Eggless Whole Wheat Banana and Candied Cherries Cake

Hii friends,

After long long time!!!!
It has been so long since I posted something in this blog.. I came to India a couple of weeks back and got spoiled by all petting and pampering by my parents and in laws. Everyone were so excited to cook for us and so I hardly get any chance to cook now a days. Still, as cooking is my life breath, it is impossible for me to be without cooking for days together. This is the first time I came to India after staring this blog. I showed my blog, dashboard etc to all my relatives and friends. They gave me enough motivation, encouragement and wishes for my future posts.

About this cake.. This super soft, moist and fluffy cake is very low in calories as it is made using whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour, curds instead of egg and oil instead of butter. I am not a very big fan of cinnamon. But then I started realizing that adding cinnamon powder to banana cakes gives an awesome taste to it. As it is eggless, it can be prepared by vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

Try to use the bananas which are big and has black spots on its skin. The more riper the banana is, the more sweeter your cake will be. 

Have the ingredients and measurements right, the cake will taste simply great. Let's go through the recipe. Try and let me know your feedback.

Ingredients

• Whole wheat flour -  1 cup
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - a pinch
• Candied Cherries - 1/4 cup, roughly chopped
• Sugar - 1/2 cup + 2 tblspns
• Thick unsour yogurt - 1/4 cup
• Oil - 1/4 cup
• Banana - 2, medium sized
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Apple Cider Vinegar- 1 tblspn
• Flax seeds powder - 1 tblspn
• Hot water - 3 tblspn

Method

• Preheat the oven @180 deg C. Grease your cake/ loaf pan with oil/ butter. Dust some flour, spread them all around the pan. Tap off the excess flour. This step will allow the cake from sticking to the pan.
• Mix together flax seeds powder and hot water. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes.
• Sieve the dry ingredients together for about 2 or 3 times; Wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon powder and salt. This will make the cake more light and spongy.
• Take some flour in a bowl and mix the chopped candied cherries. Keep aside
• In another bowl, mix all the wet ingredients one by one; oil, sugar, yogurt, vanilla essence, mashed bananas, apple cider vinegar and flax seeds slurry taken out of the fridge.
• Now add half of the sifted dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Fold in gently, as slow as you can. Do not over mix or mix vigorously as it would take away the aeration of the cake.
• Now add the remaining dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix in slowly until everything is combined
• Add the flour coated cherries to the batter and fold in gently.
• Pour the batter to the cake/ loaf pan. Bake in the preheated oven @180 deg C for about 40 to 50 minutes or until the tooth pick inserted comes out clean. The temperature of each oven will vary from each other. So, keep an eye often until it is baked.
• Once baked, take out of the oven. Run a knife over the edges to separate the cake from the pan.
• Allow it to cool for 15 minutes before you remove from the pan.
• Cut / slice once it cools down completely.
• Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee

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. 

  

 

Honey Chilli Orange Cake

This cake has all the flavors in it. Sweet, spicy, sour and slightly bitter. My hubby wanted me to prepare the Orange cake, but for me, I wanted a twist. Now, I am so happy to prepare any eggless cakes, because, it comes out so perfect, moist and soft just by adding a tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar in to it. It makes all the difference when you do not want to include eggs in your cakes.

I first prepared the eggless orange cake, melted the jam meanwhile and added chilli powder and ginger powder to it, then prepared the honey syrup to pour on top of the cake. Honey, orange and ginger go very well together. It has very less fat, as there is no butter or eggs added to it. It is best had the next day.

Try, and let me know how it came out for you

Ingredients

For the cake

• All purpose flour / Maida - 1 cup
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - a pinch
• Oil - 1/4 cup
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Orange zest - From 1 orange
• Orange pulp / juice - 1/2 cup
• Thick curd(unsour) - 1/3 cup
• Apple Cider Vinegar- 1 tblspn

For the Jam

• Any jam of your choice (I used ginger jam) - 1/2 cup
• Red Food Coloring- a pinch (Optional)
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Ginger powder - 1/2 tsp (Optional)
• Orange zest - 1/2 tsp

For the Honey syrup

• Honey - 1/4 cup
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Sugar - 1/4 cup

For garnish

• Almonds - skin peeled and sliced
• Dessicated Coconut 

Method

For the cake

• Preheat the oven @ 180 deg C
• Grease a 10 cm cake pan with oil/ butter, sprinkle some flour, and tap out the excess if any.
• Sieve all the dry ingredients for about 2 or 3 times; Maida, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
• In another vessel, take your wet ingredients; oil, sugar, vanilla essence, orange zest, orange juice, curd and apple cider vinegar and mix well.
• Add the wet ingredients to your dry ingredients, folding them gently in order to get rid of any lumps.
• Pour this mixture in to your cake pan and bake for about 30 to 40 minutes or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Once done, run your knife through the edges. Do not remove from the cake pan. Keep it aside

For the Jam

• Heat a sauce pan and add jam. Allow it to melt a little and then add chilli powder, ginger powder, orange zest and red food coloring. Mix well and keep it aside

For the Honey Syrup

• Boil water in a vessel. Add honey and sugar. Let it boil until honey is melted and sugar is dissolved completely. Turn off the heat.

How to Proceed?

• Pour the honey syrup over the cake (without removing the cake from cake pan), when it is still hot.
• Now spread the jam on top of the cake. Spread it as evenly as possible.
• Now sprinkle some dessicated coconut and arrange the sliced almonds.
• Cut and Serve.

Notes

• I have used All purpose flour to make this cake. But you can even use the whole wheat flour
• While taking the orange zest, just scrape the orange part of it. Do not scrape the white part, as it will give more bitter taste to the cake.
• In honey syrup, you can also add rose essence if you like the flavor of rose. I did not prefer adding, so skipped that step.