Eggless ChocolateSponge Cake

My New Year wish for you all is this is the time to unfold new horizons &realize new dreams to discover the strength & faith within u, the best year you’ve ever had, and that each New Year will be better than the last.WISHING EACH AND EVERYONE AND ALL THE READERS OF RUCHI a Very Happy New Year2011...!

Egg less ChocolateSponge Cake is undoubtedly amongst the favorite dessert recipes all around the world. So I tried and tasted recipe for this sinful Eggless Chocolate sponge Cake for this New Year. The cake is very rich and melts into your Mouth. It is deliciously soft and moist adorned with some freshly made dark chocolate ganache.!

Ingredients:

Condensed milk-½ can (200 grams)

Self-raising flour-125 grams

Cocoa-1 tbsp

Chocolate powder-1 tbsp

Baking powder-1 tsp

Baking soda –1/2 tsp

Butter melted-1/2 cup (60gms)

Vanilla essence-1/2 tsp

Milk-100 ml

Chocolate Ganache Icing:

Chocolate ganache can be made with dark, milk or white chocolate. Dark chocolate is used most often for the superb colour and rich flavour it imparts. The technique is simple, and merely involves melting chocolate with cream.

Heavy cream-1 cup

Mini dark chocolate chips or chopped semi-sweet chocolate-    2 cups

How to Make Chocolate Ganache

 In a medium sized pan, heat cream almost to a scald. Remove from burner.

 Add chocolate all at once, and whisk to blend smooth and melt.

Chill ganache 1 hour or more to spread enough to decorate a cake.

Method:

1.Sieve flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cocoa all together 2 to 3 times.Keep aside

.

2.Pour condensed milk in a bowl. Add the butter, and beat well till smooth. Add the flour spoon by spoon, mixing into the condensed milk mixture.

3. In between, add milk as required if the butter begins to get too stiff. Stir the mixture in one direction only all the while. This will incorporate more air and make the cake lighter.

4.Once all the flour is used up, beat the batter as above till light (5-7 minutes) mix gently till smooth.

5.Pour into a greased cake tin. Do not smooth with a spoon etc. If the consistency is right this will not be needed.

6.Pre-heat over to 180o c. Place tin inside. Bake at 15-2o minutes or till done. 

7.Poke with a skewer and check. Cool a little. Invert on wire rack. Cool completely before doing icing 

How to proceed Ganache icing:

 

   1. Slice the chocolate cake horizontally into two equal parts.

   2. Place one half of the cake on a serving plate and sprinkle half the soaking syrup in order to make the cake moist.

   3. Spread half of the ganche over the cake layer and sandwich with the other half of the cake.

   4. Moisten this cake layer with the remaining soaking syrup.

   5. Spread the remaining  ganche on top and sides.

   6. Serve chilled, garnished with swirls of whipped cream and grated chocolate.

Note: Iam not good at icing just I'm making chocolate ganache for the first time. I thought I would give this a try as it sounded simple. As I was doing the icing for the first time I was very careful during the process of making it and the end result was better than what I expected and looked very nice and a perfect decoration for a beginner like me:)

Apple, Banana & Carrot Halwa (ABC Halwa)

Apple, Banana & Carrot Halwa (ABC Halwa)

ABC Halwa is a most popular Indian Dessert .In short we say ABC Halwa. Made Of Apple , Banana ,Carrots Cooked in Milk . It has a Very Rich Taste, Easy to make and Nutritious.  This Halwa is rich in Vitamin A & C .The sweet and juicy apple carrot and banana fused together form and created such an exotic tastes and melts in mouth. This Halwa is rich in Vitamin A & C and nutritious Sweet dessert.

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped apple (without skin)

1 cup chopped banana

1 cup grated carrot

1 cup milk

Sugar - 2 cups

Almonds -few

Pistachio - few

Cashew nuts -few

Ghee - 3 tbsp

Cardamom Powder -1 tsp

Method:

1.Cook grated carrots in milk until cooked.
 

2.Add grated apples and smashed banana and cook.

3.Then add sugar and mix all the ingredients together.

4.Keep on stirring till the apple & banana pieces are cooked and the halwa becomes one mass.

5.Add ghee to the mixture and mix well till the Ghee oozes out. Then add cardamom powder.

6.Remove from heat and garnish with chopped almonds ,cashew nuts and pistachio.

 

Enjoy Healthiest and delicious colorful Apple, Banana & Carrot Halwa (ABC Halwa)

Iru Puli Kuzhambu

Iru Puli Kuzhambu

This is one of my favorite kuzhambu. I love this kuzhambu for its spicy and tanginess.It is a tangy gravy with a delightful mix of spice ,butter milk and vegetables.. We are using both butter milk and tamarind to make this kuzhambu and so its called iru puli kuzhambu. It is a very popular dish among the Tamil Brahmin and Kerala community. This unsual kuzhambu made with coconut ,roasted with fenugreek seeds and dried red chillies and cooked along with tamarind paste, makes it deliciously tangy and spicy.We can  add a variety of vegetables can be used for this recipe. It goes very well with paruppu usili, roasted chepankizhangu, vazhakkai , any type spicy curry and with hot rice, dosa’s ,idli as well.

Ingredients:

For kuzhambu we need

Tamarind – the size of a small lemon

Thick butter milk / curd (slightly sour) – 150 ml

Salt to taste

Brinjal

 Ladies finger

White pumpkin

Drumstick

For Coconut Paste

1cup grated fresh coconut

dried red chillies-3-4

fenugreek seeds-¼ tsp

white urad dal -¼ tsp

Raw rice-1/4 tsp

For Seasoning

Oil-1 tsp

Curry leaves-few

mustard seeds-1 tsp

Method

  1. Soak 1 teaspoon of raw rice in water for about 10-15 mins.

  2. Soak the tamarind in water and extract the juice and keep it aside

  3.Chop the vegetables in bigger sizes, wash it and keep it aside

 4.  Heat the oil in the pan and add red chilli and fenugeek seeds and fry till the fenugeek seeds becomes red color

  5. Remove from flame and add it to mixer along with grated cocunut and soaked rice and grind all these to a fine paste

  6. In the pan add the vegetables and add some water and allow the vegetables to cook

  7.When the vegetables are half-cooked, add the tamarind extract and salt and allow the mixture to boil to to avoid raw smell of tamarind

 8.  Finally add the ground paste, butter milk and mix it well and when the mixture starts to boil remove from flame

  9. Heat oil in separate pan and add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds begins to sputter add curry leaves and fry for a while and add these to the Iru puli Kuzhambu.

10.The mouth-watering iru puli kuzhambu is ready serve it with Hot rice and spicy vegetable.