Eggless Dry Fruits and Nuts Cake

As I am a passionate baker, I bake at least once a week. But until now, I have never baked a simple vanilla sponge cake. I was trying to bake a perfect vanilla sponge cake, which has no eggs and no butter. Finally, I made it. I saw many recipes for the same, mixed and matched almost all recipes, used my baking tips and at last my vanilla sponge cake with dry fruits and nuts was accomplished.
My sincere thanks to my co-sister, who gave me an awesome idea for baking a sponge cake. For the first time, I used that technique on my cakes and it turned out super soft!!
The tip was like this;
Mix 1 tblspn of flax seeds powder and 3 tblspn of hot water (neither warm nor boiling. Just hot). Mix well and refrigerate for sometime. Then, add it to the batter.

Another tip of mine is, adding Apple Cider Vinegar for all my eggless cakes, which does all the magic.

Here goes the Recipe

Ingredients

• All purpose flour/ maida - 1 + 1/2 cup
• Baking powder - 1 + 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Curd - 1 cup, well beaten
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Apple Cider Vinegar - 1 tblspn
• Flax seeds powder - 1 tblspn
• Hot water - 3 tblspn
• Chopped dry fruits and nuts - 1/2 cup
• Oil - 1/2 cup
• Vanilla essence - 1 tblspn
• Flour - 1 tblspn, to coat the dry fruits and nuts
• Salt - a pinch
• Cashews - few 

Method

• In a bowl, mix flax seeds powder and hot water. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
• Chop dry fruits and nuts. Coat them with 1 tblspn flour, so that it will not sink to the bottom while baking.
• Pre-heat the oven @200 deg C. Grease your cake tin or loaf pan with oil. Dust some flour all around, pat it so that it coats all the sides. Tap off the excess flour
• Dry Ingredients:Sieve together maida, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Sieve it at least twice.
• Wet Ingredients: In another vessel, beat the curd and sugar, until the sugar is completely dissolved.
• Now add oil, vanilla essence, flax seeds slurry and apple cider vinegar. Mix everything well.
• To the wet ingredients, add half of the flour mixture, fold in gently.
• Now add the remaining half, fold in gently. Use spatula to mix it.
• Now add the chopped dry fruits and nuts and again, fold in gently.
• Transfer this batter to a greased cake tin or loaf pan. Sprinkle some cashew nuts or any nuts of your choice.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven @200 deg C for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Once baked, remove from the oven and run your knife around the edges to loosen it. 
• Remove from the pan after 15 minutes.

• Cut and serve once it is cooled down completely. 

Eggless Milk Powder Cake

The more I bake, the more I love it.. and now a days I am trying to prepare eggless and butterless cakes, so that to some extent it will be useful for weight watchers like me.
I love simple cakes, which is easy to prepare and with mild falvors.
I had a lot of milk powder at home and was confused about how to finish it. I googled and googled to find out something interesting. At last, I came up with this mind blowing cake.
I have modified the original recipe to suit my diet requirements. But I feel the result was really mind blowing, because it had an amazing texture and colour. I couldn't stop with one slice. My hubby liked it so much that he said 100 times that it is too good and asked me to prepare again and again.

 

Ingredients

• All purpose flour / Maida - 1+3/4 cup (210 gms)
• Sugar - 3/4 cup (150 gms)
• Milk powder - 3/4 cup (100 gms)
• Vanilla essense - 1 tsp
• Oil -  1/2 cup+1 tblspn (100 gms)
• Baking soda - 1 tsp
• Baking powder - 2 tsp
• Yoghurt (unsour) - 1/2 cup (120 ml)
• Milk - 1/2 cup(120 ml)
• Water - 1/2 cup (120 ml)
• Almonds - 1/4 cup, chopped
• Apple Cider Vinegar - 1 tblspn

Method

• Take all your ingredients (Forgot Apple Cider Vinegar in the pic)

• Preheat the oven @160 Deg Celcious. Take a loaf pan and grease it well using oil or butter. Sprinkle some flour and coat on all the sides. Tap out the excess flour and keep it aside.

• In a vessel, mix together milk, curd and  water. Mix really well.

• Sieve together flour, milk powder, baking soda and baking powder. Sieve them 2 or 3 times until everything is combined.

 

 

• In another vessel, mix oil, sugar, vanilla essence and Apple Cider Vinegar.

• Now all 3 mixtures are ready; flour mixture, sugar and oil mixture and milk-curd mixture.

• To the sugar and oil mixture, add half of the flour mixture and full milk-curd mixture. Use a whisk/spatula and fold in gently.
• Now add the remaining flour mixture and fold again gently, just until there are no lumps and everything is combined.

• Pour the entire batter in to the loaf pan and sprinkle some chopped almonds on top.

 

 

• Bake in a preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until the tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

• Take out from the oven and allow it to cool atleast for 20 minutes.
• Run a knife through the edges and remove the cake from the pan. Allow it to cool. Slice / cut them and Serve.