I hate missing my workouts and last night it was a forced rest day. I reached home late from work and then you know its a chain reaction.  So I decided to take the day off and relax. I looked in the fridge for possibilities and was super excited to see a jar of Pumpkin Puree.

I don't think that I’m ready for this Oh-My-God-it's-Fall attitude The internet has suddenly adopted this theme and like every year is going ga-ga over pumpkins. I am not a fan of Indian Pumpkin recipes. I think as a kid I opposed every gooey vegetable. So if the pumpkin is hidden well in the dish I have no issues eating it. We all have our quirks. Maybe, someday I will start eating like a grown-up .

I have incorporated pumpkin in to my breakfast and before you roll your eyes let me tell you that it tastes divine. I will share that recipe soon. So I normally make pumpkin puree at home for my weekly usage. Meal prep rocks!

I finished 1/4th of the cake before realizing that I needed to click a picture

For now, let me share this beautiful pumpkin cake recipe which I developed last night:

Ingredients:
1 Cup White Flour
1/3 Cup Ragi Flour
1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder
1.5 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 cup milk
2/3 Cup Cane Sugar
1 Cup Pumpkin Puree
1 Tsp Cinnamon powder
1 pinch of Nutmeg
3 eggs

Note: The idea was to use 1.5 Cups of White flour but I ran out of supplies. I decided to do some modifications and used 1/3 cup Ragi flour. You can use 1.5 cups of white flour or maybe mix and match with some wheat flour.

I had cane sugar available at home. You can use brown sugar, white sugar or jaggery sugar.

Method
I greased the pan and allowed the oven to pre-heat for 10 minutes.
In a bowl I mixed Flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk well.
Mix  eggs, milk, sugar, pumpkin puree in a separate bowl and whisk well
Add the dry mixture to the wet one in 3 parts and mixing well after each addition.
Pour the batter (Will be quite runny) on to the greased pan and put it inside the oven and bake until a toothpick when inserted comes out clean.

Tip: I baked the cake on the highest setting (250 Degrees C in my case) for the first 15 minutes and then lowered the temperature to 200 for 20 minutes. 

Overall I was quite happy with the texture and taste. You can even add pumpkin spice to your cake. It is not easily available in India though.

Do you have any other cool pumpkin recipes?
Ciao..
P.S: I am starting a new Pumpkin series and will post quite a few pumpkin recipes with time

***************** Edited to Add*****************************************

Pumpkin Puree
This is in response to Sonal's comment. Check the simplest ways to make pumpkin puree:

Method 1:
Peel pumpkin 
Soak it in little water (1/4 cup water for 1 cup cut pumpkin)
And boil. You can pressure cook pumpkin too.. I prefer doing without it (Because I hate cleaning pressure cookers). Drain excess water and puree the boiled pieces using a blender/ processor

Method 2 (Only when I am in good mood):
Cut pumpkin (with skin) to small square pieces (1-2 inches)
Grease a tray with little oil and arrange the pieces upside down on it
Bake for 20-25 minutes. The pumpkin pieces will become tender and it will be easier to cut them with the skin on. 
When cooled remove the skin and puree the pieces using a blender/ processor 

 
 

I had to come here and write today. I have had a good day in a long while. I am just fed up of heat, humidity and life in general. I have been taking all sorts of shortcuts while cooking. There have been no elaborate meals lately. Well, that's Dilli kii Garmi for you.  It rained beautifully today and I had to celebrate it. I was just too motivated. Nothing could stop me.. I went for a long run in the drizzling weather and it was beautiful. I came back home early and decided to bake the egg less marble chocolate mango cake. This cake is super simple and a total beauty to look at.. 


The mango makes the batter super silky. The best part is that it is butter-less. It is a perfect tea-time cake. I was so anxious to see how it turned out that I made chai (It's the weather) after dinner and enjoyed it with a slice of cake. 

I am planning to freeze some Mango puree for the next couple of months. Let's see if I manage to do that.










Here's how I made it:

Ingredients: 

2 cups White Flour
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 cup Mango chunks
1/4 cup Milk (I used non-fat)
1/4 cup Yoghurt
1/4 cup fresh cream
3/4 cup Sugar ( Make it 1 cup if Mango is not sweet)
1/3 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/2 cup warm Water 5 tbsp. Refined Oil 

Prerequisites:
Set the oven to pre-heat for 10 minutes
Grease and line the  cake tin with parchment paper.

Directions
I then added all the dry ingredients, except sugar in a bowl.
In a large bowl, I then blended sugar, oil, mango, yogurt, milk, vanilla, cream and mix well. (If you are using mango puree then just whisk it)
I gradually then added the dry mix mixture (1/3rd at a time) to mango mixture and mixed it well to combine the dry & wet ingredients. 
I transferred one third of the mango batter to another bowl and mixed the cocoa paste until thoroughly incorporated.
Once the batters were ready I poured them alternately on to the cake tin. I used a fork to create the swirls..

Baked for approximately 45 minutes, The first 10 minutes at 220 degrees and the rest 35 minutes at 180 degrees. The settings might vary so bake until the cake is well risen and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

•  Preheat oven for 7-10 minutes at 200 degrees and prepare your cake tin by lining it with a butter paper, greasing and flouring it well
•  In a separate bowl sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda. Mix them well
•  Melt butter (I also added chocolate at this step). Add sugar and cream the mixture
•  Add eggs one at a time and beat the mixture thoroughly  
•  Mix vanilla 
• Add dry mixture 1/3rd at a time and beat well. The mixture will be very thick
• Add zucchini and mix well. The water content in zucchini will set the batter consistency right 
• Pour the batter into prepared cake tin and bake for 30-40 minute until the cake is well risen and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Ciao..

I am fascinated with color yellow. I just love the way it makes everything look so bright.
The mood changes in a matter of seconds. I never had any yellow color food related issues while growing up. I happily binged on kadhi chawal. There is something about this color. I connect it with happy times. I like yellow in food, songs, clothes etc.. I definitely don't like yellow in spreadsheets because that usually brings bad omen but lets not digress from happy things.

When I first came across this recipe I was immediately drawn towards it.. Yes, I admit it was the color. I noticed the word - "eggless" and closed the page immediately..  Those who know me know my love for eggs, butter and flour in every possible combination. Majority of our problems can be sorted with these three beautiful ingredients. Yes, I try to healthify my recipes every now and then but the core remains the combination of these three ingredients.

It was a long weekend and I wanted to bake something. Something different. My parents gave up non vegetarian food before I was born. We were raised as vegetarians with eggs making appearances in the pantry every now and then. Every time I bake for my parents I am always asked if I could try the vegetarian version of this recipe for them. So I decided to give it a shot. The previous attempts were not fruitful at all. I recalled seeing this yellow colored cake and decided to bring out my armor..

This recipe uses only 4-5 ingredients and the best part is that prep time is only 10 minutes. also, it is a one pot cake which makes things even simpler.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1.5 cups flour (Maida)
3/4 cup  Vanilla Custard Powder
2.5 Teaspoons Baking Powder
150 gms butter
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar ( or Plain sugar if not available)

Variation: I added pineapple chunks to make an egg-less pineapple fruit cake

                                                                    Steps


1. Preheat your oven at 180 degrees.
2. Line a cake tin with butter paper, grease and flour it well
3. Sift Flour, Custard Powder and baking powder together
4. Cream Butter and sugar together until it is soft and fluffy
5. Add the dry ingredients one third at a time alternating with milk
5. Whisk everything together well until it is yellow and creamy in texture
6. Pour the batter on the cake tin. If making a pineapple cake spread the chunks on the cake batter
7. Sprinkle brown sugar
8. Put it in the oven and bake for 40 minutes (at 180 degrees)
or until the cake is well risen and toothpick when inserted in the center comes out clean

In my excitement I forgot to take the picture when it came out of the oven. The cake was nice and moist. Just while writing the post I decided to take a quick picture of the leftovers
*Make a mental note of religiously taking pictures*

Lessons Learnt

Click better pictures