Strawberry and Banana Shake and Awards!

Today, I am sharing a very simple recipe. I have this often for my breakfast. Its just a 2 minutes job and quite filling. Its best when you are in a no cook mood.

Valentine Day Special Eggless Chocolate Gateau and Some Awards!

February has been a very lucky month for my blog. I have been showered with lovely awards from my fellow bloggers. I am very glad and thank ful to them. Thanks a ton for remembering me and encouraging me through these awards. It means a lot to me.

Priya on acheiving the milestone of 200th post passed an award to her fellow bloggers. Thanks a lot Priya for making my  day.                                 

     

Nithu also shared this award and another award with me.

                                                                            

Thanks Nithu for these lovely awards.

Renuka has shared a bunch of awards with me. Thanks a lot for your kind gesture.

                                            

                         

                                                                        

I would like to share these with all my blogger friends! Please accept them.

Coming back to the recipe I am sharing here. It is the cake I made this Valentine's day!

'Chocolate' is a word that brings a plethora of feelings, tastes and pleasures. A peice of chocolate that lands on our tongues, melts slowly into a rich and creamy taste and soothes and tantalize our tastebuds. Me and my husband, both are chocolate lovers. A peice of chocolate is a must after every meal. It is a stuff of mood lifting happiness. But when it comes to cake he always wishes to have a plain vanilla cake with cream icing and cherries. After having made it for several occassions now and most recently on new year, I wanted to make a chocolate cake. Gladly, my husband agreed and I made this cake.

 

Eggless Chocolate Gateau:

Ingredients:

2/3 cup AP flour.
½ cup condensed milk.
¼ cup margarine.
1 tbsp chocolate powder.
2 tbsp cocoa powder.
½ tsp baking powder.
½ tsp baking soda.
¼ cup milk.
¼ cup aerated drink.
½ tsp vanilla essence.

This measurement is for one sandwich cake.We need two sandwich cakes for this gateau so just twice this measurement.

A little extra margarine and flour for greasing and dusting the pan.

Icing:

250 ml fresh cream.
1 tbsp cocoa powder.
½ cup icing sugar.
10-12 glazed cherries cut in halves.

Sugar syrup:

1 tbsp sugar.
2-3 tbsp water.

Process:

Preheat the oven at 180 C for 15 minutes. Grease a sandwich tin and dust it with flour. In a mixing bowl, add all the dry ingredients together and mix. Sieve it so that the mixture in uniform and there are no lumps in it.

In another bowl add the melted margarine and beat in the condensed milk. Stir well for two minutes. Add the vanilla essence and milk and beat nicely for 2 minutes till everything is evenly mixed. Now add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture, slowly and keep rotating to form a batter. Add the aerated drink and mix for another couple of minutes. Pour it in a pre greased tin and bake it in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes at 180 C till nicely raised and a skewer pricked in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

                                                   Fresh from oven

We will need 2 sandwich cakes. Make the other sandwich cake in the same way.

Whip 125 ml of fresh cream with ¼ cup of sugar. Keep it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. In a small bowl make sugar syrup by mixing the sugar and water. The sugar should dissolve completely in the water.

Heat a pan and add fresh cream. Keep the heat on low and let the cream melt. Add the cocoa powder and mix well. Remove it from heat and let it cool down a bit. Now add ¼ cup of sugar and beat well. Sugar will help it to thicken. Keep aside and cool it completely. Refrigerate it for 30 minutes before using.

The cake must be completely cooled down before using it or else the icing will melt and start running.

Place one sandwich cake on a flat plate. Brush it nicely with the sugar syrup. It will help the cake to remain moist. Spread the whipped cream over it evenly. Place the other sandwich cake over the cream layer. Spread the cocoa icing over it evenly. Decorate with glazed cherries.

I used ready to use tubes to write over the cake. It was very thick and I could only manage to write a few words.

                                                  But this lack of decoration this year was covered by the lovely taste. My husband loved it. I also served it later hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

                                                                             

[ Microwave a slice of cake for 30 secs and top it with a scoop of vanilla icecream, chocolate sauce and glazed cherries].

Hope all of you guys had a wonderful Valentine Day! Enjoy!!

Awards and Honey Bee!

Award time again!!
I am on cloud nine... Devi has bestowed me with 2 awards. Thanks Devi for sharing them with me. They mean a lot to me.

Rules for accepting this award:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award
2. Pass it on to your blogger friends.

Rajma Curry with Plain Rice

Award time again!! I am so happy!! :-).. Many thanks to Devi for sharing these awards with me.

I would like to share it with Rachana, Sushma, simply.food, Deepa, Siddhi, Sara, Asha & Renuka.

Coming back to the recipe I am sharing today from my drafts,"Rajma Curry with Rice". I make this often. 'Rajma and Rice' is a very healthy combination. Rajma is a very good source of cholestrol lowering fiber and when served with rice it provides a wholesome meal which is virtually fat free and high in protien. They are also a good source of folate, pottasium, iron, manganese, copper and iron.

Tomato Noodles Soup and "Some Secrets"

January is finally over. So, I am looking forward to a better weather and some sunny days in the coming months. I loved winters in India as there was some respite from the heat and scorching sun. But, here I dread them as they are so cold and chilly. Cold, chilly and windy is a dreadful combination. So, with the end of January, I hope there will be some cheerful and bright days. Today, I am sharing a recipe of soup from my drafts. Its again a small variation to the normal tomato soup and it is quite filling - a one bowl meal! Before the recipe I have something else to share. Guess What? Some awards and some secrets!

Some Awards with Buttermilk Biscuits and Apple Dip.

3 Awards in a go! Many thanks to Deepa of Food Lyrics for making my day. I would like to pass on these awards to my fellow bloggers. All of them have amazing blogs.

Priya of Priya Easy N Tasty Recipes.

Rachana of Veggie Fare

Supriya of Cook in a blog world

Arundhati of Gourmet Affair

Simply.food of simply.food

Saraswathi of Sara's Corner

Ms Chitchat of Chitchat at Crossroads

Please accept the awards!

To celebrate my awards I made these lovely biscuits.