Morning Muffins (with Apples, Carrots,Raisins & Coconut)

.A healthy way to start any day.  Packed with nutritious goodies such as carrots,apples, raisins,coconut and cinnamon, this muffin offers a tasty, sweet and healthy start to the day.

 Ingredients:
 (Makes 16-18)

Flour 2 cups
Sugar 1 1/4 cups
Baking Soda 2 tsp
Cinnamon 2 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Carrots,grated 2 cups
Raisins 1/2 cup
Apple, peeled & grated 1
Coconut 1/2 cup
Eggs 3
Oil 1 cup
Vanilla 2 tsp 


Method:

Preheat the oven to 170 C

2. In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

3. Stir in the carrots, raisins, apple and coconut.

4. In a small bowl, beat the eggs, oil and vanilla and stir into the flour mixture until just combined. Spoon the batter into well-greased or paper-lined muffin cups, filling to the top. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Linking this to Fast Food Not Fat Food Event

Doll Cake to celebrate My First Blog Anniwersary & the Arrival of a New Member to our Family

Celebration Time Again!! It has been a year of wonderful food blogging, posting new recipes, taking part in events, making new friends.....  I've come up a long way. It wouldn't be possible without you readers who leave wonderful comments which keeps me going  Thanks a lot for that!!!

Time passes extremely fast and it feels like I just started blogging yesterday . I can't imagine that it has been a year posting my very first recipe and now done with my100th recipe on the first day of this month..

I was confused while choosing the recipe to be posted during such an occassion . There were 2 cake posts pending and then I chose this Doll Cake which I've baked  for my daughter's birthday as this cause for another celebration too... to welcome a new cutie pie to our family. She is ma baby who is just 6 days older. Yea & me back to blogging?#$ Actually this post was almost done before my delivery .

Happy Diwali too !!!

Now, about the cake. The sponge is so simple and yummy that you'll go on baking this again and again. I had to bake 3 times the measure to adjust to the length of the doll. Recipe of the sponge adapted from Shabs Cuisine; Buttercream frosting from Martha Stewart.



For the cake:


Ingredients:

Egg 3
Flour 1/2 cup
Sugar 6 Tbsp
Zest of 1/2 an Orange
Vanilla essence 1 tsp

Method:

1.Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celcius. Grease and line a very deep 6 inch pan or a7 inch pan.

2. In a bowl whisk the eggs sugar and orange zest on high speed for about 10 minutes until thick and pale and leaves a thick trail when the beaters are lifted.

3. Fold in the flour with a metal spoon, being careful not to knock out any air. Pour into the prepared tin. Bake for about 35-40 minutes or when a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Turn the cake on the wire rack, peel the parchment paper and leave to cool completely. Once the cake is taken out o foven, place the almonds in the pan and bake for about 5-8 minutes until lightly toasted.

For the filling:

 

284 mls tub Double Cream

1/3 cup condensed milk

Grated zest of ½ orange

Few drops of vanilla essence

150g chopped strawberries

To make filling, whip cream along with zest until soft peaks form. Add vanilla essence and condensed milk and whip until stiff. Take out 5-6 tablespoons of this cream mixture and mix it with chopped strawberries, keeping aside the rest of the whipped cream to frost the cake.

Now for Assembling the cake,  take a doll and break the bottom part of it . Or you may wrap the doll with Cling Film if you want to keep the whole doll.  Take the cake, layer it, spread  frosting there between the layers. Once done with the layers, shape the cake if needed according to the doll to be placed. Now frost the cake all over and insert the doll into the cake after done with the frosting. I used buttercream frosting for decoration.

*** Kitchen temperature is a must while using frosting.. It should not be too high. My frosting was melted a bit which you might have noticed in the pictures.

Pasta spinach and meat sauce

'A cheesy and tangy pasta' - yes, that's the exact description  for this dish. Though cheese used depends entirely upon your choice, this is a healthy option. The taste of white sauce with spinach stand out in this. The minced meat sauce  gives it a tangy and spicy non-veg. touch . You can use non-minced meat (cubed in small pieces) for this dish too... or you may omit this one. The spinach and white sauce may itself give a complete taste.

Ingredients:

Penne pasta, cooked 400 gms
Spinach 250gms
Onion 45gms
Garlic 30gms
Cheddar cheese 35gms
Butter 25 gms



For white sauce:

Milk 300gms
Plain flour 30gms
Butter 30gms
Nutmeg 2 gms
Salt & Pepper to taste


For Meat Sauce:


Beef Mince 200gms
Chopped Onion 35gms
Chopped Garlic 15gms
Chopped celery 15 gms
Chopped tomato 65 gms
Tomato paste 25gms
Bay Leaf 1
Salt & Pepper to taste
Beef stock or water as required

Method:


White Sauce:

1.Heat a thick-bottomed pan and add butter.

2.When the butter melts, add flour. Keep stirring till the raw smell of the flour is gone. Ensure that the flour does not brown.

3.Now add milk gradually whisking continously so that lumps do not form. Cook on a simmer till the sauce begins to thicken. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and keep aside.

4.In a thick bottomed frying pan add butter and saute onions and garlic till translucent. Now add spinach and cook for few minutes. Add white sauce and stir well. Correct seasoning, if required.

Meat Sauce:

1.In a thick bottomed pan, heat oil and saute onion, garlic, celery and bay leaf, until the onions are translucent.
2.Add minced beef and saute till the juices released dry up.

3.Now add tomatoes and tomato paste. Cook for a few minutes.

4.Add enough stock or water to allow the mince to cook. Check for seasoning and cook till it is almost dry.

5.To serve, in a deep serving dish, spoon pasta, meat sauce and stir fried spinach side by side. Top with cheese and gratinate in an oven for 10-15 mts. Serve hot

Free Download -Ebook (100 Yummy Diwali Recipes- Sweets & Desserts)

Diwali is near and it'll be easy to access if a list of all recipes is compiled in a book. Desserts and Sweets are an added and unavoidable attraction to the much awaited festival of Diwali. So here goes the link to download E-Book named 100 yummy Diwali Recipes compiled by Indus Ladies :

Download Here Go to this link and click there ' Attached Files - Diwali eBook.pdf'

You can see my recipe of Pineapple Pudding there in Page No. 137 

Trifle Pudding

 Trifle is a classic dessert layered with sponge cake, custard, fruits and whipped cream. Its bright colored layers  gives it a variant look cos of which this dish is used  for decoration as well as taste. Those who had never tasted it before is missing something. You really have to try this. I'm sure you'll enjoy every bit of it.

This variant has the sponge soaked in jelly  when the trifle is made, which sets when refrigerated. The egg and jelly bind together and produce a pleasant texture if made in the correct proportions. Its then layered with custard, fruits and whipped cream to top it..

Ingredients:
(Recipe Courtesy: Hanan Shefeek)


Sponge Cake / Muttapola/Kums
Jelly of your choice ( I luv strawberry banana flavor)
Custard** recipe follows
Dreamwhip/ Whipping cream/ Fresh cream 1 packet or 250 ml
Fruits (either canned or your choice of fruits)

 For custard :-

Milk 500 ml
Custard powder 4 tbsp
Condensed Milk 1/2 tin

Method:

1.Take a pudding dish and place cake pieces at the bottom. I baked a muttapola/kums (sponge cake) with 3 eggs for that; Cut the cake through the midlle and then layered it as we don't need the cake layer to be so thick.

2.Now prepare jelly according to package instructions and soak the cake with that. It took about half of the jelly for me to soak the cake as I don't like strong flavor of jelly in my trifle that the cake flavor disappears completely. Let it set in a refrigerator for atleast half- an- hour.

3.By the time, prepare custard :-  Take  milk in a pan and mix  custard powder and condensed milk in it. Here I used more custard than prescribed in the pack as we need a thick custard for layering. Boil it till it thickens. Switch off the flame and let it cool.

4.Take the cake soaked in jelly and layer custard over it. Allow it to set again in the refrigerator.

5.Now whip the dreamwhip or whipping cream until soft peaks are formed. If you are using whipping cream/fresh cream, then add sugar & vanilla essence to taste. Dreamwhip don't need that.

6.Pipe in the cream on top and garnish with fruits of your choice.  You can layer fruits anywhere between the layers. Depends completely on your choice.

7.You can garnish them with caramelised nuts too which gives a different flavor to the whole dish.

*** The quantity of the  ingredients depend on size of the dish. Like the sponge cake used, the jelly to be soaked with and so on.. You can adjust according to the taste. I used 10*4 inch rectangular glass dish for this dessert and the measurements are according to that.

Kinnapathal/Kinnapathiri/Attipathal (Layered Pathiris)

Kinnapathal/Kinnapathiri is a layered pathiri seen in Malabar region. An awesome but time consuming dish which you may wish to have again and again.. Kids will love it too as you get the layers separated and they enjoy doing so.This was about 20 years ago that we got to introduce to this wonderful dish from my aunt's house. We never got it right at first ; but then it seemed to be an unavoidable one in our kitchen. It goes well with any stews or other curries as well.

Ingredients:

Jeerakashala / Basmati Rice 3 cups
White Rice/ Pachari 1/4 cup
Thin Coconut milk /second extract - about 5 cups
Ghee 2-3 tbsp
Thick Coconut Milk 1/2 cup
Salt to taste


Method:

1. Soak both the rices for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.

2. Grind them along with Thin coconut milk. The consistency should be thinner than the Dosa dough.

3. Arrange a steamer on fire and a dish which could be placed inside the steamer easily. The size or shape of the dish doesn't matter.

4. Now mix ghee with the first extract of coconut milk well and keep it aside.

5. Line the dish to be placed inside the steamer with ghee and then start with the layers.

6.First pour a deep spoon/spatula full of dough into the dish. Then cover with a lid. The lid should be slightly opened in one side so that the pathiris won't puff up and it disturbs layers. Wait till it cooks well for about 3-4 mts.

7. Now open the lid and  pour a tbsp of thick milk & ghee mixture & then repeat the same procedure again - pour dough ,cover with lid and wait till it cooks. This procedure is repeated till your dish is full or the dough is finished. Once your dish is full, keep it covered for another 5 minutes so that all layers are cooked well. Then, take another pan & repeat the same. The thick milk and ghee mixture can be used in between; but not necessary to pour it between all the layers.

8. Once it is over, cool the pathiris nicely before you unmould them. Run knife through the sides and umnould carefully. You can cut this in triangles and serve.

** I usually keep two steamers at a time so that I could do it faster.



Sending this to   CWS-Rice event hosted by Priya &  co-hosted by Kaarasaram

Swiss Blackforest Cake-My 100th Post

 Ma 100th Post- Cause for celebrations !!..... Looking back, I'm still amazed at how far I've come within a year. Not exactly a year, but 11 months so far !! Since my first post( Methi Chicken with Sweet corn ), I've come up a long way and hope that you have enjoyed going through each of them. My blog consists mainly of my Mom's recipes who has been always into experimenting variety of dishes from her kitchen. She had spent almost 30 years of her life in middle-east where she was well- acquainted with cuisines from different parts of the world. But I couldn't do well in writing up my posts as expected because of my pregnancy . I was away from cooking and blogging for a while. Wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support till now and to get some feedback from you .

 Black Forest!! I just hate the one we get in bakeries becos of its sour cherries. I wanted to make it at home since I've seen that in  ma friend's page.. Shabs Cuisine.. She had done it so wonderfully that I decided to try out the same soon...


I was wanting to try her recipe, bt  i've posted a similar recipe (BlackForest Rasgulla Cake ) in my blog..So thought of trying something else this time. This recipe is an amalgamated version adapted from both Shabs Cuisine and Passionate About Baking - a blog owned by Deeba Rajpal -a passionate baker , a wonderful photographer and an awesome blogger too. I just stare at her pictures and bakes more often.




Moist Chocolate Cake
Recipe Courtesy: The Cake Bible, Rose Beranbaum


230gms dark chocolate
3/4 cup water
8 eggs
1 cup vanilla sugar
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornflour

1.Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare 2 9 x 2″ spring form cake tins – greased, bottoms lined with baking parchment, greased and floured again.

2.Sift the flours.

3.In a large pan, bring the chocolate and the water to boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until the chocolate thickens to a pudding like consistency.  Cool completely.

4.Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl on high speed till tripled in volume, about 7-10 minutes.

5.Sift 1/2 the flour mix over the beaten egg mixture, and fold in gently but rapidly until some of the flour has disappeared. Repeat with the remaining flour until all the flour has disappeared. Fold in the chocolate mixture until incorporated.

6.Pour immediately into prepared pans {about 2/3 full}, and bake at 180C for 30-35 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Loosen the sides with a metal spatula/butter knife, and invert onto lightly greased cooling racks. Re-invert to cool. {At this point, the cake stays at room temperature for 2 days, in the fridge for 5 days, and in the freezer for 2 months. }

For cherry filling and syrup:
(shabs cuisine)

½ kilo ripe dark cherries like Kordia variety, pitted and chopped, reserving 8 whole cherries or more depending on the size of cherries for decoration

¼ cup caster sugar

1/4 cup water

¼ tsp vanilla essence

Place chopped cherries, sugar, water in a sauce pan and gently bring to boil. Once it has come to boil, reduce heat and simmer until cherries have become slightly soft. Strain the cherries and place the liquid back to saucepan and gently simmer it until you have around ¾ cup of liquid left. If you had just around 1/2- 3/4 cup of syrup after boiling the cherries, that should be enough. Dont reduce it further.You need to have around 3/4 cup of syrup however for soaking the cake.

For Whip cream filling:

570 mls/ 2 ¼ cups double cream

4-5 tablespoons caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence

In a large bowl, place whipping cream and sugar and whip until it holds soft peaks. Add vanilla essence and whip until combined. Set aside.

Cake Assembling:

Split the chocolate cake horizontally to get  4 layers. Sprinkle both sides of each layer with the syrup, and reserve on platters. Place the bottom layer on the serving platter.

Reserve about 1/2 the cream for the topping and frosting. Take a third of the remaining cream and spread over the bottom later. Distribute 1/3 of the cherries over the cream, poking into the cream. Repeat with the remaining 3 layers.

Put about 1/2 a cup of cream in a piping bag to make rosettes on top if desired. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining cream. Cover the sides with grated dark chocolate. Pipe rosettes on top, sprinkle chocolate flakes in the centre, and place cherries on the rosettes. Chill until ready to serve. {I found the cake easier to cut with a serrated knife because of the cherries in the filling}