Yogurt and BlueBerry Compote Cake

Hello all you wonderful people. Today I am so thankful to all you folks who wished us both for our 4th anniversary. Its already 4 years and hardly believable. I remember getting tensed for the first time while meeting parents and now our journey has come far along. Life has been a great adventure just like a video game where we are taking everything that comes along and enjoying it.

So I made this cake as that one sweet for celebrating this milestone. I know that most of you there are health conscious and I am proud to say that I fall in the same list. So a cake that is full of sugar, cream and fats is an absolute no no. Thank god for this new experiment, I found a healthier way. The difference is, I am using whole wheat flour instead of Maida or All purpose flour and sugar substitute for actual sugar. This substitute is the most natural one obtained from Stevia leaves. I have cut the oil in half and the milk and yogurt I have used is non fat.

When it comes to frosting, traditionally I use cream cheese, whipping cream, butter and sugar. For this cake though, I am using nonfat yogurt and brown organic sugar. Also for decoration, I have used natural blue berries to make a compote (similar to sauce) and used very minimal brown sugar instead of making sugary jams or jellies.

Please enjoy making this guilt free cake and for the first time, "You can have the cake and eat it too" :). Also note that this is good to eat after chilling in refrigerator for 2-3 hours, but try eating it with in a day or two.

Serves: 6-8

Preparation Time: 25 mins baking time + 10 mins Frosting + 20 for compote and mixing

Ingredients for Cake:

• 1 cup + 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup + 1 and 1/2 tbsp sugar substitute ( I used stevia sweetener, or use 1 cup ordinary sugar)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla essence 
• 1/2 cup oil ( any non pungent oil would do, I used vegetable oil)
• 1 cup 1%, 2% or fat free milk
• 1/2 cup water
• A pinch of Saffron
• 1 tsp orange zest (grate orange peel using a small eyed grater)

Ingredients for Frosting:

• 1 and 1/2 cup set curd or any low fat yogurt
• 3 tbsp normal or brown sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Ingredients for Compote:

• 2 cup blueberries or grapes
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Method for Cake baking:

• Preheat the oven at 350F or 180C.
• In a mixing bowl add all dry ingredients - flour, sugar, soda, salt , saffron and orange zest and mix well.
• Add wet ingredients to the flour mixture - vinegar, vanilla essence , oil, milk and water and mix well using a hand beater or hand mixer. It will be little running, don't panic.
• In a 9 inch round pan, add 2 tsp oil and coat the pan uniformly, add parchment paper cut to fit the bottom of the pan.
• Add the batter into the pan and bake it for 25-30 mins.
• Let it cool of half an hour after baking and place it on the rack for further cooling. Cake is ready to be decorated. At this point add parchment paper on a turn table for cake and reverse cake on rack to sit on turn table.

Method for Cake frosting:

• In a mixing bowl, add yogurt, lemon juice and sugar. 
• Using a manual beater, beat this yogurt mixture to form a thick, creamy uniform coating.
• Check for sweetness, add more sugar if needed, or add more lemon juice in case its too sweet.
• Dump this yogurt mixture on the cooled cake, spread it uniformly, its ok if its little runny and messy. Place the cake along with turn table in the top most compartment of fridge, closest to freezer, but not inside freezer.

Method for Blueberry Compote:

• In a small sauce pan, add water and blueberries (or grapes) , heat this first on a medium high flame for about 5 minutes.
• Add sugar and lemon juice and cook it on a medium low flame for about 15 minutes.
• Switch off the stove and let this compote cool completely, you can also keep it in fridge for 15 minutes to let it chill.
• After the compote has cooled and yogurt has set, add this compote on the yogurt frosting in any design you like and viola, the cake is ready to be served.

HaalObattu - Sweet Milk Pancakes

This recipe is my mom-in-law's and is made mainly in South India, mostly in Tamil Nadu. It is very easy to make and takes very less effort. It is very different from traditional obattu in the sense of size and method. If you know to make chapati or poori, this is your "cup of cake" :).


We make it only on days where you can take a pass on your diet. Yes it is junk, and like all junk foods its good to taste but might not be necessarily healthy. I have made some small tweaks, wherever I could, to make it a tad bit healthy.


Main ingredients are All Purpose flour (Maida), Fine Semolina (Rava), milk and sugar.  Its really fun to make it and I think it goes well in those pot luck ideas, it carries well and can be refrigerated. While eating this, all I could think of is the peeni and chiroti prepared during functions and aww.. I miss those :(

Serves 4

Preparation time 45 mins

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup fine Semolina (Rava) 
• 1/2 cup unbleached All Purpose flour (Maida)
• 1 tsp ghee or melted butter
• 1-2 cloves crushed
• Water as needed
• A pinch of Salt
• 2 cups milk (I used 2%)
• 4-5 Saffron (kesari) strands
• Approx 4 tsp sugar (I used organic brown sugar)
• Almonds, cashews as needed (optional)*
• 1/8 tsp crushed cardamom seeds
• Oil for frying

Method:

• In a bowl mix Rava, Maida, ghee and cloves.
• Add water as needed and knead to make a firm, soft ball in your hand and let it rest for 30 mins
• Heat the oil. And after 30 mins, pinch lemon sized ball of the dough and roll it using a rolling pin to a round shape (like poori) and make as many pooris as possible.
• Fry the pooris in oil and make sure it does not bloat. I used a fork to poke it.
• Keep the fried pooris on a tissue cloth and let most of the oil drain out.
• Now add saffron to the milk and let it boil.
• Add sugar and cardamom seeds once it has boiled and switch off the stove.
• Sir the milk to make sure the sugar has melted completely
• Dunk or dip the pooris in this milk mixture just 5 mins before eating (soak it for more time in case it has to be more soft).
• Decorate it with almonds and cashews and either serve hot or refrigerate it and serve cold.

*Note : You can also use almond and cashew powders as well

All good things start with sweet tooth - Carrot Halwa!!

I am a sucker when it comes to sweet. Tend to feel guilty when I eat those extra calories. But sometimes when you open the fridge, all you get is the same veggies like carrots, cucumber, tomatoes. Today I used those carrots which sits easily for almost a month.

Always try to make sure you buy your groceries from near farmers market or in organic sections.

So I used Splenda (type of sugar free) packets, about 10 to make this recipe. This on didn't have Sucralose so I used it. Today, we celebrate a festival called as Ugaadi which stands for Starting (Aadi) of a New Year (Yuga). This sweet is to commemorate Ugaadi festival, and yes, on a lighter note!

Carrot Halwa is the easiest of the desserts that can be made with minimal ingredients and is the most fail proof recipe. If you are an amateur, this is the best one amongst sweets. It has a coarse pudding texture which makes it easy for anyone to eat. Here is my method of preparation.

Serves 3-4

Preparation time 35-40 mins

Ingredients:

• 6-7 Medium sized carrots 
• About 3 cups of 1% or 2% milk (I used 2%)
• 3 tsp ghee or melted butter
• 2 tsp raisins (optional)
• 2 tsp broken raw cashews (optional)
• 2 tsp sliced raw almonds (optional)
• 10 packets of Splenda
• 3 tsp sugar
• A pinch of cardamom powder or cinnamon powder (optional)

Method:

• Peel the carrots and grate it using a small sized grater. Smaller the grater, easier to cook.
• In a non stick pan, heat the ghee and add raisins, cashews and almonds and reduce the heat to low.
• Remove the nuts and raisins from the pan without removing the ghee and keep it aside. Do not switch off the stove.
• To the same pan add the grated carrots and fry for 5 to 10 mins.
• Add the milk to the pan and increase the flame to medium. Allow it to boil.
• When the milk mixture starts to raise reduce the flame to low. Let the milk evaporate.
• Once the milk completely evaporates increase flame to medium and add Splenda and sugar and keep stirring until all the sugar melts and mix in the cardamom or cinnamon powder.
• Decorate with the nuts and raisins.

Enjoy hot or chilled (or with vanilla ice cream). Enjoy the sweetness guilt free