Marble Cake

You will need:

• ½ cup butter (1 stick)/ olive oil (room temp)
  
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 ½ cup All purpose flour
• 3 eggs
• 3 tbsp yogurt/curd(you can substitute with buttermilk too)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• pinch of salt
• ¼ tsp red color
• ¼ tsp green color
  
• ¼ tsp yellow color
  

Step 1:

Preparing dry ingredients:

Preheat the oven to 350 F

Sieve together flour, baking powder and salt and keep it aside.

Step 2:

Preparing wet ingredients:

In another mixing bowl, beat the eggs using an electric mixer on medium for 2 to 3 minutes. Then add sugar, butter/oil , and vanilla essence to it and mix it for 1 min. Finally add curd/yogurt and mix it for a min.

Step 3:

Mixing wet and dry ingredients together:

Now add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients little by little. After that using a spatula fold the flour very well with the dry ingredients.

Step 4:

Making marble cake:

Divide the dough into 3 equal amounts. Better to use 3 mixing bowl . In one bowl add green color and in the other add red color and in the other add yellow color.

Step 5:

Now take a loaf pan and grease it with oil/butter.(In this way you can avoid the batter sticking on the bottom.

Step 6:

Pour 1 tbsp yellow color mixture in the greased loaf pan as shown in pic.


Step 7:

Next pour 1 tbsp green mixture as shown in pic.


Step 8:

Then build red mixture as shown in pic on top of the yellow mixture.


Step 9:

Repeat the step 6, 7 and 8 till you get over with all the cake mixture.


Step 10:

Finally using a tooth pick just draw lines on the batter and it will look like this. This step is purely optional. By drawing lines using tooth pick will give very good marble design. You can use tooth pick/ table knife (or wooden skewer) through the batters in a swirling motion to get a marble deisgn.

Step 11:

Transfer the cake mixture in the oven and bake it for 35 to 45 mins or till you get a clean tooth pick. Same old technique.




Cut and serve with whipped cream on top or as it is..

Note:

Can substitute the colors with cocoa powder for chocolate lovers. Can mix your favourite colors like pink, orange like that..

Three Milk cake

Thought of doing something special on this special(Valentines) day. This came into my mind. My friend Lini akka made Three Milk Cake for Thanksgiving dinner and we loved it very much. So just started to make this cake in the morning(just as a surprise) and we had nice time. I used non fat milk when i made this cake. You can choose whatever you want. As you know, best fatty ingredient butter is absent here. So you can enjoy this cake without guilt..

As it's Valentine's day i cut this cake into heart shape. We started our hunting for a heart shape pan from Monday. But couldn't get in nearby stores. Checked in L&T, Kohls, etc. But i couldn't find the heart shape pan. So I just cut the shape using a knife and it came out good.Whoohoooo.. Happy Valentine's DAY!!!!!!




You will need:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup milk
  
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• pinch of salt

Ingredients to soak the cake

• 1 cup condensed milk
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 can heavy cream(you can substitute with milk also)
• ¼ tsp Rum extract(optional)

Step 1:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Step 2:

Preparing dry ingredients:

In a mixing bowl sieve the all purpose flour along with the baking powder and keep it aside.

Step 3:

Preparing wet ingredients:

In another mixing bowl, beat the eggs using a electric mixer on medium for 2 to 3 minutes. Then add sugar, milk and vanilla essence to it and mix it for 1 min.


Step 4:

Adding dry to the wet ingredients:

Now add the dry ingredients(flour and baking powder) to this wet mixture and beat it less than a min.

Step 5:

Bake

Grease 8*8 inch baking pan and pour the mixture into that and bake it for 25 to 30 mins till you get a clean tooth pick(same old technique!!!!)

Step 6:

Allow the cake to cool for 10 mins. You can use fork to make small slots in the cake.
I just trimmed off the top layer of the baked cake. That way, the cake can absorb the milk very easily.




Step 7:

Using a mixer just mix all the three milks together with rum extract in a mixing bowl. Now pour the three milk mixture onto the baked cake when the cake is still warm. Allow the three milk cake to chill/soak for minimum 4 hours inside the refrigerator. Even overnight soaking is good.

Cut it and serve. Wow wonderful wonderful cake.. Very moist and yummmmmmmmmmy!!!!!!!!

Dates Almond Bread

You will need:

• 1 cup wheat flour
• ½ cup bread flour(can substitute with all-purpose/maida flour too)
• ½ cup chopped nuts(Almonds)
• 1 cup chopped dates
• ½ cup sugar(can increase for more sweetness)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 egg(can add 1 more egg)
• ¼ cup olive oil/butter
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp buttermilk(optional)
  
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup water

Step 1:
Preheat the oven to 350F.

Chop the pitted dates and keep it aside in a bowl. Boil 1 cup of water. After it becomes hot just switch off the heat and pour that hot water into the chopped dates. Let it cool for 15 mins.



Step 2:

Preparing wet ingredients:

In a mixing bowl mix together egg, sugar, vanilla extract and oil until it becomes fluffy.

Step 3:

Preparing Dry ingredients:

In another bowl sieve together the wheat flour, bread flour, baking soda and baking powder.

Step 4:

Now mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredient using a spatula. Add the dates along with the water to this and mix it using the spatula to get the perfect bread dough.Don't over mix it.

Hint:

If you are using buttermilk add at this stage.

Step 5:

Mix in the chopped nuts.

Step 6:

Grease the loaf pan with butter. Pour the above mixture into the loaf ban and bake it for 40 to 50 mins in the preheated oven.

You date almond bread is now ready!! Enjoy!!!

Note:

Instead of wheat flour you can make this with All purpose flour/ bread flour/maida too. Buttermilk is purely optional. It taste good even without that.
In this recipe i used "Golden Temple" (Durum Atta flour)

Red Velvet cake

This became one of my favorite cake after coming to US. When i was in India i haven't heard about this. I once got a chance to taste a small piece of this cake. Wow what a tasty cake. Look at the color. Hmm who wont like this???.. First time i didn't have this red color and cocoa powder in my pantry, so i tried with orange color and just omited the cocoa powder. But didn't get the taste like the one that i sampled earlier. Next time got these ingredients and tried this for our First Wedding Anniversary. Wow!!! No words to express the unique taste of this cake. I simply applied vanilla frosting to make my work easier. Can try with homemade icing too. That will be delicious.

You will need:

For the cake:

• 2½ cups sifted cake flour
  
• 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1½ cups powdered sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter softened
• 2 large eggs
• 2½ ounces red food colouring
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:

• 8 ounces cream cheese
• ½ cup unsalted butter softened
• 1 pound confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped nuts(optional)

Preparation method:

For The Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.

2. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans.

In a medium bowl...

1. sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt

2. set aside.

In a large bowl...

1. Cream together sugar and butter.

2. Beat in eggs one at a time.

3. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk.

4. Beat in food coloring and vinegar, then add vanilla.

Spread the batter evenly in the pans.

1. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

2. Turn out onto a rack to cool.

For The Frosting:

1. In a large bowl, cream the cream cheese and butter.

2. Beat in confectioners' sugar until fluffy.

3. Beat in vanilla. Stir in pecans.

4. Use frosting to fill and ice cake.

5. Slice and serve on individual plates.