Moist Banana Cake

I was searching for a good Banana cake recipe for a long time. I was so bored with the usual 'Banana bread recipe'. This recipe is a result of combining 2 recipes which I found on the net with a few more added ingredients. I have tried this recipe and it was a hit both in our house and with our neighbors. This cake will surely come soft even if you omit the eggs because of the combination of buttermilk, baking powder and baking soda.

Good luck and Happy cooking!

Moist Banana cake:

3/4 cup butter
2 cups- White sugar
1/8 cups- Brown sugar
1/4 cup Hazelnut syrup or honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tsp Cardamom powder
1/4 tsp Nutmeg powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 Eggs (Optional) instead add 1/4 cup Applesauce
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
A pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
4 mashed ripe bananas
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. In a small bowl, mix mashed bananas, set aside. In a medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients well together with the nuts and the spices.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. If you are adding eggs beat in one at a time, if not, all the other wet ingredients.
Add the flour mixture slowly to the wet ingredients and just fold them lightly, do not over mix them.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and place the
cake on a wire rack to cool.

This recipe makes a soft and moist cake with a little bit crispy top layer.

Blueberry jam cake

I love Blueberries and I was looking for a cake recipe with it. I found this recipe to be interesting. The original asked for blueberry jam, but I used Strawberry jam because I didn't have the blueberry jam.. You can use 'Kissan mixed fruit jam' too or any jam of your choice. You can add Cinnamon if you want but I didn't, instead I added cardamom powder. You can make it any shape you want. I used a rectangle Pyrex dish and lined it with wax paper because I feel the cake becomes darker on the sides if I use a non-stick spray. For any recipe, even though it asks for fresh berries or dried berries, I tend to cook them prior to adding it to the cake because I feel it enhances the flavor a little bit more.

Mixed berry jam cake

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons double acting baking powder
A pinch of salt
1/4 tsp Nutmeg powder
1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
1 cup fresh, dried or frozen Blue berries (cooked in a cup of water until soft and drained)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup Jam of your choice
2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 tablespoons butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350° and grease and prepare your baking dish.
2. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices; stir to blend.
3. In a mixing bowl whisk eggs with the jam, milk, vanilla, melted butter and then add the cooked and drained blue berries. Stir in the dry ingredients just until blended.
4. Spoon into the prepared pan; bake for 30 to 45 minutes or pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Vegan mixed fruit cake

I wanted to start making cakes again and I had come up with this recipe for a long time now. I tried it finally and it came out very well. Since I was using dried Blueberries and Apricots, I cooked them in water to make it soft and then added to this recipe. I felt it is more tastier this way. If you have excess liquid after cooking it, don't waste it. Use it along with carrot juice or you can drink it just like that.

If you don't want to make this a vegan cake you can use milk instead of carrot juice and 1 egg instead of the banana.

My advice is invest in a Silicone bake ware set if you are into baking. They are great. You don't even have to grease them and clean up is a breeze.

Vegan mixed fruit cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup Carrot juice
1 small Banana
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 teaspoons double acting baking powder
1 cup Sugar
1 cup fresh blueberries (Blueberries and apricot cooked well inwater and drained)
1 cup dried and cut apricots
1 tsp Fresh lemon peel
1 tsp Orange juice
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1 tsp Mix fruit essence

1. Preheat oven to 370*F. Use a non stick square pan or line a baking dish with butter paper or you can spray a non-stick spray on your baking dish
2. In a large bowl, stir together all the wet ingredients except the cooked fruit.
3. In another bowl, stir together the dry ingredients and the cooked fruit.
4. Now add the dry ingredients to the wet slowly.
5. Mix gently.
6. Bake for 30 minutes or until done. If you insert a tooth pick in the middle and it has to come out clean..

Applesauce Spice Cake

This is another recipe which I found to use up the Bulk Apple sauce I got. It turned out to be very good. Serve the warm cake with a scoop of Ice cream. I served it with a scoop of 'Jack fruit Ice cream'. The brand's name is 'Magnolia' and their brand of Ice cream are wonderful and made the traditional way without eggs. Somehow Ice cream with eggs for me are not authentic. I don't have anything against eggs but when you can make Ice creams without it why not. They also have Taro, Mango etc..If you feel like me, then you will love 'Real Ice cream' brand ice creams. Sorry folks, its available only here in the Bay area, CA. They have flavors like Gulkand, Malai, Tuti Fruiti, Chickoo, Falooda, Mango etc..

Applesauce Spice Cake- Serves 16.

2 cups Applesauce
2 cups Brown sugar
2 sticks Unsalted butter, softened or shortening
3 cups All-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1/2 tsp Cardamom powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (Optional)
1 cup Blueberries (cook both the raisins and blueberries really well in 2 cups water and then add it to the recipe)
1/4 cup Raisins

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350*F and prepare your square non stick baking dish.
2. Beat the eggs until combined and mix together all the wet ingredients and sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients, spices and nuts. Add the cooked dry fruits to this.
4. Slowly add the combined dry ingredients slowly to the wet ingredients and mix just until combined.
5. Pour batter into pan. Bake 45-50 min or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
6. Once done, take it out of the oven and cool the cake on a wire rack for atleast 1hr.
7. Serve the warm cake with Ice cream

Note: I didn't have square pan, so I used a bundt mold and a loaf pan. Moreover, I had just bought a whole silicone bake ware set from eBay. I was so excited to use it for whatever!

Flan (Spanish egg-custard)

This is my 1st recipe. I'll start posting with my most recent recipe. We had a Mexican themed dinner invitation in one of our friend's place. It was an
informal dinner. I started to have lot of interest and urge to bake these days. So I was waiting for an opportunity to try this dessert. So I volunteered to bring this dessert.

Well, this recipe may sound different because I had a whole bunch of Apple sauce (Got from Costco, its true, never go shopping when you are hungry!). Well, I am looking to use it in every thing I can so that I can finish it off. I subscribe to a magazine called 'el Restaurante Mexicano' and they had a wonderful recipe for 'Flan' with bananas and coconut milk. The friend who invited us isn't very fond of smell of eggs so that too inspired me to make this dish in this method. I wanted to camouflage the egg smell and taste as much as possible. I don't like cinnamon too much so I didn't add it. If you like it feel free to add it.

In India, we have a similar dessert called 'Caramel Custard'. Though it may seem similar there are a few more ingredients to this dish.

Flan (Spanish egg-custard)

1 can evaporated milk
1 can condensed milk
1 can Coconut milk
4 whole eggs
½ cup of sugar
1 Small banana
1 cup apple sauce
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Mix-fruit essence or combine banana and mango essence

1 cup sugar (for the caramel)
Melt 1cup sugar in a non-stick pan, over low heat. Keep your eye on it. If it burns you will have to start over. It just needs to melt that's all. Using a non stick pan will cause the caramel to just slip off the pan when pouring and its easier to clean later.

Pour the caramel immediately into a metal pan or ramekins and swirl it around to cover the bottom and sides. Your have to be quick because once it

starts to cool down you don't stand a chance. The caramel should have cooled down before you pour the egg mixture in it.

To make the Flan:

Preheat the oven to 350*F

Blend all ingredients until completely mixed. Pour the flan mixture right into the caramelized pan.

Set the mold in a broiling pan and make a water bath. It had to be placed on the water bath while baking. Once you place the mold in the broiling pan, add hot water slowly until the molds are filled half way up the outer side of the mold or ramekins.

Cook in a 350º oven for 50 min. Place it in the middle so that it cooks evenly. At 40 minutes check to see if it's getting too brown on top. - if so cover loosely with a foil.

Test the flan to see if it's done by inserting a knife in the center. If the flan is still soft, let it cook longer until a knife inserted again comes out clean.

Remove from the oven carefully and let it sit on the counter until it cools. Then cover with foil and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

To serve it on a plate, loosen the flan using a knife scrapping it off the sides of the molds, and place the plate on top of the mold then carefully flip it over and gently slide the mold off.

Note:

To cool fast, you can layer the tray with ice cubes and water. That is what I did since I didn't have much time to cool it the traditional way.