Eggless baking: Orange cake

Anyone a fan of citrus? I am. I just love the C-family: the lemons, oranges, limes! Their light flavours & aroma lend themselves perfectly for baking. Besides, I get tired of the regular cake flavours quite easily- choco and vanilla don't interest me any more so orange and lemon bakes always excite me!

Also, having a set of parents who belong to the 'vegetarian-converts-but-still-enjoy-cakes' family means that I am constantly on the lookout for eggless cake recipes. Remember the yummy, eggless rawa cake I shared before? The rawa cake has become a regular feature in my kitchen, much appreciated by everyone I serve it to. Over the last one year though, when I was pregnant with little V, I was craving oranges (no one will quite believe the amount of mandarins and oranges I have consumed in those 9 months....no jokes here but I probably ate up an orange orchard. R-E-A-L-L-Y!!) Anywho, the cravings made me look for any and all possible ways to add oranges to food. And thus, was born this cake.

Well, I did not exactly come up it. In fact, its based on Shammi's recipe here. Her's is a pretty neat version but I made a few changes of mine so that the cake is more of a eat-it-with-a-cup-of-chai cake rather than  a rich dessert. I must admit both N & I love love love this cake. The recipe is an easy breeze and orangey flavour is spot on.

Today's cake is for my mum; HAPPY BIRTHDAY AAI! Now that I am a mommy myself, I have only begun to appreciate everything you have done for us. You have been an incredible mother all these years and now an even incredible-r grandmum. We are very very fortunate to have you- so here's wishing you the very best birthday today and many more in the years to come!

Eggless Orange Cake:

Ingredients:
For the cake: (make sure all ingredients are at room temperature)
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar (see notes at the end)
1/4 cup yogurt
1 cup orange juice (I used freshly squeezed juice)
1 heaped tbsp orange zest
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the glaze:
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tbsp orange zest
3 tbsp sugar (optional- vary proportions as per your taste)

Preparation:

Cake: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Celsius. Grease a 8" round baking pan.

2. Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and baking powder)

3. In another bowl, cream together the oil, sugar and yogurt. Add to this the orange juice, orange zest and vanilla extract and mix well.

4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to this mix; combine well and pour into the greased pan.

5. Bake in the oven for 35-40 mins or until the cake tests done.

6. Cool completely.

Glaze:

1. Heat a non-stick pan on medium heat and mix all the ingredients (orange juice, orange zest and sugar) until sugar dissolves. Pour on the cake and let it cool for about 20 mins.

Notes:

1. The cake tastes great even without the glaze. For a glaze-free cake, simply increase the sugar in the cake to 1 cup instead of 3/4 cup above.

So, dig in!!

Cheers,
V

Blog Ctrl+Alt+Del!

Ctrl – Alt – Del Three Pillow Set @ Etsy.com

After more than a year, I am back on the blogging scene. Oh how I missed my blog-o-baby all this time!!

A lot has happened in the last one year:

-am now a proud mum to a 5 and half month old boy. All this time, everyone told me how much of hard work it is to raise a child and I never quite believed them. 5 months, 22 days after the little V aka 'the tiny-mator' was born, each and every sleep-deprived cell in my body knows!

-we have moved from Vancouver to Boston. Better job opportunities have made us leave the most liveable city on the planet. Our heart misses the amazing, beautiful and warm city that Vancouver is but also hopes to make new friends & memories here in Boston.

Life is in general topsy-turvy. The tiny-mator keeps me on my toes all day and whatever little free time I get is spent in settling in the new place. I must admit that though mommyhood is tons tougher than I thought, its also one of the most rewarding things ever. The first time little V smiled at me, I thought my heart was going to melt and though its been over 4 months since that happened, my heart has never really un-melted to its original state! My mummy dearest (aka granny-mummy to the little one) tells me this is a thing for lifetime now. Oh well!

Anywho, I sorely, honestly, deeply missed my blog all this time. It has been and will always be my creative outlet so something felt really amiss when I stopped posting last year. I hope to be more consistent and regular this time around.

More later. Until then, may the sun shine bright on you, wherever you are!

Back-with-a-bang-in-dabbang-ishtyle,

V

Container gardening- Fresh fenugreek!

I have been meaning to do gardening for a while now. I mean, if I get a chance to pick and choose fresh food right from the garden at anytime of the day, why wouldnt I want that? Couple of issues though- first, we live in an apartment, so all I have is a little balcony. And second, I have never ever dabbled in gardening, so who knows whether I have a green thumb or not??

Anywho, one of the first things I started of with was growing fresh fenugreek leaves. Fenugreek (or 'methi' as we call it in India) is a regular feature in my pantry. Immensely versatile, this little leafy vegetable is not only one of the easiest things to grow on earth (or in containers, as in my case) but quite likely also the cheapest. I started with:
- some store-bought seeds,
- a used but clean aluminium foil container
- a big packet of commercial potting mix (I used the MiracleGro mix for two reasons- it looked reliable to my novice-garderner-eyes and more importantly, it wasnt too expensive- just 5 bucks for a big packet)
-and lots and lots of enthusiasm!

I started the planting by following instructions in this video here:


A couple of weeks later, here's what my tray looked like! Yaayyyy!!


And here's the harvested methi!!




I used it to make some fresh methi theplas :)


For those of you who have any inclination for gardening but havent yet dared to take the leap, here's my bit-
the best part about growing my own food was the satisfication in seeing life grow right in front of my eyes (I now know how parents feel about their kids). And then of course, there are the added advantages- you know what went in your food, you can have fresh fenugreek right when you want it (no need to run to the store) and yes, it saved me $1.99 that I spend on each bunch of the store-bought greens. Also remember, veggies and herbs like fenugreek which are easily available in some parts of the world, may not be available in others. I know of a friend in US who needs to travel 1 hour to get to a lonely Indian store- am guessing that easy home gardening like this would work just perfect for people like that.

For those of you who are already into home gardening, you know what I mean!

Whats not to like?
V