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SMARTIE COOKIES….

“I am still convinced that a good, simple, homemade cookie is preferable to all the store-bought cookies one can find.”

James Beard

SMARTIE COOKIES

I call these ‘Smartie Cookies’ because I once had many bags of Smarties on hand and didn’t know what to do with them. So decided to decorate some cookies with them for my son’s birthday…this was many years ago. Since they were a HUGE hit, I’ve always included them on the menu at kids parties. Its such fun to see little hands grabbing at them like there’s no tomorrow!! Smarties can be substituted with M ‘n’ M’s.

Ingredients:
Butter – ¾ cup (room temp)
Castor Sugar- 1 cup (I grind sugar crystals in my coffee grinder)
Egg – 1 / beaten
Flour – 2 ½ cups
Salt – 1 pinch
Almond Essence/Extract – 1 tsp
Vanilla Essence/Extract – 1 tsp

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190deg C. Keep 5-6 ungreased cookie sheets on hand.
Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy and light.
Add the salt + vanilla essence + almond essence and beat for 30 seconds.
With a spatula mix in the beaten egg.
Put in all the flour in one go, and gather together to make a firm dough.
Chill for at least 30 minutes in wrap.
Roll out to ¼ inch thickness and cut with assorted cookie cutters.
Decorate with Smarties (or M ‘n’ M’s), and silver dragees if desired.
Bake on ungreased cookie sheets for 12-14 minutes, watching closely so that they don’t get too brown.
Remove from oven; let the cookies lay on the sheet for a minute. Remove to racks to cool.
This recipe makes approximately 8-9 dozen 1 ½” small cookies.

Note: You can flavour these with any other extract of your choice; or just leave them plain vanilla if you like. I think orange and lemon may work well with these, though I haven’t tried it myself.
Keep an eye on the cookies towards the end of the baking time. If you find a couple browning before others, remove them from the sheet onto cookie rack, and return remaining cookies on sheet to the oven.

PINEAPPLE ‘N’ CREAM SPONGE CAKE…Totally refreshing!!

“The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age. “

Lucille Ball

PINEAPPLE ‘n’ CREAM SPONGE CAKE

This post is for you Anne (of Simply Anne’s). Here’s a picture of the cake I mentioned yesterday. Since it’s the first one, it always holds a special place in my heart. It’s been a long time, almost 6 years, but I was very pleased with it at the time. This is a pineapple sponge with 3 layers, cream and pineapple bits within, and iced with whipped pineapple flavoured cream. It’s very refreshing and fruity (obviously), and light. Have made this several times since!!

Ingredients:

Sponge

Eggs – 5 (250gms)

Powdered Sugar – 125 gms

Flour – 125gms ( flour= half the weight of the eggs i.e. 125gms )

Cornflour – 2 tbs (makes the cake texture lighter)

Baking powder – 1tsp

Salt – 1 pinch

Vanilla Essence/Extract – 1 tsp

Pineapple Essence/Extract – 1 tsp
Filling/Topping:
Cream – 400ml (whipping/35% fat)
Icing Sugar – 3-4 Tbsp
Pineapple Essence/Extract – 1 tsp
Pineapple Bits – 1 tin/approx 1 cup of chopped bits

Method:
For the sponge

Preheat oven to 190deg C , reduce to 180deg C after 10 mins of putting the cake in.
Grease and line a 9″ring tin; A springform cake tin is always better.
Sift the flour + baking powder + salt + cornflour 3 times.
Beat the eggs and sugar well with beater till very thick ribbon falls and holds in place for at least 5 seconds (beat for approx 10mins)
Add vanilla essence + pineapple essence and beat for 1 min.
Gently fold in the sifted flour; mix lightly so that air doesnt escape.
Turn gently into tin and bake for 30-35mins till done.
Once done, remove from tin after 5 mins and leave on rack to cool completely. Cut horizontally into 3 layers.
Filling:
Chop the pineapple bits into tiny pieces,and reserve some bigger bits for the topping.
Whip 400ml whipping cream with 4tbs pwdrd sugar +1 tsp pineapple essence until thick and holds peaks.
Reserve 1/2 for icing the top.
Take about 1/4 a cup of cream(approx 4-5 tbsp), and colour it with yellow food colour.
In the remainder of the cream ,fold in the chopped pineapple bits.
Place the bottom most layer of the sponge on your serving platter, spread 1/2 of the whipped cream and bits over it.
Place the middle layer over this, and repeat with the rest of the fruit cream.
Topping:
Spread the remaining pineapple cream over the top and sides of the cake.
Pipe a decoration with the coloured yellow cream from a zipbag with the corner snipped. I have marbled the cake. Use silver dragees if you like.
Pipe a border with the coloured cream.
Chill well before serving.

Note: If you think the sponge hasn’t come out very soft, you can sprinkle the first 2 layers with 1/4 cup of a mixture of the pineapple syrup and juice of 1/2 a lemon (add a little sugar if you think it isn’t sweet enough). Make sure you remember to sprinkle the layer only after placing it in position on the serving platter.

STOP ABUSE!! Blogging for a cause. September 27th, 2007

“To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it. “

Mother Teresa

* Animal Abuse
* Domestic Abuse
* Child Abuse
* Political Abuse & more….

Let me share a small story about a girl called Ruksana. She is a 25 year old household help, who does part-time work as a maid next door. She hails from an unknown, nondescript village, deep in rural West Bengal (India), and has never been to school. I meet her every morning as she sets off to start her chores at people’s houses, and she greets me with this huge sunshine smile. The other day, I had time on hand, and got talking to her. Little did I know that behind her happy demeanour she had such a poignant tale?
She got married 5 years ago. The man was very violent and used to beat her up often. She was expecting their first child, but he still wouldn’t mend his ways. Ruksana, the small Indian village girl, walked out of that place, and has never looked back. Luckily for her, she had the grit, and importantly, family support.
She now has a little 4 year old boy, lives with her mother and uncle in a little slum nearby, and has fought adversity to live with her head held high. She is fearless of what people will say. Very few people have the courage to walk out of a bad abusive relationship, more so if they are illiterate, poor and from a very conservative social background.
I hail the spirit of this young, brave woman who has such a positive outlook to life, and has shown us that it just takes a little courage and determination to fight abuse.

On this day, 27th September, let us UNITE AGAINST ABUSE!!

Ruksana…Have you seen her sunshine smile??

Recipe for my Soothing Blue & Green Cake

“My kitchen is a mystical place, a kind of temple for me. It is a place where the surfaces seem to have significance, where the sounds and odors carry meaning that transfers from the past and bridges to the future.”

Pearl Bailey

SOOTHING BLUE & GREEN CAKE

Here’s one I did for my Dad’s birthday. I ran out of ideas; was just browsing around, and saw this design on some linen. My love for the blue-green combo reflects in this cake. The basic cake is from the Hershey’s website, and the icing is of whipped cream with vanilla essence and sugar.

Ingredients:

The basic cake recipe is Hershey’s Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

For the frosting and filling:
Whipping cream – 200ml
Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp
Icing Sugar – 3-4 tbs (according to taste)

Method:

Bake the chocolate cake as per the Hershey’s Deep dark Chocolate Cake recipe…http://www.hersheys.com/recipes
Cool, and then slice horizontally into 2 layers.
Whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla essence till it holds peaks.
Adjust the sweetness as required.
Reserve 2-3 tsps for each colour you intend to use in small bowls.
With the rest, sandwich the cake using 1/3.
Frost the cake with the remaining whipped cream.
HERE IS YOUR CANVAS….Using zipbags with the corners snipped off, paint on whatever you desire with as many different colours.
GIVES PURE THERAPEUTIC PLEASURE…and tastes great too.
Chill before serving.

Another combination of colours using the same recipe.

MINI VANILLA CUPCAKES

“When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste.” Laiko Bahrs

MINI VANILLA CUPCAKES

This recipes was passed on to me by a friend’s mother who had been using it for almost 20 years. This is a popular cupcake recipe, which is easy to make, and is very light and spongy. You will find many versions like this one…

Ingredients:
Flour – 2 cups
Baking Powder – 2 tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Butter – ½ cup
Sugar 1 ¼ cup
Eggs – 2
Milk – 1 cup
Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190deg C.
Grease well or line 2 mini-muffin trays.
Sift together flour + baking powder + salt 3 times. Keep aside.
Cream the butter and sugar well on high speed until light and fluffy.
Beat in vanilla essence, followed by eggs beaten in 1 by 1.
Now beat in flour and milk alternatively till well incorporated.
Put about a tsp full in each mini muffin casing, about ¾ full, as it will rise.
You can add sprinkles on top if you like.
Bake at 190deg C for 10-15 mins till golden brown.
Remove immediately and cool on racks.
If desired, ice them with a rosette of buttercream or ganache.
Makes about 50-60 mini-muffins, which are ideal for a birthday party.
Note: This quantity also makes approximately 18 regular muffins.

REGULAR VANILLA CUPCAKES…with buttercream icing!

CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE-CHIP POUND CAKE

“Chocolate is nature’s way of making up for Mondays.”

Anonymous

CHOCOLATE & CHOCOLATE-CHIP POUND CAKE

Another recipe I tweaked to suit the ingredients available on hand. I have great fun playing around with recipes…and always have eager testers on hand. The daughter is always the first one to check and grade a new experiment, with the son not far behind.

This one got a THUMBS UP!!!

Ingredients:
Butter- 1 cup or 200gms
Eggs – 4 (large)
Sugar – 1 cup, granular
Flour – 1 1/2 cups
Whole-wheat flour – 1/2 cup
Cocoa – ½ cup (dissolved in warm milk to form a paste
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Salt – 1 pinch
Chocolate chips – 1/2 cup
Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp

Method:

Grease and flour a 10″ bundt pan.Preheat oven to 325deg/175deg
Sift tog flours + baking powder + salt
Cream butter and sugar
Beat in eggs 1 by 1, beating well after each addition.
Beat in vanilla essence.
On low speed, beat in the flour bit by bit in 3-4 lots.
Divide the batter into two halves.
On low, beat in the cocoa mixture into one half, and fold in the chocolate chips into the other half.
First put a layer of the chocolate batter and smoothen it out, followed by the vanilla-chocolate chip batter.
Bake for approx 1 hr till done. (If top seems to be getting too brown, loosely cover top with foil until done.)
Leave in pan for 10 mins to cool, and then turn it out on rack to cool completely.

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