Baking with Merry

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...

The summers are here!!! The temperatures are soaring and so are the electricity bills *winks*...... Now, who wouldn't love an ice cream in this hot season!! And, if it's homemade, it would be double deliciousness..... So here is an ice cream recipe for you to enjoy! Well, my first try was a success! So, you can expect more on this space *smiles*..... "Watch out" *winks*.... Ingredients: Recipe Source: Padhus Kitchen Full-fat Milk - 500ml Granulated sugar - 3/4 cup Vanilla essence - 1 tsp Cornflour - 1 tbsp Gelatin/agar agar/china grass - 1 tsp Dairy cream - 1 cup Method: Keep the freezer setting to the maximum. Mix cornflour in 2tbsp of cold milk and keep aside. Soak gelatin in 2tbsp lukewarm water for 5 minutes. Then stir it over a bowl of warm water until it dissolves. Boil the milk until it reduces a little. This helps to prevent ice crystal formation. Add sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves completely. Reduce the fl...

My little girl turned 3 today!!! I just can't believe it.... *phew*.... Where is time flying to!! My search for her cake started few months back. I wanted to bake something special for her. I had a few criteria in my mind. I needed a strawberry cake (my gal's favorite fruit); a pink cake (her favorite color) and a 3 layer cake (as it was her 3rd b'day ). My search landed up me in Sweetapolita.... I usually go for cakes that pleases my eyes...... And every cake in Sweetapolita pleased my eyes.... *winks*...... Next, I checked out the ingredients of each cake and finally landed upon the Neapolitan Cake..... It had everything that I was looking for - a strawberry cake (for the b'day girl), a chocolate cake (for the son and hubby), a vanilla cake (for the blogger) and of course it's a 3 layer cake...... However, I followed the recipe on Annie's Eats . So, to get the full recipe hop on to her  Neapolitan Cake . The frosting used is Swiss Meringu...

It's been sometime since I have baked a cake. After the birthday cake fuss, I haven't had the motivation to bake anything!! I was going through my recipe book the other day and found few pending cake recipes. One among them was the Williamsburg Orange Cake. This recipe was jotted down from the newspaper along with the Applesauce spice squares  last month; but it had to wait for so long to see the limelight.... I have baked cakes out of mangoes , apples , strawberries and so on but this is the first try with oranges and believe me it was the best among the others!! The cake was so flavorsome and tastes better as it ages, though sadly in my house cakes normally don't last for more than two days!! I have made few changes in the original recipe. The original recipe uses 1 cup golden raisins and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. However, I didn't add those as we like a plain cake. Ingredients: Recipe Source: The Hindu All purpose flour - 2 1/2 cups Sugar...

Remember my marble cake which I had baked looong back and which had almost turned into a chocolate cake, except for a few patches of white batter here and there.....I decided to re-try it once again on my mom's b'day which was on July 2.... Luckily, this time I managed to create a marble effect on my cake.... But, the chocolate was still dominant!!! I think I need to reduce the amount of cocoa powder used in the recipe (from 4 tbsps to 2)..... Wanna bite??? Happy Birthday Mummy So, this was my gift for my mommy on her b'day...I know she wouldn't like it...u know why???coz....coz....coz...she simply hates marble cake...hehheeehhhheee....  

I had bookmarked two mango recipes long back when mangoes were not available in the market! First, the  Mango Yogurt Verrine from Swapna's Cuisine and the Mango and Vanilla Custard Verrines from Sharmi's Passion. Now, when the mangoes were available, the yogurt for the verrine was missing! And so, I  combined both the recipes; used vanilla custard instead of yogurt and the resulting product is the Mango Vanilla Verrine or Mango Custard Verrine!!! A simple, easy-to-make calorie-rich dessert; so dieters stay away *winks*.... Ingredients: Recipe Adapted from: Swapna's Cuisine & Sharmi's Passion Vanilla Custard - 3 cups Sugar - 3 tbsp (acc to your taste) Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp Mango puree - 2 or 3 cups (puree of 2 mangoes) Gelatin - 2 tsp Method: To Make the Custard:  Prepare the custard according to the instructions given on the packet. Allow it to cool completely. Sprinkle 1 tsp of gelati...

                              Happy Valentine's Day I had two cakes in my mind for baking on Valentine's Day - a Tiramisu Cake and a Strawberry Vanilla Cake. When I asked my Valentine, he preferred former. Unfortunately, I didnt have the mascarpone cheese. So decided to bake the latter....*smiles*...Afterall, it should be all red on Valentine rt?? Ingredients: Recipe Adapted from: Parita's World and Spicy Tasty For the Cake All purpose flour - 225gms Condensed milk - 400 gms (1 tin) Vanilla essence - 1 tsp White unsalted butter - 125 gms Baking powder - 1 tsp Baking Soda - 1 tsp Plain Soda - 200 ml For Decoration Heavy Whipping Cream - 400ml Icing sugar - 1/2 cup Pure vanilla essence - 1 tbsp Gelatin - 2 tsp Cold water - 8 tsp For Sugar Syrup Water - 1/2 cup Sugar - 4 tbsps Strawberry essence - 1 tsp Me...

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 ...

All the baking I had done was mainly with chocolate. So, for a change I decided to bake a vanilla cake. But to my dismay, it was a big flop :-( There was nothing wrong in the cake, it tasted like any vanilla cake. Like all kids, even my kiddos like chocolate cakes. So, eventually me and JJ had to finish it off! Never ever would I bake a vanilla cake!! Vanilla Cake Recipe Source: Good Housekeeping Ingredients: Unsalted butter - 1/2 cup (at room temp) Sugar - 1 1/4 cups Egg - 1 All purpose flour - 1 3/4 cups Custard powder - 1/2 cup Salt - 1 tsp Baking powder - 3 1/2 tsp Milk - 1 1/4 cups Vanilla essence - 1 tsp Method: Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C. Line and dust an 8" round cake tin. Whisk the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in the egg and whisk till incorporated and fluffy Add in the remaining ingredients one by one and whisk together for 2 mins. Pour into the tin and bake for 55-60 mins or till done. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, remove and ...

Marble cake brings many nostalgic memories of my childhood. The "Best Bakers" a bakery in Kottayam bakes one of the best marble cakes. Did you know that marble cake tastes more delicious when dipped in coffee!!! I am not kidding, just try it out. So, I baked a marble cake for the Easter. Every time I bake a cake, something or the other goes wrong. Nevertheless to say, the same happened when preparing the marble cake. Everything was fine till the last mixing part,where you need to create the marble effect. When mixing, you need to do it slowly. I was a bit fast and overdid the mixing. Luckily it didn't turn out to be a chocolate cake. Marble Cake Recipe Source: Divya's Easycooking Ingredients: Butter - 2/3 cup Sugar - 1 cup Eggs - 2 Maida - 1 1/4 cup Baking soda - 1 tsp Baking powder - 1 tsp Cocoa powder - 4 tbsp Curds - 1 cup Vanilla essence - 1 tsp Method: Mix butter and sugar well until they are fluffy. Add eggs one by one and mix well. Mix ...