Chocolate Coconut Cake Recipe

There is something dark and mysterious about this cake, and the coconut blends perfectly to create a symphony of taste.

There is something dark and mysterious about this cake and the coconut just blends so well to create a perfect symphony of taste. Remember the ratatouille movie rat and the way they show the flavors just mixing and creating a beautiful medley- well that’s exactly what was happening the moment I took a bite and savored the coconut and chocolate flavors that were oozing out of the cake. Now, making it ain’t gonna be a rocket scientist job- Considering, a novice like me can whip up this cake…Some people can just bake a cake  at the spur of a moment. For me, it’s a big deal. I decide on a day (usually sundays), read through the recipe atleast 10 times and shop for the ingredients on saturday. phew…I make it so complicated. but the results have always been good, so I think it is worth the effort.  It’s a moist cake and you can’t simply stop eating it- oops, here goes another bite in my mouth!

Chocolate coconut cake

perfect symphony of coconut and chocolate in a moist cake!


Ingredients

• 150 grams all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 175 grams butter
• 175 grams caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• Icing-
• 50 gram plain chocolate broken in pieces
• 5 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp butter
• 85 grams icing sugar
• about 5-8 tsp desiccated coconut to decorate

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius-
2. Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa powder together and keep aside.
3. In a bowl, beat the butter and caster sugar together until light and fluffy.
4. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition.
5. Fold the flour into this mixture and blend well.
6. Pour the mixture into a greased tin.
7. Bake in the oven for around 35-40 minutes-
8. Once baked leave it to cool on a wire rack.
9. To make the icing, place the chocolate, milk and butter in a heatproof bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water.
10. stir until the chocolate melts and blend in the icing sugar and beat till smooth.
11. Leave the icing to cool until it’s thick to spread.
12. Spread the icing on the cake and sprinkle the desiccated coconut on top.

Notes

Lightly toast the coconut in a pan for few minutes before topping the cake. Don’t let it burn.

Roasted Raw Bananas

Potatoes, please step aside- Now, the stage is taken by something that's more delicious and a healthier option. The contender in question is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Potassium, Manganese, and a very good source of Vitamin B6.

What am I talking about? Raw Bananas... I love them. I always steam them and use the inner pulp to make a stir fry. This time around I tried something different. I cooked the raw bananas on a gas flame and roasted the inner pulp with a touch of coriander seeds and notched the heat with red chillies. Makes a wonderful starter with hot chilli sauce.

Roasted Raw Bananas

Ingredients

• 2 Raw Bananas
• Curry Leaves- a few
• one small onion- sliced
• Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
• oil to fry
• Coriander seeds -2 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• dash of asafoetida powder
• Dry red chillies- 3-4 (use more to make it spicier)

Instructions

1. Put the raw Bananas on medium flame and allow the bananas to cook. Cook the bananas till the outer skin is completely charred and the inner portion is soft.
2. Once cooked remove them from flame and allow them to cool.
3. Peel the skin and chop them in cubes.
4. Dry roast the coriander seeds with red chillies on a pan till they become aromatic (don’t burn them)
5. Coarsely grind the coriander seeds with dry red chillies.
6. In a pan add liberal dose of oil and throw in the mustard seeds.
7. As they begin to sputter, add dash of asafoetida powder.
8. Fry the onions on a medium flame till they become golden brown.
9. Add curry leaves and chopped bananas.
10. Roast them in the pan till they start turning golden brown.
11. Adjust salt according to taste and throw in the spice powder.
12. Roast them for another few minutes till the bananas absorb the spices.
13. Enjoy them with spicy sauce!

Cinnamon muffins!

Nothing beats a good, moist, cinnamon flavored muffin. It’s like biting into a piece of cinnamon bliss.

A hardcore fan of cinnamon, I can munch on these goodies day in and out. I sure had fun baking them and it’s pretty easy to make. The recipe came from the blog velvetlava.blogspot.in. I had pinned it long time back and never had a chance to revisit. And when I did revisit, I realised I had all the ingredients to bake them. I was delighted when it came out perfect.

Cinnamon Muffins

Moist Cinnamon Muffins- who wouldn’t love it?

Ingredients

• 1/3 c. butter, melted
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 egg (preferably room temperature)
• 1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 c. milk
• Topping
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. butter, melted
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• Preheat oven to 350F.

Instructions

1. In a medium-large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients.
2. Add wet ingredients and stir until combined, but still a bit lumpy. (Don’t overmix).
3. Scoop batter into muffin tins or muffin cups.
4. Using a spoon, I got 12 medium muffins out of this batter; I think you could get 8-10 large muffins by distributing the batter generously.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until they just start to turn a bit golden at the edges.
6. For the topping, mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
7. Place melted butter in another small bowl.
8. Dip the warm muffins in melted butter, then dip/roll the muffin in cinnamon sugar.
9. Enjoy with piping hot coffee :)

Onion-Olive-Tomato Tango with Snackuits

The other day, I was delighted to hear from Priya, a fellow blogger and a wonderful human being about the event she was holding for her blog. The task sounded simple and I was upbeat about it. With a bit of imagination and good support from Priya, here I am with my recipe/review of Britannia’s snackuits. Would take this opportunity to thank Priya & Britannia for my post.


Binging, snacking whatever you want to call- I simply love it! You get the picture; I am not someone who shies away from a good snack even on a full stomach.  And every single bite I take, I have this twinge of unshakable guilt. What if you could enjoy snacking without a complete feeling of guilt? Well that’s how these snacks are positioned by Britannia- as a snacking guru, I got to taste these wonderful little flavorful snacks and here is my verdict-  I love it!


Britannia has a winner with these snacks considering the whole hoopla about health snacks in Indian market.Britannia’s effort to entice the audience with three international flavors- Italiano Pizza, Chinese hot & sweet, Swiss cheese and chilli will not go in vain. However, for me, what worked the most was the Italiano pizza flavor. I am partial to Italian food, perhaps! With a heightened sense of garlic, this snack was the most appealing of the three. And the least favorite is the Swiss cheese and chilli- Cause, this reminds me of sour cream and onion chips that’s already in the market. So, nothing special about it. Chinese hot & sweet has oriental flavor written all over it and I wouldn't mind emptying the packet in a jiffy. Would these flavors work for Indian market? Oh yes!  People may be partial to one particular flavor but these baked goodies are a hit 


So coming back to some whacky and funky ideas to gobble them up, oh I have some good suggestions-
You can dunk it in a sauce, crumble them in your salad, top them with veggies and spices of your choice or eat them plain. Flavors hit you at the right spot especially the Italiano pizza snack! 


 Since these biscuits are flavorful, they would work great in a onion-olive-tomato tango treat. Blends perfect with all the three biscuit flavors. 

Onion-Olive-Tomato Tango with Snackuits

Ingredients-

• 1 small red onion (chopped fine)
• ½ cucumber (chopped fine)
• ½ firm tomato (chopped fine)
• sliced olives (black) 1 tbsp
• 1 green chilli (optional)
• ¼ tsp of roasted cumin powder 
• Olive oil to blend all the ingredients

 Procedure-

Since we are going to use tomato I would advise you to blend the biscuits towards the end. Otherwise it would get soggy and lose the essence. In a bowl, mix onion, cucumber, tomato, green chillies, olives together. Add cumin and olive oil. Before serving, add a packet of Britannia Italiano pizza biscuits, give it a good toss and watch it vanish in front of your eyes like magic!

You could be super creative and try out different things with these biscuits- Look who had fun of her own with these biscuits-

Tulsi Tamatar Shorba

Tomato Soup with Basil and Coriander

I come from a family where picky eating was frowned upon. So, I pride myself as someone who can pretty much manage everything. The big exception is soups. I am a bit annoying when it comes to soups. I don’t like creamy soups and I am more in favor of broth based soups. I seldom try out soups in restaurant as most of them are cream based. So, to my big surprise, when I recently tried out this tomato soup at a hotel in Hyderabad, I loved it! The flavors were clear and lovely. Highlight of the soup was the inherent coriander flavor that just left a lingering burst of flavor in my tongue. I had to meet the chef to get my hands on the soup recipe. Lucky me, the chef was more than happy to share this recipe with me :) – I made subtle changes and though it’s not 100% copy of the soup I had at the restaurant but it still packs in a punch and is delicious.

Tulsi Tamatar Shorba

Recipe type: Appetiser, Entree

Author: Suchitra Vaidyaram

A broth based flavorful tomato soup with Basil & Coriander

Ingredients

• 4-5 medium sized tomatoes (chopped)
• 1 tsp Roasted cumin powder
• 1 small carrot (chopped)
• 4 cloves of garlic (crushed and chopped)
• 1 small sized Apple (peeled and cut in cubes)
• 50 grams Coriander roots (don’t use the leaves)
• Salt according to taste
• 3/4 tsp Kashmiri chili powder
• Black pepper (dash of it)
• Olive oil to saute (2 tbsp)
• 1 tsp dried Basil

Instructions

1. In a pan, heat oil and add chopped garlic. Allow the oil to absorb the garlic flavor.
2. Saute the garlic slowly and after a few seconds add the tomatoes, carrot, apple, salt, Kashmiri chili powder.
3. Add water and cook them for 45 minutes till the vegetables get tender and mashed.
4. Add the chopped coriander roots with pepper and cook for another two minutes.
5. Blend the mixture using a blender and strain with a soup strainer if you want a clear soup.
6. Else, you can keep the soup chunky and thick without straining it (that’s my preference).
7. Heat the soup again and add Basil and adjust the salt according to your taste.
8. Serve hot!

Notes

The original recipe handed by the chef had white pepper powder which i substituted to black pepper.
Chef had also asked me add honey (dash of it) towards the end to give it a glossy look- which I omitted.
The recipe also asks to use butter which i had to substitute to olive oil for health reasons.