Eggless Carrot Cake

Its been long long time since I posted any recipes...I had my family over from India for a month and hence hardly found time to blog..was busy enjoying with them! Miss them a lot! We had fun trying out the dishes ...shopping etc etc....we even made a trip to Florida....if we come to think of it now...its so scary...not sure how we made it with 2 kids and an infant! It was all worth it...

I made this carrot cake to mark couple of occasions that week - one among that is my blog's anniversary....am not able to believe that I have been blogging for the past three years.. and I hope I will continue blogging ...thanks to all my blog friends and family.

I tried making this carrot cake couple of years ago since its one of H's favorite but did not get it quite right...but this time I got it right...it was moist for an eggless cake! I was happy with the outcome!

Ingredients:

2 Cups Finely grated carrots
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Sugar
3/4th Stick Unsalted Butter @ room temperature
1/2 Tin Condensed Milk
1/2 Cup Water
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Cinnamon powder
1/2 Tsp Nutmeg Powder
1/4 Cup Finely chopped and roasted cashew (unsalted)
1/4 Cup finely chopped and roasted walnuts (unsalted)

Method:

Sift the flour. Rub the butter nicely with the flour till it mixes well with the flour. Now add the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and mix well.
Add the condensed milk and mix it without forming lumps.
Add the carrots, nutmeg and cinnamon powder.
At this stage if you feel the mixture is too thick. Add water little by little to get the consistency.
Mix the nuts in little bit of flour to prevent it from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
Now add the nuts to the cake mixture
(Normally cashew is not added to the carrot cake...but I added them since am fond of it)
Preheat the oven to 350 deg.
Grease the pan with butter and dust the pan with flour to prevent the cake from sticking on to it.
Pour the mixture into the pan and pop it into the oven.
It takes about 40 minutes to bake it.
Insert a fork to see if it is done!
I did not make any frosting for the cake as I did not want to add "extra" calories ...it goes well with cream cheese frosting!

Eggless Almond Date Cake

I wanted to bake this for the Valentines day but did not find time to bake it on that day...I made it last Sunday to have it with a cuppa coffee.....you can bake a cake on any day right...not just for Valentines day.
I have made the original version of the cake from this blog but this time I wanted to improvise it and make it to suit my taste. It came out good. I like them as is and that way you do not add extra calories by adding frosting. But if you want to make it on any special days - like birthdays or anniversary you may add the frosting of your choice.

Here goes my version of the recipe:

1 Cup All purpose flour
1/2 Stick Butter at room temperature
1/2 Cup Almonds (about 50 pieces)
3/4 Tsp Baking Powder
15 Dates
1 Cup Sugar
3/4th Cup Milk
9 Inch Pan

Method

Microwave the dates by adding milk for about 3 minutes.
Boil water in a vessel and add the almonds (Let the boil well before adding the almonds. Otherwise you will find it difficult to peel the skin).
Peel the skin from the almonds.
Grind the dates and then add the almonds. Add the sugar at the end and grind it along with the dates and almonds.
Preheat the oven to 350 degree.
Sift the flour and baking powder.
Slowly add the flour to the almond date mixture. Mix well without lumps.
Add the butter. Mix it well.
Grease the pan and dust it with the all purpose flour as you may always do.
Pour the cake mixture into the pan and bake till the fork or tooth pick comes without sticking. It gets done in about 30 minutes. Its a super easy recipe...try it without fail.

Eggless Chocolate Cake

My son came with a pretty card from the school for the Father's day (he got a card for Mother's day too but I could not bake anything special since we were on our trip to Vegas during that weekend) and that lifted my spirits to make a cake for my family on the occasion of Father's day..I have been (for a while) thinking about baking a chocolate cake. H and myself are fond of chocolate cakes and it looks my son is also following the suit. If you ask him what he wants for his birthday he will say "brown cake" and I am guessing that he is looking for a chocolate cake! When I had this cake it reminded me of my child hood days..I remember baking this cake along with my perima in an oven not the conventional one .."we used to keep the biscuit box on top of the stove and bake"...it tasted the same way....I used to bake it along with her and used to enjoy decorating it with an icing cone...good old days! Thank Goodness I baked it on Friday itself....will you believe it we were without power for almost a day (from Friday evening to Saturday evening) due to severe thunderstorms ...my friends have experienced it earlier....but this was my very first time in the US without power for a day!!..in India it is not that difficult to manage without power but here....everything comes to a grinding halt...you can't even make a cup of coffee without power (wish I had a stove that runs on gas rather than coil!)...back home my folks were hardly able to believe it and asked me questions like..where on earth are you living??,,is it the US and they were proudly saying in Chennai they hardly have power cut these days....All I could think was - "glad I baked it on Friday afternoon"

So with my spirits lifted high I open my beloved perima's notes in search for a chocolate cake and found one.
I made some modifications to it though!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup maida

1/2 tsp Baking Powder,
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 stick butter at room temperature
1/2 cup refined oil
1/2 cup Soda
1/2 Cup Water
1 1/2 cup Sugar (you may add little bit more if you have a sweet tooth)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
Macadamia nuts roasted and cut into small pieces- sprinkle on top

Sieve Maida, Baking powder, Cocoa Powder and Baking Soda together into a bowl.
Add the butter and refined oil (I use canola).
Mix it well. Add the sugar and mix it well.
I got the tip of using soda from the food network and other food related shows. So I used that too.
Add a teaspoon of vanilla essence and again mix it well.
Pre-heat the oven upto 350 Degree.
Grease the pan and pour the mixture. Top it with macadamia nuts.
Bake it for about 30 minutes or until the fork comes clean!
Enjoy!

When my son got up from his nap he was so happy to cut the cake and he had a piece of it too...Happy Father's day...yesterday we had been invited to one of our friend's son's birthday in Chicago and we had a whale of time ..my son enjoyed the party as well as painting the fish at "color me mine" the place where the party was hosted!

Eggless Condensed Milk Cake

It was yet another day when I bored of cooking the same old stuff..roti, dhal, channa. sambhar...I was thinking of other options for dinner...but nothing came to my mind. I could have atleast spent that time browsing or reading a nice book rather than pondering over what to cook??? I drag myself to the kitchen to make dinner and finally decide to make roti and dhal...when I open the shelf  tada...I find the condensed milk sitting right there behind my wheat flour...so I finish making the dough for the roti...cook the dhal...and set out to make this yummy condensed milk cake...

It was rich and delicious..and  tasted similar to the famous plum cake that we regularly get to eat from the bakery back in India. I always love to eat the deserts as soon as I finish making it ..hot hot hot ....and could not wait to eat it..I let it cool down and turned it on a plate..it just came off without sticking at the bottom of the pan..I was so happy..I rejoiced the moment  and then cut a piece and took a bite....it was soft, moist (warm too) and nutty in the middle and was crispy (from the edges) on the sides.....everyone must enjoy baking this cake some time or the other...Before I forget...this recipe is also one from the book that my Perima gave...This does not call for too much butter or sugar so in a way that is goooodddddddd.....

Ingredients for making it -

1/2 Tin Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
3/4th Cup Chopped nuts - Raisins, Pecan, Walnuts and Almonds
1/2 Stick Butter (50 gms)
1 Tsp Cocoa Powder
2 TBSP Sugar
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Pinch Salt
1/2 Cup Water

Sift the Flour, Salt, Baking Powder, Cocoa Powder and Baking soda.
Rub in the butter and sugar and mix well.

Roast the nuts in the microwave (except raisins) for about 2 min in total (microwave them for 30 min and then stir it up repeat the process). After they are roasted toss it with the all purpose flour.
(Note: Whenever you are adding nuts or fruits always remember to toss it in little flour before adding it to the mix. That way these nuts do not settle at the bottom while baking.)

Add the condensed milk, water and the nuts and mix well.
Grease the pan. You need a 9 inch cake pan for baking this cake.
(Note before pouring the cake mix into the pan - Always sprinkle little flour on the greased pan and turn it upside down to get the excess flour out. This helps in preventing the cake to stick at the bottom and come off easily when getting the cake out of the pan).

Pre-heat the oven for 350 degree.
Pour the mixture in the cake pan. Bake the cake for 25 minutes or until the fork comes clean when immersed in the cake.
This cake is good to be served as is since it has lot of nuts in it. You may top it with whip cream just before serving.