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Have you imagined a guiltfree gulab jamun treat? 
With 2 packets of instant gulab jamun mix in my pantry and no plans to make gulab jamuns (deep fried dumplings), I started to browse recipes online and my search for such treat ended here.

This cake is soft and delicious, and when I took a bite into this cake it was full of gulab jamun flavors. A super recipe that is prepared with easily available ingredients and no fancy equipment. So friends try original recipe or the below recipe (an adaptation of the original recipe ) and let me know your feedback. 




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The baking season is on, so why not try these eggless tutti frutti cookies for this festive season? The colorful tutti frutti in these biscuits that represent colors of Christmas are sure to attract attention of kids, family members and friends. 




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Tick tock tick tock ... The countdown clock is ticking down. Its time to bid adieu to 2014 and welcome 2015. Looking back at the year's best times, I move ahead with memories of happy moments to be treasured for years to come and welcome year 2015 with new hopes and aspirations for brighter future. 

                                Wishing all of you A Very Happy New Year 2015 !
                           "Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
                                                 whispering, it will be happier "
                                                      ~ Alfred Lort Tennyson ~


So here comes my cake for this year, a delicious eggless plum cake using sour cream. The original recipe is by Farrukh which you can read here. I prepared it for the first time following her recipe to the core [the first pic]. Later I decided to experiment by including wheat flour, brown sugar to make it more healthy (seen in below pics).


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Christmas fruit cake is a 'must have' cake for holiday celebrations. It was always a wish to bake this cake but my understanding that the dry fruits which are integral part of it needs soaking in rum/ brandy, so till date I never made an attempt. Few days back I came across Cheryl's recipe on baking group. She had mentioned using non-alcoholic substitute for soaking fruits. That led me to hunt for other recipes which used non-alcoholic substitutes like apple juice, orange juice. I followed Cheryl's tip of using grape juice because as per her tips grape juice is good alternative to brandy. Below recipe is loosely adapted from here but before that you can check Cheryl's page for Christmas Fruit Cake - tips and more and then proceed with baking this cake instantly. 





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A must try cookies which I had bookmarked long long back when this recipe was doing rounds on FB baking group . Recipe by Cheryl from KitchenKemistry which you can check here. I got a chance to bake them this holiday season. If you don't have ripened bananas apples can be substituted in the form of applesauce. The below recipe is with applesauce.




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A simple to prepare cake that had caught attention and was prepared by many bloggers as well as FB foodie group members, me too couldn't escape this recipe adapted from here. The original recipe mentions number of dates, but I have weighed the quantity of dates [deseeded] that were used to prepare this cake [ since the size of dates vary from place to place]. The amount of oil has been reduced in the below recipe, and white sugar has been substituted with brown sugar making it a low cal version. I made them in mini bundt cake pans [inspired by my friend Jay] but you may use regular baking pan or any other shape baking pan.




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I had posted recipe for savoury semolina cake few months back, that was tried by few of my friends who enjoyed it as a tea time snack. If you haven't do try after you check the recipe here

Today the post is again a cake made from semolina, and its sweet rather than savoury. Its eggless and I used mango purree as egg substitute here. A big thanks passed to my friends D, U and J who inspired me to bake the below cake, definitely a keepsake recipe at my place.



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Conchas also known as Pan Dulche are a type of Mexican sweet bread which was selected for this month's eggless baking challenge. This bread gets its name from its appearance as it has shell shaped look after baking. The toppings can be made in different colors and with different flavors. Traditionally made from eggs,,, but this being eggless challenge we needed to come up with our own way using eggless substitute. I had seen Gayatri using curd plus soda mixture in last month challenge Italian rose cake, so decided to go ahead with the same in the below conchas. I was so attracted to these shell shaped buns when Gayatri forwarded us the recipe as well as pic, that I wanted to try it. But with vacation scheduled over next weekend there was too much time spent on shopping, packing besides kids school exams, and so I attempt them only day before yesterday. Could not post it yesterday as again I was out busy shopping. Being new to bread baking was anxious and not so confident, more over this recipe had eggs, so here I have halved the recipe and adjusted the quantity as per requirements.





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With vacation nearing I am really into baking mood and yesterday it was turn of popular Indian version of cookies "Nankhatais". If you want to know the origin of these cookies please read here.  I am huge fan of these cookies, but mom was not aware of baking those days and hence never made them at home. So then we would turn over to nearby bakeries to purchase them. For now they bring back fond memories of the childhood days when buying such goodies meant going to neighborhood bakeries and my eyes feasting on display of variety, not able to decide which flavoured cookie should I pick up, jumping from one end to other end of the display, pointing at different shapes, colors and asking my dad to pick most of them :P. The cookies would make the whole shop filled with fresh baked aroma and refreshing flavours. 

When hubby brought a box of  cookies the other day, they reminded of my fav nankhatais. I craved them terribly and so yesterday decided to try my hands at them. I have tweaked the recipe from Foodelicious by Pari . Now why did I try this recipe its because Pari has included oil. Mostly traditional nankhatais make use of ghee/butter. So let's see the recipe





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Few days back tried Simi's Nutmeg cake with pears, actually I was so fascinated by her presentation, the pear standing perfectly amidst the loaf cake, that I added flax seeds instead of eggs and attempted it. Turned out so yummy but just couldn't click any snap :(. While discussing about the attempt with Jayashri on FB, she suggested me to have a look at an eggless whole wheat cake recipe from Uma's culinary world here. She mentioned that calorie wise, sour cream was better substitute to butter. And it was more healthier way with use of wheat flour instead of maida/APF. I bookmarked it and tried to follow Simi's idea of using pear in the above suggested recipe [to capture the shot as Simi did :)] [Totally an optional step which you can exclude and go ahead with the basic recipe as mentioned here or from the original source.

So did u guess, what special today? Yes it is eggless whole wheat spice cake because I am back to baking. Was on baking spree baked many cakes, cookies and other dishes. Will surely share all of the recipes as and when I attempt them once again.





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I came across Baking Eggless Group on Gayathri's blog, where a group of enthusiastic bloggers lead by Gayathri try out new eggless recipes experimenting with egg substitutes in their own way and according to their experiences. Being a vegetarian I am always in search of eggless recipes. When I read about this challenge, the idea to come out of our comfort zones, experiment on original recipes, find an egg substitute and convert it into an eggless recipe was exciting and this really tempted me to join in. Morever, I was eager to know and read about co-bloggers successful attempts using different egg substitutes for a particular recipe. This year the challenge is focused on baking eggless breads. I immediately contacted and informed her about my interest to join this group. The challenge for the month of March was selected by Priya Srinivasan of Enveetu and it was a Norwegian Christmas Bread "JULEKAKE". Online information hinted me this to be a very popular flavourful bread served as breakfast during Christmas time, a bread richer and more sweet than Christmas bread.

Julekake or Julekage [pronounced as yoo-ley-key-yeh] is loaded with raisins and candied citrons. Gayatri mentioned on the group wall that we can use candied peels of orange or lime instead of citron. I could not locate any of these peels nor could prepare them at home due to shortage of time. I added tutti fruit pieces to the dough in my first attempt. Somehow was not satisfied with my results, probably the flour quantity used was too much as compared to wet ingredients. With a note to myself and pointers of where I must have gone wrong, I decided to prepare it for 2nd time after my return from Abudabhi.  Meanwhile, browsed online to find if anybody had tried making this bread without these candied peels which is when I came across two recipes - one here suggesting to use dried cranberries and other recipe here that used orange zest. I planned to go ahead with these ingredients [due to their easy availability] as substitutions for candied citron. [If you find the candied peels you can add 1/4 cup instead of these two ingredients]. The original recipe asked for eggs but I used flax seed powder instead and it turned out great this time. The wonderful scent of cardamom could not be missed as the aroma of baking filled my house.




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Today when we were already in celebration mood at home, this news came in as a surprise. I got to know from few of my friends about the photo of Soya Golmatol that I had messaged to Sanjeev Kapoor was selected and featured on SK FB page which you can check here. I was on cloud nine and fully excited! Thought to share this news with all my friends and readers here on Flavors n' Colors along with this virtual visual treat. :)

Few months back, I had prepared an eggless cake inspired from Anushruti's preparation here and followed her recipe exactly. The outcome was a very delicious cake. This time I decided to go with same recipe but wanted to try upside down cake. My search bought me at myjhola as Sai too had followed Anushruti's recipe so without any delay I picked up the plums sitting in the fruit basket and baked upside down cake. Kids thorougly enjoyed and all got finished the day itself :D




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Recently my friend, Donna announced a cooking challenge in her foodie group "Kuch Khatta, Kuch Meetha, Kuch Teekha "[KKKMKT]. Challenge was to prepare a cake without the use of white flour, white sugar and eggs. I had attempted cake recipes that would go with this theme but then I had already posted those recipes on her group and they were Eggless Ragi Banana Cake, Green Moong Savoury Cake and Eggless Savoury Semolina Cake. Moreover, I wanted to try something with oats flour and this led to my search for its recipe that would fit into this theme. After browsing through different recipes [which made me realize I have to attempt many similar recipes for a nutritious cake], I zeroed down to Oats Carrot Savoury muffins recipe from Divya's culinary journey and decided to adapt her recipe. I made use of zucchini and beetroot together instead of carrots as I didn't have them at that time. I baked them in different cake pans as well as muffin molds and hence you see those three layers !



Thanks Donna for this wonderful theme that gave me a great chance to try out this recipe. 


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To get back on track after vacation is one of the toughest task. Although, me and hubby back to office and kids back to school, it takes atleast a week's time to overcome vacation hangover and get back to routine with million things, especially my cooking. 

Now with "S" bday around, how can I sit back and laze around. Decided to enter my cooking mode as soon as possible and that led to browsing through my recipe books and bookmarks in search of a recipe to prepare something special for him on his special day. I got charged up as I came across the video bookmarked for later viewing. This video from Anjum Anand with BBC cookery show 'Indian Food made Easy' demonstrated the recipe of "Savoury Semolina Cake". The cake though savoury, I knew it was the perfect treat I could make for the bday boy. Many food bloggers had attempted her recipe which is very easy with use of easily available ingredients and involves simple process of mixing. The best part being the recipe is eggless and is healthy with lots of vegetables and no butter at all. I was damn sure, baking this recipe was the instant cure to my post vacation blues and went ahead to try it. Served the cake slices with hot tea and I am glad that though an unusual way, I could prepare this savoury treat in time to celebrate the occasion at home. We relished having the slices with hot tea and kids with flavoured milk.



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When I came across this tried and tested cupcake recipe by Pavithra at Dishesfrommykitchen, I got this urge to bake them instantly. The recipe not only called for common simple ingredients that most of us would keep stocked in fridge and kitchen, but the process of blending these ingredients also was very simple. Inspite of super-busy schedule on the day before the travel - office, packing, cooking, Christmas activities at school for kids...  I decided to bake these mini cupcakes with a plan to carry them as energy boosting food for kids during our travel [hence exclusion of coffee]. Replaced white sugar with brown sugar as I wanted these mini treats to be a little healthier. The cakes turned out perfect and tasted delicious!



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Christmas is barely few days away and baking being synonymous with this festive season its commonly done in most of the houses, be it a cake or cookies. I was no exception to this and chose to prepare some cookies. The first batch was prepared by exactly following the recipe from here. The cookies turned out yummy and we all enjoyed this special treat. 

Since we are travelling to India during this short Christmas break, I decided I will pack and carry some home made goodies to share with my family members/ friends back in India. Peanut butter cookies is what my hubby suggested and I went ahead to make them in batches. I slightly adapted the original recipe to suite my family tastes [who prefer less sweet] by reducing the quantity of castor sugar. Hope they enjoy this special treat :)



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