Eggless Wholewheat Vanilla cake

The daughter is becoming naughtier day by day and she has a quirky sense of humour too. The other day I was talking to my brother on phone about how this time is so confusing. How we never had imagined that something like this could happen to the human race and so on. After I finished talking, the little 6 years old came to me and asked for something to eat. It was just 7 in the evening and they had their snacks and a drink around 5.30. On questioning, she replied, like you and Mamu (uncle), my tummy is super confused too. It can't keep track of the time and feel hungry all the time.

We had a good laugh about it and it also reminded me of my younger brother's hunger pangs as a kid. He had very specific craving even as 4 years old and called it khide which literally means hunger.

In the morning he would have Monaco biscuit khide. If the ice cream vendor passed our house he would have ice cream khide. If maa would fry fish then he would have macher khide etc.

With no end to this Covid 19 lockdown, the kids are having more of such hunger pangs. Every couple of hours they are hungry and if denied meltdowns are happening. I have been baking a lot of comparatively healthier stuff for such occasions. This eggless atta cake is one of them. Very easy and just a few pantry staples will result in a good moist cake that could be stored for their small hunger pangs.

Please see notes for variations and substitutions for this Recipe.

Eggless Wholewheat vanilla cake

(Makes an 8" cake)

Ingredients:

Atta/ whole wheat flour: 1+1/2 cups

Baking powder: 1 tsp

Baking soda: 1/2 tsp

Sugar: 3/4 cup+ 2 tbsp (powdered)

Salt: 1/4 tsp

Yogurt: 3/4 cup

Milk:  1/2 cup

Vanilla: 1 tsp

Vegetable oil: 1/2 cup

A handful of Chopped almonds. walnut or any nut of your choice

Method:

Preheat oven at 175C.

Line an 8" pan and grease the bottom and sides well.

Mix the atta, baking soda, baking powder, and salt well. Sieve it (Important step, do not skip).

Whisk the yogurt to make it smooth and then add the milk. Mix.

In a big bowl add Oil, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Whisk well for 2 minutes.

Add the yogurt mixture and whisk again for 2-3 minutes.

Add the flour mixture and whisk to make it smooth. Do not OVERBEAT. Once the atta is incorporated in the batter, stop.

Immediately pour into the prepared pan and sprinkle some chopped nuts on top.

Bake for 30 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 5 minutes then invert on a wire rack.

Remove the butter paper from the bottom.

Serve with some castor sugar sprinkled on top.

A Homemaker's Notes:

1. Instead of vanilla essence, Lemon/orange zest could also be used.
2. If you plan to use orange zest then substitute the milk with orange juice.
3. You can even fold in some chocolate chips or toasted nuts or chopped dry fruits (mixed with a spoon of flour) to the batter at the very end.