Vanilla cake Archives - Dees Platter

I never thought that one day I will be posting my 100th recipe here when I started DeesPlatter blog. I was sure that after posting a few, I will not be able to continue, as writing was never my forte. I always loved reading and for that I will forever be grateful to my father for imbibing this habit.

This became possible due to the inspiration that I got once I started blogging and came across many excellent bloggers who are writers, foodies, philosophers, story tellers, wonderful photographers, nature lovers, pet lovers, travellers etc… By reading their posts, I just couldn’t hold myself from expressing my views in the comments section. I was surprised that actually I was writing and was looking for words to express my views!

In between, due to personal reasons a few brakes came, but I still continued blogging and today I feel so proud to post my 100th post – that too of my favourite cake – Eggless Vanilla Sponge Cake, loved by all.

Around 10 years back, my husband and I bought 31 litres microwave. That was the biggest size available in the showroom and we thought of using it for baking (till then I had no idea about OTG). But for 4-5 years we used it only as a heating compartment for preparing curd, reheating food, roasting papad, cooking rice and boiling potatoes. I guess I was just not confident enough to try baking.

Just surfing around the Internet one day I came across a recipe of carrot cake and suddenly I was interested to give it a try. Cake came out with flat top (as I had read somewhere that flat top of the cake indicates your baking skill) and I was very happy to see that as it was my first attempt. Cake was dense, and I realised that only flat top is not enough. But now I started baking in my microwave with full energy and enthusiasm. I was adamant not to join any baking classes as I felt Google gives us enough tutorials to learn. But in the process of learning from my own mistakes, my microwave was used rigorously day and night. I remember one day I baked 3 wheat flour bread loaves and none was satisfactory.

A few neighbours liked my wheat flour buns, cookies, cupcakes and I started getting orders. But by now my dear microwave was giving up after letting me do enough trials and errors and giving me enough courage to take orders. I bought OTG, but I am still using my dear microwave as a heating compartment to prepare curd and keeping bread dough for proofing.

After baking my first carrot cake, I tried a few more different recipes of cake and tried to understand the science of baking and difference of ingredients in each recipe. The result of a cake with eggs will be different from eggless cake. With my experience I found that thick hung curd or flaxseed powder are the best replacement of eggs if we want to change a recipe of cake with eggs into eggless cake.

This particular recipe of eggless vanilla sponge cake has thick curd and oil including other ingredients. This cake comes out so well with smooth brown crust that it is difficult to wait till it cools down.

Nice moisture with wonderful sponge and balanced sweetness will definitely urge you to bake this cake again and again!

Recipe courtesy: Nita Mehta’s Cookbook

Ingredients

All purpose flour (Maida) 1+1/2 cup

Sugar 3/4 cup

Baking soda 1/2 tsp

Baking powder 1+1/4 tsp

Thick curd 1 cup

Oil 1/2 cup

Vanilla essence 1+1/2 tsp

Points to remember:

All ingredients should be on room temperature.
If you don’t have thick curd, sieve the normal curd in muslin cloth and use it.
Check expiry date of baking soda and baking powder before using.
Don’t open the door of the oven for the first 20-25 minutes of baking. Uneven temperature might result in collapsing the cake.
All ovens have different settings, so the complete baking time might vary as per your temperature settings.
Don’t let the cake stay in the tin for a long time. Heat of the cake will turn the bottom of the cake soggy.
This cake can be baked in microwave also on convection mode using the same settings as given in this recipe.
After greasing the tin you can spread parchment paper at the bottom of the tin. It helps cake to come out the tin easily.
The beauty of this cake is its brown top. After completing the baking time also if top is not brown, just switch on top rod only and bake for a few more minutes, but keep an sharp eye. If done for a longer period, cake might burn with excess heat or it will be dry.

Process:

Grease baking tin with oil/butter, sprinkle maida all over the tin nicely and tap it in the opposite direction to remove excess flour.

Sieve maida 2-3 times so that it becomes light and keep it separately.

In a separate bowl add curd and sugar and mix them till sugar dissolves completely.

Now add baking soda and baking in curd sugar mix, mix it gently and keep it separate for 3-4 minutes till bubbles come up.

Preheat oven at 175/180 degree for 10 minutes.

Add oil and vanilla essence and mix them gently once bubbles are visible.

Now in three batches mix maida in wet mixture with a wire whisk. . Don’t do rigorous mixing.

Shift this mixture in ready cake tin. With the help of spatula spread it evenly, tap the tin three four times and bake it at 175 degree for 30 – 40 minutes. Check the cake by inserting toothpick in the center. Cake is done if toothpick comes out clean.