Eggless Chocolate Oreo Cake with Fluffy frosting

After 3 years of blogging I just crossed my 200th post and to thank everyone for the support and encouragement.

Who can say no to an Oreo Cookie?  I loved the Oreos in the chocolate cake bake because they would go wonderfully well with fresh cream cakes! The cake is very easy to make and looks gorgeous!So I wanted to incorporate Oreos in the cake.SoI just make Oreo-filled chocolate cake, layer it with fresh whipped cream, dust it with crumbled Oreo. , It was all Yum. Moist, decadent, so delicious, but all of it at once was…well…completely and totally overwhelming.

Ingredients:

All-Purpose flour-125 gms

Condensed milk-½ can (200 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

Oreo biscuit Pkt -2

Ingredients for filling and frosting the cake

2 cups fresh cream whipped until it triples in volume and is stiff

10 to 15 Oreo cookies crushed

1/4 cup chocolate chips

Ingredients for sugar syrup

Water-1 cup

Strong coffee-1 tbsp

Sugar-3to 4 tsp

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

Procedure:- Boil the water and add sugar and coffee. Cool this mixture completely .

Assembling the Cake:-

Once the cake is cooled completely, slice the cake into layers. Beat whipping cream on medium speed for about five minutes, until soft peaks form and add sugar. 

1. Place the top most layer on the cake board and drizzle the sugar syrup using a spoon. 

2.Make sure to drizzle is across evenly on the cake especially along the edges which tends to get a little hard. 

3. Now add a generous dollop of fresh cream and spread it evenly using a spatula. 

4..Now sprinkle about 1/4th of the crushed oreo cookies and chocolate chips. 

5. Carefully place the second layer of the cake on top of the first and repeat the above steps of drizzling sugar syrup and fresh cream.

 6. Place the last layer on top and again drizzle the remaining of the sugar syrup.

 7.Now cover the sides of the cake and top with the remaining fresh cream, if the sides of the cake are not turning out evenly don't worry they will be coated with generous amount of crushed oreo's .

8.Top the cake with Whipped Cream and the whole Oreo cookies. Refrigerate for 1 hour to firm up then remove and allow coming to room temperature before serving.

Stuffed Chilli/ Stuffed Mirchi Wada

Stuffed Chilli

I bought the biggest and the hottest jalapenos/Chillies available in the local market.I tried to make stuffed chilli for the evening snack. A popular dish in India, freshly made, by street hawkers. They are called Mirchi Bada. Everyone thought that these would be spicy, But they are not at all spicy and even a small kid can eat them . It is the best snack for teatime or Here you can make this fine-tasting accompaniment to a main meal - or indeed can be eaten alone as a sort of snack.It is favorite of many people In Mumbai This is mine and my husband's all-time favorite snack. Everyone in our family just loves it.

Ingredients:

Green Chillies/Jalapeños-4 large

Potatoes, boiled -4

Tomato-finely chopped-1

Onions, finely chopped-2 

Red Chilli powder-1 tsp

Coriander Powder-1 tsp

Chaat Masala Powder-1/2 tsp

Garam Masala Powder  - 1tsp

Baking Powder- 1/4 tsp

Gram Flour- 1 cup

 Method:

Slit green chillies and remove the seeds. Blanch in hot water

Making stuffing:

 1. Peel and grate boiled potatoes and add onions, red chili powder, garam masala powder, chaat masala, coriander powder and salt. Mash and mix well.

2. Divide in portions same as number of chillies.

3.  Stuff each chillie with this mix and keep aside .

Making batter:

1. Mix all ingredients in gram flour and beat vigorously until soft. 

2. It is better to add a little water at a time, whilebeating it. 

Frying: 

1.  Heat oil. It has reached correct temperature when a drop of batter dropped in it sizzles and floats to the surface quickly.

2.Dip each chilli in batter and coat it well. 

3.Drop gently in the oil and fry in batches until  until crisp and golden brown

4.Serve hot with Green Coriander Chutney or Tangy Tomato ketchup.

Malai Peda& chocolate Peda

Pedas   are soft and It has a smooth and silky texture and it just melts in the mouth. pedas are an all time favorite .For diwali  I tried Chocolate peda& Malai Peda. Malai Peda I adapted from here.

Happy to say My Chocolate Peda is  Published in Vallamai Magazine:)

Malai Peda

 

Ingredients:

Milk Powder--2 cups

Sweetened Condensed Milk – 1 tin

Unsalted Butter – 100gm

Method:

  1. In a microwave safe dish, melt the butter.

  2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

  3. Cook in the microwave for 3 minutes, stirring very well after every minute.

 4. After the 3 minutes, mix well again and leave aside for the mixture to cool down enough to handle.

 5. Once the mixture has cooled down, grease your hands and make balls. 

6. Gently press the balls and flatten them to shape…round and flat.

7. Decorate them with colored sugar, almonds, cashews, pistachios or raisins.

Chocolate Pedas 

   Ingredients.

    Marie Biscuits - 200 gms (powdered)

    Milk powder-100gms

    Condensed milk - 1 tin

    Butter - ½ cup

    Sugar - ¾ cup

    Cocoa - 6 tsp

    Mixed, broken nuts - ¼ cup

    Raisins - 1 tbsp

    Chopped peel - 1 tbsp (optional)

    Mix all ingredients. All the ingredients should be mixed and cooked in a heavy pan.

    Cook till thick and dry - it sets very fast, Remove & cool.

    Roll into balls and garnish.

Aval/Poha Puttu

Aval/Poha Puttu

Puttu is my all time favorite. Aval Puttu is a delicious snack and is used to prepare in functions & festivals prepared as a neivedhyam .Rice Puttu is quite a long process. But Aval Puttu, is a simpler version and just as tasty as the rice puttu.

Ingredients:

Poha/Aval-1/2 cup

Jaggery-1/2 cup

Grated Coconut-1/2 cup

Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp

Cardamom powder-1/4 tsp

4-5 Cashews

2 tsp Ghee

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan and fry the poha for 1-2 minutes until turns to light brown color.

2. Grind the poha into coarse powder.

3. Heat the water with salt & turmeric till it becomes lukewarm.

4. Sprinkle this little by little, to the roasted flour & mix well till it resembles fine bread crumbs.( The rice flour should be wet enough to hold together when you try making a fist with it and dry enough to break apart at a simple knock with the thumb. It shouldn’t be clumpy or too powdery. Keep breaking it with the hand as you mix. The amount of water varies with the kind of rice flour used. So keep adding in small quantities.)

5. Mix well with hands without any lumps. 6. Now, in a deep pan pour 50 ml water and put crushed jaggery and when it melts filter it.Make syrup out of it.

7. The syrup should become thick enough, so that when you add a drop of it in a vessel of water, it should solidify immediately. (When a drop of the jaggery syrup is dropped in cold water, you should be able to form it into a ball. When you reach this consistency switch of the stove and remove the vessel from the stove.)

8.Pour the syrup little by little onto the steamed poha Mix well with a light hand

9.Heat the ghee in a pan, roast the coconut and cashews until turns to light brown color.

10.Add the roasted coconut, cashews with cardamom powder to the poha and stir well.

11.The 'puttu' is ready and it must be like 'dry sand' after adding the jaggery. Allow to cool & then serve.

Stuffed Plaited Bread

Stuffed Plaited Bread  (Tried &Tasted)

I recently came across a braided bread recipe which captivated my mind; After looking at this beautiful bread in a couple of blogs, I wanted to try one on my own.  It is very easy to prepare and very delightful to look and the fillings making the bread more scrumptious. When done, remove from the oven and brush with butter if desired. These can be enjoyed warm and in fact should be enjoyed when warm. They taste great when cold too. The left over’s can be warmed up in the oven and served warm.Mix and match from a couple of recipes.And here comes my version.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour-2 cups

Yeast-1 tbsp

Sugar-- 1/2 tbsp

Salt - 3/4 tsp

Warm milk -3/4 cup

For the filling:

Potatoes-2 large boiled, peeled and cubed

Green peas-1/4 cup

Oil - 2 tbsp

Tomatoes – 2  finely chopped

Green chillies - 4,5 finely chopped

Onion - 1 finely chopped

Cheese- 1 1/2 cup grated ( instead of paneer I used Cheese)

Cumin seeds- 1tsp

Coriander powder -. 1tsp

Garam masala-1tsp

Salt. to taste

Turmeric-. 1/2 tsp

Red chili powder .- 1/2 or to taste

Coriander leaves, finely chopped - 2 tbsp

(add different vegetables as per your choice)

For Filling:

1. Heat oil in a pan on medium heat. Add in the cumin,seeds. Let them splutter.

2. Add green chillies. Stir for a minute. then add chopped onion Fry

3. Add tomatoes till dry  then add the green peas, turmeric, salt and coriander powder and stir for 2 minutes.

4. Add the potatoes and cook for 4 - 5 minutes. Add the red chilli, garam masala. Mix and remove from heat. Allow the mixture cool down to room temperature.

Method:

Dissolve fresh yeast & sugar in warm mixture of milk & water, mix well, sprinkle a little flour & leave.

1. In a medium bowl mix the yeast, sugar, and milk and set aside in a warm place till it becomes frothy about 10 minutes. Add in the salt and oil. Mix.

2. In a large bowl add both the flours, mix. Make a well at the center and add the yeast mixture little by little.

3. Combine everything using your hand and start kneading. Knead for 5-6 minutes until the dough becomes smooth.

4. Apply oil over the dough and cover with a wet kitchen towel and place it in a warm place. Let the dough rise to double its size, about 1 hour.

5. Gently deflate the dough and knead for a minute. Roll the bread dough to a rectangle 1 cm thick.

6.Divide it into 3 imaginary parts along the wider side.. Make slanting cuts on either side at equal distance

7. Spread the filling and cheese on the center one third. Cut 1” wide strips on either side of the filling.

8. Make sure there is the same number of strips on each side of the filling. Leaving the end closest to the filling attached. "Braid" the strips up over the filling, tucking in loose ends and wrapping the final piece or two under the bread. Let it rise again, about half an hour.

9. Brush the top with milk & bake at 180 deg for 15 mts or so till top turns golden brown.

10.Serve hot with tomato ketchup.