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Vegan Chocolate Banana Cake

Madhuram — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:51:32 +0000

In my previous post I mentioned about the Taste of Home website for a huge collection of baking recipes and how I like to linger around there. Another website I often visit is Weight Watchers. Whether your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight or not I think it is always better to look for healthy meal ideas and what better place to look for than Weight Watchers. They have a good collection of dessert, baking recipes too. I have tried a couple of recipes from that site as well with some tweaks here and there and have liked it very much.

The following chocolate banana cake recipe too is my version of the Dark Chocolate Cake recipe in that site. The cake recipe is egg free already. All I did was to substitute a cup of pureed sauerkraut with a cup of pureed banana and made it vegan by substituting canola oil for the melted butter. I also used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour. What is sauerkraut? I too was not aware of such a thing until I saw it mentioned in the cake recipe. I understand that it is fermented red cabbage pickle in laymen terms. For detailed information check this sauerkraut recipe, which has detailed instructions with pictures.

As for my chocolate cake with bananas, it came out very well. One of the reason I chose to bake this cake was, I recently purchased a bundt pan and was waiting for a chance to use it. I saw that this cake recipe too used one and was egg free too. Another reason being, I had very ripe bananas at home which I didn’t want to throw it away. So I decided to use it in this recipe and I’m not regretting it at all. The flavor of bananas in the cake is very mild. I was expecting that the banana’s flavor would be dominating but was surprised that it was not so. The cake was moist, had a very good texture; neither dense nor crumbly, perfect for decorating for birthdays and anniversaries. The only change I would make in that case is to use butter instead of canola oil to give it a rich taste.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Vegan Chocolate Banana Cake

Dry Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour 2 cups

Granulated Sugar (See Notes) 1 and 1/3 cup

Cocoa Powder 2/3 cup

Baking Soda, 1 and 1/2 teaspoon

Wet Ingredients:

Canola Oil 1/4 cup

Hot Water 1 and 1/2 cups

Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon

Bananas, mashed or pureed 1 cup

Yield: 1 Bundt cake. (I think it will make two 8-inch layers or one 9×13 inch cake as well)

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven at 350F/180C. Spray a bundt pan with non stick cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients and keep it aside.

3. I pureed 2 small size bananas with little water to measure 1 cup of puree.

4. To the flour mixture add the canola oil, hot water and vanilla extract; mix well.

5. Now add the pureed bananas and blend thoroughly.

6. The cake batter is quite “water-y”. Pour the batter in the prepared pan and bake for approximately from 45-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The original recipe mentions 55-60 minutes, but mine was done after 45 minutes itself.

7. At this stage I did see some cracks on the cake. Move the bundt pan to a cooling rack and let it cool for 10-20 minutes. Place a baking sheet on the pan and slowly invert the pan holding the sides of the sheet to remove the cake from the pan. Then carefully transfer the cake to the wiring rack and let it cool completely before you frost. I didn’t frost mine.

My Notes:

1. The original recipe used all purpose flour but we did not realize that the cake was made with whole wheat pastry flour. The cake had a wonderful texture; moist but not sticky and not gritty. This can very well be a birthday cake; but I would use butter in that case.

2. You could also increase the quantity of sugar to 1 and 1/2 cups if you are not frosting this chocolate banana cake. You could also sprinkle some chocolate chips instead. Since I wanted to make a vegan cake I did not add any. I prefer mild sweetness so the 1 and 1/3 cup was perfect.

3. The cake was surely moist but I felt that it did not taste rich. The original recipe uses 1/2 cup of melted butter for the fat which I replaced with 1/4 cup canola oil and some mashed bananas. So I think we could use 1/4 cup of melted butter or margarine instead to give that richness. If you want to use entire 1/2 cup batter, you can reduce the quantity of mashed bananas to 3/4th cup.

4. The next time I try this recipe I’m going to use cooked beet puree instead of mashed bananas. I’m pretty sure that its going to be so good.

This vegan chocolate banana cake goes to:

Cakes and Cookies event at SpicesEtc
Show me your cake event at Dil Se

Almost Vegan Cornmeal Snack Cake

Madhuram — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:22:50 +0000

I was looking for some cornmeal recipes for the Corn event and remembered that I had bookmarked one healthy snack cake recipe from my friend Viji’s blog. Her blog has an amazing collection of traditional and innovative recipes. I have made a couple of changes to the original recipe keeping the measurement same. Since her blog is private, I’m reproducing her recipe (along with changes made by me) here with her permission.

To make it vegan friendly, I used brown rice milk instead of dairy milk, canola oil and unsweetened applesauce instead of butter in the original recipe. If you are able to find vegan chocolate chips or use carob chips this snack cake recipe will be 100% vegan. Even after all these changes the cake tasted very good.

Speaking of which, brown rice milk is a new addition in our diet. Earlier I have baked with regular rice milk and almond milk, but this is the first time I have used brown rice milk. I prefer rice milk to soy milk, especially while baking. I feel that some brands of soy milk leaves an unpleasant odor in baked goods. I have tried a couple of vegan cake recipes with soy milk and felt that the texture was not good too, very sticky. So I usually go with rice milk or almond milk. Now brown rice milk is my favorite too. It tastes good by itself too. My son has it with his cereal. So if a 4 year old likes it, then it should be definitely good, right?

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Almost Vegan Cornmeal Snack Cake Recipe

Dry Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour 1 cup

Whole Cornmeal (use only fine grind) 1 cup

Quick Cooking oats 1 cup

Almond Meal 1 cup

Walnut Meal 1 cup

Raisins 1 cup

Pistachios, coarsely chopped 1 cup

Dried Cranberries 1/2 cup

Flax Seed Meal 1/2 cup

Brown Sugar 1/2 cup

Mini Chocolate Chips 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon

Baking Powder 3/4 teaspoon

Baking Soda 1/2 teaspoon

Cardamom Powder 1/2 teaspoon

Wet Ingredients:

Canola Oil 1/3 cup

Unsweetened Applesauce 2/3 cup

Bananas, mashed/pureed with little water 1 and 1/4 cups

Brown Rice Milk 1 cup

Water/Milk as needed

Yield: 16 pieces (I used a 9×13 inch pan)

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven for 15 minutes at 175C/350F. Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan with butter/non stick cooking spray. I lined it with parchment paper and then greased it also with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl combine together all the dry ingredients reserving the 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips.

3. Mash 1 large ripe banana with a fork. I chopped the banana and used some of the milk to grind it into a creamy paste. Mix together all the wet ingredients together and stir it well.

4. Pour the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine it well without any lumps. I used another 1/4 cup of water to get the required consistency.

5. Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Smooth it out with a spatula dipped in hot water and top it with the reserved chocolate chips.

6. Bake it for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Mine was done in 22 minutes.

7. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let it cool completely before you can remove the cake from the pan. After it is completely cooled, invert the cake pan to remove the cake and cut it into pieces.

My Notes:

1. I have included a couple of healthy substitutes to the already healthy snack cake. Instead of 1 cup of regular size butterscotch chips, I have used 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips. Instead of 1 cup of melted butter I have used 1/3 cup of oil, 2/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce and increased the quantity of mashed bananas from 1 cup to 1 and 1/4 cups.

2. I have also used brown rice milk instead of dairy milk. The original recipe used whole wheat flour and regular cornmeal, which I have substituted with whole wheat pastry flour and whole cornmeal.

3. Where I live I was able to fine almond meal and walnut meal ready made. If you are not able to find it readily, process nuts of your choice in a food processor until its finely powdered.

4. The sweetness was just right for us. Viji had used 1 cup of dates, which I replaced with 1/2 cup of dried cranberries and also included 1 cup of chopped pistachios. Maybe that’s the reason my cake was not very sweet. I think if I had used the dates the cake would have been very sweet.

5. With so many ingredients in the cake, we couldn’t feel the presence of cardamom. So if you are a spice fan increase the quantity to 1 teaspoon instead of 1/2 teaspoon.

6. I was on a tight schedule on the day I was going to bake this cake. So I prepared the dry ingredients the previous night itself. So it was just mixing in the wet ingredients and baking the next day.

This cornmeal snack cake goes to my Whole Grain Baking Event – Corn.

Vegan Blueberry Cornmeal Coffee Cake

Madhuram — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:30:38 +0000

I would say that blogging has definitely made me more responsible than I ever was. Since so many people are visiting the website, I have to be very careful about the authenticity of the information I post and for that I’m doing quite a bit of research too. When I announced the Corn event, one of my blogger friend had a doubt if the makai ki atta (maize flour) available in India is whole grain. I also had a similar doubt, if Masa di harina I see in the stores here is whole grain. So I set off to find some information on the following:

What is masa de harina and makai ki atta?
Are they one and the same?
Is it the whole grain form of corn?

From the information I have gathered so far I’m pretty sure that masa di harina and makai ki atta are one and the same. To get both, maize (corn) is dried and soaked in a lime solution. The process is called slaking. The hull loosens after soaking, which is removed and then the damp corn is ground into fine flour. Actually this flour is nutritionally superior to cornmeal (I’m thinking that the cornmeal mentioned here is the degerminated cornmeal and not whole cornmeal) because the lime water adds calcium to the corn and makes the niacin in the corn nutritionally available.

Now that we know that masa de harina and makai ki atta are one and the same and they are nutritionally superior too. Are they whole grain forms of corn? I’m guessing the answer is “no” because the hull is removed during the slaking process. That being said I think that it is less refined than all purpose flour and also has the added benefit of calcium. This is my take on this topic. Please feel free to share your views here and correct me if I’m wrong.

Shall we move on to the recipe now? If somebody asks me to pick my most favorite recipe, it would be without a doubt this low fat blueberry coffee cake. I have sung it’s praises in that post and am going to do it again here because it is that good. Before trying that cake, blueberries was not in the list of my favorite fruits, but after baking that coffee cake I stock blueberries so much that one day my husband (and others too) might start calling me “that crazy blueberry lady”. So one day last week, as I was raiding my fridge, what do I find? 3 packs of blueberries and a cup of blueberry soy yogurt. You know what I would have decided to do. Of course bake the blueberry coffee cake, but with few changes. Since I’m hosting the “Corn” event, I wanted to incorporate that too in the recipe and now here we have a very light, not so sweet, vegan blueberry cornmeal coffee cake.

Ingredients & Procedure

All Purpose Flour 1/2 cup

Whole Corn Meal 1/2 cup

Sugar 1/2 cup

Baking Powder 3/4 teaspoon

Baking Soda 1/4 teaspoon

Unsweetened Applesauce 1/4 (dry measuring) cup

Soy Yogurt, blueberry flavor 1/2 cup

Vegetable Oil Spread, melted 2 tablespoons

Apple Cider Vinegar1/2 tablespoon

Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon

Almond Extract 1/4 teaspoon

Blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used fresh) 1 cup

Almonds, sliced 1/2 cup

Brown Sugar 1 tablespoon

Ground Cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon

Yield: 9 servings

Procedure

1 Preheat oven to 350F for 15 minutes. Grease a 8 inch square baking dish. Line it with parchment paper and spray with non stick cooking spray. In a small bowl combine the almonds, brown sugar and cinnamon; set aside. The oil spread can be melted on stove top or microwave oven or even in the oven while it’s preheating.

2 Combine together the flour, whole cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. I found medium grind whole cornmeal. It is not as fine as the regular cornmeal you find in the grocery stores. So I had to powder it in the food processor a couple of times, to get a fine texture.

3 The original recipe uses 1/2 cup buttermilk. Since I wanted to make it vegan and also had some blueberry flavored soy yogurt I decided to use that. So I measured approximately 1/3rd cup of yogurt blended it with water to get 1/2 cup measurement. To that add the melted butter, extracts, vinegar and applesauce. Whisk until well blended.

4 Stir the wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in 2/3 cup blueberries. If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw before adding to batter, because the color will bleed.

5 Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Top with remaining blueberries. Sprinkle the almond mixture on top. Tap the pan lightly a couple times so that the topped blueberries and almonds sticks to the batter.

6 Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool the pan on a wire rack.

7 Remove the cake from the pan after 10 minutes and transfer the cake directly to the wire rack. The cake is quite light, so you will have to be very careful while tilting the pan.

Taste

This blueberry cornmeal coffee cake was as good as the one which I had baked earlier with all purpose flour. This time I did have the almond extract and it definitely gave a nice flavor to the cake. As I have mentioned in my earlier post, this cake is very light, so handle with care while removing it from the pan. I thought that using cornmeal would give a harder texture than using all purpose flour alone, but it was light only. The sweetness was just right. So if you have a sweet tooth you can add another 2-3 tablespoons of sugar. We liked it just the way it was.

My Notes1 Butter and buttermilk was used in the original recipe which I have substituted with vegetable oil spread and soy yogurt to make it vegan.

2 I used Bob’s Red Mill brand of medium grind whole corn meal. I test baked something with the cornmeal just like that and saw that the corn did not cook completely. It was gritty. So either find fine grind whole cornmeal or process in a food processor/blender thoroughly if using the medium grind. I see that even coarse grind is available, I would suggest not to get that unless you have a food mill or a very efficient food processor, because the medium one itself took a lot of time for me to get a fine texture.

This vegan cornmeal coffee cake goes to my Whole Grain (Egg Free) Baking Event – Corn.

Vegan Victoria Sponge Cake using Barley Flour

Madhuram — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:37:20 +0000

Course 3 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating Series covers some more designing with buttercream icing, royal icing and fondant. I was eagerly waiting for this course thinking that dealing with fondant would be easier than decorating with the other icings. I couldn’t have been any wronger. Fondant is very high maintenance and at least it was very difficult for me to handle. It’s going to take a lot of practice for me before I can decorate something decent. Taste wise too, I prefer buttercream icing to fondant.

The place where I attended the courses is not offering the 4th part of the course, Fondant and Gum Paste. So I think this is it for me right now. I think I will have to wait until next summer to take the 4th course.

The following were covered in Course 3:

Buttercream Icing

Royal Icing

Fondant

For everything about how to decorate with Fondant check here for exhaustive details.

Coming to the cake recipe which I used for the class, I found it on the box of Ener-G Egg Replacer. It’s a recipe for an egg free Victoria Sponge Cake. I made 2 changes to the original recipe. Used barley flour instead of all purpose flour and canola oil instead of vegetable shortening.

Ingredients & Procedure

Whole Barley Flour 2 cups

Light Brown Sugar 1 cup

Baking Powder 3 teaspoons

EnerG Egg Replacer 1 teaspoon

Canola Oil 1/4 cup

Warm Water 1 and 1/3 cups

Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon

Yield: One 8-inch cake

1 Preheat the oven to 375F. Line the bottom and sides of an 8 inch square/round pan with parchment paper and grease it with non stick cooking spray.

2 In a large bowl sift the barley flour and mix together the remaining dry ingredients.

3 Add the oil and mix well. Add the water and flavor and mix for another 2 minutes.

4 Pour into the prepared baking pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5 Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack. Then remove the parchment paper from the sides of the pan and slowly invert the pan to remove the cake. Transfer the cake to the wire rack and let it cool completely before frosting.

Taste & My Notes The original recipe had used 2 cups of all purpose flour which I substituted with whole barley flour. So the cake was not spongy as the name implies. It was quite dense. Maybe I should I have added another teaspoon of baking powder. Vinegar would do the trick too but I’m not for it in this particular recipe. Since I needed a layer cake, for the second layer I tried another similar recipe but added 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and felt that the flavor of vinegar was over powering. You can see in the 2nd picture that the first layer is reddish in color than the bottom layer, it’s because of the apple cider vinegar. It was airy but I prefer the dense cake minus the vinegar smell/taste. Maybe just 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar should be fine or adding some almond extract might reduce the after taste. This is again a guess only.

The sweetness was right. If you are going to frost the cake, the quantity of sugar in the recipe is okay otherwise I think adding another 2-3 tablespoons of sugar should be fine for those with sweet tooth.

Do I recommend baking this cake? Well it depends on the individual taste. In our family we are trying to include more whole grains and in general to eat more healthy. So we don’t mind the denseness. Especially me baking quite often I cannot be using all purpose flour so frequently. I’m not lying when I tell that everybody in my family liked this cake. I think our taste buds have accustomed to the texture and flavor of whole grains.

It’s not all times that whole grain flours give perfect results while baking. So if you want to use whole barley flour and also want a cake to suit everyone’s taste buds I would suggest you to bake the vegan barley chocolate cake instead of this sponge cake.

If you are looking for a vegan sponge cake recipe to bake for some occasion like a birthday, anniversary etc I would suggest you to try the exact same recipe but with all purpose flour as mentioned in the original recipe. I too am going to try it and will post my findings here when I’m done.

This vegan barley sponge cake recipe goes to my Whole Grain (Eggless) Baking Event – Barley.

Vegan Barley Flour Chocolate Cake & Royal Icing Decorations

Madhuram — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:22:25 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! Course 2 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating series concentrates more on flowers and especially flowers made with royal icing. What is different about royal icing? Royal icing does not use any fat (butter/shortening). It’s just a combination of confectioner’s sugar, meringue powder and water. Unlike buttercream icing, royal icing creates hard-drying and long lasting decorations. This means you can make these decorations ahead of time (even months ahead) and simply place them on your cake. Another interesting feature of royal icing decorations is that it will not soften or crumble when stored properly. It should not be kept in bright light, as colors can fade. Just like buttercream icing, consistency of royal icing is very important. Another item used in royal icing decorations is the Color Flow mix. This again has egg whites posing a problem to vegetarians and vegans.

I was searching the net for egg free royal icing recipes and spotted few but was not sure how it would work. One of my classmates mentioned that her vegetarian friend used cream of tartar to replace the meringue powder. I couldn’t decide which one to choose. Luckily I found a vegan royal icing mix in the store (Bulk Barn) I take the course. It’s just icing sugar and soy protein and I had to simply add a 1/4 cup of water and beat it well. It’s from a company called Liberty Sugar Decorations Inc. You can find such mixes online too. I have not tried this brand. The brand of royal icing mix I bought worked very well. The roses I made were as good as the ones made by others. I also omitted the Color Flow mix while filling few decorations and that turned out good too.

Is royal icing better or buttercream icing? Since royal icing hardens it cannot be used to frost on cakes, even though it is edible. It is used as a glue while making gingerbread houses, decorated on cookies and for other long lasting decorations. Taste-wise buttercream icing gets my vote, but if you want to have a spectacular visual presentation royal icing is good. I didn’t like the taste of the flowers I made, it is just hardened sugar. Of course children can’t get enough of this. Another important thing to note is royal icing is high maintenance. The tips, decorating bags, the bowl in which you prepare the icing, the mixers and anything that comes in contact with royal icing has to be very clean and grease free. There is no excuse for this at all, because even the slightest amount of grease will affect the texture of the royal icing and you won’t be successful. So it is advised to have separate set of tips, containers etc for preparing royal icing. If you use the same stuff you use for buttercream icing and don’t clean it well the fat from this icing will affect the royal icing. So use a dishwasher and my instructor also suggested cleaning the tips, etc with vinegar before using it with royal icing.

We learned a lot of cool floral decorations in Course 2 but I did not get everything right. It requires a lot of practice. The following is the list of things we covered:

Using Buttercream:

Using Royal Icing:

Color Flow Decorations
Apple Blossoms
Violet
Victorian Rose: Similar to the buttercream icing roses, but you would be using royal icing instead. Also tips 97 (right handed) or 103 (left handed) is used instead of 104.
Daisy
Daffodil
Pansy
Primrose

Ingredients

Whole Barley flour 1 and 1/2 cups

Sugar 3/4 cup

Salt 1/2 teaspoon

Baking Soda 1 teaspoon

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder 1/4 cup

Vanilla Extract 1 and 1/2 teaspoons

Canola Oil 1/3 cup

Apple Cider Vinegar 1 tablespoon

Cold Water 1 cup

Yield: One 8 inch cake.

Procedure 1 Preheat the oven at 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Grease the pan lightly with non-stick cooking spray and line the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper.

2 Sift the barley flour and stir together rest of the dry ingredients (sugar to cocoa powder) and create a well in the center.

3 To the well add all the wet ingredients one by one. Mix until just combined. Don’t over mix. It’s OK to have some lumps.

4 Pour the batter in the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Mine was done by 27 minutes. If baking cupcakes, check around 13-15th minute.

5 Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let it cool for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment paper on the sides of the pan and slowly invert the pan on a plate and the cake comes out perfect without sticking to the pan.

6 Cool completely before frosting.

Taste I was crossing my fingers while the cake was baking. Though I did see a couple of recipes for chocolate cake using barley flour, I was not sure how this one will bake because I was not using eggs unlike the other recipes. I have read that barley flour is not as glutenous as all purpose flour or whole wheat flour. So I was absolutely surprised to see the cake because it had rose perfectly.

I couldn’t wait to taste the cake. Once I tasted the cake I was literally jumping in joy because it was very good. It didn’t smell raw or it did not taste bitter or it did not have the grittiness of whole wheat flour. Of course it did not replicate the taste of all purpose flour but it was definitely good and way better than using whole wheat flour. So I think those who don’t like the taste of whole wheat flour in baked goods can start experimenting with whole barley flour instead. I felt the cake was not sweet enough when I tasted it a couple of hours after baking but from the next day onwards I did not feel that. The sweetness was just right.

My Notes 1 I had to bake 2 layers of cake for my class. Since I was not sure if the cake would come out well using barley flour, I tried just one layer first. I simply stirred together the dry ingredients and proceeded as mentioned in the recipe. The cake rose beautifully just like the one I baked with all purpose flour. I was able to see some unprocessed husks of the barley. So while baking the next layer I sifted the barley flour. I don’t think we will be losing nutrition because of this, since the residue on the sieve was very less.

This barley flour vegan chocolate cake goes to my Whole Grains Baking Event – Barley.

Eggless Whole Wheat Layer Cake

Madhuram — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:15:58 +0000

Are you like me, crazy about a cookbook? If you are interested in baking, want to include whole grains while doing so and also want the baked goods to be very tasty, then you will have to check King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Baking book and I’m sure you will become a fan like me. It is not just a book with recipes but talks in detail about the different types of whole grain flours, their characteristics and how to use them effectively so the result is very delicious baked goods. It’s a 600 pages cookbook, so you can understand the in-depth coverage of the subject matter. You have abundant choice with recipes for breakfast, quick breads, yeast breads, cookies, cakes, desserts etc. It’s like any other baking book when it comes to the huge collection of baking recipes but what makes it the best is that all these recipes are made with a variety of whole grain flours.

I had to bake a layer cake for for the final class of Course 1 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating series. I decided to go with one of the cake recipes in the King Arthur’s Whole Grain Baking book. Since I’m on the look out for a good egg free white cake recipe, I decided to try the butter cake recipe using whole wheat pastry flour. I made a couple of changes to that recipe to make it egg free and healthy.

Is this cake really healthy? The answer is both yes and no. Yes, because I have used trans fat free non hydrogenated margarine instead of butter in the original recipe, thereby reducing the fat and eliminating cholesterol. No, because I have frosted the cake and it is made with shortening. So if you really want a healthy cake either avoid frosting or make a simple vegan frosting or a low fat frosting.

We practiced the following in the final class:

Roses (Please watch the video)
Sweet Peas
Bows
Leaves
Vines

Ingredients

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour 2 and 1/4 cups

All Purpose Flour 1 cup

Baking Powder 2 teaspoons

Baking Soda 1/2 teaspoon

Soft Tub Margarine 1 cup

Granulated Sugar 3/4 cup

Salt 1 teaspoon

Unsweetened Applesauce 1 cup

Apple Cider Vinegar 1/2 tablespoon

Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons

Plain Yogurt, low fat 1 cup

Yield: Two 8-inch round layer cakes or One 9×13 inch pan.

Procedure1 Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round pans or line with parchment paper. Nowadays I prefer lining the pan with parchment paper in the bottom as well as on the sides. The cake comes out of the pan perfectly each and every time.

2 Whisk together the flours, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl.

3 Cream together the margarine, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

4 Add 1/4 cup of applesauce at a time, beating well after each addition and scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl once or twice. It curdles but don’t worry.

5 Add 1/3rd of the flour mixture, mixing until incorporated.

6 Measure 1 cup of yogurt in a liquid measuring mug. To that add the vanilla and vinegar and whisk together well.

7 Add half of this mixture to the large bowl, again beating until the mixture is very fluffy. Meanwhile scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl also.

8 Then add another 1/3rd of the flour and beat well. Next add the remaining yogurt mixture, then the remaining 1/3rd cup of flour, mixing well after each addition. Stop once or twice to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.

9 Pour the batter into the prepared pans. (It was not watery but more in a semi solid state). Bake the cake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine was done in about 32 minutes. The cake was in golden brown color and started to pull from the sides of the pan. If you are baking a 9×13 inch cake the baking time will vary, so do the toothpick test to find if the cake is done.

10 Remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. Then pull out the parchment paper from the side of the pan and invert the pan and the cake falls without sticking to the pan. Remove the parchment paper sticking to the bottom of the cake and transfer it to a cooling rack. The cake has to cool completely before frosting.

Taste In our house we have got used to whole wheat pastry flour in baked goods so much that we hardly notice any difference in taste or texture. It takes quite sometime to get accustomed to that taste, especially if you are using traditional whole wheat flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour. Together with the frosting the cake was awesome and we did not miss the white flour at all. It was not only us but I gave the cake to a couple of people and all of them loved it.

My Notes1 I used Fleischman’s no salt added soft tub margarine instead of butter.

2 If you don’t find whole wheat pastry flour then use equal portion of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour. If you are using traditional whole wheat flour add 1/4 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice to reduce the bitterness and raw smell/taste. This is the tip given in the book, which I have not tried so far.

Vegan White Cake

Madhuram — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:21:55 +0000

I was looking for a good white cake recipe to bake for my husband’s birthday. I saw a recipe for vegan white cake in The Vegan Family Cookbook by Chef Brian P. McCarthy. Actually that book has a lot of interesting recipes, especially vegan baking recipes and I literally want to try each one of them. Wish I had the time for it. So do look for that book in your local library.

For that week’s class I had to take 8 cupcakes. So I used the recipe to bake one 8-inch cake for my husband’s birthday and the remaining batter was exactly enough for 8 cupcakes. We practiced with tips 3, 12, 21, 67 and 2D in the 3rd class. Check the following links to see what decorations are possible with these tips.

Ingredients

Cake Flour 3 cups

Baking Powder 2 teaspoon

Salt 1/2 teaspoon

Egg Replacer Powder (EnerG) 2 teaspoons

Water, lukewarm 1/4 cup

Unsweetened Soy Milk 1 and 1/2 cups

Margarine 1/2 cup

Sugar 1 and 1/3 cups

Vanilla Extract 1 tablespoon

Yield: One 8-inch cake and 8 regular size cupcakes or two 8-inch cake rounds or one 9×13-inch cake

Procedure1 Preheat oven to 350F. Oil and flour cake pans. I used one 8-inch round pan and baked the remaining batter in a muffin tin for cupcakes. Got 6 of them.

2 In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

3 In a blender/food processor blend together the warm water and EnerG and blend it until it’s frothy. To this add the soy milk and blend it for another 30 seconds and set it aside.

4 In another bowl beat the margarine with an electric mixer until softened. Add sugar and vanilla to the margarine and cream together thoroughly.

5 Add 1/2 of the soy milk mixture to the margarine/sugar mixture and beat for a minute.

6 Add 1/2 of the flour to the margarine and beat for a minute.

7 Now add the remaining soy milk mixture and flour mixture alternately and beat together for a minute after each addition.

8 Pour the cake batter into prepared pans.

9 Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

10 Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire cooling rack.

TasteThis cake was good, but I think I felt the presence of soy milk when I ate the cake without the icing. Luckily my husband and others didn’t feel it. So next time I’ll be trying some other non-dairy milk instead. It did have a nice texture, especially the cupcakes. Together with the frosting it tasted no different than any other cake.

My Notes1 I used sweetened soy beverage so I reduced the quantity of sugar to 1 cup and it was perfect because it also got the sweetness from the frosting.

2 For the margarine, I used Fleischman’s No Salt Added soft tub margarine.

3 If you don’t have cake flour it’s ok. Instead use this substitute which is widely used. Place 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in a 1 cup measuring cup and then fill the rest (until the top of the cup) with all purpose flour
and level it off.

Eggless Vanilla Cake and Cake Decorating Tips

Madhuram — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:44:14 +0000

This is the picture of the first cake I decorated in Course 1 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating Courses. You can see that I need a lot of practice, but I’m sure that it will also give you (beginners) the confidence that it’s easy and you can definitely do it. I have been receiving a couple of mails since my earlier post on cake decoration, requesting me to update more information on how-to’s. The hardest part for me now is to give all the necessary information in an organized manner to the followers of this series. I feel that compiling this series is going to be difficult than actually taking the course and decorating the cakes.

I would say that the easiest thing to do is to enroll for the classes if it’s nearby your place and if you have the time for it. It’s a very nice experience. If not, check www.wilton.com. They have a lot of pictures, videos and tips etc. The only drawback is it’s a lot of information to take and without direction it’s difficult to follow. So I’ll provide some links here, following the course’s pattern. So it would be like you are taking an online class.

What happens in the first day of Course 1? A student manual is handed over to all the students. It has the recipe for Buttercream Icing, information about the tools you will be using, the designs you will be working on in the 1st course and a lot of other stuff. This book is available only for those who are attending the class. Then instructor gives general tips about baking a cake, how to level it, torte it, fill it and frost it. She brings a cake and shows you how it is done. I’m going to do a pictorial post on this topic shortly. Until then watch this video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So you will not be requiring any materials for the first class, but you will be needing a whole bunch of stuff from the second class onwards. Now is the time for decision making. What are you going to buy? This purely depends on the level of interest you have. Are you going to bake and decorate just 3 cakes in a year or are you thinking of making it a career. If you fall in the first category or cannot decide which, I would suggest you to buy Wilton’s Course 1 Student Cake Decorating Kit available in Michael’s and other cake decorating supplies stores. It will have the basic tools you would be requiring to use in Course 1. If you are very serious about cake decorating then go for the 101 Piece Tool Caddy Collection. Actually I bought the set thinking that it will be having the materials for course 2 too, but it didn’t. So I had to buy Course 2 kit separately. So I think it’s advisable to get the appropriate course kit as and when you are enrolling. Empty tool caddies are available too. So later you can buy that and fill it up with materials you got with the kits.

The Course 1 kit comes with a flower nail no.7, tip brush, standard couplers (2), decorator brush, featherweight decorating bags (2), disposable decorating bag (1), tips 3, 12, 16, 21, 104, 67 and 2D, a small straight spatula and a practice board set.

Now that you have decided what to buy, you would have to bake a cake, torte it, fill it and frost it and take it to the 2nd class. Recipe for eggless buttercream icing. You would be practicing with tips 16, 3 and 2010. Tip 2010 is not included in the kit, so you would have to buy it. In this rainbow cake I have used only tip 16 for the stars (in the rainbow) as well as the clouds.

Check this video to know how to fill a decorating bag

Click here to view the embedded video.

Watch the following video to see how to work with tip 16 to make stars

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check here to see how to use tip 16 to make clouds.

Check here to see how to transfer the rainbow pattern on the cake.

Medium consistency icing is used for both the stars and clouds. If you decide to get the tips alone, practice on a vegetable cutting board or plastic sheet or an inverted cake pan. Tips 3 and 12 are also used apart from tip 16 in the first class. Check the following links to start using those tips.

Dots
Outline
Print Writing
Script Writing
Rose Base

Now shall we go to the recipe for eggless vanilla cake I have used here? I think that I have found 2 perfect eggless chocolate cake recipes. One is the eggless chocolate cake with silken tofu and the other one is the vegan chocolate cake using vinegar. I hadn’t tried my hands on egg free vanilla/white cake. Now I’m in the search of a perfect recipe for that too. (So if anyone has such a recipe please let me know). Since I was short on time, I decided to bake a vanilla cake using cake mix. I bought an organic cake mix because we can definitely identify all the ingredients in the list unlike the other cake mixes which has a lot of unidentifiable chemical names and sometimes animal fat too. I had a lot of sour yogurt in the fridge, so I used it as egg substitute. I used 3/4th cup of yogurt in place of 3 large eggs.

Ingredients

Organic Vanilla Cake Mix 1 pack (I used Organics Biologique 460g

Milk 1/2 cup

Yogurt 3/4 cup

Vegetable Oil 2/3 cup

Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon

Yield: One 8-inch cake and 6 regular size cupcakes.

Procedure1 Preheat oven to 350F/180C for metal pans and 325F for dark non-stick pans. Line an 8-inch cake pan and a muffin tin with parchment paper and paper liners.

2 In a large bowl blend cake mix, yogurt, milk and oil at low speed until moistened.

3 Beat at medium-high speed for 2 minutes. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl. Continue beating at medium-high speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared pans.

4 Bake according to the instructions give in the pack. Mine was done in 25 minutes. The cupcakes even sooner. Cake is one when toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.

5 Cool in pans on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely before frosting.

Taste The cake came out very good but I felt that it was very sweet. It had a nice airy texture. Since the cake was very sweet, I reduced the quantity of sugar while preparing the buttercream icing. The cake was perfect together with the icing.

Has my search ended for the best egg free vanilla cake? No. This cake was good, especially very easy to put together and simple procedure. Still, I’m going to keep looking.

Vegan Date Cake

Madhuram — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:17:17 +0000

Hi friends, I’m back. Actually I came back from India in the last week of August itself, but did not feel like blogging all these days. The trip was mostly good except when my son fell very sick when swine flu was at peak there. Thankfully it was regular flu and he is fine now. I thought of meeting all the food bloggers in Chennai but couldn’t organize it with an hectic schedule. Hope to make it at least the next time.

On a different note, ladies, do you think that your husband is not appreciative of your efforts you put in the home front? Doesn’t he help you around the house? Then pack your bags immediately and fly to India (or anywhere) and stay there at least for a month and see (enjoy) the respect you get when you come back! Even the simplest thing you do will be noticed by your better half. I’m loving it!

I didn’t bake much in the past 2 weeks but for the vegan chocolate cake for my mother-in-law’s birthday (she came with us) and Shilpa’s eggless date cake. The date cake has been in my to-bake list for quite sometime now. Somehow I didn’t get a chance to bake it until recently. We got a big pack of (Lion brand) seedless dates from India and I wanted to use it up. My son also has started going to school full time and I have to pack lunch for him. He usually eats some fruit or some healthy sweet after his lunch and dinner. So I decided to bake this cake.

This date cake has got raving reviews and I have also tasted it myself when my friend Lakshmi baked it for me as muffins. I followed the original recipe mostly but made some changes:

1 I wanted to try a vegan version because I was having some unsweetened soy milk at home. Sometimes soy milk (some brands) can leave an after taste. So I also added 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract which was not mentioned in the original recipe. You can also try flavoring it with cardamom powder.

2 We had kept the dates in the refrigerator and it was very hard. So I soaked it in 3/4th cup warm soy milk. I left it soaked for nearly 15-16 hours. Maybe that much soaking is not required but I didn’t find time to bake it earlier. I blended it in my food processor with the required amount of sugar and while doing so felt that some more liquid might be necessary. So added another 1/4 cup of soy milk (this is not mentioned in the original recipe).

3 1/2 cup of oil is mentioned in the original recipe. Shilpa also mentions that she has tried baking the cake without oil and it turned out good as well, dense though. So I used 1/4 cup vegetable oil and 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce. Measured the oil in liquid measuring mug and the applesauce in dry measuring cup.

The quantity of sugar mentioned is 3/4 cup but I scooped out 2 tablespoons of sugar after measuring.

4 Another change I made was adding 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts instead of just a tablespoon.

5 After incorporating the flour to the wet ingredients I felt that some more liquid can be added so I used 1 tablespoon water.

6 I did not want to frost the cake so I was thinking of something to make the cake look good and the idea of using blanched almonds clicked. So I decided to bake it in an 8-inch square pan and use 16 almonds (4 rows and 4 columns) to decorate the cake, so that I can cut the cake into 16 pieces and each piece will be adorned by one almond. The idea worked and the cake looked very good and was easy to pack as well.

7 My cake was done around the 32nd minute itself. The smell lets you know and you can also see the cake pulling from the sides of the pan. Move the pan to a wire cooling rack. Left it like that for an hour. Tried removing it from the pan later but couldn’t. So I stored it in the fridge overnight and it came out without any difficulty in the
morning.

The cake tasted very good. I’m sure that I’m going to bake this date cake quite often. It’s a hit with everybody in my family and my mother-in-law has already asked me to bake this for her when she leaves to India.

Thank you very much Shilpa for posting such an awesome recipe. Special thanks to your aunt for coming up with this fantastic recipe.

I would also like to thank Vaishali for suggesting my blog for the Tried and Tasted Event (which highlights one food blog every month and other food bloggers cook from that blog) started by Zlamushka. Thanks to Zlamushka for accepting the suggestion and also to Poornima for hosting it this month.

Low Fat Blueberry Coffee Cake

Madhuram — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:25:04 +0000

I found this recipe for blueberry coffee cake in Taste of Home’s Baking Book. As I have mentioned a couple of times earlier, the recipes which appear in that magazine are perfect and it does not disappoint you at all. So this coffee cake recipe was no exception to it. I’m not a big blueberry fan. I buy these berries to make blueberry milk for my son and other than that we don’t do much with it. Sometimes he asks for blueberry pancakes but this time he didn’t want neither. I was looking for blueberry recipes and found this coffee cake recipe. The first thing which caught my attention was that it used only 2 tablespoons of butter and it was very easy to prepare. These days my son is so keen on helping me while baking so I have to consider the ease of preparation too while choosing a recipe. So this recipe was perfect. The only change I had to do was to use unsweetened applesauce to substitute one egg and add little apple cider vinegar and the cake turned out GREAT.

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour 1 cup

Sugar 1/2 cup

Baking Powder 3/4 teaspoon

Baking Soda 1/4 teaspoon

Unsweetened Applesauce 1/4 (dry measuring) cup

Buttermilk (I used 1%) 1/2 cup

Butter, melted 2 tablespoons

Apple Cider Vinegar1/2 tablespoon

Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon

Almond Extract 1/4 teaspoon

Blueberries, fresh or frozen 1 cup

Almonds, sliced 1/2 cup

Brown Sugar (I used dark) 1 tablespoon

Ground Cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon

Yield: 9 servings

Procedure1 Preheat oven to 350F for 15 minutes. Grease a 8 inch square baking dish. In a small bowl combine the almonds, brown sugar and cinnamon; set aside. The butter can be melted on stove top or microwave oven or even in the oven while it’s preheating.

2 Combine together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a large bowl.

3 Measure the buttermilk in a liquid measuring cup (or any other bowl). To that add the melted butter, vinegar, extracts and applesauce. Whisk until well blended. If you add the butter while its still hot, the mixture will look curdled, but its okay.

4 Stir the wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in 2/3 cup blueberries. If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw before adding to batter, because the color will bleed.

6 Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool the pan on a wire rack.

7 Remove the cake from the pan after 10 minutes and transfer the cake directly to the wire rack. The cake is quite light, so you will have to be very careful while tilting the pan. A couple of almonds will fall down.

Taste I have baked a lot in the past one year but this blueberry coffee cake will definitely make it to the Top 5 if I prepare such a list. I’m not exaggerating here but it was unbelievably good. So good that my husband asked for seconds and had it too! This has never happened before. I didn’t have almond extract, I think it would have tasted even better with it.

This cake doesn’t rise much, around 1/2-3/4th inch only. As for the texture, it was very lighty and fluffy, unusual for an egg less cake. I think the vinegar did the trick. The sweetness was perfect, the addition of almonds gave a nice crunch to the cake. The only thing to look for while baking this cake is that it’s very light and has to be handled very carefully while removing from the pan.

My Notes1 The original recipe had mentioned 2/3 cup buttermilk, which is what I did for the first batch and as I have mentioned earlier, the cake was so fluffy that I felt that it would fall apart while removing from the pan. I had to be very careful. So while preparing the next batch (yes we liked it so much that I baked it again the next day to share it with my new friends here) I reduced the quantity of buttermilk to 1/2 cup and this time it was quite manageable.

The cake is very light (just like a cake with eggs) when kept at room temperature. It hardens up a little when stored in the refrigerator. So I was thinking that the next time I bake it, I would cool it in the fridge itself, so that removing it from the pan will be easy.

2 If you leave the cake in the pan itself for much longer time, the bottom of the cake will become soggy from the heat and the condensation. It happened to my first batch and I had to blot it with paper towel.

3 I think this recipe without the blueberries would make a perfect eggless white cake.

Although not low in fat technically (because of the almonds), since the percentage of saturated fat is quite low this blueberry coffee cake goes to my Low Fat Baking Event.