Eggless Mango Semolina (Rava) Cake

I had been long waiting to bake something with mangoes in this season abundant with the king of fruits.  My baker friend, Radhika gifted me with some lovely farm fresh organic mangoes (ton of thanks to her) amidst my spree of baking other goodies for my guests that week.  I didn't miss the chance to try this recipe though was damn tired and was really happy with the outcome and my tiredness just vanished on tasting the cake.   I had halved this recipe but repented for doing so.  This really is a keeper recipe.  Also, no maida or wheat flour is used.  The texture from the rava is different for the palate but yet simply superb.  Do give a try.

Ingredients:

Fine Semolina/Rava - 1 cup

Mango Pulp - 1 cup

Oil (flavorless) - 1/4 cup

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp

Chopped nuts - 2 to 3 tbsp

Salt - A pinch

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.

Whisk together semolina, sugar, cardamom powder, salt, and baking powder.

Add oil to this and mix well together.

Finally, add the mango pulp and mix well until combined.  Leave it aside for 15 minutes.

Pour the batter in a greased loaf tin and garnish with chopped nuts.

Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees C for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove immediately and allow to cool completely.

Cut and serve or store in airtight container until use.

Notes:

Canned mango pulp or fresh mango pulp can be used.  The taste and color of the cake depends on the quality of the mango pulp used.  Hence, use the best quality mango pulp.  I used fresh mango pulp.

To make fresh mango pulp, blend in mixer jar chopped mango pieces and strain through a sieve.

Make sure the mango pulp is thick and not watery.  If the pulp is watery, the batter will be watery.  So, allow the batter to sit for more time, say for about 20 minutes.

If fine rava is not available, run the rava in a mixer jar for a minute or so and fine rava is ready to use in this recipe.

If the mango pulp (canned or fresh) is sweet, the sugar can be reduced to 1/2 cup.

I used sunflower oil and granulated sugar in this recipe.

Eggfree Vanilla Cupcakes

I had been baking egg based cupcake recipes most often times, almost regularly. This eggless recipe comes in handy whenever egg free cupcakes are sought for. This basic vanilla cupcake recipe is very versatile and can accomodate many variations into it to create different cupcake flavors. I baked these for a charity sale in a school here in my place and have shared the cupcakes image made for the sale (though the pic does not do justice..I should develop on photography skills and patience of clicking them too...)

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour (Maida) - 170 gm
Cornflour - 15 gm
Thick Curd - 240 gm
Castor Sugar - 170 gm
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder - 1 tsp (slightly heaped)
Vegetable Oil (Flavorless) - 125 mL
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Water - 2 to 3 tbsp (depending on the consistency of the curd)


Procedure: Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line cupcake molds with liners.

Sift together flour, cornflour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a bowl, using a whisk, cream together sugar and curd until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Add oil and vanilla to this sugar-curd mixture and mix well.

Add the sifted flour in 2 to 3 parts into the wet ingredient mixture and fold in gently until well incorporated. Do not over mix. Add water till the batter reaches dropping consistency.

With a spoon or an icecream scoop, scoop the batter in the cupcake liners up to two-thirds level of the lined cupcake mold and bake for 12 to 14 minutes at 180 degrees C in the preheated oven or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove the cupcakes from the oven when done and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Store in an airtight container.

Use as such or top with desired cream - buttercream, ganache, or whipped cream, and serve.

I have made these cupcakes (in pic above) decked with choco chips and tuitty fruity.


Notes:

This recipe can be used to bake an 8-inch cake. Baking time would be 30 to 35 minutes at 180 degrees C.

You can replace oil with butter to make it richer.

Maida can be replaced with whole wheat flour in whole or partially. Other options would be to use ragi flour, millet flour, or any nut flour but only half the quantity of maida can be replaced with these types of flours.

Variations you can make with this base recipe are chocolate, orange, lemon, fruit and nut, chocochip etc. I leave the rest to your creative ideas and imaginations.

Add different essences to make those particular flavors viz., pineapple essence to make pineapple cupcakes. Add about a handful of chopped nuts, tuitty fruity, chocochips to the batter to make those slight little variations and make them kid friendly.

To make chocolate cupcakes, take off 2 tbsp of maida and replace with 2 tbsp of cocoa powder and proceed as above.

Happy Baking!!

Lemon Curd

When I had some egg yolks left with me after using the egg whites for the meringue based recipes viz., swiss meringue buttercream, italian meringue buttercream, meringue kisses and the like, it just struck to do the easy and simple yet delicious lemon curd.

Lemon curd is a thick, smooth, velvety, silky, sweet n citrusy cream that is commonly used as fillings in tarts, chocolates, pies, cakes and also mousse or cheesecakes (if thinking out of the box, so many other desserts too).

Ingredients:

Egg Yolks - 4
Sugar - 120 gm
Butter - 60 gm
Lemon Zest - 1 tsp
Lemon Juice of 1 lemon


Method:

Add the yolks in a heavy bottomed sauce pan and add the sugar and whisk continuously until it has thickened.

Add the butter and heat on low flame until it melts well.

Add the lemon zest and lemon juice and keep whisking until it thickens.  This may take around 8 to 10 minutes.

Remove from fire.  If desired to get a very smooth, velvety texture, immediately pour through a fine strainer to avoid lumps.  It becomes thicker as it cools down.

Transfer to a sterilized jar and cover immediately so as to avoid forming of skin on top.

Keep refrigerated.  It stays good for up to a week.

Use the lemon curd as a spread on sandwiches, infused with buttercream or whipping cream as fillings in cakes or can be used as such too for filling in cakes, make mousse layers, use in creamcheese cakes, pie or tart fillings and so on...your ideas are endless to use this creamy lemon curd.

I used this lemon curd as a filling along with non-dairy vanilla whipped cream in a 6-inch tall chocolate sponge drip fresh cream pastry cake and the taste was really very amazing.  Do give a try.



Notes:

You can make it lighter by adding around half a cup of heavy cream and whipping it up.

Lemon juice and lemon zest can be replaced with orange juice and zest to get orange curd.


Recipe credits: Fondbites