Baking with Merry

"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...

Back from my 2 months hibernation with a delicious Chocolate Banana Cake/ Banana Chocolate Cake, whichever way you like it to be called... *smiles*.... We had this cake from a hotel that we had stayed during our holidays and we, especially the kids loved it!!! Though not the exact replica of the original cake we had, this one did have some similarities somewhere. Ingredients: Recipe Source: Nigella Chocolate - 75 gms Butter, softened - 110 gms Brown Sugar/Caster Sugar - 125 gms Eggs - 2 Self-raising flour - 125 gms Baking powder - 1tsp Cocoa - 1 tbsp Bananas -4 small, peeled and mashed Method: Preheat oven to 180 C. Line a loaf tin with parchment paper. Melt the chocolate on low in a microwave oven. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one by one, beating all the time. Add the sieved flour, baking powder and cocoa, followed by the melted chocolate and mashed bananas. Stir together. Pour into the prepared loaf tin and bake i...

Before I leave for my holidays, here is another ice cream recipe to cherish during the summers!! Ingredients: Recipe Source: Edible Garden Unsweetened cocoa powder - 1/2 cup Sugar - 1/2 cup Firmly packed brown sugar - 1/4 cup Full cream milk - 3/4 cup Full cream - 1 1/2 cups Vanilla essence - 1 1/2 tsp Salt - a pinch Method: Whisk together cocoa and both sugars until they are thoroughly combined. Add milk to this and gently whisk by hand. Then continue whisking manual for 2-3 mins or with an electric beater for 30 secs. Add cream, vanilla and a pinch of salt. Mix again until fully combined. Pour the mixture to a blender and blend on high speed for 2 mins. Transfer to a plastic or glass container and keep in the freezer. After an hour, blend it again in a blender. Repeat this for 2-3 times to remove the water crystals. Then freeze for at least 8 hours. Enjoy and Happy Summer Holidays......  

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...

It's the season of jackfruit and you get to see lots of them in Kerala now. Last week, when I went home for a day, I brought back some jackfruits as my son loves them...... After everybody had their share, I had little left in the fridge and so decided to bake this Goan cake - Pansache Dhonas, which I had penned down from Raksha's Kitchen some months back. I would say this cake is definitely a healthy one as it uses no maida, sugar or butter.... The cake tasted quite different from the normal ones and it was indeed yummy! Ingredients: Recipe Source: Raksha's Kitchen Jackfruit pulp - 2 cups Grated coconut - 1 cup Salt - 1/2 tsp Rava - 1 cup Jaggery - 1 cup Cardamom powder - 2 tsps Cashewnuts, chopped - 10 Almonds, chopped - 5-10 Raisins - 10 Method: Roast rava till it is light brown or till the aroma wafts into the air. Keep aside. Let it cool for at least 20 mins. Remove the jackfruit seeds and put them into a mixer ...

Hope everybody had a fabulous Valentines Day!! I celebrated mine with this wonderful Red Velvet Cake..... I couldn't think about any other cake on that day other than this special cake. Well, I have seen the pictures of the red velvet cake on a few blogs, but was quite skeptical to bake it as I was not sure as to how it tastes!! That's when I happened to stumble upon it a few months back in one of the restaurants in my locality..... I immediately ordered and we-me and hubby loved it instantly.....Since then I have been waiting for Feb 14...... Meanwhile, I searched for a good recipe for the cake and found many, but I was quite impressed with the one on Cook's Joy ...... Red Velvet Cake Ingredients: Recipe Adapted from: Cooks Joy All purpose flour - 2 1/2 cups Sugar - 1 1/2 cups Salt - 1 tsp Unsweetened cocoa powder - 2 tbsps Red food coloring - 1-2 oz Unsalted butter - 1/2 cup @ room temp Eggs - 2 @ room temp Vanilla essence - 1 tsp * Buttermilk...