We aren't much of a snack eaters family , but we loveeee snacks, yes you can rarely find something to crack on in my cupboard. For me snacks refers to something crunchy and savory , and we like it that way to be accompanied with our evening tea. But we are early dinner people, yes we skip out evening snacks and  directly have our dinner by 7.00 pm, people say its kind of healthy , but i guess back in India, we all dine late , right ?

My little Adya, making me remember that she is growing faster, insists me on giving her  "some other thing to eat ". What ever i serve her with she isn't happy , she will still ask me the same; " i want some other thing Amma ". Well, i truly do not know what she means by this " some other thing ". And now trying to outsmart her i make everything possible to be ready if she asks me that " some other thing ".
A few days ago , i was ready with Oranges , Chicken Sausage , and same freshly baked Whole Wheat Cookies , and happy me she went with the cookies and simply enjoyed it. I have always made these at home and we all enjoyed the Whole Wheat goodness , but in between i missed baking these for a few months, and again back on track.

Egg-less Whole Wheat Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup Whole wheat Flour / Atta
1/2 cup Sugar
/4 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Almonds ( chopped )
1/2 tsp Cardamom powder
1/2 cup Butter ( 8 tbsp or 4 oz )
2 tbsp Milk (or as needed )

Method:
Soften the butter at room temperature.
Pre - heat the oven to 360 F.
In a bowl mix together Flour + Salt + Sugar + Almonds + Cardamom powder.
Knead the flour to a dough adding soften Butter and milk; the dough has to be smooth and soft.
Divide the dough into 24 equal balls , and press lightly.
Place the cookies on a ungreased cookie sheet leaving an inch gap in between.
Bake for 18 mins , take out from oven  let it cool for few mins and remove.
Serve with a cuppa Tea  !!


Recipe Source : manjula's kitchen

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      Its been a while i baked something, at the back of my mind i was thinking that i had to bake something soon, well something for me always means a Cake. Even the little one was asking me for a cake, and i was so lazy all the while. You know me , laziness just strikes me every now and then.

Well, i had these over riped bananas on my counter top for a while, all three of us are not interested in these over ripe bananas. So it was just staying there, i didn't want it to stay any more longer and then let it go into the trash. I had bookmarked the recipe from the blog Joy of Baking for a while, i knew i would frequently have over ripped bananas with me.

I wasn't so sure about the taste of the cake but, i should say , from now on i may wait for my bananas to turn ripe very soon. The cake was so moist and soft, it stayed to be soft even after refrigeration, and all of us loved it. Simple to make and tasted great too.
I served it just as it is, i didn't frost it, if you want you can frost it with whipping cream or butter cream as your wish.

Moist Chocolate Banana Cake
 
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup All Purpose Flour / Maida
3/4 cup Cocoa powder
2 cups Sugar ( i used just 1 cup )
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt

2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
3 ripe Bananas smashed / pureed ( about 1 cup )
1/2 cup Milk
1/2 cup Oil
1 cup Warm water

Method:

Pre - heat the oven to 350 F / 180 C , and grease and line a 9 /13 inch square baking pan. ( I used a square pan and lined it with aluminium foil. )
In a bowl mix together the dry ingredients well and set it aside.
In another bowl whisk together the wet ingredients until well mixed.
Pour the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well to a smooth batter without any lumps.
Pour the batter to the prepared pan and bake it for 40 - 45 mins or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool it and top it with whipped cream or a chocolate ganache or  Serve as it is.

Recipe Source : Joy of Baking

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     We love fresh baked goodies just out of the oven. It may be cakes, cookies , pizzas any thing for that matter even my little girl keeps on checking through the glass window if something is getting baked inside the oven. A few months ago, most of our fellow bloggers were all baking up some fresh Home-made Foccacia Bread recipe shared by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen , i was so tempted by those picture that i couldn't wait any longer and made my share too. I know i am way too late on posting this recipe but, i couldn't resist anymore on having this recipe on my bloggie.

The recipe was so simple and the herbed - oil just worked wonders of flavours with the bread.
The bread was soaked up with flavours, and we had it with a bowl of hot Creamy Broccoli and Cheddar soup. My little girl was so happy to dunk in her share of bread into the soup and devoured it.

The recipe yields two medium shaped Foccacia Bread, i baked one and froze the other dough for a later use. The picture below is the Foccacia Bread made from the frozen dough. I froze the dough before rolling into Foccacia, and thawed it for an hour or so, and baked as per the recipe. It came out just perfect. I am planning to make a dough and freeze both, so that i can have some freshly baked Foccacia anytime we plan for a Soup - Bread dinner !!

Foccacia Caprese 
Ingredients:

For the Bread:

2 tsp Instant Yeast
1 1/2 tbsp Sugar
3 1/2 cups  Bread Flour ( i used All Purpose Flour )
1 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Oil ( preferrably Olive Oil )
1 - 1 1 /2 cups Warm Water
a little more to brush the dough

For the Topping:
4 - 5 Tomatoes ( i used one )
Mozzarella Cheese Slices ( i used shredded )
1/2 cup fresh Basil Leaves , cut in strips

For the Herb Oil:
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 tsp dried Oregano
1 tsp dried Basil
1/4 - 1/2 tsp Red Chili Flakes
1/2 tsp minced Garlic
Salt to taste

Method:

Herb Oil : Mix all ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Bread : In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients and knead to make a dough with Olive oil and warm water. Form a dough just short of sticky. Take out the dough and oil the bowl , now turn the dough inside the bowl a couple of times to coat the dough with oil.
Cover the dough and let it rise for an hour.
Pre- heat the oven to 400F / 210C. Divide the dough into two; and roll out / press out the dough into a 1 inch rectangle shape, and lay it on a cookie sheet. Let it rise for 20 mins.
Slightly oil your fingers and press " dimples " on the dough. Brush herbed-oil  all over generously.
Bake for  18 - 20 mins or until golden brown.
Take out the bread, increase the baking temperature to 450F. Brush again with oil and top it with Cheese and Tomatoes drizzle some oil on top and bake until the cheese melts.
Garnish with basil leaves and serve warm.

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     Birthdays back at home were not at all a celebration without our ever family favorite cake THE BLACK FOREST. We never had good Bakeries in Tvm, but now there are so many and many have started with Custom made cakes. We were introduced to a brand new Cake shop in our place and then from then on it was the Black beauty which always held our Birthday Tables.
We never even thought of trying out any other flavor and that continued for a long time even with our close family members , until the next teenager kids in the family took in-charge now the choices are different every time :) But always this one has a special place.

Well, i have tried out a few number of Cake recipes from the blog Passionate about Baking, every time i had a doubt about baking i referred this blog . Baking Black Forest was like something i dreamt of during my initial days, having this blog within a reach i baked some yummy tasting black forest for a long time.

     I was craving for a slice of creamy black cake for sometime, and couldn't resist it for long. Even little Cuppy Cake was asking me for some cakes, and i just made it again, i can never get bored baking our family favorite AGAIN and AGAIN !!! And it comes out just perfect every single time.

Black Forest Cake

For the SPONGE
6 Eggs
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Flour
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Cocoa Powder
1/4 cup Cornstarch
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 350F setting the rack on middle, and line two 9" cake pans.
Beat the Sugar + Eggs in a clean bowl for about 10 - 15 ins, until foamy.
Add vanilla and beat for another min.
Sift together Flour + Cocoa + Cornstarch + Baking.
Gently fold it in the egg mixture, mix lightly that the air doesn't escape.
Divide the batter between the pans, and bake until 25 - 30 mins.
Once done remove form tin after 5 mins, and leave on to cool completely.

For the FILLING & FROSTING
2  1/2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
3 - 4 tbsp Sugar
1 canned Maraschino cherries ( chopped , and few whole  )
1 tbsp Lime juice
1 tsp Cornflour + 1/2 of the Cherry syrup

Method:
Heat 1/2 of the Cherry syrup + 1/4 cup water to a  boil,  add the cornstarch syrup to it and boil until thick.
Take off from heat and add in lime juice, and let it cool.
Whip Cream + Sugar until stiff peaks form , reserve half for the icing

Assembly
Lay one cake on the Serving Plate and spread 1/2 of the Cherry syrup ( just to soak the cake &  moist it) spread a thick layer of whipped cream and top with chopped cherry pieces. Place the other cake on top again drizzling with cherry syrup and then covering the whole cake with the whipped cream.
Decorate by piping some cream on top, and sprinkling with Chocolate shavings, and Cherries.

For the Chocolate Shaving - Take chocolate in a bowl and melt it in a microwave for 30 sec and mix well, spread it on a parchment paper and refrigerate it until set and break it into small pieces, and garnish it on the cake as needed.  ( i used 60% dark chocolate )

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     Its holiday season and everyone must be busy planning or may be even executing on their holidays plans, well we just got back home from one. A proper vacation ; which was a very enjoyable and a memorable one we had in a long time. After my little Adya's arrival we never planned on a long vacation within US other than our India visits and short visit to places near by. We were a group of 3 family friends all having kids of the same age and born on following  near by months , so it was triple the fun with 3 kids all hyper at the same time.

We planned on a sudden vacation to Hawaii, and it was even better escaping from the cold winter weather here, and enjoying our India kind of climate over there.The kids enjoyed to their hearts content , playing and enjoying in the lovely beaches every single time possible. We grown ups were all excited about water activities and much like enjoying Home away from Home; relaxing in a different kind of world. So, now we people just miss our vacation, but still its always great be get back home and cuddle up in your ever favorite couch on a winter day sipping on your Hot Coffee.

Well, just after getting back home we were all set to celebrate little Adya's Pre- school Christmas Celebrations , and as parents were allowed to bring in snack i along side with my friend was all set to make some yummy snacks. I was so longing to make some gingerbread cookies and it came out so well, the whole house was filled with a great aroma, these are the ones i made for Adya's School Christmas Celebration.

Eggless GingerBread Man with Vegan Royal Icing
Recipe courtsey : Prema's Culinary

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tbsp Dry Ginger Powder
1/2 tbsp Cinnamon Powder
1 tsp Cloves Powder
1/2 tsp Nutmeg Powder

1/2 cup Butter / 1 stick Butter ( at room temp )
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Honey
1/4 cup Milk ( warm)

Method:
Mix Flour + Baking pwdr + Baking soda + spice pwdrs, together in a bowl and set aside.
In a bowl beat together Butter + Brown Sugar + Honey until creamy.
Add in the sifted flour little by little and beat, also add milk in between as needed.
Knead the dough together with your hands to form a soft dough ball, cover it with a clingfilm wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
Pre heat oven to 350F , and line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
Roll out little of the dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a lightly floured work surface, cut out shapes using your cookie cutter and lay them on the baking tray and bake for 10 mins,
Once done cool it for 2 mins and transfer them on to a wire racks , cool completely and store.

Vegan Royal Icing

Ingredients:
1 cup Icing Sugar / Confectioners Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Corn Starch
1 tsp Lemon Juice
2 - 3 tsp Milk
Food colours - green & red

Method:

Sift together Sugar + Cornstarch, beat well with other ingredients.
Scrap down the sides , add sugar if the icing is too watery.
Divide into 3 portions, adding green colour to one and red to another one, leaving one white.
Mix the colours well, add in the piping bags or ziploc covers.
Pipe on the cookies and let it dry , once dried store in air tight containers.

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    November is a month of happenings at home. By the 1st week of November we celebrate our Little Girl's Birthday, so we will be busy planning for her Birthday Bash ; and mean time i will be busy deciding on what the Cakes should be for her Birthday Bash as well as her Actual Birthday Day which we celebrate within just the three of us. Then by the end of the month we will be ready to celebrate our Wedding Anniversary as well as planning for Thanks Giving. Even this year wasn't much different, most of the times we celebrate our Wedding Anniversary On or a day before or after Thanks Giving.. And this time we went shopping all night and our Little one was such a darling she co- operated well and slept all night giving me a great chance to shop.

So coming back to the Wedding Anniversary we celebrated our lovely journey of  6 years. I have been wanting to bake the Rose Cake from I am a Baker for long, and tried out this time. I baked the same Chocolate cake i have baked for Adya's B'day and frosted it with Butter cream. This is the ever Perfect Chocolate Cake Recipe and is a keeper; an adaptation from Hersheys , and the Butter Cream recipe from here. I am sure to do a post exclusively on this Perfect Moist Chocolate Cake.




Chocolate Rose Cake 

 Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup All Purpose Flour
2 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Cocoa powder
2 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
1 cup Buttermilk ( refer notes )
1/2 cup Vegetable oil
2 Eggs ( at room temperature )
2 tsp Vanilla extract 
1 cup Black coffee (I used Nescafe)

Preheat oven to 350 F, and line two 9" round cake tins with parchment paper.

Whisk together dry ingredients into a bowl.

In a bowl mix wet ingredients together and beat adding the flour mix little by little until all combined
Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 mins, until a tester comes out clean.

Frosting:

2 sticks Butter ( softened at room temp )

3 cups Powdered Sugar

1/4 tsp Salt

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

4 tbsp Milk / Heavy Cream

Pink Food Colour / 

Beat butter until creamy, add in sugar little by little until well combined.

Add vanilla , salt,  pink colour and beat well until all mixed, add milk checking on the consistency.

Layer frosting on one cake and and place another cake on top; give a good crumb coating.

Pipe roses using Wilton 1M tip.

For Chocolate Roses, i used 1 stick butter + 2 cups Powdered Sugar + 1/2 cup Cocoa powder + salt + vanilla extract + milk, mix as mentioned above and pipe roses.

Notes : I didn't have any Buttermilk with me so substituted it with 3/4 cup of Curd + 1/4 cup Milk and mix well, keep it for 5 mins and then use it, the cake was just perfect with the substitution.
 I used three 6" pans, i didn't want a big cake, i used two cakes and refrigerated the 3rd one.

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      Well, it is the Birthday fever that is still going on in my blog .Its this time of the year that i truly look forward to , my little girl's big day. Yes, i know that my little girl is no more a baby but i really loved to bundle up in her baby pink blanket . She is the most beautiful and the most cheerful one, well more than everything the most daring one, she keeps on bumping herself to anything but its a rare thing that she comes crying to me complaining herself being hurt. 
At times she does makes me understand by her acts that " I'm a Toddler " . 
She is a bit on the " more " side nowadays, more beautiful, more talkative , more interactive, more cheerful, more funny , more fussy, more active, Well !! i would say.. more, more and even more hyper active nowadays :) But she is the best thing that happened to me :)

Other than the Birthday Bash we celebrated her actual B'day on 6th November at home with just the three of us with a yummy cake and her ever favorite lentil soup. She loves Cakes, and more over loves when we all sing her " Happy Birthday to U" and now after the Nemo Cake , she wants Nemo Cake and wants to eat the Nemo too !!! 
About this Cake it is a Orange - Almond Flavoured Cake covered with Chocolate ganache , i love this flavour , even before i started blogging i used to try out recipes from Deeba's Blog Passionate About Baking , i love her Cakes , its like a hobby for me to go through her recipes.

Chocolate Orange Almond Gateau
Recipe Source: passionateaboutbaking

Ingredients:
For the Orange Sponge
1 1/4 cup Plain flour
1/8 cup Cornflour
1 1/4 cup Powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
2 tsp Baking powder
3 large Eggs, separated
5 tbsp oil ( vegetable oil )
5 tbsp water
Rind of 1 Orange 
1 tbsp Orange juice
1 tsp Orange extract ( i did not use this )


Method:
Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a 9″ spring form tin with parchment paper.
Sift the cornflour, plain flour, baking powder, salt and powdered sugar into a mixing bowl.
Beat the egg whites till they stand in soft peaks. Keep aside.
With a whisk, lightly mix the oil, water, yolks, juice, rind and extract together. Stir into into the dry ingredients.
Beat with an electric beater on low speed until smooth.
Carefully fold the beaten whites gently into the yolk mixture.
Turn intothe lined tin and bake for about 45 minutes till well risen and golden brown / until done. Check if it is done with a wooden pick. {Slide a sheet of foil lightly over the top if it begins to brown too fast}. Leave in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on rack.
Once cool, cut into 2 layers each.
Ganache
3/4 cup low Fat cream ( i used whipping cream )
1 cup Dark chocolate
Method:
Place the cream & half the dark chocolate in a pan over low heat and stir until the chocolate has melted.
Put the remaining chocolate in a bowl, and pour the melted cream and chocolate mixture over it, and stir until all the chocolate has melted and is glossy. Reserve. {It will continue to thicken as it stands}
Filling / Almond Nut Whipped Cream
3/4 low Fat cream, chilled
4 tbsp almond meal
4tbsp powdered sugar  ( increase if needed )
Method:
Whip all ingredients together till thick and hold peaks. Adjust sugar if required.
Syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup water
1/2 tsp orange extract
Small stick cinnamon
Method:
Simmer till the sugar has dissolved, and cool completely. {I usually keep a thick syrup in a jar in the fridge, sieved leftover syrup from poaching pears in}
Assemble the Gateau
Brush the cake with the cooled syrup and sandwich with the almond nut whipped cream.
Frost the sides and top of the cake with the ganache. Decorate with whipped cream and orange slices.  Chill well for the flavours to mature. In winter keep out at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving. In warm weather, serve straight out of the fridge.

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Happy Birthday - Adya turns 3 !!

Our little Cuppy Cake Adya turned " Big 3 "  this year. She is no more a baby , she's more of a toddler now than she was at least a few months ago. Time sure does fly fast, may be a bit  faster than i thought :) . 
We celebrated two parties for her, we decided on Adya's Birthday Bash on a short notice, celebrated it with her little friends and their families.  We celebrated it in our Play-yard ; decorated the monkey bar with a huge Spiral Balloon Deco made by her Dad with help from his friend, and the food was from our favorite restaurant. As it was a Play-Yard Party the kids enjoyed playing to their hearts content .   

Our little one loves Nemo, and i wanted to surprise her with a  Nemo Cake , and was sure that i had to make it with fondant, having no experience with fondant before wasn't so sure how the result would be, i really didn't want to mess up my girl's birthday party.  So i started checking on different homemade fondant recipes, heard that store bought ones didn't taste good , actually its a year long search that i started my research on Fondant Nemo Cakes,  well, i wanted to bake a newmo cake for her 2nd B'day but couldn't ,kept on researching on Nemo Cakes , i was sure to make it someday.
 At last i found the perfect recipe on our fellow blogger Manju's blog Manju's Eating Delights. She had some very beautiful Homemade Fondant Cakes in her blogs,  she was very prompt & answered all my questions. I kept on asking her so much, and she was very sweet enough to help me out; thanks a lot Manju.
 I could work on the decos only after Adya went to bed, so it was all a night work. Making Nemo was fun, you can see the lucky fin too !! 

I baked two 9" Chocolate Cakes ( will share the recipe soon ) and used a Chocolate Butter Cream frosting from here .
I made the corals 2 days before the party and made the cake and frosted it a day before and refrigerated it. On the night before the party i covered it with fondant and left at room temperature. It was just perfect when time to cut, and the little girl did feel so happy seeing her fav Nemo on her B'day Cake.


HOME MADE MARSHMALLOW FONDANT 
Receipe Source : here

 Ingredients:
 10 oz Marshmallow Packet ( i used mini marshmallows )
4 Cups ( 1 lbs ) Confectioners Sugar or Powdered Sugar
2 tbsp Water
Vegetable Shortening (opt ; to grease your hands and work place ) ( i did not use this )

Method:
 In a large microwave safe bowl , add water and the entire marshmallow pack and heat for 1 min until all melted . ( i did it in 30 sec each ). Stir until all mixed and a thick paste.
Add powdered sugar and stir until sugar and the marshmallow is some what mixed.
Spread some powdered sugar over your counter top and knead the marshmallow mixture until a dough is obtained. (You may use vegetable shortening to grease your kitchen counter and also your hands , so that the dough does not stick to your hands, but I skipped this).
Wrap your fondant in cling wrap immediately, coated with some powdered sugar or shortening and keep it aside for sometime. Before using, again knead until soft and use as needed.
If you feel your fondant hard to knead, microwave it for 10 sec or so ,NOT more than that.

To color the fondant:

Take the required amount of fondant and using a toothpick or coffee stirrer add some coloring gel into the fondant and knead well until the desired color has spread across the entire fondant ball.
I used the Wilton Colouring Gels.


Notes:  I halved the recipe and did the Nemo and the corals, still had leftover fondant, and the whole recipe worked just perfect to cover a 9" Cake.

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          I wanted this post to be published long back, actually by July.... but it just didn't happen. Well , it was my hubby dears B'day and i  wanted to surprise him with his favorite cake once again . He is not much a person with a sweet tooth but i am  so lucky that he has at least one to name on his list. The first time i made this was for my daughter's B'day and then on  i am totally hooked  we are totally hooked. I am not that a great Baker ,  i do a lot of referring from  my favorite blogs for ideas and that is how i found my "Yellow Love".

Now coming to this Cake, it was Love at first sight, I just fell in love how Ria of Ria's Collection has presented it. Many of you must be knowing that she has a wonderful blog full of yummy treats and she is an expert with Cakes, so i just didn't need to think twice. Yea, i did refer one more lovely blog A Cup Full of Cake, merging both the recipes my end result was just  PERFECT. That made his B'day ever so happy and left me with so much praises and with a face full of glee. I am just so thankful to my fellow bloggers :)

Mango Mousse Cake for a Birthday!!
Recipe Source from:  here & here

Ingredients for the Cake:
1 cup All Purpose Flour minus 2 tbsp
2 tbsp Cornflour
1 cup Sugar
6 Eggs

Method:
Preheat the oven at 350 F , and line a 9 inch round cake tin with parchment paper.
In a clean bowl beat together sugar & eggs for about  12 mins, add in Vanilla extract and beat again for a 10 sec.
Mix together Flour and Cornstarch, carefully without deflating the air.
Pour the batter into prepared cake ti and bake for 15- 18mins or until spongy to touch.
Loosen the side of the cake and transfer the cake to a clean kitchen towel and let it cool.
Once cooled cut the cake into horizontally giving two separate cakes.

Ingredients for the Mango Mousse:
1 cup Mango Puree
1 1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
4 tbsp Sugar
1 pckt / 1 tbsp Gelatin +  4tbsp of Water

Method:
Whip together Cream and sugar until stiff peaks and then fold in mango puree.
Melt gelatin , cool it for a min and then fold into the mousse.

Assembly:
Prepare a 9inch Spring form Cake tin with parchment paper and layer it with one cake, brush it with Sugar syrup, pour in half of the Mousse and spread, layer the next cake and repeat. The top layer should be mousse.Refrigerate for 3 -4 hrs, and then pour in the Mango Mirror and leave to set again, better if left overnight.
Carefully take it out from the Spring form
Decorate it.

Ingredients for Mango Mirror:
1 cup Mango puree + 4tbsp Water
1 tbsp Gelatin + 3 tbsp Water

Method:
Heat mango puree  + water on very low heat  and add in melted gelatin and mix well.
Cool it and pour it over the Mousse using a strainer to give a very smooth layer.
Let it set , then decorate as you wish.

Notes: I melted a 1/2  cup of chocolate chips with 2 -3 tbsp cream and piped onto the cake using a ziploc, the mango mirror have to be set before piping in the chocolate..

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        There are times when some desserts ask for more egg yolks than egg whites and we are left behind with so much egg whites; it keeps running in my mind that i need to make use of it some how and i know it makes most of  us atleast me feel very very bad to throw it away. This is what happened a couple of days ago, i made a dessert which asked for more egg yolks leaving me behind with so much egg whites, which i was not going to throw away at any cost and wanted to make use of it. .

I don't think much when i start searching for a recipe, i just look out for good pictures than the recipe method, and may be the title too, and and there... im so so happy with what i found at last. Just seeing the the word Espresso in the recipe made me tempt to make these lovely Meringues, you can see the original recipe here

ESPRESSO COFFEE MERINGUES
Yields: 30 nos

Ingredients:
4 Egg whites ( left at room temperature for 30 mins)
1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Instant Espresso Powder ( i used Nescafe )
3/4 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract ( opt ; but i used it )

Method:

• Adjust the oven rack to lower and middle postions; and pre-heat the oven to 275 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In a large clean bowl beat egg whites with salt until frothy. Add in espresso powder and sugar in a slow stream beating on medium until incorporated. Beat until glossy and stiff peaks form.
• Drop batter on prepared sheets using a rounded tablespoon. ( i used my ice cream scooper).
• Bake for about 2 hrs turning pans halfway through cooking, until the meringues are firm to touch.
• Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 1 hour. Can be stored in a air tight container for upto 5 days.

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         Its the day of  roses, chocolates and love. Happy Valentines Day !!
Running out of  usual ingredients gives a chance to try out with something new, thats what happened in this particular one, i wanted to make a normal Chocolate Coffee Pudding, but i ran out of dark chocolate, and thats when i substituted with ' Nutella ', but after tasting it, Nutella didn't work just as a substitute , it was lusciously heavenly, we loved it.

NUTELLA CHOCOLATE  PUDDING    - For the Valentine !!!

Ingredients:
1 cup Milk
3 tbsp Sugar

4 oz Dark Chocolate
1 1/2 tbsp Nutella
1 tsp Coffee Powder ( i used Nescafe )
2 tbsp Cornflour
3 tbsp Milk
3 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Method:

• Mix Cornflour to a smooth paste with a 3 tbsp milk.
• Heat the remaining milk, sugar, dark chocolate, nutella, coffee powder in a saucepan and bring to a light boil, stirring every time.
• Remove from heat  and pour the milk- cornflour mixture into it, stirring vigorously.
• Return the saucepan to heat, and let it boil for 5 mins or until thick, stirring all the time.
• Beat the eggs and vanilla extract in a bowl.
• Add in the slightly cooled chocolate mixture to the beaten eggs.
•  Divide the batter in 4 ramekins.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 F for 25 -30 mins, in a water bath.

Notes:  To prepare a " Water bath" , take a deep Baking Tray and place the ramekins filled with  custard inside it and fill the tray with water, letting the ramekins just immeresed.

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       Bright Yellow skinned  clean Bananas are loved at home, but a couple of black spots and it is not so liked by anyone. Its not that Bananas stay for long oin our home, it gets over pretty quickly ,  but there are times it would stay long with black spots coming, then i find some way or the other that i can make use of it , by making 'Unniappam" ( Banana rice fritters ) or a Banana Cake. I've literally  tried a N number of recipes for a Banana Cake, which in one way or the other didn't work for me much well, at last i came up with my own  recipe  which worked just perfect for me; im stuck with this for sure, it came out really good. It stayed really soft even the next day too.
I know two pictures for this recipe is really not needed, but i couldnt help myself from posting this, i just loved both the picture so much.

BANANA WALNUT  CAKE

Ingredients:
2 ripe Bananas ( pureed )
3/4 cup All Purpose flour
3/4 cup Sugar
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking  Soda
1 stick butter
2 eggs
2 tbsp Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup Walnuts ( chopped )
a pinch of salt

Method:

• Whisk together All Purpose Flour, Corn Flour, Baking powder, Baking Soda, and Salt.
• In a clean bowl beat together butter and sugar, until creamy.
• Put in the eggs on at a time and beat untill light and fluffy, about 5-6 mins, add the banana puree.
• Add in vanilla extract  and flour , also adding milk in between. ( do not beat for long, stop beating just untill everything is mixed )
• Fold in the Walnuts.
• Pour into a buttered pan. ( i used a 5 x 9 inch pan ), sprinkle some walnuts on top.
• Bake it in a pre- heated  oven at 325 F for 45- 50 min or when a skewer inserted comes out clean..

 Notes: Adding  1/2 tsp of Cinnamon  powder would give a  good flavour.

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Baking a cake from scratch was something i yearned for long. Amma used to make the yummiest Vanilla Cake ever with tutty fruity, and she would allow no one to touch her precious oven :) ; she bakes the best cakes ever. But for me baking was something i would have least tried. But, everything changed when i got married and came to US, i was happy to find i was interested in cooking  and more happy to bake cake in the most easiest manner through a store bought pack.
              That's when i met my friend  ' D ' who's cakes were pretty famous among our friends, she told me that she attended baking classes, and also owns a Hand Mixer ( which i thought only a Pro would own one ) and if i wished she could help me; and  just as i was wanted. She was very happy and kind enough to lend me her Mixer, but she couldn't make it on the day we planned for the  "Cake mission ". Excited & wanting  for the D day to happen , i  couldn't help waiting any longer, and went ahead alone for the mission, following her instructions blindly. Beating the sugar and eggs went good,  now for a beginner i should have Googled at least once, but went ahead and a few sec; i had my kitchen covered with flour.
               This is one yummy Orange Flavoured Cake with  a fruit filling and i'm pretty happy with the output,  the cake was soft and moist with the filling complementing the cake very well.

Orange Cake Slice

Ingredients:
4 Eggs at room temperature ( yolks & white separated )
3/4 cup All Purpose flour
3/4 cup Sugar
1 tbsp Cornflour
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 tbsp Milk
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Orange zest

For the filling:
3/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
2 tbsp Sugar
1 cup Fruits ( i used Cuties Oranges, Strawberry & Green Grapes )

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 350F and line a 9 x 12 inch Swiss roll tin.
• Whisk together Flour, Cornflour & Baking powder.
• Beat together egg yolks and sugar until creamy, for about 5 min.
• Add in vanilla, orange zest,   flour mixture and beat, adding milk in between , until smooth.
• Whip the egg whites with salt until soft peaks form, fold in to the batter very gently.
• Pour into the prepared tray and bake for 15 min, or until spongy on top.
• Turn over the cake to a parchment paper sprinkled with sugar, let it cool.
•  Whip the Cream with sugar, and fold in the fruits.
• Cut the cake in half, spread the filling on one half, and place the other half on top.
• Decorate with fruits and Chocolate drizzle.

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