December 2015 ~ Full Scoops - A food blog with easy,simple & tasty recipes!

31 Dec 2015

Honeycomb Frosting | Honeycomb Cake

Celebration cakes, Frostings 10 comments

I want to share a simple frosting technique for a celebration cake that I make often, which will look lovely on the finished cake. This is so easy to do and at the end you have a beautifully frosted cake! I do this quite often when I run out of time to do something elaborate. Plus, it hides all my flaws in frosting, so I love this trick!!

I first came across this method some years ago at Alexandra's Recipes and I immediately wanted to try this frosting. Now it's become very famous and you can find it all over the internet.
There are two ways to make this honeycomb frosting and I follow the method given by Alexandra and it's easy and simple. There is another way to do this (which I've mentioned in the notes), I find that to be a little complicated so this is how I do my honeycomb frosting.

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Nellikai Juice | Amla Juice

Amla, beverages, juice 4 comments

Do I need to stress the benefits of amla! This fruit is rich in Vitamin C and so good for immunity. It's also good for skin and hair. There are tons of other health benefits that you can look up in the internet but my mum makes this juice mostly for the purpose of immunity.
This is the way we make it at our home and you can make necessary changes to suit your taste.

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Thinai Chocolate | Foxtail Millet Chocolate

chocolate, Kids Special, Millet Recipes 2 comments

When I was wondering what to do with the remaining thinai (foxtail millet) flour, which was left over from making these thinai laddu, I came across this recipe and decided to make these chocolates.

Sometimes my kids ask for these Peppa Pig chocolates, so this time, I added the thinai flour and made chocolates for them. You do get the taste and feel of the thinai flour in your mouth but since it also has chocolate and nuts, kids don't mind eating them!

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Chocolate Apple Milkshake | Easy Milkshake Recipes

Apples, beverages, milk shakes No comments

Chocolate makes anything taste wonderful! Well, atleast to me! Instead of making the plain apple cinnamon milkshake, I added some chocolate flavor to it and it tasted absolutely yum! The apple makes this milkshake healthy and filling. Makes it good for breakfast or an evening drink for your kids.

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Double Chocolate Strawberry Muffins

chocolate, Chocolate cake, Cupcakes & Muffins, Strawberry Recipes 4 comments

If you're regular to my space, you must know my weakness for strawberries. I love this fruit and since the strawberries we get here are almost always too tart, I make some dessert out of it and enjoy.
This time when I had to visit my in laws, this is what I made for my nieces. This is an absolutely delicious muffin and the additional chocolate chips makes it too good! It's such a soft rich chocolate muffin with chunks of strawberries, you'll simply love it!

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Pineapple Milkshake | Easy Milkshake Recipes

beverages, milk shakes, Pineapple Recipes 4 comments

I love milkshakes, I keep making milkshakes with every fruit available. Pineapple milkshakes taste awesome and I love this milkshake a lot!

There is something to remember when using pineapples in milkshakes or bakes especially when the fruit comes in contact with dairy product. There is an enzyme called bromelain in pineapple which makes the end product taste bitter. There are times when I've made pineapple milkshakes and there was never a bitter taste. And there was one time when my milkshake turned really bitter. Sometimes, it turns bitter after a few hours. So it's advisable to scald the pineapples before using them.

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Masala Bread Toast | Savoury French Toast

Bread Recipes, Breakfast Recipes, Egg Recipes, Snacks 2 comments

This is a quick and easy breakfast/snack recipe that I make for my husband since he's not fond of the regular french toast. He prefers savoury to sweet so this is the bread toast version for him along with the baked egg toast.
Sometimes I add finely chopped veggies to the mix, change the masalas and make it more tasty and different each time. Adding masalas to the egg mixture always masks the smell of eggs.

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Avocado Milkshake | Butter Fruit Milkshake

avocado, beverages, milk shakes 3 comments

My husband bought some avocados and the first thing I thought of making was this milkshake! It turned out so creamy and yum that even my super fussy kids had some!
Avocado is also called as butter fruit and it is a very popular fruit loaded with goodness. It contains about 20 different vitamins and minerals and full of fibre. Avocado also reduces bad cholesterol and increases good cholesterol!
One of the most interesting info about avocado is that, it can be used in place of butter in bakes! I'm yet to try it out but it sounds very interesting!

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Chocolate Fruit Cake | Chocolate Christmas Cake Recipe

Bakes, Cakes, chocolate, Christmas Recipes, Fruit cake 7 comments

This year I made a boiled fruit cake for our prayer group and then I had to bake some other cake for my family and neighbours. But unfortunately I did not have any soaked fruits! Instead of sulking about it, I decided to go ahead and bake a cake. So I chopped my fruits and nuts and soaked them for about 18 hours and then I baked this cake. And I soaked with grape juice only!

This is such a fabulous cake! You don't really get the chocolate flavor but the chocolate definitely enhances the overall flavor of the cake. I'm sure if I had soaked my fruits longer or if I had used alcohol, this cake would have tasted even better!

Watch the video in English

Watch the video in Tamil

The cake is moist, soft and full of fruits and nuts. I did not soak the fruits ahead and I did not bast the cake with alcohol. I didn't even wait for 24 hours to cut this cake (which is what I normally do with fruit cakes), I cut this cut within 20 minutes of taking it out of the oven and still it tasted awesome! Ideally, the fruits for this cake should be soaked days earlier and the cake baked few days ahead of Christmas and then bast the cake with alcohol until you cut the cake. You will love the burst of flavor!

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Boiled Fruit Cake | Easy Christmas Cake

Cakes, Christmas Recipes, Fruit cake 4 comments

I never soaked fruits for this year's Christmas cake, mostly because of all the rain and floods in my city, I'm simply not in the mood to celebrate. Or maybe I was just lazy and procrastinated! I think it's a bit of both. Either way, I did not have soaked fruits for my cake.

So I decided to make a simple, easy, lazy Christmas cake. This cake is a really easy, simple, no fuss cake. But still the cake tastes awesome! Boiling the fruits increases the flavor tremendously making this a wonderful bake for Christmas.

I'm almost thinking of baking this cake every year! It's that tasty and soft and moist! Since it's so simple, I'm seriously tempted to make this my go to Christmas Cake!

The only time taken is to chop the fruits and waiting for the boiled fruits to cool down! I used what ever fruits I had at hand. Raisins, sultanas, dried apricot, dried figs, dates, cherries. I did not add any nuts, if you want to add, then don't boil the nuts. You can add it after the fruits have cooled down.

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Homemade Yam Chips | Senai Kizhangu Chips

Homemade chips, Snacks, Yam Recipes 3 comments

I remember when I was a kid, my mum used to make lots of chips at home. She used to make a lot of potato chips, vazhakkai chips and these yam chips. My brother and me, simply loved it and finished it off in no time. Last week, we made these chips again for my kids and I ended up eating a lot more than the little ones!

Yam or senai kizhangu is mostly avoided since it induces itching while cutting the veggie. But if you apply some oil or wear gloves, you can avoid this issue. Also whenever we make yam masala, or any other yam recipe, we always cook the yam separately in some water and then discard the water. (You can check the yam masala recipe for details on this).

But when we make these yam chips, we don't cook ahead and discard the water. If it's cooked well in oil, then it does not create any issues. If you want to play it safe, then you can cook ahead and discard the water and then make these chips.

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Chocolate Cupcakes

chocolate, Cupcakes & Muffins, Kids Special 13 comments

I baked these lovely cupcakes for my son's 3rd birthday party along with the main cake - the Garbage Truck Cake, and we loved these cuppies! Any chocolate cupcake is delicious but this one is especially good since it's so light, soft and moist. Since we use oil and not butter, it makes the cupcakes so light and moist. Even if you leave it in the refrigerator and then take it out and eat immediately, it still tastes great! These are like the perfect chocolate cupcakes! These cupcakes uses oil and if you don't bake it correctly, the top can get sticky after sometime. If you want a cupcake that uses butter check out this chocolate cupcake recipe.

If you prefer eggless, then here's the link for egg free chocolate cupcakes.

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Elephant Yam Masala | Senai Kizhangu Masala

Veg Side Dish for Rice, Yam Recipes 3 comments

There are so many recipes that can be made with senai kizhangu but many people don't make this because of it's itchy nature. But this is one of the most tasty dishes and we love it. You need to cook this first in some water and drain the water and cook the kizhangu alone.
My mum makes a tasty masala with this senai kizhangu and we love it!

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Pineapple Kesari | Kesari Recipes

Indian Sweets, Kesari, Pineapple Recipes, Rava Recipes 4 comments

I am not a huge kesari fan, I mean, I can eat some if I'm offered but I'm not desperately in love with kesari! But my mum loves this Indian Sweet. So I make different varieties of kesari just for her. And with this pressure cooker method, it's so easy and simple to make this kesari that I don't mind making kesari often!

I got this method of making kesari from Mrs. Chithra Vishwanathan. For the original recipe please click here.
After trying this kesari, I now make all my kesari's following this same method, although I have changed the recipe and proportions to suit my mum's preference. There is another easier way to make kesari and that is called OPOS kesari, pioneered by Mr. Rama Krishnan, for that recipe, click here. This is an easy, simple, no fuss, no lumps, no stirring for long, no wastage of gas, fuss free kesari!

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Instant Microwave Banana Nutella Mug Cake

banana, Instant Microwave Recipes, Nutella Recipes, Snacks 7 comments

What's not to love in a mug cake! It's easy, quick and delicious! One fine day, I was looking around my house for a bar of chocolate and unfortunately I could not find any. So instead of sulking, I decided to make myself some mug cake and this is what I ended up making. I had some left over nutella and this mug cake was finished in no time!

Instant Microwave Banana Nutella Mug Cake

I love the combination of banana and chocolate. I have made many cakes and muffins with banana and chocolate and loved it! This mug cake was no different, it almost tasted like a brownie. Didn't matter to me, if this was a brownie or a cake, it tasted just too good!

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Lamb Rib Soup | Aatu Margandam Soup

Mutton Recipes, Non Veg Recipes, Non Veg Soups 3 comments

Lamb ribs soup also called as margandam soup in Tamil is one of the tasty and healthy soups of olden days. Now a days, many people don't take this soup since it's high in fat content. In fact, people are completely avoiding lamb!

But this is one of the very good, healthy soup for kids. My kids don't eat any non veg, I'm still trying to get them to try some non veg dishes. In the meantime, this is one of the soups I make for them. Of course, they don't like drinking the soup so I add it to their rice (just like rasam) and feed it to them.
You can start this for kids above the age of 18 months. But you will have to adjust the level of spice for kids. The proportions given are mildly spicy.

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Baked Egg Toast

Bread Recipes, Breakfast Recipes, Egg Recipes, Kids Special 4 comments

My city has been hit by heavy rains the past month leading to floods and massive destruction. Schools have been closed for nearly a month. There's been so much of loss and so many of my friend's houses have been submerged in water. It's really heart wrenching to see so many people who have lost everything that they had. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to all those affected in this rain.

Coming to today's recipe, this is a different way to serve eggs to your family. Baked egg toast is as delicious as any other forms of eggs that we have for breakfast. This is a healthy wholesome food that kids will love!
This recipe can be adjusted to your liking. I like my eggs to be fully cooked while my husband likes half cooked, runny eggs so if you're like me, then bake these for a little longer otherwise go by the timings mentioned.

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Coffee Cake

Cakes, coffee 15 comments

By nature I am not a coffee person, I never drink coffee and I have never liked coffee! The best part is no one in my family likes coffee, so I'm never forced to make coffee at home!! I buy coffee powder only to add in my chocolate cakes and brownies!!
But I've used coffee to make coffee ice cream and now this coffee cake and both times were super delicious! I baked this cake for my brother's birthday since my brother and his family loves coffee and they loved the flavor of this cake.
This is one of the softest cakes I have had! Soft and moist and so full of coffee flavor! My nephew even commented that the cake was like a pillow! So soft! I made some minor adjustments from the original recipe since it did not come perfectly the first time I baked it. This time, it was just perfect!!