Zebra Cake

Zebra Cake is a yummy sponge cake with mixed stripes of two flavors (vanilla and chocolate). Though it looks complicated, it is easy and fun to prepare.

Involve your kids while preparing the cake; its fun to do the layering of both batters to create "Zebra" stripes. After baking, the outcome looks super cool!

Try and enjoy this yummy cake with your family and friends.

PREP TIME

25 mins

COOK TIME

30 mins

TOTAL TIME 

55 mins

                                                                                                                                               

Recipe for Zebra Cake

Recipe type: Cakes

Cuisine: International

Serves - 10 to 12 (approximately)

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour / Maida - 2 cups
Granulated Sugar - 1 cup
Eggs - 4
Vegetable Oil - 1 cup
Milk -1 cup
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Salt -  1/4 tsp
Baking Powder –2 tsp
Cocoa Powder – 3 tbsp (use good quality)

Direction:

Sift together all purpose flour, salt and baking powder; keep aside.

Preheat oven to 180 deg. C and prepare the 9" inch cake tin ; keep aside.

In a bowl, beat oil and sugar till it becomes fluffy and light.

Add eggs one by one and beat it thoroughly. Then add vanilla essence.

Fold in the flour mixture gently.

Now divide the batter into two equal parts.

In one part of the batter, add in the cocoa powder and mix it thoroughly without any lumps.

To prepare the zebra pattern, simply layer the batter on top of each other. Take 1/4 cup  of vanilla batter, place it in center of the pan and put 1/4 cup of cocoa batter on top of it. The batter will spread on its own.

 

Continue the process till both the batter is finished.

Bake on preheated oven at 180 deg C for 30 to  35 minutes. Bake till a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.


Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Once it is cooled completely, remove cake from pan.

Slice and serve!

Apple Bundt Cake / Apple Cake

Apple cake is delicious, moist and easy to make.  Apples, orange juice, orange zest and with cinnamon makes the cake more flavorful.  You can also add walnuts for extra crunchiness!

This yummy cake is perfect to start your day or as evening snack!   Try and relish with your loved ones.

PREP TIME

15 min

COOK TIME

35

TOTAL TIME 

50 min

                                                                                                                                                  

Recipe for Apple Bundt Cake

Recipe type: Cakes

Cuisine:   Western

Yields: serves 6 to 8 persons

Ingredients:

All purpose flour – 1 1/2 cups
Apples – 3 to 4 (peeled , cored and chopped)
Orange juice - 1/2 cup
Orange zest - 1 tsp
Vegetable Oil - 1/3 cup
Powdered sugar – 3/4 cup
Eggs - 2
Milk - 1/2 cup
Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
Salt – a pinch
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Vanilla essence – 1 ½ tsp

For topping:
Ground Cinnamon - 1/2 to 3/4 tsp
Granulated Sugar - 1 1/2 tsp

Mix both the ingredients and keep aside.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180 deg. C; grease the bundt tin with butter completely and dust with flour. keep aside.

Sift together all the dry ingredients (all purpose flour, cinnamon powder, baking powder and salt).

In a bowl, beat oil and sugar till it becomes fluffy and light.

Add eggs and beat it thoroughly.  Then add vanilla essence, milk, orange juice and orange zest. mix.

Fold in the dry ingredients  into the wet ingredients mixture; use a spatula to mix evenly.  At last fold in the chopped apples.

Pour the cake batter into the greased cake tin.

Bake on preheated oven at 180 deg C for 30 – 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a cake comes out clean.


Remove from the cake from the oven and just sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar .  Leave it in the baking tin itself until it cooled completely.


Remove cake from the pan to Slice and Serve.

Note:

You can also reduce the sugar and add chopped dates.

Chocolate Orange Brownies

This orange chocolate brownies is rich in taste with the delicious combination of dark chocolate and orange juice.  My kids enjoyed every bite of it.  

This is a perfect treat to celebrate this holiday season!  Try and share it with your loved ones.

                     

                              Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas. 

                           May this joyful season greet you with health and happiness.

PREP TIME

15 min

COOK TIME

30 minutes

TOTAL TIME 

45 minutes 

                                                                                                                                                   

Recipe for Chocolate Orange Brownies

Recipe type: Brownies

Cuisine:  International

Serves: 16 to 20 pieces approximately

Ingredients:

Dark chocolate - 150g
Eggs - 3
Brown sugar - 1½ cup
Orange juice - 1 cup
Butter - ½ cup
Cocoa powder - 2 tbsp
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Baking powder - ¼ tsp
Orange zest - 1 tbsp(grated)

Topping:
Orange zest - 1 tbsp(grated)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180 deg C and prepare the baking tin; keep aside.

Melt the dark chocolate in a double boiler or microwave oven (I have kept in microwave oven for 1 minute). Take it out and give it a mix. Allow to cool.

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder; keep aside.

In a bowl, beat the butter with brown sugar till creamy. Then add eggs, orange juice, orange rind. Mix till it become fluffy.

Add the flour mixture, stirring until incorporated. At last add melted dark chocolate mixture. Mix it.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking tin and sprinkle orange zest on the top.

Bake on preheated oven at 180 deg. C for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Remove from oven and allow it cool down down completely. Slice and serve!

Eggless Ginger Bread Cookies - Christmas Special

Christmas season is always exciting to me as my high schooling was throughout in a Christian Institution; I used to take part in Christmas carol, dramas / plays and used to dress like Santa. 

Let's go into treats for Christmas now,

For this Christmas I baked Rich plum cake and Ginger bread cookie.  I have adapted the recipe from here.  I have made some changes to suit my preference; I have added jaggery syrup instead of molasses and included wheat flour to make it healthy. It came out crunchy and tasty; not an exaggeration to say that our house was filled with the aroma of spices in the cookie and increased our festive mood!

This is a perfect sweet treat to celebrate Christmas; try and share with your loves ones.

                         Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas. 

                    May this joyful season greet you with health and happiness.

PREP TIME

30  min

COOK TIME

15

TOTAL TIME 

45mins

                                                                                                                                                   

Recipe for Whole Wheat Ginger Bread Cookies 

Recipe type: Cookies

Cuisine: Western

Yields: 25 to 30 cookies approximately

Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
All purpose flour – ½ cup
Butter - ½ cup(room temperature)
Brown sugar -  ¼ cup
Honey / molasses / jaggery syrup - ¼ cup
Baking powder - ½ tsp
Baking soda - ½ tsp
Salt - ¼ tsp
For spice mixture:
Cinnamon - 2 small pieces
Dry ginger - 2 small pieces
Cloves - 4 to 5 nos
Cardamom - 2 to 3
Pepper - ¼(optional)

Healthy Breakfast Muffins

This nutritious and tasty muffins are perfect way to start the day!  As a mom I feel very satisfied when I send this muffins for my kids lunch box as it has wheat flour, oats, carrots, orange, bananas and dry fruits. I have adapted the recipe from Marthastewart.com and made slight changes according my preference.

Try this healthy muffins and give your feedback! 

PREP TIME

20 min

COOK TIME

20 mins

TOTAL TIME 

40 mins

                                                                                                                                                         

Recipe for Healthy Breakfast Muffins
Recipe type: Baked Goodies

Cuisine: Western

Serves: 10 to 12 muffins approximately

Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour  – 1 cup
All purpose flour - ½ cup

Oats -  1 cup
Vegetable oil / olive oil  - ½ cup
Dark brown sugar - ½ cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Cinnamon powder -  ½ tsp

Raisins - ¼ cup
Baking powder - ½ tsp
Baking soda - ½ tsp
Salt - ¼ tsp
Egg - 1
Milk - ½ cup 

Carrots(small) - 2 (grated)

Banana - 1 (mashed)
Orange jiuce - ½ cup

Gingerbread Cupcakes - Christmas Special

Ginger bread cupcake is delicious and full of flavours with ginger, honey / molasses, cinnamon and nutmeg! 

This recipe is adapted from Sally's baking addition.  This is a perfect sweet treat to celebrate Christmas; we all especially my kids love these delicious cupcakes! 

                                       

              May your Christmas sparkle with moments of love, laughter and goodwill, 
                                 And may the year ahead be full of contentment and joy.
                                                    Have a Merry Christmas.

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

All purpose flour – 1½ cup
Butter - ½ cup
Dark brown sugar - ½ cup
Honey / molasses / maple syrup - ½ cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Baking powder - ½ tsp
Baking soda - ½ tsp
Salt - ¼ tsp
Egg - 1
Milk - ½ cup
Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
Freshly ground ginger - 2 to 3 tsp
Nutmeg powder - ½ tsp 

Whipped cream Frosting:
Whipping cream - 1 cup
Icing sugar- 2 to 3 tbsp
Vanilla extract - ½ tsp
or
lemon juice - 1 tsp

Pumpkin Jaggery Cake / Pumpkin Cake - Eggless, Butterless & Sugarless!

This recipe is my entry for the event "Shhh!!! Cooking Secretly" challenge conducted by Mayuri Patel of Mayuri's Jikoni. For this month, I have paired with Priya Suresh of Priyaeasyntastyrecipes and the ingredient given by her is Pumpkin and Jaggery.

I have used both the ingredients and prepared a soft, moist & delicious cake. This is an idea I got from a website with slight changes to suit my preference; the outcome is very pleasing!

You can indulge in this cake without feeling guilty as this is Eggless, Butterless & Sugarless! Sounds interesting isn't! 

Try this healthy & tasty cake and give your feedback!

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 ½ cups
Pumpkin - 1 cup (grated)
Jaggery - 1 cup 
Oil -  ½ cup
Milk - ¾ cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Baking Soda -  ½ tsp
Cinnamon powder - 2 tsp
Salt - a pinch

Dates Cake (Eggless & Butterless) / Eggless Dates Cake

This incredibly soft and tasty date cake is made without egg and butter!  Especially, for those health conscious ones, to eat guilt-free!

Try and give your feedback!

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 2 cups
Dates - 25 to 30 no. (De - seeded)
Milk - 2 cups
Granulated Sugar - 1 ½ cup
Oil - ¾ cup
Baking Soda - 2 tsp
Nuts - 2 tbsp chopped (I used pistachio)

(Tri-colour) Check Board Cake

This Check Board Cake recipe comes on this special occasion of 'One Million Page Views'.

I prepared this cake for my elder son Deepak's birthday; I always prefer to prepare the cake myself, for special occasions at home.

Traditional Check Board Cakes comes only with two colours; brown and white. I tried out this cake with the three colours and it came out well!

My friends and kids in the party were surprised to see the tri-colour pattern in the cake.

Here, secret behind the pattern is revealed! Let's check out the recipe.

Ingredients:

Eggs - 6
Milk - 2 ½ to 3 cups
Vanilla essence - 3 tsp
Cake flour - 6 cups
Sugar - 3 cups (powdered)
Baking powder - 3 tbsp
Salt - 2 tsp
Unsalted butter - 1½ cup
Choco chip - 85 grams
Pink / red food colour - 1 tsp

To prepare Cake Flour:

You need to remove 2 tbsp of all purpose flour from the cup and replace 2 tbsp with cornflour.  Cake flour is ready.

Baked Date & Chocolate Rolls / Breads (Eggless)

Here is a healthy, soft Bread Roll / Braided Bread stuffed with tuitty fruity, chocolate chips and dates (you can also add nuts with this).

Preparing bread at home is quite interesting and easy; even beginners can try this without second thought. I have adapted the recipe from Treat n Trick, one of the famous blogs for baked goodies. 

Actually this recipe is given for Bread Roll, but I also tried the Braided Bread, out of my interest and it came out very well. Every one liked it as well.

Also check my Jewish Challah Bread / Three Strand Braided Challah recipe which I posted earlier! Soon I will be posting more healthy & yummy stuffed baked goodies! 

This is my first food photo using my Nikon D5300; looking forward to your feedback!

Baked Chocolate Pudding / Brownie Pudding

Here is my baked Chocolate / Brownie Pudding for January month's Home Baker's Challenge.

Rafeeda AR of Big Sweet Tooth  who is hosting this month's challenge has given many varieties of baked pudding recipes.  I have selected the one with chocolate as my kids love that very much!

This delicious pudding is easy to prepare, using common pantry ingredients and perfect to treat your loved ones!  I have adapted the recipe from here.

Thanks to Priya Suresh for starting the group.  To know more about Home Baker's Challenge click, here.

Serves - 5 to 6

Ingredients:

Sugar - 2 cups
Eggs - 4
Butter - 1 cup
All purpose flour - ½ cup
Cocoa powder - ¾ cup / Cooking chocolate - 150 g
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

5 - 6 ramekins (oven proof bowls)
A large shallow baking tin to keep the bowls.

Chocolate Fruit Cake / Chocolate Christmas Cake

As Christmas is around the corner  I am here, with the Chocolate Fruit Cake recipe to celebrate this occasion, perfect alternative for traditional fruit cake/ plum cake.

This cake doesn't require prior soaking of dry fruits and  a perfect treat for chocolate lovers.

The combination of dry fruits, mixed spices and chocolates gives a nice, rich taste and giving moist texture to the dense cake.

Try and enjoy this yummy cake with your family and friends.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour -2 cups
Dark brown sugar – 1½ cups
Butter -1 cup
Eggs - 3
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Salt - ½ tsp
Cocoa Powder - 3 tbsp
Dark Chocolate - 100 g
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Mixed Spice - 1 tsp
Mixed dried and Candied Fruits - 2 to 2½ cups (Sultanas, Tuitti Fruitti, Raisins, Glazed cherries(chopped), Dates(pitted and chopped)) 
Mixed nuts – ¾ to 1 cup (chopped) ( cashew nuts, almonds, pistachios or walnuts)
Orange -1 (Grate the rind from one whole orange and juice from ½ of the orange and keep aside)
Lemon -1(Grate the rind and keep aside)
Rum or Brandy - ½ cup (optional)

For spice mix:
Cinnamon – 1 medium stick
Cloves- 10 pieces
Dry ginger – 2 small pieces

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Chocolate Crinkles are deliciously soft, brownie-like cookie that are coated in a generous coating of confectioners sugar. The name "Crinkle" probably refers to how the powdered sugar "crinkles" or "cracks" as the cookies bake, revealing a little of the chocolate underneath. This recipe is adapted form Simply recipes.

This cookie is perfect for to celebrate Christmas; we all especially my kids love these delicious snack!

Try this and enjoy with your family and friends!

Yield: 18 to 20 cookies medium sized cookies

Ingredients:
All purpose flour – 1 cup
Cocoa powder – ½ to ¾ cup
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Instant Espresso powder – ½ tsp(optional)
Cinnamon powder - ½ tsp (optional)
Salt – ¼ tsp
Sugar – ¾ cup
Eggs – 2
Vegetable oil – ¼ cup
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

For coating:
Confectioner's (Powdered or Icing) sugar  – ½ cup

Eggless Orange Tuitti Frutti Loaf Cake / Eggless Orange Cake / Orange Flavored Tuitti Frutti Cake

This  kid-friendly tuitti frutti cake flavored with orange make a tasty, anytime snack!

Recipe source: Tarladalal .com
Yield : 10 to slices

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 ¼ cups
Baking powder - 1½ tsp
Baking soda - ½ tsp
Condensed milk, sweetened - ¾ cup
Milk - ¼ to ½ cup
Butter,melted - 4 tbsp
Fresh orange juice - ¼ cup
Orange zest - 1 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Tutti frutti - ½ cup
Butter - ½ tsp for greasing
All purpose flour - for dusting the pan

Umm Ali - Egyptian Bread Pudding

Hi friends, here is my Umm Ali - Egyptian Bread Pudding recipe for Home Baker's Challenge, administered by Priya. 

This month Rafeeda of The Big Sweet Tooth is hosting the event and she has selected recipes related to Arabic Bakes. I preferred the rich and delicious dessert umm ali; and this recipe is adapted from Sukarah.

Umm Ali is an Egyptian version of baked bread pudding; made with puff pastry. In this recipe puff pastry is soaked in milk or cream and topped with nuts, raisins and coconuts. 

This dessert is rich in calories so have it moderation! 

To know more about Home Baker's Challenge click here.

Ragi Cupcakes / Ragi Chocolate Cupcakes / Finger Millet Chocolate Cupcakes

Can you imagine adding Ragi in baked goodies and how would it taste? See the recipe below:

This recipe is my entry for the event "Shhh!!! Cooking Secretly" challenge started by Priya Suresh. In this, I have joined with Lakshmi Vimala of Cooking Club and the ingredient given by her was Ragi and Jaggery.

I have taken Ragi as the main ingredient and prepared cupcakes using this recipe from Priya's blog. I have just altered the sugar, milk quantity and added vanilla essence. 

A special thanks to her for a wonderful recipe; my kids enjoyed eating this yummy cupcakes without knowing that I have added Ragi in it!

Ingredients:

Ragi flour - ¾ cup
All purpose flour – ¼ cup
Butter - ¼ cup
Sugar - ¾ cup (powdered)
Baking powder - ½ tsp
Baking soda - ½ tsp
Salt - ½ tsp
Cocoa powder -2 tbsp
Vegetable oil - 2 tbsp
Egg - 1
Milk - ½ to ¾ cup
Walnuts - chopped(optional)

Rainbow Cake / 4 Layer Cake / Layered Rainbow Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This bright, yummy, layered cake is interesting to prepare and perfect for kid's parties. 

I baked this cake for my son's 5th birthday. Though preparing this cake was little time consuming; I thoroughly enjoyed while preparing and outcome was very satisfying.  Though I am not a professional baker; love for baking always insists me to try something new.

It was a big hit among kids; they loved the colorful layers on this cake,  Try and enjoy the happiness of your kids!

Serves - 20 to 25 people

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 350 gms ( 3 cups)

Sugar – 350 gms ( 1¾ cups)

Butter - 350 gms (1½ cups)

Eggs - 6 

Baking powder – 4 tsp 

Vanilla essence – 1 tbsp 

Milk - 100 ml 

Red, yellow, green and blue food colors

Molten Chocolate Cake / Chocolate Lava cake - My 200th Post

This recipe is very special to me as this is my 200th post.; heartfelt thanks to all my readers and friends who all are encouraged me to keep going!

Here is special recipe to celebrate this occasion; this delicious cake with a molten runny center is the ultimate chocolate treat especially for kids! and this recipe is adapted from Show me the curry. It is very yummy and easy to prepare also.

Serves -  3 to 4 persons ( if you are willing to share!)

Ingredients:

Semi sweet baking chocolate - 150 gms
Butter - 1/2  cup (113 gms)
Sugar -  1/3 cup ( 75 gms)

Eggs - 2
All purpose flour - 1/4 cup( 40 g)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 200 deg C and prepare your ramekins or oven proof vessel (grease with butter / oil and dust it with all purpose flour); keep aside.