Thomas the train and Friends Cake for a little boy's birthday!

I love making theme cakes. My friend 'S' had suggested that I make her son's 4th b'day cake almost a year before and it must be mentioned that she had never tasted any of my cakes when she gave me the opportunity! Just few glances at the cakes on my blog and that was enough for her.... :-)

Initially there was a slight confusion whether to keep a 'Cars' themed party or 'Thomas the Train' themed one, but Sanav is a huge fan of Thomas the Train and everytime we asked him for his choice he came back to his favorite train...so finally that's what the theme was decided to be.

Sanav loves Chocolate Cake with Chocolate buttercream, so the cake flavor was set.
As the decorations were left to me I started thinking of suitable color combos...I basically wanted a spring-summery look, with the trains running over grassy lands with bright blue skies and hills and trees etc. And ofcourse a tunnel is a very cute and important addition for train themed cakes - all trains will pass through atleast one tunnel wherever they go right :-)

I baked the chocolate cakes and frosted them with homemade chocolate buttercream, then made my own marshmallow fondant and used Grass Green gel color for the bottom tier fondant and Royal blue gel color for the top tier fondant. The cakes were 10"x4" and 8"x4" each.

Some of the details on the cake included :
The pretty balloons in a cute little basket to symbolize the birthday celebrations....trust me, the kids were just behind me to give them a slice with these balloons and finally I had to give each individual balloon to individual kids so that they don't fight...Lol!

The black tunnel with a red brick wall, the number 4 symbolizing the b'day boys age. The train tracks interlocking from both ends to merge into one track that goes into the tunnel

Railway crossing sign boards on both sides of the tunnel. I also included a tunnel with a stone wall that was shut-down on bottom tier.

Then there were bushes, trees with red fruit, small mountains and some black birds....

And our Thomas Train on top watching his friends speed away and the clouds and the handsome Sun smiling on him. I wrote Happy Birthday and Sanav's name on the clouds.

Thomas and his train friends are toys (I'm not good at modeling figurines), rest everything on the cake is edible. And this was the first time I painted some of the cut outs with gel colors for a more vibrant look.

May I humbly say, the cake was a super-hit. Everyone loved the cake and it was totally worth the sleepless nights I had to finish this cake despite not keeping too well that week.

Here's the happy and smiley b'day boy totally enjoying his cake cutting!!

And soon I was busy with cake slicing and serving...hehe! Actually I was surrounded by kids waiting for a slice with a tree or balloon or tunnel or train track ;-)

Making a cake is always fun and a lot of work....Lol! But it's so worth it in the end....
It was such a fun b'day party and I'm glad I could make this cake and the happy faces around me makes me do this more and more.

Lots more to share in upcoming posts, so keep coming back.

Until next time...take care and have fun!

-Manju

Lauki Biriyani (BottleGourd Biriyani)

Lauki or Bottlegourd is a quite an under-used veggie in my household. We eat it not because we really like it, but just for the nutrition it might give our bodies and b'coz its just one of the few other indian veggies we get in the indian stores here. And I'm not at all a fan of buying frozen veggies when you can buy fresh ones unless they are not at all available fresh. 

I very clearly remember the time I first tasted lauki, it was after my dad was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. His blood sugar was just a little off the normal range but that was enough to shake up my mom who was a nurse btw. They both went and met with her hospital dietician and decided on menu plans etc and wanting to make sure his sugar level never goes beyond the normal range she put him and apparently the family included on a strict diet that included sprouted legumes, lots of bitter gourd, whole grains, very less rice, more salads and yes, lauki :-P 

Dal with Lauki was one of the dishes mummy started making where she cut down on salt and oil, even the spices so I must say it wasn't a very tasty first try with Lauki. It had a very mild almost cucumber like taste and did not really appeal to us much. Although daddy's diabetes improved a lot with the diet, our tastebuds never liked Lauki.
To be honest I don't think daddy enjoyed the dal curry much either so he named it 'Kooshmandam Curry'. I have no idea how the term kooshmanadam and lauki are related b'coz the malayalam term for lauki is Churakka, but me & my sis loved the term and used it to tease the veggie and the dish mummy made which was our least favorite! **naughty daddy n his girls** ;-)

It's very recently that I came to know that you can make so many different varieites of dishes with lauki like halwa, kofta, dry subji, paratha, pickles, even lauki juice etc etc. Lauki is very very nutritious and a filling veggie specially for people watching their diets. I have made few of these dishes and they were really good. 

Now last week I came home from work tempted to eat biriyani and had my mind stuck to it so I went ahead anyways. I had no time to defrost the chicken and there was no other veggie in my fridge other than lauki...So Lauki Biriyani was born :-P And until I made this biriyani, I never knew you could make Lauki Biriyani either, so it was a pure experiment and a tasty one at that!

I made it the same way I make my Chicken Biriyani but instead of cooking the masala and rice separately and layering them, I cooked it all together, almost like a Pulav, so mayb you can call this dish a Pulav Biriyani...hehe! 
A one pot meal in no time with no compromise on flavor. The whole dish was ready in perhaps an hour and in time to feed my hungry lil'Appu who really was hungry I must say, coz he ate up the whole plate I served him with some yogurt though he complained it was spicy, but ate it nevertheless :-)

LAUKI (Bottlegourd) BIRIYANI
Recipe Serves - 4 

You'll Need
Lauki (Bottlegourd) - 1 medium sized
Red Onion, chopped finely - 1 large
Ginger-Garlic paste - 1 Tblsp
Cinnamon sticks - 2
Green Cardamom - 3
Cloves - 3
Black Pepper - 5-6
Star Anise - 1
Bay leaves - 1
Canola Oil / Olive Oil - 2 Tblsp
Grind together:
Tomato - 1 large or 2 medium
Cilantro leaves - a handfull
Mint leaves - a handfull
Green chillies - 2 or 3
Yogurt - ½ cup
Masala powders:
Red chilli powder - 1 or 2 tsp
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Biriyani masala powder - 1 or 2 tsp (optional)
Corriander powder - 2 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
For the rice:
Basmati Rice (soaked in water for ½ hour) - 2 cups
Water - 4 cups
Salt - to taste

Directions:
1. Start by washing and then soaking 2 cups of Basmati rice in cold water for half an hour.
2. Wash the Lauki, remove any seeds and chop into bite sized cubes with skin on.
3. Grind together - tomato, mint,cilantro leaves, green chillies and yogurt into a fine paste.
4. In a large pan heat the oil and add the whole spices (Cinnamon sticks,Green Cardamom,Cloves,Black Pepper,Star Anise) and saute until you smell the lovely aroma.
5. Then add ginger-garlic paste and red onions. Add a pinch of salt and let the onions cook until soft.
6. Then add masala powders - Red chilli, turmeric, coriander powder, garam masala and biriyani masala and mix well on medium heat.
7. Add the Lauki, give it a stir and lower the heat and slowly add the tomato-yogurt paste and cook it on low heat until well combined.
8. Increase the heat to medium-high and keep cooking until the gravy thickens or reduces (almost 10-15 mins).
9. Drain the rice and add it to the lauki masala and stir gently.
10. Add 4 cups water, season with salt, stir well and cook it on high flame until the water starts bubbling. Then cover with a lid, reduce heat to medium and cook for 12-15 mins. The rice should be well cooked by this time.
11. Turn off the heat and let the rice rest for few mins before serving.

** As the biriyani is spicy, its best served with some cool yogurt or raita!

Suggestions:
1. You can also grate the lauki, squeeze out the water and use the water in the biriyani while cooking and add the grated lauki if you prefer.
2. Try to reduce/thicken the gravy as much as possible (in step 8) else when you add water to cook the rice the liquid quantity might be too much, or else reduce water to 3½ cups.
3. If you want to be elaborate, you can garnish the biriyani with fried onions and/or cashew nuts-raisins etc.

The biriyani was superb...spicy and flavorful and the chunky bites of lauki were seasoned with all the spices and it was quite a treat! The skin of the lauki also becomes soft after its cooked. Manish had never tasted lauki biriyani either and he was quite surprised how well it came out... 

It's a quick fix meal, so do try it out and don't forget to share your experience with me :-) 

Oh! and this Sunday is Mother's Day...so wishing all the lovely mom's out there a very Happy Mother's Day!!  If it wasn't for my mom I would have never eaten lauki and in turn would have never tried making a biriyani out of it...So this dish is for you Mummy...Muah!! Will make it for you when we come to India next time...hehe!

-Manju

The making of a Full Sheet Cake at home

What a month April had been...phew! Crazy busy and my oven had been baking cakes and goodies non-stop :-) Thankfully all my projects turned out fine and now its time to share them here one-by-one...so there'll be back-to-back cakes and treats being posted here. Not a bad thing is it?

A cake as big as a full sheet deserves a full length coverage right? ;-) So here goes...

Earlier last month the regional community that Manish and I are part of conducted a fun competition event just for kids of various age groups. While deciding upon the food, snacks and drinks options I was asked if I could make a Sheet cake for the kids. I have to be honest when I say I just jumped at the opportunity ;-) And another honest fact, I have never even seen how big a full sheet cake is in real life! 
The event named 'Varnolsavam' had a logo competition for the kids for which several kids submitted their entries and one was finally selected as the winning logo and since I couldn't come up with any other interesting ideas I decided to draw the winning logo on top of the cake to symbolize the event. It was a tough call considering how poor an artist I am, but I went ahead with it. 
So today I'll share how I went ahead making a whole sheet cake at home and my fun experience at drawing on a cake. Ready?? :-)

Let's start with some measurement knowledge on sheet cake sizes. I'm talking about the sheet cakes that are atleast 2" high in thickness (not the thin jelly roll sheet cakes)
Quarter sheet cake - 9" x 13" x 2"
One-third sheet cake - 11" x 15"x 2"
Half sheet Cake - 12" x 18" x 2"
Full Sheet Cake - 18" x 24" x 2"

Our regular home ovens are big enough to support upto a half sheet cake pan. So I had to make two half sheets to get my full sheet cake. 

I baked the cakes a day in advance and made around 4 batches of my favorite rich & moist Chocolate cake batter for 1 Half sheet cake, so in total made 8 batches of cake batter for both the half sheet cakes :-) Once baked and cooled, I placed them on their cooling racks itself , wrapped them in foil and refrigerated them. 

Then I made a sturdy Cake base: Used a 2ft x 2ft plywood board and covered it in aluminium foil. Over that I taped together two half sheet cake boards and stuck it on top of the foil-covered plywood board.
The cakes were then carefully placed on the cake board and tightly pressed together (I din't use any buttercream to stick them together)

Then I made my favorite American Vanilla Buttercream. For a cake this huge I needed lots of buttercream. I just did a blind math and decided to make 5 batches of this recipe (Thankfully I decided not to torte and fill the cake....imagine the amount of buttercream I would had to make then!!) 

Buttercream and Cake was ready, now its time to frost this baby....

The below pic is just to show you how big this cake was to frost! It took me a good 1 hr or more to get it quite smooth and straight. I used my offset spatula and later a bench scraper along with hot water for this.

Later piped a neat border with a hot orange shade (mixed orange and lemon yellow gel colors into my vanilla buttercream until I got desired color)

Everything good so far....Next was the daunting task in front of me, paint the logo on this vast cake canvas! 

First let's hear a short-story on my art-skills ;-P
I remember in my 8th grade, we had a very strict arts teacher who was also our PT teacher. It was sure that we would all get negative grades in his arts class as he was never happy with anything we drew. 
But when the final scores came, he gave me the highest marks...ME!! of all the artistic kids in class!  Obviously the kids in my class went scrambling over my arts book to see what extraordinary pictures I had drawn to bag such high grades, and there was nothing even close to extraordinary.....just some colors and some shapes that remotely looked like human beings or cars or trees :-P 
When the kids in my class asked him why I was given the highest grade (now pls imagine me sitting in my seat, looking very very pink, firstly 'coz I was the happiest girl in class and secondly due to a slight shame as some of my classmates din't think I deserved it), he gave the reason that I was the only girl in class who was always punctual with my arts assignments and always neat & tidy with my work. Hmmmmm....nothing to do with my art work I know, but well, that was his reason for giving me the highest grades. My classmates went off mumbling under their breath, totally wanting to disagree with him...but hey, here I am today sharing my only proud 'art' moment...hehe. Otherwise I'm no artist at all and cannot even draw a bird properly! Anyways...

The original logo was beautifully drawn by a talented 12 year old girl, Namitha. The event being a kid's competition event on various activities like dancing, singing, essay writing, painting, coloring, malayalam and english speech etc for kids of ages 3-16 yrs. Namitha beautifully captured the entire essence of the event on her logo and I knew I had to do justice to this gorgeous visualization of hers.

Varnolsavam Logo - drawn by Namitha

I kept pondering a bit as to the best option to draw on a butercream cake , then it struck me...Glitter Gel colors! I din't have all the needed colors so off I sent Manish to get me all the colors on the logo...and he did just as told...hehe!
I used a toothpick to make very mild markings on the cake where each part of the picture went and colored inside it with the gel colors. This was how it looked in the end. Phew! This took me about 2 hrs, considering my drawing skills and the fact that I couldn't risk much ;-)

And just when we thought everything was good we realised that the large box Manish got from Costco to fit the cake wasn't sturdy enough and was too big to fit in our car trunk! Then came our friends to the rescue, they sat down with Manish and re-sized the box and gave it enough padding, converting it to a sturdy cake box, that could bear the weight of the cake and also fit in our car trunk ;-) Thanks to all who helped!!

All things were finally sorted out. Other than a hairline crack in the buttercream that happened while placing the cake into the cake box and finally into the car, there were no other issues and it landed safely at the venue.

The kids were super excited as they crowded around the cake waiting for the cake cutting and ofcourse their slice....Namitha insisted that I also join in the cake cutting and we cut the cake together. Some wanted the slice with orange cream, some wanted a slice with the gel colors , while other's just wanted a big slice ;-) It was a lot of fun and both kids and adults enjoyed the cake, me too! And there was enough cake for more than one serving. And my lil'Appu couldn't have given a bigger smile while enjoying his slice :-)
(below pics are courtesy of my friend Anjana, who graciously took most of the pics at the event)

In all it was super fun event and this experience of making such a large cake and then sharing it with the kids is what's going to stay in my heart forever!

Hopefully you enjoyed reading this post and now you know its not too hard to make a full-sheet cake at home!!

More gorgeous treats to follow, so keep watching out this space or my Facebook Page for updates.

-Manju

Tres leches Cake with Lychee Mousse filling and Chocolate Lace collar - for my Birthday boy!

Let me not even start with my usual rants about how busy days are going by and how I have treated my blog like an after-thought with very few posts of late. But truth is, I am sort of really really busy these days and all for good reasons and hopefully I can take a breather next month and share all the happenings with pride :-D  
But for today though I know it's April, I want to talk about March ...specially March 29th!! 

March is always a lovely month for us. It brings hope of spring after the dreadfull lull of winter, it's the month of so many of my favorite peoples b'days, my sis-in-law, bro-in-law and my hubbys. March 29th is doubly special coz it's both my hubby's b'day and also marks the anniversary of us moving into our new home and this year it was the 1st anniversary. Little things in life can hold so much importance.
Last year my parents were here and we had a lovely housewarming celebration on March 29th as we moved into our new home and also did a quick b'day cake cutting in between all the hussle and bussle of shifting. It all feels like yesterday. I totally miss my parents not being here this year.

This year I wanted Manish's b'day to be very memorable and also celebrate the 1st anniversary of our new house. A surprise lunch with friends, cake cutting and bowling was my initial plan. Though some of the plans changed over the course of the day, in all it was beautiful day, weather wise and celebration wise and we all had a blast!

As usual I decided to make his cake and this time I let him choose the flavor. I find making my own b'day cake quite weird so haven't done it yet, but you never know...lol! But for Manish and my lil'Appu I'm always game at making their b'day cakes ;-)

He chose the yummy Mexican cake flavor Tres Leches (three milks cake) and wanted Lychee fruit in it, so I decided a creamy Lychee mousse would be great. I initially planned to make just 1 sponge cake and make two layers filled with lychee mousse, but the cake looked short ;-) so I went and made one more sponge cake and trimmed it to just get 1 extra layer and the scraps were all happily eaten by the two boys at home (father n son)...so in total I got 3 layers for the final cake and I had just the right amount of lychee mouse for the filling and whipped cream to frost around the cake.

After the filling and frosting, my mind was quite blank as to how to finally decorate the cake. I saw a bag of candy melts in my pantry and thought why not try a chocolate collar around the cake. I have seen this decoration style in many party cakes and wanted to give it a try. 

And I love lace patterns, so a lace collar was what was in mind. I cut out a parchment paper that would exactly wrap around the side of the cake and made it slightly taller than the cake so that the collar would come above the cake level like a fence and made some patterns and wrapped it around the cake. Its a quick, easy and yet striking decoration idea.

And lastly I placed some chocolate shavings and chocolate triangle shapes in the centre and some whipped cream swirls topped with marachino cherries for a final touch and burst of color.

Cake cutting went great with friends singing Happy Birthday and kids waiting to attack at the chocolate collar....hehe. Lil'Appu always enjoys cake cutting. For some reason his face looks gloomy in this pic but he was a happy chap all throughout.
And don't you think my dress matches with the cake, purely coincidental but I loved it...haha!!

The cake was super moist and yummm and everyone devoured it and even came for second helpings. 

For the filling which was Lychee mousse, I used canned Lychee (easily available at all Asian or Indian grocery stores) . But I felt the Lychee mousse flavor wasn't so much pronounced, I had used only 1 can of lychee, I think 2 cans would have given a better flavor. 

Tres leches Cake with Lychee mousse filling and Chocolate Lace collar

Tres Leches cake is best prepared one day ahead for the cake to rest overnight and the milks to soak up the cake and make it moist and creamy. 
Assembling and frosting can be done the next day. So the recipe is explained in the way I made this cake.

** I baked two sponge cakes and made three layers with them. The recipe below is for ONE sponge cake.

You'll need
For Sponge Cake
Eggs (at room temperature) - 6
Granulated Sugar - 1 cup
Cake Flour - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Water - 1 tblsp

For Three Milks syrup
Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1 can (14 oz)
Evaporated Milk - 1 can (12 oz) 
Heavy cream – 1 cup 

For Lychee Mousse
Canned Lychee, fruit only - 2 cans (I used Aroy-D brand)
Heavy whipping cream - 1/2 cup
Powdered sugar - 4 tblsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Gelatin - 1 pack (2 1/4 tsp)
Water - 3 tblsp

For whipped cream outer frosting
Heavy whipping cream - 1 cup
Powdered Sugar - 4 tblsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Directions
For Sponge Cake
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Butter and grease a 9" round baking pan.
2. Crack the eggs into the bowl of your mixer and start beating them on medium-high speed for 5 mins.
3. Slowly add in the sugar and continue to beat on high for another 5-7 mins until it looks smooth, pale yellow and has doubled in volume.
4. Add in vanilla extract and mix to combine.
5. Sift together the cake flour and baking powder in a separate bowl (atleast sift 2 times) and slowly add it into the egg-sugar mixture, very little at a time and slowly fold in it and incorporate it into the batter. 
5. Finally add the 1 tblsp water and mix until well combined. 
6. Pour into the greased baking pan and bake for 25-30mins. (a toothpick inserted into the cake should come clean)
7. Once out from oven, let it rest in the cake pan for 10 mins and then invert it onto a cooling rack and let it cool down completely.

Prepare Three milks Syrup
Into a large bowl, combine heavy cream, condensed milk and evaporated milk and stir well. Heat it in the microwave or on stove-top until it just starts to bubble (do not boil). Let it cool down completely.

Prepare Lychee Mousse
1. Strain the Lychee fruit from its syrup and puree only the Lychee fruit.
2. Beat the whipping cream on high speed until soft peaks form, add the powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat until slightly stiff peaks form and refrigerate the cream
3. In a bowl add 3 tblsp of water and add the gelatin powder and let it rest.
4. Heat the lychee puree until just warm to touch and add the gelatin to the puree and mix until fully dissolved. 
5. Add the cream little by little to the lychee puree and fold to combine.

Prepare whipped cream frosting
Beat the whipping cream on high speed until soft peaks form, add the powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat until stiff peaks form and refrigerate the cream. Do not overbeat.

Assembly of the Cake
Day 1
Make the sponge cake and the the three milks syrup. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours. 
Torte the sponge cake to desired number of layers (I made 3 layers, you can make 4 if you'd like) 
Poke each layer with a fork and generously drizzle or brush the entire cake with the Three milks syrup. Refrigerate each layer separately overnight. 

Day 2
Make the Lychee Mousse and Whipped cream frosting.
Place the milk soaked sponge layer within a pan or plate with edges (the cake may be moist and the milk syrup might leak out) 
Add a thick & even layer of Lychee mousse. 
Gently and carefully place another layer of the milk soaked sponge layer. Again top it with remaining Lychee Mousse.
Place the Last layer on top and Frost the entire Cake with Whipped frosting. 

Decorate as desired and Refrigerate until serving. 


Chocolate Lace collar
You'll need
Chocolate Candy Melts - approx 1 or 1.5 cups (Make sure you use tempered chocolate)
Piping Bag
Piping tip (optional) - I used Wilton tip # 2
Parchment Paper - cut to size to wrap around the cake

Directions
1. Melt the candy melts and pour into piping bag fitted with a tip.
2. Draw desired pattern or random designs on the parchment paper.
3. Gently lift and attach one end of parchment to side of the cake making sure the bottom of parchment paper aligns with bottom of cake. Wrap around the entire cake and refrigerate until the chocolate has hardened.
4. Gently peel off the parchment and reveal the beautiful chocolate lace!

After cake cutting we sat around and talked and laughed and then danced and partied all night long with in-between snack-breaks  and just enjoyed the rest of the day ;-) Once again Happy Birthday Manish Pillai.....we enjoyed your b'day just as much as you did and here's wishing you plenty more cake, happiness and success all life long...Muah!

Wanna see some of the cakes I've made for him till now for his earlier birthdays:



Chocolate Brownie Cake with rich Chocolate Ganache (recipe not on blog)

Vanilla Sponge Cake with Raspberry Mousse

Eggless Vanilla Cake with Mango Cream

I think I'm spoiling him with all these cakes I tell ya...next time I should make him bake me a cake ;-P 

-Manju

Palak Paneer ( Spinach cooked with Indian Cottage Cheese)

Hello everyone...hope you are all doing great! Things are going as usual at my end with office work, baby chores, home chores, cooking as usual, experimenting now and then with new dishes/bakes and yes, eating out and having fun with friends whenever we can. The climate's slowly getting better. We actually went for a short walk yesterday with Manish and my lil'guy  and though it was still slightly cold, it felt sooooo good to see what our neighborhood looks like after almost 6 months of chilling hibernation. I can't get enough of it and I just want it to be nice and warm soon and be out and about all the time :-D

Now coming to Palak Paneer.....who hasn't heard of this internationally famous dish? It's one of 'THE' most popular and commonly served vegetarian dishes in most Indian restaurants that I've been to and although it looks too green and kinda resembles baby food from some angles, due to the pureed spinach...hehe!...this dish is simply awesome! 

For a person who isn't a huge fan of spinach (except baby spinach) this is one dish I can wipe clean off my plate. It's so damn easy to prepare and did I mention it has creamy Paneer (Indian cottage cheese) in it, what's not to like about it then?!

Inspite of it not being my favorite green we buy it very often and it's a must in our grocery shopping list of 'veggies-to-buy'. I usually prepare thoran just like my turnip greens thoran or else sneak them inside omlettes etc. But making palak paneer is my most favorite option.

I have prepared palak paneer several times and the one thing I have observed is that it tastes great if the dish isn't overly spiced. Just a subtle hint of spice makes the dish's flavor shine out. And the masala made with onions-ginger-garlic-greenchillies-tomato gets a good smooth texture if minced very finely, unless you plan to puree it all with the spinach (like how I do usually).
For the Paneer, I buy frozen store bought paneer and they taste just fine to me, but you can definitely make your own. I prefer creamier chunks of paneer contrary to the fried pieces that's usually added, to avoid breaking the paneer pieces, but that's a personal choice and a better choice when making in large quantities for a party or potluck where there's more chance of the paneer crumbling up with too much stirring. When fried they hold their shape.

Palak Paneer is so easy and simple to prepare and you hardly need any fancy ingredients. It's best served with plain rice, jeera rice, naan or roti. I prepared some simple Jeera Rice with the jeera (cumin seeds) sauted in some butter for some flavor and served it with the palak paneer. The combo was so delicious that my lil'Appu also ate up his whole plate.

My recipe is very simple and so quick to prepare and as I said, very mild on the spices, so it's just perfect for feeding little kids as well and yet not at all compromising on the flavor. Manish really loved it and we finished the whole dish in two days :-)
I did not have coriander powder at home the day I made it and still it tasted great, which is why I have mentioned it as an optional ingredient. I bet it would taste twice as good with a little extra flavor from the coriander powder as well!

Palak Paneer


You'll Need
Fresh Spinach (chopped) - 2 bunches of spinach (as found in Indian stores) or 6 cups approx
Paneer- 8oz (cut into cubes)
Oil – 1tblsp + 2tblsp
Onions – 1 medium (diced finely)
Ginger – 1" pc, minced
Garlic – 4 cloves, minced
Green Chillies - 1 or 2, minced
Tomatoes – 1 large, chopped up  
Garam Masala - 2 tsp
Cumin Powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder – 1/4 tsp
Coriander Powder – 1 tsp (optional)
Red Chili Powder – a pinch or to taste
Salt - to taste
Heavy Whipping Cream – 6 tblsp or to taste
Hot Water - as needed

Directions:
1. Wash well and pat dry the fresh spinach leaves with a clean kitchen towel. Cut into smaller pieces.
2. Heat a non-stick skillet and add 1 tblsp oil and saute the spinach leaves until cooked through and soft. Allow to cool down and keep aside.
3. In the same non-stick skillet add 2 tblsp oil and add the minced onion and cook until it's pink and soft.
4. Then add ginger-garlic and saute for few minutes. Finally put in the tomatoes and cook until the oil starts to release from the sides and makes a fine masala. Let this also cool down.
5. Now take the cooked spinach along with the  masala and blend it into a fine puree.
6. Add this puree into the skillet and add the spice powders - garam masala, turmeric powder, coriander powder (if using), and a pinch of red chilli powder and salt, give it a stir and cook on medium-low heat for 5 mins.
7. If gravy is too thick add some hot water (1 tblsp at a time) until desired consistency is obtained and cook it until it simmers slightly.
8. Now keep the heat on low and add in about 6 tblsp of cream (heavy whipping cream) and stir it well.
9. Finally add in the paneer and gently stir it around and turn off the heat and serve hot!

Suggestions:
1. I prefer a smooth & creamy (non-chunky) gravy so I puree the whole batch of spinach and masala, but if you prefer a chunkier version, only puree the spinach and leave the masala as it is at step #5.
2. Adding hot water at step #7 is to reduce the cooking time needed. If we add cold or room temp water cooking time will increase.
3. For a healthier option you can substitute Heavy cream with Milk. 

Other options:
1. Another way of cooking the spinach leaves is to blanch the leaves...i.e. Cook the leaves in a vessel of boiling hot water for 2-3 mins and quickly transfer the leaves to a bowl full of ice water. This will shock the leaves and quickly stop the cooking process and also provide a beautiful bright green color for the dish. 

2. You can shallow fry the paneer on both sides in oil. Drain them on paper towels and add the fried paneer into a bowl of cold water. Squeeze out any excess water before adding it to the gravy. This will keep the paneer soft yet less prone to breaking up.

3. For Vegan options substitute Paneer with Tofu and Heavy cream or Milk with Soy Milk or Almond Milk. 
4. Can use baby spinach or frozen spinach instead of fresh spinach.

This is one of my favorite ways to eat spinach and apparently my lil'Appu too doesn't mind eating Green rice ;-) I usually mix his rice with the palak paneer making his rice look all green before I give it him....that way he has no choice of eating only the white rice and has to eat everything and it definitely tastes better too. Clever huh!

Do try out Palak Paneer sometime and you'll see why it's such a commonly served dish at parties and at restaurants and inspite of the richness from the cream and paneer its a very healthy dish as well.

-Manju

Classy, Simple yet Elegant Mini Cakes.....

I've always been in LOVE with Cakes. Party cakes, tea cakes, tiered cakes, small cakes, big cakes, tiny or tall cakes...all kinds and varieties - you name it and I love it! My craze for cakes started from all long as I can remember. Along with the taste of the cake I've also had a good eye for noticing cake presentation in details like edible sugar pearls, buttercream decorations, flowers, fondant figurines etc and what excites me is the fact that its all edible.

Off-late I've been very fascinated by modern and elegant designs for cakes. Single colored cakes with some simple designs like a ribbon border or swirls or large centerpiece flower or chevron patterns or lace pattern etc that makes the cake look simple, yet classy and elegant. I've been watching a lot of video tutorials wherever available and also reading a lot of cake related blogs to know of various techniques and ofcourse to drool over the master creations they come up with.

Now coming to mini cakes, I just love this concept of making a miniature version of a full sized cake with almost the same kind of decorations and cake flavors and I've always wanted to try it. My ex-colleague inviting a few of us friends to her new home for a simple get- together proved to be the perfect occasion to take such pretty cakes.  

For the each mini cake I went with these simple yet elegant designs (as pictured below) 



1. I wanted a simple pattern with just the focus on a big flower so that's how I came with this pretty pink pompom cake neatly finished with a ring border that's slightly embossed. The pompom took me a whole one hour to make but it was so worth it. I felt this one was my neatest cake of the lot.

2. I wanted another simple and almost similar pattern with yellow too, so made three mini yellow pompoms and placed them on top and neatly bordered the bottom with a yellow fondant ribbon again mildly embossed with a different pattern

3. The upside-down hearts was an idea that just instantly came to my mind (I love ♥s ;-) ) and I had the perfect sized heart cutter for it. I placed a pretty pink Daisy over the cake centred with a sugar pearl for a simplistic finish.

4. The Offset Chevron is a design I've always wanted to try and my favorite color combo is yellow and white so went with that.  I tried the ever famous wax-paper transfer method to get this pattern around the cake. I placed a pretty Yellow daisy on the top for a final touch again centered with a sugar pearl....Afterall Pearls are a girl's best friends ain't they....or was it diamonds? :-P 

There were few imperfections in the cakes. The untidily covered cake boards (my first try) and a few air bubbles within my fondant was what bothered me the most. But my friend's saw none of it.  The cake was a yummy Chocolate cake with rich chocolate buttercream and it tasted great! The cakes were 3" in diameter and around 3.5" in height.

I neatly placed each mini cake in individual treat boxes, all taped up and asked them to pick any box. They were all so surprised and all of them got completely unique and individual mini cakes. It was the perfect dessert sized cake and their kids just loved the marshmallow fondant and was simply happy that they could eat the flowers :-) 

The concept for making mini cakes is simple. I made a regular quarter sheet sized chocolate cake (can use any flavor) and used a small steel vessel of 3" diameter with sharp edges (had no cookie cutter of right size) to cut out circles of cake and stacked two circles together with chocolate buttercream, coated the sides also with buttercream and wrapped them in marshmallow fondant and kept the decorations simple yet elegant.

Mini Cakes are also a perfect way to practice multiple designs on different individual cakes without having to make a whole different cake for each decoration you want to try and practice on. So hope I've given you a new idea and inspired you enough to give it a try.

So which one is your favorite? :-)

Pompom flower tutorial : Rumana's blog

Offset Chevron pattern : Inspired by Jessica Cakes

-Manju