Black Forest Cake

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

This week, My blog is celebrating the CAKE WEEK. The reason is again the event. As I got stuck in the house work, I could not post regularly and my cake photos left behind. Now is the time for me to post all the cakes.

Today is the day for Black forest cake, which is my favorite... everyone's favorite in my house. And who does not like this one?

And when it comes to baking, I am a very good copycat.. I always follow the recipe from other blogs. But this time it was the recipe which I learnt in my baking class. I have collected many more versions of Black forest cake recipes, which I am going to try soon. The reason is I got the Whipped cream powder which was not available all these days. Its a wonder powder. Just add some chilled water and whip it with the blender. Wooo... you have a yummy whipped cream...

I am not sure about the reason why my cake was hard, may be it was more baking powder or old baking powder, I felt its not that soft.. may be will try soon again to find out the mistake.

The recipe is here: (I have edited it according to my taste)

Ingredients:

Cocoa powder - 1/8 cup

APF - 1/4 cup

Eggs -2

Sugar(Granule) - 1/4 cup

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Baking Soda -  a pinch

Hot water 1 tbsp(If required)

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Sugar syrup - 1/8 cup to soak the cake(mix equal qty of water and sugar and mix well)

Whipped cream - 1 cup

Cherries-  1/2 cup, one boil, remove seeds. Chop few cherries to spread and keep few cherries full to decorate.

Method :

• Whisk egg, sugar and vanilla essence over hot water till custard consistency. 
• Add Sieved APF, cocoa powder, baking powder and a baking soda.
• Mix it. Add little water. Mix and cut. 
• Put in a greased and dusted 6inch tin and bake in a preheated over at 180 degree for 30 minutes. RElease sides. Remove and cool.
• Cut in to 2 equal halves with a thread and soak with sugar syrup.
• If you have a ready whipped cream thats fantastic., or if you have whipped cream powder prepare the cream by adding water and keep it ready in the refrigerator for half an hour.
• Now
• take the first half of the cake.  Apply the cream, Spread chopped cherries. 
• Keep the second half of the cake on it. Soak with sugar syrup. Apply the cream again. 
• Decorate with the cherries and grated chocolate(I did not had chocolate :-(  )
• Keep in the fridge for sometime before you serve.

Sending it to the ongoing event 

Dinner Recipes from Sonia's Kitchen' BLOG

Announcing Celebrate Sweets – Cakes event

Which is started by ME.

Keep Baking :-)))


Keep Smiling,

Vegan Mango Cake(Food Remake)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Two years back....

I was scared of baking. The word itself made me sweat.. I never thought that I will start baking one day.

But there is always first step and we learn to walk only when we start that first step and keep on falling down and getting up again. Each fall is a lesson for us to keep the next step carefully. This is what happened with me here.

There are many times that I have wasted the whole cake, I have felt bad for the money I spent for the ingredients and taken oath that I will never bake the cake :-),. But every oath ended within 7 days. Again I had tried and again another failure...

But, now, may be I will not be a great baker or can get a job in baker's cake.. but definitely I can bake a cake which my kids love to have. I can bake a cake for my kid's small parties..

Here is my Nth number of cake... This also was a failure because I used Rice flour instead of APF..

When  I am talking about the cakes and bakes,, I would love to thank many bloggers here, who are my inspiration to keep my baking fire on in my mind..

(It definitely doesn't mean that  other bloggers are not my inspiration, but when it comes to baking, I just love to dig into these blogs and every time I have got perfect recipes. It is me who is not good at baking.) How can I forget the tips by Aparna S Mallya on how to preheat the oven before we start baking and few more. Thanks dear.

Champa of  Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen
Suma of   Cakes And More!
 Raaga of The Singing Chef 
Ria of  ♥Ria's Collection♥  and
Deeba of Passionate About baking

I don't know when will I reach their level!!!!!...

Thanks all for the great help.. You all are my teachers.

Coming to today's cake,

I have followed the recipe from Champa. :-), I think I mailed her several times with many dumb questions,before I baked this cake, and even after I baked these. But each time, she replied me promptly and with proper solution. Thanks dear.

You know that first time it was a disaster as I used rice flour.. But again I tried baking it and it came out very nice.. I enjoyed each bite..

This was the disaster cake which I prepared using rice :-))))

Click  Vegan Mango Cake for the original recipe

Sending it to the ongoing event 

Dinner Recipes from Sonia's Kitchen' BLOG

Announcing Celebrate Sweets – Cakes event

Which is started by ME.

Keep Smiling,

On Break...

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

How are you all?

Sorry for not posting regularly.

I will be back soon. Busy with the work at home...

Hope to see you all here when I am back.....

Keep Smiling,

IYENGAR BAKERY KHARA BISCUITs for ICC May

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Every month,  is getting more interesting, I am enjoying it and wait for the announcement every month. Sometimes, I will finish the challenge soon and its really difficult to wait for 15th of that month.

I prepared these biscuits which Srivalli has choosen from Champa's Savory Shortbread cookies / Iyengar bakery Khara Biscuit for Indian Cooking Challenge.

The very next day I prepared these and was waiting for the 15th. Here I am with my version. 

I remember mom making biscuits like these. But she had that old round, big oven like a round tiffin box. She always tried biscuits, buns, breads and cake in that. I never tried with her :-(, but here I am getting very challenging and fare chances of learning many new foods. When you are in challenge, you will do it.
That holds good with me..


Ingredients :(I used half the qty from the original recipe, it gave me more than 30 biscuits)
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Butter - 1/2 of 1/3 cup(I had fresh home made butter :-))  )
Green chilly - 1
Yogurt or curds - 2 TBSP
Sugar - 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander, Curry leaves and Fresh mint - 1/4 cup, finely chopped

Method:
Line the baking tray with baking sheets.
Preheat the oven at 160C

In a bowl, mix nicely the APF and salt. 

In another vessel, beat the butter and sugar till creamy. Add the yogurt and continue the beating.Add the dry ingredients. Keep on mixing without much pressure on your hands.

Add the green chilly, and green leaves chopped. Mix well. the dough will be dry. Don't add more curds or water to make it wet.

THE DOUGH SHOULD BE CRUMBLY.

Take half the portion and make into a ball. Roll into 1/4" thick chapati.

Use the Cookie cutter if you have to give the desired shapes or you can use some steel bowl with sharp edges, or bottle cap or even the normal knife to cut these to give any shape.

Transfer these on baking sheet slowly.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Keep checking of getting burnt. My biscuits took 15 minutes to bake. 

They will be soft when hot. But will turn into crispy once cool.

Store in a air tight jar.

This is the last portion left out after cutting with the cookie cutter ;-)

My daughters enjoyed the biscuits with their friends. Planning to bake it again.

Keep Smiling,

Chinese Menu in my kitchen

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

What ever happens is always for the good, the most famous lines from Geeta. And I believe in it very much.

It happens with me always. Thats the reason many times I don't get panic if something goes wrong. The same thing happened with me last week. One of my best friend came to meet me. It was first time she was coming to our Hubli house. Our friendship is almost 18 yrs old. We were meeting after 4 years. It was natural for me to get excited and was planning for some special menu. When I asked her in the phone What she wants to have, she preferred our North Karnataka food but her daughter wanted Chinese when I gave her the option. Thats why I planned for Chinese menu for my friend and her daughter. Now to plan a menu was not difficult. I thought of making Chinese fried rice, Schezwan noodles and Chilli Paneer.

Thought of bringing fresh paneer(was lazy to make paneer).

   And morning I went to the near by store (MORE) and the store was closed for stock checking :-(((

I had the ready masala packet for chilli paneer, so thought of making veg balls instead of Paneer.

This is what I served to my friend and her daughter :

So here goes the recipe For Veg Chilly:

Ingredients:

Cabbage - 1 cup, cleaned and shredded

Carrot - 1 medium, cleaned and grated

Cornflour - 3 to 4 tbsp

Red chilly powder - 1 tsp

Ginger and garlic paste - 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Oil - 1 tsp

Oil to fry the balls.

for Gravy

Oil - 1 tsp

Onion  - 1, sliced

Cabbage - handful, shredded

Capsicum - 1 small, sliced(optional as the Schezwan powder is very spicy)

Ginger and garlic -1 tbsp  finely cubed,

Spring onion - handful, finely chopped( I did not had)

Ching's Chilli Paneer Miracle Powder - 10 gm

Salt to taste.

Water - 2 cups

OR

JUST FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTION GIVEN ON THE PACKET.

Method:
To make Veg. Balls,

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, except the oil to fry.

Keep oil in a frying pat on stove.

Till the oil becomes hot,

Divide the mix into equal small lime size balls.

Fry in a batch till golden brown.

Keep it aside.

For gravy:

Heat oil in a kadai. When its very hot, add ginger and garlic, saute for few seconds. 

Add onion and fry till the color is changed. Add Cabbage and capsicum. Fry for a minute more.

Add the water and bring to boil. 

Adjust the seasoning. Add the veg. balls and spring onions. 

Cook for 2 minutes,

Serve hot with Rice or Noodles.

My Chinese recipes from my kitchen :(These are not actually for the event, as the rule of the event says NO archived or reposted recipes, its just for people who wants to get all the three Chinese recipes from my blog, I hope this will not violate the event rules)

Chinese Fried Rice(Restaurant STyle)                        Hakka Veg. Noodles with Ching's SECRET

Sending the Veg Chilli to Radhika's event

CBB Series #4 ~ Chinese Cuisine

Keep Smiling,

Plain Toor dal(ಖಾರ್ ಬ್ಯಾಳಿ), reposting

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

A very easy, quick and tastiest dal for a dinner, reposting it for the event..

Click here  for the recipe.

Sending it to Suma's ongoing  event

Cooking with whole foods-LB-Toor Dal
which is a brain child of Kiran of Cooking with Whole Foods 

Keep Smiling,

Spinach and Garlic Pickled Rice.

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Those were the years  when I was scared to try anything new in rice dishes. Every time I was a failure when ever I tried some pulao, biryani, or something like that.

But now....... I am very happy that I am confident and can cook more than 30 types of  rice varieties. Thanks to many bloggers. I am again happy to enter the blog world..

Last week, when I saw Palak Tulsi Chawal - पालक तुलसी चावल (Spinach and Basil Rice) in Priya Mitharwal's blog, I wanted to make this. 

Two days back, when I saw palak in the fridge, thought of making her rice. But as usual I was out of the ingredients and this time it was tulsi ;-), I wanted to pluck some leaves from the temple, but the ajjiri at home did not allow me to do saying that one should not pluck the tulsi leaves in the night. I did not wanted to hurt her feelings,

So thought of cooking plain spinach rice which is very common in my kitchen. This time I thought of adding more garlic.

Here is my version of Spinach rice in which I gave a last minute TWIST by adding GARLIC PICKLE to get that extra Garlic flavor. 

The rice was just superb and was over within no time (And I came to know later that Rajul kept a bowl of rice in the fridge to eat the next day:-))

Ingredients: (for 4 people)

Rice - 2 cups(normal, or basmati, but make sure the rice should come out dry not soft)

Oil - 1 tbsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Onion - 1 small, chopped into slices

Spinach - 1 small bunch, cleaned, washed and chopped finely

Garlic - 10- 12 cloves

Tomato - 1 big, chopped finely

Red chilly powder - 1 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Fresh cream - 1 tbsp(optional)

Salt to taste(little less, as there will be salt in the pickle also)

Sugar - 1 tsp

Water to cook the rice(warm water will be fine, I keep a mug of water in a micro wave to get quick warm water)

Garlic pickle(Readymade, I used MTR brand) - 2 tbsp

Method:

Wash the rice and soak it for 10 minutes. Drain and keep it to dry.

Heat oil in a cooker.

Add cumin seeds.

Add onion and fry till the color changes.

Add the garlic and fry for a minute.

Add the palak and tomato. Fry till the tomato becomes soft.

Add all the dry masala powders and PICKLE.

Mix well and add the rice. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes, till the masala get mixed with the rice.

Add the fresh cream and fry again for few seconds.

Add the water just to cover the rice. 

Cover the cooker and give one whistle. 

Allow to cool.

Serve hot with some more garlic pickle.... Or

The best food to take  for a lunch. When I was working I used to make the masala fry ready in the night only and used to keep in the fridge. So in the morning it was just to add water and give one whistle. And my lunch box would have been ready to take :-)

Keep Smiling,

Cocoa Cups - stuff it with any dessert..

Tried and tasted by Nivedita
Hi All,

I was seriously  thinking of some stuffed sweet ideas, and I saw this Baked and filled khakhra cups from Lataji, Thank you so much Lataji for giving me this superb idea of Cocoa cups. Stuff any dessert in this and serve.... I am sure kids will not stop eating these cups with whatever you fill in the cups and give them.

I turned her Khakra cups into COCOA cups. Her Khakra cups are for stuffing spicy food, and mine are for stuffing sweet food.

Here is the recipe for making these lovely cups.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour(normal chapati flour is also fine) - 1 cup

All Purpose flour - 1/8 cup

Chiroti rawa or fine semolina - 1 tbsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Cocoa Powder - 1/4 cup

Sugar - 1/4 cup

Pinch of salt

Water to make the dough.

Method :
(I have followed Lataji for the method)

• Take all the ingredients in a large vessel, except water.
• Mix well and go on adding water to make soft but stiff dough.
• Keep it covered with damp cloth for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Grease the muffin tray.
• Preheat the oven at 180C
•  Now the time comes to make the very thin puri size discs.
• What I did was, first I rolled medium thick discs. 
• Cut it with bottle top to get the circle shape.
• And again rolled each circle into a very thin puris. These should be very thin, otherwise cups will not come crispy.
• Keep all the puris ready.
• Take one puri and keep in in a mould to give a cup shape. Don't worry about the shape or curls you get in the cup.
• Repeat with other puris.
• Bake at 200C for 6 minutes.(Yes, thanks Lataji, the time was just perfect :-) )
• Remove and spread the cups on mat or paper to cool.
• Store in an airtight jar.

Now coming to the stuffing:
Stuff these cups with AAMRAS, OR CUSTARD, ICECREAM, SHRIKHAND, SWEET WHIPPED CREAM, FRUIT CUBES, OR JUST BRUSH WITH NUTELLA SPREAD BEFORE SERVING.
YUMMY COCOA CUPS FOR KIDS PARTY :-))))))
I am sure you all will love these cups...

Sending these cups to

 MY event which is guest hosted by Akila of  Learning-to-cook

 Announcement: Celebrate Sweets - Stuffed Sweets

Keep Smiling,

Oats, almond and dates granola bars

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

One more recipe followed from DEEBA'S blog.

Again the same problem of not getting few ingredients here. I think there is a plus point in that also. That brings more creativity in me.

The other day Suma Rowjee posted the recipe(.Eggless Chocolate Chip Oat & Whole Wheat Snack Bar..) which she has followed it from Deeba (recipe here) and Deeba has followed it from Megan(here) and everyone with their alterations.

I thought of combining all the ideas and creating my own granola bars :-)))), and hey it was a success, I could not stop munching these lovely bars. My younger daughter was so happy to have it, and I was satisfied of giving her some thing healthy. And I never never imagined even in my dream  that I will bake some bars like these...

And the best part of these bars is its made of wheat and oats added to it are almonds and dates. What a perfect breakfast with a glass of milk to start your day. It really keeps you energetic the whole day.

SO THANKS TO ALL THE LADIES FOR GIVING ME THIS WONDERFUL RECIPE.

Please click the above links for their original recipes,

Coming to my version:

Dry Ingredients:

Oats - 1 1/2 cups(I used Saffola Oats)

Whole Wheat Flour - 3/4 cup

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Flaked almonds - 1/2 cup

Diced fresh dates - 1/4 cup

Wet Ingredients:

Granulated Sugar - 1/4 cup

Brown or Demerara sugar - 1/4 cup

Oil - 1/4 cup

Milk - 2 tbsp

Corn flour - 2 tbsp

Warm water - 2tbsp

Vanilla extract or essence - 1 tsp

for the coating :

Nutella spread 

and toasted flaked almonds

Method:

Pre heat the oven at 180c

Grease and line a 7x11x2 inch tin with baking parchment leaving an overhang.

Take all the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk. Keep aside.

Mix the warm water and cornflour in a bowl and keep it aside.

In a large bowl, add milk, oil, sugar and vanilla. Beat till the sugar is dissolved (it may take 3 to 4 minutes)

Add the cornflour mix. Beat again for a minute. 

Fold in the dry ingredients and mix well. The mixture will be very thick.

Spread it in a tin and level it.  

First time I baked it at 180 c for 30 minutes.

I removed and kept it to cool, but still the bars were soft.

So I cut it into bars and again baked at 200 c for 10 more minutes. And there I got crispy granola bars.

I used Nutella spread  and some flaked almonds to top it with. (I did not had dark chocolate).

My daughters enjoyed these bars.

You can store these crispy bars in an airtight box for a week or so.

Sending it to Jayasri's ongoing event Guest Hosting Tried and Tested event and she has choosen Deeba's Passionate about Baking blog.

(This event was started byzlamushka and is now taken care of by Lakshmi of Kitchen Chronicles)

Keep Smiling,