Coffee cake with Flour frosting

Light, fluffy, aromatic and yummy is how you can describe this Coffee cake. The cake is covered by a layer of no-butter chocolate Ganache and topped with Flour frosting and the filling is no-butter chocolate Ganache. The cake is coffee flavored and blends perfectly with chocolate and the frosting. Do not let the pics deceive you, It tastes quite opposite to what it looks like.

You may be wondering about "Flour frosting" but trust me, this is the easiest frosting you will ever make. There is nothing that can go wrong with this frosting and you will not even need cream. This cake with no-butter chocolate and no- cream frosting is lesser in calories and tasted amazing. The moment Naveen tasted this, he gave a big thumbs up and I felt as though I rule the world.

It was Naveen's Birthday on August 1 and I wanted to bake a cake. This is the first Birthday cake I ever made. Because of my "Being healthy" craze, I do not bake a lot of cakes. Buying a piece of cake and getting a cheat meal over with it, always sounds good for me. However, Birthday is no good without a Birthday cake right? I knew you would agree with me.

I had to plan for recipe for my first Cake. Well, everybody does chocolate cake and I had to make something different. Coffee is Naveen's favorite flavor so I planned for Coffee cake. Now, to think about frosting, chocolate frosting will be great but what is new about that? Long time ago, I had heard that you can make frosting out of flour. I flipped through pages of my cookbook but no recipe for flour frosting. I called my friend in Delhi who is obsessed with baking and got the recipe.

I was quite excited about this frosting though skeptical and it turned out to be very soft. It is great for anything! cakes, cup cakes, cookies.. you name it! Oh yea, I forgot to tell you about the chocolate filling. I made it just as a backup for the flour frosting, if didn't work out. It is a simple no-butter chocolate Ganache. The recipe may look very lengthy but believe me, If I can do it, anybody can do it. It is that easy! That was a lot of talk, wasn't it?  I will start off with the recipe right away.

Ingredients [For a 6 inch cake]
(I made 2 cakes. You can double the quantity if you plan to make only 1)
Plain flour/Sifted flour	1 cup
Instant coffee powder	2 teaspoons
Baking powder	2 teaspoons
Baking soda/fruit salt	1 teaspoon/2 teaspoons
Egg	1
Butter	2 tablespoons
Milk	1/2 cup
Sugar	1/2 cup
Vanilla essence	1/4 teaspoon

* Beat egg, butter, milk and sugar using mixer or a blender, then add Vanilla essence.
* In a separate bowl, Sieve and mix the dry ingredients; Flour, Coffee powder, baking powder and Fruit salt.
* Add the mixed dry ingredients to egg mixture and mix well.
* Pour the batter in a lined and oiled cake mold. Preheat oven to 360 F and bake the cake at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Make sure to insert a fork or tooth pick to check if cake is cooked evenly.

* I made 2 batches of cake so that I can fill them in the middle and make it a layer cake. You can modify it the way you like.

For Flour frosting

Ingredients
[Makes 1/2 cup of frosting]
Flour	3 tablespoons
Milk	1/2 cup
Butter	2 tablespoons
Sugar	1/2 cup
Vanilla essence	1/2 teaspoon

 * Mix Milk, flour and sugar and heat the mixture in a low flame. Keep stirring and do not let it boil. Cook for 10 minutes or till the flour smell is gone. The mixture will be smooth in texture.
* Take off the heat, add Vanilla essence. Let the mixture cool and chill it in refrigerator.
* Take out the chilled frosting and blend it with butter  in high speed for a minute. The flour frosting is ready.
* Chill the frosting till it is time to assemble the cake.

For Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients
[Makes 1/2 cup of ganache]
Milk	a little less than 1/2 cup
Sugar	2 tablespoons or more
Chocolate chips	1/2 cup

* For chocolate Ganache, Mix milk and sugar in a pot and heat it in low flame. once the sugar is completely dissolved, take off the heat and then add chocolate chips. Mix well and refrigerate it.

To Assemble the cake:

* Let the cakes cool completely before cutting off the top. Take a long sharp knife and cut the top carefully.
* Place the first cake on the plate in which you choose to assemble and pour chocolate ganache. Using a table knife, coat the filling evenly.
* Place the other cake upside down on the filling carefully.

 * You can frost your cake however you wish. I coated chocolate ganache on the top and then poured flour frosting on top of it. Then, using a knife, I could draw flowers on the frosting be dipping the knife on left over chocolate ganache.

Creamy Carrot Soup

Creamy Carrot soup is a perfect starter for a cold rainy day meal. This soup is one of the easiest and tastes delicious.

I always keep a pack of carrots in my refrigerator as back up. They stay fresh for long time, longer than most of the other vegetables. Carrots are also the most versatile vegetable since you can make both sweet and savory dishes out of it. My mum once made carrot kheer and the thought of it makes me drool even to this day.  =P~

Needless to say, Carrots are one of the healthiest of vegetables. They improve our eyesight and cleanse our body. Chew a raw carrot everyday and you will see your teeth and gums getting stronger and healthy. They also prevent heart diseases, give beautiful glowing skin and also is a powerful anti-septic. A carrot a day also slows down the ageing of skin. All these benefits by munching a carrot and it is all in that crunch! ;;) If you see the nutritional value of this soup, you can find it is high in Vitamins and minerals. It is a lot less in calories too. 

I should have published this post a long time ago, but postponed it thinking it was way too simple for a dish. But then, I saw a post in FB that said "Sometimes, Simple ingredients make great food". So, here I am , posting a recipe for simple yet lip smacking soup. By the way, I had absolutely no intention of preparing a carrot soup before I started preparing it. I had prepared Spicy Flat buns and had no idea what to prepare to go with it. When I rummaged for the Vegetables, I found a neglected pack of carrots, but they were still fresh. I modified my own recipe for Pumpkin/Squash soup and made this yummy carrot soup.

We are a family of spicy food lovers and so I had to add few green chillies while blending. I have not included it in the recipe simply because I felt that you might find it strange. Please feel free to modify the recipe as per your taste. Serve and enjoy the soup hot.

Nutritional Information  (Approx) (per serving)
Energy	67		Calories
Fat	1		%
Carbohydrates	4		%
Dietary Fiber	11		%
Sodium	25		%
Vitamin A	19		%
Vitamin C	10		%
Calcium	4		%
Iron	3		%
Protein	4.3		Grams
Sugar	4.4		Grams

Ingredients
[makes 2 servings]
Carrots	3 large
Butter/Olive oil	2 teaspoons
Onion chopped	1 small
Milk	2 cups
Salt	to taste
Pepper powder	1 teaspoon
Water (Optional)	1/2 cup

* Chop carrots into bite size pieces. Heat butter in a frying pan, add chopped carrots and mix well to coat butter on every piece. 

*Fry for 5-6 minutes and then add onion. fry for another minute in high flame.

* Add milk and bring the mixture to boil. Simmer the flame and cook it covered for 5 minutes.

* If the raw smell of onion is gone after cooking for 5 minutes, remove it from flame and let it cool.

* Add salt and pepper and blend it to a smooth soup. Add water if you want to reduce the thickness of soup. Bring it to boil for a minute and take off the heat.

* Serve hot with Bread or toast.