Oats for breakfast, Honey!

Breakfast is one meal that we never skip, but we don't have time to fuss about preparing it either. So we eat cold breakfast, mostly cereals, mostly locally grown like raagi (finger millet), popped raajgira (amaranth), popped jwari (jowar) flakes, sattu. Oats somehow never found a place in the breakfast menu. Mainly because it needs to be cooked which means hot milk and hot milk is a big no-no. 
So, this is the first time I have ever used oats in my kitchen, ever, yes that's surprising. And it's happy I am that I baked these muffins!

In India almost every lady of our previous generation cooks well and has couple of aces up her sleeves. But there are very few I know who bake. One among them is my aunt. She is an inspiration as a cook, as a baker and above all as a person. It is she who suggested me to try out oats as an ingredient in baking, that had me promptly buying a packet of instant oats. 

Now all I wanted was a recipe! I stumbled upon it when my sister-in-law pointed me towards this food industry event which was to happen in Bangalore. And one link led to another, and a lot of clicks later I found this recipe. These are filling, breakfast or snack-time muffins.

The recipe calls for very little bit of mixing. The batter comes together very quickly, once you have all the ingredients ready. I have used vanilla sugar, you can use plain granulated sugar. Adjust the quantity of vanilla extract accordingly.

Buttermilk can be substituted with 1/2 cup of milk plus 2 teaspoons of curd, set aside for 15 minutes. Since I make butter/ghee at home, there's always some frozen buttermilk around. 

As the name suggests, these are breakfast muffins, so I wanted to add some dry fruits or nuts. My li'l one fancies raisins so I added soaked raisins. When given a choice between chocolate chips and raisins as an ingredient of these muffins, he chose raisins without any qualms.

But the one ingredient you don't want to skip is cinnamon. Don't skimp. I would go so far as to suggest to increase it to 1/2 teaspoon while you are at it. While the muffins bake the aroma of cinnamon fills your home. Heaven!

When making cupcakes or muffins, if presentation is not a big concern, I prefer silicone moulds over paper liners. Mainly because they don't need any prep but more because I am a bit reluctant to loose even tiny of those scrumptious crumbs sticking to the liners.

These muffins are best served warm with a glass of milk or a hot cup of tea. The stress is on warm! Here's the recipe:

Whole wheat oat and banana muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup instant oats, measured then coarsely ground
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsbs vanilla sugar
3-4 small bananas, mashed (about 1/2 cup heaping)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsbs vegetable oil, sunflower/canola/olive
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (use 1/2 tsp if using plain sugar)
1/4 cup raisins, soaked

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, ground oats, baking soda, cinnamon and vanilla sugar using a whisk. Set aside.

Mash the banana in a small bowl. Beat in the egg. Add remaining wet ingredients to the banana mixture.

Add wet mixture to dry one in 2 batches. Mix till just combined or till no dry streaks of flour remained. 

Add in the soaked raisins and mix. The batter will be thick. 

Spoon the batter in muffin moulds/pan. Smooth the tops.

Bake for 15-18 minutes. The top of the muffins may crack. Check if done, using a toothpick. Be careful not to over bake else they muffins will turn dry.

Once done, set them to cool. Store in an airtight container once completely cooled.

Tweaks:

- You can replace 2 tablespoons of oats with same quantity of rava (semolina) for added crunch.
- You can add chopped, roasted nuts.
- You can use brown sugar instead of granulated white sugar. Gud/jaggery can be used too, increase the quantity as gud is less sweet than same quantity of sugar.
- You can sprinkle granulated sugar on top of the muffins, before baking.
The options are many!

Happy Baking!
Shwe

Celebrations Galore and the Best Chocolate Birthday Cake

November is a month of birthdays and celebrations for us. I call it 'the birthday season'. Well, the season actually begins just few days short of the month with my young cousin's birthday. But it so happened that it was celebrated in the month of November. When asked about the choice of flavor, pat came her response 'Chocolate!'.

A cake meant for Birthday needs to be more special and prettier. Since I would rather bake than decorate, I went for simple technique. It was more like spur of the moment or shall I say spin of the moment. The turntable mom gifted me some time back was really handy.

The cake is moist and chocolatey with a hint of coffee. I think it is very similar to a devils' food cake. What I also love about this cake is that it doesn't need a slather of sugar syrup to keep it moist. The inspiration for cake is from here. I omitted the black cocoa. Definitely use it if it is available. Also I used instant pure coffee powder, instead of brewed coffee. If not a coffee fan, you can simply skip the coffee powder and use plain water instead.

Making the cake itself was a breeze. The batter is prepared using the muffin method, a time and effort saver. And the result is a fluffy, moist and chocolatey cake. You measure and mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Measure the wet ingredients in a different bowl, give them a stir. Pour the wet mixture in the dry one, in 2-3 batches and stir just till combined. And the batter is ready to be baked. Just a word of caution here, do not over-mix because that will result in a rubbery textured cake. Also, line the pan bottom with butter-paper to avoid cake-stuck-to-the-bottom scenario.

The cake base can be prepared days ahead. In fact, I suggest making the cake one day prior to frosting/decorating it. It stores well too, just let the baked cake cool to room temperature and wrap it well in cling-wrap and store it in refrigerator. It can also be frozen. Just bring it to almost room temperature before you frost it.

I used a simple chocolate buttercream as the filling. And for frosting the top and sides, I mixed in some whipped cream to the buttercream. Addition of whipped cream made the frosting silkier, though it lightened the color of the frosting a bit.

Simple buttercream tends to be gritty because of the sugar granules not getting dissolved completely. I think if prepared days ahead, the grittiness is gone. Or maybe it was addition of whipped cream that did the trick.

I would refrain from calling this cake the best chocolate cake but for a 'birthday celebration cake', it definitely is a winner. This one won hearts of all; from a two year old to a sixty two year old. 
Hope you will bake it! Here is the recipe:

The Best Chocolate Birthday Cake

Ingredients:

Cake

1 cup (200 grams) sugar, powdered
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (123 grams) All-purpose flour
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (~ 45 grams) cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup strong black coffee (1/2 cup hot water plus 2 tsp of instant pure coffee powder)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Buttercream

1/2 cup (1 stick, 114 grams ) butter, softened
1 3/4 cups (200 grams) confectioners / icing sugar
1/4 (24 grams) cup cocoa powder
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cream/milk

Steps for preparing cake:

Preheat oven to 175°C. Grease, line and dust one 8-inch round baking pan. Set aside.

Measure the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Using a whisk, mix till the ingredients are thoroughly combined.
In a separate bowl, mix together egg, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla.
Add wet mixture to dry one in 2-3 batches. Mix till just combined. The batter will be thin. 

Pour batter into prepared pan. 
Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes for round pans. At 30 minutes mark, insert a wooden toothpick in center to check if it is done. Cool the cake in cake pan for 10 minutes. Turn it out onto a wire rack. Let cool completely.

Buttermilk substitute: for 1/2 cup buttermilk, take about 1 tablespoon plain curd in an 1/2 cup measuring cup and fill the rest with milk. Let it set for 15-20 minutes and then use it in place of buttermilk in above recipe.

Steps for preparing buttercream:

Sift together 3 cups powdered sugar into a bowl. Sift cocoa powder in a different one and set aside.
Cream butter for a few minutes till fluffy, with a handheld mixer. Turn off the mixer.

Add about a third of sugar to the butter. Starting on low speed, mix till the sugar is absorbed. Increase the mixer speed and beat for 2 more minutes. Repeat with remaining sugar.

Turn off the mixer. Scrape the bowl, add sifted cocoa and mix till cocoa is absorbed.
Add vanilla extract and salt and cream and mix some more, about 3 minutes.

You should get an even-colored, smooth buttercream. For stiffer consistency, add a little more sugar. for a thinner one, add additional cream/milk 1 tablespoon at a time.

Assembly:

Cut the cake in two layers using a long serrated knife or a bread knife. Place one layer on a serving plate/cake board.

Dollop about a third of the frosting on the bottom layer. Spread the frosting leaving about one-fourth of an inch margin around the edge. The margin is to avoid frosting from oozing out when the next layer of cake is placed on top.

Place the second layer of cake on top of the frosting. Now frost the sides in back and forth strokes using small amount of frosting at a time. 

Dollop the remaining icing on the top of the cake and spread it evenly. 

You can create different patterns on the sides and top. You can add some sprinkles on top too. Or some chocolate chips the way shown in the picture.


Happy Baking!
Shwe

When life gives you lemons...

But if you happen to have blueberries too, I suggest you take out your whisk n bowls and bake a lemon blueberry buttermilk cake. For those who haven't tasted lemon in bakes it is a tangy, sweet and refreshing experience. Berries and citrus fruits are a very classic combination; a must try.

I love fruits and I prefer fresh fruits over tinned. But tinned is the only way blueberries are available in India. I had saved a small batch of these from one of my previous bakes. This time I wanted a more pronounced lemon flavour.

The recipe is adapted from here and it sure is a moist cake as the author mentions in her post. I made some changes based on the ingredients I had on hand and the comments to the original recipe. I reduced the fat and the sugar. I added some scraped vanilla beans. I loved the tiny specks of vanilla scattered in the slice. I would have been happier if I had more berries to add.

Every cake requires some form of fat, usually butter. But here, we use oil which makes the cake moist. From my past experience, oil based cakes tastes like... well oil, which is not a very pleasant experience. But this cake changed my opinion.

I baked this cake in two mini loaf pans and about 10 cupcake moulds. I soaked in lemon juice one loaf and a couple of cupcakes while left the other loaf as-is. The soaked loaf was devoured as light pre-lunch dessert while my sister-in-law prepared this yummy brinjal/eggplant curry for lunch. The non-soaked loaf was a tea/snack time bite. Though you can reduce the sugar in the cake, I suggest not to skimp on the lemon syrup. The syrup gives the cake its tang.

This cake batter is prepared using the muffin method. In that you measure your dry and wet ingredients in two separate bowls and combine the two by stirring them together very briefly. Here's the recipe:

Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups All-purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
2 pinches of salt
1 Cup buttermilk
3/4 Cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsps grated lemon zest
1 vanilla bean, scrapped or 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 Cup vegetable oil
1/3 Cup blueberries, washed and dried

Lemon Syrup
2 Tbsps freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 Tbsps powdered sugar

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease-line-dust the mini-loaf pans.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. 

Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Mix the blueberries with a tablespoon of flour and sprinkle them on top of the batter. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before flipping out onto a cooling rack. Place the cooling rack above a plate to contain the dripping syrup. While the cake is still warm make tiny holes in the loaf and pour the lemon-sugar syrup over the cake and allow it to soak in. Let cool.

Happy Baking!
Shwe