Eggless whole wheat strawberry cake

One of our favorite activities to do together as a family is strawberry picking. We love to drive down to the farm early in the morning and pick and taste strawberries. We usually come back with more strawberries than we can eat. So for a few days it is strawberry milkshakes and various kinds of bakes using these berries. I also freeze a good amount of strawberries and use them in fall and winter, and that brings a little bit of sunshine to the otherwise cold days.

What you need:

Whole wheat flour - 1 cup

All purpose flour - 1/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp.
Butter -  1/2 cup, softened at room temperature
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Milk - 1/2 cup
Vinegar - 1 tbsp
Strawberries - 1/2 cup, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and line with parchment paper, a 9 inch cake tin. Sieve the flours, baking powder and baking soda together.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the dry ingredients, milk, vinegar
and vanilla extract. Mix well and pour into the prepared pan. Top with the chopped strawberries. Sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar over the strawberries. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#82

Strawberry ice cream - Step by step recipe and instructions

This post has been in my drafts ever since we came back from our trip to Mahabaleshwar. To say that Mahabaleshwar is a strawberry lover's idea of heaven would be an understatement. Nowhere else have I tasted such luscious and juicy strawberries. One of the things I made with the whole lot of strawberries I brought back with me is this ice cream. The basic method and recipe used are the same as the one for my mango ice cream. 

What you need:
Stawberries – hulled and chopped – 2 cups, heaped

Sugar – 1 cup

Milk – 1 litre

Cream – 200 ml (I used one pack of Amul cream)

Maida – 2 tbsp

Step-by-step instructions for making strawberry ice cream:

• Chop the strawberries into large chunks. 

 

• In a large bowl, sprinkle sugar over the chopped strawberries and then leave covered for two hours, allowing the strawberries to macerate. 

 

• At the end of two hours, you will see that a lot of juice has oozed out of the strawberries and that most of the sugar has dissolved in the liquid. 

 

• Stir once again and then mash the strawberries to a coarse puree with a wooden masher. Set aside.

• Dissolve the maida/all purpose flour in 1/2 cup of milk and mix to get a smooth, lump-free paste.

• In a large, heavy bottomed pan, bring the remaining milk and cream to a boil. Reduce the flame and allow the mixture to simmer until it is reduced to half the quantity. 
• Add in the flour mix, taking care to stir continuously to avoid the formation of lumps.
•  Let this cool completely and then add the mashed strawberries. 
• Blend well using your blender/mixie.

 

• Freeze for 5-6 hours and then blend again. Repeat this freezing and blending process two more times to get a delicious, creamy texture.

 
Strawberries give the ice cream a lovely, natural light pink hue, which in my opinion is more pleasing than the colour of store bought strawberry ice cream.

This is my post for the second day of Blogging Marathon #29, under the theme Cooking with Colours. My colour for the day is Red.
Check out the http://spicingyourlife.blogspot.com/p/blogging-marathon.html">Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#29

From your blog to my kitchen - Strawberry sorbet

For the last 31 days, me and my fellow marathoners have posted one recipe a day. There were a few days in between that I missed, but on the whole it has been a good experience. The recipe that marks the end of this marathon is fittingly, a light, refreshing and beautifully colored sorbet. The recipe is from Rachel's blog. The only change I made is omitting the black pepper. The rest of it is the same.

What you need:
1 box of strawberries - about 15 in number
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Lemon juice - 3 tsp

Combine sugar and water. Boil until the sugar dissolves completely. Let it cool.
Puree the strawberries and lemon juice in a blender, adding the sugar syrup in batches.
Freeze until firm.
Scoop out and enjoy!!!
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Gayatri,Monika, PJ, Azeema,Usha, Ayeesha,Veena, Soumya and Reva are cooking.

Strawberry cake

Can a host be late for the party? No way!!! Well, technically, I am not late....I still have an hour before the deadline. What am I talking about??? Read on to find out!!!
Indira's strawberry-oats cake has been on my mind since I saw it because I love strawberries. But ever since I saw her cake, those little boxes of strawberries that are sold here did a disappearing act. I didn't find a single box of strawberries. Today, as luck would have it, I found that strawberries had made a comeback, and proceeded to buy two boxes. However, these strawberries are not as sweet or as juicy as the ones that were available earlier. These are larger, more sour than sweet, and a darker red. But hey, I am not complaining.
I followed her recipe almost exactly. The only thing I did differently is omit the lime juice as the strawberries themselves were tart. I also substituted walnuts for pecans. I then proceeded to make the cake entirely in the microwave.
I preheated the microwave for 8 minutes, to 175 degrees centigrade and then baked the cake for 45 minutes at 175 degrees. At this point, the sides of the cake and the top browned beautifully and looked perfectly done, but when I checked the middle, there was still a lot of batter left. So, in went the cake, on microwave high for another 3 minutes. This gave me the result that I wanted.
Take a look at the cake.....

It tastes as good as it looks....and I love biting into bits of strawberry while eating the cake.

This is my entry to MEC-Celebrating bloggers, an event started by Srivalli, which is being hosted here this month.