Red velvet Cake :

Hey, this is Anushree here and this is my first guest post on my mom’s blog! I have been home from college for a few days now and thought I’d make something special as Christmas is coming up and my sister is coming back from college in 2 days! So, I decided to make a Red velvet cake.

Yes! You heard it right. It is not deep red in colour but filled with healthy ingredients. It is No Artificial colour and No All-purpose flour recipe. And to pull this off, I obviously needed some assistance from an expert in healthy cooking, who happens to be my mom, so that worked out great for me!

In olden days, Red velvet cake was made with All-purpose flour and Beets. Here I have used Mixed healthy flour ( Amaranth , Red rice and Almond flour) with beetroot. So, it is not a white cake with red dye.

While frosting, instead of new age cream cheese, I have opted for an original Ermine icing , which is also known as boiled milk frosting. Here, instead of All-purpose flour I have used mixture of  Almond flour and Arrowroot powder with milk to attain a creamy and flowy texture.

Here is my recipe- Fits for 9” spring foam pan.

Ingredient:

For the Cake:

Beetroot – 1 (small,  to get 3 tablespoons of puree)

Amaranth flour – 1cup

Brown rice flour – 1cup

Almond flour – ½ cup

Cocoa powder – 1 tablespoon

Cooking soda – 1 tsp

Salt – ¼ tsp

Eggs – 2

Brown Sugar – 1 ½ cup

Butter – 200 grams

Vanilla – 1 tsp

Buttermilk – 1 ¼ cup

For the Frosting:

Milk – 1 cup

Almond flour – 5 tablespoons

Arrowroot powder – 1 tablespoon

Butter – 50 grams

Sugar – ½ cup

Vanilla – 1 tsp

Desiccated coconut – as needed

Slivered Almonds – As needed

Method:

To Bake the cake:

-Pre heat oven for 180° C . Line the baking tray and keep it ready.

-Cook Beetroot in a pressure pan for 2 to 3 whistles, peel the skin and grate.

-Measure every ingredient and keep it ready. Melt butter and keep aside.

-Take a mixer jar, make a paste of grated beet with ¼ cup of buttermilk ,which we have kept for the batter preparation.

-Take one glass bowl, beat eggs, then sugar, melted butter ,pureed beetroot, vanilla and lastly one cup of buttermilk.

-Beat everything until it is well mixed and keep aside.

-Now take one more bowl, put all the dry ingredients, all the three flours, cocoa powder, salt and cooking soda. Sieve couple of times or dry whisk and keep it ready.

–Pour the previously prepared wet mixture to dry ingredients and fold the batter by using any spatula.

-Pour the batter in lined baking tray and keep this for baking for 40 -50  minutes or until done.

-Before removing, check with a knife by inserting, in the baked cake. It should come out clean.

-Cool the cake completely before doing the frosting part.

Method for Frosting:

-Take milk ,Almond flour and Arrowroot powder in a saucepan. Boil the mixture until it is cooks and becomes creamy.

-Switch off the flame, add in butter ,sugar and Vanilla, mix well. Cool the mixture and keep it in the fridge to cool further making it more solid. ( I have not kept in the fridge)

-Now, slice the cake, make a 2-equal slice, Apply the frosting on first layer and cover it with the second slice.

-Now pour frosting on the top, as well as apply at the sides as well. Take desiccated coconut and dust at the top as well as at the sides.

-Decorate the cake with slivered almonds and serve and enjoy with the family <3

Note: 

For Egg less version, please use any egg replacer or 

Flax gel:The basic ratio is 2 ½ tsp of flax seed powder and three tablespoons of  hot water  and then you simply whisk in the mixture until it becomes gelatinous  to replace one egg.

Gluten free Masala Cookies:

This masala cookie is low in sugar and perfect as a snack for toddlers or elders. This recipe works out with any permutation combination of flours. I have worked with the addition of Amaranth flour with banana flour. As well as the Combination of whole wheat flour, oats flour and banana flour as well. Every time, it gives crunchy outside, soft inside cookies, and if you are feeding diabetic people, it is a healthier option when compared to packaged biscuits. 

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Ingredient:

Amaranth flour /Rajgira Atta – 1 cup ( you can use 1/2 cup of whole wheat + 1/2 cup of oats flour as well) 

Plantain/Raw banana flour – ½ cup

Butter – 100 grams

Salt – 1tea spoon

Baking powder – ¼ teaspoon

Baking soda – ¼ teaspoon

spice blend –1 to  2 tablespoons (a blend of spices like cinnamon, pepper, ginger or as per the choice ) 

Desiccated coconut – 2 tablespoons

Sugar – 3 tablespoons

Curd –2 tablespoons

Method:

  • Pre-heat oven at 170-degree C.
  • Take one bowl, mix all the dry ingredients such as flours, salt, baking soda and powder, spice blend dry mix/sieve a couple of times and keep it ready.
  • Cream butter, sugar and curd (2 tbl spoons) by using a food processor or hand. Add dry flour, desiccated coconut and make a firm dough.

  • Line the cookie tray with butter paper.
  • Drop the dough into the cookie tray using a table spoon to shape and get the uniform cookies.
  • Mark X at the top of the cookie to get a design by using the tip of the knife.
  • Bake this in a pre-heated oven for 15 – 20 minutes. Pull out and cool.
  • Store this in an airtight container. This measurement yields around 18 -20 cookies.

Plantain Upside down Cake:

This is my trial in egg less as well as butter less baking. Here I have used raw flax seed gel as a replace for an egg as well as fat and it worked out just fantastic.

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Ingredients:

Finger millet flour/Ragi – 1 cup

Whole wheat flour –½ cup

Sugar – ¾ cup

Mashed banana – 1 cup

Flax gel – ½ cup

Baking powder – ¾ tsp

Cooking soda – ¾ tsp

Salt – ½ tsp

Cinnamon powder – one pinch.

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Curd – 1/3 cup to ¼ cup (according to requirement)

For Caramelized base:(Optional)

Brown sugar – ½ cup

Butter – 2 table spoon (chilled)

Banana roundels – As needed.

Method:

How to make flax gel: Take 2 tsp of flax seed, make powder. Put this powder in thick bottomed small pan, add one cup of water and boil until it is thick, slimy and reduced to almost half.

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-Now make banana slices (half inch thick), keep it ready.

– Take one baking tin in which you want to bake this cake. Brush some oil at the base. Spread brown sugar uniformly and take butter, make small cubes and place it here and there.

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-Place this in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 6 to 8 minutes until the sugar has melted. Remove from the oven, mix this liquid nicely and place banana roundels in regular intervals and keep aside.

– Now Take all dry ingredients like flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon powder and sieve together couple of times or mix using dry wire whisk.

– Now take another bowl, beat all the wet ingredients like, flax gel, vanilla, sugar, mashed banana

-. When it becomes frothy, fold in the dry ingredient mixture. If you feel this batter is too thick, then adjust the consistency by adding curds.

– Pour this ready batter to the cake tin in which you placed banana slices.

-Bake this in a pre-heated ready oven at 180C for 40 to 50 minutes or until done. If you insert knife, it should come out clean.

-Remove once it is done. When it is cool, de-mold and serve.

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NOTE:- Here I took caramel which was stuck on the base of the baking dish, put it in a microwave cup, re heated it and poured as a sauce to give saucy texture. (You can see that in the picture)

-If you want to make this as a vegan,avoid caramelized base.

 

Choco chip cookie with M&M:

Who can resist Choco chips and m&m? My kids just love this combination and it works really well as a birthday party treat too.

If u have leftover m&m’s at home which you totally forgot about? This is a yummy way to use them up! Every crumb tastes so delicious; you wouldn’t want to put it down!

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Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour -1 cup

All-purpose flour – 1 ½ cup

Baking powder – ¾ tea spoon

Cooking soda – ¾ tsp

Demerara sugar – 1 cup

White sugar – ½ cup

Butter – 200 Grams (I have used 100 gms butter + 100 gms sunflower oil)

Eggs – 2

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Choco chip – ¾ cup

m&m chocolates – to decorate.

Method:

–  Pre heat oven to 170º C, grease cookie tray and line with butter paper.

-Add all the dry ingredients (flours + baking powder + cooking soda).

-Take a bowl, put butter and beat nicely. Add both the sugars, vanilla essence and once again beat until it becomes soft and airy. Now add eggs and beat. Add all the dry ingredients and mix using a spatula .While mixing add Choco chip. Now using an ice cream scooper, drop the dough into the cookie tray .

cookie-dough

-If you have m&m s, you can press it on to the center.

–  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

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When it’s done, take it out and cool. After it cools completely store it in an air tight container.