Eggless Plum Cake

I know most of you would surprise to see this post at this time of the year as this cake is generally made during the Christmas time when the dry fruits have been marinated for days, weeks or even months to make the Plum Cake. 

My husband is a huge fan of plum cakes and he's been complaining ever since that I do a lot of baking and have never made things he likes the most like plum cakes, chocolate walnut fudge and fondant cakes. Although I did make a fondant cake which I have not yet updated on this blog. 
Here I am with freshly baked plum cake. 

Since we are just the two of us at home, I made a boozy version of this cake but booze is totally optional. The cake is very good on its own and does not need any frosting but still if you would like to frost this cake, reduce the amount of sugar from the recipe. The softened dry fruits makes this Eggless Plum cake very dense and moist. The good part, you don't necessarily have to marinate the fruits for days for this version of the cake.

Do I need to say that hubby just loved this cake?? :D He finished the entire loaf in just 2 days.

(Print this recipe)

Eggless Plum Cake 



Preparation time: 15 minutes 
Cooking time: 50 minutes 

Makes one 9X5 loaf 
(Source: www.cookingandme.com)

Here's what you would need to make this Eggless Plum Cake:

160 gms/ 2/3 cup of water 

105 gms/ 1/2 cup of brown sugar

110 gms/ 1 cup of mixed dry fruits (I mixed raisins, prunes, dates, dried cherries, tutti fruity)

2 tbsp brandy (optional)

1 tsp of baking soda 

1 tsp of vanilla extract 

115 gms/ 1/2 cup of butter 

295 gms/ 1.5 cups of all-purpose flour 

2 tsp of baking powder 

1 tsp of salt 

1 tsp of mixed spices like cinnamon, nutmeg etc 

2 tbsp of finely chopped cashew nuts/ pistachio nuts (I used cashew nuts) 

2.5 tbsp vegetable oil

Here's how you can make Eggless Plum Cake:

Pre-heat oven to 350F / 180C. Grease and line a 9"x5" load pan or 8" round cake pan, whatever you prefer. 

• Bring the water to boil in a pan and add the dry fruits (leave out the tutti fruity if using them), brandy and the sugar. Simmer for about 7-10 mins until the dates have softened but not mushy. 
• Turn off the flame, remove the pan and set aside for 5 mins to cool slightly. 
• Add the butter, vanilla (or zest) and baking soda. The mixture will foam a bit. Set aside to cool. 
• In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the spice powders and mix well to combine. 
• Add the cashew nuts and tutti fruity (if using) to the dry mixture. You can also add some chopped preserved cherries at this stage. 
• Add the cooled fruit mixture to the flour mixture and add the vegetable oil. 
• Gently fold until the batter has no flour streaks left in in it. 
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 50 mins. If the top seems to be cooking too quickly, loosely cover the pan with aluminium foil.

Hope you would also enjoy making this recipe as much as I did.

If you like this recipe and if want to be updated with the new recipes updated on the blog, don't forget to subscribe on email or like me on FB or simply post a comment about the blog below.

Happy Baking!

Coconut Macaroons (#Eggless)

Have you ever got into a situation where you were flipping through a recipe book and your eyes struck on a recipe which is perfect for the season, involves the use of bare minimum ingredients you already have in your pantry and is super quick. What would you do? 

Would you still flag a post-it on the recipe to fall under "to-make" list or would you go to the kitchen and start preparing for the recipe? What did you say? You want to start preparing for the recipe...Yeah, that's what I did! And see in less than half an hour I have my first batch of these coconut macaroons out of the oven. Its Yummmm.... still warm from the oven, crisp on the outside and perfectly chewy on the inside and the coco-nutty smell. Ahhh! Nothing can beat this.

All this needs is just 4 ingredients. Yeah, you heard me correct, just 4. The good part is no butter... I don't even feel guilty after having 4 cookies by the time I write this part of my post and the second batch is still in the oven.

Hey, where are you planning to go? What...you also heading to the kitchen to make these cookies. Atleast wait to see all the ingredients.

Here's what you would need to make these Eggless Coconut Macaroons:-

Makes: 24 cookies

1/3 cup/ 40 gms all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

3 cups/ 225 gms unsweetened shredded coconut

3/4 cup/ 170 ml sweet condensed milk

Here's how you could make it:

Preheat your oven to 180°C (350ºF). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or grease them with butter.

• In a bowl, sift all purpose flour and salt and whisk it.
• Add shredded coconut and whisk them until it gets mixed properly into flour and salt.
• Add condensed milk and whisk it until it becomes a thick paste. That's it, we're done!
• Using 2 tablespoons, drop the cookies into baking sheet keeping a gap of 2 inches between each cookie.
• Bake for about 15-18 minutes until the cookies turn golden from the sides.
• Let it cook completely on the baking sheet placed on a wire rack. 

Variation:-

Temper the chocolate. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies making zig zag pattern or simply dip the cookies in chocolate and place them on the parchment paper to cool.Enjoy the chocolate coconut macaroons.

Hope you would also enjoy making these cookies as much as I did!

Happy Baking.

ANZAC Cookies

Sometimes the simplest of things give you the most pleasures in life! That's how I felt when I had the first bite of freshly baked still warm ANZAC Biscuits. It was love at first bite! I made these cookies as yet another baking experiment in my kitchen of the 'eggless' and 'pick me up anytime' category. The texture of these biscuits (cookies) is crunchy on the outside and chewy inside. 

An Anzac biscuit is a sweet biscuit popular in Australia and New Zealand made using rolled oats, flour, desiccated coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup, baking soda and boiling water. As a history, ANZAC biscuits have been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) , established during World War I. It has been claimed the biscuits were sent by Army wives to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation. 

One notable omission from any Anzac biscuit recipe is eggs because of the scarcity of eggs during the First World War (as most poultry farmers joined the war) and also so that the biscuits would not spoil when shipped long distances. Check the Wikipedia page here for more details on ANZAC biscuits.

For me, these biscuits represent the love and affection of the Army wives for their husbands. I packed my love and affection for my brothers and sister snd sent these biscuits tn Indore and I was delighted to know that they were finished the day they reached them. 

So, without taking much of your time, lets get straight to baking.

Here's what you would need to make these ANZAC biscuits:-

Makes 28 cookies

1 cup/ 90 gms rolled oats
1 cup/ 130 gms all-purpose flour
⅓ cup/ 150 gms caster sugar
¾ cup/ 60 gms  desiccated coconut
2 tbsps golden syrup ( I substituted corn syrup for golden syrup)
1/2 cup/ 115 gms butter
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsps hot water

Here's how you can make these biscuits-

Preheat oven to 160°C (320ºF). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and keep it aside.

• Mix the oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a bowl. 
• Place the golden syrup (corn syrup) and butter in a saucepan over low heat and melt. 
• Mix the baking soda with the water and add to the butter mixture. 
• Add to the dry ingredients and mix well. 
• Using a ice-cream scoop or with the help of two tablespoons place the mixture on to the  baking tray, leaving space between each one for spreading and flatten slightly with the help of your finger tips. 
• Bake for 8–10 minutes or until the cookies are deep brown on the sides. 
• Cool on trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 

These cookies can be stored for a long time(more than a week).

Variations:-

Sandwich one scoop of vanilla ice-cream with two ANZAC biscuits and you are good to go for a perfect dessert!

I hope you would also enjoy making these biscuits as much as I did!

Happy Baking!

Karachi Bakery Style Homemade Fruit Cookies (Eggless)

One of the best baked things I have grown up eating are Karachi Bakery's  Fruit Cookies(the famous Hyderabad based Bakery). I had gone to this bakery as a kid with my Mom and bought 2 big boxes of these cookies and regretted later that I should have brought more boxes as these are so addictive. I would simply gorge on to the cookies until I would finish the last bit of the cookies from the box. Thanks to the supply chain these cookies are now available in almost every city in India and I can buy them whenever I want. Since I had started baking at home, I decided to give the Karachi Bakery style cookies a try.

I love the colour and sweetness that tutty fruity brings to the cookies and a little bit salty taste that comes from the salt added to the dough. To make these cookies rich, some chopped cashew nuts are also added to the batter. Prepare the log, freeze it for a couple of hours and you are done. Cut and bake the cookies.

Here's what you would need to make these Fruit Cookies:

115 gms/ 1/2 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
100 gms/ 1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
100 gms/ 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
30 gms/ 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup Tutti Fruity
2 tbsp chopped Cashew nuts

Here's how you can make it:

Preheat your oven to 160°C/ 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

• In a large bowl of your stand mixer using paddle attachment or using hand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add vanilla extract and mix it well. Scrap down the sides of the bowl as required.
• Add salt and flour and mix it well until the dough starts to come together.
• Add tutti-fruity and cashew nuts and form a soft dough. 
• Make the dough into a log shape, cover it with a cling film and freeze it for at least a couple of hours to overnight. I kept my log overnight.
• With the help of a serrated knife, cut the log into 1/2 inch wide slices. You may shape the cookies with your hands if it breaks.
• Keep the cookie slices onto the baking tray leaving few inches gap between each other and bake for about 10-12 minutes until the cookies turn brown from sides. Turn the baking tray front to back half way through the baking. Cool completely on a wire rack.

These cookies are best to have at tea time or any time you want a sweet kick.;)

Hope you would also enjoy making this cake as much as I did!

Happy Baking!

The Best Eggless Chocolate Truffle Cake Ever!!!

I love to try different cake recipes especially if the recipe does not include eggs in them. Well, for some, its hard to like an eggless cake but being from a family where not everybody eats eggs, eggless recipes are always welcome! I found one such recipe when I was browsing though the net and I immediately knew I had to give this recipe a try.

Fortunately, I did not have to wait for a long time as I had my newly wed cousin visiting me last week. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to bake him this Chocolate Cake in celebration.

I have not named this cake as Best for no reason. I have tried and tasted a lot of Eggless Chocolate Cake recipe, but this was simply amazing! So soft, so moist and so easy to make. This cake uses unsweetened cocoa powder which is so easily available anywhere and gives an intense dark flavour that satisfies any cocoa lover. This cake also uses some lemon juice which reacts with cocoa powder and gives this cake a texture like a red velvet cake.

Enough of bragging about this cake. Now, lets get straight to how you can also replicate this at your home.

Here's what you would need to make this Best Eggless Chocolate Cake:-

For Chocolate Cake:

• 195 gms (1½ cup) all purpose flour
• 25 gms (¼ cup) unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Cadbury's)
• 200 gms (1 cup) caster sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 75 gms (1/3 cup) vegetable oil (You can use any flavourless oil or melted butter. I used vegetable oil.)
• 240 ml (1 cup) warm water
• 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For Chocolate Ganache Frosting:

• 250 gms semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 200 gms low fat cream (I used Amul Cream)
• 2 tbsp butter

For sugar syrup

• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup water
• 2 tbsp dark rum (optional)

Some chocolate shavings for decoration 

Serves - 8 people

Here's how you can make it:-

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F. Line an 8 inch round cake pan with baking parchment paper.

• In a large bowl, sift all purpose flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk it all together.
• Make a well in the center of your flour mixture and add warm water, lemon juice and vanilla extract and mix it all together with a rubber spatula.
• Add vegetable oil/ melted butter and mix it until all the ingredients come together.
• Pour the batter into your cake pan and bake it for about 30 minutes until a tooth pick inserted in the center come out clean. The cake will spring back when lightly pressed.
• Remove from the oven and let it cool completely.
• Once the cake is cooled completely, serve it with some icing sugar sprinkled on top of it. If you would like to frost the cake like me, keep the cake in the freezer for an hour to chill completely before you cut and frost the cake. This helps to reduce crumbs while slicing the cake.

For Chocolate Ganache Frosting:-

• Melt chocolate and butter in microwave until completely melted. Add low fat cream and mix until the cream is completely mixed into the chocolate. Let the ganache cool to room temperature slightly.

For simple syrup:- 

• Put water and sugar in a saucepan and let it simmer until the sugar completely dissolves. Once cooled to the room temperature, you can add dark rum (optional).

Assembling:-

• Using a long serrated knife, cut the cake in two layers. Keep the cake right side up.
• Soak the bottom layer of the cake with simple syrup and cover the layer with some chocolate ganache. Smooth out the surface using an offset spatula. You can also add some chocolate shaving.
• Place the top layer of the cake on the base layer. Again, soak the top layer of the cake with simple syrup and pour a big dollop of chocolate ganache on top and sides of the cake. Smooth out the top and sides of the cake with the help of your offset spatula. 
• Clean the offset spatula and mark the tip of your offset spatula from the edge of the cake towards the centre in one single stroke. Repeat the process to cover the entire cake.
• Decore the sides and top of the cake with some chocolate shavings.

Hope you enjoy the cake as much as I did!

Don't forget to share your experience by way of your comments here below or on FB!

Happy Baking!

Cappuccino Swirls

Its been a while that I have started baking and trying out different cakes. I got a request from my uncle to make some cookies and send them but the challenge was to make something eggless. I flipped through my 'The Cookie Book' by 'Catherine Atkinson' and got this recipe which immediately caught my attention. It looked awesome and tastes exactly as it looks...YUMMY!!!. I really enjoyed making these swirl cookies.

Cappuccino Swirls, melt-in-the-mouth, mocha flavored cookie drizzled with white and dark chocolate is just the thing to have with your mid morning cafe latte or with afternoon tea with your friends. 

Yield - 18 cookies

Here's what you gonna need to make Cappuccino Swirls

2 tsp instant coffee powder

2 tsp boiling water

1¼ cup (150 gms) all ourpose flour

½ cup (115 gms) corn flour

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 cup (225 gms) unsalted butter (at room temperature)

¼ cup (50 gms) golden caster sugar

For the decoration

50 gms white chcolate

25 gms dark chocolate

Here's how you gonna make it

• Preheat your oven to 375° F or 190° C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Put coffee powder in a cup and add boiling water and mix until the coffee dissolves completely. Set aside to cool completely.
• In a bowl, sift together all purpose flour, corn starch and cocoa powder and mix it well.
• In another bowl, beat butter and sugar with the help of your hand mixer until nice and creamy.
• Add coffee and dry ingredients and fold it until combined.
• Transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with plain nozzle.
• Pipe 18 swirls on the baking sheet already lined with parchment paper keeping a gap of few inches with each other.
• Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until firmed but not browned.
• Let the cookies cool in the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Decoration

• Melt white and dark chocolate in separate heatproof bowls in microwave or double boiler.
• Place the cooled cookies close together on a parchment paper. Using a teaspoon, drizzle white chocolate over the cookies moving your hands speedily from left to right and create small lines (see photo above).
• Once all the white chocolate is used, repeat the process with dark chocolate so that dark chocolate is at an angle to the white chocolate.
• Leave until the chocolate is set. Store in an air tight container for a few days.

Hope you will also enjoy making it as much as I did!

Cheers.

Nan Khatai - Indian cookies

I have been eating homemade Nan khatais (cookies) made by my Mom since I was a little kid. Now, its my turn to make them and send it as a gift to my Mom. These cookies can  be made all round the year and works as a perfect gift for anybody. The best thing about these cookies is that the ingredients would be available at any time in your kitchen.

NAN KHATAI - INDIAN COOKIES

Preparation Time - 5 minutes

Dough Resting Time - 15 minutes

Baking Time - 20 - 25 minutes

Yield - 18 cookies

Here's what you gonna need for making Nan Khatai

1 stick (100 gms) unsalted butter (at room temperature)

½ cup (60 gms) powdered sugar/ caster sugar

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp nutmeg powder

¼ tsp cardamom powder

1 cup (130 gms) all purpose flour

1/8 tsp salt (leave the salt if you are using salted butter)

Here's what you gonna make it

Preheat your oven to 300° F or 150 ° C

• In a bowl, sift all purpose flour, baking powder and salt and mix it well.
• In another bowl, with the help of hand mixer, whisk butter until soft. 
• Add sugar and whisk until nice and creamy.
• Add nutmeg powder and cardamom powder into butter mixture and fold them well. 
• Fold the dry ingredients in small portions into the butter mixture and make a soft dough.
• Let the dough rest in refrigerator for about 15 minutes.
• Make small balls without any cracks and keep it in the baking sheet lined with parchment paper keeping a gap of about 2 inches with each other.
• Bake the nan khatai for about 20 - 25 minutes until you see the sides of the cookies turn lightly brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. 

These are best served the day you make them. You can also store them in an air tight container at room temperature for about a week.

Happy Baking!

Cheers