Eggless Ragi Chocolate Cake

Yes, you read the title right! A cake made with Ragi flour - eggless, butterless, no white sugar, no maida but absolutely delicious!! It is hard to guess that this cake contains ragi (finger millet) and instead of white sugar, I have added jaggery and honey. All goodness packed into one small cake. Yummmm!! It is also one of the easiest cakes that I have baked as it does not have too many ingredients. Just mix and bake like a readymade cake mix and surprise you kith and kin :)

INGREDIENTS:

• Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
• Ragi (finger millet) flour - 1/2 cup, roasted (Roasting the ragi flour improves the texture of the cake)
• Baking soda - 1/4 Tsp
• Unsweetened cocoa powder - 3 Tbsp
• Yogurt - 3/4 cup
• Jaggery - 1/2 cup
• Honey - 1/2 cup
• Oil - 1/2 cup (any flavorless oil - I used sunflower oil)
• Milk - 1/4 cup (or as needed, to make the batter smooth)
• Vanilla extract - 1 Tsp
• Chocolate essence - 1 Tsp (optional)

METHOD:

1. Mix the dry ingredients together - flours, cocoa powder and soda
2. In a separate bowl, mix yogurt and jaggery and stir very well until the jaggery is dissolved in the yogurt
3. Then add in the oil, honey, vanilla extract, chocolate essence(if adding) and mix well
4. Gradually fold in the dry ingredients into the yogurt mixture 
5. Add the required amount of milk (approximately 1/4 cup) so that the batter is smooth
6. Pour the batter into greased and dusted cake pan or muffin moulds lined with paper liners
7. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes (I made a cake only with half the quantity of all the ingredients and it got baked exactly in 20 minutes)
8. Allow the cake to cool completely on a wire rack. The cake tastes yumm as such or you could also top it with some chocolate sauce and edible sprinkles as my cute little cupcake shown below!