Eggless Dates Cake

Thats right..its eggless..yet unimaginable moist and soft-easy and a quickie and a big hit with the crowd. I followed the exact recipe from  Shilpa's Aayi's recipes but reduced little bit of sugar and my baking took less time than the specified.She says that it would catch up a "cake fever" and indeed it did :-)

Ingredients

• 18 pitted dates /date fruit
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2-3/4 cup sugar(I used brown sugar)
• 1/2 cup of oil
• 1 cup of maida/all purpose flour
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• choice of nuts(optional)

Pre-cooking

• Pre heat oven to 350 degree F

Method

• Heat the milk and dates for a few minutes until the dates become soft
• Grind this with sugar to a fine paste.
• Add oil and mix it well.
• Sieve the flour and baking soda and keep aside.
• Add the flour little by little to the liquid mixture until everything is blended smoothly.
• Add the nuts if needed.
• Pour into the cake pan and bake it in oven for 30 minutes.(Time might vary..so be sure to check it in between)
• Cake is done,when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and tidy.

Serving suggestions

• Serve its as such or frost it with your favorite frosting.

Tips

• The cake will be extra moist, so take care when taking it out from your pan.

Add this goes to Bake off event hosted by Bangalore Baker.

Double Ka Meeta/Indian Bread pudding

If you are a Hyderabadi from India or stayed there like me,I'm damn sure you would have tasted this dish. It is a terrible sin if you haven't done so :P . 

I came to know about this dish when I was in Hyderabad for a few months.This also happens to be the city where I started my career in the sinful IT field. Though it was a very short training period we explored the place a lot and needless to say, food played a very important part. If I had been a non-vegetarian may be I would be writing about the famous "Hyderabadi Dum Briyani" but here I am with the popular sweet/dessert of Hyderabad, the city of Pearls.I got this recipe from a friend whom I visited there when I was working but looks like it had to wait until all these years to come alive.

With the richness of sugar syrup and bread, blended together in a thick milk, this dish is a boon for all sweet lovers. The method I have mentioned here is not the authentic version but it is a "quickie" and I see your hands raising even as I mention :) !!!
And here is another information as you drool over the picture,did you know how this dish got its name? In Hyderabad they call bread as "Double Roti", Meeta is sweet in Hindi, this combines it as "Double Ka Meeta".

Ingredients

• 5 or 6 bread slices 
• a cup of sugar
• a pinch of cardamom
• half a litre of milk(whole or half & half)
• few tbs of nuts of your choice
• 2 tbs of ghee or clarified butter
• Oil to fry

Pre-cooking

• Cut the bread into triangular pieces and leave it to dry in open air(may be for 24 hours approx).

Method

• Fry the bread slices in oil(Original recipe calls to fry in ghee; you can try that as well!!)
• The bread will not absorb oil as it is dried.
• Boil sugar and water in ratio 1:1 
• Once it starts boiling add cardamom
• Pour in your milk and keep in high flame 
• After it comes to a boil, reduce the flame and let boil.
• Keep stirring in between so that it doesnt burn.
• After it comes to half of its size, add in the bread slices.
• Let them soak in the milk.
• At this stage you can either switch off the flame and refrigerate it ;and take out after all the milk is absorbed.
• Or if you are in a hurry like me,just keep boiling it, until all the milk is absorbed.
• Fry the nuts in ghee and garnish them.

Bread slices soaking in the stove

Serving suggestions

• You can serve this warm or cold.

Tips

• If the breads are not dry enough, they will absorb more oil and become soggy.

Add this goes to  Joyful Eating whilst travelling event hosted by Jagruti. Unfortunately I do not have a picture from Hyderabad (that was when I was still using a Kodak KB10 camera) but I'm posting this one that we took on a weekend drive to Pondichery from Chennai. This golden ball is the very famous Auroville ,a universal city located in pondichery.

Almond Wheat Rolls

This is actually a sweet from a leftover dessert :) Yes, I made some Badam Kheer/Badam shake for a get together and had some left. Didnt want to have the same dessert again & thus ended up in making a semi badam halwa.The shake is already in liquid form thats why I added wheat flour as it will help in easy solidification and less work ;) But it still ended up beautiful.

You could ideally make it from the scratch, but here I'm going to give the way I made it.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of almond shake
• 1/4 cup of wheat flour
• 2 tbsp of sugar(optional)
• a pinch pf cardamon
• few tsp of ghee or clarified butter

Pre-cooking

• None

Method

• Heat a  kadai/wok  and add the ghee
• Then add your almond shake and bring it to a boil.
• Then slowly add your wheat flour to it and keep stirring.
• Add the sugar if needed.
• Once the mixture becomes like halwa it will leave the sides.(You will easily know the consistency as your vessel will become very clean)
• Eat as such or roll them into your favorite shapes.

Serving suggestions

• You can drizzle with a few drops of ghee.

Tips

• Adding more wheat flour will reduce the taste.

Add this goes to my CoL-Leftover Delicacies event

Banana Date Shake

Dates or Date fruit , cultivated mostly in the middle eastern region is a great source of iron,vitamins and minerals. Most importantly they are very low in calorie, a fact that many of you will appreciate !!

What happens when this date fruit goes in for a date with our favorite fruit of all time, banana?? The result is very sweet,aromatic and energetic. Definitely give it at a try.

Ingredients

• a cup of pitted dates/date fruit
• one ripen banana
• milk approx, 1 cup
• few ice cubes (optional)

Pre-cooking

• None

Method

• Put all the ingredients into a blender/mixie .
• Add milk just enough to cover all.
• Grind it until its smooth.
• Pour into your cups and enjoy this healthy,juicy milkshake.
• You can strain the milkshake if needed.(I didnt..I wanted all the richness)

Serving suggestions

• You can add few almonds or cashews if you want.

Sending this to Madhuri's Juices,Shakes and Smoothies event at CookCurrynook

Award time 

Today's morning surprise came from Madhuri as she passed this lovely blog award and she was kind enough to mail me the same,thanks dear.I love the little angel in the award picture.

I would like to pass this beautiful award to,

Priya of Priya's Easy n Tasty recipes, though a veteran in blogging she keeps encouraging all the budding bloggers with her lovely comments
Deepti of Some salt to taste, her blogname in itself is very inviting

Piper of The crazy Apron, she is a busy bee juggling between so many things, yet you can't say so from all those lovely dishes she makes from scratch

SwapnaSridhar , her blog is a beautiful presentation like her crafts 

Nayna at simplyfood, simple holds good for her layout though her foodies are good to rock , and she is a very humble blogger who appreciates you

Gita at Gita's Kitchen, she is one healthy lady,who cooks a variety of dishes low in calorie

Neetz at Kitchen Express,who makes simple easy to make comfort foods that melts your mouth.

Neethu,Kiran and Deepti have been kind enough to pass me the sunshine award, thanks dears !!

I really dont know whom to pass this along because everybody has one sunflower on their blog :) 

So I dedicate it to all my blogger friends and you can post this sunflower to shine your blog if you dont have one!!!

Happy Weekend everybody.

Featured as a Budding blogger

Dear friends,
I am happy to share that I'm featured as a budding blogger in EC's blog which talks about budding bloggers every Wednesday. Do check out my post here.
You could also feature in the series by sending your blog to EC.
Thanks for your continued encouragement and support !!!


Thanks,
Daisyblue

Carrot Pineapple Moist Cake

I baked this cake along with my friend L when she came over one day last week. Apparently she got this recipe from another friend of hers and it is a tested fine moist beautiful cake !!

This is my second baking post and sending this to the Bake Off event hosted by Bangalore Baker. 

Ingredients

• 3 cups of all purpose flour
• 2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1 tsp of salt
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 3 eggs or equiv replacer
• 1 and a quarter cups of oil
• 2 tbsp of vanilla extract
• 1 and half cups of grated carrot
• 20 oz can of chopped pineapples drained(you can alternate with fresh ones)
• 1 cup of chopped nuts(your choice of nuts)
• 14x10 rectangular cake pan

Pre-cooking

• Pre heat oven to 350 degree Farenheit.

Method

• In a sieve,sift together all the dry ingredients highlighted in orange and keep aside.
• In your mixing bowl add all the wet ingredients and blend in medium speed until it becomes a complete smooth batter.
• Now slowly blending in one hand, add the sifted dry ingredients little by little until fully incorporated
• Blend it in high speed for a few minutes.
• Add the pineapples,carrot and nuts.
• Mix slowly with a spatula.(Do not blend)
• Grease the cake pan and pour the batter and smooth it evenly.
• Baking time takes around one hour.

Serving suggestions

• Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and pineapple slices.
• Even add cherry to top it up.

Tips

• You can use white sugar instead of brown sugar.
• Adjust the cake pan according to the quantity if you are making less.

Also a reminder for the CoL-Leftover Delicacies event hosted in my blog till Apr 16th. The winning recipe, voted by you all , will feature in my blog as a dedication to the winner :)

Keep your entries coming!!!