Oats and Nuts Granola Bar

Now, who would not like to munch on something that is incredibly delicious, ridiculously easy to make and also truly healthy snack?! Well, I am always on the look out for such recipes. Being a nursing mum to a one-yr-old, I am always hungry! I need a snack at any hour of the day. And of course it has got to be healthy.

When I bumped into this recipe by Vikas Khanna in a cook book for kids, I simply had to try it out! It seemed to fit the description of an ideal baked snack! Granola bars are just an answer for such hunger pangs! Guilt-free, wholesome and absolutely yum!

I am fond of granola bars and have been meaning to bake my own batch for quite a while now. I am so glad I chose to bake this as my first as it is simply very easy to make. Very few ingredients and quick to put together. I was delighted at the soft yet firm, chewy texture of these bars. So satisfying and oh-so-yummy! :)

So this granola bar is a basic one with just a few add-ons like almonds, raisins and chocochips. You can get creative with your add-ons and put in anything that you fancy... toasted sesame, cranberries, pumpkin seeds... anything at all! 

Am sure you will love this recipe... go ahead, get baking! :)

Wheat and Jaggery Cookies

Baking makes me happy. I bake for occasions, for family, for friends, or just because I feel like it! 

And lately, my baking has begun to revolve around my infant son. I have been eagerly waiting to feed him homemade healthy bakes and watch the glee on his face as he enjoys them. Well, finally at just over 10-months-old, I have been able to give him tiny bits and pieces of my cakes and much to my delight, he does enjoy munching on them! :) 

While the happiness I get when I feed my baby homemade goodies is priceless, I am also conscious about the quantity that I feed him. Since our regular bakes contain refined sugar and white flour, I do not give him too much of it. Just a teeny weeny piece at a time. 

However, his appetite is ever growing and I have to keep ready healthy munchies every few hours to feed his hungry tummy. Apart from the usual baby friendly stuff, I wanted to give him variety and something ready that I can just take off the shelf and feed when hunger strikes. 

...and so begins my baking journey to create baby friendly bakes! :) 

While browsing for ideas, I found this recipe on Padhu's Kitchen and by just a quick glance at the ingredients was convinced that this was the perfect bake for my little guy. Took me all of 30 mins to put them together and keep away to bake. Once done, I gave him a tiny bit to taste and it was an instant hit! He gobbled a lion and nibbled on a giraffe on the first sitting :D  

These cookies are perfect for babies as they contain no refined sugar or flour. They are absolutely healthy. I had these adorable little cookies cutters sitting and waiting patiently to be used. I used them to shape these cookies and was ecstatic at how incredibly cute they turned out! :)

If you have a teeny tummy to feed at home, this recipe is a must try! Actually, these may just please you too... go ahead and try a small batch and see if you like these healthy bites! :) 

Happy Baking! 

Ingredients

Wheat Flour - 1 cup
Jaggery - 1/2 cup, powdered
Butter - 100 gms, cold unsalted
Cardamom Powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt -  a pinch
Milk - 2 tbsp

Method

• Cube the butter into small pieces and place into a mixing bowl.
• Add in the wheat flour, salt and mix the them together with your hands. The butter should blend in well and the mixture should resemble bread crumbs.
• Add jaggery and cardamom powder. Mix well.
• Now, to bring the dough together, add in just a bit of milk. Combine well to make a soft dough.
• Place this dough in the refrigerator for 15 mins.
• After 15 mins, take out the dough. Dust your work area with flour and roll out the dough using a rolling pin, into medium thickness.
• Using cookie cutters, cut out the shapes that you desire and place these on a greased baking tray.
• Gather the remaining dough and repeat the rolling out and cutting process until all the dough in used up.
• Bake the cookies at 180 for 15-20 mins or until the sides turn a light brown.
• Cool the cookies on a wire rack and store in an airtight container once completely cooled.

Eggless Orange Cake with Orange Glaze

Simple flavoursome cakes entice me more than fancy shuancy looking pastries with oodles of frosting and cream.

So on our recent trip to Pune, one of my aunts, a passionate baker, had made this delicious cake for us. I could not stop with just one piece of the goodness. I gobbled a few slices at one sitting and oh boy, was it good! It was a very simple orange flavoured eggless cake she said. I simply loved it and wanted to recreate it when I got back home.

So, when I finally did get some time off mommyhood I decided to bake this yumminess. I used my trusted Eggless Vanilla Cake recipe and tweaked it a bit to make this orange flavoured eggless cake. The citrusy flavour that the orange juice and zest imparts in this bake is simply yum!

And the best part you ask? It has a good portion of whole wheat in it and brown sugar to up the health quotient. This cake is all the more dear to me since it is the first bake of mine that my little one tasted and loved!

Wheat cakes are generally slightly more dense when compared to entirely all purpose cakes, but since this one has a good measure of orange juice to moisten the batter up, the final texture of the cake is not dense at all, in fact is very moist and soft.

The light orange glaze on top... oh, that completes the citrusy goodness of the cake :)

If you love simple cakes as much as I do, this one has surely got to be tried! Happy Baking!

Cinnamon Coffee Marble Cake

Oh, Hello there! :)

Life has been very busy on the personal front. Blogging took a backseat for almost a year now. Well, a tiny little human has taken priority over everything else in my life currently :) Yes, I have been blessed with a beautiful baby boy in February this year and my routine as you can imagine is nothing like it was before he came by :)

Here is a snippet of how my life has changed since my boy arrived: Baby-steps into Mommyhood.  

Thankfully, my little is cooperative and I am able to pursue my hobbies in between my busy schedule with him. I have taken a liking to sewing lately and have been creating little somethings for my munchkin. From crib bedding sets to pyjamas to patchwork quilts. I love trying my hands at my new found love of sewing whenever I find time. 

Hence, blogging has been pushed away for a while now. I do get to bake on occasions and cook up some fancy dishes. But I couldn't really bring myself to sit and update this little space lately. 

However, finally here is a recipe I truly wanted to share with you all. I baked this last week for a mini family together. Its a marble cake with the flavours of cinnamon and coffee dancing in harmony. 

The flavour of coffee and cinnamon goes so well together, if they were a couple, they would fare high in a compatibility test!! :D

It's simple, easy and quick to put together. Trust me, your guests will be pleased to be welcomed with such a pretty cake! :) Go ahead, bake this up and make your loved ones happy! Happy Baking :)

Huggy Bear Cookies and Puppy-face Cookies | Shortbread Cookies [Egg-less]

Baking breads and cakes has become a part of life for me these days. I am happy to have found basic fool-proof recipes for both over which I experiment time and again to create different varieties of bakes. I remember the days (oh, not too long ago!) when I would ogle at blogs that have such gorgeous bakes, and I would wonder when I would join the bandwagon and begin my own baking odyssey. 

I am glad that the baking bug didn't take too long to bite me and bite me it did, real hard! I have been on a baking spree since and beware... now am contagious, spreading the baking bug to many more through my Baking Workshops!! J

I have been putting away experimenting baking cookies primarily for the butter that goes in it. But then, a bit of butter makes life better doesn't it? 

So, here is a basic egg-less cookie recipe that I loved. The adorable shapes are inspired from Pinterest. Hope you enjoy this post as much as I  enjoyed putting it together! J

Ever since I saw the Huggy-Bear cookies on Pinterest a few months back I have been scouting around for a teddy-bear cookie cutter. They were too cute not to be tried out! So, the instant I found a little teddy-bear cookie cuter, I made it mine. 

Last week, I finally got some time to try my hands at making these cookies. I looked up a basic cookie recipe that was egg-less. I used the recipe for Shortbread cookies from Sharmi's blog page and created these little guys.

I am my biggest critic when it comes to baking and I rarely rarely give a double thumps up to my bakes at first attempt. But this one is an exception! A sure winner! I could not stop feeling proud of this creation, right from the great taste to the perfect shape of these cookies. They were simply yum and cute! 

I just couldn't wipe the happy grin off my face that day and I was like a little kid beaming with glee after learning how to paint a perfect picture! Tee hee hee J

I baked these for my friend's 2-yr-old who simply loved the 'Bow-Bow' cookies and demanded for more, after he demolished the first one I gave him. And seeing the delight this brought to the tiny tot, I baked these again for my 4-yr-old niece and it was a hit once again! 

They are easy to put together but look oh-so-pretty! Bake these for your little ones, for gifting friends and relatives, for parties that you host at home,  or simply to pamper the kid in yourself! J

Strawberry Choco-chip Vanilla Muffins [Egg-less]

Strawberries are such happy fruits! Don't they just make you smile every time you look at them? Vibrant, fresh and oh-so-pretty! 

I love their colour and how they make everything they are added into look beautiful! 

The markets are so full of strawberries right now and I have been enjoying this delicious fruit generously. After making smoothies and some gelato, I ventured onto making some muffins. 

I used my tried and trusted egg-less Vanilla Cake recipe and made these muffins. Strawberries inside as well as on top made my simple muffins look elegant and those little chunks of choco-chips only made them prettier :)

I loved this little mid-week baking experiment and was mighty pleased to have treated my colleagues to some of these beauties :)

Grab those strawberries before they go out of season and make these adorable muffins soon, you guys! 

Happy Baking! :)

Christmas Fruit Cake [Egg-less]

I love this part of the year. There is something magical about this season that you cannot escape the merriment and joy that is in the air. 

We do not really celebrate festivals but of the whole lot of traditional festivities of the year, Christmas is my favourite. I love the happiness, the joy, the family togetherness, the feast, the gifting, the lights, the stars, the carols... oh, it all warms my heart and makes me smile.

As a blogger, I am lousy at posting dishes that are apt for the festival that is round the corner. I usually end up trying out something on the day of the festival, after seeing loads of posts of friends online, and if at all I post, it would be just past the festival it was meant for!! Tee hee!! 

But this time around, I have surprised myself! I really have a beautiful recipe, just perfect for Christmas.... and Christmas is tomorrow! :)

Fruit cakes have never been my favourite. Frankly, I still do not like them too much. I made these for the husband, whose favourite cake in the world is Fruit Cake! He can eat a huge cake all by himself while I am happy with a tiny slice. And while I can gobble up a vanilla tea cake or chocolate brownie, he would be contented with just a single slice or two. I love nuts and he loves raisins.

That is how different our preferences are! :) I guess that is how it is in every house. No two people have identical likes and actually that is what makes life fun and exciting, don't you think? :)

In all my cake experiments so far, I realised I have never baked a fruit cake for him! My earlier attempt at making an egg-less fruit cake didn't turn out too well and since then I have been putting it away. 

This Christmas, to go with the merry mood I decided to finally get around baking it. I made little cupcake style fruit cakes. They turned out real good and I am mighty pleased at finally zeroing on an egg-less fruit cake recipe! The husband loved the surprise treat that was waiting for him :) 

And oh, I love this square muffin mould! My friend and I picked it up a few months back and finally I put it to use :) Loved how pretty the cakes have turned out in this pan :)

So if you still have not baked your Christmas cake and are looking to make an egg-less Fruit Cake for your family......or if you simply like Fruit Cakes and want to bake one for yourself.....or if you have someone who may like fruitcakes and you would like to gift it to them......or you simply love baking... this is for you! :) :)

Bake it, enjoy it, gift it... love it! :)

Orange And Pistachio Cake [Egg-less]

Hello there! :) I am back from yet another hiatus! :) Hoping the momentum continues for a while! 

I have been away from my little bloggie world for a while now and it feels like forever! It was just another phase where I just couldn't get myself to sit and create a post. I have been cooking, baking and clicking pics. And have quite a few drafts too, but the part of drafting out the post and publishing it... well, that didn't happen for some reason. Just another blog-slump phase. But, now that am back, I hope to be around :)

So, a few weeks back I had to... HAD to make an orange cake and I had to.. HAD to use damerara (brown) sugar in it. 

Hmmm...why you ask? Oh well, because my craving said so! Ah, for those of you who haven't met my ever so weird and impromptu craving... here are some of the dishes that my craving and me came up with: Spinach and Mushroom Pasta, Soya Potato Patties, Eggless Chocolate Walnut Cake!

Yup, we make a great pair, my craving and me!! :P

This was the first time I used brown sugar and I was pretty satisfied with the outcome. The taste and smell of this sugar is different from the regular white refined sugar. But the interesting texture it gave to the cake, I simply loved! I am definitely experimenting more with brown sugar cakes... for now, enjoy this simple, flavourful orange pistachio cake :)

Coffee Almond Cake [Egg-less]

Now, when there are back-to-back birthdays in the family, there ought to be back-to-back cake posts here right? :) So, here I am with my second cake recipe that I created for a birthday... this time mine! :D Yeah, a week after my Grandpa's 100th year celebrations, it was my turn to celebrate my birthday! 

I always get excited when my birthday arrives. I don't know what it is about birthdays but I love it when they come by. I am not a party person, so no major plans or parties or any of that sort. I just like feeling special and happy about that day being my very own special day amongst rest of the days of the year! :) 

And what is a birthday without a cake, right? 

In the last few years, ever since I began baking, I have baked cakes for my parent's anniversary, brother's, sis-in-law's, hubby's and mother-in-law' birthdays and more recently a special Zebra cake for my Grandpa too. I realized, I hadn't baked a cake specially for myself yet! As I said, birthdays are special to me and I believe in celebrating it in my own simple way. Oh, I am not talking birthday pastries here. My forte is egg-less tea cakes and I love experimenting with various combinations and seasonings. No icing, no cream. 

I wanted to bake the cake on the previous day to my birthday and I had the final look of the cake ready in my head while at office that day! I simply could not wait to get home and begin baking! Haha, these baking urges I tell you!! :D

So, what cake did I want? I had various options swaying in my head. But coffee and almond kept dancing in my head until I simply had to surrender and allow them to be the core flavouring agents in my cake! So, Coffee Almond Cake it was :)

The batter was delicious! Yes, I licked the last bit left after filling in the cuppies!! Tee heee :P 

The smell was divine! This is one of the most fragrant cakes I have baked till now. The home was filled with the beautiful smell of coffee, while these little guys baked away in the oven. And the next day, when I opened the box in which I stored the cup cakes, we were welcomed with a whiff of that lovely coffee flavour again! So, if you are a coffee lover... you just do not want to miss this one! :)

Choco-Vanilla Zebra Cake [Egg-less] | Birthday cake for my Grandpa's 100th year!!

My grandpa entered his 100th year on Saturday, the 23rd of August. Yes, his centenary year!! At the age of 99, Abu (that is 'Grandpa' in Konkani) is one of the fittest persons I know! He walks around, with the help of a walker, he reads the newspaper, watches television and keeps himself abreast with the latest happenings. He can strike a conversation with just about any generation and keep it going!

Ever smiling and living life to the fullest, my grandpa is a jovial person. Having had a successful career life, a hugely generous heart and a determination like I have not seen in anyone else, my grandpa is definitely an inspiration to anyone who meets him.

Disclaimer: This is going to be a long post with pictures overload!! :)

So as a celebration of his centenary year, our family decided to throw him birthday bash. It is not everyday that you have someone reach a 100 and that too in such a fine health condition! It does call for celebrations, right? :) Though, he was aware of the get-together being planned, we kept him away from several little surprises we had thought up for him. I made a picture collage with photographs of all his kids and grand kids with him, we made a scrapbook with wishes from near and dear ones and.... I baked this zebra cake for him!! 

Before we jump into the recipe, let me fill you in on the other surprises and the party. Here is a sneak peek at the scrapbook that we put together for him......and the poem that I had penned in his scrapbook of wishes.

Those moments…

When you threw me into the air,

And caught me, as I squealed in childish glee.

When you bounced me on your legs,

As I giggled, till it tickled my belly.

When you lauded me,

For my achievements, however big or small.

When you motivated me,

To reach for the stars, and give it my all.

I shall treasure these and many more,

As my fondest memories with you.

Blessed… I feel,

To have grown up with a Grandpa like you!

Abu, you are inspiration personified,

Living life to the fullest… everyday, you show us how!

As you majestically stride into the big 100,

I wish you abundance of laughter, happiness and love!

Happy Birthday dear Abu! J

My heart was full of joy when I penned those lovely memories of growing up with a Grandpa like him and I was only too glad I was able to put those feeling in words for him. 

I always wanted to bake him a cake for his birthday. Considering the fact that this was going to be the first cake I baked, that he was going to taste, I wanted it to be special. Considering his age, I had to keep the cake simple. Suited me just fine, since simple cake are just my kind of cakes! I had to refrain from adding in nuts, in order to make it easy for him to eat it. Also, not being a huge fan of icing and more importantly, having to carry the cake from Bangalore where I live to Chennai, where my Grandpa stays, I couldn't think of carrying a cake with icing! So sponge cake it was. But no ordinary one.. something pretty and special to suit the occasion.

After sorting through several options in my head, I finally settled for this Zebra cake which I was meaning to try for a long time. I have a trusted Vanilla cake recipe and a Chocolate cake recipe. Both egg-less. So I just put together the two and made a Zebra cake, all the while keeping my fingers crossed, as this was the first time am attempting this type of a cake! Well, it does need a little care, to get the layers perfect. And I am proud of my first attempt at it! :)

Now, not making a cake with icing posed a problem. How am I decorate it? I had to write 'Happy Birthday' somewhere!! Well, so that was when the thought of making a pretty little paper banner pinned to skewers came to my mind. I have seen these on the Internet earlier and felt it was time I tried my hands at it! 

Grandpa was delighted when he saw this and was even more so when I told him I made it!!! How proud he was of me, that he told everyone that I baked a cake for him. Aww, some feelings cannot be put into words! When he blew the candle and sliced into the cake, my heart skipped a beat in anticipation of how the swirls turned out.... and they were beautifully perfect!!! Oh my... was I delighted by the way it turned out!! :) I was grinning ear to ear by the way the final look of the cake came together... I certify this as my best cake till date!!

Banana Walnut Loaf Cake [Egg-less]

This is one of the most unplanned posts on my blog. 

I had not much time on hand that day, I had two over ripe bananas, we were to head out in about 45 minutes and yet... I planned on baking this beauty in that little time gap that I had! Banana Walnut bread was one of the first homemade cakes that I had eaten as a little girl at my aunt's place and ever since has been a fond favourite of mine. I had long been wanting to bake a loaf of it in my new oven and had been putting it off for later.

But that day, was the day!

Having made up my mind in a matter of minutes, I just got into action without wasting another minute. Namita's lovely blog on healthy bakes came to my rescue. I tweaked her recipe to add in some walnuts and a dash of cinnamon powder and voila... a pretty baked loaf of yumminess was what I got as end result :)

I had not planned on posting this here, as I did not take proper pictures and also I told you what a mad rush I was in. But I felt that these picture taken from my basic mobile camera were pretty decent making me want to share it with you all :) 

So here goes... a lovely simple recipe that will make you want to do a tap dance as you pull out the goodie from the oven! :)

 

Chocolate Muffins with White Chocolate Chips [Egg-less]

Yay.... so the great news is... I got a new Oven! :) I have been baking in a microwave all these days and now finally I realise how wonderful it is to bake in an OTG. While baking in my good old 23 ltr Elextrolux microwave with convection mode, I didn't have anything to compare with and hence I was happy with the outcome. Eventually, I just felt the need for a bigger oven and after hearing from fellow baking enthusiasts about how good an OTG is for baking, I decided to get one for myself. And now.... when I do have something to compare against, baking in OTG is absolutely delightful as compared to microwave baking! Oh, the texture of the baked products is simply flawless and wonderful in an OTG. And I had to constantly play around with the settings of the microwave to achieve that perfect bake (not too brown crust, yet fully baked inside...etc!) and with an OTG, its so hassle free!! :)

Yes, OTG is the real deal when it comes to baking! Considering my passion for baking we went for a 52ltr Morphy Richards! Huger than my microwave, but such a joy to bake with :) Just about 4-5 bakes old, and am already in love with it :)

So, this chocolate muffin recipe was my first new recipe that I tried out in the OTG.  The ingredients of this recipe was what caught my attention. Like my other cake recipes, this too is eggless. But what surprised me was that usually eggless recipes (at least the ones I have come across) used curd or butter or condensed milk instead. But this one uses none of these!! The ingredients are the most guilt-free that I have come across till now and the resultant cake is so good, you would not guess it was made with such simple ingredients!! Try it :)

I was all excited after we bought the new OTG, that I had purchased a few more cake pans to experiment with. These two little muffin trays were so adorable, I couldn't NOT buy them!! :)  So instead of regular sized muffins, I made mini muffins just so that I could use my new pans! :)

Apple Cinnamon Muffin - with Crumble Topping [Egg-less]

Okay so I am sensing a 'Muffin' fever heading in our direction as it seems to raining muffins in Nans Yum-yums lately!! Be warned! :D

Well, well... I was super duper delighted with the way my Carrot Muffins turned out that I built up the courage to put into action another muffin experiement. An equally healthy, simple and an eggless muffin creation. 

And this time, am even more pleased with the results, as this was an experiment that took shape in my head! I just wanted apples in my muffins with a cinnamony flavour to it. And yes, I wanted a crunch in the muffins. 

I like a combination of softness and crunch in my muffins... either nuts, choco chips, butterscotch chips. It feels good to bite into softness and get a crunch inbetween. 

So yeah, this time around, I didnt want any of the tried and tested 'crunch' givers. I wanted something else! And I knew exactly what I wanted... a crumble topping! :)

I have read about crumble topping on various sites, but never gave it a try. I believe that there is a right time in life for everything... and the time for me to try crumble topping had come! :D 

The way my crumble topping turned out was better than I expected!! And I am proud to say it was a success at home... as even the Mr, who isn't a muffin/cup-cake/cake fan at all, gobbled up two gleefully!! :)