30 Oct 2015

KitKat Cupcakes

Ever since I saw these cupcakes in Subashini's Fondbites, I have been tempted to bake these cuppies. These cupcakes look so tempting and it's so delicious! And of course, the salted caramel ganache that I used to frost these cupcakes with, made it even more delightful! 
I was waiting for an opportunity to bake these and finally made it to take it to a friend's house. We loved it, they loved it and you will love it too!


KitKat Cupcakes


Share this post if you found it useful!

28 Oct 2015

Salted Caramel Ganache

I love to frost my cakes with ganache and I frost most of my cakes with chocolate ganache or whipped cream. These are my favourite frostings. I like adding different flavors to the ganache, which makes the ganache taste even better! I have posted an easy to make nutella ganache which also tastes absolutely yum!
Salted Caramel can be added to anything you bake or on ice creams and desserts and it tastes so good. Adding it to ganache just took it to a totally different level! I'm not a great fan of salted caramel but even I loved this ganache!


Salted Caramel Ganache


Share this post if you found it useful!

27 Oct 2015

Brown Rice Bisisbelabath | Easy Brown Rice Recipes

As I had mentioned in my Brown Rice Pongal post, I found it quite difficult to cook brown rice. It took a few attempts to judge the rice to water ratio. Until I figured that out, I decided to make some easy recipes that are quite forgiving with the water added. So I made plenty of brown rice pongal, brown rice curd rice and this bisbelabath.
This is such a healthy dish and with all the vegetables added, it makes for a filling dish too. My husband and me enjoyed having this bisibelabath. I love bisibelabath and I have started making it with millets too. Check out this varagu arisi bisibelabath.

Brown Rice Bisibelabath


Share this post if you found it useful!

26 Oct 2015

Beetroot Poriyal | Beetroot Stir Fry

Beetroot is such a healthy vegetable and we love it at home! Even if you don't like this veggie, you have to find a way to include it in your diet since it's such a wonderful vegetable with so many health benefits! I make a lot of beetroot for my kids too and since I'm giving it to my kids who are 4 and 2 years old, I grate the vegetable so that it's easy for them to eat. You can chop the beetroot into small pieces and make this poriyal. I also make beetroot pulao for my daughter's lunch box. This poriyal goes very well as a side dish to rice. 

Beetroot Poriyal


Share this post if you found it useful!

25 Oct 2015

Salted Caramel Milkshake | Easy Milkshake Recipes

I had a little bit of salted caramel left over after making salted caramel dark chocolate ganache and salted caramel chocolate mousse and I was wondering if I should lick it off with a spoon or do something else with it. Then I decided to make some salted caramel milkshake and salted caramel hot chocolateThis milkshake is absolutely delicious, a complete indulgence! If you love caramel then this is a recipe that you must try.


Salted Caramel Milkshake


Share this post if you found it useful!

Eggless Carrot Cake

Carrot is one of my most favorite vegetable. Even when I was young, carrot was a vegetable that I ate without cribbing. I think I must have eaten only drumsticks, potatoes and carrots as a child! I love adding carrots to my bakes, I have already posted lots of recipes using carrots and the carrot cake that I have posted already is one of my most favorite cakes, only next to chocolate cakes

This time I wanted to try out an egg free version of carrot cake and I must say, you can never go wrong with carrots. The flavor is pretty deep and intense especially with the cinnamon and nutmeg. I love to bake my carrot cake a day in advance and let it rest for 24 hours and then all the flavors seep in and infuse making it delightfully delicious!


Eggless Carrot Cake


Share this post if you found it useful!

Gulab Jamun using Ready Mix

Making Gulab Jamun from scratch is very easy and simple but there are times when you need to make something fast and instant and these ready mix packets always comes to the rescue. I normally make everything from scratch but somebody had given us a packet of gulab jamum mix and so I made this one evening for my family.
As always gulab jamum is a favourite sweet dish loved by everybody and this was no different! It's so soft and juicy and totally delicious!


Gulab Jamun


Share this post if you found it useful!

24 Oct 2015

Carrot Halwa | Gajar Halwa

Carrot halwa is a classic Indian sweet dish made with carrots, milk and sugar. This is by far one of the most delicious and favourite Indian sweet dish ever. For me personally, I love carrot and beet root halwa. It's also a favourite among kids and carrots being a wonderful vegetable, this is a wonderful way to include vegetables in their diet. 


The traditional method of cooking carrot halwa, involves cooking the grated carrots in milk for a really long time. In this recipe, I have used a combination of milk and condensed milk. I love my halwa with condensed milk more than sugar. This turned out perfectly and we enjoyed having it!


Carrot Halwa


Share this post if you found it useful!

Brown Rice Pongal | Healthy Pongal Recipes

Cooking brown rice is not an easy task! It definitely takes some getting used to! The problem with brown rice is that, each brand of brown rice needs to be cooked differently. Whatever I read online on how to cook brown rice did not work. I felt really frustrated cooking it and decided to cook something easy with the brown rice. And thus came about this brown rice pongal. Pongal is a very forgiving dish, you can get away with some extra water too! So I made a lot of pongal and brown rice curd rice and bisibellabath until I figured out how to cook brown rice! This is definitely a healthy option and much more filling too. 

Also check out the ven pongal, oats pongal, thinai pongal, kuthiraivali pongal and sakkarai pongal recipes.

Brown Rice Pongal

Share this post if you found it useful!

23 Oct 2015

Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce | How to make Salted Caramel Sauce

Salted caramel sauce is so versatile in nature! You can do so many things with it. I made a batch to make some salted caramel dark chocolate ganache (totally yum!) to frost my kitkat cupcakes.
You can pour this on top of desserts or use it in bakes or just have it plain! If you love caramel then this is one recipe that you will be making again and again. This is an easy and simple recipe and the balance of salt and sweet is perfect. You will fall in love with this recipe!


Salted Caramel Sauce


Share this post if you found it useful!

16 Oct 2015

Mushroom Stir Fry | Mushroom Poriyal

Mushrooms are my all time favorites! I have already posted about 15 mushroom recipes  and I'm excited to post more! I can't have enough of mushrooms! This recipe is a simple and easy stir fry. You can make this in a jiffy and everybody who likes mushrooms, will love this dish. This goes well with rice.


Mushroom StirFry


Share this post if you found it useful!

15 Oct 2015

Peanut Tomato Chutney | Easy Chutney Recipes

I am always on the lookout for interesting chutney recipes which will taste good with idli or dosa, uthapam or even vada. My friend Rohini Mahesh, shared this recipe of peanut tomato chutney and since I already make a plain peanut chutney, I knew this would taste awesome too! So I tried this out as soon as she shared it and we had it for oats idli and true to what she said, this chutney tasted absolutely yum! 


Peanut Tomato Chutney


One of the reasons why I love this chutney is because, I already love peanuts and this doesn't use coconut and it's very easy to make. Also this chutney does not get spoilt like the coconut chutney so you can use this chutney to pack for lunch boxes too.

Check out the other side dishes for idli and dosa here


Peanut Tomato Chutney


Share this post if you found it useful!

10 Oct 2015

Surprise Inside Heart Cake | Hidden Heart Cake

I wanted to make this cake for Valentine's cake this year but ended up making these cute edible chocolate cups with strawberry mousse instead! Then I wanted to make this cake for our wedding anniversary but again ended up making this rich and moist quadruple chocolate cake instead!
So finally I made this cake when there was no occasion to celebrate but then again, you don't need a special occasion to celebrate love!!  

The best part about this cake is that, no one can tell there is something hidden inside the cake! The surprise on my husband's face when I made him cut the cake, was very satisfying for me! 
The only thing I did not like about this cake, was that, there is too much of wastage! Almost half of the cake baked for the heart shape goes waste. You can choose to make cake pops or truffles.

Hidden Heart Cake


And if you're not big on using colour's then skip the red color and keep the hearts white. The white hearts will still stand out against the dark brown chocolate cake. Or you can use a little less red color and make it a pink heart. 

One of the concerns in baking this cake is that, since the heart cake is baked twice, it can get a bit dry. But this is a good pound cake recipe and if you don't over bake, then it will not go dry. I adapted this recipe from my chocolate chip pound cake recipe.

The chocolate batter should preferably be a pound cake batter, only then the hearts placed inside will not move and will stand in place. Otherwise, by the time the cake is done, the hearts will be in some corner of the pan.

This recipe is for a 9*5*3 inch loaf pan. If you use a smaller pan, then your batter will overflow.


Hidden Heart Cake


Share this post if you found it useful!

Homemade Icing Sugar | How to make Icing Sugar at Home

Have you ever had a day when you start baking and your suddenly find that you don't have an ingredient? Well, it happened to me when I was making my chocolate buttercream recipe! I realized that I had no icing sugar at home. I would have gone to the store but it was the middle of the night (I normally bake after my kids go to bed) and I could not go out anywhere! So, I decided to make some icing sugar myself. 
I felt there will be someone somewhere who finds themselves in the same predicament as me so decided to make this into a post!


Homemade Icing Sugar

Icing sugar is just very very fine sugar with a binding agent which helps the powdered sugar from clumping up and when we use the sugar for icing or glazes, it helps to thicken the sugar and stick together to achieve a smooth consistency.
Share this post if you found it useful!

9 Oct 2015

Apple Banana Smoothie | Smoothie Recipes

I make smoothie's for my husband and he loves it! This combination of apples and bananas is simple and easy. This is the one that is made a lot at home since apples and bananas are always available at home and this delicious smoothie can be whipped up in no time. It is also quite filling so this makes a good breakfast drink or even an after school drink.


Apple Banana Smoothie


Share this post if you found it useful!

7 Oct 2015

Divine Chocolate Cake

This is truly a divine chocolate cake! So rich, so moist, it is utterly a chocolate lover's delight to eat this cake! I made this cake for a birthday party and it turned out to be an excellent choice! Frosted this cake with some delicious thick chocolate fudge frosting and it was too good to resist! You can simply use thick ganache to frost the cake too. 


Divine Chocolate Cake


Share this post if you found it useful!

2 Oct 2015

Brown Rice Curd Rice

I never thought of making this into a post but then I wanted to share that this lovely curd rice can be made more healthy by making it with brown rice instead of white rice. We have started including brown rice in our diet and I tried out this simple and easy curd rice. It came out very well and the taste was just as good! I make millet curd rice too and I like both kinds of curd rice. As usual goes well with just a simple pickle.


Brown Rice Curd Rice


Share this post if you found it useful!

1 Oct 2015