Cake Lollipops / Cake Pops (My Way) - Happy Friendship Day!!

Cake pops are balls made out of crumbled cakes , coated with candy melts / chocolate on the outside pricked in a lollipop stick. Ever since I saw the site bakerella......making cakepops were a dream to me. Last week the bug bit me hard that I wanted to try it right away....I know we dont get candy melts here, I didnt even have the lollipop sticks or the cooking chocolate. So let me admit, this is a fool proof method for making cake pops but sure a delicious lollipop :) Now before my cake pops story let me wish all my readers and friends a very happy friendship day!!

Friendship day was at its best during college days.....No enough space in the wrist for even bangles.....so much of friendship bands, wishes,cards, gifts and what not?! After I entered into the corporate world, friendship day was just another day except for the wishes through phone calls.....to close friends.

Its been years I've flipped through the greeting cards that I had received. I felt nostalgic while dusting down the bags for taking the cards and bands for this post. It just took me a while to those days.....a short rewind I would say! Will that not be nice if we have a rewind button in life?! :)

Now coming back to cake pops : I discussed the idea of making it with my friend who owns a sweet cum bakery shop.....he gave me few tips and suggested to use cooking chocolate...I tried in Nilgiris(the only store I get all my baking items in CBE) but no luck :( But the cashewnut me ;) went ahead with milky bar even after his warning. I made the cake balls as per the instructions, melted the chocolate and dipped the cake balls...then came the disaster the cake balls stuck to it and started crumbling :( Hearing me a bit upset, my friend even said he will courier the cooking chocolate...But being a working mother getting only weekends for the luxury of clicking and making ready for special posts like this......I coudnt accept his offer. Special thanks to him for encouraging me to try again even after this flop. I will surely try the cakepops, the orginal way and post it here :)

Then came the idea of making the cake pops my way!! And all smiles there I went and made the cake pops with the remaining cake balls and clicked it too :) I made a simple frosting and drizzled few edible color beads on the already made cake balls. I used the toothpicks to make it like a lollipop and here is the cakepops in my very own way!! This is the first time I am trying to frost using a nozzle....and was pretty excited to do it.

As a food blogger I always have had the thought of using mittu for my pics but as a mother its a big NO :) But this time I took few pics with her and I should say she cooperated so well as she was keen on admiring the cake pops and I utilised it completely :)

Cake Lollipops / Cake Pops Recipe:

This makes 4 cake pops

Ingredients :

For the cake balls :

• Chocolate cake - 1 piece
• Butter - 2 tbsp
• Icing Sugar - 3 tsp

For the frosting:

• Butter - 2 tbsp
• Icing Sugar - 3 tsp
• Food color - a drop (I used pink)
• Edible Color beads - 1 tsp

Method:

1. First crumble the cake, keep aside. Mix butter and icing sugar and beat well until fluffy. Add the butter sugar mixture to the crumbled cake and mix well. Gather to form small balls. Refrigerate atleast for 2 hours.
2. Then for the frosting mix butter, sugar and food color. Beat well, fill them in piping cones with a star nozzle and pipe it on the refrigerated cake balls. Just drizzle colored beads. Your cake pops are ready!!

The actual method:

After the cake balls are ready refrigerated, melt the chocolate and dip one end of the stick into the melted chocolate, tap off the excess and insert into the rolled cake balls pricking a little less than half way. Again refrigerate it for 30mins to make it set. You cake pops are ready to be enjoyed!! :)

My Notes:

• The cake balls should be as firm as possible says bakerella so refrigerating atleast for an hour is surely recommended.
• Use cooking chocolate or candy melts for the outer layer.

Hope you all had a great sunday and a friendship day! See you soon with the next post, till then have a great week ahead!

Eggless Mango Cake / Mango Loaf Bread

I wanted to utilise the mango season completely and no mango recipe collection is complete with a mango cake...Agree?! I have seen mango cakes, muffins and bread in so many blogs and when I wanted to try I went ahead searching for them. The one that suited my constraints(Yes I wanted a low fat version) was the mango banana bread from litebite. I am always amazed by her low fat baking goodies that I went ahead to try this with few modifications to suit my taste and it turned out super good.

Eggless Mango Cake (Mango Loaf Bread)

Recipe Source : Litebite.in



Ingredients:

• Maida - 1 cup (150 gms)
• White Rava(fine variety) - 1/2 cup (100 gms)
• Mango - 1 big sized
• Walnuts chopped - 2 tbsp
• Granulated Sugar - 3/4 cup (200 gms)
• Curd - 1/4 cup (60 ml)
• Olive oil - 2 tbsp
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Salt - a pinch
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Chop the mangoes and puree it without water to get a thick pulp. Keep aside.
2. Sift maida, baking soda, baking powder and salt atleast twice for even spread of baking powder and soda.Now add rava to the maida mixture, keep aside.
3. In a seperate bowl, add oil,yogurt, mango pulp, cardamom powder,sugar and mix well till sugar is completely dissolved.
4. Now add the curd mango mixture to rava maida mixture slowly and mix until a thick batter is formed. Add chopped walnuts and mix once. Reserve 1 tbsp of walnuts for topping.
5. Preheat the oven at 190 deg C for 10mins. Meanwhile grease the pan with little oil and sprinkle maida. Arrange butter paper if you use it(I use for most of the cake for easy unmoulding).
6. Transfer the batter to the cake pan. Top the cake batter with remaining chopped walnuts and bake it for 35-40mins at 190 degree C.In my OTG it took exactly 40mins for the mango bread to get baked.
7. The top would have turned to a golden brown color by this time. Check with a toothpick in the center of the cake and if it comes out clean then ur cake is done.Cool it for atleast 15mins before you unmould and slice them

I dont miss to use a butter paper these days as its mess free to unmould and cleaning the pan is also easy. For the tart mould I didnt even grease but still unmoulding was super easy.



My Notes:

• I used a bread loaf pan and 3 small tart moulds.You can use a normal cake pan but see to it that the pan is as big as to hold the batter only to 1/2 or slightly more than the pan .
• The baking time totally depends on the cake mould and the oven, usually my bread loaf pan takes a little longer so it took me 40mins. So keep an eye after 30mins and then extend baking time accordingly.
• The cake in the tart moulds were done in 20mins. Only the bread loaf pan took 40mins to complete.So if you are planning for muffins it will take just 20-30mins.
• Adding sooji gives a wonderful texture to the cake. Mango and cardamom combination is heavenly so dont skip it.
• The orginal recipe calls for only 1/2 cup sugar but I felt my mangoes were not that sweet so I used 3/4 cup and it was perfect.
• As the cake uses mango pulp, it keep well only for 2 days. Dont refrigerate the cake, as it would become hard.

Mango, curd and rava gives a wonderful texture to the cake/bread that the cake came out beyond my expectation that everyone loved it at home. The nutty crunch in every bite tasted out of the world...yummmy.

The mango bread looked so lovely that my camera didnt stop clicking at all :) The smell of the mango cake while it was baking was too gud that I cudnt move out of the kitchen. Usually I like cutting cakes into pieces and when it comes to slicing breads I just luv them and this cakes texture was just perfect to make slices. Trust me and go ahead to try this cake.

Making a blog post has become like one of my daily chores these days and I feel so much contented after making each new post and each comment I moderate justifies the hard work I put in for that post. Thank you readers :)

Masala Biscuits / Khara Biscuits (Savoury Crackers)

Masala biscuits were on my to do list since long. I had almost bookmarked 4-5 recipes but finally went ahead with this one for the main reason that this recipe called for less butter :) when compared to others.

Masala Biscuits Recipe:

Recipe Source : Nammaruchi

Makes 30-35 small square sized biscuits

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 cup (150 gms)
• Butter - 4 tbsp
• Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
• Curry leaves - 1 tbsp torn into pieces (optional)
• Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp chopped finely
• Green chillies - 2 chopped finely
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 1/2 tsp
• Milk - 4 tbsp (Adjust according to the consistency of the dough)

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl, add flour with butter (at room temperature) , rub it gently until it resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Now add salt,sugar, curryleaves, corinader leaves, sesame seeds, green chillies and milk. Knead it to a stiff dough closely like a chapathi dough.
3. Flour the surface and roll the dough thin of about 1/4 inch thickensss.Cut with cookie cutter with desired shapes. I used the cutter at the back of the spoon with design and cut into small squares.
4. Collect the scraps and repeat the process until you are done with the entire dough.Prick the biscuits with fork to avoid puffing up.
5. Preheat the oven at 180 deg C for 10mins. Meanwhile arrange the biscuits in a baking tray with butter paper.
6. Bake the biscuits for about 15-20 mins. Keep an eye after 15mins.Once taken out of the oven, the biscuits are soft, when cooled down they become crispy.

My Notes :

• You can add mint leaves too for the extra flavour.
• Dont estimate the biscuits soon after they are taken from the oven and overbake it. I tell you, they are soft when hot...once cooled down they are crispy. If you overbake the biscuits they will be hard.
• Increase the green chillies according to your spice level.
• These are perfect to go for teatime
• The more thin you roll out the crispier the cookies will come
• Store in airtight container and it keeps well for about a week
• You can replace butter with oil, but adjust milk accordingly to make a stiff dough
• Ajwain / omam or jeera can also be added.

The aroma that comes when the biscuits are baked is absolutely heavenly. This recipe can be tweaked to make the normal salt and sweet biscuits as in the orginal recipe which I've tried too. These masala biscuits are highly addictive and you cant stop with one or two :)

I got around 30-35 small square crackers. The quantity totally depends on the size of the crackers. The orginal recipe is for ajwain/omam biscuits which I used as a base for my masala biscuits and they turned out super good.

Almond Oats Cookies

Cookies are always my favorite slightly crunchy and soft making it perfect to pair with a cup of coffee. I've already made oats cookies and this is a total different version I tried from Litebite long back. I like these cookies for its simplicity and easiness to make......

Almond Oats Cookies Recipe

Recipe Reference : Litebite

Ingredients:

• Almond powdered - 1/4 cup
• Oats - 1 cup
• Wheat flour - 1/4 cup
• Honey - 1/4 cup
• Curd - 2 tbsp
• Vanilla/Almond essence - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Powder the almonds using a mixer to a coarse powder and keep aside. Then powder oats to a fine powder.
2. In a wide bowl, mix oats with wheat flour, powdered almonds, honey and essence. Add curd little by little to make a soft dough which should hold together easily. If 2tbsp isnt enough add little more till it forms a dough.
3. Cover the dough with a plastic wrapper and refrigerate for 1hr.
4. Pinch small sized balls , make them into smooth balls then flatten them a little with your palm and then press with a fork to flatten a little more and to get the lines
5. Arrange them in a baking tray lined wit butter paper/cookie sheet such that there is atleast 2 inches gap between each cookie
6. 
   Preheat oven at 180 deg C for 10mins and bake them for 15-20mins. Check after 15mins, the bottom and the sides turns slightly browned.
7. The cookies at this stage is softer but dont overbake them it will harden after cooling down. The cookies are slightly crispy and more crunchier in texture.

My Notes:

• Adjust adding curd , add it little by little till it forms a dough. Honey with almonds and oats gives a nice flavour to the cookies
• Do not be tempted to overbake the cookies seeing the texture once removed from the oven. Just confirm by checking the sides and bottom. If you overbake then the cookies will be hard
• The orginal recipe called for almond meal which can be prepared by washing them, drying them and then powdering to a coarse powder in a blender.
• You can use powdered sugar replacing honey, but sure honey gives an extra flavour
• You can flatten the cookies even more thinner and bake them for a little lower time say 12-15mins

Since I baked these cookies, its been regular as its low in fat and mainly very easy to fold in all the ingredients....tada you are done with your cookies. Perfect with a cup of coffee as its mildy sweet.

Lookwise its a bit crumbly but I powdered my oats and almonds to a little powdery form so my cookies were smooth.

Baking cookies always cheer me up as the first baked item in my oven was cookies and the first thing I messed up was the same cookies :) So whenever I get them right I feel proud and happy :)

Eggless Choco Coffee Cake

I made this cake in Feb for our wedding anniversary but didnt post it as I reserved the post for Rajis (fondly called as Raks) birthday tomorrow :) as she loves coffee cake too. I kept up this surprise as I tend to spill the beans everytime I talk to her ;). Yes I cant keep secrets with friends even when surprises are called for...but finally did it for her :)

Happy Birthday dear Raji!!

Raji fondly called as Raks in the blog world never fails to amaze me everytime she posts a recipe. She is my best critic when it comes to food photography which has made me improve so much. My guru when it comes to DSLR doubts, we both have the same brand so discuss even the technical specifications of the camera.

So here is a virtual treat for your birthday , hope you enjoy it and have a great day tomorrow!

Ingredients:

• All Purpose flour - 2 cups (300 gms)
• Baking powder - 1 and 1/4 tsp
• Granulated Sugar - 1 cup (250 gms)
• Butter - 1 tbsp
• Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
• Condensed milk - 1 tbsp (optional)
• Milk - 1.5 cups (375 ml)
• Coco powder - 1 tbsp
• Instant Coffee powder - 2 tbsp (I used Nescafe sunrise)

Method:

1. Sieve maida, baking powder , cocoa and coffee powder twice for even mixing and keep aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, add milk, vanilla essence, butter, sugar, condensed milk and mix well until sugar completely dissolves. Now add the sieved maida mixture little by little and mix well until a creamy batter without lumps is formed.
3. Preheat oven at 180 deg C for 10mins. Grease the baking tin with butter and maida, tap the excess flour, pour the batter in the tin such that the batter is more than 1/2 or close to 3/4th of the tin and bake it for 35-40mins.
4. Insert a fork in the middle of the cake to check if the cake is done. If it comes out clean then your cake is ready.
5. Allow it to cool for 10mins then invert the tin, the cake will demould itself perfectly.

My Notes:

• You can add 3tbsp of coffee powder and omit coco powder completely.
• It is a teatime snack cake so it is mildy sweet. You can increase the sugar to 1.5 cups if you want the cake to taste like the regular cakes.
• You can also add chocolate sauce as topping or have the cake as such.
• The coffee and chocolate(coco) flavour compliments each other so well.
• Choose a tin such that the batter is more than 1/2 or close to 3/4th of the tin.

Coffee flavour is everyones favourite at home except amma but she too enjoyed the cake as it had the chocolate flavour in it. If you like ur cake to be mildly sweet with the soft texture then this is for u. And must say, it is for all choco coffee lovers!

Oats Cookies / Oats Cornflakes Cookies

I tried these oats cookies sometime back and in the same week I tried it twice one with the orginal measurement and the next time a low fat version. I liked both of them as I luv oats in any form, so me and amma enjoyed these cookies and it was emptied in no time that I baked another batch just for click sake :) It is sure a keeper and a winning recipe!!

I tried these cookies from 4th Sense Cooking and wanted to post it on her special day...Happy Bday Nithi!! :) Hope you have a wonderful day as wonderful as you are!!

Yay!! Finally I got my measuring cups set the pink ones u see in these pics....All these days I had only 1 cup and 1/2 cup with which I used to measure manually. Though it didnt let me down in most of my baked goodies I was crazy and keen in getting a set. The most common ones I found in Chennai was a red set and I didnt want in red so was waiting....

After moving to CBE, I almost visited all branches of Nilgiris and finally when I found it in Race Cource branch, my joy knew no bounds. These days I feel so happy in shopping for mittu and Sharmis Passions than for myself. Thanks to hubby for taking so much strains to get me these cups.

Okay with no further delay onto the recipe :) The recipe is very simple and quick to make

Ingredients:

• Oats - 3/4 cup
• Cornflakes - 1/4 cup
• All purpose flour - 3 tbsp
• Brown sugar - 1/4 cup
• Butter/cooking oil - 1/4 cup
• Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Grind oats, brown sugar and cornflakes each seperately to a fine powder and keep it aside.



2. Beat butter and powdered sugar until creamy. Then add powdered oats, cornflakes,maida, salt and make a dough. Flatten it slightly and wrap it in a plastic sheet and chill it for 15mins.



3. Take out the dough, pinch equal balls from it and roll them smoothly as possible then press it lightly with your palm with less pressure. Then dip the fork in flour and press it slightly to get those lines on your cookies.



4. Preheat oven to 180 deg C to 10mins. Meanwhile line a baking tray and place these cookies leaving atleast 1/4 inch gap between each cookie.



5. Bake the cookies for 15-20mins(not more than that) till the base turns golden brown. Cool them and then store it in airtight container and enjoy ur cookies!

Low fat version Ingredients:

• Oats - 3/4 cup
• Cornflakes - 1/4 cup
• Brown sugar - 1/4 cup
• Wheat Flour - 3 tbsp
• Milk - little less than 1/4 cup (add and adjust accordingly)
• Salt - a pinch

The method is the same as above. These low fat cookies are a bit chewy and crunchier while the orginal cookies are crispier. These are light teatime cookies and goes well with a hot cup of coffee.

My Notes :

• Do not forget to leave sufficient gap between each cookies else the cookies will loose its shape.



• The smoother the balls you make, your cookies will have less cracks. But still oats and cornflakes are crumbly in texture so will definitely have few cracks atleast , but our aim is to minimise it :)



• Add a tsp of milk if your dough isnt getting together - adjust accordingly.



• You can skip cornflakes and make it as plain oats cookies. If skipping cornflakes add 1 cup oats.

This click below was kind of intentional, most of the time my photoshoot is with mittu around. This time she was very tempted to see the sugar being placed so kept on trying to reach it while I was restricting her. At one stage I finally asked her to come and take while making myself ready for the click :)

See my little ant reaching for the sugar :)

I have tried many dishes from Nags Edible Garden, but this Corn in Onion Sauce is my fav so I am sending this to Blogger marathon event

Vanilla Chocolate Yo Yo Biscuits

Yo-Yo!! I've made these biscuits thrice so far as its everyones favourite at home including my little one. Inspite of the amount of butter the recipe calls, I am addicted to its taste. My lil one likes it without cream so I sandwiched the cream only for few biscuits as I too dont like cream in biscuits.

I was very surprised and happy when my lil one refused to have the bakery bought butter biscuit after she had these yo yo.......Wat else can make the best compliment for a mother?!

Vanilla Chocolate Yo Yo Biscuits

Recipe Source : My Diverse Kitchen

Makes 25-30 biscuits

Ingredients:

For the biscuits:

• Maida - 1 cup
• Powdered Sugar - 1/4 cup
• Butter, softened - 125 gms
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Vanilla flavoured custard powder - 1/4 cup

For the cream:

• Butter, softened - 25 gms
• Powdered sugar - 1/4 cup
• Coco Powder - 2 tsp
• Custard powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Mix custard powder and maida, keep aside. Cream butter and sugar until creamy, add vanilla essence to it.



2. Now add custard powder, maida to butter sugar mixture and mix well to form smooth dough.Chill the dough for 30mins.



3. The dough would be firm by this time. Now pinch off equal bits and roll them into balls and press it lightly with the fork dipped in flour to get the marks on top. Repeat this for the entire dough and place them in the baking tray.



4. Chill the biscuits until preheating time. Preheat the oven to 170 deg C for 10mins. Now bake the biscuits for 15-17mins. Allow them to cool completely.



5. Now add the ingredients under buttercream and beat well until creamy. Sandwich the cream between 2 biscuits and enjoy your yoyo biscuits. Store it in airtight container.

My Notes :

• Do not be tempted to overbake, it will make the cookies loose the melt in the mouth texture.



• Try to make balls with no cracks, so that your biscuits would be smooth when you press them with fork.The biscuits stay crispy for about a week in room temperature itself.



• You can also keep the buttercream , apply it whenever u need instead of applying and storing it.



• I reduced the sugar level for the cream part as the biscuits are already sweet themselves.You can increase it of you want your cream to be more sweeter.

These biscuits just melt in the mouth so take care not to overbake. It has a unique taste and custard powder adds a different flavour to these biscuits. I havent tasted any biscuit with custard flavour so instantly got addicted to its taste.

Once it cools down, store in airtight container to enjoy the crispness for a week. These biscuits tastes good even without the cream, and cream adds an extra touch to these cuties. These biscuits are named after the famous yoyo toy .

Eggless Hearty Jam Biscuits

I baked these biscuits last week and these biscuits were a instant hit at home. I had valentines day in mind so planned for this post in advance :) Will you believe I took around 500 pics in 3 schedules and most of them dissatisfied me, but finally selected these....:)

U want & u get, that's luck,

U want & u wait, that's time.

U want but u compromise, that's life.

U want & u wait & u don't compromise that's LOVE!!

Happy Valentines Day!!

Eggless Hearty Jam Biscuits Recipe

Recipe Source : Divine Taste

Makes 25-30 biscuits

Ingredients:

• Maida - 1 cup
• Custard Powder - 3/4 cup
• Thick Curd - 1/4 cup (adjust according to the dough consistency)
• Butter - 2 tbsp
• Icing Sugar - 1/2 cup
• Cornflour - 1 tbsp
• Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp
• Mixed Fruit Jam - As required

Method:

1. Mix maida, cornflour and custard powder, keep aside.Soft butter, add sugar to it and cream well. Then add curd, vanilla essence and beat well until creamy.



2. Then add custard powder mixture to the butter sugar mixture and make it to soft dough. If your dough is sticky add little maida to make it a soft pilable dough.



3. Roll the dough on a flat surface using chapathi roller for about 5mm thickness. Then cut out shapes using cookie cutter. Collect the remaining dough and repeat the process.



4. Preheat oven to 180 deg C for 10mins. Meanwhile make a small dent in the middle of all the biscuits using a small round lid and apply a very thin layer of jam in it.Arrange it in a baking tray with aluminium foil lined.



5. Bake it for 12-15mins at 180 deg C. Allow it to cool and store them in airtight container.

My Notes:

• As I reduced the butter and replaced it with curd, the biscuits slightly puffed up, oozing out jam. So in the next batch I applied a very thin layer of jam.



• Though the butter is reduced, the crispness is perfect. The only difference I found with reducing butter was that the biscuits started to soften after 3 days. I'm sure it will stay crispy for more time when the orginal mentioned quantity of butter is added.



• I used mixed fruit jam, you can use your favorite flavour of jam. But mixed fruit went well with the custard powder flavour.

I am sure this is a kid pleaser as my lil one enjoyed it to the core. Though she first licked only the jam, later she liked the taste of the biscuits too.