Whole Wheat Chocolate Coffee Cake

Who does not love chocolate cake? Of course we all do but since long I have been thinking of making one with coffee. My first attempt was a disappointment since I followed a recipe that asked me to soak the cake in coffee syrup. Probably I went wrong somewhere and the coffee tasted pretty bitter in that form.

This time round I simply tried to play around with my chocolate cake recipe. And the results is rather good.  Like most of my cake recipes this one too contains whole wheat flour and vegetable oil. I have started using whole wheat ever since I decided to bake for Aseem. Children do love cakes and I could not see him have refined flour cakes all the time.

The reason I use vegetable oil in place of butter is that oil keeps the cake soft and moist, even when kept in the fridge. Unlike butter it does not become hard and retains its springy texture.

The sweetness of the cake may be bothersome for some as I use sugar less than regular cake recipes. In most cases a recipe calls for almost the same amount of sugar as flour. I keep it to half. Here I have made a small cake with half a cup of flour and one fourth cup of sugar. If you have a very sweet tooth you can easily increase the sugar quantity and get the desired sweetness.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour – ½ cup

Baking powder – ½ tsp

Cinnamon powder -  a generous pinch (optional)

Unsweetened cocoa powder – 1 tbsp

Brown sugar – ¼ cup

Vegetable oil – 1/3 cup

Coffee granules – 1 heaped tsp

Eggs – 2 nos.

Walnuts crushed- 1 tablespoon (optional)

Method:

Prepare your cake tin. Either grease it or line it with parchment paper.

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

Dissolve the coffee granules in 2 tablespoons of hot water and set aside to cool.

Sieve the flour with the cocoa, baking powder and cinnamon powder.

Separate the eggs. Place egg whites in a large bowl. Add sugar and oil and whip well, for approximately 3 – 5 minutes.

Add the yolks one by one and continue whipping. Now set your mixer aside and grab a wooden spoon. Gradually add the flour-cocoa mixture to the egg mix. Do not bother to beat it well as we only need to fold it into the egg mix.

Once mixed, pour the batter into a prepared cake tin. Sprinkle the walnuts over the cake top. A cake of this size usually goes in to a six inch diameter tin.  Accordingly you can choose one for yourself.

Bake the cake in the pre-heated oven for around 40 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean. 

Relish this soft, yummy and guilt-free cake with a steaming hot cup of coffee!

Fabric envelopes

We need them for carrying important papers.

We need them to store those valuable hard copy data.

We need them to collect bills in one place.

If we look around our house or office we will find numerous items calling out to us to be stacked in an organized manner. These essential documents deserve folders and organizers. Allotting a folder to each one or each category of them will not only make things look neat and tidy but will also save us a lot of trouble hunting through stuff.

Now that the need for folders in established why not make these folders attractive? Let us move away from the store bought plastic ones and graduate to a fabric folder. A super simple DIY fabric folder!

You could use jute or burlap as I have done or go for any other thick material. Or you could use an interfacing to give a rather thin material some stiffness.

The folder that I have made is 15x10.5 inches in size. You can always make alterations as per your need. I needed it to carry some A4 size documents so this size. I may soon be making some in different sizes as well.

As I said this was an extremely easy DIY craft piece which hardly takes time to take shape. For the one mentioned here (the green polka dot folder) this is what you need:

Burlap or jute – 15 x 23

Fabric of choice for embellishment (for front) – 15 x 4

Piping fabric – you will need to measure the raw edges that require piping and prepare accordingly. Alternately you can use fabric tape which is bound to be a lot easier. Since I did not get that I went ahead and made the piping.

Self-adhesive Velcro – 2 pcs

Thread matching the fabric or burlap

A pair of scissors

And last but not the least a sewing machine.

How to make:

We have all made envelopes when we were kids and this is one of the simplest ways to do it. Take the burlap lengthwise and 9 inches from ones side fold it towards the middle.

Now take the other end and make a 4.5 inches fold towards the middle so that it overlaps the other folded end. Press well to make distinct fold marks. These overlapping parts form the back of the folder. Turn over to get the front portion.

Open up the fabric and align the embellishing fabric on the front portion. Stitch it in place. I have attached it towards the bottom.

Since edges look ragged attach the piping. Begin with the both breadth sides – the 15 inch sides.

Fold it back and stitch both the open sides so as to give it the shape of the folder or envelope. You basic product it ready. Now stitch or stick the fabric tape on the edges. Since you have already stitched the sides they will not open so sticking will be just fine.

All that remains to do is ensure that the folder keeps papers secured - so place the Velcro patches. One good way to do it would be to attach both sides to each other. Now peel off the patch and stick to one side. When well secured peel of the patch from the other piece and close the flap of the folder. The Velcro will stick to the other side in just the right place.

And in no time your DIY fabric folder is ready!!!