Natural red velvet cupcake with butter cream frosting

Wanna bake something colorful for Christmas and yet keep away from synthetic food colors? Then here is the perfect choice for you! Natural red velvet cupcakes. The secret behind the natural coloring is pureed beetroot! Yes, you read that right. I too was shocked when I came across this recipe for the first time, but trust me, you will never find a hint of the beet taste in the cake. Top it up with an easy butter cream frosting and you'll have your festive cupcakes ready :)

Eggless carrot wheat flakes cake

My quench for healthy yet tasty dishes never seizes! So when I came across carrot bran cake in Madhuram's eggless cooking, I bookmarked it immediately and tried it recently with some little variations. I have used Kellogg's All bran wheat flakes in this recipe but you could very well use any bran flakes/oat bran etc. Carrots add to the sweetness of the cake and hence this recipe calls in for a considerably lesser amount of sugar and also it has no butter! But absolutely no compromise to the taste :)

INGREDIENTS:

• Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup **
• Maida - 1/4 cup **
• Brown sugar - 1/4 cup (White granulated sugar can also be used)
• Bran flakes - 3/4 cup, crushed coarsely with hands
• Carrot - 1/2 cup, grated
• Buttermilk - 1 cup
• Cinnamon powder - 1/2 Tsp
• Baking powder - 1/2 Tsp
• Baking soda - 1/2 Tsp
• Salt - a pinch
• Orange zest - from 1/2 orange
• Raisins - 1/4 cup
• Walnuts - 1/4 cup, chopped (optional)
• Oil - 1/8 cup

METHOD:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 C for 10 minutes. Line muffin trays with cupcake liners or dust a cake pan and keep aside
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together - flour, sugar, bran flakes, carrot, cinnamon powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, raisins, orange zest
3. Make a dent in between and pour in the oil and buttermilk and gently fold in. DO NOT over mix
4. Fold in the walnuts, if using
5. Fill the batter in the muffin molds or cake pan
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes. If you have used muffin molds then they take lesser time to bake than in cake pans. So keep a watch on your cake after 17 minutes
7. Cool completely and store
8. This cake tastes the best when it is completely cooled. I baked it on a Sunday and took it for my evening snack the next day and it tasted too good

Enjoy the yummy cake absolutely guilt free! Eating healthy can be tasty too!! 

** Note - This can be skipped and instead 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour can be used in the recipe to make it even more healthier! Or if you do not like too much of wheat, then only 3/4 cup of maida can be used. Absolutely your choice :)

Eggless wholewheat blueberry muffin

This weekend's healthy snack - Eggless wholewheat blueberry muffins!!! If you don't have blueberries, then no worries at all, you can replace it with any dry fruit of your choice like raisins, apricots etc. I could find so many recipes for blueberry muffins and I adapted the healthy aspects from all the recipes that I came across. I have used whole wheat flour, light brown sugar and very little sunflower oil and added to these, blueberries make these cute little muffins absolutely healthy! It turned out to be so soft and spongy and everyone at home loved the combination of tangy blueberries with the sweet muffin. So, as I always say, eating healthy can be tasty too :)

INGREDIENTS: (makes 5 medium sized muffins)

• Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
• Salt - 1/4 tsp
• Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Light brown sugar - 85 g (approximately half of 3/4th cup - Measure it first and then powder it. You can use white sugar too)
• Oil - 38 ml (I used sunflower oil, you can use rice bran or vegetable oil too)
• Milk - 65 ml (approximately a little more than 1/4 cup)
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Fresh or frozen blueberries - 1/2 cup (can be replaced by 1/2 cup of any dry fruits)

METHOD:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C for 10 minutes
2. Wash and pat dry the blueberries/dry fruits and coat them with 2 to 3 Tbsp of flour (This is to avoid them from getting burnt while baking). Keep aside
3. Sieve together the dry ingredients - Whole wheat flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Keep aside
4. In another bowl, beat milk, sugar, oil and vanilla extract well until the sugar is dissolved and no lumps are left
5. Make a well in the center of the bowl containing the mixture of dry ingredients
6. Pour in the wet mixture in the middle and gently mix the batter (DO NOT over mix)
7. The batter should not be runny. If it is too thick or dry then add 1-2 Tbsp of milk to it
8. Now add the flour coated blueberries/dry fruits and fold into the batter very gently
9. Grease and dust the the muffin moulds or line them with paper liners
10. Spoon in the batter to 3/4th of each mould and bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-20 mins
11. Keep a check after 12 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean, then muffins are ready!! 
12. Cool them on a wire rack and serve them when they are mildly warm. You could serve them as a tea time snack or have them as breakfast with banana milkshake/fresh fruit juice to kick start your day with full power!!!

See you soon with yet another interesting recipe. Cheers!

Eggless Chocolate Cupcake

Merry Christmas to all :) This weekend I made chocolate cupcakes for my cute little cousins. It is a super easy recipe and the entire preparation and baking was done in just 30 mins. There could be a lot of variations to this - it could be made plain chocolaty, nutty with walnuts/almonds/cashews or for those who love rich chocolate flavour, you could enhance it with more chocolate chips! Wishing you all a happy holiday season :)

INGREDIENTS

Maida - 1.5 cups

Granulated Sugar - 3/4 cup

Cocoa powder - 2 Tbsp

Baking Powder - 1.5 Tsp

Baking Soda - 1 Tsp

Salt - a pinch

Oil - 1/3 cup

Milk - 1/2 cup

Vanilla essence - 2 tsp

METHOD:

1. In a bowl mix maida, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt. Mix well, sieve once and keep it aside.

2. In a separate bowl mix sugar, milk and oil together and whip it until sugar dissolves completely

3. Now add in the flour mixture with oil, milk mixture and mix well taking care to avoid lumps. Add vanilla essence and mix well till creamy pouring consistancy of the batter is formed

4. Pour the batter in greased muffin moulds (only till 3/4th of the moulds as it would raise) and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 15-20 mins. It was done in 16 mins for me! ( I had only 4 muffin moulds so I poured the remaining in a cute heart cake mould and this took about 20 mins to bake)