Gluten-Free Pineapple Upside Down Cake | Eggless Baking

More gluten-free baking @ Annarasa. Today I am sharing my go to recipe for a gluten free Pineapple Upside Down cake. This is a very simple recipe that is also eggless. It yields a very light, delicious dessert cake. Enjoy with fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Mango Kalakand

With festive season in full swing, its time to begin preparing sweets. The first sweet I made this season is Mango Kalakand. If you love Kalakand, this is your treat. And if you love mangoes, what better way to extend the mango season in to late autumn and indeed even winter.

Fresh Strawberry Scones | Eggless Baking

Its summer and strawberry season is in full swing. Farmer's markets, super markets, coops are all well stocked with the luscious red berries. Though we have been enjoying the berries since April, last week we decided that it was time to go strawberry picking. It was our first time in hereabouts, we had great weather in the valley, and we loved it. The strawberries were small but sweet and full of flavor, We ate way too may and picked over 10 lbs to bring home!!

Super Moist Blueberry Muffins with Orange Blossom Water | Eggless Baking

We are getting tons of blueberries around here. Fresh, sweet, sometimes tart, but always delicious. We love snacking on berries in the summertime and blueberries are no exception to that rule. Last weekend, I was able to lay my hands on the most beautiful blueberries at our local market. We ate our fill of them for dessert and then I began to think of ways to use them in baking.

Yummylicious Banana Cardamom Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This is one of our favourite banana cakes. Seasoned with cardamom that complements bananas so beautifully, it is a perfect treat for the festive season! Of course, I love that the cake is eggless too. Usually when I make this cake in the afternoons for tea, I just dust it with some icing sugar! This time however to chase the rainy day blues away, I decided to indulge and frost it too:) The frosting recipe is very easy to do, just throw it all together and blend it and you are good to go.

Bite-Size Raspberry Jam Biscuits | Eggless Raspberry Jam Biscuits

Many years ago, I came across the jammie biscuit in England. Pretty yellow biscuits, with a sticky baked jam center really made my day. I loved them with my afternoon cuppa (shorthand for a cup of tea on the British Isles)!! They also reminded me of the jam biscuits we ate as kids back in India. The only difference was that in India, the filling was mixed fruit jam, a species of jam rarely found on super market shelves elsewhere, while in England, the filling was always raspberry jam, or apricot preserve!!

Delicious Apple Pecan Crumble

Its apple season here, and we getting a wonderful variety of local apples at the many orchards that dot the countryside. While some orchards have a pick your own policy, some do all the hard work for you and you can just walk into the barn and get a 5lb bag of you favourite fruit or even a bushel if you fancy!! 

Daring Bakers August 2011: Candylicious with Raspberry Pate de Fruit!!

The August 2011 Daring Bakers were challenged to some seriously sweet business!! When I saw the recipes, my heart did a quick flip. Most readers of my blog know, I don't really have a sweet tooth. While I enjoy the occasional dessert or candy, and love to bake and create various sweetmeats for friends and family, I rarely did my fangs in them. On the other hand give me something spicy and salted and I cave in in an instant!!

Banana Walnut Cake (Eggless)

Back to some baking!! The banana-walnut combination is what I always describe as sterling for cakes. The sweetness of the banana is set off perfectly by the oily nuttiness of the walnut. Needless to say, Banana-Walnut Cake ranks as one of the favourites in our home. I developed this recipe for an eggless cake many years ago when I wanted to stop adding eggs to my bakes. Though I still bake with egg whites, I like to avoid them wherever I can. This cake comes out so soft, spongy, and moist, you will never know that it was made without eggs!!

Fresh Fruit Yogurt: Delicious Strawberry & Blueberry Tiers

I love fruited yogurts, but always feel rather uncomfortable buying them in the supermarket. All kinds of added preservatives, too much sugar, artificial flavouring are the ultimate turnoff. There are some great organic brands available, but I feel that are truly overpriced for the quantity offered. All in all I prefer to make my own from scratch, but occasionally I do like to use plain Greek yogurt to make fruit yogurts or deliciously fruity parfaits!!

Aam aur Nariyal ki Barfi | Mango-Coconut Fudge

Barfi or Burfi, meaning ice-like, is a milk based sweet from the Northern parts of India. This Meetha (sweet) is now popular all across the Indian sub-continent. It is made at home on special occasions and is easily available ready made in Halwai or Mithai (Sweet Stores) that dot villages, towns, and cities across the country!!

Vrat ka Khana | Fasting Foods: Aam ki Lassi | Mango Yogurt Smoothie

Aam ki Lassi is the most refreshing drink. Fresh sweet mangoes are blended with plain yogurt to get a supremely sweet and tangy drink. Mango Lassi not only quenches your thirst, its a nutrition powerhouse and will give you tonnes of energy, especially if you are fasting.

Strawberry Preserve for the Daring Cooks September 2010

Ah! Food Preservation, what a perfect theme for late summer! Living in the northern hemisphere, there is the urge to squirrel away the bright flavours of summer for the icy cold winter, when sun-ripened vegetables and fruit rarely grace our tables.

Old Fashioned Summer Raspberry Jam

The early arrival of summer this year has been good for vegetables and fruits. After our annual ritual of strawberry picking in early June, we decided to join our local organic berry patch to pick summer raspberries!! Sadly some rather unseasonal rain led to the picking being canceled. The patch owner however had an excellent harvest. She contacted us and asked if we would like some pre-picked berries from the farm. We were delighted and got a pail of sweet-tart raspberries.

Healing Foods Pomegranate: The Roundup

Last month I was the guest host to a food blogging event series called Healing Foods. This series has been created by Siri @ Siri's Corner. I chose Pomegranate as it is a much loved fruit, has great healing properties, tastes great, and can be used in a multitude of ways. This is a roundup of the entries I received for the month-long event. The entries are arranged as I received them!

Fresh Apple, Pecan, and Cinnamon Cake

Its been some time since I baked a cake. So when I caught a break on Tuesday evening, I decided to pull out the flour, sugar, and eggs and have a go at it!! I baked a fresh fruit and nut cake with apples, pecans, and cinnamon. This cake is soft and spongy, but it also have a great crumbly texture. Its great with a hot cuppa but you can serve it as dessert with a dollop of fresh cream!

Sweet Mango Cardamom Cream

Its Mango Season in India and I was craving the fruit!! Anyone who has tasted any Indian mango can relate to this craving. Regardless of which part of India the mango may come from, each type has its own unique identity and sublime taste. Though the Alphonso is the most well know, mangos like the Kesar, Dussheri, Langra Banarasi, Chausa, Safeda - to name just a few are well loved for their colour, fragrance, and taste.Of course, none of these can be found here - though in England Kesar and Alphonso was easily available!!

Orange Tian with the Daring Bakers

At last, a citrus dessert!! The 2010 March Daring Baker's Challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as a challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse's Cooking School in Paris.

Whipped Kiwi-Banana Frozen Yogurt

Kiwis are probably one of the prettiest fruits in the market. When I was growing up they were rarely seen in the fruit stalls of Delhi and Mumbai. My first memory of them is on chilled fruit tarts, sublimely green and rather exotic, sitting very prettily next to strawberries, and pineapples! When they first made an appearance in the local fruit markets, they were assigned a special place - imported and expensive. Interestingly they were also regularly confused with Chikoo or Sapota due to their dull brown-green skin!! The two fruits could not taste more different, though each is lovely in is own way:) I love the sweet-tartness of the Kiwi and when paired with banana, its simply divine.

Pepper n Lime Cake with a Lime Glaze Icing

My first experience with an olive oil cake was when I made my very first Sauternes cake. The divine combination of the fragrant Sauternes wine and the spiciness of the olive oil just captured my imagination and subsequently my palette. Since then, I have rarely hesitated to experiment with olive oil in my baking. I developed this version of the olive oil cake a few weeks ago after two deeply frustrating attempts at following a recipe that was meant to give me a stunning chocolate cake!! Being an intuitive cook I just knew that something was not quite right - but then the recipe came from what is widely considered a well-trusted source. Anyway, after I chucked 2 cakes in the bin, I went back to my own judgement and vowed not follow recipes after all ;)