A pretty cake

This post is for someone who is very passionate about cooking and baking. She is my friend and cousin Swapna chechi. She did one amazing fondant cake with cosmetic theme on her daughter's birthday. It was the first time she was trying fondant and the cake looked beautiful. All the little girls who came for the party was surprised to see an edible palette of cosmetics on the cake. The cake was a combination of red velvet cake and vanilla layers. The fondant was made of marshmallow and tasted nice. She made marshmallow fondant 3 days in advance and kept it covered with cling film and in an air tight vessel in refrigerator.
Here are the some steps of decorating the cake.

• The cake was of three layers bottom and top layer being vanilla and middle one red velvet. The cake was covered with chocolate butter cream (kid's favourite). 
• The nail polish bottom part is fondant and the cap is dark chocolate. The eye shadow base is caramel toffee which she flattened. The mascara stick is a toothpick dipped in chocolate and chocolate vermicilli used for decorating. 
• The lipstick is coloured fondant and the base is chocolate. The blush is a combination of caramel toffee and chocolate. 

Chicken bread roll

These rolls are sure to fill your tummy and delight your hearts. It takes a little bit time but it is  not hard to make. Got the tips of bread making from Julie's dinner rolls recipe. Everything turned out well and we had a yummy teatime. You can make the filling of your choice or just a sausage would do. Try and love it. 

Ingredients for bread

• All purpose flour - 2 and 1/2 cups
• Butter - 1 tsp
• Olive/Refined oil - 1 tbsp
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Yeast - 1 tbsp
• Milk - 1 cup
• Egg yolk - 1
• Sugar - 2 tsp
• Egg white - 1

Ingredients for filling

• Boneless chicken - 250 gm
• Onion - 2 big chopped
• Tomato - 1 chopped
• Capsicum - 1 chopped
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Water/Chicken stock - 1/2 cup
• Oil for sauteeing

Filling method

• Cook the chicken with little salt and mince it. 
• Chop onions
• Heat oil in a vessel
• Add ginger garlic paste and chopped onions. Saute until onion is transparent. 
• Add turmeric powder, chilli powder and coriander powder. Saute
• Add salt as required. Remember you've added salt while cooking chicken. So add accordingly. 
• Add minced chicken, tomato and capsicum. Saute for 2 minutes.
• Add 1/2 cup chicken stock/water, cover and cook for 2 minutes
• Open the lid and saute until the mix is dry. Cool and use as filling.

Bread method

• Warm the milk and add this to yeast along with sugar. Allow to ferment for 10-15 minutes. (Don't overheat the milk as it will kill yeast)
• Mix together maida and salt
• Take 2 cups of maida-salt mix in a bowl 
• Incorporate butter and oil into maida to get bread crumb texture.
• Add one egg yolk.
• Add fermented yeast and mix well to get a sticky dough.
• Add the remaining 1/2 cup of maida as required to get a not too sticky or not too stiff dough. (I had 1/4 cup of maida remaining)
• Brush 1 tsp of oil over the dough and keep it covered for increasing for 3 hours. 
• After 3 hours punch down the dough
• Sprinkle little flour on a surface and roll out the dough and make it into desired shape as per your creativity. I made it triangular.
• Roll out the dough. Cut triangle shape and put the filling on the base of the triangle
• Roll from the base with filling to the vertex of the triangular shaped dough. 
• Preheat oven at 200 degrees centigrade. 
• Keep the rolled dough with filling on a baking tray with parchment paper (butter paper) allow it to rest for 20 minutes.
• Brush with egg white (to get good shiny brown colour)
• Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes at 200 degree centigrade. 
• Brush with  butter as soon as you remove from oven. 

Marble Cake

Merry christmas to all. Hope you all are into baking and cooking great stuff. This time I made a marble cake which is one of family favourite. It was moist and yummy. You can play with the batter to make your own designs. You can make cupcakes or loafs or round cakes. Enjoy the season.

Ingredients

• Maida (all purpose flour) - 1 cup
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Eggs - 2
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Unsalted butter - 120 gm
• Cocoa - 2 tbsp
• Instant coffee - 1/2 tsp (optional)
• Milk - 3/4 cup
• Salt - 1/2 tsp

Method

• Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature.
• Preheat oven. 
• Powder the sugar. Keep aside
• Sieve together maida, salt, and baking powder. Keep aside
• In a bowl put butter and powdered sugar and beat well until soft and fluffy.
• To this add vanilla essence. Mix well.
• Add eggs one by one and blend well using the mixer. 
• Add half of the dry mix (maida & baking powder) to the above and fold in gently. 
• Add 1/2 quantity of the milk given ingredients to the batter. Fold in.
• Add the remaining dry mix and fold in. 
• Divide the above batter into 2 parts.
• Into the remaining milk mix cocoa and instant coffee. Strain it. 
• Add this to one part of the batter. Fold in slowly and beautifully well. 
• Now grease a cake tin and pour vanilla batter on to the base. 
• Pour chocolate batter on top of it. Spread and gently move a spoon through both batters in zig zag motion. Don't over mix.
• Bake at 150 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. (All ovens vary, so adjust it accordingly)

Apple Cake (Eggless)

This is a quick cake without egg and butter. It is guilt free and yummy. It is a one bowl cake and cannot go wrong how quick you make it. It tastes more better a day after the baking. Kids will love this. Mine was asking for even at 11 pm at night. So do try and pack it in their snack box for morning break. I tried making some cupcakes also. 

Ingredients

• Apple - 2 
• Maida - 1 cup
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Refined oil - 1/2 cup
• Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Walnuts - 5 (optional) chopped
• Choco chips - a handful (optional)
• Milk - 1/3 cup
• Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method

• Preheat your oven at 150 degree centigrade
• Peel and core apples
• Take 1 and 1/2 apples and puree it adding milk. Keep aside.
• Chop the remaining 1/2 apple into small pieces
• Sieve together maida and baking powder. Keep aside. 
• In a bowl, mix together sugar and refined oil. 
• Add pureed apple to this along with cinnamon powder. Mix well.
• Add maida and baking powder mix now and fold in. 
• Mix together the chopped apple, chopped walnut and choco chips
• Mix a little maida (1/2 tsp) into the chopped apple, walnut and choco chips. (So it doesn't sink down when cake raises)
• Add this fruit nut mix into the maida batter and fold in. 
• Pour into muffin cases and bake in oven for 20 - 25 minutes. (This one takes a little longer than other cakes). 
• (Adjust your ovens accordingly). Check when it is 18 minutes. Bake until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. 

Eggless chocolate banana cake

Wouldn't it be exciting if your little one waited patiently in front of the oven when the cake was baking and then had 3 full ones when it was out of the oven. He didn't even let it cool. I was so happy to see this. Actually he didn't have a proper dinner but was very excited when I took the cake tray to bake. He loved this one.

Ingredients

• Banana (ethakka) - 2 medium sized
• Maida - 2/3 cup
• Cocoa - 1/3 cup
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Milk powder - 1 tbsp
• Oil - 1/2 cup
• Sugar - 3/4 cup (or you increase to 1 cup)
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Instant coffee - 1/2 tsp
• Boiled water - 1/3 cup

Method

• Sieve together maida, cocoa powder, milk powder and baking powder. Keep aside
• Puree banana and keep aside.
• Mix instant coffee and warm water. Keep aside
• In a bowl mix together oil and sugar.
• Add banana puree to this and blend well. Add vanilla essence, mix well.
• To this add the dry mix and blend well with a wooden spoon. 
• The batter will be little thick. Add the instant coffee little by little until you get a smooth batter.
• Pour into cupcake cases in tray. 
• Preheat your oven and bake at 150 degree centigrade for 15-20 minutes. 

Eggless Chocolate Banana Walnut Muffins

My SIL is thin and she is busy working on her diet to get a little bit weight. Me on the other side is trying to put down. In both cases things are not working. So in her diet she included banana walnut muffins and was praising it so much. As she carried on I felt like having these muffins and ended up making choco-banana-walnut muffins. I made it in a healthy way to avoid that guilt feeling which I usually get after having all the goodies. My little family enjoyed it. Also dedicating this post to her. 

You need

• Wheat flour - 1 cup
• Sugar - 2/3 cup
• Oil - 1/2 cup
• Curd - 3 tsp
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Cocoa powder - 3 tsp
• Milk - 3 tsp
• Banana - 1
• Curd
• Walnuts - a handful

Method

• In a mixer beat together banana and milk. Keep aside
• Sieve together cocoa powder and whole wheat flour. Keep aside
• In a bowl beat together oil and powdered sugar.
• Into this add the banana puree and mix well
• Mix together curd and baking soda.
• Add this to the banana mix and fold in well. 
• To the above add the flour mix and fold in slowly.
• Put in the chopped walnuts. Mix well.
• Layer your muffin tin with muffin cases and scoop the batter into it till 3/4 of each cup
• Preheat the oven and bake at 150 degrees for 15-20 minutes. (use your oven accordingly)

Banana Nut Bread

If I've to explain this I'll have to say eggless, butterless, sugarless, yummy banana bread with all natural lovely flavours. I used the Apple sauce coated nuts in this (the recipe of which I posted yesterday) and banana which is full of sugar. It is nice bread eventhough there aren't many regular bread ingredients in it. I didn't puree the banana. Instead I chopped it into small bits and added along with nuts. The bread got its sweetness from banana and jaggery on the coated nuts.

You need

• Wheat flour - 1 and 1/2 cups
• Yeast - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 1 tsp
• Salt as required
• Milk - 1/2 cup or little more if required to make dough
• Banana - 1
• Nuts of your choice - 1/2 cup (I used Apple sauce coated nuts)

 Method

• Mix together yeast and sugar in a glass and add little lukewarm milk. Stir and keep aside.
• Allow it to stand for 15 minutes and allow it to ferment
• In a bowl mix together wheat flour and salt.
• Add the fermented yeast into this and mix well
• Add remaining milk little by little to get a sticky dough. 

• Keep the dough on a clean surface. Cover it with bowl and leave it undisturbed for 10 minutes.
• By this time chop banana and nuts into small pieces
• After 10 minutes knead the lightly raised dough again on the surface and roll it lengthwise with your hand. 
• Put the banana and chopped nuts over it.
• Bring the dough together. Knead it a few times. It will be difficult with lots of banana pieces and nuts. 
• Keep it in an oiled baking dish and leave for 1 hr. Cover it completely with a plastic cover. 
• Preheat the oven to 250 degree centigrade. 
• After 1 hr when the dough has increased in size, give it a milk wash, move it to the oven and put the temperature at 200 degrees centigrade and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Sending this to Radhika's tickling palates event Let's cook bread

Apple sauce coated nuts

These apple sauce coated nuts are sweet and crunchy. The little ones who don't like to try walnuts will love this due to its subtle sweetness and cinnamon flavour. Here I sprinkled the nuts here and there in the dish and baked it. If you need bars you can layer it on a baking dish and bake it. Leave it cool very well and then break to small pieces. 

You need

• Almonds - 1/2 cup
• Walnuts - 1/2 cup
• Cashew nuts - 1/2 cup
• Apple - 1 big
• Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
• Jaggery (thick paste) - 2 tbsp

Method

• Chop all the nuts into small pieces
• Puree the apple.
• Keep a sauce pan on low flame. Add jaggery and pureed apple.
• Allow it to simmer for 2 minutes or until it becomes saucy.
• Add cinnamon powder. Mix well.
• Switch off the flame and put the nuts into the sauce and mix well
• Line a baking dish with baking parchment paper and sprinkle these sauce coated nuts.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for 10 minutes. 

Puff Pastry Pie

Again I had some broken puff pastry sheets and couldn't make it into a puffs. The below one is not a recipe, it is just a method I tried at home to make a pie. Thought I would do some ad for puff pastry again. It was a surprise hit at home. 

You need 

• Puff pastry - 6 pieces (I get small square ones here)
• Any filling of your choice (Here I used chicken manjurian as the filling)

Method

• Oil the base of the baking dish
• Line the baking dish with puff pastry sheets. I used a loaf pan of 19.5 cm x 9.5 cm. 
• Fill it with the filling of your choice

• Cover the top with the remaining pastry sheets and brush lavishly with beaten egg.

• Bake in a preheated oven at 150 degree centigrade for 15-20 minutes or until done.