Tie & Dye Holi cake with natural colours

Festivals to me are a great excuse for a family get together and having to spend some fun time over delicious food. I am also particularly interested in creating Festival special food. And since my first love is Baking, I cannot help but imagine trying out something new in baking. This Holi I tried my hands on Thandai cookies and this Tie & Dye cake where I have used all natural colours in the cake batter. The idea came from the popular usage of organic colours nowadays which is certainly safer and healthier than the poisonous chemicals used in regular colours. 

People all around are getting more conscious and are ready to take steps to prevent as much damage as we can to our body. It is a great beginning in itself and is a small but important step to ensure our children get to live in a better environment.

Since Holi is the festival of colours, I decided to add some colours to my cake and experimented doing so with Nature's vibrant colours. 

I personally feel I could have added a tbsp more of each colour because the batter before baking seems to have the perfect colour but after baking the colour gets reduced in its intensity. But it is still far better than adding all the artificial food colours. 

Here's to a Happy and Safe Holi! 

Recipe source  : I used the cake recipe from Suma's blog Cakes and More and modified it 
Ingredients : I made a 5" round cake which is good for 4 servings

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar, powdered
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup yogurt (I used homemade curd)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1-2 tbsp each of beetroot puree, spinach puree and carrot puree

Icing :

• 3 tbsp white butter, room temperature
• 2 tbsp icing sugar/powdered sugar
• colourful sprinkles

Procedure : 
Prepare the natural colours by boiling each vegetable and then making its puree. 

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. 

Prepare a 5 inch round cake pan by greasing and lining with butter paper.
Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.
Whisk together yogurt, oil, egg, and vanilla in another bowl.
Fold in the wet mixture into the flour mixture.  Mix well.

Divide the batter in 4 bowls.

Add turmeric powder to one and mix well. Add more if required.

Add spinach puree, carrot puree and beetroot puree each to the the remaining three bowls and mix well. Add more to get the desired colour.
Pour random spoonfuls of each of the coloured batter in the  prepared pan.
Bake  for 30 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack.

Slice the dome on top of the cake.

Mix icing sugar with white butter and spread on top. Top with the colourful sprinkles. 

Note : Add more of the individual puree to get more distinct colours. The colour gets reduced after baking.

Happy, safe and a colourful Holi

Amrita