Egg-less Brownies

"For my kids school fair I volunteered to do egg-less brownies, base was my tried and tested egg-less chocolate cake recipe and went thru some 20+ brownie recipes ( egg-less, vegan etc..)  and finally wound up with an absolutely yummy and easy egg-less brownie recipe. Baked some 3 kgs of it, enjoyed by all, hope you do so too..."

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups castor sugar
• 2/3 cups cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda (use baking powder if you do not have soda)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbsp vinegar 
• 3/4 cup oil
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Pre heat oven at 170 degrees centigrade
2. Take a baking tin of 9" x 13" or similar size and oil the tin well.
3. Take 1 tbsp of flour and sprinkle it over the oiled tin making sure it is well covered, remove any excess flour by inverting tin
4. Warm milk, add the vinegar and let the mixture curdle  
5. Mix all dry ingredients - flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda,salt and baking powder in a bowl
6. Add the wet ingredients- curdled milk,oil and vanilla essence to the flour mixture
7. Beat with a whisk, by hand, till just mixed (mixture will be thick and sticky, do not over beat)
8. Pour into the oiled tin and if wanted add nuts ( coated in flour), pushing them in the batter slightly
9. Bake in pre-heated oven for 25 minutes or till done, and toothpick inserted in centre, comes out slightly sticky, with a few crumbs stuck to it ( Do not over bake, else it will be dry like a cake and not fudgy like a brownie)

Note :

• This recipe, makes approximately 1 kg, of 12 pieces of 3" x 3" brownies
• If you want to add nuts, be sure to coat them with flour, else they will sink to the bottom.
• Any other additions, like chocolate chips etc., all to be coated in flour before mixing in batter or decorating on top 

Fresh orange cake

"This is the best orange cake recipe, i have found to date, tried lots with orange juice, with zest etc.  but none of them were orangy enough for me, this one where we chop a whole orange with peel and all is fabulous, do give it one try and you will be converted ..."

Servings - 10 large pieces 

Ingredients:

• 1 unwaxed orange,washed
• 150 gms Butter 
• 1 1/4 cups castor sugar 
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 tbsp plain yogurt 
• 2 tbsp superfine or granulated sugar for topping Or to taste 

Method:

All ingredients should be at room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit / 170 degrees Celsius  
2. Butter a cake tin- loaf and put in fridge
3. cut the orange in half, save the other half for the topping
4. Cut the half in 8 pieces removing pips , process the orange into very small pieces 
5. Beat butter, sugar and chopped orange for 2 minutes till fluffy, with an electric beater, do not overbeat
6. Sieve flour,baking powder,soda and salt
7. Break the eggs into the bowl  add the flour mixture , add the milk and the yogurt and beat on low speed for 1 minute till  well mixed
8. Put the mixture in the buttered baking pan
9. Bake for 50 minutes till done ,test skewer is clean when inserted in the middle of cake
10. make topping - squeeze out the juice from the other half of the orange, add sugar (to taste) and stir to make a thick glaze
11. While the cake is still hot prick the entire loaf with a toothpick,spoon the orange syrup over the whole cake
12. Cool completely and take out of tin

Variations:

For a chocolaty twist , fold into cake batter chocolate bits (100 grams)before putting the mixture in the oven. i.e. after step seven.