Birthday Cake for my Eight Year Old

"I don't really want a cake", my son tried to tell me on the morning of his birthday. Perhaps the memories of the disaster I had dished out on his brother's birthday was still fresh in his memory. Unfortunately, it was fresh in my memory too, and I really wanted not to mess up.
I took really great care while making the eggless cake, divided it into strawberry batter and chocolate batter to make a zebra cake, and was delighted with the result.

The frosting was not over ambitious-I adapted a panna cotta recipe, and topped it with fresh strawberries. Quite satisfied with the result!

Birthday cake that wasn't

The cake I made for my son's tenth birthday was supposed to be special. More so because of all the people in the house, he is the only one who consistently enjoys and eats the stuff that I make. I had it all planned- a Harry Potter themed cake, with cup cakes sporting spells, and a sketch of HP's face with his trademark glasses and lightning bolt scar. I even got a bunch of icing supplies in anticipation and cupcake liners.
But the best laid plans go awry. Something seemed wrong even while I was stirring the batter, but it was only after I put the cake in the oven that I realised what was wrong- I had used rice flour instead of all purpose flour.

The cake took ages to bake, the batter which should have smoothened out continued to show it's crests and troughs, and I had to make a hasty trip to a cake shop so the kid would have something to cut at night. But, it tasted quite lovely, and I only wish I had the courage to make it again!

Eggless, but fail-proof, birthday cake

"Can you please give me a cannot fail eggless cake recipe", went out a frantic message to Kamini the weekend before my husband's birthday. Last year, I had been more than happy to experiment with a banana cake, but this year, I have the beginnings of a reputation as a cook to protect, and I didn't want to risk it on a disaster.

She came back to me immediately with a recipe for a basic yellow cake, which I followed to the letter. And the cake tasted much better than it looked.

3/4 cup butter softened 
1 2/3 cups castor sugar 
1tsp Baking Soda 
1Tbs Vinegar 
1/4 cup Curd (at room temp) 
2 tsp vanilla extract (or any other essence)
3 cups sifted cake flour (for cake flour, you add 1 tbsp cornflour to a cup of maida)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder 
1/2 tsp salt 
1 1/3 cups milk

 
Pre-heat oven to 180C
Grease and dust the baking pans
Beat butter, sugar, curd, vinegar and vanilla together in a large bowl
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together into a separate bowl. 
Alternately add flour and milk to the wet mixture, mixing well after each addition. 
Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for 30min.
Cool for 10min and turn out.

Date sponge cake

It started out intending to be an upside down date cake, but while assembling the ingredients changed its' mind and became a plain date cake instead. Another made using my mother's never fail recipe.
Happy Birthday, Mumsie

Sift together -
100 gms maida
1 tsp baking powder
three or four times till well aerated and keep aside.

Cut about 10-12 dates into quarters, roll in the flour mixture and keep aside.

Whisk 2 eggs and keep aside.

In a mixing bowl, mix-
100 gms butter
100 gms sugar
few drops vanilla essence
taking care t.hat you always stir the spoon in the same direction. Do it till the two are well mixed and creamy.

Add a bit of the flour and some beaten egg to the mixture, and mix till creamy. Keep doing it till all the flour and eggs are mixed. Mix the batter a bit more- the more you mix, the fluffier your cake will be.

Throw in the dates, and stir for some more time.

Grease or line a baking dish. Bake in recommended settings of microwave oven (or as you would a regular cake in an OTG). You will know the cake is done when you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Remove it from the oven, and let it cool before cutting and storing in a cake tin. Can be stored without refrigeration for 2 days, but I don't take a chance on that.

Eggless banana chocolate cake (cooked in a microwave)

In all these years that we have been married, I've never baked my husband a birthday cake- he doesn't have egg yolk, and the only cakes I know are "contaminated" with eggs. 
But this is his 40th birthday, and I thought it was high time I took the plunge. Since nobody I knew seemed to have a good recipe for eggless cake, I took to google, and found this recipe where bananas were substituted for eggs. The results were better than expected, though I would have preferred the cake to have risen a bit more.

You need
Flour/ maida- 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Milk- 1 1/2 cup
Cooking oil- 3/4 cup
Ripe banana- 1, mashed
Cocoa powder- 1 1/2 tbsp
Baking powder - 1 tsp

1. Sieve maida, baking powder and cocoa powder two or three times (Mother's baking tip- the more you sieve, the lighter the cake will be)

2. Warm the milk, and mix the mashed banana in it. Add oil and sugar, and stir till sugar dissolves.

3. Add the maida+cocoa powder+ baking powder mixture one spoonful at a time, making sure it mixes well. Stir in one direction only.

4. At this stage, I added half a coarsely mashed banana to give texture- you can skip it.

5. Pour into a pre-greased baking dish and bake at recommended settings (I required 5 minutes). Test by pushing in a toothpick- if it comes out clean, it is done.

6. Allow to cool. The next step is optional.

7. Cut the cake in half, if rectangular, or bake two identical cakes using the same amount of batter. Spread a thin layer of Nutella on half the cake, arrange thinly sliced bananas in a layer, and place the other half over it, pressing slightly.

I loved the combination of banana and chocolate, but can also add texture by adding walnuts instead of, or in addition to the cocoa powder.