Vanilla Custard Cake

What I read today and What I am inspired by

Live your life with outstretched arms. The more you live for others, the more you step out of your comfort zone, the more you give freely and generously of your time and resources, the more you will wake up feeling blessed, motivated and inspired to the fullest
(moneysavingmum.com)

Todays Recipe : Vanilla Custard Cake

Ingredients 

1. All purpose flour : 1 cup
2. Baking Powder : 1tsp
3. Granulated Sugar : 1 cup
4. Butter : 125 gm
5. Vanilla Essence: 1 tsp
6. Eggs : 2
7. Vanilla flavoured Custard Powder : 1/3 cup
8. Milk : 1/4 cup

Method :

• Preheat oven to 180C
• Sieve APF and baking powder together and keep in a plate(for mixing thoroughly)
• Beat butter,granulated sugar well to a smooth creamy texture
• Add eggs one by one and beat well
• Now add flour and milk little by little and beat well into a creamy texture and pale yellow colour
• Pour the mix into a greased cake tray and bake for 30 minutes or till an inserted tooth pick comes out clean.
• Cool on a wire rack.

Ready!!!Serve!!!!Enjoy

Ghee Cake

What I read today and What I am inspired by

The moment that you stop fearing what others think about you, is the moment you will see growth and change in your life.

Todays Recipe : Ghee Cake

Ingredients : 

1. All Purpose Flour : 1 cup
2. Baking Powder : 1 tsp
3. Eggs : (white and yolk separated) : 2 
4. Powdered Sugar : 1/2 cup+ 2 tbsp
5. Milk : 1/4 cup
6. Ghee : 1/2 cup
7. Vanilla essence : 1/2 tsp

Method :

• Preheat oven to 180C and prepare the cake pan
• Sieve flour and baking powder together and keep aside.
• Take ghee and powdered sugar in a large bowl and beat at high speed till it gets a soft and creamy texture.
• Now add egg yolks one by one and beat well
• Add vanilla essence, the dry ingredients and milk little by little and mix well
• In another bowl(clean and dry) beat the egg whites with 2 tbsp sugar till it doubles in quantity and fluffy.
• Now fold the egg white mixture into the flour mixture gently 
• Pour in the prepared pan and bake(middle rack) for 25-30 minutes or an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
• Take out and let it cool.

Ready!!!Serve!!!!Enjoy!!!

Honey Yogurt Cake - A great honour

Alhamdulillah!!!!!I’m here with a guest post from my dear friend and a talented blogger Rafeeda of The Big Sweet Tooth. I think that no one requires an introduction of this busy mom of two beautiful angels.Actually as I had been so busy  for the past 2 months with some office works , I could not feed my blog properly and unfortunately I don’t have any drafts also there  to post. And I was very thrilled ,excited and above all honored , when my dear Rafee, gave me a chance to have her with a delicious post in my small space…and the post is something that my small blog is really craving for…ie. A ”Honey Yogurt Cake” 

Rafee usually posts something inspirational and motivational pictures along with her recipes and here I’m also following her with a beautiful quote .

Over to Rafee…

Salaam to everybody…

I am so glad that I am being featured on one of my good friend’s blog. Shahina, even though she lives in a different place than mine and I have never met her personally, there is a bond that we have built over our virtual communications. She basically feels like somebody who is my next door neighbor, very innocent and down to earth. When I noticed that she was going through a low patch on her blog, I thought to myself, she is somebody who would have loved to keep her blog running and there must be something that is holding her back. So I messaged her to enquire the reason of her unusual silence. She seems to be packed up with a lot of backlog on her work front and is not getting time to feed her blog. I then just casually asked her if she would be OK if I give her a guest post so that at least there is some movement on her blog. She so excitedly reverted back to me with a “yes”.

This incident happened almost three weeks ago. Now you can see that instead of her, I am the one who is delaying the post! J I have also been caught up with a lot of things, but then somehow, Alhamdulillah,  I have been able to manage my blog with random posts here and there. Doing a guest post, albeit interesting, can be slightly stressful, as you have to think what to give the person you are doing it for. Shaai, as I like to call her, has a lot of “naadan” food on her blog, which are so unique to Kerala.  I really feel that whenever I have to cook up some Kerala food. One more thing is that she hardly has any sweet stuff on her blog – I mean she is more into spicy food than anything else. And being the person I am – a big sweet tooth, just like my blog name! – I decided I will give her something sweet as well!!!

A little intro to the followers of Shaain’s Cooknotes – my name is Rafeeda, a working mother of two little daughters, a Keralite based in UAE who runs the blog “The Big Sweet Tooth”. I take cooking as a stress buster to release the pressure of my day-to-day life and absolutely love it to the core!!! Shaai had featured on my blog some time ago in my “Be My Guest” series, and I had since then fallen in love with the humble bumblebee that she is!

The recipe I thought I would share with her is a cake that I had baked for breakfast a couple of weeks ago. The subtle flavors of honey and yogurt made such a fantastic combination that I could really say that this is one of my favorite bakes done in the recent future! Without much ado, we go to the recipe then…

Honey Yogurt Cake

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup thick yogurt

1/2 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

1-1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

A pinch of salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Grease and flour a 6 inch pan and keep aside. 

Combine the wet ingredients in a bowl and mix with a whisk till well incorporated. Mix all the dry ingredients in another dry bowl till well incorporated. Slowly transfer the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and mix till well incorporated. Please note that the batter will be really thick, so don't panic! 

Transfer the mixture into the greased pan and level the top with a spatula. Bake for 40-45 minutes till a toothpick pricked in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve plain or with a scoop of cream, along with a cup of hot tea! The cake tastes just good as it is!

Thank you Shaai for having me over, I hope you will soon get back to blogging ferociously as you were doing before. I seriously miss your chicken, beef and fish dishes! Hope all the readers of this lovely space have enjoyed the recipe. I sincerely appreciate the time you have given me to go through this humble post! God bless and have a good day… 

Serve!!!!!!Enjoy!!!!!!

Egg Puffs

Here I'm serving the delicious,flaky puffs,those are very easy to make and yummy as well......

Ingredients :

1. Puff pastry sheets(square) : 4
2. Eggs : 2
3. Onion : 2 small/ 1 big
4. Curry leaves : 4-5 leaves 
5. Chicken Masala(I use eastern ) : 1.5 tsp
6. Turmeric Powder : 1/4 tsp
7. Pepper powder : 1/4 tsp
8. Salt
9. Oil

Method :

• Boil the eggs and cut them into halves.
• Heat oil in a pan ,saute the sliced onion well.
• Add the curry leaves and saute well.
• Add all the powders,salt and saute till the raw smell goes.
• Switch off the flame.
• Fill the puff pastry sheet with an egg topped with the masala and fold into the desired shapes.
• Brush them with the beaten egg white.
• Arrange them in the baking tray greased with little oil.
• Bake it for 15-20 minutes until the top part becomes golden brown

Ready!!!!!!Serve!!!!!!!!!!

Kinnathappam - Traditional Steamed Sweet Cake

Kinnathappam is a very popular traditional steamed sweet cake made of rice and jaggery.The recipe I got from my mom-in-law. She used to make it in Ramzan season . The ingredients and the taste differ from region to region. Here I use the ground white rice  sweetened  with jaggery and spiced up with cardamom powder and fennel powder...But in most of my searches I found that cumin powder is used for flavouring this kinnathappam...But with fennel powder also it tastes very delicious .......

This is my second trial..But this time also my 'H' did not admit that the taste is as best as his mom's......    

Every wife has a day.right????????

Ingredients :

1. Raw rice/White Rice : 1 cup
2. Jaggery : 3 cubes(medium size)
3. Cardamom Powder : 1 tsp
4. Egg : 1
5. Fennel seeds : 3/4 tsp
6. Shallots : 2-3
7. Coconut grated : 1/2 cup
8. Cashew nuts (few) for garnishing

Method :

• Soak rice in water overnight .
• Melt the jaggery cubes in half cup of water and allow to cool.
• Grind the soaked rice with grated coconut,fennel seeds, shallots and the beaten eggs well
• After grinding,add cardamom powder and melted jaggery and mix together.The batter consistency is like dosa batter.....(neither too thick nor too watery)
• Grease a steal plate(kinnam) with ghee..
• Pour the batter into it,place it in a steamer and steam cook for 15-20 minutes, until a fork inserted into it comes out clean.
• After cooling cut into the desired shapes..

Ready!!!!Serve!!!!!!

Chicken Puffs

Puffs are the most common and fast moving bakery items in Kerala.This is such a great starter which can be made very easier and the taste is awesome.

Ingredients :

1. Chicken breast  : 1 (cut into small pieces)
2. Red Chilly Powder : 1 tsp
3. Turmeric Powder : 1/2 tsp
4. Ginger Garlic paste : 1 tsp
5. Black pepper powder : 1 tsp
6. Garam Masala : 1/2 tsp
7. Onion(chopped) : 1 or 2
8. Coriander Leaves (Chopped) : 1 tsp
9. Oil
10. Egg : 1
11. Puff pastry sheets : 8(square)

Method :

• Marinate the chicken pieces with the ingredients 2,3,4 and salt.
• Separate the egg white and beat it well.
• Shallow fry the chicken pieces(little oil) and drain them
• Mince them using a wooden spoon.
• Add the chopped onion in the same oil and saute till the onions become transluscent.
• Add the black pepper powder and stir for some time.
• Add the minced chicken into it and combine well.
• Finally add the chopped coriander leaves and garam masala
• Switch off the flame.
• Fill the puff pastry sheet with  1-2 tsp of chicken masala and fold into the desired shapes.
• Brush them with the beaten egg white.
• Arrange them in the baking tray greased with little oil.
• Bake it for 15-20 minutes until the top part becomes golden brown

Ready!!!!!!Serve!!!!!!!!!!

Guest Post - Vanilla Cup Cakes

These soft , easy to make cutie cup cakes are made by again, the dearest Shamna........I can feel the fragrance of  vanilla and its richest taste.........Thank you Dear!!!

Ingredients :

1. Maida/ All Purpose flour : 1 Cup
2. Sugar : 1 Cup
3. Baking Powder : A pinch
4. Eggs : 3
5. Vanilla Essence : 1 tsp
6. Butter : 50 gms

Method :

• Mix Maida and Baking Powder.
• Preheat the oven
• Beat eggs and sugar by using a beater and add the butter.
• Beat again.
• Add vanilla essence ,Maida and combine well
• Pour the mix into cup cake moulds and bake for almost 10 minutes (you can check by inserting a tooth pick into it. If it comes out clean, the cup cakes are ready!!!!)

Serve!!!!!!!!!