Baking again

When ever I am in the kitchen, Annabel also wants to come and help.. One day after seeing some children baking biscuits in TV, she too wanted to make them at home. So we got busy cooking.. She helped me cut the shapes and I placed them in the oven.

Also we baked a chocolate cake recently and she helped me decorate it with yellow sprinkles. She couldnot wait till i clicked a snap, so a piece is missing from the photo below

Birthday Cakes

I had taken up the challenge to bake the Cakes for Annabel's Birthday. From a week before the event, i was busy doing some research on the net for the perfect cake and finding shops where i can get some Wilton's decorating stuffs in Cyprus.

Winnie the Pooh Cake

Barney Cake

The receipe for the sponge cake is from JoyOfBaking. The butter cream receipe is from Wiltons decorating site. The characters i made, are based on the BUTTERCREAMTRANSFER method, i came across in this site.

There is a shop in Cyprus, named Pergamos, near the Tsiro stadium. Its a must go for all the cake enthusiast! Check the wikimap link for where exactly this shop is.

Direction to Pergamos: From Troodos roundabout, take exit towards Mitsubishi Fairways. Take the first left and drive straight till you get to a 'T' junction. From the 'T' junction take left . Go straight and you will come to a junction. At this junction Pergamos shop is at your right.

Holiday Cakes

I baked some cakes during this holiday season.. It was fun to experiment with some new techniques I learned reading several blogs.

The chrismtas cake was the traditional plumcake with dried fruits and roasted almonds. The Icing didnot come out as I expected. It was supposed to be more solid with a shine.

New year cake was an Orange sponge with "paraline crisp" insert. the frosting was with Whipped cream and flowers with icing sugar.

Kozhukatta aka Rice Dumplings

They are Annabels favourite morning snack.. Infact she loves anything which is sweet.. These photos are taken while she was nibbling at it on one Sunday morning!

You can find the Recipe from this very nice blog Kitchen Mishmash. She as explained step by step of how to make it!

Oatmeal cookies

Annabel has been going to a babysitter, Varvara from the time she was 6 months old. She is an elderly lady with a unique and tender way of looking after children. She lets them play without any restrictions and children there seem to be happy always. Children also loves Papoo, Varvara's huband, as he gets them sweets after his day at work. Annabel gives them 'Filaki' (flying kiss) everyday before she comes home with us. Annabel with Varvara

Oneday, Varvara gave us a Cypriot dish made with minced meat. It tasted very good.. we finished the entire plate before we reached home. I did not want to give an empty plate back. So I baked some oat meal cookies early next morning.
Oatmeal cookies i baked
The recipe is from joyofbaking a very useful resource for all the bakers out there!

Orange Sponge Cake

This weekend, I baked a quick Orange cake. It is quite simple and healthy as it did not have any oil and butter!
Recipe:

2Eggs
1Cup of Flour and 1 tspn baking powder sifted
1/4 cup of powdered sugar
1 tbspn of Orange Zest
Juice from one orange juice.

Preheat oven at 180C. Line a baking tray with baking sheet. Separate the egg yolks and white. Beat the egg white till fluffy and holds stiff peaks. Mix together the egg yolk, orange juice and slowly incorporate the dry ingredients (sugar and flour). Fold in the Egg white slowly till it is well incorporated into the batter. The batter should be of the right consistency. If it is too stiff, add some warm water.

Pour it in the baking tray and bake for atleast 30 minutes. Tooth pick inserted in the center should come clean.

Yummy RasMalai!

Recently, I have been experimenting some of my cooking skills. Jacob asked me to give a try at his favorite Sweet RasMalai.. I searched through several websites and blogs for a good recipe. I came across Mrs Manjulas website http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/. She has a very good collection of sweets, snacks and savories. I have been trying quite a lot of her recipes and always they turn out excellent.

I made the RasMalai she posted for a Charity event which had an Indian Stall. The RasMalai came out perfect and I have shared this recipe with many friends and colleagues.