MANGO SUTRA! Mango Flavoured Piping Gel Home-Made

Mango season...
Every body is going Loco!

Come on...
Whats up with the golden yellow, fleshy,juicy fruit??
Give me chocolate any day.
One mango cake @Fat Free Mango Cake has spun three ...and another in the waiting...well if its mango you want...its mango you get.

About a year ago I'd been blessed with a few small containers of fruit gel by someone working in a bakery...need I say...after a clandestine meeting ....
Those gels tasted synthetic and of only sugar....so I searched high and low and tried many piping gel recipes available online...and finally came up with my own.
Dispensing them around...I am magnanimous...

for you to try the

MANGO SUTRA!Mango Flavoured Piping Gel...

you need

1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp mango essence
a few drops liquid food colour yellow
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp cornflour

The mango essence available in Ranchi contains food colour.
Use whatever is available.
And the most important thing is tasting!

Start with the sugar in the sauce pan.Add the cornflour and mix well.

To this add the lemon juice and the water.Ensure you strain the juice....you don't want pips of lemon on the cake.

Now on a low flame and whisking constantly ,cook the muddled mass.

It will be cloudy and no where near a gel...WAIT!
I said, it is MAGIC!
When this mess comes to a boil..it turns transparent...time to add the colour and the essence.

Keep stirring and don't over cook...the gel will become bitter otherwise...
Perfect golden...

I know it does not look as pretty as it should yet...let it cool while you frost the cake...
This gel was made for friend Kanchan's take on my Fat Free Mango Cake. So while she ran upstairs and brought the cake....I waited...

And by then the gel was cool enough to pour...See the difference in the colour...

OK ...on slices of mango...

This amount is just enough for one cake topping...and you cant store this for future use...it crystallises.But it stays on the cake a day or two...if your cake stays, that is.
So eat now!
You can vary the flavours too....


I made a mango sponge..and frankly for a non mango-phile like me...all the paroxysms of Ecstasy looked a bit to weird to me...
Gimme Chocolate any day...
I'll gladly walk to hell and back...
I saw Vickey Ratnani bake and attack a chocolate fondant on TV today...and when he cut into that fondant and it all oozed out onto the chopping board...
He spoke my language!
Thank god hubby dear was not around...he would have fainted...
Imagine ..just watching me watch chocolate ....



So what are you baking and frosting today???

PS Karishma...make your baby happy!

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Fat Free Mango Cake -Happy Birthday Swati and / or MonaLisa

Now you are 21 you can do things that you couldn't have done before...or should I say, shouldn't have done before.
~Unknown Author


Well Happy 21st birthday Swati/MonaLisa...
Welcome to the world of madness....
Welcome to the time when, the grass you've left behind will seem so green...you'll be jealous...
Baby,welcome to reality.

And the Beauty of FAT FREE!

Fine print...if you don't frost...

Whats a birthday cake without any frosting?

So this cake was kept simple and frosted with 25% fat non dairy cream and flavoured with REAL mangoes.
I wanted to make a proper lady like cake for the young lady in question...

This was tempting...not to me though!

I'm not particularly fond of mangoes...That proved to be a boon...for me!

for this delish looking cake...

No butter,no oil...

And the piping gel...

That's another story..

I found the recipe for the cake here. But then I changed the frosting..and filling ,no cream cheese too!

Try this out.

for the 

Fat Free Mango Cake -Happy Birthday Swati and / or MonaLisa...

you need

2 eggs

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 1/2 cup mango puree

1/4 tsp salt

for the 

Frosting

300 gms whipped cream

1 cup chopped mango

1 cup cold milk/mango juice

1/2 cup mango flavoured piping gel(recipe coming up)

lots of patience

This cake is quick....and  gives you a sense of having made way too much. But believe me...it just gives 1 9inch round cake...so if you want to split the batter into two tins..you'll still end up with a regular cake ...and not a tiered cake the height of Mount Everest!

Start with ripe mangoes...if they are soft YAY! they'll be all squidgy and gooey and sweet and flavourful and easy to puree.

I used 5 large mangoes...1 for the filling and 4 for the cake.

Peel and puree and chop.

Pre heat the oven at 350F/190C and grease and flour yur tin/tins..
Start with the eggs and the sugar.

Beat till they quadruple in volume and the sugar is dissolved.

In the mean while sift the dry ingredients and set aside.
Now 1/2 cup at a time blend in the mango puree...

Till it is all used up...like so.
Love the sunshine in the batter already!

Add in the essence,if you can manage 1/2 tsp mango essence...I'm sure that will be wonderfullllll.
But I had none. Now quickly fold the flour mix in with a wooden spoon..

The ever cautious me...I thought I'll end up with a volcanic eruption in my oven(the thought of cleaning up frightens me to no end actually..)So I removed some into 2 jelly moulds and then  proceeded to wrap the pan in AL Foil.

Complete waste of time and effort.No Volcano,no mess!
The jelly moulds were great tasters though....after 35 minutes the cake was ready...

Now cooled and the cream was whipped and the cake was ready to be dressed for the party...
Split in the middle.The colour returned...and how!

The cake being fat free was a little dry for me, so I poured about 1/3 cup milk all over to make it wet and ready for the mango.You'll need some milk for the top layer too- Fruit juice is good too. A little cream and a lot of mango to sandwich the two layers.

Like so...

Second layer on and covered and piped with florets....

and poured over with piping gel...

Happiness....

as a face pack!

And all the children...

The pictures of the cake cutting and eating are all with Monalisa.....

The gel was tempting , just falling off...being attacked by the little girls...

Try this cake this summer...beat the heat and spread some happiness.

Catch the Mango Flavoured Piping Gel @Mango Flavoured Piping Gel- Home made

So what are you baking today???

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Egg Less Chocolate Chip Cookies- with Yogurt and Jaggery

Chocolate ....
Sinful...but its even more killing when want to devour these cookies and you are a vegetarian...or its Tuesday...or Thursday(PS the two days when we don't eat eggs or meat in our house).I got a mail from Harsha, who for some reason could not post a comment...on the Whole Wheat chocolate chip cookies with jaggery. She ,like so many others,does not eat egg...and was so tempted.

So Harsha, these are for you.

Full of chocolate...not small chips ...these were chunks. And these cookies were big and egg less.

And Easy.
Very.
I took some for a lady who has just fractured her arm, and undergone surgery.
Flowers, she was already inundated with.
Chocolate seemed to be a better mood lifter.
Remember Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Chocolate can make you feel better even when Dementors are around...what's a lousy fracture?

So lets get on with ...


Egg Less Chocolate Chip Cookies- with Yogurt and Jaggery...

you need

1 cup chocolate chips/approx 200 gms semi sweet chocolate cut up roughly
1/4 cup brown sugar(I used grated jaggery-gur)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
4 tbsp butter- I used 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp Clarified butter/desi ghee
1/4 cup yogurt-half of this will suffice
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda/soda bicarb
1/4 tsp salt

The recipe is a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe in which I replaced the egg with the yogurt.
I see no use in buying chocolate chips, they are so miniscule...chocolate needs to be felt and tasted. That is what real pleasure is all about...so stick to semi sweet cooking chocolate...always available!
Chopped coarsely...

That is the butter and desi ghee(yup, you guessed it...I was fresh out of butter...and BTW the desi ghee tasted awesome), the jaggery and the sugar.

Oops...oven to be preheated at 190C/350F.
Now start the beating and the whipping....

Into this add the yogurt. If you have a cup measure of 1/8 cup,use only that much,this much yogurt made the dough wet. So I had to balance t with a spoonful of extra flour.
Bad!
So add less yogurt....and mix.

It does look like a curdled mess....but no worries .The chocolate will bring it all back together again.Add in the vanilla.

The flour....now using the spoon.

Tip in the chocolate and mix.

Ice cream scoop again...this time too 12 cookies...but I love the bakers dozen...so invariably I have 13.

On the baking tray ,which still bore the debris of an overblown casserole.

In the oven,till the bottoms look brown and the tops look done but are soft....OUT!
They love touching each other ,trespassing on each others territory....
They are big!

And packed with some chocolates.On the way to the hospital.

The rest...all packed for sweet child.
Complete with a bottle of milk.

A view from the top!

Looking pretty....

And tasted Yum!

So Easy...and egg less!
Harsha...go bake!


So what are you baking today???

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Cooked Butter Cream Frosting -Green Velvet Cupcakes

Hello Flowers!

This was the bouquet that inspired the Green Velvet Cup cakes...

The frosting was a butter cream ...which was Low Calorie....

Happiness!

Such simple things bring so much pleasure and joy!
Beautiful flowers and a low calorie butter cream frosting!

Butter Cream...no matter what you say...the taste of real butter is always better than the soy fat enriched "Rich Cream" or  kraft "Cool Whip".
But the thought of all that saturated fat is enough to scare even the strongest of hearts....
So we all look for substitutes...
And one substitute came from bakerella.
Tempted enough to try?
I was...
Very...

For the

Cooked Butter Cream Frosting...

you need

113 gms /1/2 cup butter
1 cup caster sugar/Icing sugar
1 cup milk
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla essence

Start with the milk in a sauce pan....

Add to this the flour and whisk...now turn the heat on and keep stirring till it becomes an ugly whitish ball..that makes you wonder..did I do the right thing???

Well you did.
This is what it is supposed to look like.

Just set it aside to cool.
In the meanwhile whisk the butter and the sugar till its nice and creamy. Now that the flour mix is cool, blend it all into the butter and also...add in the vanilla essence.

This is what it will look like...you need  to cool it before you start to pipe it onto the cupcakes...It is boiling hot in Ranchi at the moment...so it looks a little loose ...I can assure you that the character is not loose...
Or Dheela...
Enjoy this hip wrenching song while you make and eat the cupcakes...will burn a few calories.

This is the frosting..

Being piped on the cupcakes...

And the pretty cupcakes posing...In all their glory...

A few sprinkles go a long way.
And decorate the glorious green velvet cup cakes with this,,,,

Verdict???
Super!
So say Sweet Child and friend Kanchan's Children Rahul and Piya.

So what are you baking and frosting today???

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