Chocolate Sponge cake - Eggless

I baked this beautiful cake with lots of love for my friend's daughter. She is such a cute little adorable chatter box that you can't resist to spend time with her. One day she told me " I love chocolate cake but I don't prefer any topping on that" :))))) then I asked her "due you like any fruits or any nuts with that ??", she simply replied "nopes" and ran away. So just thought to make her happy with a simple chocolate sponge cake. Before preparing this I just had my fingers crossed because these days the kids are too choosey and specially me who doesn't know a lot about kids :)))). But yes the cake came out very light, spongy, moist and full of flavor. The best part - its eggless, I replaced eggs with buttermilk. So lets quickly see the ingredients followed by the method.

Ingredients :

I have divided the ingredients list in two parts- the dry & wet ingredients. This way it will be easy for you to follow this.

Dry ingredients: 

• All Purpose flour/Maida/Plain flour - 1 cup + 2 tbsps
• Baking Powder - 1 tsp
• Baking Soda - 1 tsp
• Cocoa Powder  (unsweetened) - 1/4 cup
• Salt - a generous pinch

Wet ingredients :

• Brown sugar - 1/2 cup
• White granulated sugar - 3/4 cup
• Buttermilk - 1 cup (at room temperature)
• Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
• Vegetable Oil - 1/4 cup
• Black coffee - 3/4 cup (optional) To prepare, just add 1 tsp instant coffee powder in 1/2 cup boiling water

 Method :

• First preheat the oven at 180°C. Grease & flour the baking tin, if you want you can line with parchment paper/Butter paper.
• Sieve the dry ingredients together atleast 3 times and keep aside, this give more aeration in the flour and helps in making the cake light.
• In other bowl mix oil + sugar + Buttermilk + Vanilla essence. After they are well combined add the dry ingredients and fold in gently. 
• Once mix well, add the boiling coffee (If you are not adding coffee then just add plain boiling water).
• The batter will be runny, but that's the way it has to be :)))
• Pour the batter in tin.
• Bake it on the middle rack for 45-50 mins or unless a tooth pick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Mine took exactly 50 minutes. But keep checking after 40 -45 minutes as every oven vary :)
• When done, take it out and give a rest of 2-3 minutes, demold and cool on a rack.
• Tadaaaaa your cake is ready.

Enjoy with the frosting of your own choice or like this only.

Note : 

• If you are adding egg, then add one egg and make the quantity of buttermilk half and also the baking soda will be halved. 
• Coffee gives a very nice kick to it therefore I added otherwise its optional. Boiling water helps it making moist.
• If you don't have brown sugar simply replace it with white one. 
• For the buttermilk - just add 1 tbsp of lemon juice/white vinegar to 1 cup milk, allow it to stand for 5 minutes. Your buttermilk is ready.

 Thanks n Happy Baking
Priyanka :))))

 

Homemade Mawa/Khoya/Thickened milk

Mawa also known as khoya/khoa, is one of the very well known ingredients used for preparing many of the Indian sweets like Gulab Jamuns, Peda, Gazar ka halwa and many more. Its kind of ricotta cheese with very less moisture. Its very easily available in Indian markets but very rare to find if you are in some western countries. If its available also then its not fresh. Hence I prepared it in home this time. I prepared it with the traditional way. Its very easy to make but yes its quite time consuming and this is the reason that people prefer it to purchase from outside.

Ingredients :

We just need 2 liters of whole milk (full fat) 

Method :

• In a heavy bottomed pan (preferably nonstick pan), pour the entire milk and heat. Once it comes to a boil, let it simmer and reduce on medium-low flame. 

• Keep stirring after every 2-3 minutes. Scrap down the bottom continuously. It will take 40-50 minutes to get the milk thickened. 

• Once it becomes grainy don't leave it and scrap the sides & bottom continuously. Keep cooking unless it becomes a bit hard. It took approximately 1.5 hours for me. When done transfer it to a bowl or plate and let it cool completely. On cooling it will become harder.

You can keep it in refrigerator for 4-5 days.

Thanks n Happy cooking
Priyanka :)

Home-made Paneer (Home-made cottage cheese )

We all are very familiar with Paneer. Its the most fascinating dairy products, loved by mostly all. Every special occasion is incomplete without it. There has to be atleast one cuisine of Paneer. There are so many ways to use it, it is used in savoury dishes and also in preparing sweets. Its an Indian cheese which is prepared by coagulating milk via lemon, vinegar, yoghurt/curd or any other food acid. 

About the Nutritional part of Paneer, its is a great source of calcium, vitamin D, protein hence very much required to be included in the daily life. Its very useful in preventing cancer and also reduces the development of insulin resistance syndrome. Hence very useful for people on insulin. It is also help full in stomach disorders. 

I my home everyone loves paneer, but its difficult to find good quality of it here in London. Hence I started preparing at home. Now the time has come that I rarely purchase paneer from outside. Its very easy to prepare. So lets quickly see the ingredients.

Ingredients:

Whole milk/full fat milk - 2 litres

Lime juice/vinegar - 2-3 tbsps
Cream - 1/2 cup

Equipments:

Heavy bottom pot (to boil the milk)

Cheese cloth/muslin cloth

Colander

Method:

Boil the milk and cream in a heavy bottom pan. Stir occasionally in between so that the milk doesn't stick to the bottom (otherwise it might burn). Once the milk comes to boil turn off the stove, add first tbsp of lime juice/vinegar and stir. You will see that it has just started curdling. Now add the other tbsp of lime juice, stir. If required then add the third tbsp of lemon juice. You will see a light greenish whey separating. Now take a colander lined up with muslin cloth, pour the entire curdled milk into it. You can place a deep pan below the colander to collect the whey. Press the muslin cloth containing paneer nicely to drain the extra water, you can take the help of a tong here as it will be quite hot. Keep it hanging for 2-3 minutes over a tap. Now keep it over a colander, fill water in a pan (you can use the same pan in which it was prepared) and put it on the top of it for atleast for an hour. This will help in making the paneer into shape. You can also use any other heavy weight like mortar & pestle. Once done you can cut the paneer into cubes, and its ready to be used.

Tips:

• Always use whole milk, you can add 1 cup of fresh cream to the milk to make more soft paneer (makhani paneer).
• Never add the entire lemon juice/vinegar in one go.
• The whey collected from the curdled milk, can be used while making chapatis. This can also be used as an agent to curdle the milk next time, paneer will be more soft.
• Once the milk is boiled and acid is added to it then do not boil it further, this will harden the paneer.
• Don't keep the pan over the paneer for more than 1-2 hours, as this will make it more condensed.
• For storage, keep the paneer immersed in cold water in the refrigerator.

Few more clicks from another batch :

Bye n Happy cooking

Priyanka:)