Baking with Merry

Well, this cake wasn't planned... it  just happened!! My kids kept on nagging me for another cake after the previous one and so just baked a simple one from my book, for the sake of it!!! This was actually a muffin recipe and since my kids don't like muffins, I converted it to a cake!  Ingredients: Recipe Source: Oops, sorry ... don't remember !! Plain flour - 1 1/2 cups Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup Baking powder - 2 tsp Salt - a pinch Vanilla essence - 2 tsp Sugar - 3/4 cup Milk - 1 cup Instant coffee powder - 2 tbsps Egg - 1 Melted butter - 1/2 cup Cocoa powder - 2 tsp Olive oil - 2 tbsps Water -1 tsp Method: Preheat oven to 180C. Stir the cocoa with olive oil in a small bowl and add 1 tsp of water to make it into a paste. Keep aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, vanilla essence, sugar and a pinch of salt. Crack the egg into a medium sized bowl and add milk and coffee granules. Whisk for 2-3 mins ti...

It's the season of jackfruit and you get to see lots of them in Kerala now. Last week, when I went home for a day, I brought back some jackfruits as my son loves them...... After everybody had their share, I had little left in the fridge and so decided to bake this Goan cake - Pansache Dhonas, which I had penned down from Raksha's Kitchen some months back. I would say this cake is definitely a healthy one as it uses no maida, sugar or butter.... The cake tasted quite different from the normal ones and it was indeed yummy! Ingredients: Recipe Source: Raksha's Kitchen Jackfruit pulp - 2 cups Grated coconut - 1 cup Salt - 1/2 tsp Rava - 1 cup Jaggery - 1 cup Cardamom powder - 2 tsps Cashewnuts, chopped - 10 Almonds, chopped - 5-10 Raisins - 10 Method: Roast rava till it is light brown or till the aroma wafts into the air. Keep aside. Let it cool for at least 20 mins. Remove the jackfruit seeds and put them into a mixer ...

Ever since  I started baking, one blog I follow and drool over is   Deeba Rajpal 's  Passionate about Baking  aka PAB...... She also writes for Times of India's online baking blog under the name  The Rabid Baker . Though I had jotted down a few of her recipes, to this date haven't baked anything!! This recipe was adapted from her recipe for Whole wheat Apple Almond Tray B ake which appeared on The Rabid Baker. Since we don't like fresh fruits in our cake, I choose to leave the apple behind and thus ended up with this Whole wheat Almond Squares . This recipe is worth a try, unlike my earlier wheat cake . Since it's made of wheat  flour  and ground almonds it tends to be more on the healthier side! Ingredients: Recipe Adapted from: the Rabid Baker by Deeba Rajpal Whole wheat flour - 140g Ground almonds - 40g Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp Baking powder - 1 tsp Baking soda ...