Baking with Merry

Merry Christmas I was in a full baking mode this Christmas...*smiles*...I managed to bake 2 cakes....And I still don't know why I baked two!!! Even though it was Advent, I couldn't resist myself from licking the batter of this cake because it was sooo tasty and when it was being baked in the oven, my home was filled with the smell of the spices and the dry fruits.....This is why I love baking...*smiles*....your two senses (taste and smell) are been stimulated before, during and after baking!!! *winks*.... Here is the recipe of my second cake: Ingredients Recipe Source: Swapna's Cuisine 1. Butter - 100 gms     Ghee - 125 gms 2. Powdered Sugar - 300 gms     Egg yolks - 4     Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp     Ground Orange peel - 1/4 tsp     Sugar - 4 tbsps (to carmalize) 3. Mixed dry fruits - 600gms     Cashewnuts - 100 gms     Brandy/Rum - 1/2 cup 4. Flour/Maida - 250gms     Baking powder - 1/2 tsp     Baking soda - 1/4 tsp     Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp     Clove powder -

Merry Christmas Finally! It's Christmas time again and the golden memories of X'mas of my childhood and teenage days in Dubai come back again!! *sigh*....Those days decorating the X'mas tree was my main hobby. And then of course finishing mummy's special non-veg dishes was another one! *smiles*....Plum cakes/Fruits cakes were out of question, as mom never bakes (like her daughter)!!!!And we never used to get good fruit cakes back then in Dubai (don't now about the situation now)....But of course, we used to buy the normal icing cakes from the bakery for Christmas....Those were truly the good old days...*sigh*.... And then later on when I came down to India for my Masters, my X'mas were celebrated in my granny's home with uncles, aunties and cousins.....That was the time I really celebrated Christmas in all it's real spirit....I remember, when doing my Masters in Bangalore, I used to book the train or bus tickets to Kerala one month in advance to be a

Its been quite some days since I have posted something. Last few weekends were hectic - with kids falling sick, a marriage function in Trichur and so on....But in between I did few bakings, which were not worthy to post *winks*.... Today, I decided to bake a marble cake (to improve the previous one)....It started off quite well but towards the end something went wrong somewhere and I had a feeling that the cake would turn out to be another chocolate cake!!!!So decided to be a bit creative and the result of my creativity is what you see in the pictures *LOL!!*...*winks* This cake is a failed version of my marble cake. So, the ingredients and the method I followed to make this Vanilla & Chocolate Cake is that of the marble cake, which is from Ria's blog. Ingredients: Recipe Adapted from: Ria's Collection Maida/All purpose flour - 1 1/4 cups Butter - 2/3 cup Sugar - 1 cup Eggs - 2 Cocoa powder - 4 tbsp Baking powder - 1 tsp Vanilla essence - 1 tsp Hot water -