Chocolate Marble Cake

Chocolate Marble Cake

Welcome back my friends, after a long gap. I am now in the middle of something.  So my blogging time has very much come down. Many of my dishes' picture sit idle in my camera. I don't know when they will see some light.  I had a couple of request from my  Facebook friends for the birthday cake's recipe which I posted on FB. This cake I made for my eldest son's 5th  Birthday. This time I was double-minded about baking a cake. Because his Birthday was on a weekday and I had to drop and pick him and my husband at school & office and besides he wanted his favorite "Pineapple Payasam" and as I told you before, I am in the middle of something. So my mind was like " To bake or not to bake". 

Many of my friends and family asked me which cake am I going to bake this time. And my neighbor was telling me that her kids started discussing the theme of this years Birthday cake that I am going to bake for the Bday party. And I told her this time it is  Baskin Robins Spiderman Ice cream cake and no baking on my part. But, On the Birthday morning he woke up, he sat on the bed and started recalling his last year's  Thomas Train birthday cake I made for him. My heart began to feel guilty. 

And I ended up baking this cake. This is an easy cake and I didn't spend time for frosting it, though I made a chocolate spread to pour over top of the cake. I began to scratch my brains for an easy theme that  I can make it last minute. Then I saw his ball lying down. " Eureka !!!". Coincidentally this year his school bag and his pajama day's pajama also was of this same theme. I made the birthday banner, Soccer ball and American football with fondant Icing and my son wanted to try his hands also in decoration. He made the 2 red balls and white ball with Fondant Icing.

Prep: 20 min
Baking time: 40-45 min

Ingredients:
1) All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 3/4 cups
2) Baking powder - 2 Tsp
3) Salt - 1/4 Tsp
4) Whole Milk Yogurt  - 2/3 cup
5) Whole Milk - 2 Tbsp
6) Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp
7) Unsalted Butter ( At room temp) - 1 stick (8 tbsp)
8) Sugar - 3/4 cup
9) Eggs - 3 large ( At room temp)
10)Hershey's cocoa powder (or any  Unsweetened cocoa powder) - 1/4 cup
11) Instant coffee powder - 1 Tsp
12) Boiling water - 1/4 cup



Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 325 F. Butter a 9" cake pan. 
• In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.
• In another bowl whisk yogurt, milk and vanilla extract.
• In a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat well after each addition and scrape the sides. Reduce the speed to low. Add half of the flour mixture and then yogurt mixture, then remaining flour mixture. Beat well after each addition. Remove about 1 cup of batter ( 1/3 of batter) to a bowl.
• Pour 1/4 cup boiling water into a small bowl. Mix Cocoa and coffee powder until smooth. Cool it slightly. Stir it to the 'one cup' batter set aside.
• Alternate spoonful of vanilla and chocolate batters in the cake pan. Draw a knife through batters for the marbled effect. Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 40-45 min. Cool on wire rack.

For Chocolate Spread:
   1) Semi-sweet chocolate chips- 1/2 cup
   2)  Heavy Cream -1/4 cup

• Place Heavy cream in a microwavable bowl. Microwave until hot, about 20-25 sec. Melt chocolate chips either in a microwave or by double boiling. Add it to heavy cream and stir until smooth. Let it cool to warm room temp. (Icing should still be pourable. ) You can drizzle this over the cake if you desire and add some sprinkles. Let the cake stand until icing has set.

Source: All You Magazine

VazhaChundu / Banana Flower Cutlet

Vazhachundu / Vazhapoo / Banana flower cutlet is a very simple and healthy recipe. In this recipe I didn't use too much ingredients. I just used the basic ingredients needed for making the cutlet.When you want a change in your daily menu try this. I tried to make it healthy as possible. Even the frying part. I used "grape seed oil" for frying. It is the most healthiest oil ideal for frying and has light taste. Cutlet can be served with rice or can be eaten at snack time.

Number of cutlets- 8-10

Ingredients:
Chundu/ Banana flower/ Banana Blossom -1
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Gram Masala - 1/2-3/4 tsp
Onion- 1
Green Chilly -3
Ginger - 1 piece
Curry leaves
Potato - 1
Egg -1
Bread crumbs- 1/2 cup
Oil

Method:

• Peel off the outer layers of the chundu / Banana flower and chop the inner layer nicely. 
• Put it in starch water of rice ( kanji velam ) or diluted buttermilk and rinse well. (When I don't have buttermilk or kanji velam I just rinse it in water.)
• Cook the potato in a sauce pan with enough water. Peel off the skin.
• Chop onion, green chilly, ginger and curry leaves in a chopper or by hand.
• Heat oil in a pan and add the onion, green chilly, ginger and curry leaves. 
• When the onion becomes transparent, add the chopped and drained chundu / banana flower, gram masala, turmeric powder and salt. Mix it. Cover and cook. Switch off the flame when it is cooked well.
• Add the mashed potato into it. Mix well. 
• Shape it into cutlet. 
• Beat one egg. Dip the cutlet into egg and then roll it in bread crumbs. Shape it.
• Heat oil in a frying pan. Fry the cutlet on both sides.

Source: My mother

Home-made Banana Chips, UPPERI

My son was pestering me for the last 2 weeks to make some banana chips for him. He even took one ripe banana started to cut. So I decided to make it atlast.

Ingredients:
Raw Banana
Coconut Oil
Salt
Turmeric Powder (optional)

Method:

• Peel off the skin of bananas. Chop very thinly. 
• In a frying pan, heat coconut oil very well. When it is really hot, add the bananas. Stir occasionally.
• When it is half cooked or when a sound comes add salt and turmeric. Stir occasionally.
• When it is done, take it out and place on paper towel to remove excess oil.

Source: My mother

Kappa Vevichathu (Tapioca )

"Kappa and Fish curry" is one of the favorite combination of Kottayam side. It can be served any time of the day- breakfast, lunch, snack , dinner. I sometimes make it for dinner when we need a change.

Ingredients:
1.Tapioca - 2 Lb (908 gm) ( 1 'daily delight' packet)

For Grinding
2. Grated Coconut - 1 cup
3. Green chilly - 2
4. Small onions - 2
5. Garlic- 1 slice
6. Cumin- 1/4-1/2 tsp
7. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:

• Boil tapioca with salt and  lots of water. Drain all the water when it is cooked. 
• Add little water and grind-ed ingredients. Mix well
• Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. When it is popped, add curry leaves and red chilly.
• Add it into tapioca and mix well.

Ghee- fried Banana (Ethaka) QUICK & EASY

Amma had send me 2 jar of home-made ghee made from our own cow's milk. So I use lot of ghee in my recipes. This is a snack dish that is very easy to make. You can give them to your kids when they come from school. When I was a kid, I used to love it has an afternoon snack. Day before yesterday my youngest son ( 18 month old) was really fussy with food. He didn't eat lunch and he refused the fruits I gave him. So I made this for a change and he ate it. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients: 
1) Banana -1 ( cut into 6 pieces)
2) Ghee
3) Sugar

Method:

• Heat Ghee in a frying pan. Add  sliced banana. Fry it until it is golden brown or slight blackish.
• Sprinkle with sugar and serve hot.

Recipe Source: My mother

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Ghee-fried Banana (very easy & quick)

Amma had send me 2 jar of home-made ghee made from our own cow's milk. So I use lot of ghee in my recipes. This is a snack dish that is very easy to make. You can give them to your kids when they come from school. When I was a kid, I used to love it has an afternoon snack. Day before yesterday my youngest son ( 18 month old) was really fussy with food. He didn't eat lunch and he refused the fruits I gave him. So I made this for a change and he ate it. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients: 
1) Banana -1 ( cut into 6 pieces)
2) Ghee
3) Sugar

Method:

• Heat Ghee in a frying pan. Add  sliced banana. Fry it until it is golden brown or slight blackish.
• Sprinkle with sugar and serve hot.

Recipe Source: My mother

Double Almond Cookies

This recipe I found on the back of my Almond extract.  Since this recipe seemed to be very easy I decided to give it a try.

Prep Time: 15 min    
Cook Time:12 min

Ingredients:
All purpose flour (Maida) - 2 cups
Finely chopped almonds - 1/2 cup ( I chopped in a chopper)
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Softened butter- 1 cup
Sugar- 1 cup
Egg- 1
Pure almond extract- 2 tsp

Method:

• Heat oven to 350 F. 
• Mix flour, almonds and salt.
• In a large bowl,beat butter and sugar until creamy. Blend in egg and extract. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Drop by rounded tablespoon or small ice-cream scoop onto cookie sheet. 
• Bake 10-12 min or until golden brown

Makes 3 dozen

Source: McCormick Pure Almond Extract

Apple Harvest Cake and Apple Harvest Muffins

Apple Harvest Cake  
or
Apple Harvest Muffins


This recipe is actually a bread recipe. Original recipe asks to bake in 3 small loaf pans. I once made this dish and gave it to my sister in law. Whenever I make something special, I usually give it to my neighbors and my sister in law who lives close by.(They also do the same. So I always get to taste variety of dishes) She loved it and kept on telling me how soft it was. So for her birthday I thought I will make a cake out of that recipe. I decorated it with flowers made out of fondant icing. Well, I haven't attended any classes on icing or I don't have any flower cutters (now) so please excuse the imperfections of the flowers.
This recipe can be used to make either cake or  muffin, you just have to change the baking time.

Ingredients:


1) Flour - 2 cups
2) Packed light brown sugar -1/2 cup
3) Salt - 1/2 tsp
4) Baking soda - 1 tsp
5) Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
6) Ground Nutmeg - 1 tsp
7) Ground Cinnamon- 1 tsp
8) Ground Cloves - 1/2 tsp
9) Sugar - 1 1/2 cups
10) Butter (Softened) - 3/4 cup
11) Eggs- 2
12) Pumpkin (Cooked& mashed) - 1 lb or (Pumpkin 150z can)
13) Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
14) Apples (Peeled and diced or shredded) - 4
15) Raisins- 1/2  cup
16) Walnut - 1/2 cup (optional)


Method:

•  Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Grease 9 " cake pan or muffin pan.
• In a small bowl, Mix flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, spices and brown sugar.
• In another bowl, cream sugar and butter. Beat in eggs one by one.Add  pumpkin and vanilla. Beat again. Add the flour mixture slowly stirring until it is moistened. Stir in apples, raisins and walnuts. Pour the batter into prepared pans.
• Bake the cake for 45-50 min or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• For Muffins, Bake for 20-25 min
• Cool it for 10 min and remove it from pan and place it on wire rack for cooling.

Cake - 12 serving

Muffins- 24

Recipe adapted from Home cooking the Costco way