Sponge Cake used for Black Forest Pic credit: Priya Q

This is fatless version that can be used as a base for many cakes like black forest, white forest, logs, swiss rolls etc

Eggs – 4 nos
Refined flour (maida) – 85 gms
Baking powder – 1 and ½ tsp
Cornflour – 1 tbsp
Sugar powder – 160 gms
Vanilla essence – 1 and ½ tsp
Brandy – 1 tbsp

1. Sieve together – refined flour, baking powder and corn flour
2. Separate egg whites and yolks
3. Beat egg whites till stiff and dry (it should form firm peaks)
4. To the yolk add sugar powder, brandy and vanilla essence and 1 tsp of water. Beat till you get an off white mixture
5. To the yolk mixture add 1 tbsp each of egg white mixture and refined flour mixture and slowly and gently mix in cut and fold method. Keep repeating till everything has been incorporated
6. Pour this into a greased tray (greased, lined with butter paper and re greased)
7. Spread the mixture evenly
8. Bake it immediately in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 20 minutes*

*time varies from oven to oven. So check with a toothpick in about 15 minutes. If it comes out clean then your cake is done
* for a chocolate sponge cake add 20 gms of cocoa, ¾ tsp baking soda and ¾ tsp of baking powder to 65 gms maida

Easy Chocolate Cake Pic credit: Chitra Gupta

Thanks Chitra for the easy chocolate cake recipe

All purpose flour (Maida) – 1 cup (heaped)
Sugar – 3/4th cup
Refined Sunflower oil – 3/4th cup
Baking powder – ¾ tsp
Cocoa Powder – 1/4th cup
Vanilla essence- ½ tsp
Eggs – 4 nos

For Icing:  Chitra used the ready-made Pillsbury chocolate icing on this cake. To make your own home made icing you can use the following. Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, add fresh cream to it. Initially it will become a bit hard, but keep adding the cream and stir well, till pouring consistency is reached.

1. Whip the eggs and sugar together in a blender, till the sugar dissolves completely, and the consistency is slightly creamy
2. Then add the vanilla essence and refined oil to the egg sugar mixture, whip again thoroughly
3. In the meantime, sieve together the maida, cocoa powder, and baking powder
4. Grease a baking dish and lightly dust with maida
5. Gently add the whipped mixture to the flour mixture, stirring continuously, beating the mixture till air bubbles are visible on the top.
6. Gently pour the mixture into the greased tin and bake in pre heated oven at 180 degrees for 45 minutes.
7. Check with a knife to see if done, cool.
8. Cut the cake into two equal halves, (use a thread to get a clean cut)
9. Slather the icing onto both the halves, join them again
10. Cover the cake with the icing, place in the fridge to cool and the icing to set
11. Later you can dust the cake with icing sugar, using a sieve, (can use any stencil too, to create patterns)

*for a healthier version, replace all purpose flour with wheat flour. The cake will be browner but tastes equally good.

Chitra Gupta is a homemaker and a mother of two lovely kids. She believes in making food interesting and enticing through lots of experimenting. She ensures her family has healthy food through the week. However, some days she believes in some sinful indulgence too!

Kiwi White Forest Cake image: Priya Q

Rich whipped cream topping with green kiwis on a super soft spongy cake.  Kiwi White Forest is my favoritest (just coined to emphasize how much I love baking and eating this cake ).

Now before you attempt baking this cake or for that matter any cake, if you donot have a weighing scale / measuring cups /spoons….please do get them first. Trust me it makes a lot of difference and worth your investment.

Plain sponge cake

Cherry syrup / sugar water – 1/4 cup

Rum – 1 tbsp

Kiwis – 3-4 nos

Rich whip topping – 200 gms

Sugar powder – 2 tbsp

1. Cut the cake horizontally from the center with a serrated knife
2. Keep the top half of the cake aside
3. Mix the cherry syrup (from the cherry tin) and rum and put it in a sprayer
4. Spray the base of the cake on all sides liberally
5. Peel the kiwis and cut them in slice
6. Beat the rich whip topping stiff (the cream should not move and should form peaks). Add sugar powder and beat again.
7. Spread the cream over the base of the cake and line it with chopped kiwis
8. Spray the 2nd or the top half of the cake with the sugar syrup mixture and place it on top of the base with kiwis
9. Cover the whole cake liberally with the whipped cream on all sides
10. Clean the plate with a tissue paper off any cream
11. With an icing bag decorate your cake to your taste. I used the star nozzle for this cake (as you see in the picture)
12. Decorate with more sliced Kiwis
13. Cool in a refrigerator for atleast 15 minutes before using

Till next time…happy baking!

photo credit: *saxon*

The measurement are for a 1/2 – 1 kg cake

Initial Spread : This is the basic spread to beging with any icing on the cake

• Cream 200 gms of butter
• Add 3 tbsp of icing sugar (heaped) little by little and cream well

Butter Icing (for piping)

• Keep adding icing sugar to the Initial spread (above) little by little while beating well.
• Stop once the butter looses its shine and form peals

Hard Butter Icing

• To Butter icing keep adding icing sugar till the time the icing forms a ball and leaves the sides of the bowl
• Approximately 600 gms of icing sugar will be required for 200 gms butter

Parchment Icing

Gelatine – 1 tsp

Water – 1 Tbsp

Icing sugar – 125 gms

• Dissolve gelatine in water and melt it over fire.
• Add icing sugar little by little and knead to a fine ball

Glaze Icing

Sugar – 225 gms

Hot water – 2-3 tbsp

• Beat water with icing sugar till it coats the spoon

Royal Icing

Egg white – 1 no

Icing sugar – 225 gms

Lemon juice – 1tsp

• Beat egg whites lightly then gradually beat in half of the icing sugar.
• Beat until smooth and white.
• Continue till it forms soft peals

Fondant Icing

Gelatine – 1 and 1/4 tbsp

Liquid glucose – 1 and 1/2 tbsp

Water – 1/8 cup

Glycerine – 1 tsp

Icing sugar – 3 and 1/2 cups

• Soak gelatine
• Warm liquid glucose amd soaked gelatine in a double boiler
• Make a well in the icing sugar and pour the above the mixture into it
• Knead well into a pliable dough

photo credit: Edd Morgan

This is the recipe for a basic chocolate cake that can act as a base for other more exciting cakes like truffles etc . Its absolutely yumm

Butter – 225 gms
Eggs – 4 nos
All purpose Flour (Refined flour) – 175 gms
Sugar powder – 250 gms
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Baking soda – 1 tsp
Vanilla essence – 1 and ½ tsp
Cocoa powder – 50 gms
Water – 1 cup OR ½ cup water and ½ cup curd (plain yogurt)*

1. Cook 50 gms of cocoa in ½ cup water on direct heat and keep it aside to cool
2. Take butter and sugar together in a bowl and using an electric beater beat them together in one direction.
3. Combine flour, baking powder and soda and sieve once.
4. To the sugar mixture add 1 and ½ tsp vanilla essence and beat. Now add eggs and beat. Add to it the cooled cocoa mixture and keep beating, Now add flour mixture and fold the cake gently and lightly. The consistency of the batter should not be too loose or too tight.
5. Pour the batter into greased mould and level it by tapping the mould against the kitchen slab.
6. Now with hands push the batter towards the mould wall on all sides. This is to ensure that the cake during baking process doesn’t swell up and crack from the center.
7. Bake in a pre heated oven at 180 degree C for 25 minutes
8. Serve as is or pour chocolate sauce, nuts and other cake decorating stuff over it.

*while using curd put ½ cup curd after you put cocoa in the batter…I always use curd since it adds to the flavor of the cake. So my suggestion would be to use curd!

Have fun baking and do leave me your feedback. I will be back with more exciting cake recipes soon.

Till next time….happy cooking!

Nothing beats the waft of freshly baked cake from your kitchen as you come back from play in the evening. That’s my old childhood memory. This one used to be quite popular in my family and my mom ended up making it for us every now and then. It tastes lovely. Do try it out…I will be waiting to hear from you !

All purpose flour (Refined flour) – 1 and ½ cups
Baking powder – 1 tsp (heaped)
Salt – 1 pinch
Eggs – 6 nos
Sugar – 1 and ½ cup (powdered)
Refined Oil – ½ cup
Vanilla essence – 7-8 drops
Lemon juice – 4-5 drops
Cocoa powder – 1tsp (heaped)
Drinking chocolate powder – 1 tsp
Green food color – 6 drops
Pista or banana essence – 8 drops
Yellow food color – 8 drops
Pineapple essence – 8 drops

1. Combine flour, baking powder and salt and sieve atleast 2 times
2. Separate eggs. Beat the white part till creamy. Beat the yellow part nicely. Now combine both the white and yellow part gently with a spatula in cut and fold method*
3. Add half portion of sugar and oil in the egg mixture and using an electric blender mix in cut and fold method. Add remaining sugar and oil and repeat the process.
4. Add flour little by little and now mix with hand (cut and fold).
5. Add to above vanilla essence and lemon juice and mix with hand
6. Divide this mixture into 3 equal parts
7. In the first half add cocoa powder, drinking chocolate powder and mix (cut and fold)
8. In the second part add green color, pista essence and mix
9. In the third part add yellow color, pineapple essence and mix
10. Grease the mould and add all three parts ( in the same order). Pour in the center of the mould one by one (see picture below). Don’t worry about spreading it. It will automatically happen during then baking process
11. Bake in a pre heated oven at 180 degree C for 35 min.
12. WIth a toothpick check if the cake is baked or else bake it for few more minutes. The time and temperature may vary from oven to oven. The tooth pick should come out clean which indicates that the cake is fully baked.
13. Take out and leave it to cool before taking it off the mould

*cut and fold method – most of the cakes need gentle mixing. In cut and fold method all you need to do is move your hand / spatula / beater from top to bottom in the center as if you are cutting it vertically then from top where your cut move your hand as the clock moves to complete a circle around the vessel. That’s called folding the cake.

Till next time…happy cooking!

that’s my super mom Jayalakshmi…a great cook and a lovely home maker

I simply love baking cakes. If not for the calories, I could have baked one every day! Nothing beats the gentle aroma wafting from the oven as the cake gets done. I remember how excited my sister and myself used to get on getting back home and smelling a hot freshly baked cake! I am sharing here a simple carrot cake recipe which also happens to be one of my favorite. Coming to think of it, there are not many cakes that I do not like but nevertheless!!

Carrot – 3 cups (grated)

Eggs – 4 nos

All purpose flour (maida) – 2 cups

Sugar Powder – 2 cups

Butter – 2 cups (melted)

Baking soda – 1 tsp

Cooking soda – 1tsp

Cinnamon powder – 1/2 tsp

Nutmeg powder – 1/2 tsp

Walnuts – 1 cup (chopped)

1. Beat the eggs and keep separately
2. Sieve thrice – flour, baking soda and cooking soda
3. Add sugar powder to the melted butter and keep beating
4. Add beaten eggs to above and mix
5. Start adding the flour (sieved) slowly and 1/2 portion of grated carrots and keep mixing with a fork
6. Repeat the above step till all the flour and carrots have been incorporated
7. Pur the batter in a greased mould
8. Bake in a pre heated over at 150 degree C for 45 minutes
9. Pierce a tooth pick into the cake to check if its done. The toothpick should come out clean.
10. Cool the cake at room temperature. Cut and serve.

Till next time…..happy cooking!….and hey don’t forget to tell me how it was