More for the Mania...

Here I am posting a few more pictures of the cakes which I made over the last few months.

This one i made for my sons 5th B'day...he wanted a "Mator on job" Cake.

This one was for R and M's Baby shower.

This cake was for dear friend's daughter when she visited me on her 8th month b'day

This cake, I made for my kids to welcome summer.

This is an eggless cake. I wanted to make a simple cake with no eggs.

The rec. goes as;

1/2 tin condensed milk (200gms)

2 3/4 cups plain flour (280gms)

1 tsp baking powder1/2 tsp baking soda (soda bicarb)

2 tsp icing sugar1/2 cup butter melted (60gms)

1/2 tsp vanilla essence100 ml milk100 ml soda water

Method

Sieve flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, all together 2 to 3 times. Keep aside. Pour condensed milk in a bowl. Add the butter, and beat well till smooth. Add the flour spoon by spoon, mixing into the condensed milk mixture. In between, add milk as required if the butter begins to get too stiff.[Stir the mixture in one direction only all the while. This will incorporate more air and make the cake lighter].Once all the flour is used up, beat the batter as above till light (5-7 minutes). Add the soda and mix gently till smooth. Pour into a greased cake tin. Do not smooth with a spoon etc. If the consistency is right this will not be needed. Pre-heat over to 300o c. Place tin inside. Bake at 200o c for 5-7 minutes and 150o c till done. (35 to 40 minutes). Poke with a skewer and check. Cool a little. Invert on wire rack. Cool completely before doing icing if any.

And this was for my young friend who turned "1" in January, 2009.

I must specially mention here, that his MOM is my BEST Buddy and my inspiration. She juggles Kids, Home and School so well, that one wonders if she has extra sets of hands...she had planned a Zoo Theme for his b'day and had even made the animal faces cutouts from scratch. To match up with her art and creativity, I had to put the "xtra" mile in my cake too. I made the icing using fresh cream.the Rec. for stabilized whipped cream icing will follow in later posts..

Stir Fry idli

I am a big fan of this Snack, an all time favourite with my kids, DH and anyone I know. Everyone likes Idli. My younger son goes to a daycare and his teachers it seems are a big fan of Indian Food. I always thought that Indian food was not liked by many Americans coz of the spice and chili that we used. So here I made this Stir Fried Idli for my Son's Teachers on a cold and chilly morning, hoping that the aroma and flavour of spice would warm up their day. After all they do so much for my little hero, this was a very little something from me.You will need;Coin Idli or Bite size pieces of Idli-- You can use leftovers if you have on handOnions, Capsicum, Red Peppers and any other vegetable that you like which can be used in any other stir fired rec..I had Peppers and onions which I had chopped for some thing else handy..Salt to taste, little sugar, and PAV BHAJI Masala.Crank up the heat on a big wok, Add little oil, jeera if u like, and veggies, on high heat caramelize them, then add salt, sugar and masala, fry a little, and then lastly add idli's... Stir fry for 2-3 mins... and Voila.. u have the stir fried idli's... THe spice can be adjusted to your taste, garlic and ginger can be added... Since this was my first exp in cooking for Americans, I went shy on the spice and chili and also number of ingredients ..."I am sending this entry to "A Healthy Bite" event hosted by Rachana at "The Gourmet Launchpad" (http://thegourmetlaunchpad.blogspot.com/2009/01/healthy-bite.html)"

Love Ash.
** The event round up is announced.

Gul Poli

Thanks H4MM for this awesome prize. I greatly appreciate it!!!!!!!!!!!!

Month of January and everyone starts buzzing about the festival of Makar Sankranti, which is celebrate don 14Th of January, every year. I associate festivals with the special food dishes which we make. For Sankrant, we make Til Wadi, Til Gul and Gul Poli. Yes, by now you must have guessed it right, that the main ingredient is Til or Sesame seed and Gul or Jaggery. I will be posting the rec for Gul Poli and Til wadi which is my all time favourite. I have to absolutely have these two things or the start of the year is bad for me. know wht I am saying!!!!!
Coming back to this rec...brings back fond and great memories from childhood. My moms sister is an expert in making these Roti's. I always picture her making and stacking them on her dining table, and all kids literally digging into them, and making them disappear in a matter of minutes. I try to match up to her, but guess, that I will need to make hundreds and hundreds, before I match the perfection.

You will need the following along with a lot of Patience;

For the cover;
4 cups Whole wheat flour
4 tbspn Fine sooji
1/2 cup oil-- smoking hotttt
Salt and little water

For the stuffing;
1/2 cup Besan or Gram Flour
1/2 cup oil
3 cups Gul or Jaggery preferably mashed
1 cup roasted sesame seeds powder

Elaichi- 1tspn
Milk if needed

Method;

For cover
In a pan, heat a the oil, till it smokes, Add it to the flour and sooji mixture, add the salt and water and knead into a hard dough. Keep it covered for 2 hours.

For Stuffing
In a pan heat the oil and roast the gram flour till it turns slight brown. Cool the mixture. When at room temperature add the mashed gul and dry sesame powder and elaichi and mix well, try to remove all lumps. Add the milk and knead into a soft dough.

Now that u have both the the cover and stuffing ready, it time to roll the roti's.
Divide the cover into 16 smaller balls and the stuffing into 8 equal parts. Make sure that you have all the balls of the same size. Take one ball of the cover and make a small roti, similarly make anr roti of the second cover ball, in between keep one roti made from the stuffing ball, now seal the ends on the roti and very lightly roll the roti. Using flour, roll it to nearly 7-8 inches in diameter. Heat the frying pan and roast the gulpoli on the frying pan on both sides till it turns brownish. Serve hot with ghee or eat crispy gulpoli after 4-5 hours. To store, cool completely and store in a air tight box.

Tila Chya wadya

As promised I am back with the fool proof rec for Tila chya Wadya Brahman Style. These are soft sweets made from Til and Gul. A must have for Sankrant. We have haldi kunku during the sankranti festival and this is the main thing apart form "Vann", which is a small Gift which is given to bring sweetness in any relation....as per my DM.

You will need;
3 cups of mashed Gul or Jaggery
3tbspn water
2 cups Roasted Sesame powder-Til
1 cup roasted Crushed peanuts
1 cup roasted Dry Coconut
Elaichi -1 tspn

Add the dry powders + Elaichi and mix well.
On low flame, mix the gul and water in a pan. Heat on very low flame till the jaggery melts and the mix is sticky. The mix should be slightly sticky to dry fingers.. not very sticky. add the dry mix to this.

Grease a cookie sheet with some ghee, and pour this mixture and spread in a thin layer. cut the shape of the wadi and let cool for about two hours. Once cooled , break the pieces and store in box.

Bharli Vangi-Stuffed Eggplant

ME and eggplant were not good friends a few years ago, until My dear friend introduced me to this mouth watering rec. The way she makes it is a typical Brahman style of cooking this vegetable. This is the standard stuffing which can be used to stuff eggplants, karella, capsicum although I never tried it for anything else, other than eggplant. For this you will need small or tiny size egg plants. To Cut them, is the most IMP factor of this dish. Make a slit in the shape of a PLUS Sign at the bottom of the veggie, keeping the stem intact. then dip this in slat and haldi water.

Stuffing;
1/2 cup roasted peanuts powder
Jaggery or Gul
Juice of Tamarind about 1 tbspn
Fresh chopped Cilantro0- 2 tbsns
salt to taste
Red Chili powder-1 Tspn
Goda Masala- 1 tspn-- This is a typical Brahman masala...also called as Black Masala
Cumin Powder-1 tspn
Coriander Powder- 1tspn

Mix all this, if the tamarind juice is not enough, use very little water. The mixture should be sticky, not wet and easy to hold itself inside the veggie.

Now take the eggplants out of the salt water and stuff each one with the above mixture.

Now in a heated pan, take little oil, make the tadka and add the veggies... Note that the lid should not be removed, if needed slightly shake the pan, so as to ensure nothing sticks to the pan. On a low flame, cook the veggies. IF needed add little water, and cook for 5-10 mins.

enjoy with Steamed rice or fresh hot phulka's....MY DH would eat it as is....it is that good!!!!!!!!!

I will try and upload pictures in a few days!!!

Pound Cake

My son wanted a Car cake for his 3rd B'day. That did put me in a spot as making a cake the shape of his fav. toy car was a challenge for an amateur baker like me. Tried all the shops and tried to get the custom cake for him, however when they did add up the cost, I could have got at least 3 cakes for him...so decided to take up the challenge. I was new to baking so made shortcut with the readymade frosting. Thanks a Lott P for lending me this rec.The recipe for cake is;

2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 cup conf. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp bkg powder
1/2 cup oil or butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1tbsn milk

Mix well Sugar and eggs. Add flour and bakg powdr, then add butter or oil, vanilla and milk if needed
Preheat oven @ 350 f and bake for 30 mins.

P.S. I like to use butter instead of oil,, makes the cake nice and buttery..

So after I baked the round cake, I traced the shape of this car on it and cut the cake accordingly. The filing I used was basic custard filling. I generally Use Brown and Polson Custard Powder which I can get from local grocery store.

Banana Walnut Cup Cakes

The first time I tried this reciepe, I messed big time, the cake was so sticky and it did not come out clean, end result was that as usual I dumped the whole thing. Not feeling so nice about wasting food, I decided to wait, til i had a tried and Tasted rec and finally after a long realy long wait, found this one: Thanks V for this one....

"1 and 1/2 ripe banana's
1 and 1/2 cup All purpose Flour
1 cup brown Sugar
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 stick butter
1 and 1/2 tsp bakg soda
1 tbspn vanilla essence
1 egg

Cream Butter and Sugar
add the egg
add the flour and bakg soda
add vanilla essence and nuts
Beat well for 4-5 mins on medium

Fold in mashed Ripe bananas to the mix well..please fold in as mixing will make it hard and the cake will not eb soft and spongy
Preheat oven @ 350
Bake @ 350Degree for 15-20 mins or till knife comes out clean.