vanilla sponge mix overlap in layers.

I used the recipe as under for the sponge:

2 cup………………………Refined Flour/Maida

1-1/2 cup…………………Sugar [Fine grain]

1 Tsp………………………..Vanilla essence/extract

1/2 cup……………………..Vegatable oil [flavourless is better]

1/2 cup……………………….Milk

1-1/4 cup………………………warm water

1 tsp……………………………..Baking Powder

1 Tsp………………………………Baking Soda

1tsp……………………………….Lemon Juice

1 Pinch……………………………Salt

For the chocolate sponge mix:

In addition to the above-

1 Tbsp……………………………….Unsweetened cocoa powder

1 Tbsp……………………………… Drinking Chocolate

1/2 Tbsp…………………………….. Instant coffee

1/4 cup……………………………. Warm Water

Method:

• Pre heat oven to 180 degree C.
• Sieve flour, baking soda, Salt and Baking Powder.
• In a seperate bowl mix together vanilla essence, Sugar, oil, water, lemon juice and milk.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and make a smooth batter.
• Divide the mixture in roughly halves.
• In one of the half add the cocoa and drninking chocolate.
• Mix together the 1/4 cup warm water and coffee powder an add to the chocolate batter bowl.
• Mix all well until you achieve the same smooth batter as that of the vanilla sponge.
• Grease an 8 inch cake pan with Butter or alternatively line it with parchment/butter paper.
• Pour the mixture alternatively 2 tbsp at a time from the center.
• Do not force the mixture to take a direction.

• Put in the oven for 30-35 min or until a toothpick comes out clean [insert it in the middle]
• DO not open the oven door for the first 10-15min.

Well this was the end result 🙂 Do let me know how it goes for you.

Cheers,

Pinksocks