Under the sea

'Sea' you later

Wish on a 'star' fish

Lately, I had the opportunity to cater to the sweet tooths of  bunch of toddlers. A lil princess called Ira was celebrating her first B'day in my hometown, Mangalore and I was in charge of the goodies. This was a fun fun time for me in the kitchen, trying to sculpt all kinds of sea creatures such as an octopus wearing a party hat, miss crab with a bow on her head and a cutie pie of a tortoise standing beside a whale and corals and seaweed... To top that off, there was a driftwood plank with Happy Birthday written on it. 


Apart from the fondant characters, I made cake pops, candies, my signature pencils and starfish and name cookies. After the manic work sessions, I focused on the next challenge - packing them to last an overnight trip.. I bubble wrapped them and crossed my fingers that none would break, packing extras wherever I could. It was for a friend's daughter and I would've been heartbroken if any would break, so I ensured I made extras. 


Thankfully, my good friend Nisha was driving down and she carried them parcels and they arrived in one piece and got assembled ever so gorgeously. Ira, your mommy is one helluva party planner. She painstakingly organised a bash that even I would turn into a kid for, just to be part of the  brilliance. What she did with the venue and the decorations will be the talk of the town for many days to come :)


Anywhoo, here's a lil sneak peak into some of my goodies at the party. A BIG thanks to the amazingly talented photographer Marco Mega for the lovely pics. I have watermarked these pics with the blog's name so that they get redirected here, but I take no credit whatsoever for the pics. If you love these pics, click on the link above to see more of his work.

Kids go ga ga over these pencils

A piece of driftwood to send over B'day wishes

Name banner cookies

Lil miss crab

The oh so cute Octupus

So that's all for now, hope you'll like the lil picture tour. Until next time, 

Get Set Bake :)

Naughty cookies

Bachelor party favours

My friend's getting married and I couldn't resist making him cookies since they are soon becoming my USP. And since he was getting hitched soon, I HAD to make them naughty. These lil cuties are PG 13, but naughty anyways.. 

Packaged and ready to be gifted

I had seen similar ones on one of my Internet trawls and had wanted to make them for some time and I'm so glad I got to finally make them for a friend. I don't remember the website i got inspired from for these, would've shared a link otherwise.. The design is self-explanatory for those wanting to try their hand at it. It's a vanilla bean cookie, decorated with royal icing. I used heart cookie cutters since I didn't have all the fancy body shape cutters. For those who want them and don't wanna try making them, give me a holler and I'd be glad to supply you with a bunch of these, customised to match your design. For now, gaze at these polka dotted naughty cookies :)

Try your hand at experimenting with different patterns and designs and, like I always say, Get, Set, Bake... 

Crinkle Cookies

Crinkly goodness

Crinkle cookies... Ever since I saw a picture of them, I couldn't get over how pretty they looked. Black and white speckled beauties, almost like a haphazard zebra pattern gone wild.. Back then, I had no idea they were called crinkle cookies and I marveled at how the effect could have been produced. 

Little did I know how easy it was. The crinkle effect is due to the lil cookie balls expanding in the heat and cracking, exposing the chocolate interior beneath the white blanket of icing sugar.  Easy peasy. And if it's easy, you know I'd want to share it with you guys. They take minimal effort and look super stunning. I made them after dinner tonight and having them right out of the oven is the best thing ever. Warm, gooey fudgey chocolate center with barely crisp edges, not to mention, speckled with chocolate chips... Yes, I went to cookie heaven. Wanna go there too? Here's how...

Crinkle cookies (makes about 20 cookies)
Recipe adapted and modified from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 70 grams dark chocolate, chopped finely
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp instant coffee powder
• Icing sugar to roll the cookie balls in

Method:

• Melt the butter
• Add in the finely chopped chocolate and mix till the chocolate has melted
• Add the sugar, coffee powder, vanilla extract, egg and beat
• Sift the flour and baking powder and add to the mixture. 
• Add the chocolate chips
• Chill the dough for a few hours until firm
• Pre-heat your oven to 160 C
• Roll even sized balls of the mixture, roll them in the icing sugar till well-covered and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and bake for about 9 minutes till the cookie has cracked and cooked. It will be moist in the center.
• Cool till warm and serve

So go ahead, Get, Set, Bake!!

Meringue ghosts

My 'Boo'meringues

Halloween is a day away and instead of dressing up in a scary costume, I thought I'd go the bake way and give you'll just about enough time to make these cuties if you wish, in time for halloween.

I came upon a picture of the cutest meringue ghosts online and just HAD to try them out. This is so simple to make and oh so cute to look at. It is definitely a kid-favourite dessert and more so, a woman friendly one as it is practically non-fattening. A low cal dessert that looks too cute to eat, did I catch your attention already? I can hear a few of you going aww already :p These lil 'boo'meringues as I like to call them, look so much like the ghostly trio from Casper's gang, don't they. Why, I got Fatso, Stinky and Stretch on my plate :D

The recipe for these peppermint meringues is the same as my old one. It holds a special place in my heart as this was my first recipe to be posted on any blog. I did a guest post for a dear friend and soon, had my very own blog. I had shared a link to the recipe in my earlier posts, but for the lazy bees, here's the recipe again, with directions on how to make these spooky treats..

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• A pinch of cream of tartar or salt (optional)
• 2 to 3 drops of vinegar
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• A few drops of peppermint essence
• Chocolate chips for the eyes

Method:

• In a glass bowl, beat the egg whites along with the vinegar and cream of tartar/salt till soft peaks form. Gradually add in the sugar while beating. Increase the speed and beat till stiff peaks form. Once you have stiff peaks, add the peppermint extract and beat a little till it is mixed well into the meringue mixture.
• Pre-heat your oven to 110 degrees Celsius (the lowest temp on your oven works best). Fill the contents into a disposable piping bag or a zip lock bag, snip off  the end to form about 1 cm hole. Pipe onto your tray lined with parchment paper.  (I used foil since I didn't have any, works the same, so use whatever you have in your kitchen). As you pipe, release pressure after the first mound, pipe again, release and lift off, to form three mounds, on top of each other. The pic is self-explanatory. You can also just pipe blobs on as your ghosts can have any shape you desire. 
• If you are feeling lazy, ditch the pastry bag altogether and just drop spoonfuls of the meringue mixture on your tray.
• Take two chocolate chips and insert them, tip side down, into your meringue mounds to resemble eyes. Bake for about 50 minutes to an hour (more or less depending on how strong your oven is.) Check if they are done by tapping on them. The meringues shouldn't be soft to touch and you should hear a tap like you were knocking on a shell. Once they are done, leave them in the oven (turned off) for another 30 minutes. 
• You can take an edible marker and draw on funky smiles like I did, but they look cute just as well. 

Aren't we Bootiful?

Foolproof Macarons

Peachy goodness

Owing to the overwhelming demand for my Macaron recipe on the Home Bakers Guild, I decided to blog my recipe out here, rather than emailing bakers one by one instead. I am humbled by the response my macarons got and it just drives me to keep at it. A big thank you to the members of the guild for encouraging me and patting me on my back for my efforts :) So here goes... 

Macarons: source, Ottolenghi, with a few changes here and there. 

Noir nostalgia

Ingredients:

• 122 grams icing sugar
• 50 grams blanched ground almonds
• 2 egg whites (approx 60g worth, room temperature), left to age for 2 days (I use non-aged egg whites and they don't make much of a difference either way for me, so you could use fresh egg whites if you are pressed for time) 
• 40 grams caster sugar
• A pinch of cream of tartar (optional)

Method:

• Sift the icing sugar and almond meal as many times as you can to get a fine mixture.
• Beat the egg whites. Once soft peaks form, add the cream of tartar (optional) and sugar, bit by bit. Stop once you reach stiff peaks..
• Add the almond meal/icing sugar mixture and powder food colour and fold. This technique is called macoranage. Click here to see a video I found on Youtube that shows you the process. The video is in french, but you can see the technique to get an idea if you are a first-timer at macarons. The batter should resemble lava many say. This is the tricky bit. It should fold back into the bowl smoothly when you lift your spatula but shouldn't be too runny that it becomes a puddle in the bowl. 
• Pipe your macarons onto your baking tray lined with parchment paper and leave to rest for 20 minutes or till a skin forms on the tops. Basically, you should be able to touch the tops and they shouldn't stick to your finger. 
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 140 C, for 10 to 12 mins, or till the tops are hard and the shells don't move around when you touch them. 
• Leave to cool completely before peeling them off the paper.. Fill with your choice of filling and enjoy . Here's the recipe for a super-easy filling to make - chocolate ganache.

Banana split?

Macarons are very temperamental, I should know. I've had disaster after disaster. From no feet at all to feet flowing all the way out to soft and hollow shells to what now. The only way you can perfect macarons is to keep at them and learn from your mistakes. From oven temperatures to humidity, a zillion factors can contribute to failed macarons. Having said that, once you achieve perfection or are almost there, your joy knows no bounds. Most importantly, don't stress yourself out too much. I have read recipes, tips, instructions and spend many a sleepless night trying to find ways to get good macarons. At the end of the day, it was a few simple changes that worked for me and that started with the right proportions that this recipe gave me. So go ahead and try it out for yourself.. This is the one dessert that failed me the most but also thrilled me the most when I nailed it.. 
I hope to start teaching whatever I know on making them after a few members from the guild suggested I do the same. So if you are in Bangalore, I'll be holding classes shortly, soon after I get batch upon batch come out perfectly and some good fillings to go with the same. Dp contact me if you have any queries during your macaron attempts. I'm always happy to help. And do post and send me pictures of your attempts. And lastly, hope the macaron gods smile on you and you achieve smooth domes, good feet and well-baked macarons that slide off your baking sheet.. 

Till then, like I always say, Get, Set, Bake...