Got an award!

I just received a news which really made my day , and that was from Seena of Simple and Deliciuos who has passed on the "Rocking Girl Blogger" award . Thanks a lot Seena:)



“The Rocking Girl Blogger Award” is for blogger’s ,who are girls or women, who blog and who Rock!!.”

I would like to pass on this to Maria of Maria's Menu , Ginger and Garlic and Writing at the Kitchen Table who all have a really nice blog going on, with a variety of dishes.

Eggless Chochlate Cake

I wanted to make a simple eggless chochlate cake from such a long time. Though I had posted a eggless recipe using tofu before, I was not completly satisfied and I was not so fond of tofu. So I was finding a way to make eggless cake and ice creams. What I was exactly searching for was for the rising agent in the eggless cakes, coz most of the eggless cake recipes I came across did not have a rising agent, I had tried some and it was so dense and did not rise at all. I then came across this particular site and several others too which had good information, I made the cake as per the recipe and made a few changes (like adding lemon extract), and I made it in a single cake pan coz I didnt have two ...and it tasted great and looked great too. I added a nice frosting too and overall cake got a good review among my close relations who got to taste it. The rising agent was the chemical reaction between the baking soda and buttermilk. I also substituted the applesauce mentioned in the recipe with the lemon extract. Though I think it was not necessary as the buttermilk itself is sufficient for the cake to rise. The cake is quiet dry though, but adding the frosting and applesauce helps to add moisture. So here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
        

•  1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
  

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk or soured milk
• 3 tbsp applesauce (optional . helps adding extra moisturiser to the cake due to the absence of the egg)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• Sift the dry ingredients
• Mix together the wet ingredients
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients slowly, stirring and combining well to avoid lumps. I use a wooden spoon to combine.
• Transfer contents to a well greased pan.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
• Do not open the oven door in between as it may affect the cake to stop rising.
• Wait for 5 minutes after switching off the oven before transfering it to cool outside the oven
• When it is cooled tranfer it to a refrigerator until cake is completly cooled before adding the frosting

For making frosting:
Combine all ingredients on medium heat and stir until the mixture becomes the consistensy of very gooey and quiet thick.

Eggless Ice Cream

I finally made my own ice cream :) I weanted to make it form long time. And this time I searched a lot on internet about making ice cream without the Ice cream maker machine. The commong thing I found is if you are not using an ice cream maker, you need to just keep beating the mixture every hour or so. It came out well. I made it using my homemade sweetened condensed milk, the recipe for which I will post along with this recipe. It was really easy to make.

Ingredients:

For sweetened condensed milk:

I got this recipe from Paula Deen's recipe on food network:

1/3 cup boiling water

4 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup powdered milk

Using an electric mixer or blender, blend together water, butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add powdered milk and blend until thick. Store in refrigerator for upto one week.

For ice cream:

Sweetened condensed milk (1 can)

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup milk

1 cup whipping cream

2 tablespoons vanilla essence

Method:

• Add sugar to the sweetened condensed milk and bring it to a boil until sugar dissolves, lower the heat and then stir until it becomes thicker.
• Remove from heat. Add milk and vanilla essence and whipping cream.
• Beat the mixture until everything is perfecly blended. (Beat for say, 2 minutes).
• Transfer contents to a metal container and freeze. Beat again after an hour and freeze again.
• Every half hour beat again for a a minute for two and half hours (2.5 hours)
  
• Then freeze overnight.
• Your ice cream is ready to eat with a dollop of whipped cream if you like , or even chochlate syrup:)