eggless baking · eggless cake · whole wheat cake

Eggless chocolate cake using sprouted wheat flour

I had to blog about this at the earliest because of numerous steps involved.. if I postpone it any further, I might even forget it!! 

Finally posting something after a long break. Hope you try it, like it 🙂


This post is about whole wheat chocolate cake. For cake decoration tips click here.


Some questions that might come to your mind..


Q: Why sprouted wheat flour? 
A: Because I have got it in abundance for my 10 months old baby. It is nutritionally superior to plain whole wheat, it is light on stomach and it also tastes better. Sprouted flours do not last long, so buy/prepare them in  small batches. I have not made the flour at home as you require flour mill to grind roasted wheat berries cos they are very tough. I found lot of recipes but I wasnt sure they were going to work so the recipe I am sharing here uses equal amounts of sprouted wheat flour and all purpose flour (maida). I am going to experiment further and share a recipe using 100% wheat flour. Also, I couldn’t find many websites selling sprouted wheat flour, sprouted ragi was in abundance though! So this is what I bought from Amazon..



























Q: What does sprouted wheat flour taste like and how is the texture different from wheat flour?
A: Pleasant sweet flavor and much lighter in texture as compared to regular wheat flour. Given a choice, I will prefer sprouted for baking. Baking with whole grains always result in a denser product, so its best suited for cakes with icing.. If you like fudgy, dense texture then this is perfect for you. I am not sure but I think, whole grains would result in better brownies too. I am going to try it and share the results.

Q: Can I use sprouted wheat flour in recipes that call for whole wheat flour?
A: I think it will work but amount of ingredients would differ, specially liquids as sprouted flour absorbs less.

 Things you must have-

1) Weighing scale – I can not do without this. Its one of the best and cheapest kitchen tools to invest in. I have this one.. my bro in law got me one of these in US. I have been using it for over 3 years now without any issues. It is available on Amazon India too, am hoping its the same one and not a duplicate – http://www.amazon.in/Bulfyss-Electronic-Kitchen-Digital-Weighing/dp/B00MKA9WXO/ref=sr_1_1?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1469983350&sr=8-1&keywords=kitchen+weighing+scale




2) Manual wire whisk – Avoid using electric beaters/whiskers for egg less baking as we don’t want to whisk it too much and risk loosing the air incorporated into the batter by leavening agents. We should just gently fold the batter or gently whisk until everything is well blended. This does not take more than 2 minutes.


3) 8″ round baking tin (No less, more is still okay)
 
4) All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Tweaked the original recipe a little bit.

Ingredients

70 gms all purpose flour (maida)
50 gms sprouted wheat flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
120 gms castor sugar (or 100 gms if you are going to do some icing as it will become too sweet)
250 ml water at room temperature
63 ml olive or canola oil
1 tbsp lime juice or white vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract


Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius.
Sieve all dry ingredients except sugar and set aside.
Mix water, oil, lime juice or vinegar, sugar, vanilla extract.
Gently fold in dry ingredients into the wet mixture until no lumps. No more than 2 minutes.
Grease 8″ tin and dust with flour.
Pour the batter and bake for 45 minutes.
Check if the cake is done using toothpick, but be quick. Minimize the amount of time you open oven before cake is ready otherwise your cake can be a flop show!
If its still not cooked, extend by another 10 minutes.

Let it cool for about 5 minutes and then remove the cake and place it on a wire rack until it comes to room temperature.


Your eggless sprouted wheat flour cake is ready 🙂










For basic tips on cake decoration, click here.









Advertisement
eggless baking · eggless cake · nutella chocolate cream icing

Eggless sponge cake with nutella icing

Posting this recipe on huge public demand. This one was made for a colleague’s farewell, and it did suffice approximately 50 people. Soft and moist egg less sponge cake with Nutella icing was an instant hit among all. 


Lot of us, specially who are used baking cakes with egg, find eggless baking extremely tricky. After a whole lot of trials and failures (disastrous!), I have got a few recipes that work like charm for me, this is one of them.. The trick is, strictly stick to the quantity mentioned in the recipe.

I had recently attended eggless baking sessions at APB cook studio, Mumbai and that’s where I got this recipe from.



A simple and heart winning recipe.. here it goes..

You need to bake your sponge cakes a night before D day!

Ingredients for the sponge cake 

150 gms Plain yogurt
100 gms Caster sugar
120 gms Flour
5 gms Baking powder
2.5 gms Baking soda
50 ml Oil
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

8 inch baking tin

Ingredients for chocolate icing

1 cup Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread
2 cups Whipped cream

50 gms Dark chocolate 

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Meanwhile, mix sugar and yogurt until smooth. Don’t beat excessively!
Add baking powder and baking soda, mix once and set aside for exactly 5 minutes.
Sift the flour during this time.
Add vanilla essence to oil, stir well and set aside.
Add oil to yogurt and beat until smooth using hand beater.
Slowly add the flour and fold it in, making sure there are no lumps.

Grease the baking tin and lightly dust with flour. Pour the batter and bake for 35-40 minutes. After 30 minutes, check if the cake is done using the toothpick technique.

Tempting as it may feel, avoid opening the microwave at frequent intervals for status check. 

Once done, remove and cool on a wire rack.

Repeat the process for another sponge cake.

Once the cakes have completely cooled down, stack them one on top of another in the baking tin and seal using cling wrap. Store in refrigerator and use it next day for icing.




For the icing

Take out the cakes. Unwrap and level the top of the cake by removing a thin layer on top until levelled, you can use a cake knife for doing this.

Whip up the cream using electric beater or stand mixer until you get soft peaks. Fold in the Nutella chocolate spread and beat until well blended. Icing is ready!

Spread some icing on top side of one cake and place another one on top. Pour rest of the icing on top and spread it in all directions. Doesn’t matter if you don’t get a smooth finish, its the taste that matters 😉 

Grate the chocolate on top to cover the entire surface. 

Refrigerate for 10 minutes so that the icing is set.

Oozing chocolate cream cake is ready!! 



dessert · eggless cake

Eggless Milk Chocolate Cake!

Blogging after a really really long time, so I will make sure it is worthy of your time 🙂
This is an egg less cake recipe that came out of no where! Wanted to make a tofu cake and finally realized I did not have it and that is how this yummy recipe came into being!

No eggs, no excess fat, no exotic ingredients, this delightful cake will surely win your heart. 


Ingredients

1/2 cup Mirinda (or any aerated orange juice)
1/2 cup minced fresh paneer
1/4 cup milk
2 cups flour
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp butter 

Ingredients for chocolate sauce 
1/4 cup pieces of milk chocolate bar
1 heaped tsp cocoa powder

Put flour, baking powder, baking soda, pinch of salt in a bowl and mix well.

Add paneer, milk, oil and Mirinda and mix thoroughly using wooden spatula.
Now use an electric blender and beat the mixture for not more than 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the microwave at 170 degrees.

Grease your baking tin with butter and lightly dust with flour. Pour the batter in it. Microwave at 170 degrees for 30 minutes. Open microwave after 30 minutes and insert a toothpick in the cake, if it comes out clean, its done, otherwise keep it for 5 more minutes. Do all this in a fraction of second, and don’t keep it open for long if its not completely baked.

Give a standing time of about 3 minutes and invert it on a wire rack.

Soft, plump spongy and most important of all, “egg-less” cake is ready!


For the sauce, microwave milk chocolate for 20 seconds and set aside till it melts completely. Do not over heat. Mix the cocoa powder and milky chocolate sauce is ready.

After the cake cools down, pour chocolate sauce on top, alternately you can pour the sauce at the time of serving.


dessert · eggless cake

Eggless Chocolate Sponge Cake

The mystery has been unveiled! the mystery that has been haunting me for a long time.. mystery behind egg-less “Sponge” cake! who could have imagined that my 69th post will be dedicated to my long pending wish which I can say is almost fulfilled today – “Egg-less baking” 🙂

I have shared eggless cake recipe in the past also, here, here and here  and I was equally excited then too 🙂
The first cake uses milkmaid, the second and third uses mawa (khoya).
So its important to dwell on the difference between the outcome of those recipes and today’s.





Fluffiness

Today’s cake beats all other cakes in this department. This is the closest one can get to cake containing egg. Among previous recipes, mawa cakes were better than milkmaid.

Moistness

I noticed that all the cakes were equally moist, today’s was little less than rest. A Little…


Taste

The mawa cakes had a very Indian flavor to it. As you are using mawa, they taste a bit like Gulab Jamun. I just love the taste of mawa, enjoy every bite of it.. Hence, the mawa cakes are my personal favorite when it comes to taste. It may vary from person to person. Today’s cake is very English.

So lets jump to the recipe now..

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup mawa
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup Silken Tofu 
[I used Morinu Silken Firm Tofu]
1 tsp coffee powder mixed in 1 tbsp hot water
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract 
[5 drops of vanilla essence]
pinch of salt

Put tofu and sugar in a mixer and make puree.


Put flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, pinch of salt in a bowl and mix well.
Heat milk till its luke warm and add mawa to it, use your hand and mix till mawa dissolves in milk.
Add tofu, milk, hot coffee, oil and vanilla extract and mix thoroughly using wooden spatula.
Now use an electric blender and beat the mixture for no more than 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the microwave at 170 degrees.

Grease your baking tin with butter and lightly dust with flour. Pour the batter in it. Microwave at 170 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Open microwave door after 25 minutes and insert a toothpick in the cake, if it comes out clean, its done, otherwise keep it for 5 more minutes. Do all this in a fraction of second, and don’t keep it open for long if its not completely baked.

Soft, plump spongy and most important of all, “egg-less” cake is ready!









dessert · eggless cake · mawa cake · mawa eggless cake · sweet dish

Eggless sponge cake using mawa

var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push([‘_setAccount’, ‘UA-36452076-1’]); _gaq.push([‘_trackPageview’]); (function() { var ga = document.createElement(‘script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true; ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

Cant tell you, how excited I am about this particular recipe.I started off on a very sceptical note, but 2013 had something nice in store for me 😉 2 recipes I tried and both turned out to be awesome on new year’s eve! They are superbly  innovative, drawing inspiration from various sites and a restaurant, Sankalp, chain of south indian veg restaurant, do visit, if you haven’t already been there.

Why I am so excited about this recipe is because following combination is difficult to achieve, that is, fluffy and eggless cake.After several attempts, I think I almost nailed it this time! However, I will continue to do some more experiments with eggless cakes..

Having said all this, there will always be difference in fluffiness of an egg less and egg cake. Egg less cakes tend be more moist and less porous than egg cakes. Same amount of cake mixture will result in smaller egg less cake. This is my learning as a result of repeated attempts on eggless cakes.I am yet to try a variation (using yeast), will soon post on that. Do come back for that recipe!

Enjoy this yummy recipe. I bet you wont be disappointed! take a bite and the awesome taste will linger on your tongue for a long time….

[Update on 4th May 2014 :The first two photos are very recent, sprinkled hazelnuts on top. There is slight variation from original recipe, used Mirinda instead of plain orange juice. They say it helps in making the cake fluffy. Although I must admit, the fluffiness was same as with orange juice. There were no side effects too, so it is safe to use. 

While using any dry fruit on cake, dust the pieces with plain flour. ]

Ingredients

1 cup maida
3/4th cup mawa
[Don’t use the stiff chunk of mawa that you bought from store directly. Use your fingers and make it a little powdery. Take 3/4th cup of this powdery mawa, do not over stuff the cup.]
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4th cup oil
[I used fresh vegetable oil. Do not use oil that you had previously used for frying.]
2 tbsp curd
1 tbsp orange juice (no water)
1 tbsp Vanilla syrup or 5 drops of vanilla essence
[I used Monin’s vanilla syrup]

Take a clean dry bowl and sift maida,baking powder and baking soda in it. Mix thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, combine oil,sugar,orange juice, vanilla syrup (or essence), curd, mawa. Beat and mix well.

If using oven, preheat the oven at 150 degrees.
If using cooker, preheat the cooker on low flame for 5 minutes. Lid closed, without whistle.

Combine maida with liquid mixture. Use a wooden spatula and mix well. Beat well for 2 minutes, not more.

If using oven, grease baking tin with butter and pour the mixture. Bake at 150 degrees for 30 minutes.

If using cooker, place an empty vessel and on top of it, place the baking tin. Make sure that baking tin is not  in direct contact with bottom of the cooker. Cover the lid and do not put the whistle. Leave it on low flame for 30 minutes. Afterwards, check if the cake has baked completely by inserting a tooth pick(it should come out clean). If the cake is not done completely, allow it to bake for another 10 minutes and check again.

**Baking time in cooker varies based on size, thickness, make of the cooker.

After it is done, allow it to cool for 5 minutes. (Not under the fan, let it cool naturally.)
Invert it on to a wire rack as it provides free flow of air.

Cake is ready!! 🙂

You may use icing of your choice or even better, have it as it is 🙂