Golden Cake

Isn't this an amazing and intriguing name for a cake?? I saw this on Sheeba's blog and it instantly went on to my growing, 'must try' serpentine list of cake recipes. The slice of cake looked so, so soft and golden gorgeous and had me sighing.  I have visited and revisited Sheeba's blog for this and so many more drool-worthy cakes she has on her blog. In case you haven't been there yet, you must, must visit Art, Food and Travel Chronicles.

I had half a cup of butter sitting in my fridge since days and it started featuring in my dreams too. I normally bake with oil, so having butter at home is a rarity and kind of pushes me into baking something, before the best before date. Not that I need much of pushing when it comes to baking, I just needed to find a good recipe with half a cup of butter and of course a reasonably good excuse to bake:-))

I work from home, which is luxury and allows me to pop a cake into the oven and plonk myself back in front of my computer. I had a particularly productive, though busy month at work, and took a baking break( I take these breaks too often I know) to sort of celebrate.

The cake turned out so..offt and delicious just as Sheeba promised it would. Thanks a lot for sharing this Sheeba!!

The recipe goes like this
 Ingredients:
2 ¼ cup flour
1 ½ cup table sugar
3 ½ tsp baking powder
½ cup + 1 tbsp butter, softened
1 cup milk, at room temperature
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method: In a large mixing bowl add all the ingredients together and beat half a minute on slow speed and then 3 minutes on high( I did about 2 minutes with my hand mixer as I was too chicken to do 3). Pour into a prepared (greased and floured) cake tin and bake at 190 C for 35 minutes or until a fork/skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

I used half a cup of butter plus 1 tablespoon ghee. I used one medium sized round tin and one small bundt pan(for the first time) . I baked the round tin cake for about 35 minutes and it tasted good, but it could have done with just a couple of minutes more in the oven. Hence The bundt cake stayed that couple of minutes more in the oven and tasted just too good!! Why is that pic not here?? Well, the cake broke when I was in the process of removing it from the tin:-((

For those like me scared of the calorific effect of butter, this makes a large cake which means very little butter per portion, unless you have the cake for lunch or dinner!! You are in danger of ending up doing just that as its difficult to resist this one:-))

This post is also my entry to Champa's Bake Off event.

Mysore Bonda ~ The Perfect Breakfast

Mysore Bonda ~ The Perfect Breakfast

Ingredients :

Maida : 1cup
Rice flour : 1/4 cup
Curd : to make the batter
Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp
Chopped ginger : 1 tsp
Oil for deep frying
Salt to taste
Cooking soda : 1/2 tsp
Chopped green chillis : 1tsp

Method :

Mix maida with rice flour, salt, cooking soda, chopped gree chillis, chopped ginger and cumin seeds. Add curd, make it into a vada batter consistancy. Cover it with a lid and keep aside for 1 hour. Heat oil for deep frying. Shape the batter into round bondas. Fry them on low flame till golden in color. Serve hot with chutney or sambar.

little thoughts.

{via we heart it}

i need a break from studying. i have pretty much had this whole week off from school and you would think i would have been studying like crazy...but no. i'm miss procrastinator. i've been cleaning, exercising, cooking/baking, working, and mostly playing around. whoopsies. i just want a break already!!

today was a good day. i went to an lasik appointment to see if lasik vision correction is in my near future and it is! i hope i find the time {and money!} this summer to squeeze it into my schedule. i'm ready to say goodbye to contacts and glasses for good. i have been wearing them for 16 years! geez that's a long time.

isn't the image above darling? i recently discovered the site we heart it and can't get enough! it is full of inspiring images, you should definitely check it out.

you also must go to a little sussy and check out her photos of the most gorgeous dessert table i have ever seen. i literally had to catch my breath when i saw it, it's so fabulous.

and lastly, i made cheddar chicken tonight for dinner. no pictures...but you must check out the recipe via real simple. it's delicious.

okay, i'm going back to studying. adios.

I need to clear my kitchen out...

It's full already but I do need a large mixing bowl and this cupcake one from Debenhams will be a perfect replacement for the pink Mason Cash one that never seems to be in stock anywhere :(

And the matching utensil holder will look gorgeous in my cupcake kitchen! Also available is the matching cake stand. I hope they have more in the range when I get there!

Also getting in on the cupcake craze is Jamie Oliver with this cute mug - however, surely cupcakes are anti his war on obesity?

i'll never get over it.

when ike and i started planning our trip to washington, he made it a priority that we stop at the best teriyaki place he frequented often on his mission. in my mind i pictured a nice restaurant and was so excited, i love teriyaki. soooo i was little surprised when we pulled up to this little place in a strip mall! but i took my hubs word for it and oh boy am i glad i did.

i have never had better teriyaki in my life. and now i seriously crave it every day. every time we're trying to decide where to eat i get disappointed that i can't have the deliciousness we had in washington. in fact, i'm craving it right now. dang you utah for not having the teriyaki i love and crave.

Ukrainian borscht with oxtail

I woke up this morning to find I have finally grown some balls. Not literally, thank god, but I woke up with a strong feeling that enough is enough. I will own my suffering now, so that I never have to feel like this in the future. I will never let a man mess me around, or be disrespectful towards me, or lie to me, ever again. Then I got up, and made the most amazing Ukranian borscht ever. My parents ate 3 bowls each and were amazed at how tasty it was, and they have eaten a lot of borscht in their lifetimes. I have to warn you, the recipe sounds more complicated than it actually is, there's a lot of ingredients, but you have made this once, it will be part of your repertoire forever. And remember, you do not need to follow what I did exactly, every household throughout Poland, Russia and the Ukraine has their own way of cooking beetroot soup and everyone thinks their way is best... but they are all wrong

Ingredients (6-8 servings)

400 grams oxtail

2 litres water

2 carrots

1 parsnip

1/4 celeriac (celery root)

1/2 leek

1/4 cabbage

300 grams potatoes

6 beetroot

Small tin tomato puree

1/2 lemon

200 grams single cream

1 tbl spoon flour

4 garlic cloves

2 tins of butter beans (670 grams drained)

2 tbl spoons dill

Sugar

Salt and pepper

There are three recipes for borscht in the old Polish cookbook I am studying right now. I didn't follow any of them to the letter, as I had to include elements which come from my family's experience (i.e. butter beans). Using oxtail was also my mum's idea, and it has never been done before, but it turned out so amazingly well that I have to recommend it. So start off by cooking the oxtail and peeled beetroot for half an hour. Remove the beetroot and let them cool on the side. Add the finely chopped  (or grated) carrots, parsnip, celeriac and leek, as well as the potatoes, which have been chopped into bitesize chunks. Cook for another fifteen minutes, before adding the chopped cabbage, and carry on cooking on a low heat for the same amount of time. I then had to go to the gym with my mum (as part of my "therapy"), so I turned the heat off and let the soup cool. When I came back from the gym, I removed the oxtail from the pot and took the meat off the bone, chucking any fatty bits away, and sticking the lovely meaty bits back in. I put the heat back on. I chopped the beetroot into chunks (my mum always cuts it into fine strips, and the book tells you to grate it, but I prefer chunks), added the tomato puree, and squeezed half a lemon in. I also crushed the garlic cloves into a separate bowl and mashed them with 2 tablespoons of salt, adding that into the mix. After another half an hour, I sieved the flour into it, mixing thoroughly. I then turned the heat off again, and let the borscht cool, as I still had a couple of hours before my parents came home

Once the borscht had cooled I added the cream. You need to do this when it is cool so that it doesn't curdle. At the same time, I added the fresh, chopped dill and drained butter beans, sugar and more salt and pepper, according to taste. This cooked for another half an hour before we sat down to dinner, eating it with fresh bread. This soup is like life force - I can see why the whole of Eastern and Central Europe is obsessed

pure talent.

my cousin dallas is an amazing artist. every time she posts her latest work i die, it is all so fabulous! she has a real passion for color and her favorite medium to work with is glitter! and you know i love me some glitter.

this is one of my favorites.
she is so unique and does lots custom work. i can't get enough of the toe shoes she paints. if you're interested in her work you can contact her on her blog painted trees by dallas. she needs to start an etsy shop don't you think!!

Annamlo Podi ~ Spiced Lentils Powder for Rice

Annam lo Podi ~ Spiced Lentils Powder for Rice

Ingredients :

Yellow lentil ( Bengal gram ) : 1 cup
Red gram : 3/4 cup
Split black gram : 1/2 cup
Moong dal : 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds : 1 tsp
Red chilli powder : 1tsp
Salt to taste

~ Roasted Lentils ~

Method :

1.Dry roast all lentils separately in a heavy bottom pan and fry until a golden brown color.
2.When color changes and nice aroma appears, remove from heat and let it cool completely.
3.When it cools down, mix all the roasted lentils and cumin seeds.
4.Blenderise the mixture into a coarse powder.
5.Now add salt and red chilli powder.
6.Blenderise it again.


7.Serve with plain steamed rice and dollop of ghee.
8.Store in air tight containers.

Healthy, Delicious Granola by Mallika

 Here ends your wait for Mallika's post, here comes healthy, delicious home-made wholesome Granola, which looks super delicious and tempting enough to grab off the monitor!!! Over to Mallika..

'Thank you Suma for providing me this opportunity to write on your blog and contribute a recipe for the same. Firstly, let me introduce you to myself. I am Mallika (I use MD to address myself on blogs). Other than being a full time working IT professional, you'll find me meddling around in the kitchen, cooking, reading, photographing, blogging, etc. I scuffle through my professional work life and personal passions by squeezing in time for cooking, juggling in a bit of baking, a little photography, blogging and loads of eating! ;)

I love the art of cooking and have been involved with it for many years now. It has helped me in many ways. Being a creative and adventurous person myself, cooking has rightly been an art involving both ventures of creativity and adventure. It's a great stress buster and I enjoy it thoroughly as it allows me to explore my boundaries beyond any limits. The happiness you get just by the satisified looks of people relishing what you've cooked is immensely encouraging. And it was out of sheer passion for cooking, that I unfolded my blog Veg Bowl! 

Allow me to share this healthy breakfast recipe for Granola. This Granola is loaded with nuts and we love it that way. The honey roasted oats and nuts bring out some good flavors while the nuts add a great deal of crunchiness to this recipe. 

What's good about Granola is that you can throw in ingredients of your choice, basically anything and everything that you like. There are no rules. Recipe is simple and can be stored fresh in air-tight container for weeks. Served with milk or yogurt, they are the best way to go for a healthy start to your hectic day. 

Here's what we need:

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup corn flakes

1/4 cup chopped almonds

1/4 cup walnuts

1/4 cup chopped dates

1/4 cup melon seeds

1/8 cup flax seeds

1/4 cup raisins

1 cup honey

1 tbsp butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients, except raisins. In a separate bowl, combine honey, melted butter and salt. Pour this to dry ingredients, toss to mix well. Transfer to baking tray. Cook for 40 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes to achieve an even color. Keep a watch. Take care not to burn them brown. Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and mix until evenly distributed. Store them in air-tight containers. 

What's good about Granola is that you can throw in ingredients of your choice, basically anything and everything that you like. I like to add in figs at times. Sometimes skip the butter and roast them dry. Or may be replace corn flakes with wheat flakes, they work very good too. Increase or decrease sweetness if this isn't apt to your taste. Combination of 1/4 cup dark brown sugar with 1/2 cup honey would also work fantastic. There are no hard and fast rules. You decide on what you want to throw in!

With loads of nuts in them, I also love to add in fresh chopped fruits while serving. My favorite top ups are pineapples, peaches, oranges, bananas and apples. Seasonal fruits like Mangoes go well too. Serve with warm or cold milk. Try soy milk or even almond milk would be great!"

That was an awesome, awesome post Mallika! Thanks for this delicious recipe, for a healthy breakfast  which is deliciously luxurious too!!!

my latest find.

if you read this blog, you know i am a sweetaholic. i love baking/cooking, it is so relaxing for me after a long day at school. you would think this journal would be full of yummy recipes but no...this little diddy is my workout journal. i just started it and love it! the cupcake on the front motivates me to work out so i can bake bake bake. knowing i have to write down what i do really gets me moving. if you're looking for a little motivation, try writing your workouts down.

Pork schintzel with cucmber salad and mash or Kotlety schabowe z mizeria i ziemniakami

I'm terrible at break-ups so I am pretty much in hell right now. However, I need to remember these things do happen, and life goes on. I am lucky that I have the support of my unconventional but loving family, and loyal friends. My aunt called from Holland yesterday and we had a two hour conversation about life and love. During this heart-to-heart, I learnt that some people don't know how to suffer, and also, that I need to find people who are on my wavelength (or "spiral" as she put it), who are, above all, sincere, because that's who I am. According to my aunt's "spiral" theory, I am starting a new spiral now, even though it doesn't feel like it, everything is destroyed so I need to start building again, starting very small, like a snail, she said. All very strange, but it has made me feel more positive nevertheless. As well as my support system, I have cooking, which may just be the tool to drag me out of this hole. Yesterday, I made "schabowe", which are basically breaded pork cutlets, or schnitzel, and they turned out great, so things can't be as bad as they seem...we decided to go against the "schabowe" recipe in the old Polish recipe book, as they overlooked the breadcrumbs, which, to my family, would be a complete travesty

Ingredients:

Pork cutlets

Garlic clove

Eggs

Breadcrumbs

Salt and pepper

Oil for frying

Cucumber

Shallots or spring onions

Sour cream

Sugar

Lemon juice

Salt and pepper

Potatoes

Butter

Milk

Salt and pepper

We start off by making the salad, as it needs some time to "bite together" as you say in Polish. We slice the cucumbers and whichever onions you decide to use as thinly as you can get'em. Squeeze over some lemon, cover in salt and pepper and the sour cream, which has been mixed with a teaspoon of sugar. Put the potatoes on to boil, and go have a glass of wine. After about fifteen minutes come back, put the meat in a plastic bag and beat, so it flattens out and becomes tender. Massage the salt, pepper and crushed garlic into both sides. Beat the eggs in one bowl and put the breadcrumbs in another. While the oil is heating up, dip the cutlets in the egg, then the breadcrumbs and fry for about 7-8 minutes each side. The thinner they are the better, I think we could have beaten ours a little more...

Now, all that needs doing is the potatoes - you can do these while the pork is frying or, if that's too much then put the meat in a warm oven once it's done (pouring the oil from the pan over it so that it doesn't dry out) and do the potatoes then. Once the potatoes were mashed with the butter and milk, my mum put them in the same frying pan where we cooked the meat, so that they soaked up any left-over juices - this was a great idea, as the potatoes ended up with a richer, meatier taste. But this is completely optional. Et voila, a typical Polish dinner!

Zombie cupcakes take over the world

Well if you were to look through the soon to be released cupcake books, as I quite often do, you would think so. Not one, but two zombie cupcake books are due out in the next few months.

First up is A Zombie Ate my Cupcake by Lily Vanilli

After being banished for so long to the land of the pretty and identical, the domestic and the twee, cupcakes are biting back. Here, Lily Vanilli shows how you can take inspiration from anywhere - insects, roadkill, zombies - and recreate it in cake, but always with a delicious result. This book is an introduction to making cakes that look weird, ugly and even grotesque - but that taste divine! There are amazing materials for making edible sculptures and hundreds of things you can do with natural ingredients. Give guests a shock with revoltingly realistic Marzipan Beetles, or add a crunch to your desserts with Morbid Meringue Bones, dipped in raspberry blood sauce. Try out a black cherry Dracula's Bite red velvet cupcake with cream cheese, eat your way through heavenly Fallen Angel Cakes or go for indulgent and truly dark chocolate Devil's Delight Cupcakes. If Ozzy Osbourne made cupcakes, these are the ones he'd want to eat.

Ok, I'm sold, one to add to the pre-order basket!

Next up, Zombie Cupcakes by Zilly Rosen, famous for the Obama/Lincoln cupcake portrait.


Cooked up in the darkest of graveyards, it presents a ghoulish army of delicious creations that appear anything but sugar-coated. Recipes range from Zombie Flesh to Zombie Brain, from Gravestones to Night of the Living Cupcake. All the cooking and icing techniques are included, and every recipe features step-by-step instructions for the baking and icing, alongside devilish illustrations and photography. As a finishing touch, zombie quiz panels will test your undead knowledge, making this the book that will raise the spirits at even the most lifeless of gatherings.

Oh dear, another to add to my must have list - at this rate I'll have to get another billy bookshelf asap :)

I have noticed these books are described as "bucking the cupcake trend", or are part of the "cupcake backlash" but they're not really that different as far as I can tell to any cupcake - Martha's cupcakes has a few Halloween cakes, as do most cupcake books I own - these books are just a few extra themed recipes in my opinion. I still can't wait to try them though, I love zombies!*

If you can't wait for the book to come out to make some gruesome cupcakes what about these wonderful, but gross at the same time, blood clot and brain cupcakes from the wonderful Not Quite Nigella - braaaaains!

*As long as they're not trapping me in cinema toilets as happened at the premiere of Land of the Dead at the Odeon, Leicester Square a couple of years ago - I was petrified!

orange goodness.

these orange muffins are to.die.for. i knew the minute i saw the recipe on annie's eats i had to make them. and i am so so glad i did, isaac and i can't get enough. i can't wait to make them for my sweet family/friends.

cruisin'.

dear saturday,
thank you for having lovely weather so we could go on our first bike ride of the season.
love, emma.

ryan took us to the best trail along utah lake. we had so much fun. next time we're taking a picnic and some lounge chairs to soak up the sun!

ike bought us a bike rack and now we can go anywhere with our bikes!!! the possibilities are endless! too bad we can't bike here again soon...
i just know it's going to be a good summer.

Cappuccino Muffins

I am a sucker for caffeine!! I can't imagine starting my morning without my HUGE mug of coffee and am quite fussy about my cuppa. I find the smell of coffee extremely irresistible and it finds its way into my cakes and desserts quite often. I had never baked muffins with butter or coffee earlier. When I saw this recipe on Deeba's blog, the combo sounded so damn, damn irresistible. You bet I visit PAB ever so frequently to drool over Deeba's utterly gorgeous cakes and bakes. I want to bake every cake on her blog and these Cappuccino Muffins called out to me real loud:-).

 I have mostly baked my cakes and cupcakes with oil and I am not all that confident when there is butter in a recipe. The 'creaming' to a fluffy stage scares me. This recipe thankfully did not call for creaming the butter. Thought it would be a good start for trying butter for baking. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:
2 cups self raising flour (I used 2 cups plain flour plus 3 teaspoons baking powder)
3/4 cup vanilla caster sugar (or plain caster sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract)
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons instant coffee powder
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 small bag chocolate chips (100g)
Method:
Preheat the oven onto 375º F / 180ºC.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan and leave to cool. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and sugar.
Crack the egg into a medium sized bowl and add the milk and coffee granules and stir until the coffee is dissolved. Pour this coffee mixture onto the flour/sugar and add the melted butter.
Stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Fill the muffin cases with the mixture, do not over-fill, you want the cases to be about 2/3 full.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until springy to the touch. Cool in the tin for about 5 minutes before putting the muffins onto a wire rack to cool.

I had only about 3/4 cup of chocolate chips, so I also used 1/4 cup chopped white chocolate. I baked a small batch of muffins they tasted wonderful, fresh out of the oven. I did not make any topping for the muffins. By the time I pre-heated the oven and measured out all the ingredients there was a power cut, and power played hide and seek with me for quite some time!! Thankfully I had not yet mixed the ingredients.

By the time the first batch of muffins went into the oven, it was quite late and I did not want to take any more chances baking more batches. So the rest of the batter went into a loaf tin. The cake in the loaf did not taste as good or light as the muffins. Am not sure if I took the loaf out a few minutes too soon or generally a muffin recipe is not really suited for cakes.  Have to find an excuse to bake the delicious muffins again to figure this out:-)) In the meantime, tips on baking with butter and muffin science most welcome!!

This post is also my entry to Champa's Bake Off event.

smoothie sunday.

i am loving smoothies these days. especially since they help me get in lots of fruit in one creamy glass (i am not a fan of just munching a banana). and i am obsessed with the fresh fruit from costco so i must find ways to use it all up before it goes bad. unfortunately i don't have an exact recipe for you...but here is what you need.

ice.
vanilla yogurt.
orange juice.
and whatever fruit you prefer.

blend blend blend.

drink and be happy.
your day is guaranteed to go better after one of these babies.

Lazy dumplings or Pierogi leniwe

I haven't been blogging much recently as I haven't really been eating. I have lost nearly a stone already on the break-up diet, which consists of cigarettes, the odd piece of toast and gallons of wine, and promises to take about five years off your life expectancy. Nevermind, I am now recuperating at the family home in Eastbourne, and I have decided to explore my mum's old Polish cookbook, from the communist era, which has always both fascinated and intimidated me

There are masses of different dumplings in here, but ones which have been "following me", as you'd say in Polish, are Pierogi leniwe...I think the last time I made these I was five years old in my grandma Hala's tiny, dark kitchen in Warsaw, and she'd let me cut the long dough strips. So, to be fair, I have never actually made them myself, but they are nevertheless close to my heart... I may as well show you what they look like now, so you can decide if it's something you fancy or not

Ingredients:

500 grams white young cheese, I used ricotta

3 eggs

150 grams flour

30 grams flour for rolling

60 grams butter

20 grams breadcrumbs

Pinch salt

About 2 tablespoons sugar

Single cream to serve

Whenever my mum has made these in the past she has used white cheese which she buys from the Polish shop. However, I wanted to use something easily accessible to everyone, so I tried ricotta today, which worked really well! Firstly, separate the egg yolk from the egg white. Blend the yolks with 300 grams of the butter, soft butter is best, so I stuck normal butter in the microwave for 10 seconds. This takes a little while, if you are to have no lumps. Then, add the ricotta/white cheese. Beat the whites until they form peaks and add these in too, as well as the 150 grams of flour. Mix it all in together, and add a good pinch of salt. It's now time to put a large pan of lightly salted water on heat, and bring it to the boil, while we work the dumplings

Now, clean the surface that you will be using to roll out the dough and cover with the remaining flour. Spread the mixture out on the flour and kneed into a ball, adding more flour to the bits which are too sticky

That's me kneeding it up there - after you have done this for about 5 minutes, separate the mixture into two or three, and it's time to start rolling it out into long strips. And that's my mum showing me how it's done, below

You have to be quite gentle, as this dough is really soft. Once you can't roll anymore, then just form it into this kind of a shape, and make sure it's covered in flour on all sides. It's a balancing act with the flour, you don't want to add too much as the dumplings will end up hard. But the mixture is too sticky to do anything with if there is not enough flour, so just use your instincts on this one, and next time you'll know. I say next time, because once you have tried these, I guarantee you'll make them again. It's quite a simple recipe, and they are delicious - a lovely balance of sweet and salty and totally moreish

Cut the strips into more or less this kind of a shape and size. Once the water is boiling, drop half the dumplings in, and stir gently so that they do not stick together. When the dumplings rise to the top, give them once more minute and drain them spoonful by spoonful, trying to get rid of as much as the water as possible, before placing on a serving dish

While the second lot is cooking, melt the rest of the butter on a frying pan, and brown the breadcrumbs - this should take about 2-3 minutes. Finally, we cover the dumplings in the breadcrumb sauce, sugar, and serve, with cream on the side. This is pure Polish comfort food!