Scobee Doo Cake

 

When my friend Z first talked about the Scoobee doo cake her lil one wanted for his birthday I didnt even knew who scobee was ...watched a little bit of scobee online to get an idea of the character and found out that he is an  always hungry dog who loves his food.Scobee and his friends had a van called Mystery van and with all this things in mind I drew a sketch with 3D figures.I also had a back up plan if my scobee figure was not coming out well, it was just to draw a scobee on the cake !

The birthday boy wanted a vanilla cake so it was a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and swiss meringue icing. If u are  wondering why my cakes and frostings are always the same ..well that just because thats  what they all prefer,so next time when I am doing a cake personally I have an awesome filling recipe which I tried rescently so stay tuned , will be posting that one soon :)

Scobee and party food were made from fondant and mystery van was made from rice krispy treats frosted with  buttercream icing and covered in fondant.You can find my recipe for rice krispy treats here.I used readymade fondant for making figurines  and for covering the cake I made homemade marshamllow fondant which taste much better than readymade one.Usually I have seen people leaving the fondant away when they eat the cake,even  I personally used to do the same  but I found that homemade fondants are a hit and people eat it !

 

 Will post the recipe of home made fondant soon to..Its almost time for me to go and pick my lil one from nursery so until next time..see u !

Instant oats Idly !

 

I blame the winter for my laziness for not making Rice idlies  since the last few months..To get a descent idly I have to keep the batter in the preheated oven overnight and still the result wont be that awesome so I took a break from idly and I am waiting for the weather to get better before I try making them again. But sometimes  I get a craving to have idly ad thats when this instant oats idly is a blessing ...It was Rava idly before but after I learnt that Rava has nothing good in it I switched  to oats idly and and u get a healthier version of instant idly without compromising on taste !

 

While I was shooting this picture it was already 9 in the morning and lil A who was up early  was hungry by the time and was waiting for his breakfast impatiently , selfish me  took the plate to dining table and warned him that its too hot and went to take the camera ignoring my hungry son, but after I clicked one picture I couldnt make him wait anymore  and  had to satisfy with just one picture :)

Ingredients

Oats (coarsely powdered )- 1 1/4 cup

Rava/Semolina  - 1/4 cup

Yogurt - 1 1/2 cup

Water - 3/4 cup - 1 cup

Carrot - 2 medium (grated )

Green chillies -2

curry leaves - few

Urad dal- 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida - pinch

Baking powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt

Method

1.In a pan add some oil and sputter mustard seeds,followed by urad dal .

2.Add grated carrot and saute for 1-2 minutes,add chopped green chillies ,curry leaves,asafoetida .

3.Add  Oats ,rava and roast for 1-2 minutes.Switch of the flame.

4.Add yogurt,water,salt,baking powder and mix well.

5.Grease an idly maker with little oil and pour the batter into it and steam for 10-15 minutes.

Serve hot with some coconut chutney !

Beans and Carrot Thoran / Beans and carrot stir fry

 



January is a depressing month dont u think so ? After all the christmas and Newyear bash January is so boring.. There is nothing much to look forward expect the much hyped valentines day ! I have already started to look forward to two things to keep me going ...one is the  U.K bloggers meet happening in London in 6 weeks time, meeting  friends from Virtual world is really something exciting ! If your are a blogger from U.K and havent heard about this meet before please find the details here, well the other thing is the  wait for Spring...I have already started looking for any signs of Spring. I cant wait to open my windows , hear the birds chirping and enjoy  some daylight !

Coming to today's recipe..its just a simple thoran which I always prepare ,the carrot and beans works well together and we all love this and the great thing about this thoran is I dont add any redchilly powder or greenchillies in this thoran  and it tastes better without chillies so lil A enjoys it too !

Ingredients

 

Beans - 250 gm

Carrot - 2 nos

Onion - 1 medium

Dessicated coconut/grated coconut - 2-3 tbs

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt

Curry leaves

Mustard seeds

 

Method

 

1.In a saucepan add some oil and sputter mustard seeds.

2.Add chopped onions and saute for 1-2 minutes.

3.Add chopped beans and carrot,add salt and turmeric and cook it covered.

4.Once its almost cooked add grated coconut and curry leaves and cook for 1-2 minutes and switch off the flame.

Strawberry cake with Vanilla Buttercream frosting

How is the weather in ur part of the world ? Well in my side it has been raining almost every now and then most of last year and the newyear is not any good either, eventhough  the rain has kept the winter temperatures on a warmer side I prefer slightly  chillier days if the sun comes out !

 

I have been frequently  posting about my bakes  for a while now, eventhough I cooked  a lot during holidays I hardly got a chance to click it to blog about it, so  I am seriously going to take some effort this year to balance the blog with variety of posts rather than just cakes and bakes. Bear with me this time as I am again here with a cake which I tried to decorate with buttercream. As I am    selftought when it comes to  cake decoration, until I practise my buttercream decoration I was never going to learn it , so I decided to try my decoration skills with piping bag this time and I wanted to experiment a new flavour and an icing technique which I havent tried before , so with both those things in mind  I came up with this Strawberry cake with buttercream frosting and decorated it like in Basket weave pattern( If u can call it so ! ) and a grass pattern with grass tip and then the topped it up with beautiful strawberries to give a look of fruit basket !
 

 

Ingredients

 

Flour - 1 1/2 cup

Eggs - 2 large

Sugar - 3/4 - 1 cup

Oil - 1/2 cup

Cooked and strained strawberry puree - 1/4 cup

Milk - 1/4 cup

Vanilla extract - 1tsp

Baking powder - 1 3/4 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

 

Method

1.Sieve flour,baking powder,salt and keep it aside.

2.Cook the strawberries in a saucepan adding a tbs of water until its soft ,let it cool for sometime and then puree them with milk  and strain the seeds through a sieve.

3.In a bowl beat sugar and eggs.

4.Add oil, cooked puree to that  and give it a mix.

5.Add dry ingredients and fold in.

6.Pour the batter into a greased cake tin and bake for 25- 30 minutes until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

You can find the recipe for buttercream frosting here

.

Tiramisu !

Wishing you all a very Happy Newyear !

Hope u all had a good holidays. Sleeping late night, waking up late, shopping, eating, drinking, watching mallu movies thats what pretty much what we did during this holidays. Finding a routine again is something which I should work on from today onwards..sighhh

 

Coming to today's recipe,its tiramisu an Italian dessert which dont need any  introduction..This is probably the first fancy dessert which I used to make to impress my guests even before I knew much of cooking..So that means its doesnt need any cooking skills or anything, just put the ingredients together and taaaada a  dessert with a fancy name is ready !

 

Ingredients (serves 6-8)

Trifle Sponges  - 8 numbers
Mascarpone Cheese -250 gm Tub
Double cream - 500ml
Sugar - 5-8 tbs
Black Coffee - 300 ml ( 1tsp instant coffee granules dissolved in 300 ml boiling water )
Coffee liqueur - 8tbs + 1 tsp
Grated chocolate or Chocolate shavings

Method

 

1.Mix 8 tbs of coffee liqueur with black coffee (use strong coffee if u r a coffee lover).

2. Dip the sponges in the coffee mixture few times and layer  them on the serving dish.

3.Cream  mascarpone cheese,double cream with sugar and 1 tsp of coffee liqueur until it reaches a spreadable consitancy.

4.Spread the cream mixture on top of sponges, you can repeat it with another layer of sponge and cream if u like( I didnt as I preferred a small serving in inividual glasses )

5.Finally sprinkle the top with some grated chocolate/chocolate shavings and chill them for few hours !