Mango tea cake

It is the 2nd week of April already, the Sun is beating down so hard I fear widespread spontaneous combustion. In May if not right away.  The worst is yet to come.

But the one thing that makes this weather acceptable has not deigned to make an appearance yet, at least, not in an acceptable, enjoyable fashion.

I am talking about mangoes of course.  I see Senthuram in the market place, occasional bounty of Alphonso more expensive than Gold at the moment and indifferent Banganapalli.  No Malgoa, no Organic varieties, nothing.  Our local mango mandi continues to sell handicrafts pretending it is still March.

The Senthuram quality lurches wildly.  The first two were awesome, the third sour, the fourth was spat out my mangophile son. I decided to minimize the risk with the fifth, sixth and seventh.

When life throws poor mangoes at you, make mango muffins!  Or if you have run out of cupcake linings and you are too lazy to butter the individual tins, make tea cake :)

First step is getting your better half (remember, honey gathers more flies ;) to peel and dice the mangoes.  He will make a substantial headway into the sweeter pieces, but no matter.  Grind the remaining mangoes into a lumpy pulp with 2 - 3 pods of cardamom and 2 - 3 tablespoon of yogurt to help the blending process.

Now comes the algebra, every cup of mango pulp requires 2 cups of flour (chapathi flour is fine).  Every cup of flour requires 1/4 cup of oil and 1 egg.  And about 1/4 cup sugar also.  And of course 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp baking powder.
i.e x Pulp needs 2x APF could be aata, maida, or combinations, measurement in cups
x APF needs 0.5 baking soda, 0.5 baking powder  measurement in teaspoons
x APF also needs 1 egg
x APF also needs 0.25 sugar, 0.25 oil measurement in cups
optionally 0.5 cups mixed, chopped nuts
and 0.25 cups chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate

You can give total volume of batter and then make your child calculate the x you started from.  Reward would be the actual baked cake ;)Seriously kidding! 

I added some orange marmalade because I have some sitting in the fridge, detested by my kids and because the mango is not its usual sparkly self.  (It it were, it wouldn't be made into a cake in the first place)
I added the chips only because I tasted the batter and worried my younger son would complain it is not sweet enough, besides my older one treats all non-chocolate dessert with disdain.

In my case:
1 cup mango pulp
2 pods cardamom (powdered separately and mixed to the pulp and ground with the pulp)
2 cups flour (1 maida, 1 chapathi flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup almonds chopped
1/4 cup cashew chopped
1 tbspoon orange marmalade
1/8 cup chocolate chips (little brat woke up and demanded some of the chips, being a good mother I share in his games)

Sieve the flour(s), baking soda and baking powder together

In a separate bowl beat the eggs and sugar together until light and lemony
Add the oil and continue beating .
Add the mango pulp and flour alternately and mix in gently.
Fold in the orange marmalade.
Fold in the nuts and/or chips if using.

Pour into a 8" round or rectangular pan.
Bake for 20  - 30 minutes.

Turn out onto a cooling rack.
Cut into square pieces.

Serve with ganache or whipped cream or just tea.

a nice fine crumb despite 50% whole wheat flour

by the time I got around to photos, only this much was left

Yet another carrot muffin

Mich's low fat carrot cake has been calling to me for days (since the day she posted it to be exact). I finally wound up making it yesterday. In muffin form.
Now, the trouble with muffins is, unlike cakes, they look complete when you take them out of their tin. Especially when they come dressed in a paper liner. Lazy bones don't feel the need to exert more effort into making a frosting.
So, I left out the frosting, making it even more low fat,and everyone still loved it!

Ingredients for the Cake from Delia Smith's website

1. 150 g dark brown soft sugar  (I found the previous cake I made too sweet, so used less than the recommended 175g)
2. 2 large eggs at room temperature 
3. 120 ml sunflower oil 
4. 200 g wholemeal self-raising flour (I used chapathi flour+ 1 teaspoon baking powder)
5. 1½ level teaspoons bicarbonate of soda 
6. 3 rounded teaspoons mixed spice (my hubby and my eldest son hate cinnamon and nutmeg, so I used 2 squares of grated  inji mittai, available in most stores here in Tamilnadu)
7. grated zest 1 orange (I used lemon)
8. 200 g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated (I hand grated it somewhat thin)
9. 100 g sultanas(she suggested 175g)
10. 1 tablespoon orange marmalade (to ensure the cake is not too sweet)
11. 1 cup milk  ( I found the batter a tad too thick)
    

Preheat oven to 160 deg C
Sieve the flour and baking powder and baking soda together
Grate the spices into the flour and mix
Add the zest.
Beat the eggs and sugar.  Then add the oil and mix well.
Mix the marmalade into the milk.
Alternately add the flour mix and milk to the eggs, 1/3rd at a time and mix gently.
Line muffin tin with paper liners
Fill 3/4 of the cup
Bake at 160 deg C for 15 - 20 minutes.
I got 18 muffins for this batter.

This is for Cook Like a Star: Delia Smith hosted by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Mich from Piece of Cake.
I am also posting this to the Bake Fest # 17 hosted by Sayantani of a Homemaker's Diary, started by Varadhini of cook's joy.

Granola a zillion way

It is not just kids who get their heads turned by TV.
My hubby recorded and watched half a dozen Seinfeld episodes and then started longing for the zillion cereal boxes he saw stalked on the fridge.  Probably harking back to student days at UT Austin or pre-baby working days in Dallas.  I am on a minimum Carbon Footprint endeavour, I decided to make Granola at home and keep bottles of it stashed away for the pre-breakfast, post-dinner hunger pangs.
My younger son insists on a bowl everyday.  Older prefers Chocos which are a rare treat.
The recipe is very simple:

1. 1 cup oats, NOT the quick cooking kind
2. 2 cups of Millet/Brown Rice Flakes(Aval)/Maize Flakes or combination
3. 1 cup of popped Amaranth seeds (Optional)
4. 1/2 cup Oat/Wheat Bran or 1/3 popped bengal gram ground to a fine powder
5. 1/4 cup flax seeds ground to a powder
6. 1/3 cup almonds/walnuts/pistachio or combinations
7. 1/3 cup sunflower seeds/ melon seeds/ pumpkin seeds (Optional)
8. 1/2 cup light honey
9. 1/4 cup sunflower oil
10.  1/3 cup cocoa + 1/4 cup brown sugar (Optional)
11. Vanilla essence or Cinnamon powder or Cinnamon+Nutmeg+Cardamom
12. 1/2 - 1 cup raisins/dates/cranberries/apricots dry or combination

Preheat oven to 150 deg C
Line a baking tray with parchment
Mix items 1 to 7 together in a bowl.
Warm the oil and honey together over a very low flame.
Pour into bowl and mix thoroughly.
Add items 10,11 if using and mix
Pour into baking tray, spread evenly.
Bake for 1 hour, tossing every 10 - 15 minutes until everything smells nice and toasty.
Let cool.  Add dry fruits.  Pour into a glass bottle and close tightly.
Serve with Chilled milk.

Nilgiris stacks all rolled grains:  Ragi, Bajra, Cholam

FabIndia stocks Popped Amaranth in the south

Econut, BesantNagar sells organic Oats

Scary looking but Awesome

Ready to Take out

My 3 year old enjoying

I am posting this to the Bake Fest # 17 hosted by Sayantani of a Homemaker's Diary, started by Varadhini of cook's joy.

This is a rather odd addition to a baking round up, but probably the healthiest ;)