Good news with a piece of Cake (Almond Essense)

Some of you might have noticed that lately my posts are becoming infrequent. Well, I have a good reason! My husband and I are expecting a baby!!! yayyyyy! Its not until second week of December this year (just entered my 17th week, but I thought I would share this with you all.

Here is the Almond flavor cake which I made the other day. Its very close to Vanilla Cake. Just replace the vanilla essence with Almond extract!

Zebra Cake

One of the most visually appealing, yet, easy to make cakes is a Zebra Cake. My hubby keeps calling this as Marble Cake :) I made this for Valentines Day. This is my first attempt at Zebra Cake and I am quite impressed with myself for this...ha ha ha! I got this recipe from Bakingbites. Thanks Baking Bites!

Ingredients:
All purpose flour: 2 cups
Baking powder: 1 tbsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Cocoa powder(dark) :2 1/2 tbsp
Large eggs: 4
Sugar: 1 cup
Milk: 1 cup
Vegetable oil: 3/4cup
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Almond extract: 1/8 tsp
Round cake pan, 9 inches

Method:

• Mix the flour, salt and baking powder and keep aside. 
• In another big bowl, mix eggs and sugar well in such a way that sugar is almost melted and the mixture is lightly creamy. 
• To the eggs mixture, add milk, oil, vanilla and almond extracts and mix well until everything is combined properly. 
• Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix well until combined. 
• Measure just under 2 cups of the batter and transfer to another bowl. To this, add the cocoa powder and 1 tbsp of milk and mix well until combined.

• Now you have 1 bowl of plain batter and 1 bowl of cocoa batter. 
• Line a 9-inch round cake pan with a circle of parchment paper and lightly grease the bottom and sides of the pan. I didn't have the paper, so I just greased the pan and I had some difficulty getting the cake out of the pan.
• Pre-heat the oven to 350 D F.
• Pour in 3 tbsp of plain batter into the pan and let it spread a little. On top of that plain batter, add 3 tbsp of cocoa batter (use separate spoons). 

• Alternate the spoonfuls until you exhaust all the batter.Take care while pouring in the batter, its easy to mess up (like I did the last layer).

• Bake for 38-40 minutes(please use a timer) in 350 D F preheated oven. 
• Let the cake sit out for 10-15 minutes and you can remove from the pan and enjoy!

Happy Caking! 

Easy Breezy Vanilla Cake

Have you ever had an afternoon when all you want to do is watch a movie with perhaps coffee and cake? Well, I did about 2 weeks ago. I was not in a mood to do elaborate baking, so, here is a simple, yet, great tasting cake!

 All Purpose Flour:1 1/4 cups
Sugar: 1 cup (you can easily reduce this to 3/4)
Eggs: 1
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Baking Powder: 1 tbsp
Margarine: Softened 1/4 cup
Milk: 1/2 cup
Salt: 3/4 tsp
8 inch round cake pan

Method:
Pre heat the oven to 350 D F. Beat the egg and milk together. Pour in the vanilla extract to the milk.
In another bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Now add the margarine and mix until combined. 

Pour in to a baking pan and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the pan. When its cool, you can sprinkle some icing sugar.

Morning Glory Muffins

Morning Glory Muffins are one of my favorite breakfast items. There cannot be a better way of starting a day than with a freshly baked, warm muffin.
Before I started baking, I used to spend a ot of money on buying these outside. Now its a different story. Its fairly easy actually; go through the recipe, you will know what I mean.

Below measurements would yield 6 glorious muffins.

Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour: 1 cup
Baking Powder: 1/2 tsp
Sugar (brown or white): 1/2 cup (you can also reduce this amount to reduce sweetness)
Cinnamon: 1 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp

Mix all the above dry ingredients in a bowl and keep aside.

Carrots: 1 cup, grated
Apples: 1/2 cup, grated
Walnuts: 1/4 cup
Raisins: 1/4 cup
Flaked Coconut: 1/4 cup (optional)

Mix all these in a bowl.

Oil: 1/2 cup (You can substitute oil with apple sauce for a healthier option)
Egg: 1, beaten
 Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Mix these in another small bowl.

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 D F
2. Line in the muffin pan.
3. Mix all the ingredients (wet should go into dry ingredients).
4. Fill in the muffin liners until full.
5. Bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Blueberry Muffins

Can there be any better way to start a day other than with a warm muffin and freshly brewed coffee? Please say no :). The other day I made 3 carrot muffins and 3 blueberry muffins. For now, I will write down the recipe for blueberry muffins.

Below ingredients would yield 6 muffins.

Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour (maida): 1 cup
Baking Powder: 1 tsp
Salt: 1/8 tsp

Mix these dry ingredients together in a bowl.

Egg: 1
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Butter: 1/4 cup
Milk: 1/3 cup
Blueberries: 1/2-3/4 cup

Preheat the oven to 370 D F.

Gently mix sugar and butter. Then add egg and milk and beat for a minute. Now, to the flour, add the wet ingredients. Remember, always, wet ingredients go into dry ingredients. Mix only until everything is well moistened (this will ensure fluffy muffins). Now gently fold the blue berries.
Line the muffin liners and fill the mixture. bake in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.

Lowfat and Eggless Cupcakes

Note: Click on the picture to view the original size.
My sister in law and my good friend both are vegetarians. So, whenever I make something nice without egg, I get all exited and I share it with them (at least the recipe) the first thing! I have tried several methods of baking without egg; I used mashed banana also once which was a total flop.
Here is one recipe which is low fat and yet great in flavor and consistency. All you vegans out there, you will be pleasantly surprised by this simple recipe. Below measurements bake about 30 mini cupcakes.

Brown Sugar (light or dark)- 2/3 cup
All purpose flour (maida)- 1 and 1/2 cup
Vanilla extract-1 tsp
salt- a pinch
Baking powder - 1 tbsp (no, you cannot avoid this)
flavorless oil (I used regular cooking oil) – 1 tbsp
Apple cider vinegar (optional): 1 tbsp
Water- 1 cup

Optional: Vanilla frosting.

Make sure you follow the exact measurements. This makes a lot of difference in taste and texture. I had to try this many times before I got the desired taste.

Procedure:
1. Mix all the above ingredients with the exception of water.
2. Then add water and sift thoroughly without any lumps. This is the difficult part (yeah baby...use that muscle). Don't add more water. 1 cup should be enough for the above measurements.
3. At this point pre heat the oven to 350F/180C.
4. Line in the cupcake liners in the baking tray.
5. Fill them to just below the trim. Don't over fill it as these expand while baking.
6. Once the oven is ready, bake them for 17 minutes (14-17mins for mini cakes and 18-20 mins for regular muffins). Remove them from the oven and let them cool a little bit before adding frosting (which is optional, I used Vanilla).


Frosting:
I was too lazy to make frosting from the scratch; so I used the store bought Vanilla frosting.

Healthy Carrot Cake

Who amongst us don’t like sweets? OK, let me re-phrase, who amongst us don’t like cakes; especially, home baked, healthy cake’s? Yeah…I know the answer 
Today I am going to share with you the recipe of one of easiest cakes ever! Yes! I am talking about Carrot cake.

For the longest time I had the fear for baking cake at home. Even when I tried this recipe, which I picked up from my neighbor, I was a bit apprehensive. But the dear neighbor assured me that it’s going to be just fine! So there I went. And here is the recipe with a few pictures attached…I have tried to make it as healthy as it can get. It came out just Yummmmy! Its not only yummy, its also healthy because of the fruits and nuts in it 

Ingredients:
White four: ½ cup
Whole wheat flour: ½ cup
Honey: just over ¼ cup (or sugar)
Vegetable oil: 1/2 cup
Eggs: 2
Baking soda: ¾ tsp
Cinnamon: 1 tsp
Salt: ½ tsp
Grated carrot: 1 cup
Apples: pealed and grated, ¾ cup (you can substitute pine apple for this)
Walnuts/pecans: ¼ cup
Raisins (optional): ½ cup

And 9 inch baking pan.

Method:
1. Mix all the dry flours, white, whole wheat, salt, soda and cinnamon together.
2. In another large bowl, mix oil, eggs. To this add honey/sugar. Beat it for 2 minutes.
3. To the wet ingredients, add the flours. Remember that you always want to add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, so I had been told.
4. Mix just until everything is mixed, don’t overly mix.
5. To this cake mixture, add the dry fruits.
6. Take the baking pan and gently cover it with a baking sheet, you can use the same one you use for cookies, and grease it lightly with flour.
7. Pre heat the oven to 350 D F.
8. Bake the cake for 35 minutes and check the doneness by gently piercing the cake in middle with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean, then it’s done. If not, bake for another 5 minutes and check.










That’s it! Remove the cake from oven and place it on a serving tray. You can either have it plain or use cream cheese frosting.
Your dear ones would love you forever for the taste! And what can be a better gift than this for a birthday party, picnic or just-because occasions?!?

Nutritional Facts:
1/4 cup honey: 260 calories (100% carbs)
1/2 cup Oil: 950 calories (100% fat)
Nuts: about 500 calories (3% vitamin C, 11% calcium and 19% iron