June Daring Bakers’: Battenberg Cake

Being Indian I hate wastage. Of any kind. One of the reasons why I gained weight when I came to US (besides, the cliched that I got married) was that I was so used to finish everything on my plate, whenever we went out to eat, I ended up finishing the ridiculously huge portions of food served in restaurants here. Since we stay 4 hours away from all restaurants, doggy pack or to-go was not an option,  and since I had the habit of not wasting, I ate everything. That’s why this month’s Daring Bakers’ challenged proved to be double the challenge it was.

Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

I have missed the last two challenges. Although I did a part of the April challenge, I could not get it posted because I was busy with my in-laws visit. Hopefully I should be able to post the recipe soon. ( I seriously have huge backlog!)

Now, I have been eyeing this cake- the Battenberg cake for a while now, ever since I was introduced to the Great British Bake Off cookbook. I don’t have it yet, but amazon’s site has a preview of the book and in that they show pictures of the cake. Since then it’s been on my mind. So when I saw this month’s Daring Bakers challenge, I knew come hay or sunshine, I would make it.

And make I did. Not one but two.

SRC: Berries & Cherry Walnut Oatmeal Bars

The first week of the month is generally busy for me- what with the Recipe Swap post going up the first Sunday of the month and the SRC post going live the first Monday of the month. As a result, the weekend is always spent working on the posts and since I am a big time procrastinator, I end up baking/cooking, editing photos and blogging two posts in one day. I know, I really should plan things better!

Anyway yesterday proved to be doubly busy as I finally made myself a Facebook page for the blog! Yay!

After toying with the idea for months, I finally decided its time to face my fears. When asked by V why I wouldn’t get a Facebook page, I would give him the excuse that I am too scared that no one will like my page and also a big reason for no FB page was that I as it is struggle with my own profile on Facebook- a blog page will be a lot of commitment in terms of updating status and making sure they are good, etc., etc. But I knew I was just being lazy about it. So, I took the plunge and set up a page.

Since I was getting all tech savvy for the blog, I made myself a twitter account too! Woo hoo! I have to admit, I have no clue what to do with it, but I am sure I’ll learn along the way.

March Recipe Swap

For the month of March, our Recipe Swap group split in two for the first time. While one half would continue posting the first Sunday of the month, the other would now be posting a different recipe the second Wednesday of the month. Its a big change and I hate that the group is splitting, but the change means newer members- newer perspectives and interpretations of two different recipes each month. In a nutshell, the change means a lot of creativity to be inspired from throughout the month. And that’s a change I am looking forward to.

I chose to be part of the group posting the first Sunday of the month and honestly I was glad that I was, because it meant I had to swap a Pizza recipe.

The idea for the Recipe Swap was born out of a Vintage cookbook find by Christianna. Christianna decided to make her own recipes inspired by those in the cookbook. She also got a bunch of talented bloggers (and me) in on the idea and now, the recipe swap has been on for more than a year, each month the bloggers dishing out absolute delights that showcase their creativity. Of course, now the creative juices will be flowing into cyber space twice a month, starting this March.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

You know you are doing good with your exercise regime, when instead of avoiding to wash your jeans (since they get tight after a wash and you lose the “loose” fit), you actually prefer washing them so that they fit you better.

And that’s what I had been doing and felt good about my weight loss (of course there is a long way to go, but the jeans are getting looser, so I was happy).

But all this happy feeling went down the drain this past weekend.

All because of these damn browned butter chocolate chip cookies.

(I know I shouldn’t swear, but these damn cookies, they are just so good that they are no good!)

The past few days of cakes and celebrations!

There’s no such thing

        as a perfect person-

but there is such a thing

        as a person who’s perfect for you…

and you’re that person for me!

…..

So no matter what you might think

        is less than perfect about yourself-

it really doesn’t matter,

        because you’re prefect for me.

I wouldn’t change one single thing…

        I love you just the way you are.

                                                     – Dierdra Zollar

These are the wordings from the card that V gave me the day I arrived back from India.

Yes I am back. Finally.

After two and a half months away from home, and one and a half months away from V, I am finally back to our mining town life.

I have yet to start unpacking. I have yet to start cooking meals. I have yet to clean the house.

Bottom line, I have yet to get back to being the Novice Housewife.

I did get a start on it though, on 27th.

27th was also my birthday and I thought I’ll make myself a cake. I know its depressing that I made my own birthday cake, but there’s more to the story than that.

Recipe Swap: Not “that” fattening Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Oreo & Peanut Butter layered “Cakelets”

Barring a few little frustrating events that happened, yesterday was a good day. It started with the wonderful news that my parents’ Canadian visa got through just a day before their flight. Had it not, they would have been with me this weekend, but at a cost of losing a few hundred dollars in flight cancellation, re-booking, etc. My mom’s parents and her brother stay in Canada and my parents’ plan was to first visit them and then come visit me. They have a ten year US visa but they needed a Canadian Visa. Never thinking that their Canadian Visa would pose any problem, they had booked their tickets some time back. But the Visa did cause a lot of last minute panic, and only a day before their flight to Canada did their passport arrive with the Canadian Visa stamped.

Happy with the news and excited that my parents will be visiting me two weeks from now, I left for the baby shower we were throwing for the mommy-to-bes. It was a triple baby shower and all three of the ladies are having boys, that too only a week apart from each other!

It was a fun filled baby shower with great food. We, bunch of ladies, could open a great restaurant with all the talented cooks we have. On the menu was  chicken enchilada, olive  mozarella salad, linguine pasta, homemade bread (which was really good), olive, pickle n ham on a stick, (taking a break to breath and wipe off the drool) BLT sandwiches, pakodas, jello snicker rice krispies, chinese noodles, lettuce and french dressed avocado and my contribution lentil samosas and mini oreo sandwich “cake”.

After a great time catching up and seeing the three mommy-to-bes tear up after opening their presents, I was back home to Target greeting me as soon as I opened our gate.

Recipe Swap: Triple M Sandwich Cookies- Molasses, Masala & Marshmallows

About two weeks back I stumbled upon Christianna’s site, and not only did I find a great blog, I also found out about this thing that she has going on, called the Recipe Swap.

The idea for the Recipe Swap was born out of a Vintage cookbook find by Christianna. Christianna decided to make her own recipes inspired by those in the cookbook. She also got a bunch of talented bloggers in on the idea and now, the recipe swap has been on for eight months, each month the bloggers dishing out absolute delights that showcase their creativity.

I am thankful to Christianna to let me be a part of this really talented group and to push me into being a little more creative every month!

Do visit the other Recipe Swappers: Dennis, Toni, Christianna, Alex, Lora, Lindsay, Mari, Crissy and Lauren, Pola, Jamie, Claire, Shari, Joy, Monique, Linda, Priya, Rachel, Alli, Katy, Emily, Krissy and Jaclyn. In case you want to know a little more about everyone and the Swap do visit the swap page.

MINI CHOCOLATE BURGERS

It was a dreadful car ride. I had that feeling- the kind where you know there is doom at the end of the journey. But it had to be done. If not now, it would be too late.

So there I was standing outside the place. I stepped inside- my feet almost ready to run away. But, like I said, it had to be done. So I was there, waiting…waiting with knots in my stomach.

He called me in. He was dressed in white like an angel- but I knew he had the tools of the devil hidden away. He made me lie down. Asked me my name. Did a litle small talk – yeah! like that would ease my nerves!

Then it started. That blinding, in-your-face light. That dreadful noise- the noise that send shivers down your spine. Oh! how I hate that drill and oh! how I hate these dentist visits!

***Update***
Voting at Kitchen Corners is now open! Please go vote for these if you like the recipe!

Well I have not blogged for a while. It’s not that I haven’t been cooking. On the contrary, I have been cooking a lot. But, because of the much hated dentist visits (the very long sittings there and the trauma that goes with them), and cooking for the party my parents had at their house, I have been too busy to blog.

Now, for the above mentioned party I had made “chocolate fondant cake”. It was a disaster. It was nothing like what Raymond Blanc described them to be- and I ended up with mini chocolate cakelets, which I paired with a chocolate sauce and a scoop of ice cream topped with nuts- and thankfully everybody loved it- phew! Saved!

I had some chocolate sauce left from the “chocolate fondant” episode. I was going through my daily serving of tastespotting and saw a burger and the idea of chocolate burger came in my mind. (This is inspite of my dentist repeatedly telling me to stay away from chocolate- I can’t help it, dear dentist, I try but chocolate and I share a bond that just can’t end like that).

I thought for a while and thought cookie would be a perfect idea to sandwich a chocolate ganache to look like a burger.

I thought of entering this for KC April Cook off- the theme – crazy chocolate creations. To make the cookie “bun” completely chocolatey, I used white chocolate- not as chips or chunks but completely melted in the cookie dough batter. So, for the “bun”, I decided to use wheat flour and replaced the oil, milk and sugar (that generally goes in a cookie dough batter) with white chocolate- well isn’t that what white chocolate is made of ! (White chocolate is primarily cocoa butter, sugar, milk and vanilla) Of course I was a little worried about the ratio of the three ingredients in the chocolate compared to what  generally comprises a cookie dough batter and it might change the result of the desired cookie. But they turned out great. I used cinnamon but feel fennel seeds powder or cardamom powder would go better with the white chocolate.

For the “burger” I used the chocolate sauce, that had been kept in the fridge (it solidified a bit in the fridge and was more like a refrigerated ganache). And on top, to replicate sesame seeds, I used some finely chopped cashew.

Bailey’s & Dulce de leche Mocha Cookie & Cream Ice Cream

If you are like me, then the mention of cookies, alcohol, and ice cream in the same breath would make your eyes brighten up and your mouth drool! That is if the long name doesn’t scare you away!

The idea behind this crazy sounding name came the other day while I was thinking of  how to incorporate the cookies left from the time I made the Mocha Chocolate chip cookies.

Now, during the visit to my grandparents’ place, somebody had invited us for dinner and I had the most amazingly creamy strawberry ice cream- which was homemade and completely eggless. The aunty told it was a fairly simple eggless recipe with equal proportions of milk, cream and milk powder and she adds strawberry crusher which lends the sweetness and flavour to the ice cream. But, I wanted to add the cookies, so I thought I would replace the strawberry crusher with crumbled cookies.

The Bailey’s was something I remember from one of David Lebovitz “no ice cream machine” ice cream. Just before leaving US for my India vacation I got my copy of Room for Dessert and I remember seeing David’s chocolate and banana ice cream that requires no ice cream maker.

Now the thing is I think I am allergic to banana. I think  so because everytime I eat a banana I get this horrible-horrible pain in my stomach. This allergy was never there before. I experienced it for the first time when I was at some one’s place and had taken my banana bread for them. I ate it at night. The next day I had severe pain. Since we had eaten out I thought it was a result of that. But it remained for quite a few days, because I was still eating bananas. Anyway, our home stock of bananas finished and so did the pain. Still it did not strike me. After few days again the same thing and the same happened when my in-laws were there. The only food that was common all these times was banana. So well, I guess I am allergic to it, which kind of sucks because I love banana bread!

So with these two recipes and a little help to get it all together from  here I set out to make my jacked up mocha cookies, dulce de leche ice cream!

Dulce de leche (pronounced DOOL-say day LAY-chay) is Spanish for “milk candy”. It tastes quite like caramel but with the additional taste of cooked milk. (Technically, dulce de leche is a type of caramel.) It’s often used in liquid form as a sauce for ice cream, cakes, cookies, just about anything that needs a sweet topping. In solid form, it is most often eaten as a tasty candy.

The ice cream turned out more like mocha cake batter ice cream.-probably because of the soggy cookies that I had used. Anyway, that wasn’t a problem. Only problem that I had was that it was melting too soon. Homemade ice creams are generally more soft than store bought- they have the soft serve consistency. But this one was melting way too fast. It is really hot here but still not so much that a ice cream can’t behave itself for a few minutes. I guess it could be the alcohol level that did not allow the ice cream to freeze too much. The person, whose original recipe I used, does not add alcohol and has a very creamy ice cream thanks to the milk powder in the recipe. And since I added alcohol, as well as the milk powder, it might have changed the science behind freezing the ice cream. I, actually like my ice cream melted. So I wasn’t complaining, but my mom likes her ice cream “ice cream consistency” (which she couldn’t get because the tub had been out for quite a while as I was busy clicking some photographs). She loved the taste though.

The melted ice cream did make a darn good adult cookie and cream shake! But next time I would skip the cognac and see how that works.