A very low fat eggless banana cake

Ever since I got hooked onto baking, I've always been on the lookout for eggless sponge cake recipes, especially ones without lots of butter, condensed milk and guilt. I have tried a few butterless sponges that I found online, but they're always very disappointing.

Another seemingly impossible recipe on my wishlist - An eggless, low fat, banana sponge. I have tried and failed many times to create that perfect banana sponge, but yesterday, I did manage to put together a guilt free banana cake that I was reasonably satisfied with. By no means a sponge, but definitely soft, moist, not very dense and incredibly flavorful. My oh my the smells! I was overwhelmed by the beautiful smells coming out of the oven which complimented eachother so wonderfully. I'd nailed the perfect combination finally- Too much banana isn't pleasant, it's quite headache inducing. And yet you need enough to replace the fats and bind everything together.

This is no birthday cake, but it's a pleasant smelling sweet snack for when you really want to bake a cake but without so much of the guilt!

 

Here's what you need.

1 & 1/4 cup All purpose flour

3 teaspoons Cocoa Powder

3/4 cup yogurt (I used low fat)

3/4 cup sugar

1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

2 tablespoons vinegar

one medium sized very ripe banana

1 teaspoon vanilla 

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F or 175°C. Prepare your cake tin.

2. Sift flour, cocoa powder into one bowl.

3. Blend the yogurt, sugar and pieces of the banana into a smooth mixture.

4. Add half a teaspoon of baking powder and the vanilla essence to the banana mixture and beat well. Let there be lots of  bubbles!

5. Tip into the flour mixture and gently mix.

6. JUST before you pour the batter into the tin, add the remaining baking powder to the vinegar and mix quickly. Tip this mixture into the batter, give it one good mix and get it into the oven as soon as possible so as to not lose the air bubbles.

7. My cake was done in 30 minutes, but check just in case yours is done sooner. When its almost done you get this gorgeous smell so watch out for that!

And this is one of those cakes which tastes even better the next day. But if you can't wait till then,     

tuck in! :)

My love for food blogs and my failures as a baker.

I'm not exactly a novice when it comes to baking, I've been a pretty passionate baker for more than a year now. The first time I put my heart and soul into baking a chocolate cake was for this friend's birthday back when I was in school. The result was fantastic, I earned the reputation of being a good baker over night. woo hoo!!

I guess different people are motivated by different things when it comes to baking. I mean, cooking is an art. You throw your herbs in, you hum a little tune, you modify things a little, and even if your dish doesn't quite turn out right, you alter this, you add that, and you have a fairly acceptable meal to present to your disgruntled family.
Baking is so not like that.
Once it's gone in the oven, it's gone.
Sometimes the batter tastes good, but the cake isn't right.
Sometimes the batter tastes not so great, but the cake is oh-my-god.
Sometimes the batter sucks. You shiver with fear, hoping it turns out like it did above.
and, *my world* sometimes, both the batter and the cake taste absolutely unbearable.

I'm writing this blog post because the smell of my most recent cupcake debacle still makes me feel slighty nauseated. *shudder*

I should probably mention here that I can't bake with eggs at home. My tam bram parents went no-egg sometime back, and honestly, I think I can do fine without that awful smell of raw eggs. It was when I googled for other options that I discovered the vast world of food blogs. Oh what a beautiful world!!

But it was when I stumbled into Sunita Bhuyan's website that I realised the magnitude of the word food blog. Oh my. That food photography!!! I'd go visit various recipes that I knew I was never going to try just to ogle at the pictures. All I wanted at that time was a glorious food blog of my own, with lots of tantalizing pictures and a pretty picture of myself at the top. *sigh*

And then there's Madhuram.  What a website! Her Website is pretty much the bible for the eggless baking newbie. What an EXHAUSTIVE collection of recipes! It was her website that opened me up to the whole food-blogosphere. Oh, such domestic goddesses, these food bloggers! They come up with one inventive recipe after another, and then take those sexy pictures, and we're left helplessly staring with desperate longing.

And there are people like me. Wannabe-kitchen-goddesses, who try and fail again and again to invent a perfect healthy, yet tasty cake recipe that the real kitchen goddesses may someday try out and say, "Oh, that was wonderful! Thank you so much!". Haha. Yes, I'm quite a dreamer.

Okay, it's not like I don't have the occasional success. How ever much I maybe stripping myself of my self respect with this post.

But my constant bold experiments have left me with enough disaters to write a book about, So Here's, in a nutshell, what I learnt from my failures this far.

1. DO NOT TRY TO BE OVERLY HEALTHY. I mean, it's a cake for crying out loud. WWF cakes made with pilsbury aata can earn you a bad reputation with your friends. Try it on your unsuspecting brother if you must.

2.DO NOT TRY AND REPLACE ALL THE SUGAR WITH DATE SYRUP AND EXPECT NO ONE TO NOTICE. I've had some of my worst disasters with date syrup, trying to create that magic healthy recipe. But to be fair, date syrup is AMAZING. Check out the chocolate chip cookie recipe with date syrup in this website. I baked them without eggs. Beautiful :)

3.NEVER MIX MANGO AND CHOCOLATE :( Those cupcakes in the kitchen I mentioned? They look incredible. And they're so soft and moist. And almost fat free. But smell them and you're going to pass out. NEVER  mix mango and chocolate.

So that's it for this post. I doubt anyone is ever going to read this. But if you're a food blogger and you've read this loooong post till the very end, and if you do experiment senselessly like me, please do make sure your food doesn't go into the bin. After all, there is a famine in Somalia and there's millions of hungry people out there :(.

Alright, Ciao!