Pina Colada - In A Trifle!!!! - Well, Almost...!

Whats the easiest thing to put together when you have a sponge sitting in your fridge?? A make ahead, elegant dessert which can feed a crowd as well?? A trifle, a trifle, a trifle!!! No fuss, no sweating over slicing the cake neatly, perfect frosting not needed, just assemble however u fancy and chill. And then you sit back and chill.

I love Pina Colada, the pineapple drink with a hint of coconut. And the idea of making a similar cake or dessert had been on my mind since months. My new bottle of pineapple essence had to be tried and tested. I am quite fussy about buying essence as I have had a couple of bad experiences. The essence was so very over-powering, I had to throw the other wise good cake into the trash can:-(. Thankfully the pineapple essence was good.

I made a pineapple sponge with my favorite recipe for a fat-less sponge and put it in the freezer... waiting for an excuse to make a dessert out of it. Vani, initially an acquaintance through my blog and now a friend,  was to drop by at my place. How can I have a guest, a baking enthusiast at that, and not bake something?

Whipping cream whipped with coconut cream, layered with cubes of pineapple sponge, pineapple bits and a sprinkling of grated fresh coconut conjured up in my mind. And at last, my fantasy of making a Pina Colada Trifle came alive.

Pistachio Chocolate Fudge

When Nags posted the recipe for Pistachio Chocolate Fudge, I could not wait to try it out... real quick, easy, chocolaty and filled with nuts. Just the way I love to eat chocolate, paired with its irresistible partner - nuts - pistachios in this case. My can of condensed milk was waiting to be opened since days and I had a whole packet of pistachios in my freezer. This is a Nigella, yes, Lawson(who else??) recipe.  Love watching her shows, drool over her don't- give- a -heck- about -the- calories desserts, her huge, airy and bright kitchen, her kitchen gadgets. And I bet, the way she manages to look so very beautiful in the kitchen makes the entire female population envious.

I remember watching her making this recipe in the marathon Christmas episodes aired the last couple of years during Christmas time. The fudge looked particularly good gift wrapped in small transparent pouches, replete with festive ribbons tied around them. But then, most of the things she puts together, seemingly carelessly, look so very gorgeous, wouldn't you agree??

Confetti Cupcakes

I must admit, I am not a regular when it comes to participating in blog events. Not that I don't want to, in fact I would love to participate - its just that I find it too much of an effort to come up with a recipe which meets the event specifications. I hope I don't sound pompous when I say this, but I cook or bake whatever is or has been cooking in my mind. Many a times its also the 'I see now, got to try it the next instant' kind of recipe, the kind which makes me run to my kitchen, don my apron and get started at it. And yeah, finish it by the time my daughter comes back from school:-)) 

 I read about Srivalli's 'Tried and Tasted' event featuring one of my favorite blogs!  Aparna's My Diverse Kitchen has been one of my most visited blogs since the time I woke up to food blogs. And she is one blogger I am in awe of - for her superb collection of recipes, her picture perfect photographs and her elegant style of writing. Oh, how I would love to try each of her tested recipes - this is exactly where indecisive me got stuck for a long time. Breads, my new love, was one of the things I spent a lot of time browsing and drooling over. But when yeast did not oblige a couple of times, I ran back to my old love - cakes and desserts. With just a day left to send in my entry, these colorful and delightful Confetti Cupcakes, at last materialized on my table.

If you have kids around, these are a must bake! Try stopping kids from squealing in delight when they see these cupcakes or try stopping them from asking for a second or third serving!! Thanks for sharing this lovely recipe Aparna!!

Chocolate Cream Cake

 'Its great to have a son, but to have a daughter is to be in heaven'.

I had read this somewhere, yeah at a maternity hospital.  This was firmly etched in my mind and I had actually believed this when I was carrying my daughter and was desperately hoping and praying that it should be a baby girl this time around. My son Anirudh was quite a handful for me when was a toddler and I had had a tough time with him. Back then, I was not working and I had all the time in the world to take him to the park every single evening. I would really enjoy meeting other mothers there, but would dread the moment when I would see a kid coming running towards me- for sure, with a complaint about my son!! "Aunty, Anirudh took away my ball', or' He poured sand on someone's head' were the common ones I recall.  In retrospect,  it was my inability as a first time mother, that had stressed me out:-))

But we had always wanted to have a daughter too, a sweet cutie pie, who would be easy to look after, not climb windows or pour sand on others' heads. A docile daughter, like my niece and my cousin's daughters. We were so happy when Aditi was born, sweet, chubby and angelic. By the time, she turned one, the halo around her head had started disappearing.... and I now have one feisty, extremely naughty, totally unrestrained daughter who is anything but docile...lol!

Sorry, I got a little carried away!! I meant to write a post about the birthday cake I had made for her birthday in May. Well, I had not posted it so far as I thought it did not look good enough, though it had tasted good. Witnessing sibling rivalry in its nascent stages, am sure Aditi will not forgive me later if I don't post her birthday cake ,as I have posted Anirudh's birthday cakes, Helicopter Cake and Mocha Chocolate Gateaux. So here comes Aditi's Chocolate Cream Cake.

Minty Spiral Bread

My new love - nope, am happily married and very much in love with hubby after 11 years of marriage, thank you:-). Am talking about breads.  My humongous sweet tooth makes me bake cakes and desserts ever so often. The smell of vanilla or the sight of chocolate makes me hunt a cake or dessert recipe and get it on my table as soon as I can. But breads calling out to me - hey, this is new!!  My first attempt at baking bread was a disaster, my second one, the Masala Bread was successful. The third attempt, though the same recipe, had me and my  family polishing off the last crumb. I had never imagined myself baking breads or poring(read salivating) over bread recipes. Aah.. the sheer magic and pleasure of home baking!! Am I so glad I have started baking breads...

Baking breads(oh,forgive me, for the repetitive usage of the phrase so often in one post), I think, has one huge advantage. You get to satisfy your craving for baking without the sugar overload or without having to mark days in the calendar to check if its been a decent gap between the sugar and possibly high fat  intake in the guise of a cake or dessert.  Am enjoying my tryst with yeast tremendously and looking forward to a long love affair with breads...

After baking Masala Bread, I had promised my Dad that I would get him some of the same the next time I baked. I tried the basic bread recipe from Champa again, with a little twist,( literally:-) and out came from my oven a delightful Minty Spiral Bread.

Orange Yogurt Cake - Oh-so-delicious!!!

A spate of unsatisfactory bakes- that's what happened to me in the past couple of weeks. Like a row of flop movies- Aaw, poor joke here, excuse me:-). A souffle which rose - but not high enough, a genoise which did not seem tall enough to make a birthday cake out of, a chocolate cake which got the perfect ganache drape, but I messed up with the decoration- too big an 'Oops' to make it to the blog. My dessert did not set well enough to slice it, Agar-agar - u let me down:-(. Add the extremely temperamental electricity supply in Namma Bengaluru - would put off the most passionate of bakers I guess. Power supply seems to be so much more consistent in the past few days- Touch-wood!!

Yesterday after a long time, my oven smiled on me again. Whew!! I had seen this Orange Yogurt Cake on Pavani's blog here and had instantly bookmarked it (among scores of many many recipes, don't know when I will ever try them all!!). I love oranges in a BIG way, I don't know how many dozens of them I ate when I was carrying my first one - so much that hubby started worrying about it:-). Oranges in bakes is something I absolutely adore. I had oranges in my fridge and this seemed the perfect recipe to try - low fat, quick and super easy.

It was easily one of the tastiest tea cakes I have baked- super spongy, moist, refreshing and deliciously zesty. Thanks Pavani for sharing this recipe and reminding me of the forgotten Martha Stewart website. This cake is something which is going to be on my favorites list for a long time to come..

Pineapple Halwa - With Low Fat Khoya!

With Low Fat Khoya ready on my kitchen counter, I had to use it to make something ASAP. You don't keep such things waiting for too long right?? Its bad for my peace of mind. I mean, I will keep thinking about it to distraction and behave like a cat on a hot tin roof.  Make something out of it, polish it off - Ah! Peace!!! I usually do not make halwas as they generally need a considerable amount of fat and the ones that use less fat don't usually taste all that great. Honestly, halwas aren't the thing my mind conjures up when I think of dessert. Oh, yeah, am really partial to some desserts. But I made an exception this time and was raring to try out Pineapple Halwa, another Tarla Dalal recipe. Counting the recipes on my blog a few years from now, you can safely bet, a good number of these will be from either Sanjeev Kapoor or Tarla Dalal.

Well, this halwa was on my mind since ages. But, aaa.. hmmm... I have to first hunt for a good pineapple. If I am lucky enough to get one which is sweet and has no bruises( forgive the expression) I would need to take up the great exercise of peeling the thorny skin, ensuring there is not a single tiny black thorn hiding anywhere. If there is any fancy gadget which can help do all this, I am unaware and I would appreciate info on the same:-)).

This halwa, sounded quite unusual to me and the addition of the Low Fat Khoya added to its allure. Read on to know how this low fat sweet treat became a winner in my books.

Low Fat Khoya / Mawa

I have been missing from the blogging scene since almost 2 weeks, no 3 weeks. Whoa!! Has it been so long?? It started with my son's exams, my kids falling sick one after the other and staying at home with me. I know I often sound like Cinderella's step-mom, but having kids at home all day, and sick ones at that can be pretty draining.  And no you don't get any prizes for guessing whose turn it was next to fall sick. I really don't know if I fell sick due to sheer exertion or due to proximity with the cold and fever virus or whatever you call it. Must be the virus something, as Moms are not allowed to fall sick due to exertion, no way!!!! Yeah, I sound wicked again:-)

We also took time to get away on a short vacation to Madikeri, Coorg. I can't belive that just 4 days of being waited upon, can cause such a bad holiday hangover. Next time, I go away on a holiday, along with the freezer, I will also stock up my drafts folder before I leave:-)) Lol!

Wanting to make a low calorie dessert post the holiday binge, I tried making Low Fat Khoya, a Tarla Dalal recipe. It turned out a very good substitute for the regular khoya, a quintessential part of so many Indian sweet preparations. Imagine eating a sweet with a fraction of the calories and fat and with almost the same taste and texture as one made with regular khoya. And real easy to make?? Too good to be true right?? A sure keeper of a recipe, I see myself using this again and again and with less guilt.

Masala Bread - Taming The Yeast!!

I am on a real high since yesterday!! Baking bread has been an intimidating thought for me as my first two attempts were not-so-successful. Thanks to Champa for being a constant source of inspiration and guidance to me for baking bread. She blogs at Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen and has a huge variety of breads, muffins,cakes among a lot more scrumptious stuff, making her a truly versatile foodie. Who can resist the idea of recreating the magic of  Iyengar Bakery style Stuffed Potato Buns, Iyengar Bakery Toast, Pav buns and a whole lot of fresh home-made baked goodies?? You can't resist right?? Neither can I!! And to top it all, she also does a lot of cake decoration too. Do definitely visit Champa's blog for all this and more, if you haven't done so yet. You will be glad u did!!

I made Masala Bread from this recipe of Basic White Bread from Champa's blog. It was so satisfying to see the dough double in volume(not withstanding the dreary, cloudy weather and no sun) and rise so beautifully in the oven.Sigh! The bread tasted wonderfully good, what a keeper of a recipe!!

Egg-free Moist Carrot Cake

Here I come with yet another cake!! Yeah, I love baking, particularly cakes, precisely why I have named my space as "Cakes and More'.  I know that cakes come in here more often and the 'more' is rare. I do cook stuff other than bakes and think about posting them on the blog. But then I get too lazy to measure out my eye-balled ingredients or too pressed for time to do it in the morning rush-hour- which is when I finish my majority of cooking. I have to start work by 8.30 if I must have a productive day before my daughter arrives at 12.30. School assignments, playing peace-maker between my kids, preparation for the next day rush-hour and wrapping up the day pretty much sums up my evenings.( I know I must be making my life sound oh-so-boring and scaring away any wanna be moms) So u  get the picture right? I am a working foodie and harangued Mom of two:-)) That good enough an excuse I hope for long gaps between my posts and then coming up with only bakes. I really, seriously marvel at other blogger working moms who manage to blog more often. Oh, yep, tips on 'how working, harangued moms can blog more' most welcome!!!!!

Before you begin to wonder if you are reading a food blog or a parenting blog, lets get on to my experimental Egg-free Moist Carrot Cake. I had been feeling guilty that I bake so often, but haven't made anything which my Mother could eat. She does not eat eggs, neither does she like chocolate. Egg-less baking is not really something I am extremely enthusiastic about, for the number of hits as compared to the misses are quite less. This one however was quite tasty and moist, easy to make and came out quite well. Hope in my egg less baking keeps getting resurrected now and then!!.

Red Pumpkin Soup

Cool breezy evenings, the sky overcast with dark clouds, promising welcome showers. Can there be anything which can compare with the smell of the wet earth?  We scurry indoors, with the kids in tow, and yeah, the laundry on the washing lines too:-)). When it starts pouring, it is so cozy to be indoors with a bowl of piping hot soup and warm garlic bread. The chatter of the kids punctuated by the slurr...ps and 'Yumm..can I have some more??' is such music to the ears of the person who has made the soup. Now, in my case, the soup-maker being me, as always, I can't let Knorr or Maggi take the credit and the satisfaction. Can I;-)??  The soup making season has just about begun, though showers are few and far between in Bangalore. Sigh!! Wish the rain Gods would smile on us more frequently. Seduced by scores of soup pictures floating around the blogosphere and to make the most of the season, I tried Red Pumpkin Soup.

Devil's Food Cupcakes- My First Sweet Punch!!!!!

                 

The power baking powder has over me is amazing!!! I almost cried when I missed making the Tiramisu for the first Sweet Punch challenge. I did not want to miss the second one, but was unable to retrieve the mail with the recipe from the S P team. Sent an SOS and got a reply from SP. Thank God there were 5 days more to go before the reveal date. The weekend followed by the All India Bandh, gave me a chance and time to make these cupcakes. Well, doing this over the weekend meant  juggling school assignments, preparing my groaning 8 year old son for upcoming assessments, feeding 2 hungry kids every now and then, completing weekend chores, catching up on reading my newly acquired baking book - and then baking and decorating with my 3-year-old daughter literally hovering over the cupcakes. Hubby working furiously over a deadline was an added challenge, cos it meant only yours truly handling the kids :-))Whew!!!! But am not complaining as it was all absolutely worth the effort.

The thing about participating in a challenge is it forces you to stretch beyond your comfort zone and learn new things. Or left to myself, I would have again tried another kind of tea cake and would not have ventured to try out the vanilla cream. I am a die-hard whipped cream fan and  found the vanilla cream surprisingly good and not-too-sweet. The cream is a keeper of a recipe, so is the idea of filling the cupcakes. Thanks Sweet Punch team!!!! Looking forward to more !!

Black Forest Gateau

Black Forest cake (American English) and Black Forest Gateau (British English) are the English names for the southern German Dessert Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, literally "Black Forest Cherry Torte'.
Typically, Black Forest cake consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. Then the cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and chocolate shavings. In some European traditions sour cherries are used both between the layers and for decorating the top.Traditionally, Kirschwasser (a clear liquor distilled from tart cherries) is added to the cake, although other liquors are also used (such as rum, which is common in Austrian recipes). In the United States, Black Forest cake is most often prepared without alcohol.' - Source, Wikipedia.

The Black Forest Gateau is a favorite of mine, among a score other cakes that is:-)  It is easy to make, in the sense, you need to make a chocolate sponge, plain whipped cream, no tricky things like folding in melted chocolate into the cream, no complicated decoration, unless you are extremely creative and artistic. If you are creatively challenged like me, you just do it the regular , boring way. And its specially convenient when the birthday boy or gal gives u the freedom to bake anything and you also happen to have an opened can of precious cherries in your freezer, waiting to be finished:-).  This one was for my brother's birthday. Made a deal with him, he babysits my kids whenever sis needs a short break and I keep passing on goodies I dish up.  Hey Srik, I hear you groaning?? Be a sport !!! More cakes and desserts coming your way!!:-))