Sunday, August 5, 2012

EGGLESS FRUIT&NUT CAKE BALLS/POPS/TRUFFLES

How I came up with these?? :)
I had made Eggless fruit & nut cake and the cake got stuck to the pan. I was feeling bad and wanted to do something with the cake as the taste was great. While browsing I saw cake balls recipe. I bought cream cheese frosting, Milk chocolate, Butter Scotch and semi sweet chocolate chips to experiment. It took me 5 hours to make these cake balls and then coat them with chocolate layer and it involves refrigeration. They taste so great that it'll be worth the effort.
I made these for my hubby's b'day. He doesn't like sweets/chocolates but he loved these. I treated my friends to these and they all loved it so much that they all wanted the recipe ;). Try them!!
Note: You can even use condensed milk instead of frosting.
Recipe Reference: http://www.bakerella.com
Ingredients:
Eggless Fruit & Nut cake - 2 - you can use any cake
Frosting - I used store bought Duncan hines cream cheese flavor - 16 oz whole box - use lesser if using just one cake
Milk - 1/4 Cup [ Optional ]
Baking chocolate or chocolate chips of your choice. I used Hersheys Milk, Butter scotch and semi sweet Chocolate flavor.

Method Of Preparation:
Crumble the cake once its cool. You can refrigerate the crumbled mix until frosting is ready. This step is optional. I did it as I had to go to the store to buy the ingredients :)


Mix frosting to the crumbled cake and mix well until its moist. I added milk too. Now make balls according to the size you need. Refrigerate the balls at least for 20 - 30 mins. I left them overnight.


Melt the chocolate on low heat and dip the cake balls in it to coat. Refrigerate the balls for at least 2 hours. I used 3 varieties and
Milk chocolate: It was very difficult to melt and hardened easily. When it was soft, I used hands to coat the chocolate and make balls.
Chocolate: It melted easily and I just had to dip the cake balls to get chocolate coating.
Butter scotch : It melted easily and I just had to dip the cake balls to get the coating.




CHANA DAL VADA/CHATTAMBADE/KADLE BELE VADA

Ingredients:
Chana Dal/Split Black Gram/Kadale bele - 1.5 Cups
Onion - 1/2
Green Chillies - 4-5 [According to spice level]
Chopped Coriander leaves - 2 Tbsp
Curry leaves - 1 Strand
Grated Ginger - 1 Tbsp
Salt - 1.5 tsp
Ajwain/Carom seeds/om kalu - 1 tsp
Jeera/Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
hing - a pinch
Rice flour - 1 Tbsp
Note: Finely chopped Sabsige Soppu/Fresh dill leaves can also be added. It is widely used in these vadas because of the flavor they induce.

Method Of Preparation:
Wash Dal well. Soak overnight or at least for 6 hours.
Grind dal into a fine/coarse paste according to your choice without adding much water.
Finely chop onions, green chillies, coriander leaves and curry leaves. Grate ginger. Crush carom and cumin seeds. Add everything together and mix well. Adjust salt and spice level.

Note: I added onions when I was ready to fry the vadas. Onions tend to leave water which will make the batter watery.  I kept mixing the batter before dropping the vadas in oil for each batch.

Keep oil in a pan for frying on High. When its hot, take batter in hand and drop them slowly. Increase the batter amount according to the vada size you want. I got around 34 vadas.
Let the vadas get fried properly and turn brownish. It took around 6-7 minutes for each batch.
Vadas turned out crunchy on the outside and soft inside. They tasted great. Try them.