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! 

Eggless Whole Wheat Banana Cake

Hello everyone!

Today, my instincts got me to try this super awesome, healthy and utterly delicious banana cake.

I was craving for a genuine banana cake since the last few days but was a bit undecided on trying banana bread first or the cake.Finally, I gave in to the strong urge that prompted me to go for baking banana cake first. :-)

I was actually looking for an interesting healthier version as "Healthy & Tasty" is one theme that makes me cook guilt free without compromising on the taste-most important ! :-)

I am glad I came across this super awesome recipe :-

http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/eggless-banana-cake-recipe/

I found it very simple, the ingredients used were all very healthy and in the right quantity and proportion. This one is indeed a very healthy cake.In fact not only healthy but very "Tasty " as well. The gooey banana layer on the cake gives it a sandwich look where the bottom most layer looks like it is stuffed with a thick layer of banana pulp but the remaining cake is porous and well baked. The banana pulp gives it a unique texture and an amazing flavour.Spice it up with cinnamon powder and chopped walnuts to go bananas with this remarkable banana cake!

My version of the recipe :-

I used 6 elaichi bananas instead of the normal ones and around half a cup of cold milk to bring the batter to pouring consistency. My cake was ready in 30 mins. No other changes were made.

I also tried toasting the cake slices and trust me , it tasted even better and all my family members loved the toasted version. :-)
Here's the pic -

I highly recommend this one.One of the best tea-time cakes  I have ever had. In fact I feel this cake will very well go with the icing and decorations as well as it has a very stable base.

Happy Takes! & Happy Bites!

Eggless Apple Pie : Mother's Day Special!

"All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my Angel Mother."

A very happy mother's day people!

I know it's a very special day for all of us and I am glad we have a day to celebrate mothers! For those who dislike the mother's day concept, I have just one thing to say- We love celebrating Mother's day and making our mothers feel special today and that does not mean we just don't bother about her for the rest of the days! Those of you who don' t agree  to this, you can continue to argue and we will continue to celebrate and we all know who wins! :-) :-)

God, I seriously don't understand why people question celebration?!!
Celebration of any kind is such a good thing! We will celebrate , anyway! :-)

Well, my mother is my best friend,  my angel, my guide and my inspiration and the best thing is that she is a part of all my cooking escapades.Her touch and approval completes my experiments in the kitchen.
I owe my interest in cooking to her.When we were kids, she used to bake cakes, biscuits, pizzas, patties, make ice creams and try out new -new recipes every now and then.Her involvement in cooking ignited the spark in me to cook and the spark has led me to take cooking as my passion.

Mamma and I  are hard core gourmets as well and love experimenting with food and I find that we have similar choice and taste when it comes to food- which is another great aspect to our Mother- Daughter bond-our food connection! :-)

Now coming back to my mother's day special apple pie experiment :-

I wanted to make something special today and suddenly it struck that Apple Pie will go well with the theme of day- Apple pie for the Apple of my eye! :-)

I remember having a sumptuous home-made Apple pie made by my dearest aunt almost 10 years back , and since that day, I wanted to try making apple pie someday and thankfully it was today that I finally made it- I was feeling too lazy to hunt for my aunt's recipe , so I just googled and came across a recipe that i found interesting enough to experiment with and it turned out to be a real good one.

This one is very healthy as it is whole wheat flour based, is eggless and contains very little sugar and olive oil.All in all very low in calories and high on taste! -Yes, it tasted awesome! The only thing that I felt I could improve on is the shape, the folding of the two layers...but otherwise this recipe was great- very easy and yummylicious!

The only thing that I changed in this was that I chopped smaller cubes of apple.That's it.

Recipe Link- http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/apple-pie-recipe-vegan-apple-pie/

Go for it!

Happy Takes ! & Happy Bites!

Eggless Whole Wheat Cinnamon Cake

I tried this healthy cake today and it came out really well.
I wanted to make an eggless cake and a healthy one for that and when I came across this recipe, I found it was matching my criteria perfectly well.

This healthy bite is a real melting moment.It is very moist and very Indian in texture and taste.My 87 year old grand ma completely loved it.She said this is the best eggless cake she has ever had.Her compliment really made my day!

I personally would like to call it a perfect healthy Indian Cake.
This one will surely satiate your taste buds if you are all for the cinnamon flavour , moreover you can have a guilt-free cakey treat with this! :-)

Recipe Link- http://mariasmenu.com/desserts/eggless-cinnamon-cake

Do try and enjoy!
Happy Takes! & Happy Bites!