CAKE GIVE AWAY........

I wanted to bake cakes for my friends. Since I didnt have time to buy small cake boards and cake boxes. The place which I know which sells these items in Chennai is in Parris which is sooooo far away. If this was K.L I would have just drove 10min and I could buy anything and everything under one roof. Anyway coming to the point.........so I wanted to bake small cakes for my friends....

I decided to use Aluminin containers which are easily available here (normally to pack food stuff) to bake the cake and then I could just cover it. So i would not need a cake board and a cake box.

I used 4 aluminium containers to bake 4 chocolate cakes. Then covered the cakes with Chocolate Fudge Frosting. Then I used some ready made flowers and coloured gems to decorte the cakes.

This is how they turned out


This is a Valentine's Day Cake for my best friend Shruthi. We have been friends from 7th standard........and from schools days we always used to celebrate V Day together........





This Cake was for my College Friend Anu's Son - Aneesh. He is 3 years old and is adorable. He loved the cake and the gems on it.

Aneesh enjoying his share of the cake............
After that we became very good friends.......
This cake was for my College Friend Harini who just delivered a Baby Boy on 1st Feb.

The baby was soooooooo cute ............so small ........reminded me of Sanjukta when she was that small and I held her in my arms for the first time......it was like yesterday.....now she is 1 1/2 yrs old ............wow time does fly ........

This is Anirud ( I hope the spelling right)


This is Harini and Anirud.........
You must be wondering who the 4th cake was for ...........Actually no one .......I just baked one extra...........My dad ended up eating most of it.....He He Heee.......He loves cakes.........


HAVE A SWEET DAY............

GRANDFATHER'S 92ND BDAY

My grandfather's (Thatha's) Birthday was on 10th Feb. Since I was in Chennai I decided to bake a cake for him. Since I am here in Chennai , i dont have any of my fancy icing tips, fondant dough and all my other favorite stuff to make a fancy cake. So it was left to me to come up a simple yet pretty design for a cake using the stuff I had.

So I did a Rich Moist Chocolate Cake with a Chocolate Fudge Frosting. The sides were decorated with chocolate rice and the bottom of the cake had yellow and orange gems. I had bought some ready made royal icing flowers which i used to decorate the edge of the cake. I wrote the message with butter cream frosting.

This is how the cake turned out .....

Simple and Sweet...............

My grandfather was very happy to see the cake. This was the first time in 92 years that he was cutting a cake for his birthday.


My grandfather .............
The whole family ..............4 generations under the same roof ..........My grandfather, My Dad , Me and My Baby Sanjukta............



Some happy moments...........

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THATHA...........WE ALL LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!

INDIAN SWEETS - GULAB JAMUN

Hi all......since I am in my mom's place enjoying a nice long vacation I thought it would be fun to add an blog of a Indian Sweet Dish. This dish is called Gulab Jamun.

For this I used a Gulab Jamun Mix which is easily found in most of the Indian shops in Brickfeilds, K.L for example in Modern Stores or Seetaram.

This is the picture of the Brand I used. BAMBIND Instant Gubal Jamun Mix.

First measure the quantity of flour in the packet. I got two stainless tumblers full. So for every cup of flour you need to add 1/4 cup of water.

Two tumblers of flour..........


1/2 cup water for 2 tumblers of flour........

Slowly add the water little at a time and combine with clean fingers. The dough should start to come together. Dont mix too much or else you will get hard gulab jamuns.

Roll the dough into small balls. For one packet I got around 40 balls.



SUGAR SYRUP: Next in a large Pan take 700gms of sugar and 700ml of water and heat it till it boils. The packet askes to use 800gms of sugar for 800ml of water. My mom felt 800gms was too sweet and too much of the syrup.

Now deep fry the balls till golden brown. After frying put the balls into the hot sugar syrup. If the sugar syrup is not hot the balls will not soak well.


This is how it will look like .........
Yummy looking ..............

Serve in a glass bowl with little of the sugar syrup..........

RAINBOW BUTTER CAKE & MARBLE CAKE

This is a fun way to make your ordinary butter cake into something colourful and exciting.

Take any of your favorite Butter Cake recipe. Divide the cake batter evenly into four batches. Add 1/2 tsp of liquid food colour to each batter. I used 1 tsp of cocoa for the Brown colour. Colour each Yellow, Green , Orange and Brown. Drop the cake batter 1tabelspoon at a time. First the Yellow batter followed by the green, then orange and brown. Repeat again and again till you finish all the batter. Refer the picure of the procedure below.Bake as usual. This is how it turned outReally a feast for your eyes and mouth....Yummy


You can also make a Marble cake the same way. Just divide the batter into two portions. Add Cocoa powder to one portion. Dump both the batters into the baking tray and just swirl with a knife.

Before Baking............



After Baking ..........

WALNUT TARTS

I have always wanted to bake some tarts but somehow didn't do it until now. I am at present in my parents place having a lovely long 2 month vacation in Chennai with my baby. Today me and my mom decided to bake some tarts. Walnut Tarts are my favorite. I found this nice and easy recipe in the web (recipe below) and decided to give it a try.

This is making of the Short Crust Pastry. Sorry guys forgot to take pictures while making the dough. I did not use a food processor as mentioned in the recipe i used the tip of my finger to cut the butter into the flour, salt and sugar. Mix until the butter is well incorporated in the flour. Some butter bits will be tiny and others will be like pebbles. The dough may begin to come together in a rough sandy kind of way. Slowly add the ice water little at a time till the water mixes with all the flour. The mixture does not need to come to a ball, it should hold when pinched together. Dump on a clean surface, pess to a disk and wrap in cling wrap and refigerate for 1 hr.

The mistake I made is I rolled the pastry crust too thin since i wanted to fit it in all my 10 tart cups. Actually the recipe says you can make 12 tarts, I think they are smaller tart cups since mine was 4 inch tarts cups. Next time I will double the pastry crust recipe and then roll it out thicker to get a crunchy crust.

Tip: I felf that rolling each tart one by one on a floured surface was the best way to prevent the dough from sticking.
This is the procedure to make Walnut Butter Tart filling.


All my 10 tarts filled with walnut in the center
The Tarts ready to go into the oven.


These are my finished tarts

They tasted delicious.....everyone loved them....it was a big hit........I will surely try this recipe again.


This Butter Tarts recipe taken from Stephenie Jaworski at Joyofbaking.com

Pate Brisee (Short Crust Pastry): 1 1/4 cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch (2.54 cm) pieces 1/8 to 1/4 cup (30 - 60 ml) ice water Pate Brisee: In a food processor, place the flour, salt, and sugar and process until combined. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal (about 15 seconds). Pour 1/8 cup (30 ml) water in a slow, steady stream, through the feed tube until the dough just holds together when pinched. If necessary, add more water. Do not process more than 30 seconds. Turn the dough onto your work surface and gather into a ball. Flatten into a disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about one hour before using. This will chill the butter and relax the gluten in the flour. After the dough has chilled sufficiently, place on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough and cut into 12 - 4 inch (10 cm) rounds. (To prevent the pastry from sticking to the counter and to ensure uniform thickness, keep lifting up and turning the pastry a quarter turn as you roll (always roll from the center of the pastry outwards).) Gently place the rounds into a 12-cup muffin tin. Cover and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to firm up the dough. Next, make the butter tart filling. Butter Tart Filling: 1/3 cup (70 grams) unsalted butter, softened 1 cup (215 grams) light brown sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/4 cup (60 ml) light cream (half-and-half) (10% butterfat) 1/2 cup raisins or 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts (toasted and chopped) (optional) Butter Tart Filling: In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla extract. Stir in the cream. If using nuts and/or raisins, place a spoonful in the bottom of each tart shell and then fill the unbaked tart shells with the filling. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for about 15 - 20 minutes or until the pastry has nicely browned and the filling is set. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Serve at room temperature or chilled. Makes 12 - 4 inch tarts.

CHOCOLATE CHUNK AND WALNUT COOKIES

Its been a while since i uploaded a post in my blogger that because i am on a long vacation for 2 months (Jan and Feb) in Chennai India. I have been sleeping and eating this whole month so was feeling a bit guilty and decided to bake something today. I have been craving for some cookies and i had this recipe that i wanted to try for a long time.

 I used chocolate bits since i didnt have enough chocolate chips. I wanted crips and crunchy cookies so i baked them 1 tsp a time so that they would spread out thin and get crisp. If you want soft cookies you just have to make the cookies thick and cook for a shorter amount of time.

I dropped abt a teaspoon full and got around 130 cookies. (In one day almost half of it is gone )Everyone loved the cookies esp my one and a half year daughter Sanjukta. A picture says a Millon Words. You can see her reaction after eating the cookie.


You dont have to buy cookies from Famous Amos or Cookie Man ( India) to taste good cookies. These cookies will taste much better. Just make sure your cookies are stored in air tight containers so that they stay fresh.

Bye for Now

Fondant Birthday Cake

This is a very pretty fondant birthday cake i baked for my cousin. I used my newly bought impression mat to make lovely flower impressions on the side. The top of the cake has impressions which gives a lovely effect to the cake. The alphabets have been done using the marbleizing effect of fondant. The flowers are made from gumpaste. I was very pleased with the final result and my cousin loved it too....HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOSHA....

3 Tier Birthday Cake

This is a 3 tier cake which i did for my one and only sister. She selected the design of the cake. This cake took a lot of planning ahead and a lot of hard work but in the end was all worth it. My sister loved it and the cake was delicious. This was a butter cake with oreo buttercream filling.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRAVINA .......MAY GOD BLESS YOU