Spongebob Cake - Eggless chocolate cake

Baked this Spongebob cake for my younger son's 3rd birthday.. Spongebob is a favorite TV show in our household. In fact I was introduced to Spongebob even before I had kids..thanks to my hubby..So it was only obvious I had to attempt this cake and got a wonderful opportunity when we were deciding what cake to bake for RiShawn...His birthday was September 25th..a bit late in posting this recipe...

Happy 3rd Birthday RiShawn....

A Special thanks to my little baking buddy , Jay for all the help in making this cake.. Its an eggless chocolate cake and have used buttercream icing.

Ingredients :

• 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 3 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preparation :

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Grease a 9 X 13 inch pan.
• Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add sugar and mix well.
• Add oil, water and orange juice and mix well.
• Pour into the prepared 9 X 13 pan and bake for about 50 minutes to an hour. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
• Let the cake cool completely before icing it. I baked the cake the previous night and let it cool overnight. Did the icing the next morning.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

Nascar Cake- Jeff Gordon #24 Cake

Wishing all my readers Happy Independence Day !!!!. Today is India's 64th Independence day.

My son is a huge fan of Nascar racing. His favorite is the #24 car -Jeff Gordon. I guess he's been following Nascar since he was 3 yrs old.. My husband is into Nascar too..He follows Jimmie Johnson #48 car...So for his 7th birthday , my son (Jay) wanted me to bake him his Nascar #24 car cake... I baked an eggless chocolate cake and used buttercream frosting. Let the icing set for couple hours and then covered it with fondant. The recipe for the eggless chocolate cake will follow soon...

Eggless Banana & Walnut Muffins

I stumbled across this recipe at "Saffron hut" and looking at the awesome results wanted to really test this recipe. This blog has so many amazing recipes with such beautiful clicks. So it was a no brainer when I decided to follow this recipe. I have also seen that there are no posts/updates for a long time now and going through her beautiful blog makes me feel and hope she begins blogging again. She is an asset to the blogging world. On that note I feel very guilty and really miss my blog and all my readers and do really wish I can keep posting regularly and visit you all more and be updated about all of you my blogger friends.

Why did I choose an Eggless recipe you might ask. I thought It would be a challenge to bake without eggs. People have been doing it for various reasons. Some by choice and some not by choice (for instance some are allergic to eggs). Also I had a few overripe bananas and since my son's home enjoying his summer break and he's always eager to try new baking recipes. So I got the ingredients ready and in fact he did the entire mixing and made the muffin preparation. I just helped him spoon them into the muffin cups and put it in the oven. So another great project to get the kids involved. I was really happy with the muffins and so proud to have my son as my baking buddy...

Ingredients :

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 4 ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 tbsp chopped walnuts for sprinkling on the top

Preparation :

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Line the muffin pan with muffin paper cups/liners.
• Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl and keep it separate.
• In another bowl mash the bananas. Add sugar and butter and mix it well.
• Now gently add the banana mixture to the dry ingredients and mix it well. Do not over mix it. Add the chopped walnuts. Mix it.
• Fill the muffin cups upto 3/4 to the top with the muffin mix and sprinkle some chopped nuts on the top.
• Bake for about 25 minutes or till the muffins turn golden brown.
• This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Fondant Cake

My very first fondant cake. Its a vanilla cake covered with fondant and decorated with gumpaste daisies... I'm getting super duper busy these days. Its my son's summer vacation and my in-laws are visiting us this summer. Hopefully can make some time for my blog, which I miss so much and catch up with all of you as and when time permits...

Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1-2 tbsp sugar/jaggery
• 1 egg
• 1 and 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

You could use milk instead of buttermilk.

Preparation :

• Sift together flour and baking powder and keep aside.In a bowl beat together egg , buttermilk, salt and sugar. Add the flour and mix well. Gently fold in the blueberries.
• Pour about 1/4 cup batter onto a hot nonstick skillet. Let it cook until bubbly for about 2 minutes and then turn. Continue to cook until golden brown.
• Serve with Maple syrup or butter with some fresh blueberries on the side.
• This recipe makes 5 pancakes.

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

Wilton Course 2 - Finale Cake.

I'm really enjoying myself at my cake decorating class. This was our course 2 finale cake. I baked a chocolate cake and have used chocolate buttercream icing. I have decorated it with royal icing flowers. This was my first time trying out the basket weave(on the side of the cake) and it really was fun..a bit time consuming though. Presenting you all my wonderful readers this basket of flowers and I hope you enjoy it... (Also trying to make up for not being able to visit you all...Its almost the end of my son's school year so was busy in a lot of year end school activities...Will soon be able to get some time Hopefully...)

How to use leftover Rice - Instant Dosa/Rice pancake

Instant Dosa with leftover rice- Rice Pancake

Instant Dosa with leftover rice- Rice Pancake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• salt
• oil for frying
  

Preparation :Grind the leftover rice to make a fine paste. Add all purpose flour, rice flour, salt and water. Mix it well. The batter should be of medium consistency.Pour a small ladle full of batter onto a non-stick pan and spread it in a circular motion. Apply some oil and fry both sides.

Serve this hot instant dosa with coconut chutney. This recipe makes about 6-8 dosas.

This recipe saves you enough time for you to catch up with your favorite TV Show (In case you happened to notice the remote control in my first click...)