Chocolate Cake- A guest post from Beulah :)

Hello Friends,

I am so excited to post this chocolate cake guest post from one of my blogger friend Beulah. She shares wonderful recipes at her space FullScoops. I am always inspired by her baking recipes. She used to bake so yummy cakes and decorate it in a way you get tempted for sure. You can find all sorts of recipes from starters to Desserts and juices. 

I am so glad that she agreed to write guest post for me, I know how difficult it is to blog having young children at home... She is super busy with her toddlers and doing amazing job at her blog too. Kudos Beulah and thanks again for writing the post for me :)

I always love chocolate cakes, and these pics are really tempting me... Hope you will also like it.. :) Now Lets check the recipe. 

-Tanya

A big hello to all the readers of Easy and Simple Foods, my name is Beulah Arun and I blog at FullScoops. A short introduction about me, I am dentist by profession but now I am a busy homemaker with two beautiful kids. I started writing my blog for fun and now it's become a part of me and I'm quite passionate about it!

Today I am writing a guest post for one of my blogger friend's Tanya of easy and simple foods. Tanya is one of the sweetest people I have come across in the blogging world and very helpful and sincere. Her blog is filled with some awesome, delicious home cooked food and it's always a pleasure going through her blog. It is really a blog true to it's name, all recipes so easy and simple to cook for our daily life.

She wrote a guest post for me sometime ago, she wrote chocolate chip cookies which are absolutely delicious, it's time for me to write a guest post for her and I have chosen a chocolate cake for her. This is an easy to make delicious chocolate cake recipe, what I love about this recipe is that it makes a small cake and it's just enough for our family!

CHOCOLATE CAKE

Preparation time 10 mins | Baking time 25 mins | Makes one 6"cake

Ingredients

• All purpose flour - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup (powdered)
• Egg - 1
• Cocoa powder - 6 tbsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Baking soda - 3/4 tsp
• Oil - 4 tbsp
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Boiling water - 1/2 cup
• Instant coffee - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 6 inch cake pan.

2. Add all the dry ingredients in a bowl and combine together.

3. Add the wet ingredients in another bowl except the hot water and whisk well.

4. Now add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients gradually and mix well by adding the hot water. 

5. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

6. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove from pan and cool completely.

Frost the cake as you wish. You can use ganache or whipped cream to frost the cake. I used whipped cream.

Notes

1. Make sure you don't over mix while adding the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add in batches and fold gently.

Thanks for having me over, enjoy the cake!

Brownies

This is the basic brownie recipe. Since Its been quiet long time I baked, thought of making it yesterday.... It is so simple to make, just in 30 mins it was ready. I did not do any frosting for it, if you like you can add that also... After baking my daughter and myself could not even wait until it cools down.. such an aroma it was.. :)

Recipe inspired from here

Ingredients:

all purpose flour - 1/2 cup
sugar -1 cup
unsweetened coco powder - 1/3 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup (1 stick)
eggs - 2
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
vanilla essence - 1 tsp
salt - 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat oven at 350F. Grease and sprinkle flour in a 8inch square pan and keep ready.
2. Melt butter and keep it ready in a mixing bowl.
3. Mix sugar with the melted butter and mix well.

4. Add eggs and beat well.
5. Now add vanilla extract, baking powder, coco powder and flour then mix to a smooth paste.

6. Pour the mix into the pan and bake for 25-30 mins. (mine took 27 mins)

Let it cool down completely, and enjoy having it..

Sending this recipe to the event "Bake Fest" hosted by Fullscoops and started by Vardhini of Cooks Joy

Eggless Banana Walnut Cake

Banana walnut cake is enriched with goodness of Banana and Walnut. If the kids are troubling to eat banana, definitely you can try this recipe for them... And This is my first try in egg-less baking.

Ingredients:

All purpose  -1.5 cups
Banana - 4 big (ripen)
Brown Sugar - 1/2 cup (tightly packed)
Oil - 1/4 cup
vanilla essence - 1 tsp
baking soda - 1 tsp
Elachi powder - 1/8 tsp
Walnuts- 1/2 cup chopped.

Preparation:
1.Preheat the oven to 375F.
2.In a bowl, smash the banana with fork.
3.Add sugar,oil and mix well to it.
4.Add vanilla essence, elachi powder and give a gentle stir.
5.in another large bowl, Mix/sieve flour, baking soda.
6. Pour the wet mix of banana, sugar, oil and vanilla essence, and elachi powder to the flour bowl and mix gently.
7. Transfer the batter to the baking pan and bake for 25-30 mins. (mine took 28 mins).
Insert a toothpick and check whether it is coming out clean.

Notes:

1. If you are using white sugar, use 3/4 cup of it.
2. You can substitute the whole wheat flour or bread flour instead of maida.

Strawberry cup cake

Strawberry season starts here, and we get lots of fresh strawberry in stores and we can directly go to the farms and pick it. Last year we had a strawberry picking and enjoyed a lot. Eagerly waiting to visit the farm again this year. My daughter loves strawberry and I often used to get this fruit for her.

Last time when I got strawberry i thought of making some cakes with it, and ended up making these delicious cup cakes.

Ingredients:

Strawberries - 4-5 large (the puree should be 1/3 cups)
Strawberries - 1-2 large cut them into small pieces
APF - 1 and 2/3 cups &1 tbsp
Butter - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
sugar- 1 cup
milk- 3/4 cup
egg - 1
yogurt/curd- 1/4 cup
vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 345F and line the cupcake mold with the liners.
2. In a blender add the cut strawberries and give a quick pulse and make it as puree (preferably chunky puree)
3. Cut the remaining strawberries and keep aside
4. Sieve flour, baking powder, baking soda,  and keep aside.
5. In a pan melt the butter, transfer to the mixing bowl, add sugar and mix well
6. then add, milk, yogurt,vanilla extract and mix well
7.Now add the sieved flour mix and mix.
8. Add the Strawberry puree and give a quick mix.
9. At last add the cut strawberry pieces to it. and mix gently
10. Pour them into the cupcake liners and bake for 20-25 minutes
11. Check with toothpick whether it is done or not. if the toothpick comes out clean, then remove from oven and cool then in cooling rack.

Notes:
Instead of making puree, you can just cut them into small pieces and add.
The given quantity makes about 15-18 cup cakes.

sending this recipe to Rafee's baking fest event  Bake fest May 2014

Nan Khatai /சூஸ்பரி

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers around the world :)))

Hope everyone had a great mothers day. I really had a great one this year... My daughter gifted me a flower vase which she made from school. And she herself drew, cut and colored a heart for me. And I got loads of kisses from her through out the day :))) She made a pretend cake and snacks, we both cut the cake and shared the snacks and played some pretend games. When it was my turn  to be a baby and my daughter to be the mom, She asked me, "Sweetie!, what gift you are going to give me for Mother's day?" I was blinking what to answer, and she dint put me in trouble, she came up with a suggestion as "Mamma will be happy if you give a tight hug and a sweet kiss". So sweet mom (though pretend!) she was.

Now about the recipe, As mothers day special, I have prepared Nan Khatai / சூஸ்பரி which is my mom's favorite snack from her childhood. She never used to be particular about her favorite things. But these nan khatais are exceptional. The one we get in our native used to be very soft and used to melt in our mouth. And my mom loves these a lot.

So I have made these as Mothers day special recipe.

The Nan Khatai which i made this time were little crispy and the taste was awesome. It was liked by my family and friends also.

Recipe inspired from here

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 cup
confectioner sugar - 1/2 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup (at room temperature)
baking powder - 1/2 tea spoon
salt - 1/8 tea spoon
nutmeg powder - 1/2 tea spoon
elachi powder - 1/2 tea spoon

Preparation:

1. In a mixing bowl beat butter well
2.Now add sugar and beat well to a smooth paste
3. Sieve flour, salt and baking powder
4.Add elachi powder, nutmeg powder then mix it to the smooth paste
5. Now add the flour mix little by little with the butter paste and mix well.
6. Once all the ingredients are mixed, knead the dough with hands, cover with a plastic wrapper or cover the bowl with a lid, and let it rest for 20 minutes.
7. After 20 minutes again knead the dough again and make small balls out of it.
8. In the mean time, pre-heat the oven to 300F and line the cookie sheet.
9. Then, arrange the balls with some gap between each and bake for 20-25 minutes in middle rack.
10.cool them in cooling rack and store it in airtight container.

Notes:
1.Given quantity of ingredients made about 12 medium sized cookies.
2. It took 23 minutes for me to bake in my oven.
3. If you are using salted butter, avoid adding salt in the cookies.
4. Just make the balls without crack so the cookies will be smooth and perfect in doom shape without any cracks in it.
5.Do not over bake, the cookies will turn hard and the bottom of the cookie will burn and the taste will get change.
6.When you remove from oven the cookies will look like soft, once they are cool down, it will be perfect crisp.

sending this recipe to Rafee's baking fest event  Bake fest May 2014

Mini Pizza

Here it is Spring Break for Kids and Moms became busy with their Kids play dates and other schedules. So I am also not exceptional and doing the same thing. Busy roaming with my daughter and having a wonderful time. So could not find time to post this recipe.. :)))
Last weekend special at our home was, "Home made Mini Pizza". I was thinking to make pizza at home for a long time, and did not find time for it. Saturday, when I was thinking what to prepare for dinner (I really wanted to make something with less vessels usage), I got the idea of making a surprise dinner for my family. My hubby and daughter both love pizza (my daughter consoles herself saying, "pizza is junk food., but it is OK to eat occasionally:)))" ). She helped me doing the topping as she has experience(!) in it. sometimes back she attended a program where making the pizza was an activity, that helped us making a home made pizza :)))

Saturday I made the pizza with only capsicums and olives. The toppings are always our own choices only. You can pick your choice of veggies or meat to make a delicious pizza.

Ingredients:

To make pizza bread:

All purpose flour - 2 cups
instant dry yeast - 2 tea spoon
salt - 1 tea spoon
sugar - 1 tea spoon
warm water - 1 cup
Oil- 1or 2 tea spoons
For topping: (I used)

pizza sauce / tomato sauce - 2-3 table spoon
Cheese - 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup or as required  (I used shredded cheese )
thinly sliced capsicums - 3/4 cup or as required
Olives - as required(I used the whole 8oz can)
Jalapeno - 6 slices (optional)

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, take instant dry yeast, salt and sugar and dissolve them in a cup of warm water.
2.In a large bowl, take 2 cups of all purpose flour, and slowly add the warm water mix and make it like a chapati dough.

3. Add a tea spoon of oil and make it like a ball and cover the bowl with a plastic cover or a wet towel.

4.Leave it for atleat 2 hours. (I left it for almost 3 hours)
5.Now the size of the dough would become double.
6. To make mini pizza, take a small portion of dough and spread it in hand with whatever shape you like, and arrange them on a parchment sheet, or greased and floured cookie sheets or pizza/baking pans

7. Apply one or two tea spoons of tomato / pizza sauce and spread.
8. Sprinkle some cheese on it,
9.then Add the veggies of your choice
10. then again sprinkle some cheese on top of it.

11. In the mean time while arranging the topping, Pre-heat oven to 390F for 15 minutes
12. Bake it for 18-23 minutes or until the edges are crispy. (time varies for each oven..I did for 23 minutes)
13. Serve hot with Ketch up or sauce.

Notes:
1. I have made 6 mini pizza and a medium pizza out of this dough.
2. Jalapenos would be very hot, I dont prefer for kids, I added those only for my hubby, as he prefers some hot and spicy.

sending this recipe to Rafee's baking fest event  Bake fest May 2014

Chocolate Chip Cookies Guest post#1 for Beulah

This is my First guest post to my dear buddy blogger Beulah for her Blog Full Scoops. 

First about Beulah and her blog, She has a great collection of recipes and always i admire her cakes and strawberry dishes. I have bookmarked her strawberry recipes to try in the coming season... :)
From her posts I understood that this girl loves chocolates... When Beulah pinged me to do a guest post for her blog, I happily agreed, and that moment I thought I must do something with chocolate... Initially I was thinking to do a chocolate cake and she posted a chocolate cake recipe in the next day itself.. :) So I just moved to the chocolate chip cookie... Hope she will like it... :)
This is a special dedication to Beulah for her support and love to me... :))))

About the cookies, this is one of the very simple and easy to make snack for the family. From the time I started baking, I stopped buying store bought cakes and cookies. Since Its been a month I made cookies, these were huge successful. Even got a good feedback from my friends (my daughter's friends actually.. he he he) and neighbors...  I was not having any cookie cutter and roller, so please excuse me on the shape of it...

Interested to know the recipe, proceed to Beulah's Full Scoops and enjoy the recipe and more clicks.

Once again Thanks to Beulah for this wonderful opportunity... :)

Egg Puffs

Who doesn't like these egg puffs for evening snacks? Most of the evenings of my college days were accompanied by these delicious puffs only. It is one of the famous snack in our canteen. Those days Frutnik and Egg puffs used to be our favorite snack combo.

I learned about the pastry sheets some years back from one of my friend who is the former food blogger, So started making my favorite puffs by my own.

Lets get into the recipe now:

Pastry sheet - 1 sheet (makes 9 small puffs)
Boiled Eggs: - 4 (cut it into two halves)

to stuff:
onion - 1 big (coarsely chopped)
green chili - 2 (slit into two)
tomato- 1 table spoon finely chopped.
ginge garlic paste - 1 tea spoon
coriander powder - 1 tea spoon
chili powder - 1/4 tea spoon
Oil- 2-3 tea spoons

Preparation:

1. Thew pastry sheets as per the instructions in the package and keep ready.
2. Boil eggs, remove shells and cut into halves and keep aside.
3. In the mean time, In a pan, heat 2 tea spoons of oil, and saute the  chopped onions and green chili until the onions turn transparent.
4. Then add the ginger garlic paste and saute, when the raw smell leaves, add the tomato and saute well along with the spice powders given. Add a tea spoon of oil if required.

5. Now cut the pastry sheets into nine equal parts, if the sheet has breakages, apply little water in it and press to fix it.
6. Stretch the ends a little and stuff the masala prepared and the cut eggs and close the edges by applying a drop of water to seal it nicely...

7. Preheat oven for 425F and bake these puffs for 15 minutes. check in between after 10 minutes.
Serve with tomato ketchup or sauce.

Notes: To have a  nice brown color, brush the beaten eggs on top of the pastry.

Sending this recipe to,

cook and share what you like event

Only food for growing kids event hosted by Shrutis Rasoi and organized by Pari

Baked Chicken legs

I just wanted to try some oil free cooking with chicken.And it turned out really well and tasty.
And i felt it is easy to make than frying in pan with lots of oil. If it is planned cooking of the day, I suggest you to marinate well before cooking.I marinated almost 5 hours that day when I prepared this. It was so soft and tender, and all the masala was absorbed well into the chicken flush. It was yum yum yummy. It will suit well for parties and get together. And you don't need to wait in kitchen till all the pieces are done as it is baked at once...

Lets get into the recipe
Ingredients:

chicken legs - 5 leg pieces
oil- 2 - 3 tea spoons

To marinate:

curd - 1 tbsp
ginger garlic paste - 2 tea spoons
Chili powder - 1 tea spoon
coriander powder - 1 tea spoon
garam masala - 1 tea spoon
lemon juice - 1 tea spoon (I didn't use it for marinating, i used it after cooking is done. it is your choice when to add.)
salt - as per taste

Preparation:

1. wash and drain water from chicken and keep aside.
2. mix all the ingredients given in  the marinated list and make a paste of it.
3. With the help of knife, slit the chicken legs and apply the paste all over. (try to make atleast 3-4 slits per leg)
4. Then mix the legs in masala and let it marinate for minimum of two hours.
5. preheat oven for 350F and bake the chicken for 20 to 30 minutes.
6. Make sure to flip or turn the chicken in between for even cooking.
7. If it not cooked properly, bake it for another 5 to 10 minutes.

once it is done, cover it in the foil loosely for five minutes.
squeeze the lemon on top it and serve.

sending this recipe to

Valentine's Treat event by Indrani













cook and share what you like event

South Indian cooking hosted by Nandoos Kitchen and organized by Anu














Only food for growing kids event hosted by Shrutis Rasoi and organized by Pari

Chocolate Cup Cake

Happy Valentine's day in Advance... :) Everywhere the Valentine fever is spreading like anything... So it attacked me too... :) I visited a near by shop to get the valentine cards for my daughter's school and got surprised with the variety of decoration items and other items for valentines day....So grabbed few for her and the cup cake pan for myself....
Valentines day card for school??? Yes... They are having party this Friday.. :) I knew about valentine's day only in my middle school days, that too as lover's day. Only when I grew and moved to upper grades ,I came to know about the word "Valentine"... But today in pre-school my daughter is talking about valentine's day and the party. Is this called a generation gap?

 Ok.. lets get into the recipe... After searching a lot in internet finally I decided to make these chocolate cup cakes ...I am dedicating these cakes to all my lovable and dear ones.... Please accept and enjoy the cakes...

Recipe source: Joy of Baking

I didn't make the frosting per this recipe, as i was having some ready to use frosting tube.
I tried to follow the exact measurements and the preparation methods... It turned out so well... My daughter is yet to taste the cake, she slept before it cools down. My husband told it tastes wonderful. I will taste it with my daughter tomorrow...And update my comments on it. :)))

Ingredients:

All purpose / maida flour - 1 and 1/3 cups
sugar - 1 cup
unsalted butter - 1/2 cup / 8 tbsp (at room temperature)
Eggs- 2
cocoa powder- 1/2 cup (I used Hersheys's Natural)
hot/ boiling water - 1 cup
baking powder - 2 tea spoons
vanilla extract- 2 tea spoons
salt - 1/4 tea spoon

Yields: I made 12 cup cakes with the size of the mold I have. the no of cakes will differ based on the size of the cup cake pan you use.

Oven preparation:

Preheat the oven for 375F.
Grease the cup cake mold or place the paper liners in it.

 Preparation:

1.Boil a cup of water and add the cocoa to it, mix well, switch off the flame and let it cool down to room temperature.
2.in a bowl, add flour, salt and baking powder and mix well
3.In another mixing bowl, beat butter till it is frothy.
4.Now mix sugar and mix well.
5. Add eggs and beat them well along with the sugar and butter.
6.Then add the vanilla extract , flour and mix well.
7. Now it will be little tight dough. Then add the chocolate mix to this dough and mix well.
8. Then transfer them to the cup cake liners and fill it only till 3/4 of the cup.
9. Bake it for 15 - 20 minutes (it took 16 minutes for me) in 375F.
10 Insert a tooth pick and check whether it is done or not. If the tooth pick doesn't come out clean, bake for another 5 minutes.

let it cool down completely, then do the frosting as per your choice.

Thank you for bearing with my cake decoration ":P"

Sending this recipe to

Valentine's Treat event by Indrani

cook and share what you like event

Kid's delight baked treats hosted by PJ and organized by Srivalli

Lets cook sweet treats for valentine's

Only food for growing kids event hosted by Shrutis Rasoi and organized by Pari

Taste of Tropics - Chocolate / cocoa  organized by Chef Mireille and hosted by Beulah Arun of Full Scoops

sending this recipe to Rafee's baking fest event  Bake fest May 2014