Green Tea Loaf cake – Akshara’s sixth month completion

 Happy New year - 2016

  This cake I made for Akshara’s sixth month completion. As in the alphabetical order the cake must start with G, so I choose to make this green Tea cake.

   As I had green tea leaves , I grounded my own green tea powder , it didn’t have the green colour of the matcha powder , but it has the fresh tea flavor.

  Little angel herself cut the cake along with my mom. She liked the cake a lot. We dressed her in the green colour and after cutting the cake she munches the cake by sitting on her green colour bicycle.

 I was hesitant to use the green tea first , but after tasting  the cake , I made a correct decision to use it. The cake was so delicious with the fresh tea flavour.

       Requirements :

       2 cup all purpose flour

       2 tbs corn flour

       1 tbs homemade green tea powder

       1 tsp baking powder

       A pinch of baking soda

       2 drops of lemon juice

       1 cup powdered sugar

       1 cup yogurt

       4 tbs Butter

        Quater cup chocolate chip

      

        Method :

Sieve together flour , corn flour , baking powder and baking soda for twice.

Whisk together the butter and sugar till fluffy.

Add in the the yogurt and whisk again.

Now , add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix gently.

Add the lemon juice and combine gently. Add in the chocolate chip and mix gently.

        Pour this batter to the buttered loaf tin  , sprinkle few chocolate chips on top and bake in a preheated oven    @ 180 * C for 30 – 40 minutes or till the skewer inserted comes out clean.

Let the cake cool and demould it from the baking tin.

Slice and serve the  green tea cake.

Green tea loaf cake is ready to serve.

CAKE

EGGLESS 

Basic vanilla cake

Red velvet cake

Chocolate chip pound cake

Jam swirl muffins

Mango chocolate marble cake

Chocolate sponge cake with butter icing

 FOR AKSHARA 

Apple pistachio cake with brown sugar icing

Banana chocolate coffee (BBC) Cake with butter icing

Carrot cake with butter icing 

Dates cake – steamed

Elachi/ cardamom cake

Fruit N nuts cake

CHEESECAKE 

Pumpkin cheese cake - eggless , no baking

Fruit N Nut Cake - Akshara's sixth month completion

   Fruit N Nut cake was the cake which I made for akshara’s sixth month completion. This cake cutting was done by her, as she holds the plastic cake cutting knife and posed for photos. It was so much fun on the day.

  For the letter F, I choose to make fruit cake – dry fruits- tutti frutti , black raisin   and apple sauce is used as I made eggless. For the nuts, I used cashew nuts, almonds.

         The cake was so colorful of the tutti fruit used , everyone liked the taste. My cousins and aunts were present on that day.

Requirements :

All purpose flour  - 1½ cup

Wheat flour – 1 cup

Brown Sugar – 1 ½ cup

Sauce from one whole apple

Tutti-fruit – 1 cup

Black raisins – few

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Salt – a pinch

Milk – ½ cup

Method:

Shift the flour, baking powder and salt thrice.

Sprinkle a spoon of flour on the dry fruits and coat the flour on all sides.

In a bowl, mix together the apple sauce and sugar well.

To this add half of the milk and mix well.

Now, add the flour in three batches and mix in one direction.

If needed add the remaining milk too.

Add the dry fruits and mix once.

Preheat the oven to 220 * C.

Pour the batter into mould and bake in the oven @ 220* for 20 minutes followed by @180* for 10 minutes.

Take out off the oven and let it cool.

As the cake looked so colorful, I didn’t do any icing or decorations.

Fruit N Nut cake is ready to serve.

 

@ Gayathri's cookspot 

Elachi Cake - Akshara's Fifth month completion

Happy New year and Pongal wishes to all . I know it was late to wish , as i can't post in time because of my studies. 

Elachi Cake was made for akshara’s fifth month completion. I was searching for a long for the letter E , Later finalized to make this elachi cake. Elachi / Cardamom is a common spice used in Indian cooking. We call it as elakkai in tamil. I love the tea made with cardamom flavor. This cake must have been posted on November 25th itself

 It is the world’s third most expensive spice. The cake was spongy and flavorful. As I make the cake eggless , butterless , I used mashed banana and coconut milk. These gives the cake a unique taste and flavor.

Requirements :

All purpose flour – 2 cup

Wheat flour – ½ cup

Cardamom – 10-15 nos

Banana – 2 large

Baking powder – ½ tsp

Salt – a pinch

Sugar – ½ cup

Coconut milk – ¼ cup 

Cashew nuts – 10

For Icing :

Pistachios - 10

Icing sugar - 1/4 cup

warm water - 2- 4 tbs

Method :

Dry roast the cardamom for two minutes and grind into fine powder along  with skin.

Mash the bananas well. Chop cashew nuts and pistachios.

Shift the all purpose flour and wheat flour along with salt and baking powder for thrice.

Add the mashed banana in a bowl and the cardamom powder , mix well.

Now , add the sugar and coconut milk , mix well.

Add the chopped cashew and the shifted flour in parts and mix well without lumps.

 Grease the cake tin with coconut oil / dust with flour.

Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius and bake the cake for 30 minutes.

Let it cool.

Mix the icing sugar with required warm water to a thin watery paste and pour on the cool cake.

Sprinkle chopped pistachio on top.

Elachi/cardamom  cake is ready to serve.

Dates Cake – Eggless , Butterless , Steamed

    For the fourth mouth completion of Akshara , We made this Steamed Dates cake. The cake selection for alphabet D was a long story. I finalized to make Dundee cake  - England’s fruit cake with almonds.

          I made the batter and baked the cake . I was disappointed because of the outcome , there was a deep hollow on top of the cake , even though it tasted great .

          Next day , I managed to make this steamed dates cake. I didn’t take dates cake in my first option , as I had already posted Dates Walnut cake.

          I made this cake in small quantity , as akshara was not feeling well for a week during her fourth month and was hospitalized. Everyone in our family were not in a mood to celebrate.

          Everyone like this mini steamed dates cake which was so soft and spongy. Akshara get well soon and be haealthy ...........

Requirements :

All purpose flour - 1 1/2  cup

Corn flour – 1 tbs

Baking powder – ½ tsp

Baking soda – a pinch

Dates – 15

Molasses / Brown sugar – 1 tbs

Milk – 1 cup

Method :

 Grind dates with milk  to a fine paste.

Sieve the  flour and baking powder together for three times.

Add the molasses to the dates mixture .

Add in the flour mixture and mix well.

Pour into the steaming vessel and steam for 15 minutes.

I used a small bowl for steaming , can use any shape of your choice.

Let it cool and unmould.

I just sprinkled some sprinkles on top……….

Carrot Cake with Butter Icing – Akshara’s Third month Completion

  

      

  This carrot cake was made for Akshara’s third month completion  September 25^th, 2014. I made this cake healthy by making it a eggless and with wheat flour.

 

        

        This cake was so colorful and flavorful. Carrot gives a mild orange color to the cake. I added orange flavor essence which makes the cake more delicious.

        By the time I finished baking the cake  little angel was sleeping . so we waited till she wake. Once she wake I started to take pictures of her with the cake , but she is not in a mood to pose , she yawned and did so many things but didn’t smile JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ

        By the completion of the third month , she recognizes our face and starts to smile at us…. She must live happily and smile throughout her life……….. God Bless you Akshara  JJJJ

        This cake was made using carrot as main ingredient for the alphabet ‘C’  and a simple butter icing with almond flakes.

  

    Usually in the carrot cakes cream cheese icing are used , i don't want to add more fat , so made the simple butter icing.

Requirements :

Wheat flour – 2 cup

Maida / cake flour – 1 cup

Baking powder  - 1 tsp

Baking soda – ½ tsp

Grated carrot – 2 cup

Curd / Yogurt – 2 cup

Vegetable oil – ½ cup

Milk – ¼ cup

Granulated sugar – 1 ¾ cup

Orange essence ( Nu Naturals ) – 1 tbs

Salt – ¼ tsp

For Icing :

Almonds – 10 – 15

Butter – ¼ cup

Icing sugar – ½ cup

Milk – 2 tbs

Orange essence – 2 drops

Method :

  Sieve maida , wheat flour , baking powder and baking soda  thrice.

        In a mixing bowl , add curd , oil , milk and sugar , mix well until the sugar is dissolved completely.

   Add the grated carrot , orange essence and give a quick stir.

  Add the flour mixture in three batches and fold in in the same direction.

Preheat the oven to 220*.

Grease the mould and pour the batter and level.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35 – 45 minutes or till the tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Immediately transfer the baked tin onto a wet cloth for easy unmolding. Allow it to cool for 15 minutes, then invert on a plate.

I kept the cake in the refrigerator while making the icing.

In a bowl, mix the butter, icing sugar and essence together. Add the milk for the required consistency.

 Keep the icing in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

Take out the cake and apply the icing on top.

Sprinkle the almond flakes and keep in the refrigerator till cutting as the icing will melt.

Carrot cake with butter icing is ready to serve.

Banana chocolate coffee cake with Butter Icing - Akshara’s second month completion cake

         

    This is Akshara’s second month completion cake. For this month I chose to bake a cake starting with letter ‘B’. So I decided on making a cake with banana with the flavors from chocolate and coffee with butter icing. Happy second month completion Akshara J JJJ JJJ JJJ J JJJ 
   It must be posted on August 25th.

 I followed the recipe of Starbuck’s Banana chocolate cake.

   As this cake is eggless adding mashed banana gives soft and fluffiness to the cake. I used the banana from our farm.

 Check the first month cake – Apple Pistachios cake with brown sugar Icing.

Ingredients:

Banana – 3 no’s

All purpose flour – 3 cup

Corn flour – 3 tbs

Baking powder – 1 tbs

Lemon juice – 3- 5 drops

Sugar – 2 cup

Melted butter – 5 tbs

Chocolate chip – 1 cup

Cocoa powder – 1 tbs

Instant Coffee powder – 1 tbs

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Fresh Curd – ¾ cup

For Icing :

 Butter – 4 – 5 tbs

Icing sugar – 1 cup

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Sliced kiwi – 3

Chocolate chips

Method :

  Mash the banana well.

Shift the flour, coffee powder, cocoa powder and baking powder together, twice.

To the mashed banana add the sugar, curd and mix well.

Add in the vanilla essence, chocolate chips and melted butter, mix well.

Now add flour little by little and mix in same direction.

Add the lemon drops and mix once.

Grease the mould and pour the batter.

 I used star shaped mould.

Bake in the preheated oven @ 200* C for 30 minutes or till the inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Let the cake cool down.

 In the mean time, mix the icing sugar with the butter and mix well.

Add in the essence and mix well.

Keep in refrigerator to condense.

When the cake is cool down, keep the cake in half an hour in the refrigerator before icing.

I applied the icing on the top , placed the sliced kiwi on the center along with chocolate chips.

 I refrigerated again and take out 15 minutes before cake cutting. My mom cuts the cake for Akshara.

 The cake was so delicious and fluffy with the chocolate and coffee flavor.


 @ easy and simple foods