Eggless chocolate cake

I never miss out an opportunity to bake a cake and when I got to meet a friend of mine who was pregnant I baked her this super delicious and simple eggless chocolate cake with Nutella as a frosting .

When I searched my recipe diary , I got this easy recipe which I had written 4 years back.

As soon as I opened my diary and saw the recipe, it brought me old memories of my days in Bangalore when my son was a 7 months baby .He used to sleep a lot during daytime(don't ask me about nights! I had sleepless nights  as my kid will be awake at that time!) and I had some time to bake or cook few new recipes.I used to browse a lot and even referred a lot of magazines to try new stuff.And I started writing those recipes in my diary. I had no convection oven at that time and I used to bake my cakes in my microwave using trial and error method.After few bad outcomes I understood my microwave and finally arrived at the correct time for baking cakes.The results are not as you get in a convection oven but they were pretty decent and no one guessed that I used a microwave for baking the cake they ate!

Now that I have the convection,I tried this cake nearly after 4 years and the outcome was as usual a lovely moist and yummy eggless chocolate cake !

Preparation time:45 mins

Serves:4

Ingredients:

All purpose flour/maida-1 and 1/2 cups

Sugar-1 cup

salt-1/4 tsp

Oil-1/4 cup

Cocoa powder-4 tsp

Vanilla extract-1/2 tsp

Baking powder-1 tsp

water-1/2 cup

For topping:

Nutella-100 gms

Procedure:

1.Sift together flour,cocoa powder,salt and baking powder together.

2.Mix water,sugar,oil and vanilla extract till sugar dissolves completely.

3.Add the flour mixture to the liquid mixture one tablespoon at a time.Mix well to form a uniform cake dough.

4.Grease a baking dish and pour the batter in to it and bake for atleast 30-35 min at 350F.

5.Let it cool and then top it with Nutella evenly and then serve.

Tips:

*You can replace water with milk if you are not vegan.

*Similarly oil can be replaced by equivalent amount of butter.But oil gives best results for this cake.

*If using microwave then bake it at high power for about 4 to 4 and a 1/2 mins.Time changes with different models.Check for a toothpick to come out clean if correctly baked.

*You can also use 

Quinoa dates cookies/Thinai dates cookies/Foxtail Millet and Dates Cookies

Millet cookies which are available at our local supermarkets in Chennai never fail to attract us and my son likes the taste of these cookies too.As I didn't have an oven before I never even had an idea to give it a try but after buying an oven and having tried few other cookies I wanted to try millet cookies at home and few months back, my blogger friend Jayanthi Sindhiya posted a recipe on millet cookies which kindled my curiosity to bake these cookies.Finally I got millet flour from the shop and baked these goodies.The outcome was soft (cake like)quinoa or foxtail millet cookies which we all relished a lot.As I added dates purée the cookies were soft but very tasty and definitely worth a try.Kids who detest dates too will love these cookies and these cookies are gluten free and could be made as vegan too by adding oil instead of butter .

Ingredients:

Organic quinoa flour/Thinai flour/foxtail millet flour-1 and 1/2 cups

Dates-10 to 12 no

Sugar-8 tbsp

Butter-5 tbsp

Baking soda-1/2 tsp

Coarsely powdered almonds/almond meal-1/4 cup

Vanilla extract-1 tsp

Few almonds-for garnish

Procedure :

1.Soak the dates in hot water and grind it to a coarse paste adding as little water as possible. .

2.In a bowl sieve together the Foxtail millet flour(Thinai Mavu ) and baking soda .

3. In another bowl add butter,powdered sugar and dates paste.

4,To this date mixture add vanilla extract also and mix well .

5.To this wet mixture add the millet flour and powdered almonds or almond meal.

6.Bring them together to form a cookie dough and make small balls.Flatten them a little on the greased baking cookie tray ,decorate it with an almond in middle and bake them at 200 C for 20-25 mins .

7.After baking ,cool them for few minutes and transfer them to an airtight container.It can be stored for up to a week.Yummy and delicous Quinoa Dates Cookies are ready.Enjoy them with a cup of tea or coffee.

Tips:

*For more firm or crisp cookies add more butter.

*Increase the quantity of sugar if you have a sweet tooth.But keep in mind that even dates are sweeter.

Poosanikai Pomegranate Thayir Pachadi(Ash gourd pomegranate Raita)

With mercury on the rise ,I am trying to include fruits and vegetables in my diet that are ideal for this season.One such delicious recipe is this raita made with ash gourd and pomegranate .Usually we make raita with ash gourd but to make it colourful,healthy and appealing I added carrot and pomegranate along with it.The pomegranate gives a mild sweetness to this raita and a cup of this raita when made with low fat yogurt is so healthy and makes it suitable for diabetics and weight watchers too.It goes well with Sambar or kuzhambhu and plain rice .

Preparation time :15 mins

Serves:2

Ingredients:

Grated ash gourd-3 tbsp

Grated carrot-3 tbsp

Pomegranate -2 tbsp

Low fat yogurt or regular plain yogurt(curd)-1 and 1/2 cups

Hing /asafetida -1/2 tsp

Salt-to taste

Oil-1 tbsp

To be grind to a paste:

Grated coconut-2 tbsp

Green chillies-1

To temper:

Mustard seeds -1 tsp

Jeera/cumin seeds-1 tsp

Curry leaves-few 

Procedure:

1.Grind green chilli and coconut to a fine paste .

2.Beat the yogurt to a uniform consistency.add salt and hing to it.

3.Add the grated ash gourd ,carrot and pomegranate to the yogurt . Add the ground paste also to it and mix well.

4.Heat oil in a wok and add the tempering ingredients and once the mustard splutters ,add it to the raita.

5.Serve the Raita chilled along with hot plain rice and sambar or vatha kuzhambhu .