C oco ate cake wit a erence

Of all the quirky ways to include chocolate in your food, here are a couple of options that are delicious and somewhat healthy find, as I did, when you make chis more frequently, that everybody will want their own mug, so beware)

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Jt11dent: 10 cakerand a dead hoq_}• It's said that nine out of ten people like chocohte, and the tenth person lies. I've always wanted to tty one of the choco late barfis from the big silver- tray tiered windows in the Indian shops, but Mum always says "Chocolate barfis are terribl e!" (I think she just had a bad experience w ith them at some point ) aod it got me th.in.king abom how many different ways there are that we consume chocolate - in a drink, .in .icecream, fruit smothered in ir, the topp ing for bars and slices and the easiest and probably 'favourirest' block or bar. Chocolate cakes were probably the first thing I learned to make (with help from my friends Betty Crocker, Greens and White Wings) and i t is said that everyone should bave a good choco late cake recipe in their repertoire. But now, like with phones and computers, there are so many different new modern types! I've heard of chocolate mayonnaise cake (apparently th.is gives a rich and dark texture and not a taste of mayonnaise) , choco late cake with beetroot Q1ow healthy is mat?!), chocolate cake with oatmeal, chocolate chilli cakes, and even weird extremes like vegan chocolate avocado cake (not sure about d1at last one ). Here are some recipes mat our famil y loves. Chocolate Mug Cake is a 'lazy' dessert - easy, s imple and quick to make, fun to eat on a cold night as you sit arow1d in your PJ s watching TV. (fhe recipe provided here serves one person only: you'll

The Chocolate Beetroot has less Aom and butter, (Chickpea Cal,e none at all) so you can coov:ince yourself that they are a healthy alternativel

Chocolate Mug Cake

4 tbsp Aour

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp cocoa

I small egg

About 3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp butter or margarine melted, or vegetable oil.

½ tsp vanilla extract

L tbsp choc chips

L large mug l\llix me dry ingredients cogemer in a mug

Crack an egg and add it ro tl1e mug Be sure to mix it well to avoid pockets of Aour in tl1e comers. Pour in the milk, melted butter/ oil and vanilla extract and mi..x well.

Pop your mug into the microwave for about 2- 3 minutes on maximum power, depending on your type of microwave. You'll know when it's done when the cake stops r ising and sets iJ1 tbe mug. Run a knife around the sides of the mug, and tip the warm cake out of the mug and onto a saucer.

Chocolate Chickpea Cake

2 tbsp cocoa powder

2/3 cup chopped dark cooking chocolate

1 x 375g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

4 large eggs

I /2 tsp vanilla e.xtract

I /2 cup granulated sugar

I /2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Grease and Line cal<e pan

Me.It the chocolate, eithe r in the microwave (remember to stir between intervals) or over the stove.

Puree chickpeas, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Add sugar, baking powder and salt and blend co combine

Add melted chocolate and blend to combine, scrap ing down sides of bowl well as necessary. The batter will be thick. Tt-ansfer into prepared pan and bake until knife inserted in centre comes out clean, about 1 hour depending on the srrengtb of your oven

Allow cake to cool for 15 minutes on wire cooling rack. Dust with icing sugar just before serving

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

This cake comes out really rich a.nd moist and you'd never guess ir was low far, but there is no butter and almost no flour Definitely use the besr quality chocolate you can buy.

250g good - quality dark chocolate

250g raw beetroot, peeled and finely grated

250g light brown sugar

40g self- raising Aour

40g plain flour

3 eggs

2 tbsp maple. syrup

2 tbsp honey

¼ tsp bicarbonate of mda

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

25g cocoa powder

50g ground almonds

100ml strong b lack coffee

30ml vegetab le oil

150g good -quality dark chocolate

3 tbsp strong black coffee

1 tsp vanilla essence

3 tbsp clear honey

Preheat oven ro 180 degrees. Melt me chocolate ove.r a pan of simmering water, then let cool.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with me sugar, vanilla, map le syrup and honey for three minutes with an electric hand till Au£fy.

Add in the flours, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cocoa and ground almonds.

Remove moisture from tl1e grated beetroot with some kitchen paper. Add in the beetroot, cooled chocolate, coffee and oil and m.ix together.

Pour tl1e mixture into a greased round cake tin and cook in the middle of the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes. After this time, cover the cake with foil and bake for another 30 minutes

To make tl1e topping, melr the chocolate in a bowl ove.r a pan of simmering water, th.en remove from the heat and add the coffee and the vanilla essence.

Set aside to cool for 15 minutes before icing the cake Cut the cake rnrough tl1e middle and ice it in the centre and on all sides.

Veteran actor Rajesh Khanna recently gave h i s fans a bit of a shock after l anding in hospital in Mumbai for some tests, and staying there for a while. The actor, a mere shell of his flamboyant young self, has been battling health issues for some time now His ex-wife Dimple Kapadia has been taking care of him. The 69-year-old was pleased to see worried fans l ined up outside his house, waving to them and showing them the 'V'for victory sign.

Bollywoods celebs visiting Rajesh Khanna, aka Kaka, included actress Reena Roy, former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, his close friend Anita Advani and former girlfr i end Anju Mahendru. Rajesh Khanna 's daughters Twinkle and Rinke, and son-in -l aw Akshay Kumar also came to see him in the hospital.

But it was thespian Anupam Kher, who worked with the actor i n Vijay, who spoke for all of Kaka's colleagues and fans when he said, " Rajesh Khannaj i is a part of our youth and be l ongs to the era that taught us about romance He al so portrayed d ifferent aspects of acting He is the first superstar and I pray to God that he has a long and healthy life:·

Incidentally, Salman Khan made a bid to see the aili ng actor after visit ing hours, and was politely but firmly turned away by the hospital , much to h i s surpri se For once the Sallu charm didn't quite do the trick

Here's wishing Kaka a quick recovery back to health!

Rahman to rock London Olympics

Grammy award winner AR Rahman wil l team up with Hollywood director Danny Boyle again, to compose a song for the London Ol ympics' opening ceremony The music maestro reveals it will be a Punjabi song celebrating

GUEss7 WHO.

Th is spunky Punjabi kudi was a model before she entered Bollywood, and represented India in the Miss Universe contest

Indian influence i n Britai n It's another feather in the cap fo r th is prolific, yet humble musician extraordinaire, who worked with Boyle in Oscar-winn i ng film Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours

"It's a part of a medley in the Ol ympics opening ceremony, according to Danny Boyle's creative wishes!" Rahman stated It has also been reported that music composer llayaraja's composition Naanthaan ungappanda, from Kama l Hassan's 1980film Ram Lakshman w i ll be a part of the opening ceremony too Thank goodness Indians in England are now well beyond the curry and cricket comb i nati on!

Esha-Bharat wedding makes Bollywood news

Actress Esha Deol married businessman BharatTakhtani in a tradit i onal South Indian ceremony at the ISKCON temple in the Mumbai's Juhu suburb, follow ing a reception attended by the best of Boll ywood. The who l e family of dad Dharmendra, mum Hema Mali ni, sister Ahana were present to wish her well and partake of the ceremony Esha is close to her cousin Abhay Deol, who took the part of her brother, as half- brothers Sunny and Bobby were conspicuous in their absence

The bride looked happy and resplendent in a red lehenga made of three Kanjivaram saris and gold jewellery, while Bharat looked dapper in a white sherwani with zardozi work and a maroon pagdi. The wedding outfits were designed by Neeta Lulla

The decor at the temple was simple, yet beautiful and heavi ly decorated with flowers.

Hema Malini claimed she was "very happy"for her daughter, and would miss her "It was a normal South Indian wedding, w ith just slight changes . I am very happy for Esha, she has found the right person. We all are very happy I wi ll miss her but she is going to be in Mumbai, so I am happy about that;'said Hema, looking gorgeous and elegant in a orange-red hand- woven six yard sari, which she teamed up with a green blouse and kept her hair neatly tied at the back Esha's dad and yesteryear star Dharmendra kept it simple with black trousers, a white sh irt and grey jacket

Present at the ceremony were Bollywood's biggies incl uding Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan, legendary actress Vyjayanthima l a l ooking evergreen in a purpl e and orange traditiona l sari, Shatrughan Sinha's wife Poonam Sinha and her twin sons - Luv and Kush Hema's niece and actress Madhoo, as well as Vi nod Khanna, Manoj Kumar, Anu Ma l ik, Rani Mukherji Fardeen Khan Ramesh Sippy, Sand i p Soparrkar and w ife Jesse Randhwa were also there to bless the couple.

Sahara's chief Subroto Roy, industrial ist Mukesh Ambani's wife Neeta Ambani and Sun ii Rane of Atharva Group of Institutes, who is a family friend, were among the other high profile guests

Top notch Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders too attended the wedding, from Raj Purohit, Mumbai chief ofBJP, to party president Nitin Gadkari to national vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, all attended the event

The reception saw even more of Bollywood and India's elite attending, with an invitation sent out to Sonia Gandhi who couldn 't attend due to security reasons. She has however, invited the newly married duo to visit her at her residence.

Here's wishing the happy couple all the very best.

Akshay as Krishna in OhMyGod

Akshay Kumar is back with a vengeance, and this time it's in a heavenly avatar Debut posters of his latest film Oh My God in which he plays the modern day Lord Krishna, show the star riding a motorcycle through the clouds with a bright colourful sky in the background This time Akshay has teamed up with Paresh Rawal in his production venture, who appears in the second poster. It shows Paresh, who plays Kanahaiya, standing with a smile on his face and gods and goddesses surrounding him

Based on Umesh Shukla's Gujarati play Kanji Viruddh, the movie is about unconventional happenings in normal day to day lives, and is due for a lateSeptember release.

Now Akshay must be feeling his age as the actor's former karate student Prateek Chakravorty has turned director with From Sydney With Love, and actually calls the star 'uncle'!

"He calls me Akshay uncle Backstage he asked me if he should cal l me Akshay uncle or not? I love what comes from the heart," said the 44-year-old Akshay recently

"Will you believe me if I say I used to teach him karate? He was a good student but then he stopped;' added the actor. "He always wanted to be a director and an actor, and I am proud that he has become an actor, he has directed his first film and he has taken forward his grandfather Pramod Films' name ahead''.

From Sydney With Love stars Prateek himself along with Bidita Bag, Sharad Malhotra, Evelyn Sharma and Karan Sagoo, and will release in end -July

Looks like exciting times ahead for Akshay fans, so watch this space.

Hrithik impresses Hollywood

Despite being a booming business, Bollywood's actors have found it hard to find a firm foothold in big sister Hollywood's hallowed halls But now, apna Hrith i k Roshan as found a fan in Scott Speer, director of Step Up Revolution, who is impressed with the Indian star's acting and dancing "Yes, of course, anyone who is interested in dance and music will know about Indian movies It has a lot of music and dance and colours in them;' Speer said recentl y "I liked Hrithik Roshan as an actor and dancer i n the Indian movie Kites and have seen him dancing in Dhoom 2:• Step Up Revolution is the fou rth instalment of dance movie Step Up, due to release in end July.

Speer is an American music v i deo director and has done several music videos for Mexican singer Belinda So will Hrithik be buzzing from Bollywood to make a hit in Hollywood? Let 's wait and see Aamir

Expounds Views On Marriage

In an increasingly preachy tone of voice, actor Aamir Khan feels that the institution of marriage i n India has changed manifold and urges parents to ensure that the i r children are wellequipped to take decisions about their life partner independently. "There is constant change in society and the concept of marriage has changed for the better; marriage is now l ooked upon as companionship;' Aami r said.

"Although this concept is good, we should empower our kids with ri ght tools to be ab le to make their own decisions and think on a broader level. Marriage should not bring along fear with it We should provide ample support to our kids and teach them to live happily;' he added Aamir was chatting with listeners on a radio show, talking about his ground-breaki ng series Satyamev Jayate.

The 44- year-o l d, who made h i s television debut with Satyamev Jayate fee l s the show has brought him closer to the peop l e of India, and says every citizen should work to make the country a better place to live.

" The effect Satyamev Jayate has taken all over the country proves the fact that we are addressing genuine issues that are prevalent in India. I have, on a personal level, come closer through this initiative to our country," he said For any country to be happy, we need to join hands to work towards the common goal... We shou ld all work together for the betterment of the country."

Aamir also talked about the response that his show has received ti ll now and says a change has already been brought in society

" We have crossed the halfway mark and have rece ived positive response throughout the country

The healthcare episode has helped improve generic medicines, the health minister is also supporti ng us and so is the government;' he said Sharing an incident about the bias against the girl child, Aamir recounted, "At a Delhi wedding, a family member said a guest blessed the bride that she will give birth to boys at which point the other members present stated that a girl child is equally

What 's the chitchat between Vidya Balan and Farhan Akhtar here?

Send welcome and such gender bias shou l d not exist. I was reading in the newspaper that the people are now going to the police, child hel pline - so change is evi dent (against the bias) and I real ly believe in India and our peop l e:•

The success of Satyamev Jayate has proved naysayers wrong "Peopl e told me that a show on social issues wou ld be a failure, but now people from (Jammu and) Kashmir to Kanyakumar i are associated w ith the show and want to see change in our society. We should use this opportunity to plan and contribute the most The required change should be brought about inside;' Aamir said Well, there's no doubt that this is just the beginning of the great heights that the show is bound to reach, in bringing awareness of social issues to the forefront. Good luck to Aamir, the man with the Midas touch!