Indian Inspired, Savory

Lentil Spinach Masala

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Meal Ideas for One - Lentil Spinach Masala

This lentil spinach masala is really a canvas on which you can try all sorts of variations. It is a delicious, nutritious meal for one person when you want to make the least effort but crave a warm cozy meal. I will be honest, sometimes I do miss my single days! When days looked like this – wake up, go to work, come back from work, whip up quick dinner, eat while watching endless re-runs of Sex and The City or How I Met Your Mother, or a soppy movie or some brainless comedy without fear of judgement, get late night shisha and drinks, or mint tea when feeling responsible, with my girlfriend, gossip/ bitch about work and boyfriends till the shisha embers have died, come back home, eat some chocolate, sleep with the TV on all night. Just because you are perfectly happy in one kind of life does not mean that sometimes you don’t miss the other, right? But one thing I really disliked when I lived by myself was eating all alone. I am the kind of person who is not a fan of only cooking for myself. When there is no one else to share a […]

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Desserts, Leftovers

Cardamom Coconut Panna Cotta and Turmeric Cake Crumb

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cardamom coconut panna cotta

A delightful dessert for two, this light, smooth, cardamom coconut panna cotta is accompanied by crunch from some leftover turmeric cake. I read the Momfuku Milk Bar book and fell inspired by Christina Tosi’s philosophy of using all sorts of things from your pantry and freezer in your baked goods. The idea of repurposing leftovers speaks to me, because I really dislike wasting food. It is one of the main reasons why I bake in small quantities as much as possible and without resorting to using 1/4th of an egg because really the quantity of egg decides how small my baking project will be. Trust me it is a pain to measure out 1 ½ tbsp of egg for something. I have tried. One of the first google searches I did when I was tinkering with the idea of starting a blog was “what do food bloggers do with excess food”, coming in after “how do food bloggers stay fit?” Well I did not find any satisfactory answers to both questions. I suppose everyone tackles it in their own way. So, I picked going small where my baking was concerned. We are two people so I had to think about […]

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Cakes, Desserts

Chocolate Stout Cake w Brown Butter Frosting

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This decadent chocolate Guinness cake slathered with a speckled, deeply nutty brown butter Swiss buttercream and doused in a whiskey caramel sauce is truly a celebration cake that is sure to make you feel happy! 30 is not the birthday that launches you harshly into your middle age. 30 is the birthday where you celebrate the end of an era - the 20s – where mistakes were made (lots of ugly ones), lessons were learnt (mostly in a bad way), discovering who you are felt impossible and highs of first real job, first serious relationship, first real apartment, first independent foreign travel were only dimmed by the lows of those ‘firsts’ not living upto their expectations. But there is a delicious excitement in goofing up and blaming it on lack of experience and naiveté. There is mystery and intrigue and desperation in finding out how your life will turn out when you are a grown up. When I turned 30, I told everyone that next year I will celebrate 29 and subsequently keep moving the clock backwards. Well, I didn’t do that. Forgot to buy 2 and 9 numbered candles. So here I am 31! Anyhow, who wants to repeat the absurdities of the 20s. Sure it was fun and exciting times. 20s or any fun time is just that only because there is a limited period to it. Just as clearance sales are exciting because, they are on for only a week! So, I celebrated my 31st birthday, trying not to fight it too much, with a grown-up chocolate cake with brown butter frosting – a bit more elegant than chocolate on chocolate (which by the way is always my first choice of cake) If it is my birthday celebration cake, there had to be booze in it. So instead of making my most favorite chocolate cake, I went with a Stout Cake adapted from Epicurious only in the method. I used Nigella’s slightly easier method of adding everything into the same pan. The can of Guinness had been sitting in my pantry forever and I wouldn’t let Steve drink it because I was storing it for ‘baking purposes’. My cake tops cracked, I think because I baked it in 5inch pans and poured a lot of batter into them. So 6 inch would do the trick. Anyway, I simply chopped off the cracked tops, it did not affect the taste. These cakes are lip-smacking delicious. Earthy and intense and a dark chocolate lovers dream. A brown butter buttercream only seemed appropriate because it is my new love and I like to make beurre noisette just for the nutty fragrance it makes in my kitchen. There seems to be Whiskey caramel sitting in a jar in my refrigerator at all times so I was more than happy to add an additional boozy element to this cake. Finally the pile of crushed chocolate cookies on top because as a baking blogger there is always some cookies or cake leftovers in the fridge which you can throw on top of a cake for extra goodness and no one can stop me from eating pure indulgence in this form on my 31st birthday! Celebrate! Chocolate Stout Cake w Brown Butter Frosting Ingredients – Makes one 6 inch 4 layered cake For the Cake 1 cup stout 1 cup, 2 sticks unsalted butter – cut into pieces ¾ cup Dutch cocoa powder 2 cups flour 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar ½ tbsp. baking soda ¾ tsp salt 2 large eggs ½ + 2tbsp sour cream Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and line two 6” round pans with parchment paper. Make sure the parchment paper sticks out to form higher walls. Pour the stout into a large saucepan and place on medium heat. Add butter pieces and heat till melted. As soon as all the butter has melted, add in the sugar and cocoa powder and whisk till fully incorporated and smooth. In a measuring jug or small bowl, beat the eggs and sour cream thoroughly and add to the stout mixture. Mix well. Finally add the flour and baking soda and whisk till completely mixed. Pour into prepared pans and bake in the lower third of the oven for 35 – 40 minutes or till a skewer toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven. Let cool till safe to handle. Turn cakes onto a wire-rack and let cool completely. Stick in the freezer for atleast one hour before frosting. For the Brown Butter Swiss Buttercream 1 ½ cup butter 1 ½ cup fine granulated sugar 4 egg whites 1/4 tsp salt Heat butter in a small saucepan on high heat. Once it starts to bubble, stir intermittently with a rubber spatula and keep a eye. Once you see specks of dark brown and smell deliciousness in the air take it off the heat. As it cools, stir it once in a while so that it solidifies evenly or all the good brown bits will settle at the bottom. It should be completely cooled (slightly chilled) and solidified but still a little soft. Whisk sugar and egg whites together and set it on a double boiler over simmering water. Using a candy thermometer is recommended for accuracy. Whisk occasionally and heat the mixture to 140 – 160F. Test the mixture between your thumb and index finger to make sure the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture feels silky smooth between your fingers. As soon as it reaches this temperature, take it off the heat, transfer to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whisk on medium-high for a good 7 -8 minutes till peaks form and the mixture is cooled. Once this meringue mix is completely cool, replace the whisk attachment with the paddle attachment and run on medium high. Start adding the butter in pieces. Keep whisking till fully incorporated and the buttercream is smooth, glossy and stiff. Whiskey Caramel Sauce – ½ cup Assembly When the cakes are completely cooled, cut of the tops evenly with a serrated knife. Then cut both cakes into halves to make 4 pieces. Here is a great video showing how to cut a cake in layers. Place one layer on a cake stand. Spoon butter cream into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle and pipe a border on the cake layer. Spoon some Whiskey Caramel onto the cake within the piped barrier. With a offset spatula, spread some buttercream on top of the caramel and smooth it. Repeat two more times. Place the topmost layer of the cake. Spread some buttercream on the top and sides with the spatula to frost lightly. Spoon some caramel sauce on top and along the edges. IF you have some leftover chocolate cake or cookies, crush and pile on top for extra indulgence. Best enjoyed at room temperature in shockingly large pieces.

This decadent chocolate Guinness cake slathered with a speckled, deeply nutty brown butter Swiss buttercream and doused in a whiskey caramel sauce is truly a celebration cake that is sure to make you feel happy! 30 is not the birthday that launches you harshly into your middle age. 30 is the birthday where you celebrate the end of an era – the 20s – where mistakes were made (lots of ugly ones), lessons were learnt (mostly in a bad way), discovering who you are felt impossible and highs of first real job, first serious relationship, first real apartment, first independent foreign travel were only dimmed by the lows of those ‘firsts’ not living upto their expectations. But there is a delicious excitement in goofing up and blaming it on lack of experience and naiveté. There is mystery and intrigue and desperation in finding out how your life will turn out when you are a grown up. When I turned 30, I told everyone that next year I will celebrate 29 and subsequently keep moving the clock backwards. Well, I didn’t do that. Forgot to buy 2 and 9 numbered candles. So here I am 31! Anyhow, who wants to repeat […]

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Breakfast Treats, Indian Inspired, Savory

Curry Leaf Scones with Tomato Coconut Chutney

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Curry Leaf Savory Scones with Tomato Coconut Chutney

If you love chutney, these South Indian spiced, savory Curry Leaf Scones act as excellent vessels to scoop up the goop. Made with coconut oil and lightly spiced with curry leaves, mustard seeds and pepper, these savory scones are a delicious break from sweet breakfast and brunch options. I know this blog is full of recipes that cater to the sweet tooth. Heck! I even say in my side bar About Me “This blog is for anyone who has ever skipped dinner just to have an extra portion of dessert” It is true. It is firstly a dessert / cake / cookies blog. But that doesn’t mean I should throttle my creative juices and not try something savory if the inspiration strikes. By some stroke of luck if it actually tastes good, I can’t not share just because I subtly proclaimed that this is a dessert lovers blog. Sharing is good. Sharing encourages all sorts of good and bad exchange of ideas. When we share, we contribute to the collective consciousness of this world. I feel blessed and inspired to be part of a time when sharing knowledge, creativity, ideas is a click of a button away. I open my […]

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Breakfast Treats, Healthier Baking

One-Bowl Breakfast Brownie

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Breakfast Banana Brownie

Banana breakfast brownie is all your favorite breakfast things in a delectable brownie form! Banana, peanut butter, chocolate, coconut –simply throw everything in a bowl, whisk it and you have amazing chocolate – banana brownies!  Oh yes, it happened! No point in living in denial anymore. We started with scorn, which gradually turned to surprise, which soon turned to shock and disbelief and has culminated in anger and disappointment. The long news channel speculations are over. Facebook and fake news have been blamed. The angry SM tirades and repartees are done. It gave us numerous new GIFs and a series of Women’s Marches which will go down in history. Now we keep vigil. Meanwhile personally, I had a nice week where I celebrated by X bday (Yes, I am at that age where I feel I must censor it in public!!) which was basically an excuse to get dressed up and go for a super nice 3 course dinner and make a 4 layer cake of Guinness, chocolate, brown butter and Whiskey caramel. Yes, it was boozy themed since I don’t go out to drink and party as much anymore, and so this was my way of jamming 90% of […]

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Cookies, Desserts

A Very Grapefruit-y Trifle

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Grapefruit curd

Grapefruit is in season and many of us may have a bitter-sour relationship with it, but in dessert form it transforms into a sweet, tart, bright fruit that is far from the diet-food version of itself. Full disclosure – I struggled with this one. In my very first FBC newsletter I came across the call for recipe round-ups for January. It is citrus month and by the time I saw the mail, the deadlines for lemon and orange had already passed. Ofcourse I wanted orange. Who doesn’t want orange! Grapefruit and lime were still open opportunities so after giving it a thorough thought, I decided to go with grapefruit. Primarily because I have this hate-hate relationship with the fruit that began in Dubai when I went through a crash diet phase where I force-fed myself half a grapefruit every morning, before coffee! Yikes. I had held on to that for way too long. It was time to let go. Challenge myself and all! I had this amazing idea of making grapefruit kulfi. I did make grapefruit kulfi after grilling and pureeing the fruit and cooking the milk down to half and freezing the weird concoction that seemed wrong even before […]

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Cakes, Desserts

Golden Milk Cake

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Golden Milk Turmeric Cake

Golden Milk Cake is the ‘cake’ version of golden milk or turmeric spice milk. It is warming and cozy and light and fluffy and full of aromatic spices. The cardamom glaze is sweet and sticky with a heady fragrance. To be honest, I am feeling like I am going back to office after two weeks of fun, awesome, indulgent holidays. You know, like it is my very first day at my first job and I know nothing, I am clueless about what to do, how to do and so I switch on my assigned computer, grab a mouse and rotate it on the screen or click random folders frantically to look busy. I feel the pressure of 2017 on me! Especially for the blog, like I need to give it more validation by investing more time and energy into it. And often, with stress comes, turmoil, indecisiveness, nail biting, day-dreaming and total blanket blankness. I planned to work on my new calendar – nothing, I planned to do a couple of recipes in advance – blank, I planned to study and experiment with Pinterest – nada. From time to time I find myself in this state of blank immobility. I […]

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Cakes

Brown Butter Skillet Cake

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Brown Butter Coffee Cake

Brown butter gives this cake a nutty aroma and a buttery crumb. Baked in a cast iron skillet, it has wonderfully chewy, caramelized edges.   OMG, can you believe all the amazing things popping up on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest in prep for Christmas?? Since I am only a few months into blogging – following a thousand food bloggers and watching all the social media platforms – I am mostly filled with awe at the effort that all the awesome bloggers take, the abundance of creativity, the hard work that shines through. I spend most of the time with my mouth open in amazement and pools of saliva forming over the awesome creations. I want to be invited over to everyone’s house to share their meals and be on all the cookie-exchange lists so I can sample everything! Does everyone feel the same way? Even the seasoned bloggers? What I have here is not a Christmas-sy cookie, a festive cake, a spiced libation, a rich fancy dessert to feed a crowd or a cute house made of cookie! It is a ‘slow-down’ cake – a simple, quick to make cake, ideal for all those who work so hard to make Christmas […]

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Cookies

Thyme Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookies

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Christmas Cookies - Thyme and Poppy seed Shortbread

Butter is infused with thyme.  A little sweet, a little savory, these thyme poppy seed shortbread cookies are great for gifting or simply to make your home smell festive. While growing up, we did not really have the tradition of receiving gifts from ‘Santa’. We got a new dress, lots of good food and Santa would visit along with church carolers to do a merry dance and give us candy. My mom and aunt would make lots of homemade sweets and we distributed that amongst friends and neighbours. Keeping that tradition, while I was in Dubai, I started giving my friends homemade chocolate truffles. There is something so special about homemade / DIY style gifts. Whether it is fancy craftsy stuff from talented DIYers or just cookies or truffles or cake. Simple, sweet, made with love and care. And you avoid all the frenzied holiday shopping! This year I decided to give truffles a rest and make cookies instead for gifting. Steve’s aunt makes a really good gingerbread, his mom makes delicious eastern European crescent cookies. So, I combined flavors I like and made these thyme poppy seed shortbread cookies I was inspired by Teresa Floyd’s recipe for pink peppercorn […]

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Cakes, Desserts

Chocolate Cupcakes with Spiced Chocolate German Buttercream

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Chocolate German Buttercream

The spiced chocolate German buttercream inspired by cozy fall evenings and Mexican hot chocolate, takes these moist and decadent chocolate cupcakes to new level of indulgence. Did I mention there will be some spicing up going on here? Here comes another one – for cozy, rainy, chilly or somber days when you feel like cuddling up with a spiced warm chocolate-y beverage but the craving does not stop there and you also need a decadent frosting-y cake but then you are terrified of your uptight self who will judge you for your weakness. Well it happens to the best of us! I am in one of those moods, not because of the weather – luckily we have been having gorgeous, sunshiny, crisp days here in Toronto, but because I have been thinking about concepts of happiness and reaching for more or reaching within yourself to find more, and transformation and courage and beauty and basically giving life a big hug! No, I am not having a mid-life crisis. And no, I usually don’t sit around with these thoughts for fun. I read this beautiful article on experiencing happiness by my very good friend and sister-in-law and it makes me smile […]

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