WHAT DO I MAKE...

Another guest baker - Maha Ramani - shares her V-day baking adventure. Maha lives in Baltimore, MD and here are some of the pictures of her valentine cake! Thank you, Maha.

This one was fun making, it's always fun to use up leftover vegetables and clear the refrigerator! Also, this dish is packed with the goodness of fresh vegetables and couscous, considered to be one of the healthiest grains-based products. Ingredients: Top coat: Potatoes - 4, medium Butter - 1-2 T Hot milk - 1/4-1/2 T Bring a pot of water to boil. Cut the potatoes in half and add them to the boiling water and cook till soft. Drain, remove the peel and put the potatoes back in the pot. On medium heat, mash the potatoes well. Add the butter and milk and continue to mash till all lumps are gone! Add some salt, pepper and some dried basil. I also added a pinch of turmeric powder for some color. You could also add some spring onion greens and chives. Filling: Onions - 1/4 of a big onion, finely chopped Tomato - 1/2 of a medium, finely chopped (you can be generous here, I am using leftover veggies remember!) Vegetables - I used a mixture of cabbage, turnip, scallions, broccol...

Here's another guest contribution, from Archana. Archana lives in Singapore and we are glad she found time to share some pictures amidst her busy schedule settling down in a new city and managing her two little kids. Thank you, Archana. Eggless Red Velvet "heart" Cake Adapted from: Heritage Red Velvet Cake by Heather @ Sprinkle Bakes Icing: orange flavored cream cheese and heavy cream icing right out of the oven!

After a lot of debating I finally decided that my V-Day cake would have rosettes on it! I picked the blue velvet cake I made for M's birthday and changed that to a vanilla cake. I also folded in some berries in the end so it wouldn't be a plain cake. As for the frosting, well read on, this baking/decorating project was a true learning experience! the two little hearts in the center were cut out from pink fondant using a cookie cutter Vanilla Berry Cake Cake proportions adapted from Paula Deen's Blue Velvet Cake Butter - 1 stick or 1/2 C Sugar - 1 C Applesauce - 1/4 C (I substituted 1 egg with 1/4 C of applesauce) All Purpose Flour - 1 1/4 C Salt - 1/2 t Buttermilk - 1/2 C Clear vanilla extract - 1/2 t (non clear version should work too!) Baking soda - 1/2 t Apple cider vinegar - 1/2 T (regular vinegar should work too!) Chopped strawberries, fresh or frozen - 1/2 C  Preheat your oven at 350 deg F. Grease one 8x3 baking pan with PAM for Baking. In your stand mixer ...

With easy access to a zillion Indian stores and restaurants in the Bay Area, I hardly make rotis at home and that means my atta  (whole wheat flour) is sitting idle and I had to find an alternate use for it. I have tried wheat cupcakes before and I must say I am not a big fan of those! So, I decided to bake my own bread at home :) Recipe adapted from: Krissy's  Honey Oat Wheat Bread Makes one 8.5x4.5x2.5 loaf Ingredients: Active dry yeast - 1 packet Warm water - 1/4 C (110 deg F) Honey - 1/4 C Unsalted butter - 2 T, melted Milk - 1 C (I used 2%) Whole wheat flour/atta - 3 C Rolled oats - 3/4 C Salt - 1.5 t Add the water to the stand mixer bowl and mix in the yeast and let it rise for 5 minutes. Stir in the butter, milk and honey. Now, add the flour, oats and salt and mix on medium speed till the dough comes together. I used the stirrer attachment and then switched to the hook attachment right before adding the dry ingredients. Place the ball of dough in a big greased mix...

Considered as one of nature's super foods, cranberries are known for a wide range of health benefits. This would be my first time working with these nutritious berries. Our friends Hema & Madhu visited us in January and I wanted to bake a welcome cake for their daughter --- 4-month-old baby Maya! Of course, Maya was certainly not eating the cake but I created an opportunity for us to include some hearty antioxidants in our diet and also created the perfect excuse to pile on those sugary calories :) The first thing that came to mind was the frozen cranberry sauce from our Thanksgiving dinner and thus began the quest! I initially thought of making this Cranberry-Swirl Quick Bread I found on The New York Times' website. But then I figured this recipe may not have enough butter and eggs to make it moist and cakey  so I decided to go ahead with a coffee cake recipe (excuse my ignorance but I always thought coffee was a key ingredient in coffee cakes, well, you learn somethin...

Recipe adapted from  my brain... yes, I take all the credit for this recipe ;) ;) I wanted to make an eggless pie and I just went with - what I thought was - a sensible combination of ingredients in my refrigerator! The basic ingredient - 1  pie crust . Leave it out to thaw for about 30 minutes. The crust is usually folded in the box so make sure it is completely thawed before you try to open it. If the crust is even partially thawed, you run the risk of breaking it. Of course, you can always press and paste it together but it's better to keep it in one single piece! Filling - heat some EVOO , saute mushrooms, grated garlic  and salt. When the mushrooms are done, remove and set aside. In the same pan, saute some onion (till translucent),  spinach (till they wilt) and some crumbled tofu (till all the water evaporates). I also added some crushed pepper and finely chopped fresh basil and thyme. Grated cheese - I used about 1/2 cup of manchego Mitica from Wh...

I made this muffin a while ago with ripe bananas and walnuts. The recipe was adapted from a sweet pea chef . The only change I made, I used 3 instead of 4 bananas. Thanks Lacey! Here are some pictures.

My last basic Wilton lesson and we were asked to bake a cake and also pick a theme/design. Since it was also Deepti's birthday I knew my theme. I didn't have to time to fill out the design sheet but just thought I'd keep it pink and plain. You will see the "ribbon rose" and "shells" and you will also see my amateurish attempt at writing on a cake!   Also,   I had a tough time icing the cake since it was a chocolate cake so I did a crumb coat, let it dry and did another layer of icing but I still couldn't get a clean look Well, like my instructor says  "practice practice practice" The cake was a  Hershey's Chocolate Cake , super moist and soft! I would like to try it eggless sometime. I baked it in one 8"x3" pan. The icing is Wilton's Buttercream Icing (see my Ruffled Cake post).  Although I am sure I will try icing a chocolate cake again, I think you get a much cleaner look with white or vanilla cakes. The other ...

I have been dreaming of making a ruffled cake ever since I saw Tania's but I never had the courage try it :) I decided to take a break from baking after my last cupcake post, I figured the blog was becoming more of a baking blog and brown seemed to be the prevailing color! But I also decided that when I get back, I would do a ruffled cake and for M's birthday. So, a perfect occasion for a dream project :) I also signed up for Wilton's Basic Decorating course in the meantime. I am 3 classes into it and loving it. This is great course for even those who have been baking and decorating for a while. You learn some very useful tips and techniques in a class! I picked the recipe, shape, color and design about 2 months back. I came across this post on Apollinas and it was love at first sight and who wouldn't love that cake, aren't her pictures gorgeous?! I have never baked a cake with egg before so too many first-times here and that made me nervous :) Blue Velvet R...

Nothing like a crispy, flaky, buttery shortbread cookie, my favorite pairing for a hot cup of  cafe con leche ! The classic shortbread is a very simple recipe with just 3 main ingredients: sugar, flour and butter. Yet, it took me quite some time to bake a batch of perfect shortbread cookies. From  Sandra Lee's  to a bunch of other recipes, my experiments have been disastrous flops! The cookies either flattened out like a chip or turned too brown too fast. I wrote to several expert bakers, read a million baking blogs, did a zillion Google searches and then finally shelved the cookie project! After 1.5 years, I came across Brady Evans' shortbread cookies last week on  Honest Cooking . I decided to give this one more chance and flagged it for a Sunday project. Success! at last!! Victory is (indeed) "sweetest" when you've known defeat! :))  Apricot Shortbread Cookies Recipe courtesy: Brady Evans Ingredients: All purpose flour - 2 cups,...

If you grew up in Chennai, you have definitely enjoyed a butter biscuit or nei (ghee) biscuit! These are little white macaroon like cookies. I tried one not too long ago at Archana's, her butter biscuits made me nostalgic and I have been wanting to make them myself ever since. I came across a very simple recipe on ramyacooks, this one uses oil instead of butter. Butter Biscuits by Ramya @ ramyacooks Ingredients: All-purpose flour - 1 cup Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp Salt - 1 pinch Confectioner's sugar - 3/4 cup Canola Oil - 3/8 cup (1/2 of a 3/4 cup) I followed Ramya's recipe exactly, the proportions above are 1/2 of her quantity. Preheat the oven at 350 F and have a cookie sheet greased and ready. Mix flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl, add the sugar and mix and slowly pour the oil and combine to make a very loose dough. You will see that the dough is crumbly and lumpy, that's how it should be! Make small balls that look like coconut macaroons with a sligh...

I am baking these cupcakes again to use up some over-ripe bananas, I go back to Madhuram's Vegan Chocolate Banana Cake, only this time I decide to up the fat. I followed her recipe to the T and substituted oil with butter (just like how it's written in her Notes). Adding butter does make a difference, the cake was softer compared to when you use oil. This is a great recipe for moist, dark brown, vegan cupcakes :) HERE  is my earlier post on this banana cake. Vegan Chocolate Banana Cake by Madhuram @ Eggless Cooking Vegan cakes, according to me, taste better with a sweet topping. You could increase the sugar content in the cake itself but I think topping works better and also, a topping gives you the chance to introduce another flavor (honey, pomegranate for e.g.). I had a little bit of a challenge with the topping. I didn't have the right ingredients for icing or buttercream or ganache ...sigh!! and I wanted a topping with honey (just like that!) There had to be s...

This one's for my co-blogger! Niti and I review our blog, the old posts and pictures once in a while, this helps us pick out typos, errors and in general improve the overall look and substance of our blog. There are some recipes that don't have a picture or some have a bad picture or we just want to twist a recipe with a different ingredient or even a different method of cooking/baking, the list goes on and on! When we do make changes, we try and re-publish those old posts. During one such "nit(i)picking" session, Niti pointed out a very dull and boring picture on my " Eggless Cake with Dates " post. We both agreed that the cake had to be baked again just so we could have a better picture :) In my (lame) defense, I posted that recipe way back in my "point and shoot days".  My husband and I had decided to eat out tonight so I found time to bake this cake today. This cake is one of my favorites, it's very very easy to make and as for the ta...

So Deepti talks about brownies and am thinking "hey I've never made one" so I start looking for recipes and one recipe really caught my attention because it involved Toblerone, I have a giant 400g bar sitting in my pantry crying to be used! Well this is a special venture cos I am using my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer for the first time ever...yayyy!!! The mixer was our wedding gift from Deepti, Niti (yes that's my co-blogger here) and Sidd, and I finally used it after a 2 year long wait :) loving this machine...thank you buddies (oh! yah that's me - the amateur photographer - you see on the mixer bowl!!!) The picture above was my final product right out of the oven. It passed the toothpick test and I pulled out for cooling but I was a bit nervous about the look! I let it cool down and then flipped it over and I think that was a more comforting sight, dark and brownie-like :) I am not sure why it didn't come out thicker like in Shauna's pictures - may be the p...