"Pat a Cake"- 'Truck' shaped Eggless Chocolate Cake

Last week my little 'E' turned 4 years old.In these 4 years, his mind has mostly been pre- occupied by 'Trucks,cars, bulldozers, diggers,dump trucks,monster trucks,Big mighty machines and yeah how can I forget......Trash can trucks i.e Garbage trucks!!!! All he thinks, dreams, talks about is.... these things. He told me once..'he is filling 'gas/petrol' into 'Ganapati bappa' to make him stronger!!!
Needless to say..for his b'day the cake had to be 'this' shaped!

Ingredients:
I doubled the following recipe to get 1- 9x9 inch square cake and 6 cupcakes.
1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour (sifted)
3/4th cup Granulated Sugar
1/3rd Cup Canola oil
1/4 th cup Cocoa powder
1tsp Baking soda
1/2tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1 tbsp Vinegar
1 cup cold water

Icing:
1 can Pillsbury white whipped icing
Food colors-red,yellow,blue
Cocoa powder for brown icing
M and M's, other candies for decoration.
Icing gun/bag
toothpicks


Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 350F (preheating is very imp). Grease the 9x9 inch pan and muffin pan with vegetable shortening. Apply liberally in all corners.Dust with all purpose flour to coat the pan.
2)First sift flour, sugar separately.Then by a spoon add to the measuring cup to measure exact amounts.Level with a knife.DO NOT pack the flour into the cup.The ratios will change and the cake will not come out as good.
3) Mix wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls.
4) Mix them together in a single direction.Bubbles will appear as vinegar reacts with baking soda.Do not over mix.But all the lumps should be gone
5) Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 mins.Do not open the door for first 20 mins atleast.
6) Check with a tooth pick, if the cake is done.The inserted toothpick should come out clean.
7) Flip on a serving platter carefully
8) Let it cool for 1/2hr or so before icing.

9) Cut off the cup cake tops to makes them smooth and look like tires.
10) Cut a ' big rectangle' of about 6x4in from the square shaped cake.This will be the trucks main body.
11) For the trucks upper body cut relatively small..about 4x3inch rectangle/ cut 2 small rectangles to give that 'hood' shape.
12) Assembly: Place 2 cupcakes on the tray.Place a small rectangular strip of cake on the cupcakes and on the sides to give more support.

Place the big rectangle on top.The small rectangular piece on top of the big rectangle. Use the white icing to stick all these pieces together.Place the 4 cupcakes like wheels to the 4 sides.Secure with toothpicks and stick with white icing.

 13) Mix the white icing with desired colors.I used 'red' for main truck body.Yellow for the windows.Brown/chocolate icing for the tires.I used 'flower'/star' tip of the icing gun to make the patterned icing.Use m and m's/ spice drops as lights.For the treads on the tires, I used a toothpick to draw the lines and pattern. Decorate as desired.You can crush some chocolate cookies on the base pan to show 'dirt' on the road.

From back side:

"Appetizers"- Fish (Tilapia) Tikki/ Macchi ki Tikki

Yeah...I am back!!!!! The birthday party is done and I am left with lots of clean up to do, lots of gifts to unwrap with the kids and an 'empty' feeling. When you are preparing for an event..you have so much energy and enthusiasm...but when it's done....uffff I hate that after the event clean-up and  'I have nothing to do' feeling....
Anyways.....yesterday I went to dinner at 'T' and 'S'....and I took along these Tikkis with me.
These 'Macchi' Tikkis ( my father would mostly call fish as 'macchi') are a great way to finish up the remaining 1-2 fillets of fish in the freezer that remain ....which won't be enough for the next meal...and you don't know what to do with it.
Here is USA, you get fish fillets and hence makes it much easier to make the tikkis.In India my mom would have to sit and take out all the bones from the cooked fish ,before she could make the 'fish' filling.

Ingredients:
For the filling:

2 Tilapia fish fillets
1/4th cup chopped cilantro
1green chili finely chopped (add more for spicy tikkis)
1/4 tsp black ground pepper
1/2tsp Tandoor chicken masala
1/4tsp garlic paste
1tsp oil
salt

For the cover:
4 boiled potatoes mashed well
1/2tsp cumin seeds
1/4th cup bread crumbs
salt
1/2tsp garlic paste
oil

Method:
1) Rub salt and black pepper on to the fish.Fry on little oil on both sides.Fry till the fish is 'opaque' and well cooked.
2) To the cooked fish add green chilies, garlic paste, tandoor chicken masala,cilantro.Break the fish into small pieces.This is the filling for the tikkis.

3) To the mashed potatoes add cumin, garlic paste,bread crumbs, salt and knead like a dough.
4) Make lemon size balls of the covering and stuff with spoon full of fish filling.

5) Cover the filling on all sides and make into 'tikki' shape.
6) Shallow fry on little oil till golden brown.
7) Serve hot with Maggie 'Hot and sweet chili sauce'.Enjoy!!!