Double Dark Chocolate Cappuccino Muffins (Eggless and Whole Wheat)

s I was browsing around my own creations on USMasala the other day - which by-the-way I do much too less often as much as I would like to - I realized that I haven't blogged lately about any dish with one of my most favorite ingredients - Chocolate. It was also surprising to me as I make something that has chocolate in it almost every other day for my little one.

So here is a recipe for a baked chocolcate goodie that is one of the most common and most loved in my  household. I make a small batch of these muffins atleast twice a week and they serve me well mostly as a quick snack when kiddo gets back from her pre-school.

Now as this is a regular, it has to be healthy. So you will notice the use of whole wheat flour and olive oil and zero butter. You can use whole wheat flour or even whole wheat pastry flour, any that is locally available. To kick it up a notch, addition of coffee is a must for me in anything that I make with chocolate especially when baking.

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Raspberry Muffins (eggless)

uffins filled with the essence of summer, how does that sound? Not a big fan of the summer heat but the fact that summer brings along the juicy sweet tangy berries makes summer worth it. I happen to love raspberries. Who doesn't? They are just so cute! Juicy, ripe red raspberries subtle and light these are sure to lift up your mood and make you all sunny and chirpy!

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Cardamom Pancakes with Mango Saffron Compote/Chutney

ather's day this year was special as it has been for the last four years since we were blessed with our little princess. Now she is daddy's little girl so this Father's day I figured I'd make something that would be manly enough for papa and would be fun for his little princess to make and eat and they can sit together and enjoy. Little and I made these incredible pancakes for dearest papa this Sunday ~ warm, fruity, rich, decadent and gourmet breakfast/brunch with the best mango compote/chutney ever (dad is a BIG mango lover)... and yes if you look closer, these are pancakes with no eggs! The feedback from both of my critics was very positive :) Hubby later explained how amazed he was that the pancakes were as light and fluffy as the ones with eggs except only better as they did not have the eggy taste. Me personally am not much of a pancake fan so cannot say much about it but I surely have a thing or two to say about the compote. If this is any proof, every time I open the refrigerator I lick a fingerful of this chutney :) Tangy and sweet, very fruity taken to the level of exotic with the dash of saffron flavor. You will never go back to your syrup again.

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Tiramisu for Him! (an eggless recipe)

ubby's birthday is a very special occassion for me; the day he came to this world to be mine. The special day was last week. Like every year I wanted to make something special for him. Something sweet, something he totally loves and something that is exotic enough so it expressed my feelings by way of food. He has a sweet tooth so it had to be sweet. What would be fabulous and romantic at the same time, as I sat there thinking, only one sight kept coming over and over in my head, yes you guessed it, Tiramisu!

Tiramisu literally means 'Pick me up' in Italian. Isn't the name enough, do you need a dessert to sound any more romantic. But thats not all, as you dip into it, you feel the creaminess as you cut through the layers of cream and the soft texture of the coffee soaked lady fingers. It just feels exotic and you cannot resist taking that first bite. Thats when you taste the sweet exotic creaminess combined with the slight bready texture that completely melts in your mouth. Your fork is ready to go again and before you know it your plate it clean and you are wondering 'should I get some more?'

For me the added bonus besides the fact that hubby totally admires this was that this is probably the only the sweet preparation I make that my little princess never says no to when asked it she wanted some. She can have a big piece of it every few hours. The first time I attempted Tiramisu was actually more due to need than want. A few months back, it was my little princess' birthday. I was planning on baking a cake. The oven was not looking its best so I decided I'd put it on the cleaning cycle before baking. Murphy's law at its best - after a couple of hours of 'cleaning' the oven died completely - the repair tech later told me the heat fried the control chip or something, hey I'm no expert on these things but I do know enough to believe that when an oven has a cleaning cycle, it should 'clean' rather then fry itself. Anyways... back to the story, now tasked with making a cake with the minor inconvenience of not having an oven, thus came the idea of making Tiramisu that looked like a cake.

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Pineapple Mini Bundt Cake - Eggless

ineapple filled mini bundts! Cute as a button, light and fluffy with the slight hint of citrusy orange and freshness of pineapple in every bite - A sweet n refreshing pure spring- summer time treat!

I go for a light breakfast especially on weekdays. Be it a bowl of cereal or oatmeal or a quick sliced bread sandwich with some fruits and veggies. To keep things interesting, I always find myself looking for ways to come up with interesting but light and yet 'breakfasty' recipes. I have found that a light muffin or a light fruit bread comes really handy.

Here's a recipe for homemade pineapple mini cakes that I made in my adorable mini bundt pan and which can be very easily made in a muffin pan if you don't have a mini bundt pan. It was really liked by hubby and my princess alike. It is mildly sweet, has a distinct taste of pineapples and is extremely light that makes it just right for breakfast. I love baking with different fruits and this one sure is a keeper.

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Mawa Pistachio Saffron Mini Bundt Cake - an eggless recipe

ne afternoon when I was sitting around thinking what I could cook up next, my baking genes started to flare up. The obvious question was what to bake. As I sat there and thought, I basically kicked myself for not having thought about the most common form of cake that I ate and made growing up - a cake with Indian flavors.

I remember back at home when I first started learning to bake anything, I tried to make a cake in one of those small counter-top electric ovens. It was a recipe that everyone in my extended family used when they had to make a cake! Nothing extraordinary, just your basic cake but kicked up several notches by adding key Indian flavors like mawa and nuts. That made the cake almost a cross between a cake and an Indian sweet dish.

Having baked several different kinds of breads and cakes, I decided to put a little twist on the classic recipe by adding pistachios and cardamom. Moreover, I believe this made the cake a bit more exotic, perfect for the upcoming occasion of the festival of Holi. 

So here is the recipe for this fabulous fusion cake. Also, if mawa is difficult to find where you live, I have also detailed a couple of easy ways of making your own mawa at home. The use of mini bundt pan is optional. You can use any cake pan, I just thought they looked cute and were handy to serve to my little princess.

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Instant and Eggless Dark Chocolate Mousse

 read somewhere "A man cannot live on chocolate alone but a woman sure can!"
 How long did you think it would be? I mean, how long did you really think it would before I came back with another chocolate recipe? So here I am unable to control my urge for that rich, creamy, chocolaty, irresistible goodness! This  is an incredibly decadent, luxurious chocolate mousse recipe. Silky smooth luscious wonderful heavenly decadent perfectly textured (enough with the adjectives already) dessert by the one and only Nigella!

There is something romantic about mousse. Perhaps it’s the chocolate or the combination of light airiness and rich flavor, but whatever it is I think chocolate mousse makes a perfect treat for Valentines or any other romantic occasion. One thing that kept me a little away from this delicacy was the raw eggs, but only until I found this winner recipe. This Chocolate Mousse recipe is one of those easy simple recipes where Chocolate is the star and it looks like you've spent all day making it. Nigella rocks!!

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Whole Wheat Blueberry and Oats Eggless Muffins

Eating Oatmeal for breakfast is our everyday ritual, except for the weekends.

My hubby is really fond of oatmeal.. me.. well not so much.. but due to all the awesome benefits I still also eat them. This time I wanted to put all the goodness of the bowl of oats in a muffin for a change and here is what I came up with. Packed with oats, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, no butter, these light and flavorful muffins are ideal for breakfast and perfect to kick start your day.

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Lemon Cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting

If you have been a regular visitor to my blog you must have known by now that I have a clear obsession with chocolate and also most of my baked goodies are either chocolate based or consist of nutella. Every time I think of dessert, I think chocolate. Even when I am online looking for ideas, I type chocolate based search words... even when I am blog hopping, the category I check is chocolate baked goodies. You get the idea.

This time around when I was in the mood to bake some cupcakes I was again drawn towards making some black forest cupcakes or nutella cupcakes (God help me :)). But this time I struggled hard and overcame my obsession. It was mainly because of my not-much-of-a-chocolate-fan hubby (how can you!). Baked a lemon cupcake instead. I loved the results so much that from now on you will be seeing lots and lots of citrus in my baked goodies lol :) These cupcakes are so fresh, light and flavorful that even a no dessert and only chocolate person like me ate one whole cupcake with all the frosting (much to my hubby's surprise) ha ha!!

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Upside Down Banana Coconut Cake (Eggless)

I will start this post with an apology for my regular visitors. If you have noticed me not being very regular with my posts and feedback in the last few days, I sincerely apologize as during the holiday season family and visitors are getting a larger share of my day. Regardless, I am having fun and here's wishing you all a very very happy holidays!!

 Now to the post. I am personally not a big fan of ripe bananas as a fruit but it still is a regular in our house as hubby and my little daughter eat it practically every day for breakfast. I do however like them in breads and other baked stuff. I do bake a few different types of banana based breads and muffins but this time around this upside down cake caught my fancy. Now me being who I am, I had to make it as soon as I thought of it. Had the bananas, flour and other stuff. Just one problem, when baking egg less, I normally use either sour cream or buttermilk as a replacement. This time I had neither. That is when creativity kicked in I figured I'd try using some coconut milk instead. I had half a can left over (lucky for hubby or I would've made him drive up to the store :) Not sure whether the coconut milk did anything to make the cake light but it sure did add that nice creamy coconut flavor and yes the cake came out nice and light too.

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Mushroom Galette with caramelized onion, tomato and mozzarella

The cool thing about blogging is that it exposes you to so many different cuisines and styles of cooking. This is one dish that I'd heard so much about but never had a chance to either taste it or make it. With my love for baking this dish always had my fancy. It is a classic French dish which is more like a savory tart, somewhere between a pizza and a pie. After reading up about it and googling several recipes, I was able to come up with a version that fit my taste. With its free-form crust that makes for perfect main course and can also be served as an appetizer at a potluck or large party... it is relatively easy to make,  rustic, delicious, fun, and doesn't need as much expertise as pie and nor does it need lots of eggs to set as a quiche! A bite into a slice hits you with the creaminess and earthiness of the mushroom with a nice bite, followed by the crunchy crust which feels in between a pizza crust and puffed pastry and finishes off with the sweetness of caremelized onions. Not to brag but I was definitely very pleased with the results :)

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Eggless Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cake

The humble vanilla cake is usually very well liked in an average Indian household especially if it is eggless and home-made. The oven which is a regular fixture in almost every kitchen in the US is usually not that common in the Indian middle class kitchen. Although this is changing rapidly, for the most part, cakes there are still made in a small portable electric oven. If you've ever seen or tried baking in one of these, you'd know that it is not the easiest of things to do.
For these reasons, the simple eggless vanilla cake was a big favorite in our family as well. This recipe is so popular in my family tree that every member that can cook has a written copy of it and has tried their luck at baking it atleast once. All the credit goes to my aunt who joined a baking class and where she got this recipe and then the rest is history. Since then I have of course baked several different types of cakes but this one still holds a special place in my heart. I have made some minor modifications like using chocolate cips instead of cocoa powder but the recipe is essentially the same. It is very easy to make, calls for a very few ingredients and tastes awesome.
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