Baking with Merry

May the festival of lights, bring a world of sparkling joy, happiness, prosperity and contentment to you, to last you throughout the year. Happy Diwali to My Readers All Over The  World! When Subhashini Ramsingh of Fondbites made the Motichoor Kesar Gulab Cheesecake for Bake Along #43, I knew what I should be making for Diwali..... So, here is my special Diwali sweet to all my readers..... And wishing you all once again a "Happy and Prosperous Diwali' and do play safe with the crackers *smiles*........ Ingredients: Motichoor Laddu - 5 For the Cheesecake Cream cheese - 180 gm Condensed milk - 200ml Thick coconut milk - 1/2 cup Fresh cream - 200 ml Warm milk - 1/4 cup Saffron strands - a big pinch, depending on how strong you want the flavor to be. Gelatin - 2 tbsp Water - 1/2 cup For the Glaze Gelatin - 1 tbsp Water - 1/2 cup Gulkhand - 20 gmn Fresh cream - 20 gm Pink food colour - 3 drops Method...

Rose Meringue Cookies....my way to support Pink October or Pinktober. Every year, October is the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month . Each year campaigns are conducted internationally to increase awareness and raise funds for the research. The campaigns offers information and support to all those affected by breast cancer..... Ingredients: Recipe Adapted from: Priya's Versatile Recipes Egg large whites  - 3  Caster/ superfine sugar - 3/4 cup Salt - 1/8 tsp Rose essence - 1/4 tsp Vanilla essence - 1/4 tsp Pink food color - 1/4 tsp Method: Pre-heat oven to 160 C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Clean a glass bowl with vinegar. In the bowl, beat the egg whites on low-medium speed with a hand-held beater until foamy.  Add salt and continue to beat the whites until they hold soft peaks.  Then add sugar, a little at a time, and continue to beat, on medium-high speed, until the meringue holds very stiff peaks...

Its been a month since I have updated anything on the blog......Exams and holidays kept me away from this space!! Yep..you heard me right when I said "exams"; not that I am studying anything new but repeating Std 1 again with my son *winks*......phew!!! It was me who really enjoyed the one week break and I don't remember relaxing so much after finishing my own school exams back then!! Stories apart.... To start off, here is a simple cake loaded with lots of dried fruits. I would say this cake to be another version of the Christmas Plum Cake , except the entire process is a bit less complicated compared to the plum cakes .  This month being a happening month with festivals and causes, I am planning for some specials throughout this month.."smiles" Ingredients: Recipe Source: Coffee by Parragon Books Mixed dried fruit - 300 gm Brown sugar - 150 gm Butter - 150 gm, plus extra for greasing Strong black coffee - 200 ml Self-rais...

Yes, the time flew again and she celebrated her 4th birthday with a White Chocolate Cake..... Unlike, the previous years , this year I asked her what cake she wanted for her birthday. And she surprised me saying she needed a white cake, the one which we buy from bakery....Well, I knew what she wanted was a White Forrest cake..... Since, we never preferred a White Forrest Cake, I decided to stick with her choice of a white cake.... And like any other time, Rachel Allen's Cake gave me the exact cake I was looking for.....And so here it is White Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Ganache..... A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart.  ~Author Unknown A daughter is a mother's gender partner, her closest ally in the family confederacy, an extension of her self.  ~Author Unknown A son is a son till he takes him a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life.  ~Irish Saying A daughter is the happy memories ...

When it comes to eating fruits, I am very fussy!!! There are few fruits which I really don't like and would never ever taste no matter how healthy or nutritious they are!! One among such fruits, is the passion fruit..... The seeds of passion fruit are never appealing to my eyes and so I just don't like it..... Last week when JJ went to Kerala, he got some passion fruits from home and was wondering what to do with it as I didn't want to waste it too!!! I remember seeing few passion fruit recipes on Swapna's Cuisine .... And, I went ahead with the Passion Fruit Panna Cotta without giving a second thought as we are panna cotta lovers. Ingredients: Recipe Source: Swapna's Cuisine For the Passion Fruit Jelly Water - 2 tbsp Gelatin - 1 or 1/2 tbsp Passion fruit - 4 or 1/4 cup strained pulp Caster sugar - 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp Water - 1 1/4 cups For the Panna Cotta Water - 2 tbsps Gelatin powder - 2 tsp or 1 tsp Cream - 2 cups Icing sugar - 1/3 ...

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...

Now-a-days, the ads on TV influences kids a lot and they would just like that demand whatever they feel to have, right then! With my kids, it would be a biscuit, a noodle/pasta, a juice or even a pizza.... It was one such demand that led me to bake a pizza at home. The first time I baked, I used a Maida based base with lots of cheese, but my kids preferred less cheesy!! So, the second time I baked, I used wheat flour for the base to make it more healthy and of course less cheesy!! So here are the recipes for both.... However, the toppings for the pizzas are left to you....    Let's go for the healthy one first!!! Whole Wheat Pizza Base Ingredients: Recipe Source: Sharmis Passions Wheat Flour/Atta - 1 1/4 cups Yeast - 1 tsp Water - 1/4 cup and 1/4 cup Sugar - 1 tsp Salt - 1/2 tsp Olive oil - 1 1/2 tbsp Method: Preheat oven to 200 C. In 1/4 cup warm water, add yeast and keep it aside to bloom. In a mixing bowl, add the bloomed...