Yogurt Dip

Ingredients:
Yogurt (hung curd)                200 gm
Amul Cream                          75 gm
Grated Carrot                         1/4 cup
Grated Cabbage                      1/4 cup
Salt and Black Pepper             according to taste

Method:
1. Hang curd in muslin cloth or strainer for atleast 1 hour.
2. Beat a little with spoon. Add amul thick cream.
3. Add grated carrot and cabbage.
4. Add salt and black pepper.
5. Serve cold with tortillas nachos or any snack.

BASIC BUTTER CAKE

BASIC  BUTTER  CAKE

Ingredients:

Egg                            2
Maida                        100 gm
Butter                         100 gm
Powdered Sugar         100 gm
Baking Powder            1 tsp
Vanilla Essence             1/2 tsp
Milk                             2 tbsp

Method:

1. In a big bowl, take eggs, essence and sugar. Beat well but not much.
2. Add soft butter ( white or yellow) , maida and baking powder and beat well.
3. Add milk (room temperature) and beat well.
4. Pre heat oven (not microwave) for 5 minutes at 160 degrees.
5. Take mould (alluminium moulds are best) for 1/2 kg cake, grease with refined oil. Cut brown paper only        for base and place at bottom of mould. Pour the batter in the mould and bake at 160 degrees for half an           hour, check and bake accordingly.
6. Take mould out of oven immediately after its done, take the cake out of mould after half an hour.

Points to Remember

1. Baking soda is completely different from baking powder, as their functions are different so you cannot substitute them with each other.
2. Always measure the ingredients on weighing machine to get best results.
3. Always use brown paper which is used for covering notebooks and never butter paper as it can burn.
4. Baking is always done best in OTG and not microwave oven.
5. The procedure of mixing the ingredients is different from regular way, as mentioned in books, but it makes
     your cake much better.

Tea Cakes

Nothing goes better with a cup of tea than a few tea cakes. Long a favourite around the globe, tea cakes are a sweet treat enjoyed by the adults and children alike. Different countries and customs have different styles of cakes. But the tea cakes, we are familiar with, resemble small versions of traditional cakes, designed to be a light tea complimented by hot black or grey tea.
TEA CAKE CREATIONS
There are all manners of tea cakes from those resembling simple cookies to more ornate petit fours. To serve the cakes properly, you should arrange them on a piece of a serving ware along with other small food items such as tea sandwiches and fruit and pour yourself a cup of hot tea. Then you can sit back and enjoy your afternoon snack in the way it was intended.

RICH CHOCOLATE EGGLESS CAKE

Ingredients:
Milkmaid 1/2 tin or 200 gm
Drinking Soda 100 ml
White Butter 60 gm
Sugar 1 tbsp
Maida 100 gm
Cocoa Powder 25 gm
Baking Powder 3/4 tsp
Soda-bi-carb 3/4 tsp
Vanilla Essence 1 tsp
Method:
1. Sift maida with cocoa powder, baking powder and soda-bi-carb (meetha soda) and keep aside.
2. Mix sugar and butter in a big bowl and beat well.
3. Add milkmaid and beat well.
4. Add half of drinking soda and half of maida mixture to the above batter and beat well.
5. Add rest of soda and rest of maida and beat well. While you beat the batter, see that bubbles are
formed. This makes the cake very soft and spongy.
6. Pre-heat the oven at 180 C. Grease a cake mould with oil, specially the edges, very well.
7. Pour the batter in it and bake in oven at 150 C. After 25 minutes check by inserting a knife's tip in
centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, your cake is done.
8. Switch off the oven and let the cake be there for 15 minutes, take out and serve hot.
9. Do not refrigerate these cakes and do not keep open in air. Keep them covered. The shelf life of
this cake is 2 days.
10. Share how it turned out.

FAQs While Making A Cake

Our mind always try to find out easier ways to do things than the given ones. But its true to say that there is no short cut to success. Put your time effort and most importantly, your heart to give your best. I have been taking baking classes for so many years and I have to always answer the following questions:
1. What if I put milk in place of drinking soda ?
Every ingredient has its own importance in a given recipe as every ingredient contributes in its own way to get a soft and yummy cake. All ingredients in a recipe are proportionate to each other, in measurements and also in taste. If any of them is disturbed, you'll not get the desired results.
For example, drinking soda has fizz and helps to make cake spongy but if we put milk, you'll need something to replace that fizz. Then how much to increase baking powder to accomodate that fizz is a big question. Then you keep on trying different measurements till you get desired result. To make it easy for you I have been doing this try and error method for years and came out with perfect recipes which never fail.
2. What if I do not have time to beat all ingredients one by one and rather put all the things together in a mixer grinder ?
There are always three possibilities: to get good result, better result and the best result. To get the best out of what you do it is always advisable to follow every step in the method given. It hardly takes ten minutes more but reward is much bigger.
3. What if I do not measure the ingredients by grams and instead measure them in cup to make it even easier ?
Try to be as accurate as possible and avoid taking approximate measurements to get desired result. Otherwise experiment at your own risk. Buy a weighing machine of 2 kg and always enjoy the cake you'll make.
4. What if I do not pre-heat the oven ?
Well if you do not do so, the cake does not turn out to be spongy. If you keep the batter at room temperature in the oven, it settles down before it gets start to bake. Whereas if oven is pre-heated, batter immediately starts cooking, makin the cake soft and spongy.
5. What if I do not sift the maida ?
This is like asking: What if I do not mix water in poster colour and start painting ?
Of course to colour with a brush smoothly you need to add water to it. Similarly every step has its own importance beyond any explaination.
6. What if I bake the cake in microwave oven ?
These recipes are suitable for oven only, for microwave the recipe should be altogether different. My personal experience is that cakes turn out much much better in an oven than a microwave.
If you have any other question or doubt than post it here on the blog, I am always there to help.

Basic Eggless Cake

Ingredients:
Milkmaid 1/2 tin or 200 gms
Drinking Soda 100 ml
White Butter 60 gms
Sugar 1 tbsp
Maida 125 gm
Soda-bi-carb(meetha soda) 3/4 tsp
Baking Powder 3/4 tsp
Vanilla Essence 1 tsp

Method:
1. Sift maida with baking powder and soda-bi-carb. Keep aside.
2. In a big bowl, put butter and sugar. Beat well with an electric beater.
3. Add milkmaid and beat well.
4. Add half of drinking soda and half of maida to the above mixture and beat well.
5. Again add rest of soda and maida to the mixture and beat well.
6. Add vanilla essence and beat well.
7. Pre heat oven at 200oC.
8. Take an alluminium cake mould and grease it with oil very well specially edges.
9. Pour the mixture in the mould and now bake it at 150oC.
10. After 20 minutes insert knife tip in the centre of cake, if it comes out clean then
switch off the oven and let the cake be in it for 15 minutes.
11. Take it out, let it cool at kitchen temperature only and serve.
12. Do not refrigerate this cake. Enjoy fresh made cake.

Basic Eggless Cake