Moist Butter Cake

Hi All,

I was craving for some home made butter cake from a long time! Even though I bake cream cakes a lot these days for orders pouring in but the aroma of freshly baked butter cake is out of this world! This recipe is definitely a keeper! The cake turned out so moist and buttery! Its not too oily or heavy at all. The added vanilla takes this cake to another level! 

Its a perfect cake to be enjoyed lazy sunday afternoon with some hot coffee and a book! It perfect cake to be served as snacks for kids or even pack it in tiffin for mid day meal.

I have adapted the recipe from The Little Teochew
Serves 6 to 8
Moist Butter Cake
Ingredients:-
- 195g all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 170g unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar, 200 gms
- 2 medium eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 12 tbsp whole milk


Procedure:-
- Preheat the oven to 175 degress C
- Sieve flour, salt and baking powder.
- Beat sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 mins
- Beat in one egg at a time in the sugar and butter mixture until well mixed
- Add in vanilla and mix well
- On low speed add the flour alternating between milk in the egg mixture. Make sure no lumps are there.
- Pour the mixture into greased and floured cake pan.
- Bake for about 40 to 45 mins until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
- Cool completely before cutting the cake or else you'll end up with lots of crumbs.
- Always use a serrated knife to cut the cake.
- Serve with coffee or tea as snack or add a dollop of cream fresh and some fruits to serve it as dessert!
- All in all a perfect butter cake!

Just look at those fine cake crumb! Isn't it gorgeous? You can omit vanilla and add in any flavor you like - lemon, butterscotch, orange, cardamon etc or throw in some chocolate chips!. It's very versatile recipe so do try it out and let me know how it turned out!

Until next time take care!

Love,

Chocolate Vanilla Marble Cake

Dear All,

I have always been a big fan of marble cakes! The chocolate swirls wrapped around delicious vanilla makes the cake even more exotic! Though by looking at the photo it may seem tough to get perfect that marbling effect but its very much simple! Marble cake is nothing but plain vanilla pound cake divided into half and mixed the other half with either rich coco powder or melted bitter sweet chocolate. Once you have spooned the batter into a bundt pan run a knife along the batter to get those perfect swirls. So easy!

Mango Pound Cake - Step by step pictures

Hi All,

A life without love is like a year without summer
~ Swedish Proverb

Summers always brings back memorable memories of school days when we used to wait desperately for our summer vacations!! I always used to accompany mom to buy green mangoes for making various sweet and spicy mango pickles. We used to make around 10kg's of mango pickle every year. Most of which we would share with our aunt's and uncle's families nevertheless it was fun to watch my ma and grandma making those yummy pickles. It was like a ritual which we used to follow every single year!

Eggless Mawa Cake - Saffron and cardamon flavored eggless milk cakes

Dear All,

This post has been pending in my drafts from quite some time now and finally today I decided to go ahead and share it with all you wonderful people out there. Mawa cakes are plain simple cakes made out of khoya, these are perfect for tea time treats, very rich in flavor and fulfilling at the same time. I have grown up eating these yummy cakes from Parsi bakeries, I still remember my mom buying a packet of 6 small muffins and we kids would finish them in no time. I had bookmarked this recipe long time back and finally decided to give it a try few days back. I have added few saffron strands and some powdered cardamons to give it a rich and festive flavor. You can even try adding some cashews and currants, which I am planning to add next time :)

On a lighter note here's a sms which one of my friends messaged me...Once a beautiful woman was asked to describe Marriage..She said: "Sacrificing the admiration of many men for criticism of one man" ...I am not sure if you all will agree with this but I do find some truth in it :) Let me know your views

Original Recipe Source - Ravum's Recipe
The recipe yields close to 18/19 small muffins
Wet Ingredients:-
1 tin condensed milk (400 gms)
1/3 cup butter, Amul is fine
200 gms mawa or khoya
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup milk (this is to be used while mixing dry and wet ingredients if the batter is too thick)

Dry Ingredients:-
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour (210 gms)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp freshly crushed cardamon powder
few strands of saffron
1/4 cup of finely chopped cashews (optional)


Procedure:-

• Grease and line 18 muffin cup cake moulds.
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
• Mix all the wet ingredients together except 1/4 cup milk, heat this mixture until all the butter is melted and it becomes homogenous mixture. Cool it to room temperature.
• Sift all purpose flour and baking powder, add in saffron and cardamon powder.
• Mix the dry ingredients with the wet mixture, if the batter is too thick use 1/4 cup of milk, the batter should be similar to idli batter consistency.
• Fill in the muffin liners till 3/4 full and bake them at 175 degrees C for exactly 20 mins.
• These cakes get browned very fast so keep an eye on them if you are baking over 20 mins.
• Enjoy these with a warm glass of milk or during tea time.

Verdict:- I got approximately 19 muffins out the recipe, this recipe is very easy to make and extremely rich in taste. Adding dry fruits like cashews and currants would make a lovely combo of flavors! A must try for all mawa cake lovers! I made a batch for my office colleagues and it was a BIG hit with everyone :)

Eggless Date and Walnut Cake/Loaf ...Low Fat and Healthy!!!

Dear All,

The moment I think about dates (khajoor) the first thing that comes to my mind is Pani Puri and the second is this Date and Walnut Cake. This cake is not light but quite dense , not too sweet and perfect combination with some tea or coffee. This recipe is inspired from Eggless Date Cake which I had bookmarked ages ago from Shilpa's site, this cake has almost 100% success rates and by the popularity of this cake I had to try it soon. The adventure began when I saw a packet of seedless dates in my fridge. Being Anaemic I was advised to have black dates regularly due the high iron content in them. I have dates as a meal filler in between my meals, they are extremely rich and fulfilling, so next time you have craving to have something sweet go and buy yourself a packet of dates!  Lets stay healthy!

Original Recipe Source: Shilpa from Aayi's Recipes
Ingredients:
25-26 seedless dates
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar (You can increase/reduce depending upon the sweetness of your dates)
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
3 tbsp oil
1 1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/4 cups of finely chopped walnuts
1/4 cup of finely chopped dates

Procedure:-

• Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C, grease and flour a loaf tin.
• Soak dates in warm milk for about half an hour until they become little soft and mushy to touch
• Add sugar and grind them into smooth paste along with the milk in which the dates were soaked.
• Add oil and mix. 
• Sieve the flour and baking soda together. 
• Add flour one tablespoon at a time and mix well after each addition.
• Add the finely chopped walnuts and dates and mix well.
• Grate few walnuts on top of the cake and bake it for 40 to 45 mins until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Verdict? The cake is quite dense in nature due the dates puree used, the texture i got was quite fudgy in nature! The color of the cake highly depends upon the type of the dates you have used and varies accordingly. So if you cake is darker in color than donot worry , it does not mean the cake was burnt :)

For best result always use fresh dates and seedless ones which will speed up the process of baking as well. You can also use all whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour to make it even more healthy! Hope you enjoyed this cake. Until next time, take care!