Coco-Dates Eggless Cake

Coco-Dates Eggless Cake

Coco-Dates Eggless Cake Pieces

Cake can be dessert by itself or can be used to make desserts like trifle. It can be served with a dollop of cream (sweet/sweet and sour) or with ice cream. Make custard/ jelly and pour it over cake and a yummy dessert is ready. Problem comes when somebody wants to enjoy all these yummy desserts bur is vegetarian or do not take eggs for some reason or the other. I today am writing this post so that all of you can enjoy cake and cake based desserts. Coco-dates eggless cake is delicious, nutritious and very easy to make. I have made this cake using vegetable oil (Least saturated fat) but if you want you can make it with butter. If made using butter the texture will change but then it will be having more fat content. I bake the cakes in OTG with only lower coil heating.

Preparation Time: 30-40 minutes

Baking time 40-45 minutes

Servings: 500 gm cake (Approx.)

Ingredients Required For Making Coco-Dates Eggless Cake:

• Pre-heat the oven to 160 ^o C.
• 100 gm All Purpose Flour (Maida)
• 100 gm. Seed less dates
• 75 gm. Sugar                 
• 150 ml. Milk
• 75 ml. Vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)/75 gm. unsalted butter
• 200 gm. Thick Fresh Curd (It should not be sour)
• 30 gm. Coco Powder
• 1 Small pinch of salt
• 10-15 Almonds
• 10-15 Cashew nuts
• 5-6 Seedless dates
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/4Teaspoon Baking Soda (Cooking Soda)

Directions For Making Coco-Dates Eggless Cake:

• Cut 100 gm. of seedless dates and soak them in 150 ml. of milk for 15-20 minutes.
• Mix
• Flour
• salt
• Baking powder
• Cooking soda
• Coco powder and mix well.
• Sieve through a fine sieve three to four times to ensure proper mixing of all ingredients.
• Cut Almonds
• Cashew
• Dates to pieces (Medium) and sprinkle flour on it to coat them with flour properly.

Nuts coated with flour

• Make fine paste of soaked dated.

Paste of soaked dates and milk

• Make fine powder of sugar.
• Take oil/butter in a deep bowl and add sugar powder to it. Beat till sugar and oil mix to make uniform smooth mixture. If you are using butter then it should become fluffy (10 min. maximum)
• Add flour mixture (dry ingredients mixture) 3-4 teaspoons at a time and mix with gentle hands.
• When all flour mixture is added the batter will look thick and brittle.

Flour and cocopowder added to oil and sufar mixture

• Add all paste of soaked dates and mix. Do not whisk too much. The batter will become thinner but not pourable.

After adding Dates-Milk Paste 

• Add beaten smooth curd and mix without whisking. The cake batter will become pourable thick.
• Add pieces of nuts and dates coated with flour and mix gently.

After adding Curd

Consistency of batter

• Pour the batter in a pre-prepared (Greased/Butter pare lined) baking container.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at160 ^o C for 20 minutes. The cake batter will rise.

Cake After 20 minutes at 160 C

• Increase the temperature to 180 ^o C and bake for another 20 minutes. The cake will become darker brown and the top layer will become firm. 
• The time may vary from oven to oven so after 35 minutes of baking poke a dry stick through the center of the cake. if it comes out clean then the cake is baked else bake till the stick comes out clean. It will not take more than 40-45 minutes of baking.

Cake After 40 minutes

The stick comes out clean after 45 minutes

• Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool on a rake.
• Place a plate on the cooled baking dish with cake and turn the dish upside down on the plate.
• Pat gently on the sides and top. The cake will come down on the plate.
• Remove the baking dish.
• Cake with bottoms up is sitting on the plate.

Flip side of the Cake

• Turn the cake gently and cut to pieces.

Coco-Dates Eggless Cake

• Do I have to tell what to do next!!! Grab some pieces and eat before your family finishes it offJ

Coco-Dates Eggless Cake Pieces

Tips:

• Do not bake the cake with top coil heating only lower coil should be functional in square OTG. Round oven do not have this option as the heating coil is in the round rim.
• For best results always sieve the flour-baking powder mixture four to five times minimum.
• Curd should be fresh and thick. It should never be sour else the cake will have sour taste.
• Always coat the nuts with flour to avoid them from settling at the bottom.
• Always pre-heat the oven and prepare the baking dish before mixing the ingredients.
• Use measuring spoons available in market domestically used spoons may vary in size cause havoc to the cake.
• Either use toned milk or remove the cream settled at the top this will make cake healthier and least fatty.
• Do not over do the salt part it is just to enhance the sweetness not to impart salty taste.

Suggested Variations:

• Amounts of nuts can be increased to give more nutty and crunchy feel.
• Do not increase the amount of dates. They impart sweetness and increasing the amount of Dates means increasing the sweetness of the cake.
• If you like your cake more sweet increase the amount of sugar to 100 gm.
• Oil can be replaced with butter.
• Butter used should be white butter. I prefer using Nutrelite butter as it is having less saturated fat.

Milk Toast /Bread pudding

Crisp,Juicy Milk Toasts

Milk toasts are wonderful for breakfast as well as dessert. Brown bread or multi grain bread with milk and dry fruits make it a wholesome breakfast especially for children who do not want to take milk. It is also famous by the name of Shahi toast which is not fried, so is healthier than the Shahi toast which is deep fried and then soaked in flavored sugar syrup. Crisp from outside but juicy from inner core they are delightful delicacy
.

Preparation Time: 10 min.

Cooking Time: 30 min

Servings: 16 Milk Toasts

Ingredients Required for Making Milk Toasts:

• 8 slices of brown / white/ multi grain bread

• 250 ml. Milk (Full cream or Toned milk )

• 5 Tea spoon of Sugar 

Milk and Sugar for Milk Toast

• 2 Tea spoons Honey

• 1/4Tea spoon Green Cardamom Powder

• 10-15 cashew nuts

• 10-15 Almonds

• 3-4 Almonds

• 10-15 Pistachios

• 1 Teaspoon Ghee (Clarified butter) / Olive oil / Butter

Directions For Making Milk Toast:

• In a bowl take

• Milk

• Sugar

• Honey

• Cardamom powder

• Mix till sugar dissolves and a homogenous solution is formed.

• Cut the nuts and keep them aside.

• Heat a thick bottom non-stick Tawa / pan.

• Spread 1/4Tea spoon olive oil/ Butter / Ghee on the hot tawa.

Ghee spread on hot Tawa

• Place the bread pieces on the hot tawa and lower the flame.

Bread slices kept on hot Tawa with ghee and being toasted

• Let the bread pieces become light brown and crisp from one side.

Bread slices crisped on one side

• Flip and cook the other side also to crispness.

Bread sliced toasted to crispness on both sides

• Spread the milk mixture 4-5 tea spoons on one side. The slices of bread will become soggy initially during cooking. Allow them to cook on low flame till they become brown on the side touching the tawa/pan (Approximately 3-4 min). I like caramelized taste so I allow them to cook longer.

Milk being poured on the crisped toasts

Crisped Toasts soaked in milk being allowed to cook on low flame

Toasts with m,ilk cooked on one side and being cooked on the second side

• Flip the toasts carefully and spread 3-4 teaspoon milk mixture on the other side also and allow the toast to cook to brown color on the other side also.

Milk Toasts cooked on both sides and one toast caramelized

• Take out hot crisp juicy milk toasts on a plate and top them up with nuts.

Milk Toasts

• Enjoy with a hot cup of tea / coffee / milk for break fast or after meal as desert.

Tips:

• Due to sugar the toasts tend to caramelize. If you do not like the darker color then remove them before they start caramelizing. I personally like caramelized toasts.

• After spreading milk  mixture the bread slices will become soggy. Do not flip till the toasts are of brown color on the side they are touching the tawa. 

• Toasts should be cooked always on low flame.

• Do not cut the brown edges of slices before making the toasts.

• The bread slices should not be very thin else the toasts will break.

• While flipping after adding milk on one side care should be taken so that the toast do not break.

Suggested Variations:

• White sugar can be replaced with brown sugar as it is healthier and provides nutrition along with less calories.

• Jaggery can replace sugar this will add iron to your toast.

• Pinch of cinnamon powder can be taken instead of cardamom powder.

• The old bread from in the fridge can be cooked to crispness with little butter and stored. These crisp toasts can be used to make milk toasts as and when required, this saves time and old bread is used instead of discarding.