I have been unwell from a couple of days with constant cold, cough and high temperature. I was bedridden this weekend, yet trying not to miss out on Football World cup and finals of Wimbledon with weary watery eyes. While I am trying to recover and bounce back into life and action, cooking has taken a short backseat as I am depending on light and easily digestible food. And this one comes from my drafts.

I am posting this recipe for Hazelnut & White Chocolate Cookies which I made for our tea time a few weeks ago. The cookies were simple to make and since I had all the ingredients at hand, I didn't want to miss a try. They came out good, had crunchy edges and softer centres. I loved the crunch from hazelnut. White chocolates aren't my favorites, so they are mostly consumed this way. White chocolate flavor is not the highlight of these cookies, so if you love them, just increase the quantity. Or probably just use milk chocolate chips instead. Our perfect tea time cookies.

Hazelnut & White Chocolate Cookies

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 egg, cold from the fridge
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
1/4 cup white chocolate, chopped

DIRECTIONS

Put the flour, chopped white chocolate, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl. Cream the butter and sugars in another bowl. Beat in the vanilla extract and a cold egg, and then mix in the dry ingredients. Increase or decrease the quantity of egg depending on your cup size. Use egg sufficient to wet the ingredients and bring them together to form a soft dough.

Roll into balls, flatten them a little and place them on a lined baking sheet about an inch apart. Top with a broken hazelnut, if preferred.

Bake on 180 deg C for approximately 18 minutes or till the cookies are done. Transfer them to a cooling rack to harden as they cool.

Hazelnuts are not so common in India. They are mostly sourced as imported products. When I came across them on one of my shopping trips, I couldn't resist but grab a packet at a big price tag. The only form of hazelnuts that I have ever eaten were from Nutella. So we really loved them. Hazelnut compliments white chocolates very well, but my guess would be, they would make a heavenly combination with dark chocolates. No doubts, Nutella rocks!

The weekends always go by in a hush bush. By the time it's Friday and we rejoice over it, it's Monday again that comes by, as if in a blink of en eye. While we are in the middle of the week and I am buried with piles of workload, I look forward to those weekends with a difference. We have been eying at getting more adventurous. I guess it's a better way to put across than say healthy! ;) We finally got our most awaited bicycle, that too a 21 geared mountain bike B-twin and I am enjoying every moment with it.

Just a hunt for the perfect unisex mountain bike took a lot of our time and energy, but it was all fun. Hunted through many shops, mostly to find bicycles that cater to male needs than ease it for women on bikes. Heck! Especially if you are an Indian woman, short at height (that's anything below 5'5", and now don't get at guessing my height!), then you are in trouble for geared bikes! Hate that centre stem that makes it painfully difficult for female riders. After few heated discussions and a couple of hiccups, we made a final stop at Decathlon to take our perfect pick, the French branded B-twin. Getting hang of the gear system was a roller coaster and that didn't take long. Looking forward to an audacious bicycle trip!

Back home it was time to celebrate this with some fresh, home baked Double Chocolate Chip Cookies with inspiration drawn from Nigella's Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies from Nigella Bites. Yet another chocolate indulgence at it's best! I hardly changed the recipe, except the title! These are no doubt, the BEST chocolate cookies ever! The original recipe calls for huge amounts of chocolate chips which would lead me to chocolate coma, so I reduced hugely on that! I suggest you to try this recipe yourself and know how good it will do to you!

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS

60g dark chocolate
75g plain flour
15g cocoa, sieved
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
60g soft butter
38g light brown sugar
25g white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 egg, cold from the fridge
90g dark chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Melt the dark chocolate either in the microwave or in a heatproof dish over a pan of simmering water.

Put the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl. Cream the butter and sugars in another bowl. Add the melted chocolate and mix together. Beat in the vanilla extract and cold egg, and then mix in the dry ingredients. Finally stir in the chocolate chips.

Scoop out equal-sized mounds using an ice cream scoop and place them on a lined baking sheet about an inch apart.

Cook for approximately 18 minutes till the cookies are done. Transfer them to a cooling rack to harden as they cool.

You can get 6 large cookies or 12 small cookies out of these. I made them in 2 batches. The first half went into the oven, while the second half into the freezer. The first batch looked almost like what you see on Nigella's site. Absolutely decadent! Crusty and rock-like, yet deeply fudgy, just like a brownie. The moment I brought them out of the oven, they vanished quickly. My husband and me devoured almost 3 warm cookies each at a time! So none were left to be photographed.

I really wish I had saved atleast one of that batch for this space. The second batch which came out of the freezer could easily be rolled to a dough. I didn't see the need for an ice-cream scoop. I could easily roll them in between my palms and they went into baking again. The chocolate chips I used in these got melted away with the heat while baking. Unfortunately! Each bite came with the punch of bitter sweet dark chocolate and it was truly a decadent pleasure for the chocolate lover in me.

Been long since the seasonal mangoes made their appearances on most of the vegetable counters in supermarkets and road side cart sales. Mango season hasn't ended yet and you guys still wondering why I don't have a single post with mangoes yet? I am trying hard to catch up with some mango desserts. Now does this make you ponder what on the earth is so hard about whipping a mango dessert? Not at all!

Mangoes have been showing up on almost every meal of ours, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner. Whatever the meal be, it's incomplete without the mangoes to end with. I am hardly in a mood for any dessert these days and all I am in love with are these delightfully juicy, ripe, sweet mangoes. The crave is so bad that they are not just our post meal desserts, but also hunger pang killers. Back home from work or from an outing, I seek immense pleasure from freshly cut mangoes. And it's Alphonso and Bainganpalli types that make up to my favorite mango treats!

Just the sight of the gleaming amber mangoes can make me go down my knees for some humble bite into them! So now that I have explained the absence of mangoes from my blog, I did promise myself some mango verrines reserved for this space, which would use mangoes in their true form. Absolutely no decking up, no adulterations! Just a little manipulation! ;)

Mango & Vanilla Verrines

INGREDIENTS

1 cup milk
1/2 cup milk cream (I used 25% fat)
1 tbsp corn starch (an egg yolk can be used too)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup thick undiluted mango pulp

DIRECTIONS

Mix the corn starch or egg yolk in 1/4 portion of milk. Heat the rest 3/4th of milk to a boil with sugar. Add in the corn starch milk in slow streams and stir well continuously. In case of using egg yolks, temper the egg yolk with the boiled milk prior to avoid any curdling. Once tempered, add it to the hot milk and thicken further. This will thicken up soon. Stir well and scrape the sides too. As it bubbles and thickens well, add the cream and turn off the gas. Add in the vanilla. It will lighten the entire mixture, but should still be thick. If it's runny, heat it further to thicken up a little. Remember it thickens further as it cools down too. Let the custard cool to room temperature. You may also use a store bought custard powder and prepare it as per the directions on the pack. Once cool mix in a tsp of mango pulp to this. It's purely optional, so leave it out if you like the alternating vanilla mango flavors.

Meanwhile, keep the verrine glasses ready. To assemble the verrines, drop a tbsp of thick custard alternating it with a tbsp of thick mango pulp, till it fills the glass to brim. Allow it to set well and cool further in the refrigerator.

Before serving, I topped each verrine with a cherry and roughly broken oatmeal cookie. Serve cold.

The mangoes I used here were naturally sweet, so they did not require any extra sugar to sweeten them further. The vanilla custard being sweet balances out the sweet tang flavors very well. I always love mangoes in their true form, unless they are really raw and sour. It's like, if you asked me what I would prefer out of the two, Mango ice cream or fresh mangoes with ice cream, I would undoubtedly choose the latter. That's how I am fascinated with these. I rarely make desserts out of mangoes, especially if they are sweet. Even in desserts I love to keep them neat and unadulterated.

The flavors in this dessert were fruity, mellowed and soft. They make a good serving post breakfast too. For a more exotic version, I suggest you use stabilized whipped cream instead of custard. It works out to be really rich. Worth for an occasion. I use custard only for the sole reason that it cuts down on calories from the use of whole whipped cream. Not entirely sure considering the sugar in it, but it does give me a reason to go for a few more servings!

We at times like to settle for some simple desserts on weekday nights while the exotic ones are reserved for the weekends. Though we generally avoid indulging in heavy dinners followed by rich desserts, it's sometimes nice to just sooth down and pamper ourselves after the stress and hustle-bustle of the day, with sometime really as simple, yet exotic as this Vanilla Cheesecake.

No, I wouldn't admit that it's as quick as whipping a dessert in minutes and serving them, but it's fairly simple. I developed this light, yet rich-tasting dessert for our dinner a few months ago. I know it would seem too long to post, but I held on to this post thinking it wasn't the best of the photographs I took that night to justify it here. The summers were warm and as mentioned the temperatures were at peak too. So when I brought them out of the refrigerator to photograph them, they went on a melting spree in few minutes! By the time I could get good lighting and adjustments, they almost began to leach, putting me off completely.

I like desserts which I can prepare ahead of time. That gives me time to focus on other items on my menu. I would love to experiment more with cheesecakes, probably baked ones too. I could make these for entertaining events because I can prepare them ahead of time, which is what I love. But at the moment I am yearning for a spring form pan for more to be baked!

Vanilla Cheesecake

INGREDIENTS

For the crust:

1 pack digestive biscuits
1 tbsp margarine butter

For the cheesecake:

1/4 cup silken tofu
3 cups plain soy milk (400 ml)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pack china grass/agar-agar (vanilla flavor)
1 cup sugar (avoid if your pudding mix already has sugar)

DIRECTIONS

Crush the digestive biscuits and add in the melted butter. Mix well so that it resembles bread crumbs. Cover the bottom and sides of the cake tin with a cling film if you don't have a spring form pan. Layer the biscuit crumbs on the bottom of the pan and press it down well evenly. Push it into the freezer till you prepare the cheesecake.

Bring 2 cups of the plain soy milk to a boil. Mix the china grass mix to the rest of the soy milk. Add in the sugar to it if your china grass mix has no sugar added in it. The china grass pack that I used had sugar in it, hence I didn't add any extra sugar. Once the soy milk has come to a boil, add in the china grass milk to it. Bring it to a gentle boil or until the agar-agar has completely softened into the soy milk. Turn off the flame, remove from heat and allow it to sit for a while.

Meanwhile, blend the silken tofu until very smooth. Add extra vanilla if required. Add in the warm china grass milk to it, blend again till it's one uniform mixture. Transfer this to the prepared biscuit base. Cover the top with a cling film if required and refrigerate for few hours, preferably overnight.

Before serving, melt some dark chocolate and pipe it through a zip lock bag in stands over top of the cheesecake. Top with chocolate shavings if required. It compliments well with the vanilla flavors of the cheesecake.

When I made the cheesecake, I used very little silken tofu fearing that it would give out uncooked taste in the dessert. That's why it melted away instead of holding firm shape. The silken tofu particularly added to the creamy texture. I also did not allow it to sit for hours and brought it out before it could set completely, though this did not hamper the taste in any ways. I would suggest you increase the tofu by another half a cup and allow a setting time of atleast 6 hrs.

If you are not a vegan and have tasted those exotic rich and creamy cheesecakes, then you would surely sue me for the difference! These are light, absolutely light! Most vegan cheesecakes would use Toffutti Better than Cream Cheese, but that option was far from possible for me. I can't think of getting hold of something like that here. So I have just skipped that and used pureed silken tofu instead.

The vegan cheesecake was light, dreamy and good. Hubby dear took the first bite and gave thumbs up saying it was totally yum! With common cheesecakes being rich, heavy and relatively high in calories, this one was light, low fat and healthier than it's siblings. Not to forget being vegan too, it's totally guilt free!

When I first ventured into the egg-less baking, my mom persuaded me to try bananas as a foolproof egg substitute. At that point, I was well focussed on attempting at other substitutes, especially the ones that could pair well with varied flavors. Baking with bananas did not strike my chord much. That's because bananas have a characteristic flavor of their own that can disguise other flavors in my bakes. So I refrained using them for long.

Not that I had given up baking with eggs completely, but I was immensely happy with the results I achieved with other alternatives and that deterred me from using eggs for quite sometime.

Bananas are so common at our place that there's virtually not a single day when we go without them. This time however we had a few excess of them and over a few days, a couple of bananas had been glaring at me on the table top with their pale looks. They seemed less consumable as is and I had to either toss them to the waste bin or make something out of them. Though the tossing rarely happens. After using a pair of them in rasayana and another pair in sheera for our breakfast, I was left with another 2 of them. My husband pointed me out that it's time I should bake a Banana Bread. I was intimidated by that thought as it was the best I could do with my dying fruits.

I baked a banana bread once earlier, just a few weeks ago as an experimental effort. Back then, they turned out quite fudge-y rather than 'bread like'. But that did not ruin it's taste and flavor. It was loved by everyone. I modified my recipe this time and the bread actually turned out amazingly good. It had a perfect texture, had baked beautifully and the flavors of dark chocolate chips mingled gorgeously well with the bananas.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

INGREDIENTS

2-3 small ripe bananas
1 cup flour (160 gm)
1/4 cup oil (40 gm)
1/2 cup sugar (70 gm)
1/4 cup milk or soy milk (40 ml)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (40 gm)

DIRECTIONS

Blend milk or soy milk with bananas. Add the oil. Add in the flour, the sugar, the baking powder and soda and mix with a wooden spoon. Finally introduce the chocolate chips.

Transfer to a clean bread tin. Bake on 180 deg C for 40-45 mins, till the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool down on a rack, cut into slices and serve.

I cross my heart to say, this is by far the easiest and the most loved bread I have attempted. I mean, the ingredients are simple, there is no fuss with the recipe, it was an absolute solace to bake these. I love my bakes warm and these were no exceptions. As they baked and I took them out of the oven, I had little patience to wait for them to cool. In fact what you see here was cut warm.

The banana flavors were prominent on first of the bake. Surprisingly, they subsided and they could hardly be noticed the next day. I love my cakes when they have the moist crumb and I can tell you, these were not anything less than perfect!

After my post on Mulberry Muffins few weeks ago, I had a few mulberries at hand and I had to work on them quickly. They seem to have a very short shelf life, so I had to whisk up some thing out of them before they would decay, only to end up in the thrash bin.

I generally end up making compotes & jams from fruits that don't last long. Especially, with fruits like strawberries, mulberries, figs, they seem to work fantastic. Chopped fruits are immersed in sugar and gently heated through till they thicken. I like to season them with vanilla or some spices at times. What's best is that they store well in the freezer for long. I get to use them at my disposal as per my whims and fancies. Just thaw them and they are competent enough to make great toppings on ice creams and panna cotta and provide various fruity dessert options to try.

With a good amount of mulberries at hand, they ended up in a compote again (and probably another few desserts following them ;) ) And if you have guests coming in at the drop of a hat, then they are a great rescue with smoothies like this one. I served them with my Classic Oatmeal Cookies.

The compote and the smoothie are simple, quick and easy. Here's what we need:

Mulberry Smoothie

For the compote:

15-20 large mulberries
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Bruise the mulberries gently using a the back of a fork so that the juices are released. Put the mulberries, sugar and water in a pan and heat them on gentle flame till the syrup thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Remove and add in the vanilla essence. Allow to cool and transfer to a clean container. You may freezer this for up to a month.

For the smoothie:

1 tbsp mulberry compote
1 cup chilled soy milk
1 tbsp crushed ice

Blend mulberry compote and the chilled soy milk till they are homogeneous. The compote has vanilla and sugar, so no flavors have been added here. Transfer to a serving glass and top with crushed ice. Serve chilled.

I love the elegant purple colors bursting from mulberries. They make it look tempting. I love using soy milk since it's thicker than regular milk. I am a HUGE fan of soy milk and soy products, so I always look for excuses to use them whenever I possibly can!

If you wish to avoid the compote, just ignore the water part in the compote and blend all the ingredients (mulberries, sugar, milk and vanilla) together. The mulberries too have water content in them. Adjust sugar as per your taste. The measurements don't really matter, since it's a choice of individual tastes.

It was strange and funny that when I started photographing this, I got deviated from my focus on the smoothie and ended up with several shots of my soft toy, Gundu (that's what we call him). It was so much fun that I got involved with shooting that guy and finally while sorting out the photographs for editing, I realized I had several shots of this guy and few with my smoothie! So don't be surprised if my Mulberry smoothie has been side lined and you end up seeing more snaps of my Gundu!!! :D I just found it so cute with the teddy pushing his nose up and drinking my smoothie or looking innocently at the camera and my classic oatmeal cookies! I couldn't take my eyes off the photographs! Hope you are not wondering what this thing is doing on a food blog! Aah, isn't he so cute?

The weather God has been playing good and we have been receiving decent occasional showers of rain in the evenings. I feel much better being rescued from the scorch of heat. The summers were bad, not as bad as other parts of the country though. But it still came with potful of troubles with continued power cuts at peak hours of the day, sufficient to give a baker her nightmares!

It can't get more irritating when I have my goodies baking half way through in the oven and then the unexpected power cuts that can go on for atleast a couple of hours leave me feeling miserable and I end up with flat cakes or cookies that have to be used as alternatives or end up in thrash! I am hoping it gets better with more rains, though at the moment it's not any good.

All I want to do right now is to dive down cozily into an armchair, with a thought that I am totally carefree and have nothing much to do. Would probably just want to grab a novel, a cup of tea in one hand, cookies to sink my teeth into, melodies of the past being played on radio in the background, cool breeze kissing my cheeks, the murmurs of rain adding a zing of music to my ears... I am feeling exactly this way at the moment. Does this sound a perfect way to lazy around on your weekend or may be a nice holiday?

With the climate changing to better, the temperatures falling and with a few showers, it feels nice to see the dry, sun burnt grounds converting to patchy greens and hopefully lesser power cuts too! And with the cool breeze kissing my cheeks, it reminds me that it's time I convert my home to a baker's bliss, the time when vanilla and chocolate-y flavors waft through air and we descend gracefully into it's blissful aromas.

So I headed straight to make these simple delightful cookies for our evenings. I adapted the recipe from here, however made a couple of changes. I kept it neat with no dry fruits or nuts added to the dough. Instead I chose to frost my cookies with chocolate and finely chopped pistachios. My Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies have been appreciated in the past. These are classic American cookies and the best bet for the ones like me who dislike oats in their true nature. Recipe is quite simple and follows a standard procedure of dry into wet ingredients format.

Classic Oatmeal Cookies

INGREDIENTS

1 cup plain flour
1 1/4 cups oatmeal
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tbsp flax seed powder
2 tbsp water
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
A pinch of salt

Decorate:

1/2 cup melted dark chocolate
Slivered pistachios

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375° F. Mix 1/2 tbsp flax seed powder into 2 tbsp water and keep in the fridge for a few hours. You will notice that the flax seed water will turn to a slimy mixture exactly like that of an egg. I have produced the best results from this mixture.

In a mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, vanilla and butter until well blended. Add the oatmeal, flax meal water and stir well.

In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Gradually add to the oatmeal mixture, stirring well. Scoop the dough by tablespoonfuls, spacing each about an inch apart, onto the baking tray. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

For the frosting, melt the chocolate over double boiler or in a microwave. Dip one half of the cookie into the melted chocolate. Drain excess chocolate using the edge of a spatula. Dip into a finely chopped pistachios and allow it to cool over a plate.

These are good as is without any frostings. Frosting them is purely optional. I am not good at frosting, or must I admit that I have the least patience to decorate. However, this time I thought I must leave my laziness aside and try some hand at frosting. I opted to coat them partially with molten dark chocolate and pistachios.

I have been experimenting a lot with flax seeds and honestly, off late, I have begun to dislike even the faintest taste from flax seeds. Though the smell is not so pronounced in this recipe, my taste buds seem to identify it easily, which I don't like. So the frosting made it good for me. However, do not resist to try this. If I don't like it, it doesn't mean it's gross. You may love it. My family did. In fact, they merrily enjoyed it. You may use 1 egg instead of flaxseed.

Did I ever admit that my first cake was baked in a pressure cooker? Yeah, you heard this right. Not steamed, but baked in a pressure cooker. That was when I was without any oven and it seemed like a long intense urge to bake a cake out of sheer desperation. I must have seen or heard it somewhere that one could convert the cooker to an oven and I set out to recreate the same in my kitchen that day.

For the ones who heard or secretly saw me fiddling in the kitchen with sand and pressure cooker, would surely quote me to be insane to have baked this way! Just imagine, collecting sieved fine sand from a construction site, preparing the cooker for baking, spreading sand in the base of the cooker (to provide proper circulation of heat around the vessel), covering the cake vessel (oh yeah, didn't have a proper cake tin at hand and used the vessel that came with my cooker!) neatly with foil, made a paper cone, filled it with sand, tipped the cone edge, covered the sides of the cake vessel with sand evenly using the cone, murmured a short prayer, put everything together, baked for close to 45 mins on low heat without pressure whistle... with restlessness in me while it was being baked, prayers on my lips, in trepidation, anxiety on my face while bringing that cake out, that was one hell of a job.

Equipped with basic ingredients for my first cake, that too a chocolate one, I went ahead to bake it daringly this way. It wasn't an easy task, that too risking with a pressure cooker was too daring of me, if I am to think about it today. I still wonder what made my thoughts go so whammy that day! And if you were curious to know if the cake was a disaster, I would say it wasn't disappointing for my first attempt! Though the edges were over baked and I had to scale them, the centers were otherwise good!

That was my last attempt at something as weird as this one. I have an oven now and have come a long way since then. It's been fun making cakes with varieties, though I haven't had much luck with frosting except in this one, owing to the low fat cream which we get here that never holds shape even if I were to whip it to eternity! Any help from you guys would be welcome ;)

I made this carrot cake recently and it was absolutely adorable. I was loaded with compliments on this. The recipe has been adapted from here with no changes.

Carrot Bundt Cake

INGREDIENTS

3 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins
2 eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, combine grated carrots and brown sugar. Set aside for 60 minutes, then stir in raisins. You will notice that during the standing time, the carrots would leave out water. Don't discard this.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour the bundt pan.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs until it's light and fluffy. Gradually introduce the white sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir in the pineapple. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, stir into the wet mixture until absorbed. Finally stir in the carrot mixture and the walnuts. Pour evenly into the prepared pans.

Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, until cake is done when tested with a toothpick. Cool before removing from pan. When completely cooled, you can choose to frost or leave it.

This was the first time I baked a cake in a bundt pan. I had a little trouble removing the cake from the pan despite greasing and dusting it well. Do share a few tips on removing the cake the right way from a bundt pan as I had to juggle with removing it.

I had carrot cake recently on one of our adventure trips. It was indeed so good that I could hardly wait to try them myself. I haven't tasted any other carrot cakes, except for the one on this trip. So, when I came across making the cake myself, I can only agree that it can be termed as the 'best ever carrot cake' and that's exactly what the original recipe was titled.

The cake was moist and perfectly balanced with fruits, nuts and spices. We loved the cake when served warm. I just loved that hinted sweetness from carrots and brown sugar. I left it unfrosted as most carrot cakes say that cream cheese is the best frosting and that option was just not viable. A dollop of ice cream may add that extra icing on the top!

Having grown up eating jackfruits as a teenager, it takes me down my memory lane when monsoon months from June to August often greeted us with delicacies of jackfruit, a fruit which people either love most or hate most. While I come in the range of former ones, I know few who can't stand it for it's unique taste.

It reminds me how often my dad would sit down on floor with a massive oiled knife to tear apart the pine skulled fruit, while mom peeled and stoned the fruit and my little sissy and me, as children would surround him to grab those fleshy ripe fruits off and relish them unendingly. And dad would do this task with immense love and passion. The huge jackfruit, often fetched from farms of my uncles and aunts was undoubtedly the most organic, fresh and the best ones we ever tasted.

The fruit is so versatile in use that it can be consumed either in raw form in cooking curries and savories or ripe in Indian sweets. Even the stony seeds are delicacies to the ones like me. Variety of dishes are made from the flesh of jackfruit, common ones like palya, huli, gashi, kadabu, dosa, idli, appam, papad, chips, etc. And even today, whenever I do get a chance, I love to hog on my amma's food. Well, I depend on her heavily for these traditional recipes.

It's a season of jackfruits and I can't get a better post than this one for this season. For the one who's not introduced to this fruit, jackfruit is a very tropical fruit commonly grown and consumed in the Western coastal belts of India.

Gujje Palya (Raw Jackfruit Stir-fry)

INGREDIENTS

1 cup raw jackfruit
3-4 whole red chilies
1/2 cup fresh grated coconut
Lemon sized tamarind
1 tsp mustard seeds

Tempering:

1 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 sprig of curry leaves

DIRECTIONS

Wash and clean the jackfruit. Remove the external core skin. Pit the seeds and chop the flesh into small pieces. This can be a little tedious task if you are a first timer. My grandma is excellent at this and I have a lot to learn from her.

Pressure cook the chopped raw jackfruit pieces with salt and tamarind on 2 whistles. Meanwhile, prepare the spice paste.

Grind together fresh grated coconut, whole red chilies and a tsp of mustard seeds. The ground mustard seeds impart a tangy spice to the dish, which I love the most. Keep this ground paste aside.

Heat some oil in a wok. Add mustard seeds and a sprig of curry leaves. When they begin to splutter, add the cooked jackfruits and stir fry for a minute or two. Then add in the ground paste. Allow the liquid to evaporate a little and cook on slow flame for another 2-3 minutes. Turn off the flame and transfer to a serving bowl. Serve hot as a side dish with rice or rotis.

With my post on Date Walnut Muffins, I had promised that I would list 10 things that make me happy. Here it goes...

1. Cooking and Baking of course! (Can I dare ignore that???)
2. Every cozy moment spent with my husband :) (undoubtedly, it makes me happy!)
3. Being back to MY home after work and being warmly greeted by my hubby's smiling face (oh! what a stress buster!)
4. That each day has gone by on a positive note (yeah, it's important to me that my family and me are in their best of the days, health and happiness)
5. Good food (My 4th sense is has a strong leniency towards appealing good food. That's been more off late!)
6. Travelling to discover new places (that's an inheritance from my hubby dear!)
7. Blogging & Photography (a good blog and great food photography makes me feel real good!)
8. Watching Travel & Living and NDTV Good Times (I am hooked to it from past few years ;))
9. Walking to a book store, picking up a cookery or a painting book and just flipping through pages without any one disturbing! (Often wish, there's a couch to sneak into!)
10. Desserts (I know it's too far to position it the 10th, best for the last! I can't tell you how soothing a good dessert is to my senses!!! It indeed is! )

My dear dad turned another year older and it calls for celebration time. All I had on my mind was this celebration Eggless Black Forest Cake which is one of his favorites. Not just his, but a family favorite too.

Pastry shops were uncommon for us as kids. I can remember this shop by name, Monginis, in Mulund-Bombay, which was our hot favorites then - our only source for some real good cakes and pastries. And we would often hang out there with mom and dad for some good cakes which mom loved and for savories like samosas which were dad's favorite. Though butter cream cakes were easily available even then, fresh cream pastries have become very popular only from past few years, with cake shops and coffee houses springing up every where and with most people, especially youngsters and college-goers hanging out there often.

As we grew up to be teenagers, pastries became popular and more commonly available in cake shops and bakeries. One of the most popular cakes was undoubtedly the Black Forest cake, which I guess, there's hardly anyone who's not eaten or heard of. I am no better and must have eaten hundreds of these as a teenager and continue even today! Black Forest cake consists of layers of chocolate cake, drizzled with rum syrup, sandwiched with whipped cream and torn cherries, topped with a good dose of whipped cream, maraschino cherries and chocolate shavings. Pure decadence. Period!

The below recipe is the most common recipe for eggless sponge cake and the same recipe can be got from many websites. I reduced the butter to half instead of 120 gm which I thought was a little too much and since I had no cola at hand, I used milk instead. It does make a difference. Cola adds fizz and air to the cake while milk made it denser than it should have been. The cake turned a little dry too, but that didn't matter much as the soaking moistened it well. Never the less,the cake was still spongy and good. Here's what we need.

Eggless Black Forest Cake

INGREDIENTS

For the chocolate cake:

2 1/4 cups plain flour (240 gm)
1 can condensed milk (400 gm)
1/4 cup melted butter (60 gm)
2 cups aerated cola (200 ml)
1/2 cup cocoa powder (40 gm)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

For the frosting:

2 cups dark chocolate, grated (200 gm)
1 cup fresh cream powder (100 gm)
1 cup cold water (100 ml)

For the filling:

1 cup maraschino cherries, pitted and chopped

To be mixed into a soaking syrup:

2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp rum (optional)
1/2 cup water

DIRECTIONS

Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda. In another bowl, mix condensed milk, cola and melted butter and whisk well.

Add the wet ingredients in to the dry ones, whisk well till combined. Transfer to a baking tray and bake for 40 minutes at 180 deg C. Once done, remove aside to cool.

In a bowl, mix the rum and sugar with water. Whip the cream powder with ice cold water till soft peaks are formed. Allow the cake to cool, slice to halves horizontally. Drizzle the sugary rum syrup evenly all over the cake so that it absorbs well. Spread the whipped cream on one half, spread the chopped cherries and top it with the second slice. Frost the cake top and sides with whipped fresh cream. Decorate with whole cherries and grated chocolate shavings. Refrigerate at least for a few hours before serving.

My dad's a staunch vegetarian, which means no eggs included. I've made egg-less chocolate cakes earlier, so making another one wasn't any challenge. Suma was of great help for me to hunt maraschino cherries :) Thanks Suma. However, the biggest challenge for me was to frost the cake with fresh cream. I haven't had much success with whipping the 25% low fat cream available here. I was working with whipped cream powder as frosting for the first time and Divya's blog gave me the confidence that it wouldn't let me down, though I admit I was a little apprehensive how the final cake would turn up. However, I am glad it turned out good and there was hardly any difference noticed.

The cake turned out great. It worked beautiful as a birthday treat. We had a small celebration at home and it was enjoyed by all. The cake requires some maturation time as I assembled it on the d-day, but the syrup was yet to be absorbed well. The cake had absorbed the moist syrup, matured well and tasted much better the next day.

Happy Birthday to the man in my life who taught us to be independent, self motivated and living everyday to the fullest. To take life with a pinch of salt, a little spice, a little bitterness and loads of sweetness, the bitter-sweet way! He's a man who gives us strength, boosts our spirits and is always with us in highs and lows of life. Thanks dad for being there always. :)

Happy Birthday Dear Dad!