Orange sponge cake using Tang ready mix

Sudden craving for orange sponge cake on a lazy afternoon and realised I had all the ingredients at home except oranges, so what did I do? I used Tang orange mix.. you know the ready made orange juice mix that is available in market, even Rasna would do for that matter. 

So the rest of the recipe remains same as all the other ones with egg except minor changes. For convenience I am going to re-write the recipe with the little "Tang" tweak.

Ingredients

1 cup Refined wheat four (maida) + extra flour for dusting cake tin
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup tang or rasna orange mix
3 eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp oil

Preheat oven at 180 degrees.

Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl. Give it a mix using spatula.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs till light and fluffy. Add butter and beat again. Now add sugar and ready made orange mix and beat for not more than a minute.

Fold in the liquid into dry ingredients little at a time and mix using spatula. You will not need an electric beater for doing this, just fold in the liquid little at a time. Move the spatula in same direction, this helps incorporate air into the mix. Once all the liquid is over, give it one solid mix and its done.

Grease your cake tin using oil and dust it with some flour.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake at 180 degrees for 40-45 minutes. 

After 40 minutes check if the cake is done by inserting a toothpick in the center, it should come out clean and adjust the time accordingly. You know the drill. 

psst.. you might have realised I did not add any essence, this is because orange mix does a good job of covering up the egg smell and orange is a strong flavour by itself.

another one, ever wondered why castor sugar is mentioned in a lot of recipes, what's the difference!!?? It is regular sugar except tinier in size, so basically they are really tiny granules of sugar. Advantage? Recently I learnt that tiny granules of sugar is better than powdered sugar in the sense that it helps retain the air bubbles better, there by making the cake fluffier.

Enjoy this yummilicious cake and remember me :-)

Milk Chocolate Cake

Sharing some of the pictures of this beautiful milk chocolate cake that I baked 20 mins back.. these pictures couldn't be more fresh! I wanted to upload the pictures as soon as its ready and here they are...

Milk chocolate cake.. made using eggs. Used milk chocolate bar instead of sugar! Topped it up with goodness of walnuts.

As promised, here is the recipe for this mouth watering cake..

Ingredients
1 cup flour
3 eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup margarine (salt free butter) at room temperature
1/2 to 3/4 cup milk chocolate depending on how sweet you want. 1/2 cup chocolate gives mild sweet flavour.
1/4 cup melted chocolate or 1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup walnuts cut into small pieces
Pinch of salt

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix butter, chocolate, eggs till the batter turns fluffy, use beater for about 3 minutes. Now add the batter to dry ingredients and mix using spatula first and then use beater for 5 minutes. Mix the batter in one direction only.

Grease the baking tray and dust it with some flour.
Preheat the microwave at 220 degrees.

Put the batter in baking tray and sprinkle walnut pieces on top.
Place the tray in microwave and bake for 30 minutes.


Baking tip :
While baking, always use ingredients at room temperature.

Clung to the baking tray.. waiting to come out

Chocolate marble cake

This cake, as you can see the picture, has layers of chocolate and vanilla cake.
Cake in the picture has more of chocolate, you can make the layers more prominent by reducing the amount of chocolate. More on this below...

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour(maida)
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 eggs
1/4th cup dark chocolate melted
2 tbsp condensed milk
1 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp vanilla extract or 5 drops of vanilla essence
pinch of salt

[Vanilla extract - Made out of vanilla fruit.Pure form of vanilla. Vanilla essence - Chemical equivalent of extract.. Its hard to find extract even in cities like Mumbai. You can find it in Godrej Nature's Basket outlets. Essence is easy to find and pretty good replacement for extract. If you are lucky to get extract, add 1 tbsp extract instead of essence in this recipe ]

Take a clean dry bowl and add the flour, baking powder and baking soda along with just a pinch of salt to it (by sieving). Use a wooden spatula to mix all the ingredients well.

[About the bowl and spatula..  I have a separate bowl and spatula that I use for baking and nothing else, it keeps them free from any form of smell and always ready to use when you think of baking. Its very important that your baking utensils are absolutely smell free (of other foods) and dry. No matter how much Indian dish washer detergents claim to remove food smell, I somehow never feel 100% sure of it...]

In a separate bowl whisk eggs, mix butter, sugar, vanilla extract,orange juice and 1 tbsp milkmaid and whisk well. Do whisk until the mixture looks well blended and shiny.

[Some people whisk manually by using a spatula, but I prefer using an egg beater as it whisks to perfection. ]

Add the liquid mixture to the bowl with flour and gently mix with spatula. Now, whisk the whole mixture again.Do not whisk it for more than 5 mins as it will produce heat and your baking agents will become active even before you microwave your mixture. This will lead to half baked or lump cake.

Now comes the most interesting part ;)
Take another clean dry bowl, add dark chocolate sauce and 1 tbsp milkmaid and mix well! Try to resist the temptation to savour the mixture even before the cake is ready. :-D
Transfer half the cake mixture to this bowl and mix well.

Ok, now you are ready to microwave it. Take your baking tin and greese it just enough, not pouring. Now take a spoon full of maida and sprinkle it on the greased tin and move your tin in all directions to spread maida evenly.  

Start by first pouring half of the plain cake mixture, now pour all of the chocolate cake mixture. Pour rest of the plain cake mixture on top.

Preheat microwave at 180 degrees. Once it is done, put the baking tin in microwave (convection mode)  and bake at 180 degrees for 30 mins.

After 30 mins, poke the cake in the center with a knife till the bottom. If the knife comes out clean when you pull it out, your cake is done, otherwise reset at 180 degrees for another 5 mins. Leave it to cool in the microwave itself before you cut it.

[Do NOT keep the cake directly under the fan for cooling, it will make the cake moist. Transfer the cake on to a wire rack and let it cool on its own. By cool, I mean bringing it to room temparature.]

Happy baking! Try and let me know how it came :)

Eggless Vanilla Cake

Hello there!

Today I will start by posting one of the basic baking recipe which one must know.. that is, plain vanilla cake. Once you know this, you can always add your favourite juice or add a splash of icing or simply spread your favourite jam over it...

Well first of all there is a world of difference between a plump cake and a cream cake, and second, there is even bigger difference between a home made cake and a cake from market...

hmmm... how is that!! u wont knw unless u bake one for urself! cos once u do that, I bet you will never ever find the need to order cakes from outside.

Is it time taking? not really.. the first few attempts might phsyche u out! and if ur first attempt turns out to be as bad as mine(aah dont worry, it was 6 yrs back.. u r in safe hands) , u might even decide nt to bake again! but hey.. patience is key.. try till u succeed :) 

Now the recipe..

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour(maida)

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup milkmaid

3/4th cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda(mitha soda)

Vanilla essence or vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Take a clean dry bowl and add the flour, baking powder and baking soda along with just a pinch of salt to it. Use a wooden spatula to mix all the ingredients well.

[About the bowl and spatula..  I have a separate bowl and spatula that I use for baking and nothing else, it keeps them free from any form of smell and always ready to use when you think of baking. Its very important that your baking utensils are absolutely smell free (of other foods) and dry. No matter how much Indian dish washer detergents claim to remove food smell, I somehow never feel 100% sure of it...]

Powder the sugar. In a separate bowl mix oil, sugar and milkmaid and whisk well. Do whisk until the mixture looks well blended and shiny.

[Some people whisk manually by using a spatula, but I prefer using an egg beater as it whisks to perfection. ]

Add the liquid mixture to the bowl with flour, add 4 drops of vanilla essence and gently mix with spatula. Now, whisk the whole mixture again.

[Vanilla extract - Made out of vanilla fruit.Pure form of vanilla. Vanilla essence - Chemical equivalent of extract.. Its hard to find extract even in cities like Mumbai. You can find it in Godrej Nature's Basket outlets. Essence is easy to find and pretty good replacement for extract. If you are lucky to get extract, add 1 tbsp extract instead of essence in this recipe ]

Do not whisk it for more than 5 mins as it will produce heat and your baking agents will become active even before you microwave your mixture. This will lead to half baked or lump cake.

Ok, now you are ready to microwave it. Take your baking tin and greese it just enough, not pouring. Now take a spoon full of maida and sprinkle it on the greased tin and shake your tin in all directions to spread maida evenly.  Pour the mixture into the tin. While you start preparing your baking tin, start preheating microwave for 3-4 mins. Once it is done, put the baking tin in microwave and bake at 180 degrees for 20 mins.

After 20 mins, poke the cake in the center with a knife till the bottom. If the knife comes out clean when you pull it out, your cake is done, otherwise reset at 180 degrees for another 5 mins. Leave it to cool in the microwave itself before you cut it.

[Do NOT keep the cake directly under the fan for cooling, it will make the cake moist. Transfer the cake on to a wire rack and let it cool on its own. By cool, I mean bringing it to room temparature.]

Happy baking! Try and let me know how it came :)