Alhamdulillah, the blog is 5 today! I have written long posts every blog anniversary, but this time I will give it a break. 😉 I guess I am done with being emotional about the blog and look at it very practically from now on. 😀 As I go into this post, I want to share with you a little secret. I actually planned a super long post of the best recipe of each month since The BST started, yes, 60 months and 60 posts. But as I started working on the post and reached close to the end of the first year, I got so overwhelmed of selecting the posts that I decided to give it up halfway! 😀 I really couldn’t help it… So coming back to what I had originally planned for… This year, you may have noticed that the flow is broken. I am taking…
Almond Apricot Cake
When I enrolled for the Bake-a-thon with Valli in October, I was in a lot of thought. How would the whole thing be? I have been a part of the Blogging Marathon for a few months now and it is a more themed activity, but this was thirteen days of baked goodies, with no specific theme as such. Since I had drafts available – referred to as “magic folder” by the BM team 😀 – and I thought I would be able to pull it out, I jumped into it and I am glad I took the plunge. Now looking back at all the posts I did for this marathon baking initiative, I am glad I participated in it. I sincerely hope I have done justice to it and selected the best of the baking recipes that I have tried, tested and succeeded in my kitchen. Do check out…
Coffee Cinnamon Rolls
Cinnamon rolls took a long time to grow on me. I never liked them, I really have no reason why. Almost all malls have a Cinnabon outlet here and I would walk past them covering my nose. I never liked the smell that came out of the outlet. It smells too artificial – no offense to the Cinnabon lovers out there, it’s just with me! Each time the girls would want to try, but I just would drag them away because I simply didn’t want to buy it for them. The love for cinnamon as a spice and flavor grew on me only very recently and I have to thank blogging for the same! I now love the smell of cinnamon in bakes, and at times in my tea too, but still I couldn’t get off the thought of the smell of the rolls. Hehe… I finally baked…
Chocolate Banana Bread
I had eyed this recipe during the Home Baker’s Challenge of quick breads, when I baked the zucchini carrot bread. I was waiting for an opportunity to bake when the right time came. HD had asked me to bake a cake for his staff and since this recipe was too much for one loaf, I decided to bake two mini loaves, and give one to HD and the other one for my office pantry and security staff. I handed over the one I bought to office to the pantry boy and told him to distribute it among themselves and specifically mentioned the names as well. I had already declared to the security downstairs that I had bought them something special. Since I had already given my instructions, I thought it would be done and I wouldn’t have to bother. The day when I was leaving office, I asked the…
Healthy Banana Coconut Bread
A few days back, I saw this little slide shared on FB. Somehow, this Ramadan, I have been specifically asking to Allah for a lot of Sabr – patience to wait, patience to do good, patience to control myself, patience to deal with my children (which I am still trying to learn despite being a parent for more than 8 years), patience to take as things come by, patience to be calm, patience to know where to react and where not to… In fact, it seems to be the only characteristic required for a calm and successful life, yet the most difficult to attain. I was browsing through a few articles and found this one which so nicely explained “Sabr” in a nutshell. I also found another article that caught me at the mention of Asiya (RA), the wife of Pharoah who was shown her house in Jannah while…
Dark Chocolate Orange Cake with Orange Glaze
A few days ago, my blogger friend Priya had indicated about her first guest post for Chef Mirelle’s Travel Tuesdays, where she had reviewed the oldest souq in Sharjah. When I was going through the post, it flooded me with innumerable precious memories. Sharjah is literally my home. Apart from a year, I have stayed my whole life in Sharjah. Uppa started and ended his long 38 year career in Sharjah, so it was but natural that we were there. Even though Dubai has all the glitz and glamour and Sharjah can be intimidating at times because of the traffic, narrow roads and slight glitches here and there, the calm life is quite fascinating. Even staying in a town is not a harrowing experience, except for the parking of course. Having moved to a more suburb-like area now, I truly miss being in the heart of the town. The place…
Kit-Kat Barrel Cake ~ Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Some cakes just don’t seem to get out of your head. Just like this one…. I have been fancying a Barrel Cake, I just don’t know since when! I just love the way it looks.. so pretty with all the Kit Kats around it and the colorful M&Ms on top of it. I tried to make one when Azza was turning one. I bought the Kit Kats and M&Ms and was hoping to make the cake, however since my oven was new and I was literally not used to it, the cake turned out to be a dud and therefore I had to adjust with some whipped cream frosting on top to camouflage the terrible cake. It is more than three years now but that mishap still scares me… hehe… Then I got the chance to bake a better one when Rasha’s birthday last month. This time, I wouldn’t…
Pineapple Coconut Upside Down Cake
Another guest post for the month! I have been receiving some requests and I am really struggling to provide them. Somehow the flow of writing is not coming by, but then I don’t want to pull out of any commitments that I have already made, amidst a “bail” that I may take my own time! 🙂 One of them that I received was from Farheen, who started off with an FB page and slowly moved into blogging. I have been a follower of her page from the start I suppose! I feel amazed at her wide repertoire of authentic Hyderabadi meat recipes that I have lost count of how much I have bookmarked from her page and have actually given up on them! Hehe… After giving a long thought, I decided to give her this delicious pineapple upside down coconut cake, that I had baked from a recipe from…
Wholewheat Flax and Apple Muffins
Blogging has actually made me a bit adventurous, I must say. Sometimes, it does happen that I end up eating all that I make if nobody bothers to touch it! But there are certain ingredients that I know would now be a part of my cooking – one is definitely rolled oats, thanks to my recent craze on overnight oats, and the other one is milled flax seeds. I don’t want to write down the benefits of flax seeds here since I am no nutritionist, but I would say that knowing how good it is in Omega 3 and fiber, I try to find ways to use it up in my cooking. I use it now into my smoothies – it gives a nice body to the smoothie and makes it so thick that you feel so full. My blogger friends tell me that they add a teaspoon into…
Mango Entremet
Food blogging opens up a lot of avenues which I would have otherwise never ever tried… Maybe that is one reason why I love blogging – it helps me get over a lot of my fears and become more confident with my cooking and baking skills…. The idea of entremet would have never come into my head, had it not been this post. I am a member of a wonderful group called Fondbites, which is a bake along every week. The mastermind of the group, Suhasini keeps coming up with wonderful bakes every week and it is amazing how everybody so enthusiastically participates! If you are keen, you could hope into the FB page and join in! There is no compulsion to bake, however seeing the bake alongs she comes up with, you will be automatically tempted to! Hehe… I have been slow in baking since I am trying…
Mix and Bake Chocolate Beetroot Cake
You never realise how versatile vegetables can be in baking till you use it. My first tryst with beetroot were in these eggless red velvet cupcakes and after that I had tried this particular cake while taking them for my cousins. That time, I ran out of cocoa powder so my cake looked more reddish than brownish. I left them with a trivia and they were not able to guess what went into that cake, till I told them that it had beetroot. Beetroot puree lends such a lovely moistness to this cake and enhances the flavor of the chocolate, giving it a nice deep color. Even the kids enjoyed it very much since there is no feeling of having a vegetable into your cake! If you check out my posts, I have baked with vegetables before in the form of this ever favorite carrot cake as well as…
Banana Peanut Butter Loaf
A couple of weeks ago, I was at a watch shop repairing a few of my watches – I am watch crazy, and I have 8 on my display with more hidden. As soon as I get bored of my watches, I make it a point to carry it back home and distribute to my cousins who think I have an awesome watch collection! Hehe… OK, back to what I was saying. The gentleman at the counter and I stuck up a casual chat. He happened to be from the place close to HD’s. As we spoke, he hinted that he was trying to get somebody to take care of his shop and go back to home as his wife was not keeping well. I just shook my head and then he said, “Actually, she has shown an early symptom of cancer.” As soon as he said that, I looked…