Baking with Merry

I love anything that has coffee. Be it cakes, brownies, desserts anything under the sun that has coffee, I simply devour it! And, it's been quite some time since I've made anything with coffee... Found this brownie recipe in one of the books I have and sounded quite interesting!!!  A Mochaccino Brownie, heard about it?? Me, no way!!Haven't come across any mochaccino brownies in my place!! A mochaccino is simply a cappuccino added with chocolate syrup... And the mochaccino brownies are rich, dense and moist chocolate brownies infused with rich espresso coffee flavour. Ingredients: Recipe Adapted from: Coffee by Parragon Books Unsalted butter- 115g Plain chocolate - 115g Espresso strong black coffee - 2 tbsp Caster sugar - 250g Cinnamon, ground - 1/4 tsp Plain flour - 85g Method: Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease and line a square baking pan. Place the butter, chocolate and coffee in a medium sized saucepan over a low heat and sti

This time, I am deeply smitten with the vacation bug, and I still haven't recovered from it yet. A trip to The Capital was the main highlight of this year's vacation and we especially my kids thoroughly enjoyed it. It was their many firsts--first looong trip in the train (48 hrs), first trip to the North, first long trip with their grandparents and so on.....So you could imagine their excitement!! Meanwhile, many special days like the Mother's day and Father's Day have come and gone, but I was never in a mood to at least make an effort to bake something for those special days.....Anyways, let me hope this Caramel Cake would compensate for all those lazy bygone days..... Once again, when I have to make a come back, I normally depend on the Fondbites, Bake Along Recipes and this time too, didn't alter that routine!! No more blabbing, off to the recipe for the Caramel Cake (Fondbites, Bake Along # 18). Ingredients: For the Cake Unsalted butt

This cake was baked a month back for my cousin on her birthday.....Somehow it got lost in the drafts....She wanted a chocolate cake and I needed something less fussy and easy to bake. I had bookmarked this madeira cake long back and finally got a chance to bake it. Ingredients: Recipe Source: Chocolate by Parragon Books For Cake: Oil - 1 tsp, for oiling Self-rising flour - 1/2 cup Baking powder - 1 tsp Unsalted butter - 1/2 cup, softened Superfine sugar - 1/2 cup Eggs - 3, beaten Ground almonds - 1/4 cup Drinking chocolate powder - 1 cup For frosting: Confectioner's sugar - 2 cups Unsweetened cocoa - 1 1/2 tbsp Unsalted butter - 2 tbsp Hot water - 3-4 tbsp Method: Preheat oven to 180 C. Lightly oil and line a cake tin with butter paper. Sift flour and baking powder together and set aside. Cream the butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Then gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little of the flour after each addition. When

This Oven Cold Cream Cheese Pound Cake was  Bake Along #11 . And this had a speciality too!! You needn't preheat your oven like you do when baking normally. Just cream and mix the ingredients and pop it into your oven....simple!  A pound cake is a type of cake traditionally baked with a pound of four main ingredients: flour, butter, eggs and sugar. You could add different flavours or dried fruits for a variation. In this pound cake, I added cream cheese too and guess what I got-- an utterly delicious and yummy yummy cake!! Ingredients: Cake flour- 115 gms Butter - 115 gms, softened Cream Cheese - 115 gms, softened Eggs- 3 Baking powder - 3/4 tsp Salt - 1/2 tsp Sugar - 1 cup Vanilla essence - 1 tsp Method: NO PREHEATING the oven!!  Butter and flour a loaf pan and line the bottom with butter paper. Place softened butter and cream cheese in a bowl and beat using an electric beater until soft and mixed well

Last week's Bake Along #67 was Empanadas. These were the most delicious ones I have ever baked among the savoury bakes... Empanadas have a melt in mouth buttery tart base and the fillings can be made depending on one's taste. The original Empanadas have cheese added to the filling, but I skipped, not that we don't like cheese...I actually forgot that part!! *winks* Ingredients: For the Crust: Butter - 75 gms, cold All-purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups Water - 4 tablespoons Salt - 1/4 tsp For the Filling: Potato - 3 (boiled and mashed) Frozen green peas and corn -  1/2 cups Tofu - 200 gms Onion - 1, finely chopped Cumin seeds - 1 tsp Garam masala powder - 2 tsp Red chilli powder - 3 tsp Turmeric powder - 1 tsp Oil - 1 tbsp Salt to taste Milk - for milk wash Method: Preheat oven to 180 C. Line up a baking tray with butter paper.  Grate cold butter into a bowl. Add flour, salt and water into it. Use your fingertips to combine the butter and

The Fondbites Bake Along # 59 was Karachi Biscuits, which were new to me.... However, Mr. Hubby said it was famous in Hyderabad and every bakeries sold these biscuits.... Anyways, I gave it a try with few changes in the original ingredients..... Now, on to my tweaked recipe: Ingredients: Recipe Source: Fondbites Butter – 350 gms, softened Icing sugar – 1 1/2 cups All purpose flour – 3 cups Baking powder – 1/2 teaspoon Orange zest – grated from 1 whole orange Fresh orange juice – 1/4 cup Pure vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon Tutti Fruiti – 100 gms, orange coloured Almonds – 1 cup, finely chopped Method: Whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, zest of orange in a big bowl. Add tutti fruiti and chopped almonds and mix well using your hands until the flour mixture coats the tutti fruiti well. Keep aside. Add butter into the bowl of your electric beater and beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes until it becomes lig