Baking with Merry

Finally, the Red Wine Chocolate Cake.....This cake recipe was in my mind for sooo long and I wanted to bake it the very next minute I got the recipe, but somehow it got delayed due to some or other reasons....."Better late than never" and I am glad I baked it....I would say this was the best cake that I had ever baked and taste-wise--it was the best!! *smiles*... I had a bottle of homemade wine which my Papa had given me for last Christmas (to soak the fruits for the Christmas cake) ….The wine was a bit sweeter and so I used it for this cake…..The wine gave a rich flavour to the chocolate cake…In short, the cake was too delicious and it got even more better the next day, when all the flavors of the cake matured…. Ingredients: Recipe Source: The Pastry Affair Butter - 1/2 cup (softened) Light brown sugar - 3/4 cup Granulated sugar - 1/3 cup Egg, large - 1 Red wine - 1 cup Vanilla essence - 1 tsp All-purpose flour - 1 1/4 cups Cornstarch - 3 tbsp Cocoa

I wanted to bake a banana cake badly the other day, and so searched for one and found out this recipe from Nigella’s site.....What I liked about the recipe was it used rum instead of milk and essence....And I love cakes made of liquor; be it brandy or rum or even wine.....Well, stories apart.....On to the recipe....I have made few alterations to the original recipe......     Ingredients: Recipe Adapted from: Nigella Lawson   Butter - 100gm Castor sugar - 175 gm Salt- 1/4 tsp Eggs - 2 (at room temp) Lemon zest -1 (grated) Rum - 3-4 tbsp Ripe bananas - 3 (mashed) Lemon juice - 1 tbsp Flour - 250 gm Baking powder - 2 tsp   Method: Sift flour and baking powder together and keep aside. Butter a baking tin and it line with a parchment paper. Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the eggs and beat until the mixture become light and fluffy. Add the grated lemon zest and rum. Next, add the mashed bananas and lemon juice.

These days the climate has changed and its getting more cooler with occassional rains. Though we were not directly affected by "Nilam", its effect was felt in our place too. It was quite windy and pouring yesterday.... Now, who can say no to a warm drink with some hot snacks on such days??Well, not me anyways!! I was going through last month’s Good Food India magazine, when I came across this warm sharbat by Shayma Saadat. The moment I read about it, I knew this would be the perfect drink for the day…..By the way, Shayma Saadat is from Pakistan and she is the author of the award-winning heritage food blog- The Spice Spoon ….Hop on her blog to find out more Pakistani recipes...     Ingredients: Recipe Source: Good Food India, October 2012 Saffron strands - 1/2 tsp, crushed in a pestle and mortar Whole milk - 1 ltr + 3 tbsp Heavy whipping cream - 300 ml Cardamom - 6 pods, deseeded Sugar/Honey - 2-3tbsp Cardamom powder - 1 tsp Pistachios, unsalted - c

Finally.....after a month, I'm back into my baking mode....*smiles*.....These holidays can do magic to your life---they can refreshen us and they can make us lethargic too!!Well, for me it was the last one....continuous holidays (first was my son's term break and then came the Dussera and Pooja hols) made me lazzzier.....Come next week and it's time for Diwali holidays...oh oh oh.....and a month later it's Christmas hols.....   Well...I don't blame the holidays for my laziness...there are other reasons too that made me stay away from baking and the most important was the frequent power failure....We had to face 8-10hrs of power-cut in the last month....Not that the situaton has changed, but it has improved...thanks to the Rain Gods.....   Now, once in baking mode, I decided to bake a brownie.....This time I didn't have to search for recipes, since I had this in my mind..... Ingredients: Recipe Source: Baking-From My Home to Yours   All-p