- Uncategorized
Tailor Birds in our yard…Bird watching in Gurgaon
Digressing from baking etc….. Couldn’t resist posting this. These are snapshots of a pair of Indian Tailor birds that sewed a nest in our front yard. The next few weeks unfolded fascinating pictures of chicks hatching out of bright red eggs. An experience worth the wait!! Posted by Deeba @ PAB
-
‘Creamless in Gurgaon’…and sans baking chocolate too!
This is almost like ‘Sleepless in Seattle’. What agony is this? With the flooding in Gujarat a few months ago, and a blazing hot summer in North India prior to that, cream has all but disappeared from the market. To make matters worse, baking chocolate has done the number too. We used to get decent tetrapaks of cream from Vijaya and Amul, and I found ways and means of reaching my end product even though the cream had a low fat content (20-30%). Cadbury’s used to do baking chocolate slabs in 500gm lots ,which I had got and stacked up. Sadly, I have exhausted my supply. Nestle’s dark baking chocolate…
-
My daughter’s 9th birthday cake
One of my absolute favourites. This is the cake I did for my daughter’s 9th birthday. I made marzipan with almonds that I ground, and then the kids and me made the bits and bobs that topped the cake. The butterflies and flowers I cut out of cookie cutters. The kids did the tiny roses patiently after I taught them what I had learnt in scool. We used to make them out of crepe paper back then!!! Marzipan is such a fantastic and rewarding medium to work with. As you can see, we did the number 9 with different coloured ropes of marzipan that we combined. The ‘OOOOOOOOOHS’ and ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAHS’…
-
Painting Cookies
I love to paint cookies, as you can see. They give me hours of endless pleasure when I am home with nothing better to do. The kids love ’em, and line up for them the minute they are served. Always a big hit at birthday parties, and on Diwali and Christmas I customise them. On Diwali I do diyas (oil lamps) and candles with silver dragees on cookies. When Christmas comes, its bells, stars, xmas trees, wreaths, gingerbreadmen,candy canes, snowflakes etc and etc. I even do hanging ones for the tree on Christmas. We put ribbon through holes on top to hang them…and its really worth the hard work and…
-
Almond Butter Cookies
These are some almond butter cookies I made as tasters at a fund-raiser where I put up a stall. They made great samplers, and quite a few enquiries came my way asking if I could do these for finger foods! The silver dragees made them look pretty, and I found the many shades of golden brown interesting. Posted by Deeba @ PAB
- Uncategorized
Baking from scratch…lessons learnt
Lemme tell you something about the what I like to do. Anything and everything creative. Baking has become my passion after years of trying things from ‘scratch’, and I find cooking helps me unwind. I like to substitute and experiment for the simple reason that a couple of years ago we didnt get very many ingredients here in India. I like all cuisines…be it Indian, Italian, Fusion Cooking,Mexican…whatever. Just like to keep it simple and not too overpowering on taste. Half the battle is won if the presentation is good. You should see my son sniff his way to the kitchen, and check out the ingredients and ‘the look’. He…
