Eggless Vanilla and Chocolate Swirl Cake

The long Thanksgiving break really gave me the time to stir up something, and I felt the urge to bake, again. Woke up in the morning with a good plan of cooking my Ragi porridge and some rice. I had left over Rasam and Carrot kai from yesterday. Today being a Sunday and the break week, didn't want to cook something new and elaborate. But just a look at my new pack of dried cranberries gave me the urge to bake something.

I started out with a plain vanilla cake with cranberries in them, but then it all turned out to be something new, something I new tried before. It's the Vanilla Chocolate Swirl cake. This is how it all happened. While I was mixing the dry ingredients, the thought of Zebra cake stayed with me. I have seen a few blogs use toothpick and other things to make these Zebras and I wanted to try it too. But I didn't have any dark chocolate. So I used Nesquick chocolate mix (25% less sugar kind) generously. The cake turned out soft and spongy. I had some for my brunch and saved some for tea tomorrow.





INGREDIENTS:

2 cups All Purpose Flour / Maida.

1 3/4 cup Whole Milk / 2% Milk.

1/2 cup Oil.

1 1/4 – 1 1/2 cup Sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence.

Cocoa Powder / Dark chocolate Powder / Nesquick as needed.

1 Tsp Baking Soda.

1 Tsp Baking Powder.

PREPARATION:

*Preheat the oven to 350 F and line your cake pan with butter spray, butter, oil or flour.
*In a bowl, measure out the dry ingredients – Flour, Baking Soda, baking powder. Mix and keep ready.
*In another mixing bowl, start with the milk and add oil, sugar, and whisk well to dissolve any lumps. Take caution NOT to over mix as this may rob the cake of sponginess.
*Slowly add the dry ingredients little by little and incorporate them together.
*Remove half of this prepared batter and put in another bowl.
*To one portion of the batter, add 1 tsp of vanilla essence and mix it in.
*To the other half, add 3-4 spoons of dark chocolate powder or dark cocoa powder(I added 5tsp of Nesquick). The darker the powder, the better the chocolate rings.
*Now take the greased cake pan and add exactly one ladle of chocolate batter.(Pan 9" or smaller with 2" or more height is preferred)
*Next take a ladle of plain vanilla batter and add it to the centre of the chocolate batter.
*Repeat now again with the chocolate batter, to follow with the vanilla batter. Make sure that you add to the center of the previous batter.
*The repeated layers of alternate batters spread slowly to fill out to the ends of the cake pan.





*Complete both the batters and sprinkle some dried cranberries on the top of the batter. You can use any other fruit / nut of your choice.
*Set it inside the pre-heated oven for 35 minutes or until a toothpick thats inserted comes out clean.
*Remove from the oven and allow to cool and enjoy delicious Swirl Cake with your family!!!

Comments

Laddoo said…
wooow!!! u write like a pro.. :) i want to try it out...but now the question is...how can i do this in a micro wave oven??? i cant pre heat the oven here...any good options?
November 20, 2011 at 7:49 AM
Unknown said…
I am not sure Laddoo... you should try this on high power (in microwave settings). Let me know how it turns out...

Btw, you are my first comment.. thanks.

-Rama
November 20, 2011 at 9:00 AM
rajjoo said…
Superb! Mami is going to try in next week. Looks very delicious. hmmm!
November 20, 2011 at 9:45 AM
Unknown said…
Let me know how it turned out Mami.
November 20, 2011 at 11:11 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Senai Vazhakkai Molagootal (Yam and Raw Banana coconut gravy)

Image
Molagootal as you can see is my favorite Kerala Iyer food. I had shared recipes for Yelavan Molagootal and Keerai Molagootal . Now its time for Senai Vazhakkai Molagootal. Mezhukku Varatti and Senai Vazhakkai Molagootal are two recipes in which I relish Vazhakkai (Raw Banana). To the recipe now. Ingredients: Senai (Yam) - 250gm, skinned diced to 1" Vazhakkai (Raw Banana) - 1, skinned diced to 1" Coconut - 1 cup, shredded Thoram paruppu (toor dal) - 1 cup, cooked Red chillies, whole - 1 Ullundu (urad dal) - 1 tsp Kadugu (mustard seeds) - 1 tsp Jeeragam (jeera) - 1 tsp Manjal podi (turmeric) - 1 tsp Curry leaves - 4 leaves Salt - to taste Oil - 1 tsp In a pressure cooked, cook in two layers. On the bottom, add yam and raw banana with turmeric. Add just enough water to cover the vegetables. On top, add enough water to cook toor dal. Now put the pressure cooker on the stove and cook for three whistles or until dal is cooked. In a small pan, heat ...
Read more

Yelavan Molagootal (White pumpkin and coconut)

Image
Molagootal is a staple in our Palakkad Brahmin homes. We eat Molagootal every week, and sometimes a few times a week. How? Since Molagootal can be cooked with different vegetables and combination of few vegetables, every concoction of Molagootal tastes, looks and smells different. Genrally Molagootal is made with these vegetables or a combination of theses - Yelavan (White Gourd/pumpkin), Matthan (Yellow Gourd/pumpkin or Acorn suqash) , Vazhakkai (Raw Banana), Senai (Yam), Goes (Cabbage), and Keerai (Amarath or Spinach). Except Keerai , all other vegetables can be used together to make Molagootal .  Molagootal is an wholesome food. Its is mixed with rice and eaten. We sometimes use it as a side dish for chappati. Molagootal has vegetables, paruppu (dal) for protein, rice gives carbohydrates. Molagootal is eaten with Thogayal or Puli Inji or Pilukachal or Tayir Pachadi . I just used Yelavan in this recipe. No to throw away the skin of Yelavan , I use it to ma...
Read more

Manathangali Kozhambu (Black Nightingale gravy)

Image
My friend Karthik Babu seems to have captured the hearts of his roommates with his Kozhambu recipe. We were talking about it when we went to Noodles & Co for dinner. It had been a while since I cooked Kozhambu , but instead of the general paruppu Kozhambu, I wanted to cook Manathangali Kozhambu . Manathangali which is known as black nightshade in English, has antioxidant and anti inflammatory properties. It has lot of health benefits.The leaf of this plant when chewed helps to cure mouth ulcers. According to Wikipedia, traditionally this plant was used to cure tuberculosis. My grandmother used to grow this plant in our garden in Madras, India, and my mom did have her own for quite some time. But now Manathagali is available in the grocery stores (in the U.S too) in the dried and salted variety which can be stored in cool dry place for long years! There are 2 variations of this recipe, one which uses thoram paruppu ( Thuvar dal) and the other which doesn't. Here is ...
Read more