Eggless Savoury Cake packed with the goodness of Quinoa seeds.

Wish you a Merry Christmas 🎄🎄⛪✝️🔔🕯️🌟☃️❄️🎅🎁🦌⛄🤶⭐🍷🧝🍰 and a great NEW YEAR ahead !

Christmas has arrived and baking activities are going on full swing in the households in this chilling weather. Baking is an emotion in this wonderful time of the year when merrymaking and celebrations are a top priority. Baking usually calls for consumption of a bit of unhealthy and high calorie stuffs like sugar, butter, cream, refined flour etc. However, the civilized and educated people of 21st century have designed many ways to make their bakes as healthy as possible. The world is definitely moving towards a healthy food revolution with the ample options available in the market. Now, it has been quite easy to construct your food perfectly befitting for the season which are tasty and healthy at the same time.

For this Christmas, I have baked a cake which is eggless, healthy, nutritious and with less gluten but as delicious as it could be and the best part of this interesting cake is that it is a savoury one. Even though Savoury cakes are less common, yet they are prominent in some cultures like in France where they have this french savoury or salty cake. French savoury cakes or Cake sale’ are the delicious savoury cake options usually savoured with their alcoholic beverages or soup by the french. The savoury french cakes have a mellow, “melt in the mouth” feel which is extremely satiating to the tastebuds, even though it is not a sweet one.

Cake sale’ is basically a salty, savoury bread stuffed with delicious foodstuff, unique in french food culture. It accompanies well with soups or liquor. It is a french savoury cake which is technically a type of quick bread composed of an unsweetened cake batter sprinkled with bits of meat, cheese, tofu, olives, mushrooms or a mix of different vegetables. These savoury cakes can be had either as a snack, or as an accompaniment with your drinks or soups on occasions or these also serve as a quick meal which is also super delicious at the same time.

Even in india, some sort of baked savoury cakes are popular in the state of Gujarat which are made with a lot of lentils and less flour and is known as Handvo. Apart from the baked ones, the state of Gujarat also has other kinds of steamed savoury cakes like the popular Dhokla or Khandvi rolls.

This Christmas, I tried to bake a savoury cake similar to the French savoury cakes with slight variation in the ingredients. My cake base is solely made with Quinoa flour mixed with a bit of all purpose flour and a bit of semolina or sooji mixed with olive oil, cottage cheese, vegetables, salt, spices, condiments and herbs. To know more about this savoury cake, read the recipe here.👇

RECIPE :

Ingredients:

A) Dry Ingredients Mix :

Whole Wheat Flour (Atta): 1/2 cup.
Quinoa Seed Flour (or ground quinoa seeds) : 4 tbs.
Maida (refined wheat flour): 3 tbs.
Semolina/Rava/Sooji: 1 tbs.
Baking Powder: 1/2 tsp.
Baking Soda: 1/4 tsp
Any dry spice mix powder of your choice (Oregano/Basil/garlic powder): 1tbs or as per taste
Black Pepper: 1 tsp.
Salt: A pinch
Sugar: 1/4 tsp

B) Wet Ingredients Mix:

Paneer ( Indian Cottage Cheese)/Ricotta Cheese: 2/3 cup (grated).
Cheddar Cheese or Amul Cheese Cubes (grated): 2 cubes.
Extra Virgin Olive oil or any refined oil: 1/3 cup
Yogurt/Curd (Beaten): 1 cup.
Any vegetables of your choice cut into fine pieces or bits (jalapeno/bell peppers, capsicum, peas, coriander leaves, grated carrots, black olive slices) : 1 cup.
Salt: to taste.
Sugar: 1/4 tsp.
Lemon juice: 2 tbs.
Roasted cashews: for garnishing.

Preparation:

Grind your properly washed, cleaned and dried quinoa seeds into a fine flour & store in a airtight container for making anything.(You may skip step 1 if you have readymade quinoa flour).
Take a bowl add little amount of curd from one cup, add the semolina to it & let it soak in the curd for sometime.
Take a large bowl and add all the ingredients of dry mix in required amount in the bowl.
Now sieve all the ingredients together for 3-4 times to ensure the ingredients are uniformly mixed & aerated. And keep it aside.
In another bowl add all the ingredients of the wet mix one by one.
Take the cottage cheese & cheddar cheese together & mix them together to make a smooth paste, add oil, & mix using a wire whisk to make a smooth homogeneous mixture.
Add salt, sugar, curd and beat again to mix them thoroughly, add soaked semolina & mix.
Take 2 tsp of dry mix & sprinkle over the chopped vegetables to coat them slightly, this will prevent your veggies from settling in the bottom.
Add the vegetables, chilli flakes & lemon juice and mix everything nicely together.Your wet mix is now ready.
Grease your baking pan with oil & line with refined flour or line with butter paper to make it ready.
Take the wet mix bowl and slowly add & mix the sifted dry mix to it in batches by simply folding the batter.
Mix until the dry mix in completely incorporated in the wet mix. Do not over mix as it may cause your cake to loose it’s sponginess.
Pour the batter in the baking pan, garnish it with some roasted cashews, olive & jalapeno and grate some cheese on top.
This has been prepared in pressure cooker, so follow the instructions below accordingly.
Take a cooker, fill 1/3 of it with salt or sand and put a seperator or wire stand over it. Take out the whistle & gasket from the lid and close the cooker with lid.
Preheat the cooker for 5 minutes in medium to high flame.
Open the lid, put the cake pan over the wire stand, bring down the flame to low & close the lid.
Bake the cake for around 1 hour 15 minutes.
After 1 hour & 15 minutes, open the lid and check with a toothpick whether it is done or not. If it comes out clean on inserting in the cake, then it is done. If not, bake for another 10 to 15 minutes based on your requirement.
Your delicious savoury cake is ready to be gorged on, grate some more cheese & sprinkle some chilli flakes, I bet you will forget your favourite pizza. Enjoy it hot with a bowl of warm soup or hot cuppa.