Eggless Vanilla Cake and Happy Holi to everyone!!

Dear All,

Wishing you all a very Happy Holi!  May god gift you all colors of life, colors of joy, colors of happiness, colors of love, colors of friendship and all other colors you want to paint in your life!

I know I have been away from the blogging world from quite sometime, I do appreciate all your emails and FB messages concerning my disappearance and I sincerely want to thank you all for remembering me.

Today's cake was a special request from one of my closest friend and my roommate S for her sister. It was around 6.30 pm on Thursday and I was in office eagerly waiting to go home and I got a call from S, the conversation went something like this.....

Me: Hello S...
S: Hey are you busy right now?
Me: Nah...tell me what happened?
(Just then there is lots of disturbance in the line..it happens all the time)
S: Hello...Hello...can you hear me?
Me: Ha ha... bolo na....
S: Hello...heelllooooo?
Me: S throw your mobile away...grrr...
S: Hello..yes now I can hear you...actually I wanted a favor from you?
Me: Sure..?
(Again disturbance in the line)
S: Actually I wanted to know if you can make a caaalle...
(and the line went dead, I literally jumped from my seat as I am sure she meant CAKE)
Again S called up and this time from her office phone
S: Hello Parita...
Me: Kaunsa cake banana hai??
S: Eggless vanilla banaate hai na..my sister has specially requested
Me: Neki aur puch puch... DONE!!!

Unfortunately I reached home pretty late that day, it was almost 11 pm when we finished our dinner so we decided to get up early the next morning and make the cake. We got up 5am in the morning to bake this cake....yeah i am one crazy baker..and it was well worth the effort! I have used this recipe as my base and tweaked a bit to suit my needs. As you can see in the picture the cake turned out beautiful....perfect crumbs. It was soft, moist and spongy..didn't miss the eggs at all! This is going to be my keeper recipe for eggless cakes! Of course you can tweak this recipe as per needs ..replace vanilla with almond or lemon or orange..anything would work! Do give it a try!

Eggless Vanilla Cake
Original Recipe here
Ingredients:-
2 cups all purpose flour (Maida)
1 can sweetened condensed milk, about 400 gms
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup melted unsalted butter
1 cup aerated soda water
1 vanilla bean, split and scrapped or 1 tbsp vanilla essence

Procedure:-

• Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.
• Grease and flour a pound cake tin or any other cake tin that suites your needs.
• Sieve together flour, baking powder and baking soda.
• Mix melted butter and condensed milk together, just until both are well incorporated.
• Now add in vanilla beans or vanilla essence and mix well.
• Now add in flour mixture along with soda water and mix well after each addition.
• Pour the mixture in the greased tin and bake for 40 to 45 mins until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
• Once baked, remove the cake pan from the oven and let it cool completely before removing and slicing the cake.

Pan Sauteed Asparagus

Hi All,

First of all I would like to thank all my wonderful readers and friends who reached out to me when I really needed the most. Honestly some of the emails I got really touched my heart and brought tears in my eyes. So a BIG THANK YOU to everyone, I really am lucky to have you all with me!

Cooking home cooked meals is not easy, especially when you are traveling to different countries and living out of a suitcase. At such times we need something which is easy and can be ready in minutes and of course it has to be extremely satisfying. Today's dish is simple and satisfying Pan Sauteed Asparagus, I learnt this dish from a colleague and I was pleasantly surprised on how easy it was to prepare and how delicious it tasted with all that butter, salt and pepper.

Pan Sauteed Asparagus
Ingredients:-
1 bunch of fresh asparagus (about 15-20)
1 tbsp of unsalted butter
Salt to taste
Freshly grounded black pepper to taste

Procedure:-

•  Chop off the ends of the asparagus and give it a good rinse in cold water.
• Heat a non stick pan, add in your butter, once melted throw in your asparagus.
• Season with some salt and pepper according to your taste. 
• Cover and cook for about 5-7 mins, until crispy and cooked.
• Serve hot as an appetizer of side dish.

Verdict:- I love these! Its so simple and is ready in mins, perfect when I am tired from long day work and really need something satisfying to dig in! If you love butter and asparagus you will definately love these. Try it for yourself today!

Feeling Blue!!

Dear All,

I know I owe you all an explanation to my unexpected disappearance. I havent updated my blog in last one month and there is a reason behind it. Lots of things have changed in last one month at work front and in personal life. Let me ask you all a question..have you ever felt so alone in life as if you were living on a different planet with no one to talk to and share your feelings with? with no friends and family? Do you question yourself upon the decisions you make and when those decisions go wrong and makes you feel miserable and guilty? When someone you love breaks your trust and you cannot forget and let go?  It hurts so bad that you want to scream your heart out? Honestly I feel like I am going through that phase in life. I feel sad, disappointed, betrayed and probably lots more!!

I think I am going through some kind of identify crisis. Its like you think you know what you are doing and you know what you want in life but suddenly life takes you down to a path which you never thought you would walk on. It makes you question yourself and the worst part is you dont have an answer for that! Its when you feel even after doing all things right still everything goes wrong. It makes you question your beliefs and your moral values. I always knew life's tough and the world is cruel but a part of me always believed that there are good people out there who would feel the same way as I do. I always thought that if you didnt do anything wrong to anyone else nothing can go wrong with you but now I am not so sure about it. I always thought that whatever happens..happens for good, I wish I knew what good its gonna bring out to me. I wish we knew answers to all our questions...life would be so much better..isnt it?

So what do you do in such situation? Of course apart of getting all emotional and giving a big lecture just like I did above :) For me CHOCOLATE is probably the best way of making myself feel better..ah forget the extra pounds for a while! Some chocolate brownies with creamy vanilla ice cream on top! Yup thats what I am having right now while writing this post :) And what better way than sharing a delicious chocolate cake recipe with you all especially if it has lots of sour cherries in it...hummm and some chocolate chips as well! Chocolate+Cherry is one of my favorite combo and I always wanted to bake with sour cherries. So when my dear roomy got some sour dried cherries from US I baked this gorgeous cake for my colleagues who never disappoint me in finishing any of my baked treat in record time :) 

Chocolate Cherry Cake to make you feel better!
Ingredients:-
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3 tbsp of rich cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 cup milk
90 ml vegetable oil
1 cup chopped dried sour cherries
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 tsp vanilla essence or seeds of one vanilla bean scrapped

Procedure:-

• Grease amd flour a pound cake pan, preheat the oven to 180 degress C.
• Sieve all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
• Dump together the above dyr ingredients with sugar, cherries and 1/4 cup chocolate chips.
• Now in a measuring cup mix together 1 cup of milk, 90 ml oil, vanilla seeds/essence and 2 eggs.
• Thoroughly mix the wet ingredients well until fully incoporated.
• Now pour the wet ingredients in the dry ingredients while mixing well with a spatula in between the additions. Donot use a beater, a spatula or a wooden spoon is more than sufficient. 
• Be careful to not to over mix the batter.
• Pour the batter into the cake pan and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cups chocolate chips.
• Bake the cake for 45 mins or until a knife inserted comes out clean.
• Remove the cake from oven and let it cool completely.
• Slice and serve with some warm milk or even with a dollop of vanilla ice cream!

The cake was deliciously moist and everyone in office enjoyed it! Will definately be making this cake more often as I am sure my little sister R would love it! So now you know what to make in case you  are feeling blue or even just want to pamper yourself :)

Love,