Eggless Chocolate Coffee Cupcakes / Mini Cupcakes / Muffins

[Video update on 4th March:

 ]

Who likes a hint of coffee in a moist, luscious, chocolate cupcake? I do! And so, when I was trying a batch of mini chocolate cupcakes last month, I went ahead and added some coffee in it. I loved the result and thought of sharing with you all. For this post, I made regular muffins, but given a choice, I'd go for a mini muffin any day. They are cute, just a tad bigger than bite-sized and, they've always been my favourite form of cake! If you do not have a mini muffin tray, you can use a regular muffin tray, but like I have said in my earlier posts here and here, do try to get your hands on one!

 I have not iced these cupcakes because they taste great as they are. The recipe is slightly modified from my earlier post on eggless chocolate cake. I halved the recipe and made some minor changes. If you want to make only chocolate cupcakes or just an eggless chocolate cake, then you should definitely try that recipe.

Ingredient:

1 cup water

1 ½ tsp coffee powder

1 ½ cups maida or all purpose flour

3 tbsp cocoa powder 

1 ¼cup sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

½ cup oil

1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice (or vinegar)

1 tsp vanilla essence

* Preferably caster sugar. If using regular granulated sugar, grind in a dry mixer for a couple of seconds. This is to dissolve sugar easily later. Optional step.

Method:

Bring water to a light boil and dissolve the coffee powder in it. Allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile in a bowl, mix maida, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. [ Run them through a sieve if they have lumps].
In a large bowl, mix all the wet ingredients - coffee solution, oil, vanilla, lemon juice, Add sugar and blend with a hand-held electric mixture till sugar dissolves. To this add the dry maida mixture little by little and mix thoroughly to get a smooth mixture. Blend for a few seconds.

Preheat the oven to 170  ͦC [340  ͦF].  

Line a muffin or mini muffin tray with paper liners. Pour in the batter till they are 2/3rd full.

Bake for about 20  to 22 minutes for muffins (15 to 18 minutes for mini muffins) or till fork inserted in the centre comes out clean.

NOTE: If the cupcakes are overdone, the edges tend to become crisp and stick to the paper liner.  Every oven differs in baking time so keep an eye. Once they are done, leave them to cool completely and refrigerate for atleast 30 minutes. Otherwise they may not come off easily from the paper liner.

You can easily double the recipe if you are looking to make lots of cupcakes. Infact I made a huge batch of these cuties for my son's birthday. The picture below is of a mini muffin tray and of the cute li'l muffins ready to be arranged for the party on their cupcake stand.

Go ahead and ice these cupcakes with icing of your choice and sprinkle some sprinklers on them if you like them pretty. As for me, I was content with these cuties adorning the dining table during the party. A proud moment indeed :)!

Easy Eggless Banana Cake

Usually when I buy bananas, I end up buying a dozen of them. They come home with me and sit stubbornly in the fruit basket, as if gesturing to stay away for a few days till they ripen. And ripen they do, all together, making me wonder if they take a silent pledge of equal fruition. Almost always a couple of these bananas, specially the ones that stay at the bottom of the pile, end up getting ignored, and they seem to vehemently make this clear by quietly changing colour.

That, ofcourse, is not an excuse to bake this cake. Infact, I made this cake just as the bananas ripened, because I was waiting to lay my hands yet again on my new OTG after the delicious outcome of my earlier experiment - Eggless mini mango muffins. Just like the mango muffins, this is an eggless cake that comes out soft and light.

So here's the recipe. It's easy to make with ingredients probably available in your house right now.

Ingredients:
2 medium-sized ripe bananas
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup yogurt (curd)
1/4 cup oil
1 pinch salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cup maida or all purpose flour

Method:
Roughly chop bananas and blend with sugar and yogurt for about 20 seconds to get a smooth paste (there shouldn't be any banana chunks).
Transfer this paste to a large bowl. Add oil, mix gently till you fold it in and then mix thoroughly. Add salt and baking soda and mix. To this add maida little by little mixing as you add. Mix thoroughly, scraping the sides, and get rid of all lumps to get a nice and smooth paste. [You can use an electric hand mixer]. Make sure there are no lumps and that all ingredients are mixed really well.

Preheat oven to 180C (350F).

Line a baking tin with parchment paper or grease it well with oil. [ Use a 7" round tin. I used 8" and the cake became thinner than I'd have liked].
Pour the cake batter into the baking tin. Bake for 35 minutes (+ or - 5 minutes depending on the oven), till a fork inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool. Invert the cake (gently peel off the parchment paper if you have used it).

My husband's serving suggestion - have this hot with ice-cream. Sounds yum!

Eggless Mini Mango Muffins

[Video update on 30/4/2015 :


 ]

Mango is such a divine fruit.  Mangoes are pulpy, juicy, sweet, luscious. Their bright orange-yellow colour plays with your eyes and their succulence makes them totally irresistible.

Here's an easy, eggless recipe with easily-available ingredients to make mini muffins out of these delicious mangoes. I prefer mini muffins to muffins because they are smaller, good for a quick bite and can be very appealing. If you don't have a mini muffin tray, you can use a regular muffin/ cupcake tray (baking time will increase by about 10 minutes), but I would urge you to get yourself the mini muffin tray. A few online stores seem to sell them. Mini muffins look very cute and you can serve them at a party or take them to your friend's house or to your child's play date and they will be immediately liked. You can even slip one into your child's tiffin box.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups Maida or all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

¾ cup sugar

3 to 4 cardamom pods

½ cup melted butter OR ghee

½ cup thick yogurt/ curd

2 large or medium mangoes (for 1 cup thick

mango pulp)

Note :
- I used 2 regular sized mangoes for the pulp/ puree. For best results use ripe and sweet mangoes.
- All ingredients, specially the mango, should be at room temperature.

Method:
In a bowl, combine maida and baking soda and keep aside.
Discard the skin and blend cardamom with sugar for about 10 seconds. Take this powdered sugar into a large bowl. Add ghee and mix well. Get rid of lumps. To this add curd and mix thoroughly. Get rid of lumps.

To make the puree, chop mangoes roughly and blend for 10 to 15 seconds or till you get a fine puree. Measure out one cup [You may need more mango depending on the size. ] Add puree to the above mixture and mix really well. Get rid of lumps. You don't want any lumps.

To this, add the maida+baking soda little by little and mix thoroughly [ I used my handheld whisk. You can use an electric hand mixer to get a smooth mix.]  Make sure you get rid of lumps. The batter should be smooth and lump-free.

Preheat the oven to 170˚C or 340˚F.

Line a mini muffin tray with paper liners. If you don't have a mini muffin tray you can use a regular muffin tray. The baking time will vary.
Using two spoons get the batter into each liner till it's 3/4th full.
Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, till the muffins are done and a fork inserted in the centre comes out clean.
[If you are using a regular muffin tray, bake for about 22 minutes.]

Allow to cool. You can frost these muffins and make cute cupcakes out of them. [If you are using a regular muffin tray and you realise only later that the inside in still a little sticky, then refrigerate the muffins and they should be good after an hour].

Enjoy these cute treats with your family or friends!

Eggless Microwave Chocolate Cake

So you always wanted to bake a cake, but do not have a convection oven. You do have a microwave oven but you never thought of making a cake in it. Wait. Look at this cake.

Soft, spongy and super-easy to make. Take a deep breath. And get started.

Ingredients :
 1 cup all purpose flour (maida)
¼ cup cocoa powder
¾  tsp baking soda
½  cup oil
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp vanilla essence
1 cup milk (room temperature)
2 tbsp water

Method:

In a small bowl, add all purpose flour, cocoa powder and baking soda and mix well. [Make sure the flour and cocoa powder do not have lumps. If they do, then using a large sieve, sift them first].

In a large bowl, with a manual whisk or large fork, mix oil, sugar and vanilla. Add milk and whisk thoroughly into  a smooth solution [get rid of all the lumps. Scrape the sides as well].

To this, add the flour mixture little by little whisking as you add. Add water and mix thoroughly (scraping the sides) for 10 to 15 seconds to form a smooth cake batter.

Grease the insides of a large microwave safe round bowl with oil or cooking spray liberally. Pour the cake batter into the bowl. The cake batter should fill half (or less than half) of the bowl. Otherwise it will spill out.

Microwave for 6 to 7 minutes in regular microwave mode (NOT convection mode).
You will see moist spots in the center and sides of the cake. No worries.
Switch the microwave off and let the cake remain untouched for another 10 to 15 minutes. This is the standing time where the cake will continue to cook even after you turn the microwave off, with the heat generated within it.
[If you wait for the cake to cook completely before you turn the microwave off, the cake will continue to cook during the standing time and will become rubbery].

If you plan to invert the cake, allow to cool for another 20 to 25 minutes. [The bottom of the bowl should not be hot.] Then place a large plate or cake board on top of the cake bowl. Turn the bowl upside down and tap the bottom (which is now on top). The cake will slowly slide onto your cake board/ plate. Remove the bowl carefully.

You will not get beautiful neat sides like oven baked cakes. You can cover this up with a chocolate glaze. A quicker solution would be to frost the cake with Nutella like I have done here.


Chocolate Glaze :
In a saucepan or microwave, melt 2oz (57g) chopped baking chocolate (or chocolate chips) with 1 tbsp milk. Remove, mix well and add 4 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp water and 3/4 tsp vanilla essence. Mix well.
[Amount of sugar depends on whether you use semi-sweet or milk chocolate (I used semi-sweet), so adjust accordingly. Add more water if you prefer a thinner glaze.].
[I actually used 3 oz chocolate, which gave me too much glaze, so I scaled down the proportion in the recipe. Feel free to adjust your glaze the way you like it]. Cool.

Pour the glaze on top of the cake and watch it as it slides down the sides and oozes onto the bottom.
Refrigerate the cake for an hour or two to let the glaze set.

So what did I do with the extra glaze? See for yourself.

Go ahead, give it a try. Who knows, for the next birthday in your family, your cake may be sitting at the centre-table!

Check my Eggless Microwave Coffee Cake.

Eggless Microwave Coffee Cake

This coffee cake actually has coffee in it. If you are wondering what I mean, Wikipedia will tell you that 'the term coffee cake can refer to a class of cakes intended to be served with coffee or for similar breaks and snacks. Under this definition, a coffee cake does not need to contain coffee'

Wikipedia also tells you that a coffee cake can also be a sponge cake, which is made with coffee or has a coffee flavour. Now I would never have guessed that!

All this reading up on coffee cake made me want to make some! After my earlier experiment with microwave apple cake, I thought of further coming out of my comfort zone and whipping up an eggless coffee cake in the microwave. I'm not really a big fan of hot coffee but I love the flavour of coffee in desserts. I did not want any icing on the cake, instead I wanted it to be flavoured with honey. Somehow I'm not yet comfortable about using eggs in my microwave cakes, so I thought of omitting them. I also used oil instead of butter which gives some sort of richness to the strong coffee flavour in this delicious cake.

[Update : Someone I know tried this cake with melted butter instead of oil. I was curious to see how it turned out so I made it again with melted butter. The result was pretty good.]

Ingredients :
1 ½  tbsp instant coffee powder*
¼  cup boiling water
1 cup all purpose flour (maida)
½  tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 cup sugar
½  cup oil (OR ½ cup melted butter)
2 tbsp honey
1 ½ tsp vanilla essence
1 cup milk (room temperature)

*If you are using 100% pure coffee powder like Nescafé Classico, use 1½ tbsp. However if you are using a coffee-chicory blend like Nescafé Sunrise Premium instant coffee powder, use 3 tbsp, since it is milder than pure coffee.

Method:
Dissolve coffee powder in boiling water and keep aside.
In a bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt.
In a separate large bowl, mix sugar and oil. Add the coffee solution, honey and vanilla and mix well. Add flour mixture little by little and mix well. Pour milk a little at a time into this and mix thoroughly making sure no lumps are formed. [If you are using melted butter instead of oil you will have to mix harder. You can use a handheld electric mixer if you can't get rid of the lumps].

Grease a large microwave safe bowl  liberally (or line with parchment paper) and pour the batter in it, such that it fills 2/3rd of the dish or less. Microwave uncovered for 8 to 9 minutes. [The cake will not be completely baked but will have moist spots all over].
Switch the microwave off and leave the cake untouched for 10 to 15 minutes. If you want to invert the cake, let the cake cool for another 30 mts.

Note :
1. Cooking time may vary depending on the microwave.
2. There will be moist spots specially in the center, which will be taken care of during the standing time. If you wait till the cake becomes completely dry before turning the microwave off, then the cake may become rubbery. This is because the cake continues to cook even after you turn the microwave off, by the heat generated within it.
3. If you store the cake for a few days, it may turn dry and hard. If that happens, just microwave the slice of cake for a few seconds and consume immediately.
4.If you are using melted butter instead of oil, the cake may need an additional minute of baking.

Sprinkle powdered sugar on top or enjoy with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream.

The cake exudes a wonderful aroma when it's being cooked in the microwave. Coffee-lovers are so going to love this smell!

More egg-less microwave cake recipe -
Eggless Microwave Chocolate Cake.
5 Minute Microwave Oreo Cake

Eggless Microwave Apple Walnut Cake

This is definitely not the best apple cake recipe. But I still love it. Because this is my first real experiment with a cake!

I have baked a few cakes till date. I have followed the recipes from books or blogs, usually to a T, and even if I did make changes, they were minor ones, like excluding nuts, replacing maida with whole wheat, halving the quantity or even combining two recipes to get the best out of them.

This cake however was something I suddenly thought of making. After making Apple Kheer in the microwave, I thought, why not make apple cake! I have eaten apple cakes before and have always enjoyed their combination with nuts, specially walnuts. This thought and my 'No Bake Cake 'event, along with my little experience of baking, urged me to try my hand at making this cake. I just went on mixing the ingredients - tasting and adjusting as I brought each of them together, wondering if they would do their job. I dumped the fairly runny concoction into the microwave and waited with bated breath for those 5 minutes to pass. I probably did not take my eyes off the microwave for even a second (thank God my son was asleep!) And I literally jumped with joy when I saw that a cake was actually being formed! Yay!
The ten-minute wait for the cake to cool down was even harder. Finally when I tasted the cake, I felt good! Mind you, the cake is not crusty and soft and moist as an oven-baked one - after all, convection ovens are always the preferred way of cake making. But it sure is edible and is worth a try.

Ingredients :
1 apple
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour (maida)
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp chopped walnuts

Method :
Peel and grate the apple and microwave uncovered for 3 minutes.
In a large bowl pour milk (room temperature). Add oil and with a whisk, beat well. Add sugar and beat further. Add maida and baking soda and mix thoroughly, making sure no lumps are formed. Add the microwaved apple, nuts and mix well.

Liberally grease a large microwave safe bowl. (I used a rectangular glass vessel). Pour the batter. Make sure it is less than 2/3rds full.

Microwave uncovered for 5 to 6 minutes. Leave untouched for another 10 minutes. Let the cake cool down completely before you invert it onto a plate.

You could either ice the cake or bite into it just like that!

This post goes to my events :

1. My Favourite Recipe

2. No Bake Cake

Also sending this to Two for Tuesdays  and BSI - Milk

Eggless Whole Wheat Carrot Muffins/ Cup Cakes

I was very keen on trying out some eggless muffins. Also, I wanted the muffins to be made of whole wheat, include a vegetable, no nuts and not too sweet. Finally after looking around on the net, I came across this and this, but modified them to suit my requirements. I made a small quanity, so this recipe makes about 7 medium sized muffins.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp butter
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnammon powder
1 pinch nutmeg powder
1 pinch cardamom powder
1 pinch salt


Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and all the spices.
Cream butter and sugar. Add the flour mixture, carrot and milk and mix well.

Line a muffin pan with paper muffin cups. If you don't have them, you could grease the pan. Pour the batter into the cups so that they are 2/3rds full. 

Bake at 350F for 25 minutes (or until fork inserted comes out clean). And enjoy the healthy muffins.


This post goes to Veggie Platter's Healing Foods - Carrots, originally started by Siri's Corner and also to Only Kid's Delight.

Eggless Chocolate Cake

Chocolate - the mere name lightens up most people's faces. Some miss out on eating chocolate cakes because most chocolate cakes have eggs in them. Here's a moist and delightful chocolate cake recipe without eggs which I got from here.

Since there is no oven at my disposal right now, I went to my mum's sister's place. It was fun baking the cake with Nandini Pachi. She has baked several delicious cakes, and I got some good tips from her.

To frost the cake, I used this recipe. As Hershey's calls it, it definitely is the "Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate frosting. Btw, I have even tried the Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate cake recipe a few months back, so if you want to try a cake with eggs, just go here.

Coming back to the eggless cake, here's the recipe:

NOTE : You can easily halve the recipe if you are looking for an 8" or 9"cake.


Ingredients:
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp cocoa powder
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
1 tbsp vanilla 
2 tbsp white vinegar (or freshly squeezed lemon juice)
3/4 cup oil
One chocolate bar (for the chocolate shavings)

Method:
Blend together the wet ingredients - water, vanilla, vinegar, oil. 

Add sugar and blend till sugar dissolves.


Sift together, the dry ingredients - flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt.

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Line a 9" by 13" pan with parchment paper, or grease it well. (I used a 10" by 11").  You can also use two 8" round pans.

Bake at 350F (180C) for 40 minutes or until fork inserted comes out clean.


If you plan to frost the cake, cut the cake vertically into half, spread some sugar syrup on the top of one half (spreading sugar syrup is optional. It gives you a softer cake).

Spread the frosting on it, place the other half upside down on the first, spread sugar syrup on top and frost the cake all over. And after your are completely done, lick the spatula. It's understandable.


[If you are using two 8" round cakes, then spread sugar syrup and frosting on one, place the other cake on top of it and frost all over].


Chocolate frosting:
1/2 cup butter (I used the 100g pack)

2/3 cup Hershey's cocoa (I used cadbury's)
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract


Melt butter. Add cocoa power, sugar, vanilla. Add milk little by little and blend well. Keep scraping the sides to make sure all the ingredients blend in well.

Make sure you don't add too much milk, the frosting will become runny and you will not be able to spread it easily. 


Chocolate Shavings:

Take a block of chocolate (I used semi sweet cooking chocolate at room temperature). Place a parchment paper (or any paper for that matter) on the table, under the chocolate. With a peeler, scrape the chocolate, starting from the edges, and let the curls fall on the paper. 


Decorate the cake with the chocolate shavings.

Update : I baked this cake for my son's birthday party. I made two cakes of two layers each (yes, I made four cakes totally, I was just scared we would run out of cakes!) and made four batches of the same icing. I also used semi-sweet chocolate curls along with milk chocolate curls. Here is the picture of the main cake. The other cake was in the fridge as a standby.