Munna & Mittoo's Kitchen Chronicles..: Bake's,Cakes and Treats

This is my first post in the baking page..
I baked this cake for my husband on his birthday. Its the first ever time I'm actually baking a cake for someone ,complete with decorations ,chocolates and candles..

My Version of the Easy Eggless Cooker cake :

Ingredients

· Plain flour (maida) - 1 and 1/2 cup

· Powdered sugar - 1 cup

· Refined oil or plain butter - 1 cup

· Baking soda - 1 teaspoon

· Milk - 1 cup

· Vanilla essence - 1 teaspoon

Method

Mixture Preparation ( Batter )

1. Mix sugar and oil together and stir them pretty hard till the mixture becomes light and fluffy.
2. Now prepare a mixture of "all purpose flour" (maida) and baking powder and sieve it to avoid any lump.
3. Now gradually add this maida mixture, to the batter prepared by mixing sugar and oil mixture.
Note: As you stir the mixture, it will become dense. Add some milk in small amount to make it smooth. Keep on repeating the process of adding maida and then milk as required, till batter is well blended (It should look fluffy/ soft) and you find air bubbles in the batter
4. Add Vanilla essence to the batter and again blend thoroughly.

Cake Preparation

5. Grease the baking tin (or cake tin) with oil and dust it by sprinkling maida over greased surface evenly.

Note: Use baking tin of 6 inch in diameter, so that it can easily get into the pressure cooker.( I have a 3liter prestige cooker)
6. Pour the mixture into the greased baking tin.
Note: Baking Tin should be made of Aluminium
7. Heat the presure cooker on high heat for 2 minutes.

Caution: If baking tin comes into direct contact of the base of cooker, it can harm ( overbake ) the cake.
Remedy: Use cooker container which has big holes in it. You can put the baking tin on that container and then put it inside the presure coker. Even if you do not have the cooker container cake can be made, but there is a big chance of getting its lower part overbaked

8. Now put the cake tin containing the cake batter, inside on cooker dish.( Do not put water inside the pressure cooker)
9. Close the cooker lid and do not put the whistle on the lid. Lower the flame from high to low after 2 minutes.
10. Let it cook for 40 minutes, then switch off the heat. Do not open the lid immediately.

Cooked Cake Testing

11. After 10 minutes open the lid to check whether the cake is done. Put a skewer inside the cake. (Skewer - a long thin pointed piece of metal or wood, used to test whether something is completely cooked )
12. If the mixture will not stick on it, means that cake is done.
13. Take out the cake by turning it upside down. Trim the cake using a normal sewing thread ( This ensures that the cake is cut evenly )

Wear oven mitts or use hot pads to
carefully turn the cake out of the
baking pan onto a wire rack.

13. You can decorate the cake using Icing sugar,jam,chocolate Ready made cake icing or fruits..

Use a ruler to measure the height of the
cake layer and insert wooden picks.

A length of thread makes a clean cut
through the center of the cake layer.

Tuck strips of waxed paper under
the edges of the cake to keep
the plate clean while frosting.

Don't worry about crumbs getting
mixed into the frosting between
the layers. It won't show!

A thin base coat of frosting gives the
cake a smoother, cleaner finish and
makes frosting the cake much easier.

You will achieve a more professional look and finish on your cake if you apply the frosting in two coats. First place about one-third of the remaining frosting in a small bowl and thin the consistency with a small amount of milk. Spread in a thin layer over the entire cake as a base coat to seal in any remaining crumbs and smooth the surface. Let the base coat dry for about 15 minutes.