Birthday Cake - Lawn Mower

This was baked a few weeks ago for my husbands birthday. He maintains the lawn like any professional landscaper and I thought this would be a perfect cake for him.

Personally, I think the cake would have been nicer if it was a rectangular one rather than a round! The grass is made with butter cream frosting with a star tip. Wilton carries grass tip which is next on my list to purchase.

Birthday Cake - With Fondant Flowers

A close friend of mine recently had a week long birthday celebration. She lives her life to the fullest and has a fantastic sense of humor.  She loves the art of creativity and creates amazing creation on crochet.

I decided to try fondant flowers for the first time with the fondant tool kit that I had recently purchased. It took awhile but was a lot of fun to work.

The cake was regular butter cake flavored with lemon juice, lemon zest and marbled with green food coloring.

Cake Pops

Last weekend while we were at friends for Pre-Christmas gathering,  few of my sons friends wanted to surprise him on his birthday. Since my son was busy on his birthday with music rehearsals etc, they decided to stop by and surprise him on 24th. So I decided to make something special for all the kids.

Cake pops were popular early this year and it was on my list for long to try them. I thought there wasn't a better time than to treat this group of witty and energetic group of teenagers. The left over cake that I had trimmed from  trifle cake worked wonderful to create these treats.

To make these cake pops, I don't have the exact measurements. I just eye balled all ingredients together. Cut cake into small pieces and crumble to almost powder. (Hands work best, but you can use a food processor). Pulse for a few seconds in a food processor. Add a few teaspoon of store bought frosting (just enough to hold crumbs together and it forms a soft dough). With the help of tablespoon, scoop and make smooth even size balls. Once they are ready , refrigerate them for 30 minutes.

Remove from refrigerator and let them rest at room temperature. In the meantime, melt chocolate chips on double broiler until smooth. Dip the tip of lollipop sticks into chocolate and stick them into cake ball (just to help the stick glue to the cake pop. Gently roll cake pop in melted chocolate until well coated. Immediately top with sprinkles, crushed nuts, toasted coconut or mini M & M's. Stick them onto Styrofoam to hold them upright until they are dry.

Although they are little too sweet for me, it was a hit with the kids. Since my son is a huge fan of football, I made a few to look like football. These are definitely on my list again for Super Bowl.

Happy Birthday Son! - Trifle Cake

It's hard to believe, how fast kids grow. My little baby, now a teenager, turned a year older yesterday. With each passing year, its unbelievable how fast they change. Until early this year, he waited to get taller and within a span of few months he is taller than me and still growing.
The year 2013 had quite a few memorable moments. He moved to a new school and it was a big transition, he joined a music group at school and they won the state championship.There are many more special times but the craziest and my most favorite of all was touring The Citadel at Montreal.
On the day we were at The Citadel, it was a windy day but we didn't expect heavy rains. We bought rain ponchos just incase and we lucked out. We landed up touring the historical site with our rain ponchos in the middle of a storm. The tour guide must have thought we were out of our minds when it was raining cats and dogs. I don't remember hearing a word what our guide said but I saw my son enjoying every minute of the tour. The tour guide said she had never done a tour in the rain and always had a group of 50 people or more!

On the occasion of his birthday, I didn't share any words of wisdom. At this stage, talking to a teenager can sound like a lecture to them. I came across these words in a book that I read few months ago and shared it with him----
Your heart: follow it; Your dreams: work on them; Your family: Treasure them; Your fears: Embrace them and let them make you stronger; Your friends: Be loyal to them; Your Money (when you start earning): respect it; Your passion: Live it!
I was wanting to bake a special fancy cake for him. But he requested for trifle, his favorite dessert. You can find the recipe for trifle here.
To make this look like a cake, I baked two 9"round cakes. Trim the uneven top off and layer in a spring form pan with pudding, jello and mandarin oranges. Top with pudding and decorate with jello and oranges.

The cake needs to be refrigerated for 4-5 hours. I made this before leaving for work and decorated the cake. Jello started dripping down and as you can see, the cake looks a little sloppy. I would recommend to layer the cake and refrigerate. Decorate the cake just before serving.

Jelly Roll

Jelly Roll brings back a lot of old memories.
During my school days, on my way home from school, I used to pass by this family owned bakery. They had one of the most amazing desserts and bakery products. Every time I passed by, the air was always filled with the wonderful smell of cookies and cakes. My Mom would occasionally let us buy a slice of warm jelly roll that was sliced and stored between wax paper. I remember how fascinated I was with jelly rolled up between the cake. I would unroll it to one long strip and relish every bite.

Ingredients:

5 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup strawberry jam
sugar for dusting

How it's made:

Grease an 18 by 13 inch pan. (I used cookie sheet). Grease the bottom of pan and line the sheet with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper and set aside.
Combine flour, salt and baking powder. Whisk together and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, vanilla and sugar with an electric beater. Beat until mixture is thick and fluffy (approx. 5 minutes). Mix in dry ingredients with a rubber spatula. Spread batter evenly onto greased cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes.
Remove cake from oven, run knife through the side of pan. Flip the cake on a large sheet of parchment paper which has been lightly dusted with sugar. (Be very gentle when flipping the cake onto parchment  or else you will have sugar all over on the counter and maybe on the floor too!) Peel off parchment paper from the cake (that was used for baking) and immediately roll the cake starting from the shorter side to form a log. Wait for 20 minutes until the cake cool down.
Warm jam in microwave for a few seconds. Unroll cake. Spread jelly and roll up the cake again leaving behind the parchment paper.

Wait for an hour or more. Slice and serve.

Chocolate Pistachio Muffin

The past 2-3 months have been busy not to mention the busiest summer I had. Juggling between summer camp, working full time and overseas family relatives, it was a hectic summer but time well spent. I cooked quite a few authentic Konkani dishes when we had family members visiting but unfortunately didn't find time to plate, capture images and update on my blog. Never the less, I also had the luxury to enjoy good fresh food waiting when I got back from work.
Summer went by like a breeze and we are back to school routine. No more lazy weekends!
I hope to edit and post recipes that have been sitting in my inbox for awhile. My sister-in-law recently said she was bored seeing Batate Upkari on my home page every time she logged onto my blog!

Weekday mornings are always busy, and with school bus arriving by 6:45 am sometimes breakfast is on-the-go. Brainstorming options, first on my list was Banana Bread, something that everyone likes at home. But I was tempted to try something that I hadn't baked for a very long time. While browsing through my huge collection of recipe that I mostly inherited from my Mother, I found this to be quick and easy and these Muffins turned out great.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine, melted
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips + 2 tbsp for topping
1/2 cup pistachio, coarsely chopped + 2 tbsp for topping


How it's made:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat melted margarine, egg, vanilla and milk. Mix in dry ingredients until well combined.
Grease or line muffin pan with paper cups. Fill each muffin cup until half filled. Top with reserved chocolate chips and pistachio.

Bake for 20 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Makes: about 15 muffins

Happy Birthday - My Friend!

This past weekend, we celebrated my friend "B" milestone birthday and I volunteered to make this treat for her special day. Her husband along with her new born Princess were the first Indian family that I met when I landed in this foreign country. She remained to be one of my best friends although we now see each other a few times in a year. With her busy work schedule and her little baby, she was my big support when I went through a difficult pregnancy. I will forever be grateful for all that she did. I like to call her as my "Bold and Beautiful" friend.
Knowing her as a very affectionate, artistic, ambitious, creative (the list goes on...) and a multi-talented person, I knew she would cherish these cupcakes and she did!
I find it important to appreciate people when they make a difference in someones lives and I like to make them feel extra special on their special day. The party was one of the best- good food, music and loads of laughter. After a fun-filled weekend, birthday girl responded back the next day "Good friends can see the best in a person and that is priceless".

Happy Birthday!

It was fun making these cupcakes once my mind was stable after brain storming several thoughts. I was undecided with the design until the day before the event. "B" who enjoys art during free time (and also a writer), I thought this would be a perfect arrangement of cupcakes. She loved it and I got a big hug in return. It was 100% satisfaction for me. I only wished, I used fondant to make an edible paint brush.

Cupcake

Merry Christmas! Cheers to good health & great food!

This past weekend, I had volunteered at a kids event to bake 3 dozen cupcakes which needed just frosting & sprinkles. My kitchen has been like a bakery for the last 10 days with cakes, cookies & brownies. To end all the baking for this season, I baked another dozen more to play around with frosting & create something different. With a few Wilton tips that I had, I enjoyed decorating these cupcakes.

Another year older...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

My baby turned a year older today. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY"! Years fly by and I still remember the first cry, first tooth, first step, first word......... and many other first's. Little Mr. Personality was always energetic, enthusiastic, inquisitive and a big social person. At times, I thought it was dangerous for him to be too social- (worrying he would let the cat out of the Bag)! A voracious reader of fiction books, a budding percussionist and a master of silly faces is quite a joy to be around with. I was recently going through family albums and it was a trip down memory lane. Although the memories are always carried with us, the picture brought life to many growing stages. All the passing years, the changes and the challenges, feels like it's hard to catch up and they grow up too soon.

This time of the year is always crazy but we try to put aside our daily schedules, Christmas activities and make this day a very special one.

Since last year, his birthday celebration has been a week prior to the actual birthdate in order to make it convenient for all his friends. Although, the birthday boy is not a big fan of cake, I was determined to bake a football theme cake for my die hard "Steelers" fan. With the amount of time I had, I was debating between home made or store bought cake.

So, I brain-stormed a few thoughts before going to bed the previous night & the next morning I baked a cake before heading for work. On my way back, I picked up decorating supplies and after dinner, spent a few hours & managed to finish it. I had initially planned on a design which I realized was a little complicated & this was the final result.

The cake was made with store bought yellow cake mix and I used store bought vanilla frosting. While icing details on the cake, I realized home made icing with confectioners sugar would have been a better choice. Store bought frosting is perfect for spreading or sandwiching the cake. Using fondant would have made the details look neater but it has never been a favorite, especially with the birthday boy!

I used a very thin layer of icing which controlled the sweetness.

Banana Bread

Banana Bread is something that I make every time when I have over ripe Banana's. This recipe was passed on  by my Akka (Fathers sister) & has turned out perfect every time I've made it. The original recipe was a combination of whole wheat flour and maida (flour). But recently, I decided to try to make it healthy and used whole wheat flour only & it turned out well.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup ripe mashed bananas (approx 3 medium)
1/4 cup margarine, room temperature
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup roasted, crushed walnuts

How it's made:

Pre-heat oven to 350deg F. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except raisin & walnuts. Beat at medium speed for 2-3 mins. Fold in raisins. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan or a pan lined with wax paper. ( Greasing pan is not required if you decide to use wax paper).

Top with walnuts. Bake for 45-50 mins or until toothpick/skewer/knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool completely for an hour & store in airtight container.

Note: For glass pan, set oven temperature to 350 deg. For metal pan, 325 deg. 
         All my friends & relatives who inquired on how ripe the bananas should be for this                recipe, here is the image.