Easy vanilla cake recipe from scratch / Vanilla sponge cake /

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Tasty Sponge Cake Recipe / Homemade Vanilla Cake / Easy Vanilla Cake Recipe from Scratch / Butter Sponge Cake 

I have posted many cakes in my blog all of which are very healthy. All of them were a huge hit especially with my kids. This is my first sinful cake prepared with plain flour ( Maida Or all-purpose flour ) and full of butter. I felt so guilty while preparing this tasty sponge cake but it has been made for the special occasion of Christmas. I wish all my readers a very merry X-Mas and a very happy new year.

This egg sponge cake is a quick and easy vanilla cake. This cake can be prepared in a jiffy without much ingredients. This easy homemade cake is made with butter, icing sugar, eggs and plain flour. I have used icing sugar instead of normal sugar giving it an extra punch. The homemade butter that I used in this preparation gave it a delicious taste which my kids loved a lot. They had 2 big pieces in a shot leaving very small pieces for me and my in laws.

The texture of this homemade vanilla cake was so soft and spongy. There is no requirement for any icing for this cake. It can be had as such unless you are preparing it for birthdays. This is just like any other store bought cake prepared with homemade ingredients. This is the easiest vanilla cake recipe that has been made from scratch. The icing sugar was also homemade. I have prepared icing sugar all by myself in my mixer jar. I will be posting that recipe so soon, but just for my readers, I am giving out the details. Take 100g of sugar and 15g of corn flour. Grind in a mixer and your icing sugar is ready to be used for frosting or for cakes. You can also use store bought icing sugar.

You can also view my other healthy cake recipes :

Healthy Vegan Chocolate Cake

Carrot cake recipe with finger millet flour

Ginger bread recipe with wheat flour

Pumpkin bread with wheat flour

Banana Choco cake with wheat flour

Preparation

Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda and keep aside. Take butter at room temperature. Whisk using a normal whisk or an electric hand blender. I have taken the help of the latter. Sometimes the butter tends to curdle. But do not panic. It is all ok and proceed with the remaining process of preparing the cake.

Add the icing sugar and beat again.

Whisk until it becomes creamy. Add the eggs and beat once again until it gets well mixed.

It took almost 15 minutes for me to beat using the hand blender. Add vanilla essence and gently mix in the batter.

Now gradually add the flour and mix with a ladle in one direction until the flour is mixed well with the butter batter.

Mix until all the flour is used up. The resulting batter will be thick. Pour into a greased tin and tap well so that the air bubbles if any will be released and will fluff up evenly. You can garnish the cake with any dry fruits of your choice.

Bake at 180 degrees Centigrade for 30 minutes or until a knife or toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. After baking, switch off the oven and leave the cake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. After removing the cake out of the oven, allow it to cool completely before  taking it out of the cake pan. Once completely cool, invert the cake pan and gently tap on the base. Cut into pieces and serve with or without frosting.

Ingredients

Maida  1 cup

Butter  1 cup

Icing Sugar  1 cup

Vanilla essence  1/2 tsp.

Eggs 2

Baking powder 1/2 tsp.

Baking soda 1 /2 tsp.

Ghee to grease the cake pan

Method

1. Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda and keep aside. 
2. Take butter at room temperature and beast well with a whisk. 
3. Add icing sugar and whisk with an electric hand blender or with a whisk manually until the batter becomes creamy. 
4. Add vanilla essence and mix once. 
5. Now add flour gradually and mix in a single direction with a ladle until all the flour is used up.
6. Pour in a greased cake pan and tap well on the platform. 
7. Bake at 180 degrees Centigrade for 20 - 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. 

Notes

• Always grease the cake pan with ghee and dust with flour. Dusting with flour helps in removing the cake easily after baking. You can also use the butter paper. 
• Bake a cake at 180 degrees Centigrade and keep an eye after 20 minutes. Any cake tends to bake fast depending on the size of the cake pan and the position where you place the cake in the oven ( middle, lower or higher ). 
• If you feel that the cake is burning on the top but is not done in the centre, then cover the cake with an aluminium foil.
• You can decorate the cake with any dry fruits ( cashews, dates, cherries, etc., ).

I once again wish all my readers a merry X-Mas and a very happy new year. 

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How to make pumpkin halwa / Kaddu Ka Halwa / Pumpkin Halwa Recipe

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How to make pumpkin halwa  / Pumpkin Halwa Recipe / Pumpkin Halwa Recipe Step by Step / Kaddu Ka Halwa  

Hurrayyyyyy!....this is my hundredth post in my blog. Successfully completed 99 posts in my blog. All of them are mostly healthy, tasty and delicious. All the recipes are tried and tested in my kitchen. My biggest critics are my husband and daughter. They are big foodies and love tasty food.

On the occasion of my hundredth post, I initially thought of posting a simple and delicious cake, but I wanted to post some dessert which is healthy. So I changed my mind to post sweet pumpkin halwa. And I have reserved the cake recipe for the upcoming Christmas season. 

This pumpkin ka halwa is very delicious. It is a lip smacking dessert or sweet dish that my daughter loved it to the core. Soft, sweet and rich halwa that is prepared with grated pumpkin is a perfect treat for any occasion. Be it for Prasadam, festive occasion or any get-together, it suits all the occasions. It is also very easy to prepare in minutes with not much of preparation. So let's go ahead and prepare this lip smacking easy sweet dish and serve our family and guests.

Preparation

Heat ghee in a pan, preferably non stick pan.

Fry broken or whole cashews in the ghee until light brown in colour.

Remove the fried cashews to another plate. Add raisins in the remaining ghee and saute until they puff up.

Remove to a plate and add the grated pumpkin in the remaining ghee.

Sauté for 3-4 minutes and add milk.

Mix well and cover with a lid. Cook on a low flame until the pumpkin becomes soft.

Add sugar and mix well.

Now cook uncovered until the sugar is completely dissolved. When all the water is absorbed and the halwa thickens, add the roasted cashews and raisins and mix well.

Finish off with cardamom powder and pepper powder and switch off the flame.

Mix well and serve warm or chilled. In both ways, it tastes great. You can also garnish with pumpkin seeds to get an extra nutty flavour.

Ingredients

Pumpkin  3 cups ( grated )

Ghee  2 tbsp

Cashews  Few

Raisins  Few

Milk  1 1/2 cups

Sugar  1 cup

Cardamom powder  1 big pinch

Pepper Powder 1 pinch

Pumpkin seeds  to garnish

Method

1. Grate pumpkin and keep aside. 
2. Heat ghee in a pan and roast the cashews and raisins. Remove to another plate. 
3. Add the grated pumpkin in the remaining ghee and saute for 3-4 minutes.
4. Add milk and cook covered until the pumpkin becomes soft. 
5. Add the sugar and cook uncovered until the sugar dissolves completely. 
6. Cook until the water is completely evaporated and the residue thickens. 
7. Add the roasted dry fruits and cardamom powder and pepper powder.
8. Mix well and switch off the flame. 
9. Garnish with extra dry fruits or pumpkin seeds. 
10. Serve warm or chilled as per your desire.

Notes

• You can add other dry fruits like almonds, dates and pistachios as per your choice. 
• Adding milk is optional. You can also add water and prepare this pumpkin halwa. Addition of milk gives richness to the dessert and tastes awesome. You can also add more milk if you want it more rich. Some people also add khova to give an extra richness. 
• In the similar way, we can also prepare lauki ki halwa and other amazing sweets which I will be posting very soon. So be tuned, my friends. 
• After you add sugar, it releases more water but do not panic. Cook until all the water is evaporated.

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Chocolate Oatmeal Cake Recipe / Healthy oatmeal muffins / Healthy Vegan chocolate cake

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Chocolate Oatmeal Cake Recipe / Healthy oatmeal muffins / Healthy vegan chocolate cake

Todays recipe is specially made for the livogen iron chef contest. This contest is about recipes that are rich in iron. I did submit some of the recipes like Sheer Khurma , Pumpkin Bread , Poornam Boorelu , Poha Oats Chivda , Soya bean sundal , spinach dal , Moong sprouts and spinach curry, drumstick leaves and sesame powder curry for this contest. This is one of the best, easiest and simplest healthy cakes which is made with whole wheat flour and oats.

Oats and wheat flour are rich in iron and fibre. There is another secret ingredient that has been added which gave the taste which is exactly the same like that of the store bought ones. This non dairy chocolate 🍫 cake is so moist, soft and melt-in-mouth dessert. Once you prepare this oats chocolate cake 🎂, I bet you would not opt for the store bought cakes.

Now, coming back to the secret ingredient, it is not so healthy ingredient. So, I am feeling very guilty to share the same. But on the contrary, if you think otherwise, there are other healthy ingredients like wheat flour, oats and orange 🍊 juice and olive oil. So I thought one ingredient and that too in a small quantity is ok. The secret ingredient is coke. Yes. Coke gives the necessary aeration, flavour and sponginess to this awesome eggless Choco cake.

In this recipe I have used drinking chocolate powder rather than the normal chocolate ( Choco ) powder. Drinking chocolate powder is inclusive of sugar. Moreover, coke also has sugars. Hence I have reduced the amount of sugar accordingly. But if you are using normal Choco powder then you can increase the amount of sugar by a couple of teaspoons.

 

I have made cupcakes out of this batter, but you can also make it as a proper cake or bread for birthdays, anniversaries or any other occasion. These healthy vegan chocolate cupcakes ( cake ) is so perfect can also be considered as healthy oatmeal muffins which can be served for breakfast or brunch or for a snack box. Now lets get into the preparation of these oatmeal cupcakes. 

You cam also check my other healthy bakes :

Carrot Cake with Finger Millet Flour

Gingerbread Cake with Whole Wheat Flour

Eggless Pumpkin Bread with Whole Wheat Flour

Healthy Banana Chocolate cake with Whole Wheat Flour

Preparation

Powder oats in a mixie.

Powder sugar and keep aside.

Take all the dry ingredients namely wheat flour, oats flour, baking powder, baking soda and Choco powder. Sieve all the dry ingredients together. Keep aside. Take freshly squeezed sweet orange juice along with the pulp.

Add coke ( coca cola ) to the orange juice. Whisk well.

Add olive oil and whisk once again. Now add the powdered sugar.  Whisk well until you see small bubbles in the mixture and the sugar is completely dissolved.

Now slowly add the dry ingredients mixture little by little and mix until incorporated. Do not over mix the batter. Just fold gently in a single direction after each addition of the flour mixture. Mix until the flour is well mixed in the batter, then add another ladle full of flour and repeat until the flour is completely used up. 

When completely done with the dry ingredients mixture,  add vanilla essence and mix gently. You can also add the zest of orange at this stage of you wish. I could not take the zest of the orange, so I skipped this step. Pour the batter into greased moulds or tins and garnish with nuts of your choice. Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 20 minutes ( for cupcakes ) or for 35 - 40 minutes ( for cakes or breads ). 

Insert a toothpick in the centre of the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done. If it does not come clean, then bake for some more time. Keep a check after every 3-5 minutes to avoid burning of the cake. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before demoulding and serving. You can do some chocolate or butter frosting and serve to family and friends. But I personally feel that there is no requirement for frosting, it tastes awesome as is. 

Ingredients

Oats  1/2 cup
Drinking chocolate powder  1 cup
Powdered sugar  3/4 cup
Baking powder  A little less than 1 tsp
Baking soda  A little less than 1 tsp
Wheat flour  1 1/4 cup
Orange juice  1/2 cup
Olive Oil  1/2 cup
Vanilla essence  1 tsp
Cashews ( or any nuts )  few
Coke ( Coca Cola )  1 cup

Method

1. Powder oats in a blender and keep aside. Similarly powder sugar and keep aside. 
2. Take all the dry ingredients namely, oats flour, whole wheat flour, drinking chocolate powder, baking powder and baking soda and mix well. Sieve all the ingredients together and keep aside. 
3. Take the freshly squeezed sweet orange juice and mix coca cola to it. Whisk well.
4. Add olive oil to the orange mixture and whisk again.
5. Mix the powdered sugar and whisk until the sugar is completely absorbed.
6. Now add the flour ( a ladle full each time ) and mix until incorporated. Repeat until the flour is completely used up.
7. Finally add the vanilla essence and mix gently. 
8. Pour into greased cupcake moulds or cake pan and bake at 180 degrees Centigrade for 20 or 35 minutes respectively.
9. To check if the cake is done or not, insert a knife or a toothpick in the centre of the cake. If the toothpick or knife comes clean, then the cake is done. Put it on a wire rack and allow to cool completely before removing from the moulds. If it does not come out clean, then bake for some more time accordingly.  

Notes

• I did not preheat the oven before baking for this chocolate oatmeal cake recipe.
• You can always add the zest of the orange during the preparation of this chocolate orange cake. 
• I have added coke ( coca cola ) that was chilled. 
• If you are using the normal choco powder, then increase the amount of sugar by a couple of teaspoons. 

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custard apple rabdi / sitaphal rabdi recipe / custard apple dessert recipes

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sitaphal rabdi recipe / custard apple recipes dessert / custard apple fruit recipes

Custard apple - a mouth watering  fruit famous for its sweetness and creamy texture. Me and My kids love this yummy 😋 fruit. Come the winter season and they await the custard apple. If I get the raw ones they keep an eye on them until they become ripe. If they can't wait for such long, then they put some of these fruits in the middle of the rice grains sack . By the next day, the fruits would be ripe and ready for use.

This time I wanted to try a special dish with this delicious fruit - custard apple Rabdi. I generally do not believe in cooking with fruits. Because I am of the opinion that veggies are meant for cooking and fruits should be consumed as is. But this sitaphal rabdi is an exception to this notion of mine.

When I first heard of this recipe, I was quiet tempted to try this out. Firstly, because rabdi is a rich, delicious and creamy dessert 🍨 made with milk. Secondly, seethaphalam is a fruit with similar qualities. The fusion of these two ingredients yielded another dessert dish which was soooooo delicious.

Seethafal rabdi was very smooth, creamy , soft and melt in mouth dessert with the flavour of custard apple. My man loved it a lot and I was on cloud ⛅ nine. Can somebody get me down? Or maybe, you can join me on this cloud by preparing this guilt free sweet dish.

You can also refer my other healthy sweet recipes,

Sesame seeds laddu

Aval Kesari

Carrot Kheer

Undrallu

Boorelu

Coconut Laddu

Banana Appalu

Paneer Kheer

Sheer Khorma

Preparation

Extract the pulp from the custard apples and keep it aside. Take milk in a pan. I have used a non-stick pan, but you can use a normal one as well.

Cook on a low flame stirring every 2-3 minutes.

We want to make a rabdi with this milk. So, boil on a low flame until it becomes almost half of the original quantity and the colour changes to a creamy, that’s when we have attained the consistency of rabdi. At this point, add sugar and mix well.

We add sugar to prevent milk curdling after adding the pulp of custard apple. Sometimes, even after the addition of sugar, the milk tends to curdle. So, add a pinch of baking soda. Mix well. Now add the pulp of custard apple and mix well.

Mix well. Taste a spoonful for the sweetness. If it is not sufficient, add 1-2 teaspoons of sugar. If it has become too sweet, then add little milk and balance it. The sweetness of the custard apples differs from one apple to another. So do check for the taste before proceeding further. Allow it to come to a boil.

Upon cooling, the rabdi tends to thicken. So, make sure that you do not thicken it so much at the time of cooking. Add a pinch of cardamom powder as per your taste. I did not want the flavour of cardamom in my custard apple dessert, hence avoided it. But, if you like the flavour of cardamom with that of custard apple, then add a pinch of it and mix well.  When it starts boiling, switch off the flame and serve at room temperature or chilled. It is best served when chilled. 

Ingredients

Custard apple   2 ( in numbers )    Or    Custard apple pulp  1 cup

Milk  2 cups

Baking soda  pinch

Sugar  1 tsp

Cardamom powder pinch  (optional)

Method

1. Keep the pulp of the custard apples ready. 
2. Boil milk in a pan on a low flame stirring it once in every 2-3 minutes. Bring it to the consistency of rabdi.
3. Once the milk is thickened and becomes cream in colour, add sugar and mix well.
4. Add a pinch of baking soda and mix again.
5. Now add the pulp of the custard apples and mix well.
6. Bring it a boil and switch off the flame. 
7. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Notes

• Sometimes, when you add baking soda to milk, it becomes frothy. That is totally fine. Stir and add the pulp of the custard apples and proceed with the cooking. 
• Addition of cardamom powder is totally optional. I do not prefer it personally in this recipe. But if interested , you can just add a pinch of it. If you add too much, then the flavour of the custard apple will be dominated by that of the cardamom powder. 
• Before you switch off the flame, check for the sweetness. If it not sufficient, then add 1 - 2 teaspoons of sugar. Sometimes the sweetness of one custard apple varies from that of the others. If the sweetness is too much, then add little milk to balance it. 
• This sitaphal rabdi can also be prepared with unsweetened condensed milk.  Dilute the unsweetened condensed milk with little milk to prepare a rabdi consistency. Put on flame, add the pulp of the custard apple and mix well. Switch off the flame and serve chilled. Quick and easy way to prepare the rabdi. Enjoy with your family and friends. 

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