Baking with Merry

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 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 ...

Hi folks....Long time!! Blogging has taken a setback for the past few months due to various reasons.... Though I have been baking, nothing remarkable enough to post on the blog, it was either a repeated bake or a new one but of course, the flopped versions!! But, then on Valentine's Day, I managed to bake a Carrot Cake. This cake has been on my to-do list for quite sometime. You could frost the cake with a cream cheese frosting, but I preferred mine to be plain.... Ingredients: Recipe Adapted from: Baking by Parragon Books Eggs - 2 Brown sugar - 3/4 cup Unsalted butter - 1 cup Grated carrots - 1 1/3 cups All purpose flour - 2 cups Baking soda - 1 tsp Ground cinnamon - 1 tsp Ground cardamom - 1 tsp Nutmeg, grated - 1 tsp Almonds, roughly chopped - 1 cup Method: In a bowl, beat the eggs until well combined and add the sugar and butter. Mix well. Add the grated carrots, sift in the flour, baking soda and the spices. Then add the chopped almonds. Mix eve...

Cream biscuits are never my stuff, then and now!! I never really liked them, though I still love plain biscuits!!! Some days, I really don't get time to make breakfast.... On such days, I would end up having biscuits for my breakfast, while the rest of the family members munch on breakfast cereals *winks*.... I prefer having my biscuits dipped in hot coffee or tea..... Same with cookies too.... Particularly, the butter cookies!! They are just irresistible!! But my kids love cream biscuits, especially the Oreo cookies, Bourbon, Dream Cream and so on..... So when I saw Fondbites Bake Along #34 recipe for Orange Cream Biscuits, I knew I had to try it out..... And more so as this was my first biscuit baking..... I was skeptical if the kids would enjoy the orange flavor but luckily there was no fuss! Ingredients: Recipe Source: Fondbites For the Cookies Unsalted butter - 115 gm Caster sugar - 115 gm Egg yolk - 1 Honey - 2 tsp Orange ze...

"As slow as a snail"----That describes me! Wonder why?? Well, this is my 100th post and it took me almost 3 years to reach my century !!! But then, "Slow and steady wins the race".....  right ?? Though there isn't any race to win here!! *winks*..... This blog was started to share my hobby- baking..... And here I am writing my 100th post!! Happy to write so many posts and thanks to all my readers for constantly visiting my blog, though I do miss your comments!! For the 100th post, I wanted to bake something special. Something plain yet delicious with less fuss and mess!! And for that, I decided to go through the books I have, for a change and in the process wipe the dust off too... . *winks*..... After a detailed search, I found this recipe for a tea cake from Dorie Greenspan's Baking- From my home to yours ..... A perfect finding!!! Just what I was looking for!!! Though, not kids-friendly, this cake sure was tasty and a perfect one for the  tea...

Well, this cake wasn't planned... it  just happened!! My kids kept on nagging me for another cake after the previous one and so just baked a simple one from my book, for the sake of it!!! This was actually a muffin recipe and since my kids don't like muffins, I converted it to a cake!  Ingredients: Recipe Source: Oops, sorry ... don't remember !! Plain flour - 1 1/2 cups Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup Baking powder - 2 tsp Salt - a pinch Vanilla essence - 2 tsp Sugar - 3/4 cup Milk - 1 cup Instant coffee powder - 2 tbsps Egg - 1 Melted butter - 1/2 cup Cocoa powder - 2 tsp Olive oil - 2 tbsps Water -1 tsp Method: Preheat oven to 180C. Stir the cocoa with olive oil in a small bowl and add 1 tsp of water to make it into a paste. Keep aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, vanilla essence, sugar and a pinch of salt. Crack the egg into a medium sized bowl and add milk and coffee granules. Whisk for 2-3 mins ti...

Chocolate chip blondies, a perfect tea time snack with hot tea/coffee/milk..... The kids had it with their milk and they equally loved it. You could bake it in a square tin and then cut them into bars or baked in muffin cups like I have done! Ingredients: Recipe Source: myrecipes.com All purpose flour - 1 cup Baking powder - 1 tsp Salt - 1/4 tsp Unsalted butter - 8 tbsp Brown sugar - 1 cup, packed Egg, large - 1 Vanilla essence - 1 tsp Milk chocolate chips - 1 cup Chopped walnuts - 3/4 cup (optional) Method: Preheat oven to 375 F/190 C. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin with butter or line with paper muffin cups. In a small bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Stir with a fork to combine. Melt butter in microwave and stir in the brown sugar. Let cool slightly. Then stir in egg and vanilla essence until smooth. Stir in flour mixture, chocolate chips and nuts. Portion out a little less than 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup and smooth tops with a...

Back from my holidays and I was looking for a recipe to kick-start my baking. Found this simple and easy teatime Cardamom cake, that I had saved from Sheeba  Jacob's  Foodhogger . A perfect cake with hot tea or coffee!!! Just make sure to use fresh cardamom and nutmeg for a flavorful cake...... Ingredients: Recipe Source: Hogger & Co All purpose flour - 2 cups Cardamom, crushed - 1/2 tsp Nutmeg, crushed - 1/2 tsp Salt - 1/4 tsp Baking powder - 2 tsp Sugar - 1 cup Butter, softened - 1/4 cup Eggs - 4 Vanilla essence - 1 tsp Milk - 1 cup Method: Preheat oven to 180 C. Remove the shells of fresh nutmeg and cardamom and crush them into powders. Combine the flour with the crushed powders, salt and baking powder. Keep aside. Combine the softened butter and sugar together in a big bowl. Add eggs and blend together. Add the flour into the butter-sugar mixture and combine. Then add the milk and vanilla essence and beat well until smooth...