Oats and Banana Cake : Friendship Day Special!

"Friendship is sharing recipes with your friends to gladden their hearts ."

This post is a real celebration of Friendship.

Let me start with the story behind the post first :-

I got this recipe from a dearest aunty, who I lovingly address as my Chef Guru. Madhabi Aunty is a great cook, there's magic in her hands...whatever she cooks , tastes a mouthwatering Wow! To a greater extent it is because she cooks with a magic ingredient- Love; her love for cooking and not just cooking but cooking FOR her near and dear ones makes all the difference and then she has also perfected the art of cooking through her frequent and interesting experiments in the kitchen.Whenever you meet her,you'll get something interesting to learn about cooking ranging from an idea to a new recipe.She's indeed a Living Cookbook. :-)

Also, I would like to describe how I got this recipe from her.
I knew that she'll be sending the recipe but I also knew that  she was recovering from a recent surgery on her left arm,so I was not expecting it so soon.
It so happened that last Wednesday I read an article about an investment broker cum baker in ET and while reading about his passion and love for baking , I got transported to my own world of baking and started dreaming of baking a cake when Madhabi Aunty's oats and banana cake came into my mind as I started thinking of what to bake and it was all so momentary that the next moment I found myself getting into some official work. And you won't believe, as I came back to my desk during lunch time, I saw I have few whatsApp msgs on my mobile and there IT was!-The recipe! :-) Yes! My happiness knew no bounds at that moment.It was as if the whole universe conspired to make my dream come true and that too so soon!!!! At times , you really get lucky or may be there really is something to special connections.

So, when I saw the recipe , I had made up my mind that I'll try this one for Friendship Day and here is what it turned out to be- Simply Yum! :-)

 It has a brown bottom

and an oats covered crust.

Another view of the top and bottom together.

Here's the recipe:-

Ingredients:-

For the batter:-

3/4 cups maida ( refined flour)

1 and  1/3 cups oats

1/4 tsp  salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup mashed bananas (Approximately-3 big ones)

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

For the oats spread :-

3/4 cup oats

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

Procedure:-

1.Mix all the ingredients of the batter and pour it in the baking tin.

2.Mix all the ingredients of the oats spread and spread this mixture evenly on the cake batter.

3. Now bake the cake & enjoy!

Note:-

1. Try to use soft and ripe bananas

2. I baked at 180 deg Celsius for 40 mins.

Result:-

This cake is unique in its taste and texture.The oat crust makes it more interesting and adds to a unique crunchy cum buttery cum sugary oats flavour.

The oats and banana combination does the trick in terms of giving it an amazing taste.

It is one of the best cakes I have ever tried.Do try if you love this combination.Trust me,you will fall in love with this one!

Happy Takes! & Happy Bites!

Eggless Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake

Hello Everyone!

A dear friend is visiting me today, so I thought of baking a cake for her and ended up making this wonderful eggless wholewheat chocolate cake.

I have seriously adopted the healthy & tasty theme and am very happy to acknowledge that you really don't have to compromise on the taste with whole wheat cakes.In fact in this one it's really hard to tell that it's whole wheat based.You just cannot find out from the taste.

I loved this cake because :-

1.It uses 100% whole wheat flour.
2.The baking ingredients used are simple and mostly available in the kitchen.Water, lime juice and baking soda does the trick in baking it.You don't need to worry if there are eggs or curd or milk or condensed milk (the usual baking ingredients) in store or not.
3.All in all, a very simple , healthy and tasty cake.

I loved it to say the least.It's the best chocolate cake recipe I have ever come across which is a perfect blend of simple and healthy ingredients.

Recipe link -http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/basic-eggless-chocolate-cake-recipe/

Here's my Take!

Note:- I baked it at 180 deg Celsius and my cake was ready in 20 mins.
Happy Takes! & Happy Bites! 

Baked Gujiyas-Holi Special!

Hello Everyone!

I have been wanting to share so many of my recent culinary experiences so desperately, but somehow last two weeks were reasonably busy for me and I couldn't do so. :-(
Never mind, finally I made it here, today! :-)

This time we had Mama and Nani for Holi and as Mamma and I were about to start our customary Gujiya preparation, Mama just mentioned that these days people are shifting their preferences from fried to baked gujiyas and that very moment I decided let's go for "Baked" gujiyas this Holi!-All thanks to Mama for uttering the word!- You never know when and where you can get a tempting clue to work upon! :-)

So then I searched on the net , read few Gujiya baking procedures and finally made all forms of Gujiyas- Chandrakalas, Lawanglatas, Satori. Chandrakala is a round flower shaped gujiya which has khoya stuffing , is fried and then dipped in Sugar syrup (Chashni) and immediately taken out of the syrup.  Lawanglata is also a wrapped maida round stuffed with khoya with two cloves inserted one opposite the other-I call it clutch purse gujiya!-It really looks like a clutch purse! This is also dipped in sugar syrup and taken out immediately.
Chandrakalas and Lawanglatas are actually my Nani special gujiyas! :-)
Satori is a Maharashtrian delicacy.It is basically Puri sized stuffed khoya paratha which is tawa roasted in ghee.I learned this from a dear friend.

I thought we'll make all of these shapes including the traditional gujiya shape but we'll make the baked version of it, this time- healthier and I can now very confidently say, tastier too! :-)

Baked version is way better than the fried one -it's crispier, lighter , tastier and most importantly an healthier alternative!

Do try and relish!

Baking Procedure:-

1. Prepare the khoya stuffed structures in the same way as we make it for making fried gujiyas. The only difference is that we just bake these instead of frying.
2. Preheat the oven at 200 deg Celsius.
3. Grease a baking tray and place gujiyas on it in such a way that they don't touch each other.
4. Bake for 10 minutes and then flip the gujiyas to the other side on the tray.
5. Bake the other side for 10 mins again.
6. Take out .The Gujiyas are ready! :-)

Happy Takes! & Happy Bites! :-)

Coconut Doughnut Cake

Hello, everyone!

Here's my first blogpost in this blog-i have been thinking since ages to start a food blog , just to give an outlet to my passion for cooking and love for food.I'm glad, i finally did come up with one! :-)

Hoping to have fun here...to share everything related to cooking and food that interests me .

I must say, cooking and food drives me, rejuvenates me, excites me, heals me when i feel low or have a bad day-in short it makes me feel completely alive!


Now coming back to this post...

I was just leisurely enjoying my holiday , when suddenly I had a strong craving to have something made out of coconut milk powder or something with coconut....so i just searched and searched on the net to find some good recipes.I was basically thinking of using the maggi coconut milk powder in the cake recipe.I did a lot of random search on it and did land up with a cake recipe that was using coconut milk powder but somehow i didn't feel like going with it...and somehow I landed up at this food blog:-

http://www.nisahomey.com/2011/11/my-ultimate-coconut-cakestep-by-step.html

As soon as I finished reading it, I knew i wanted to bake this.Yes, you have got it right-I am a very moody cook-i basically go with my instincts when it comes to cooking...and most of the times, even i don't know what i'll be cooking next. :-)...It always has to be something that I feel like having at that particular time. :-)


For the recipe- please check out the link above. I loved the recipe.It's completely accurate. Thumbs Up to it!

Happy Takes! & Happy Bites! :-)

P.S- I have just changed the name to suit the shape. :-)