Chocolate banana cupcake with Vanilla buttercream frosting

I love bananas in cakes and when I came across the chocolate banana cake recipe in a book and later in Joy of Baking, I was sure that I will be baking that very soon and I did without waiting much ! It was cake sale in A's nursery today for fundraising,mum had to either bake or buy cakes and donate to nursery for the cake sale,all the money from the sale goes to School.When I was decorating the cupcakes I had shaky hands as this was my first attempt on decorating it for a sale purpose,but I guess being an amatuer in decorating I was satisfied with my effort,I watched lot of youtube videos on decoration and did some practise on the plates before I did it on the cupcake. Lil A's teacher was impressed with it and he was happy too :) In the evening I went to the hall where the sale was taking place ,all my cupcakes were gone for 75 pence per cupcake and I was pretty happy ! one of the mum who ate it said it was so lovely ,which made my day.

Recipe largely adapted from here

Ingredients
Flour - 1 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Cocoa powder -1/4 cup
Banana - 1 large
Egg - 1
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
Baking soda - 3/4 tsp
Milk - 1/4 cup
Oil - 1/4 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Vanilla extract - 3/4 tsp

Method
1. Sift flour,baking powder,baking soda and keep aside
2.Mash banana and add egg,milk,oil,water,vanilla and whisk.
3.Add the dry ingredients to wet and incorporate.
4.Pour the batter (very thin) with a laddle to the lined cupcake tin and bake in preheated oven at 175 degree centigrade for 20 - 25 minutes.

Vanilla butter cream frosting

Ingredients
Softened Butter - 3/4 cup
Icing sugar - 1 1/2 cup
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Milk - to loosen(1-2 tablespoon)

Method
1 Beat butter by adding icing sugar little by little.Add vanilla extract and little milk and beat to get a smooth buttercream.

Vegetable Pulav

Rain has been spoiling our spring since the last few days and today was just the same,we saw bright sun in the afternoon,so we packed the old breads and headed towards a nearby park to feed ducks and to spend some time in the childrens playground,but bummer..as soon as we reached the park, clouds came all together and it looked as if its going to pour down cats and dogs.But since we were so determined to feed the ducks,we walked towards the pond and started throwing breads to ducks,but to our surprise,not even a sinlge duck came for our bread,I guess on sundays they get a lot of breads and the ducks looked as if they were full and didnt even bother to see what we were throwing,finally to cheer up lil A we started feeding some doves,luckily they showed some interest on breads,thats all we could do when the rain started to pour down and we had to run towards the car.So all together I was disappointed,but then when we got home,I got into a mood to eat some cutlets, S too nodded in agreement,but again we didnt have fish or chicken to make cutlets,so we walked to a nearby supermarket and got some chicken.I cheered up and started cooking in a good mood.Deep frying things is something that I always leave to S when he is at home,so when I finished everything,I gave him the last job to fry it and went away,but my lazy DH,skipped deep frying all together and shallow fried everything.I tasted the first cultet ,and to my disappointment the inside of the cutlet was not done,it was bit moist,so I got really mad at him for spoiling all my effort ! If all went well today I would have posted the cutlet here today :( But poor S has promised me that he will make it up to me by making cutlets for me next week :)

So here I am with a Pulav which I made last week..

Ingredients

Rice - 1 cup

Onion -1

Tomato -1

Chopped vegetables - 1 cup( I used beans,carrot,pepper,green peas etc)

Ginger garlic paste - 1tsp

cinnamon sticks- 1

cloves-2

cardamon-2

Redchilly powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Corainder powder - 1 tbs

Garam masala - 1 tsp

Coriander leaves

Salt

Method

1. Cook the rice and keep it aside.

2. In a wok add some ghee/oil and add whole garam masala saute for 1 minute.

3.Add chopped onions and saute until soft,add ginger garlic paste fry for 1 minute .

4.Add tomatoes and all the spice powder and saute for 1-2 minutes.

5.Finally add the veggies and add water if required and cook .

6.Add the cooked rice and mix well.Garnish with freshly chopped corainer leaves.

Note : You can also add some fried raisins and cashewnuts to the pulav which I didnt use.

Carrot Cup cake with Swiss meringue butter cream

The rain is still drizzling and the weather here has been has been like that since the past few days.I really hope our spring is not going to be washed away like this.

Meeting an old friend and catching up with them after a long time is wonderful right ? I was lucky enough to have such a great day yesterday,my friend,classmate and roomate 'A' who lives in Chennai is now in U.K visiting her brother.Yesterday we met after a long 4 years gap,saw her little girl for the first time and watching my boy and her girl who are of the same age slowly bonding,chatting...priceless moments !

When Nisha posted her carrot cake few weeks before I couldnt resist trying it out her mums way with carrot puree and I would say the it was super moist cake and nobody could make out there was carrot in it.That day I couldnt take pics,so this time I made carrot cup cakes and luckily I was able to click one picture.Whenever I bake, taking pics isnt easy with a cake lover like my lil A.He is adicted to cakes,and if he see a cake he will stop doing whatever he is doing and fill his tummy with cake as much as he can ,eventhough I try to restrict him he always succeed,So for that reason I have cut down by baking these days.


Ingredients

Flour - 1 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1cup
Carrot -2
Oil - 1/2 cup
Milk -1/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Eggs -2
Salt - a pinch

Method

1.Sift flour,baking powder,baking soda,salt and keep aside.
2.Grate carrot roughly and puree them with milk in a blender.
3.In a mixing bowl beat egg and sugar.
4.Add the carrot puree,oil and give it a good mix.
5.Add the dry ingredients and incoporate.
6.Line a muffin tray amd pour the batter until 3/4 th full and bake in a preheated oven at 175 degree centigarde for 20-25 minutes until a tooth inserted comes out clean.

For Icing
recipe adapted from here.

Egg whites -2
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Butter - 1 cup
Vanilla - 1/2 tsp

Method
1.In a heatproof bowl add egg whites and sugar and place the bowl over a pan of simmering water.
2.Whisk until egg whites are smooth and little hot to touch ,it takes about 3-4 minutes.
3.Remove from simmering water and whisk until glossy peaks are formed.
4.Add butter little by little and whisk,finally add vanilla and whisk until smooth.

Vishu Greetings !

Wising all my friends a Happy and prosperous Vishu !

This time we are happy that we got Vishu on a weekend, so we are celebrating vishu with friends this time .Our vishu menu includes Brown rice, Sambar, Avial,Malabar kuttu curry, Sweet kuttu curry, Rasam, Thoran, Parippu, Erisserry,Betroot pachadi, Payasam etc and if I get more time and any more veggies maybe will make 1-2 items more.I have already started pre preprations.My veggies are all chopped and freezed.I just need to cook it tomorrow morning.But still need to do lot of coconut grating and for that I am waiting for my DH to come back from work.He is the official coconut grater of our house, I am bit slow so I always take it as an excuse and leave that job to him.

Finding a konna poovu(Vishu Flower) in U.K is out of question ,but last year after Vishu we found europe version of Konna everywhere and later I saw that flower featured in Mathrubhumi sunday edition(Malayalam daily ) as Europe's Konna ,cant remember the english name of it.This time I looked for it but couldnt find that anywhere.But instead found some wild yellow flowers on the back yard of our apartment.Today me and my lil one went down with scissors and snipped a little of it for our Vishu Kani tomorrow.

So Once again to all my friends, Have a great Vishu !

Sweet and Sour Tamarind Chutney

Like I mentioned in my previous post today's recipe is tamarind chutney .Whenever I go to my friend A's place, she always prepares some nice cripsy pakodas, or samosas or North Indian special snacks which I abosultely love, and she always used to serve them with her delicious tamarind chutney.Eventhough she shared the recipe with me long time back , the amount of sugar that goes in put me off from trying it,but later when I searched online for tamarind chutney's recipe I found the show me the curry's recipe which used jaggery so even before thinking twice I made this tamarind chutney,it didnt taste different from the chutney with sugar.So if there is any health consicious people out there, this might be little less guilt free one :)

Ingredients

Tamarind - 1/4 cup
Boiling water - 1 cup
Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/8 cup
Cumin powder -1/8 tsp
Redchilly powder- 1/8 tsp
Garam masala- 1/8 tsp
salt

Preparation
1. Soak the tamarind in 1/2 cup of boling water and leave it for 30 minutes.Squeeze the pulp and seive .
2. Repeat the process one more time with remaining water and take out all the all the juice.
3.Add jaggery and boil it.When it starts to boil add the spices and simmer it till the chutney thicken slightly,check the sweetness and if it requires more sweetness add sugar and simmer it for few nore minutes.

Papdi Chaat

Hope u all had a good holidays,for us we had a good time eating some good food. Lil A has one more week off before he goes back to nursery that means less blogging for one more week.
Coming to topic..Chaat is something which I enjoyed a lot during my stay in Pune, nobody will bother to make chaats at home when we get such delicious ones outside. After coming to London I have relished chaats from few of my North Indian friend's place quite a few times,In december one of my friend prepared this papdi chaat for her daughters birthday which I really enjoyed ,so finally I too thought of giving it a try after asking the recipe from her.I didnt get the papdi which she used,I went to an Indian store and picked up a packet with name papdi on it,but its different from the papdi I tasted,but still I loved every single bit of the chaat.I made a sweet and sour tamarind chutney to go with it which I will post soon.

Ingredients

Papdi - 1 packet
Chikpeas(cooked)- 1/2 cup
Potato- 2
Yogurt - 1 cup
Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp or as required
Chaat masala- 1 tsp or as required
Redchilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Kaala Namak
Salt

Method

1.Soak chickpeas overnight and pressure cook.
2.Chop poatoes and boil.
3.In a serving dish spread a layer of papdi.
4.Add the boiled potatoes,chikpeas,yogurt and mix.
5.Add the masalas and salt.
6.Drizzle some Tamarind chutney/green chutney over the chaat and enjoy.

Eggless Cinnamon rolls

Hope you all are having a nice Easter holidays wherever you are. In U.K the weather has been playing some nasty tricks spoiling our 4 day break,anyway I cant blame too much about it as we were so lucky last week when our family visited us.My brother in law and family who were in U.S stopped over here on their way to India and we lots of fun and had a blessed weather through out...
Coming to todays recipe, generally cinnamon rolls calls for egg but this is an eggless version ,Inspite of being eggless it tasted great.

Ingredients

Plain flour - 1 cup
Butter - 7 tbs
Sugar - 1/4 cup + 1 tsp
Milk- 1/4 cup
Yeast -1/2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1/2 tbs
Salt - pinch
Raisins
Almond flakes

Preparation

1.Melt 3bs of butter and dissolve half of the sugar to it.
2.Warm the milk and dissolve yeast.Add a teaspoon of sugar and allow it to stand for 5-10 minutes.
3.Measure the flour into a bowl and add melted butter ,milk-yeast solution,salt and knead the dough until you get a soft dough.
4.Cover the dough with a towel and allow it to rise for 30 -45 minutes.
5.Meanwhile take 4 tbs of softened butter and beat it with remaining sugar and cinnamon powder.
6.Take the dough and roll it to a rectangle shape.Spread the butter-sugar-cinnamon evenly on top and sprinkle some raisins and almond flakes generously over the butter layer.
7.Roll it tightly into a log and cut it with a sharp knife into 1 inch rolls.
8.Place the rolls in a greased baking tray and refrigerate for 12 hours.
9.Take the rolls out of the refrigerator and keep at room temperature for 10-20 minutes and then bake it in a preheated oven at 180 degree cebtigrade for 20- 25 minutes or until rolls are gollden brown.