Vegan Banana carrot cake

My relatives had come.I wanted to showcase my baking skills.And I had a  few ripe bananas as also carrots. So I thought of using bananas as also carrots to bake a cake. And I decided to use flax seed meal to make it vegan.

Ingredients : 1 3/4  cup whole wheat flour,1/4 cup maida, 1 cup fruit puree ( 3 medium ripe bananas mashed & pureed with two small carrots ) , 1 cup jaggery powder ( Patanjali brand ) ,1 tbsp flaxseed powder soaked in 4 tbsp water ( soaked  for 15 minutes ) , 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda,some chopped walnuts ( optional ) , 1/4 cup oil,1/2 tsp elaichi or cardamom powder ( optional ).

Method : Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade .

Mix all dry ingredients that is mix whole wheat flour, maida, baking powder & baking soda with a spoon or whisk many timers over .This is dry ingredient mix.Keep it aside.

Take the banAna carrot mix puree.Add jaggery powder .This will increase volume of the puree .Add oil & soaked flaxseed meal along with the soaked water.Mix all things nicely. This is the wet mix.

Make a well in the dry mix & pour the wet mix into the well.Mix the dry & wet mix. Add water. I had to add almost half a cup of water to the mix to make it into a cake batter. Mix some chopped walnuts into the cake batter.

Line a baking vessel with butter paper. Pour the cake batter into the baking vessel.Tap the vessel to get rid of air bubbles. Garnish with walnut pieces on top of cake batter. Bake in convection mode at 180 degrees centigrade for 45-50 minutes or till a toothpik inserted in cake comes out clean.

During last 10-15 minutes of baking in convection mode,put off oven.Cover top of cake with aluminium foil & then bake in convection mode for remaining 10-15 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade .This is to prevent cake top from getting burnt.

After the 50 minutes baking, I bake in microwave mode for 5 minutes.

Cool the cake for 30-45 minutes. Put it upside down on a plate.Gently remove the butter paper from the cake bottom & the sides. Straighten the cake on the plate. Cut into desired shapes & serve.

I forgot to mix in the elaichi powder in batter.So I sprinkled on top of cake batter & it got burnt.This cake turned out great. Banana was recognisable .Carrots couldn't be detected.It was soft as well.And had a gorgeous crust as well !!

Vegan ( flaxseed meal ) Carrot cake

Carrot cake is an easy recipe & turns out well.Even Saffron Trail, a food blog that I follow on facebook says so.I had tried an eggless carrot cake when I had started baking .And it was my best cake in those early days of baking. My neighbour had remarked that.

Yet,so many days on, I could never repeat that cake.This time on ,I decided that I must bake with carrots. And I wanted to make it vegan.I googled & came across  some recipes.I decided to try one .And as expected, I had some ingredients & so it turned out to be another  version of vegan carrot cake.

Ingredients : 1 cup atta, 1/4 cup maida, 1 cup grated carrot , 1/4 cup oil, 1/2 cup brown sugar,2 tbsp flaxseed meal soaked in 6 tbsp warm water, 1 + 1/4  tsp baking powder,1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder, few  dried fruits ( assorted blueberries & cranberries ) for topping.

Method : Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

Mix atta, maida, baking powder & baking soda.Add cinnamon powder .Mix all many times over.Keep aside .This is the dry ingredient mix.

Add oil to the soaked flaxseed meal.Mix nicely.Add brown sugar .Mix nicely. This is the wet ingredient mix.

Make a well in the dry ingredient mix.Pour the wet ingredient mix into it. Fold all nicely so that no lumps remain. Add the grated carrots.Mix again.Add water if needed. No lumps should remain in cake batter.

Line a baking vessel with butter paper. Pour the cake batter in the vessel.Sprinkle  some dried fruits of choice on the cake batter after it sets down in vessel before beginning to bake.Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 40-45 minutes till a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. If it has some batter sticking to toothpick, bake again for 10 minutes.Better option is microwave for four to five minutes. I usually bakes it completely.Put off  oven.Let the cake cool in oven for 10-15 minutes. Then ,take out the baking vessel with cake & let it cool for 30-35 minutes outside the oven. Put it upside down on a plate.Remove the butter paper. Make the cake straighten up as it has been put upside down on the plate. Cut into desired shapes & serve.

Vegan Pineapple upside down cake

I had made Pineapple cake earlier.This time ,I wanted to make batter using apple cider vinegar.I searched for such a recipe.I stumbled upon this apple cake recipe.I replaced apple with pineapple & lemon juice with apple cider vinegar .

Ingredients : 1 cup  atta ( whole wheat flour  ) , 1/4 cup maida,3/4  cup jaggery  sugar ( Patanjali brand )  ,1 tsp baking soda, 2 tbsp oil,1 tbsp apple cider vinegar,4 round pineapple slices ( the kind available for 10 -20 Rupees in plastic pouches throughout Mumbai now, in season ) pinch of salt, warm water .

Ingredients for sprinkling on pineapple pieces : 2 tbsp brown sugar ,1/2 tsp cinnamon powder.

Method : Preheat oven  @ 180 deg centigrade.

Take a baking dish.Line it with butter paper.On that,arrange pineapple slices by cutting them or as it is.I lined just one layer.One more layer can be lined ,if you so wish.I added remaining tit bits of pineapple into the cake batter.I added remaining sugar cinnamon mix to batter.

Mix all dry ingredients that is atta,miada, baking soda & salt.Mix nicely with fork or whisk many times over.Keep aside.

Mix all wet ingredients that is apple cider vinegar & oil.Add 1/2 cup-1 cup warm ( optional ) water  water.Mix nicely.Add jaggery sugar to this wet mix. This is because, jaggery sugar has lumps & mixing this jaggery sugar in wet ingredients helps dissolve big lumps into small ones & finely dissolves lumps completely.

Make a well in the dry ingredient mix & pour the wet mix into it.Mix both dry & wet ingredients nicely so that no lumps remain.Add remaining pineapple tit bits to batter.Mix nicely again.Pour this batter on the pineappple slices lining the bottom of the baking dish.Bake @ 180 deg.centigrade for 50 minutes.

Put off the oven after 45-50 minutes.Then bake in microwave mode for 4-5 minutes so that no part of cake will remain unbaked. After 10-15 minutes,open the oven & take out the baking dish with gloved hands as baking dish will be hot.

Place baking dish out to cool for 20 minutes.Put the baking dish upside down on a plate.The cake will fall on it.Remove the butter paper from the cake .Let the cake cool for some more time.Cut into desired shapes & serve.

My cake was crumbly.It had started falling apart after I had turned it upside down .Maybe because,I did not allow it to cool much at any stage.Or maybe ,because ,I baked it for a longer time.Maybe ,I should bake it for 45 minutes & see.

The texture was nice.It had a nice dark brown crust on top & pineapple lining at bottom as seen in the picture..The cake was just sweet enough.If more sweetness is needed,sprinkle powdered sugar on top before serving or add more sugar to batter. Jaggery sugar is less sweet compared to white sugar.That makes all the difference in the sweetness.