Well again it is winter time and
I am here with another cake recipe. I made an eggless gluten-free cake last Christmas
time but I never followed it up with another. The reason is I was trying to
find a simple formula for making cake. After many failed experiments I believe
now I have the perfect but simple recipe for homemade cakes. There are many types
of cake but all of them follow the simple formula described below.
1 1. Cakes
have two type of ingredients – dry and wet. The smooth mixture of both type
forms the basis of any type of cake.
2 2. We
need flour as the main dry component for any cake. It can be superfine all-purpose
wheat flour (Maida) for people of no preference. We can use whole wheat flour or atta instead
if you are health conscious. If you want to have Gluten free cake you can use
rice flour as well.
3 3. The
other must-have dry ingredient is sugar. You cannot have a cake w/o sugar.
Sugar not only sweetens the taste but also keep the cake fluffy and moist. It
also makes the color of cakes brown after caramelizing. There are delicious
cakes for diabetic people but we will discuss it in another recipe.
4 4. Then
there are two more dry stuff – baking soda and baking powder. Either of them or
a combination of them is a must for baking. The spongy fluffiness comes because
of these ingredients.
5 5. Wet
ingredients include melted butter or vegetable oil, milk, egg or any sweetish
vegetable or fruit like carrot or banana. Vanilla essence is required to make a
vanilla cake. For other variants it is optional. You can use card /yogurt instead
of milk but you need to add a little bit of extra sugar.
6 6. Now
the most important part of baking is Ratio. The faulty ratio of different
ingredients can make your cake super flop or super hit. Please follow the exact
ratio of things as described below. You can create a smaller portion or larger
portion but the ratio should be same.
The recipe below is of a simple
vanilla cake but notes are there at the end for common variants like carrot
cake, banana cake or chocolate ones. In fact, if you read this recipe thoroughly,
you can make any type of cake with this one seamlessly.
Preparation Time: - 20 min
Cooking Time: - 25~30 min
Servings: - 4 persons (2 pieces
per person)
Ingredients:
Dry:
- 1 cup Maida ( all-purpose Flour or cake Flour) You
can use whole wheat flour to make it more healthy. You can even use the
same amount of Rice Flour to have Gluten-free cake.
- ½ ~ ⅔ cup sugar ( ½ cup is minimum and you can have
more if you have sugar tooth)
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Baking soda
Wet:
- 2 Eggs
- ⅓ cup Extra cream Milk
- ¼ cup melted Butter or any vegetable oil (I used Sunflower oil)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
Preparation:-
1. Pre
heat your Oven at 180 degree Celsius or 350 degree Fahrenheit for 20 minutes.
Most ovens should get the temperature on all walls and floor by 20 min. Some
newer ones may have an express pre heat function which takes 10 min or so. If
you do not want to use oven you can use pressure cooker – the procedure is
described at the end in Notes section.
2. If
you are using butter take a small frying pan and melt the butter to liquid
form.
3. Boil
the milk if you are using regular milk or you can use the tetra pack milk as
well. Keep aside to cool it down.
4. Use
a mixer to crush the sugar into powder form.
5. In
a bowl mix Milk, Butter or oil, Vanilla Essence.
6. Pour
the egg into it one by one and mix well. You can use a hand blender for smooth
mixture. This is now your wet mixture.
7. Take
another bowl and mix Salt, Crushed Sugar, Flour, Baking Soda and Baking Powder
altogether.
8. Use
a strainer to keep any lumps out of this mixture. This is your dry mixture.
9. Now
mix both the mixtures.Use hand blender to make a
smooth thick batter. Please remember to have patience here as smoother
cake batter produces great cakes.
- Please take a baking tin and
grease with little Butter/Vegetable oil and Flour. I used an 8 inch one.
You may take any size depending on your oven size.
- Pour the batter in the baking
tin and put that inside the pre-heated oven.
- Place the timer for 25
minutes and keep the same temperature.
- Check after 25 min by
inserting a toothpick / skewer inside the cake. If the baking is done
properly then the toothpick will come out clean without any liquid. If
not, bake for another 5 min and check the same way.
- Once done please keep the
baking tin outside to cool it little bit say for 5 minutes.
- Now extract the cake
carefully from the baking tin and enjoy the freshly baked homemade vanilla
cake.
Serve hot or cold as per your
choice as breakfast or snacks in evening. This item goes well with a cup of hot
tea /coffee or without anything.
Here are some notes to use the same recipe to make other type of cakes:-
1. You can make Egg-less cake with the same recipe but you
need to either add a little more milk (make it ½ cup) or add yogurt /curd of
same amount.
2. You may not crush the sugar. Instead refined sugar or
sugar powder is usable. In fact these make the cake light. But crushed sugar
helps to make smoother batter and ultimately tasty cake. Some prefer brown
sugar for molasses content but again it is more suited for cookies and brownies
rather than cakes. Brown sugar makes the cakes color browner.
3. Please note that you can use pressure cooker with some stand
instead of using the oven. In that case please remember to remove the gasket (rubber)
and vent weight from top of the cooker. You need to spread some sand at the
bottom and place the cake pan on top to create an oven like atmosphere inside
the cooker and it may take up to 50 minutes to bake with a 5 Liter aluminum
cooker. Also the yield will be less because of the circular shape of the
cooker. Please also note that regular use of cooker for baking will make the
metal weaker.
4. You can make the Chocolate cake with the same recipe –
just add approx. ⅓ cup unsweetened Cocoa powder to the dry mixture at step 6. Please
do not put more as it will make the cake taste more like brownie. You may need
to increase the amount of sugar a tad more to compensate for the bitterness of
cocoa powder.
5. You can add dry fruits like chopped almond or cashews
or walnut on top of the cake batter before putting it in the oven.
6. The same recipe can be used to make banana cake. You
need to add 2 large ripe banana in mashed condition in wet mixture. Eggs may be
reduced to one or even none if you use 3~4 large bananas. Milk can be reduced
to ¼ cup. Some says Buttermilk goes rather well with banana cake.
7. For Carrot cake you can just add 1 cup grated carrot to
the wet mixture, reduce the no. of eggs to one or none and increase the milk to
½ cup if you are not using eggs.
Next, I will be talking about cakes for diabetic people.
As always please feel free to comment, criticize
and seek if any help is required. I am all ears.
