The pencil with an eraser & Wholewheat Chocolate Cake ( no refined flour or white sugar)

We had the Independence Day celebrations in our residential area a couple of days ago. As always, my son was thrilled to be a part of the celebrations. I was rushing to get ready so that we could step out and join the rest of the community members. As we sat and chatted with other friends, my son ran up to the section where the registration needed to happen for the drawing and rangoli making competition. He came back with eyes full of joy and thrill. I wondered if he had met his friends or seen the laddoos/sweets that they were going to share with all of us.

He ran back again after making his way through the crowd and then came back to sit down next to me. It was as though he had gone to reconfirm that what he saw was actually true. And immediately he spoke up “Mamma, you know what they have as a gift for all the kids- some pencils !”

I smiled at him because it was such a pleasure to see his excitement. And then he went on to add ” It is a pencil with an eraser at the end of it, can you believe that? I can carry that and just a scale, no separate eraser. Isn’t that cool? ”

It is difficult to explain what I felt at that exact moment – but I believe it was pure and unabashed pride in the little boy I have. That child who found such happiness in a small thing, so tiny that most of us cannot notice. That child whose face shone with anticipation for something that we treat as regular. That child who I hope and pray always keeps his priorities intact -to look at every gift without a thought about whether it was big or small, but if it gave him joy.

And on that note, I decided to also share a simple recipe of a Wholewheat Chocolate Cake.

Recipe – Wholewheat Chocolate Cake , no refined white flour or white sugar

1 1/2 cups wholewheat flour

3/4 cup coconut sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

50 gms unsalted butter

1/4 cup booking water

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method –

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well. Add the cocoa into the boiling water, mix it and keep it aside to cool. Sift the flour with the baking powder.

Add the extract to the butter, sugar, egg mix. Add the water-cocoa mixture, beat well. Then add the sifted flour and milk alternately. Do not over beat.

Put it into the prepared cake tin. Bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes, at 170 degrees C.

Cool off , remove from tin, slice and eat.

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