Marble cake / Choco vanilla cake

Marble cake is one of the most popular cakes sold in Kerala bakeries. The choco and vanilla layers fascinated me from childhood days. Having this cake is like a double treat, you can enjoy both the flavours in a single bite.

Ingredients:


All Purpose flour / Maida - 2 cups
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Butter - 100 gms, softened
Powdered sugar - 1+1/4 cups
Eggs - 2 (at room temperature)
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Milk - 1 cup (luke warm)
Cocoa powder - 2 tbsp

Preparation:

1. Sift together maida and baking powder in a bowl.
2. In another bowl, combine butter and sugar. Add eggs and whisk well. Add the vanilla essence and milk and whisk together. Add the flour and whisk well till all ingredients are combined well and you get a smooth batter without any lumps.
3. Preheat oven to 180C and grease a cake tin.
4. Pour half of the cake mix in the tin.  Add the cocoa powder to the other half  in the bowl,and combine well. Pour this cocoa mix on top of the vanilla layer in the cake tin . Using a knife or toothpick, swirl the batter to create a marbling effect.
5. Bake for 30-40 mins. Check if cake is done by inserting a skewer in the middle. Let the cake cool completely.

Linking with my own event ABC Series:DESSERTS that ends tomorrow.

Events:

The Kerala Kitchen - Jan 2012 hosted by Kaveri, an event series started by Ria and Rose. 
Cooking concepts - Chocolate Fest by Sravani
Chocolate lover @Daily Cuppa
Valentine's day event @ Teenz Yummy delights
Chocolate Mela @ Cooking 4 all seasons
Valentine's special @ Anzz cafe
Tea time snack event @ Torview

Simple tea cake for the New Year

This recipe is a simple one with minimal ingredients. I am in Bangalore now and I do not have a conventional oven to bake. So I decided to try baking in my microwave oven. This is my first attempt baking in convection mode and so I chose a simple recipe. And the result: A Soft and Spongy cake. I couldnt find any difference in the texture of the cake baked in convection mode, it was just perfect like the ones baked in a conventional oven.

Ingredients:


All Purpose flour/Maida – 2 cups
Baking powder – 2 tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp (omit if using salted butter)

Sugar – 1 cup
Softened Butter – ½ cup (100 g)
Eggs – 3 at room temperature
Vanilla essence – 1.5 tsp
Milk – 1 cup at room temperature

Preparation:

1. Sift together flour,baking powder and salt to a bowl.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together till fluffy.Add the eggs one by one and whisk well. Add the vanilla essence and combine well.
3. Add half of the milk and half of the flour and whisk well. Add the remaining half of milk and flour. Whisk till the ingredients are combined well and the batter is smooth without any lumps.
4. Grease a cake tin with some butter and pour the batter.
5. Set the oven to convection mode. Preheat the oven to 180C. My oven took 7-8 mins to pre-heat. After the oven beeps, place the cake tin and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Insert a skewer or toothpick at the centre of the cake to check if it is done.

Eggless Chocolate Muffins with Butternut Squash

Finally this post has come out of my drafts. I made these muffins last week and totally forgot to post it. These muffins taste very unique with the flavours of butternut squash and chocolate together. This is my first attempt of making muffins without following any recipe and I was very doubtful of the texture of the muffin without using egg or egg substitutes. But after mixing all ingredients, I had a confidence that this would be soft, moist and delicious. The butternut squash pureed with brown sugar itself was so tasty that my daughter started licking from the blender jar :-). Try these muffins for a unique flavour combo.

For those who are not familiar with butternut squash, here is a pic. It tastes similar to pumpkin. You may use pumpkin and follow the same recipe.

 Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1.5 cups
Baking Soda - 1 tsp
Unsweetened Cocoa powder - 3 tbsp
Butternut squash - 1
Dark Brown sugar - 3/4 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup

Preparation:

1. Peel the butternut squash using a peeler, scoop out the seeds inside and cut the flesh to small cubes. The peel is very hard to remove with a knife. Steam these cubes till soft, about 10 mins.
2. Once the cubes cool down a little, keep about 10-12 cubes aside. These are to be used to top the muffins. Puree the rest of the cubes along with brown sugar. Keep aside.
3. Preheat oven to 200C and line the muffin tray with paper muffin cases or grease with a little oil.
4. In a mixing bowl, sift together APF, baking soda and cocoa. Add the puree and the oil and combine with a spatula till all the ingredients are incorporated well. Do not mix too much.
5. Scoop into the muffin tray and top it with a cube of the butternut. Bake for 15-25 mins till they are baked well.  Insert a toothpick or cocktail stick to check.

Linking this recipe with 100 day Global Food Festival

Baked Potato Bites

Baked Potato Bites is an excellent veggie starter. It can also be had with rice and roti as a side dish too.

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 2, peeled and cubed.
Turmeric powder - 1 pinch
Chilly powder - 3/4 tsp or to taste
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Lemon juice - a few drops (optional)
Oil - 1 tbsp+ for greasing the tray

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, combine the cubed potatoes, turmeric, chilly and coriander powders and oil. Grease a roasting dish or baking tray with a little oil. Place the potatoes on it.
2. Preheat the oven to 200 C. Place the roasting tray on the middle rack and bake for 30-35 mins till they are baked well and turns golden brown. Remove from the oven and drizzle lemon juice over it and toss well.

This one goes to Anyone can cook: Series 32

Also to Potato Mania hosted by Siri

Corn and Mushroom Cups

The spicy corn and mushroom cups are a welcome change from the usual snacks we make at home. I had a roll of puff pastry in the freezer and was thinking of some recipe to use it up. That's when I remembered this idea of making cups which I had seen in Kurryleaves(the filling was with chicken). I made a filling of corn and mushroom in a tangy and spicy sauce.

Ingredients:

Frozen Puff pastry sheet - 1
Sweetcorn kernels - 1/2cup
Button Mushrooms  - 3 or 4, sliced fine
Red Chilly Flakes - to taste
Tomato Ketchup - 1 tbsp
Italian seasoning - 1/2 tsp(optional)
Salt to taste
Butter or Oil - 2 tsp + to grease the tray

Preparation:

1. Heat a pan and add oil or ghee. Add sweetcorn and mushrooms and saute for a few minutes.
2. Add chilly flakes, salt and ketchup and toss well. The filling is ready.
3. Preheat oven to 200 C. Cut the puff pastry sheet to squares. I got 4 squares from the sheet. Grease the required number of cups of a muffin tray with butter or oil. Place the squares in the greased cups and press gently. Prick the base of the pastry sheet with a fork. This prevents the base from puffing up much. Fill each pastry cup with the filling. Sprinkle italian seasoning on top.Bake for 20-25 mins or till it is puffed up and golden.

Cool for few minutes and then serve with hot tea or coffee.

Linking to Anyone Can Cook: Series 31 , Monsoon Medley and to Iftar Nights

My 100th post - Buttermilk Berry Muffins

Hurray !!! this is my 100th post. I never dreamt of posting so many recipes in less than 3 months time. And there is one more reason to celebrate - my blog has 10,000+ hits now. So, this is a double dose of happiness to me. I would like to thank all my readers, friends,blogger pals and family members who encourage me with their words and comments that keeps me going.

I started baking just a few months ago and my husband gifted me a muffin tray this week.He is the one who encouraged me to start this blog. He is the food critic, official tester and taster of all the dishes in this blog.  This is the first set of muffins I baked in the new tray. My little daughter is very fond of berries, so I thought of starting with a berry muffin recipe.  She loved the muffins so much that she asked for more after finishing 2 muffins within minutes.

So, here are the berry-licious muffins from me to you...and a big THANK YOU...

These muffins are very soft and easy to make...

Dry Ingredients:
All purpose Flour - 2.5 cups
Granulated White Sugar - 3/4 cup (I used a little above 1/2 cup)
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Lemon or orange zest - I used zest of a medium size orange.
Mixed berries - 1.5 cups (I used raspberries and blueberries)

Wet Ingredients:
Egg - 1 large
Buttermilk* - 1 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
Pure vanilla extract - 1 tsp

* - To make instant buttermilk for baking, add 1 tbsp of lemon juice or white vinegar to 1 cup of milk at room temperature. Keep aside for 5 to 10 mins and then it is ready to use.

The above measurement yields 12 regular size muffins.

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 190C / 375F. Line a 12 cup muffin tray with muffin cases and keep aside.
2. In the first bowl, add the sifted flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Combine well. Gently fold in the berries.
3. In the second bowl, lightly beat the egg and then add buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract. Mix well with a whisk.
4. Pour the contents of the second bowl to the first bowl and gently combine them with a spatula. Mix till the ingredients are just combined and taking care not to break the berries. Do not over mix.
5. Scoop the muffin mix to the muffin cups and bake for 20-25 mins or when a toothpick/skewer inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool for 10-15 mins

Recipe Source: Joy of Baking.

Sending this to Friday Potluck #4 @ Show and Tell

Sending this to Healing Foods - Berries hosted by Smitha, an event series started by Siri.

Chicken Puffs

One of the things I miss most is the Kerala style Puffs. The flaky puffs with a spicy filling makes it a very tasty snack. The filling can be mixed veggies, egg or meat. I had some leftover Kheema and was searching for a recipe to use it. I came across the recipe for Chicken Puffs at Shab's Cuisine and as I had frozen puff pastry sheet in the fridge, decided to try it out. It turned out to be very yummy and easy too...

Ingredients:

1. Minced chicken/Kheema - 1 cup (You may use cooked and shredded chicken instead)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt
Water

2. Onion - 1, chopped
Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Meat masala / Garam masala - 3/4 tsp or more (adjust to suit your taste)
Tomato - 1 small, chopped
Coriander leaves
Oil

3. Puff pastry sheet - 1 pack. I used Jus-rol
Egg - white of 1 egg lightly beaten with a little water(egg wash)

Preparation:

1. Cook the ingredients listed as item 1 till the kheema is cooked well.
2. Heat a little oil in a pan and saute onions till soft. Add ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute. Add chilly powder and meat masala and saute for few seconds.
3. Add the tomatoes and cook till soft. Now add cooked kheema and chopped coriander leaves and combine well.The filling is now ready.
4. Thaw the frozen puff pastry sheet as per instructions on the pack. Cut them into squares and place the filling on one half of each square. Fold it with the other half. Brush the top of the puffs with egg wash.
5. Preheat the oven to 220 C and bake for 15-20 mins or till the top of the puffs is browned well.


For detailed and step by step instructions please visit Shab's Cuisine. The filling I made is slightly different from her version.

Blueberry cake

Cakes are for celebrations and I have two reasons to celebrate. My blog is a 1 month old baby now and I'm hitting a half century with this post. I am surprised that I could post 50 recipes in just a month. This was made possible by the encouragement of my friends and my husband. Thank you all...Your feedback keeps me going...
I love blueberry muffins and we buy them regularly. When my husband was living alone in UK, he used to have a muffin and tea/coffee for breakfast. I do not have a muffin tray, so I made a cake with it.
So, here is the recipe...

Ingredients:

Self raising flour - 1.5 cups
Fresh blueberries - 1 cup (I used a little more than a cup)
Caster sugar - 3/4 cup
Whole Milk - 1/2 cup
Oil - 1/3 cup
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
Eggs - 2


Preparation:

1. In a mixing bowl, beat egg and sugar. Add milk, oil, and vanilla extract and whisk well.
2. Add sifted flour to this and mix well.
3. Toss the blueberries with a little flour. This helps to avoid sinking of the blueberries to the bottom of the tin while baking. ( I learned it the hard way. The berries sank and I had to google it to find the reason. )Fold in the blueberries to the cake mix.
4. Pour the mix to the greased cake tin.
5. Preheat oven to 180C and bake the cake for 35-40 minutes or till a skewer inserted comes out clean. (I used a loaf tin and my oven took 45 mins)
6. Let it cool.

The cake tasted very fruity and yummy though the berries were concentrated at the bottom.

Strawberry Cake

June has 30 days and this is my 30th post for this month. So, let's celebrate it with a cake...A very easy fruity cake made of strawberries. I never intended to make a cake with strawberry, but there were so many in my fridge and I wanted to make use of them before they become unusable. My strawberry crazy little girl usually eats them as such. She has got a bad cold now and doesn't feel like eating them.So to spend the ones in fridge, I started looking for recipes. The most simple one I got was a cake recipe from the Singing Chef blog. And here it is..

Ingredients:

Self raising flour - 1 cup
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Strawberries chopped - 1 cup
Caster sugar - 1/2 cup
Whole Milk - 1/2 cup
Oil - 1/4 cup
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
Egg - 1

Preparation:

1. In a mixing bowl, beat egg and sugar. Add milk, oil, and vanilla extract and whisk well.
2. Add sifted flour to this and mix well.
3. Fold in the strawberries to the mixture.
4. Pour the mix to the greased cake tin.
5. Preheat oven to 180C and bake the cake for 30-35 minutes or till a skewer inserted comes out clean. (I used a loaf tin and my oven took 45 mins)
6. Cool on a wire rack.

Recipe Source: http://chefatwork.blogspot.com I subsituted plain flour and baking powder with self raising flour.

Sending this to Healing Foods - Berries hosted by Smitha, an event series started by Siri.

Homemade Chicken Feast Pizza

We had delicious Chicken Feast Pizza for dinner tonight. It was too good that I couldn't wait to share the pictures and the recipe. Moreover, I had not noted down the ingredient measurements, so if I don't post it now, I may not remember it exactly later. I used readymade pizza base, as I didn't have the confidence to bake a pizza from the scratch. So, the crust was thin and not so soft like the ones we get in Domino's. But the topping was too good that we didn't bother much about the crust.

So here is the recipe for a finger licking good pizza...

Ingredients:

1. Readymade Pizza Base -1
2. Cheese - 100 gms. I used Cheddar cheese
3. Tomato ketchup - lots :-) to spread on the pizza base
4. For the topping
    Boneless chicken - 200 gms (that's why I called it chicken feast) cut into bite sized pieces
    Onion - 1, diced
    Capsicum/Bell Pepper - 1 small, diced
    Minced Red Chilly paste - 1 tbsp (adjust to suit your spice level)
    Minced Garlic - 1 tsp
    Soy Sauce - 1 tsp
    Tomato Ketchup - 2 tbsp
    Corn Flour - 1 tsp
    Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
    Italian Seasoning* - 1 tsp
    Oil - 1 tbsp
    Salt

Italian seasoning is a blend of herbs - Oregano, Basil, Red Pepper, Marjoram, Thyme, Rosemary, Sage, Parsley.

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, mix all ingredients listed as item 4 and marinate for an hour.
2. In a pan, Stir fry the marinated ingredients till the chicken is almost cooked. Our topping is ready. Keep aside.
3. Place the pizza base on the tray and spread tomato ketchup as a layer.
4. Spread grated cheese as the next layer.
5. Spread the chicken topping evenly over the cheese layer.
6. Sprinkle some grated cheese over the chicken layer.
7. Sprinkle some more italian seasoning on top of the layers, if you like. Your pizza is now set to go the oven and it will look like this

8. Preheat the oven to 250 C and bake the pizza for 8-10 mins. Keep a close eye on it. The pizza is ready when the cheese has melted and the base is still soft. The base gets dried if you keep it for a longer time.

Your baked pizza will now look like this.

Slice and serve hot.

Nuttie Blondies

Blondies are a brown sugar based dessert bar resembling the traditional chocolate brownie. They are baked  similar to how traditional brownies are baked, then cut into rectangular shapes for serving. They are sometimes referred to as blonde brownies, although are based from brown sugar, unlike brownies made with cocoa. I like blondies more than brownies, as I am not a chocolate lover. This recipe is quite simple to make and tastes great. 


Ingredients:


Plain Flour - 1 cup 
Brown Soft Sugar - 1 cup (I used 3/4th cup and the sweetness was just right)
Butter (unsalted) - 100gm
Egg - 1
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Chopped Nuts of your choice - 1/2 cup (I used almonds, pecan, hazel nuts and cashews)


Preparation:


1. Preheat the oven to 175C. Grease a baking tin and set aside.
2. Whisk together the melted butter and sugar in a bowl. 
3. Add in the egg & vanilla essence and whisk some more.
4. Add the sifted Flour along with baking powder and salt and blend in the chopped nuts.
5. Scrape the batter to the greased tin.
6. Sprinkle more nuts if you want over the top and bake in for 20-25 minutes or till a skewer inserted comes clean.


Allow it to cool, Slice & Serve


Recipe Source: Bon Appetit, visit the blog for step by step pictorial which is very useful

Butter Tea Cake

I am baking this cake for the third time now. My husband and little girl are so fond of this one that they can finish it in just a day and keeps asking for more. It is a very easy recipe with minimal ingredients. I didn't get it right the first time, due to some issues with my oven. So, I decided to keep trying,  till it came out perfect :-)

Ingredients


Butter – 125 gm, softened
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
Caster sugar – 1 cup
Eggs – 3, at room temperature (I used only 2 eggs)
Plain flour – 1 cup, (150 gm)
Self-raising flour – 1/2 cup, (75 gm)
Bicarbonate of soda – 1/4 tsp
Milk – 1/2 cup (125 ml) at room temp

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 180 C, 10 mins before baking.
2. Grease a deep 20 cm/8 inch round cake tin or loaf tin; line base with baking paper.
3. Beat ingredients in medium bowl on low speed with electric mixer until just combined.
4. Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth and changed to a paler colour. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
5. Bake cake in the preheated oven for 40-50 mins or until the skewer inserted comes out clean.
6. Stand cake 5 minutes then turn onto wire rack to cool

Recipe source: Maria's Menu

Coconut Butter Cookies

I am so happy today, I baked the first set of cookies. I must say I was very nervous as it was getting baked. I was wondering if it would be crisp and well baked, as my oven is highly unpredictable sometimes. I was very  surprised after having the first bite, it tasted so good. I found a very easy recipe with minimal ingredients on the net, and decided to try it immediately. This recipe is suitable for all the newbies who want to try cookie baking :-) Welcome to the world of cookies. My little girl Nikki has already had a few and looks like she would finish the whole batch soon...

Cookies remind me of the Cookieman shops in Forum and Garuda mall in Bangalore. As you enter the mall, you can use your nose to find the way to Cookieman. Today it happened at my home too. Nikki who was playing in another room, ran to the kitchen and stood near the oven. The lovely aroma of butter and vanilla essence was all over the place...

That was a pretty long introduction...here comes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Plain flour - 100 gm
Butter - 50 gm
Fine sugar - 50 gm
Grated fresh coconut - 50 gm
Baking powder - ¼ tsp
Milk - 1 tbsp
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp


Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven at 175 degree centigrade.
2. Mix the baking powder with the flour and sieve once to make the mixture uniform.
3. Beat the butter and the sugar until soft and creamy with the help of a spoon or a wire whisk.
4. Put in the flour, grated coconut, vanilla essence and milk and form into a dough.
5. Roll the dough into a cylinder. Cut into equal pieces and place them on a baking tray lined with baking parchment/paper.
6. Lightly press the pieces with a spoon/fork.
7. Bake at 175 degree centigrade for 15-20 minutes. Let it cool.

Store in air tight container, after cookies are completely cooled.

Below is the picture of a few cookies, topped with almond flakes.

Recipe Source: Divine Taste

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Now that we have many spicy dishes lined up on my blog, lets take a sweet turn. I have been thinking of baking a brownie for almost a month now. Finally I made it today and I am happy with the result. This is to celebrate my blog launch and it has crossed more than 200 hits in a single day. Thanks dear friends..

Here is the recipe

Ingredients:

Chocolate chopped - 100g 

Butter - 100g 

Self Raising Flour - 200g 

Soft brown sugar or caster sugar - 200g

Eggs - 3

Cocoa powder - 2 tbsp
I used a few flaked almonds to decorate.

Preparation:

1. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a sauce pan over a low heat.

2. Turn off the heat and gradually stir in the sugar and eggs

3. Add the self raising flour and cocoa powder.

4. Pour the mix into greased baking tray or tin.

5. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180C, the middle should be soft. Let the brownies cool in the tin.

Recipe Source: BBC GoodFood

Stuffed and baked Bell Peppers

A Perfect evening snack.

Thanks Mila for the wonderful recipe...Ive made some variations to your recipe...

Ingredients:

Bell Peppers / Capsicum - 5

Potatoes cubed - 500 grms

Onion - 1 small finely chopped

Chopped Ginger - 1 tbsp

Chopped Garlic - 1 tbsp

Chopped Green chillies - 2

Chopped coriander - 2 tbsp

Cumin Seeds - 2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp

Lemon juice - 1 tbsp

Sunflower oil

Salt

Preparation:

1. Cut the top of the bell pepper and remove and discard the seeds.

2. Make sure that the bell pepper can stand upright or cut a thin slice from the bottom of the pepper to level it .

3. Bring a large pan of boiling water slightly salted and immerse the peppers in it for 6-8 mins.

4. Boil the potato cubes in slightly salted water. When they are 3/4th cooked, drain and keep aside.

5. Heat sunflower oil in a large frying pan.

6. Add the cumin seeds followed by chopped ginger, garlic, green chillies and onion. Saute till onions are soft.

7. Add potato cubes, salt and turmeric powder. Combine well and cook for few minutes. Take care not to mash the potatoes.

8. Add pepper powder, coriander leaves and lemon juice and give a good stir.

9. Stuff the bell peppers with the potato mix.

10. Preheat the oven at 150 degree for 10 mins. Bake the stuffed peppers for 30 - 35 mins.

Serve hot with a cup of tea/coffee ...

Sending this to Let's Get Stuffed Series: Bell Peppers or Capsicum hosted by Archana of The Mad Scientist's Kitchen . This event is initiated by Vatsala of Show and Tell

Linking to Life is green

Also to Potato Mania hosted by Siri