Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Banana Walnut Cake

Banana Walnut Cake Recipe
No Baking Soda, No White Sugar, No Maida (APF), No Butter




Hello All,

Here is a recipe for (as healthy as it gets) banana walnut cake I tried just today and it works perfectly. For eggless cakes, I don't exactly know recipe because I don't make eggless cakes much.

Step 1: Grease an 8" tin (I've used a square tin but you can use any shape, just make sure the batter doesn't fill more than 3/4th of the tin). I like to line my tin with butter paper (it is lined, the butter paper becomes almost transparent after I apply oil on it) because that releases the cake without any hassles.


Things you'll need

6 medium sized eggs (you can make the cake with 4 eggs also, but I like to use 6, it makes for a fluffier cake), 100 g chopped walnuts, 2 medium sized bananas (to be mashed by hand), 200 g brown sugar (I've used pr-organic brown sugar), 225 g multi-grain flour (I use multigrain, you can use whole wheat also), 2.5 tsps of baking powder (I've Weikfield), 150 g refined oil (I've used sunflower oil), 2.5 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp vanilla essence, 




Step 2: You will need two separate bowls for making the batter. I recommend a deep mixing bowl because that minimizes splatter while you prepare the batter. They're available on Amazon at a pretty reasonable price. Break the eggs in the smaller bowl (you can see 6 here as one egg fell from my hand and its yolk had to be rescued asap). Pick out the yolks and add them to a separate (bigger bowl).



Step 3: Add 150 g of oil (I prefer to deal with weights because volumes are hard to measure precisely) to the yolks. Add 2 tsps of vanilla essence.


Step 4: Whisk the egg whites (in the small bowl) till stiff peaks form.


Step 5: Add about half of the brown sugar to the whisked egg whites and whisk again till a creamy meringue forms. The sugar should completely dissolve (it takes about 10-12 minutes).



Step 6: This is how firm the meringue becomes :)


Step 7: Whisk the egg yolks, remaining sugar, oil and vanilla essence till a uniform mixture results and add the baking soda - flour mix to it in small lots (around 2 tbsps at a time). The batter will start to thicken. 


Step 8: To thin the batter down, add hot (but not boiling) milk, around 50 ml at a time.


Step 9: Now, add the meringue to the batter and FOLD IT IN (do not use the blender as that fluffs the batter up a bit too much). Add half the meringue at first, fold it in till all of it mixes in and then, add the other half. Repeat the folding  in till a smooth batter results.


Step 10: Fold in the mashed bananas into the batter.


Step 11: Pour the batter into the tin and sprinkle the chopped walnuts from top. Bake at 200 degrees for first 20 (out of a total 50) minutes and then, at 180 degrees. Check for complete baking with a skewer AFTER 45 minutes or so. Do not open the oven in first 20 minutes at all.


Cake is ready :)


Cake upside down :)



Saturday, March 4, 2017

Basic cake recipe

Hello All,

This is a very basic cake recipe (Eggless will be later) that I follow, to make plain sponges. This has been optimized for my oven and my tastes. Please feel free to fiddle about a bit to find your sweet spot :)

Ingredients: 

2 large eggs
110 g powdered sugar (I'll work on the brown sugar next), separated into two lots, roughly divided equally
120 g multi-grain flour 
80 ml cooking oil
1 tsp pineapple essence (or replace with 50 g pureed pineapple)
100 ml milk
1 tsp cinnamon powder
Chocolate chips (optional)
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Baking temperature: 200 deg. C for first 10 minutes
180 deg. C afterwards
8" baking tin
Butter paper (cut to the dimension of the base of the tin)
Oil for greasing
Aluminium foil (for covering and avoiding burning of the top crust)


Images of the steps.......

1. Two eggs, yolks and whites separated


2. Whip the egg whites till soft peaks form 


3. Add half of the powdered sugar and beat till stiff peaks form

4. Add the remaining sugar to the egg yolks


5. Add the cooking oil and 1 tsp of pineapple essence (replace it with whichever flavour essence you wish to use)


6. And 1 tsp of cinnamon powder (yet again, I was making a pineapple cinnamon cake, hence the pineapple essence and cinnamon powder)



7. Beat it all well and add half of the milk (it'll be too stiff a mixture otherwise). Add the flour (in small lots and beat)



8. Add the remaining milk and baking powder and soda.


9. Mix everything well till sugar grains are no longer visible



10. Add the beaten egg whites (meringue) in small portions and fold in. Do not beat with a blender



11. Once homogenous, pour into a pre-greased 9" baking tin



12. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top



13. Bake for 10 minutes at 200 deg. C. Then, reduce the temperature to 180 deg. C and cover loosely with alminium foil. Bake till a skewer comes out clean from the centre......Let cool outside the oven. Once cooled, take out from the tin and it's ready to serve


14. Softness: