It's Easy....It's Colorful....It's Dessert....It's Wiggly too...

If you guessed Jello....you are right......a dessert is wiggly if it's made out of gelatin or in this part of the world more commonly known as Jello, no matter what U do it's gonna wiggle. First of all let me clear one thing, it's easy as it's no cooking required dessert other then boiling water BUT it's a time consuming process. If U gonna do all the layers it will take U approximately 2 hours(at least 75% of the time is waiting period, but U need to be around, as this waiting period is divided into several 10-15 minute periods ) but end result is so cute looking, nothing less then an art work.  Kids gonna love it but adults also won't say no to it. Last week few weeks few months back(I'm lazy but finally I've completed the post :) ) while blog hopping I found this blog and she have this cute collection of jello creations that first look at this picture & I knew it, I'll be making it soon. You really have to look at her pictures as they are so neat& clean, in my case bottom layer stuck a little bit but hers are so impressive.

It's a simple recipe, not even a recipe in fact a procedure. I'm only giving the recipe here because I cut it down to half as I knew it's gonna be lot of jello for our family. So, instead of 9x13 dish I made it in 8 inch square Pyrex dish. Now, as I divided the recipe, I did a lot of measuring :) & somewhere I believe went little wrong(may be the dish size or eye balling the half can of condensed milk) so my milk layer was not very thick, but nothing to hold U back from picking that master piece to eat.....

Note : It was still a lot of Jello for our family of 4, but good thing is it can be kept in the fridge and it taste good even after 3-4 days. It's good dessert for a party, U can make it ahead of time and impress your guests with your artwork.

Note directly from the original recipe source : Please make sure you have a level refrigerator!

Click here for Original recipe.

What I used :

• 1 - 3 oz. pack of  Red Jello, divided in two equal parts
• 1 - 3 oz. pack of  Blue Jello, divided in two equal parts
• 1/2 can of Condensed milk
• 2 packets of unflavoured gelatin(I use Knox brand)
• Boiling water
• 5 small bowls ( or use 2 & U can wash & dry one after each Jello layer)

Note : 1 pack of Unflavoured gelatin is needed to be divided in 4 parts. 1 pack is around 2&1/4 tsp. so I simply used 1/2 tsp. every time in each jello layer.

What I did :

Jello Layer :

1. Mix one half (1.5 ounce) package of Jello with 1/4 package of Knox. (see the note above).
2. Add half cup boiling water and stir to dissolve.
3. Cool to room temperature and pour into dish(8 inch square Pyrex dish).
4. Refrigerate 15 minutes until solid enough for next layer.

Milk Layer:

1. In a large bowl, mix half can sweetened condensed milk with half cup boiling water.
2. In a small bowl, place 1/4 cup cold water. Sprinkle 1 package of  unflavored gelatin on the water. Allow to sit for a 2-3 minutes for gelatin to bloom. Add 1/4 cup boiling water to dissolve the gelatin.
3. Combine the dissolved gelatin with the milk mixture. 
4. Now, the milk mixture is ready again we gonna use it in 3 equal parts, total mixture is around one & a half cup.
5. Once cool to room temperature  pour half a cup over the Jello mixture(which was set in the fridge). Refrigerate 15 minutes until solid enough for next layer.

• Repeat Jello and Milk layers (starting and ending with Jello)
• Refrigerate little longer after final layer to make sure that Jello is fully set and cut into desired shapes.

IF you don't want to spend this much time, here's a simple version I usually do from long time back(in fact this pic is also from my initial days of blogging). I always love to do it with fresh fruits but U can certainly do it without any fruits.

Winner of $60 giveaway and Strawberry + Blueberry Preserve / Jam

First of all thanks to all the readers who took time out to browse thru my recipes and left the comment on the previous post, really meant a lot to me. Now, for the winner as you all know there can be only one so I took help of my daughter to pick one. Yes, I'm little old fashioned still have not figured out(read it as lazy also) how to use Random.org so wrote all the names on piece of paper, folded each piece of paper, mixed together in a bowl, picked one and Congrats to Eve for winning $60 gift certificate from CSN. I'll send you an email with all the details, enjoy your win and Thanks to CSN for giving me the opportunity to host this giveaway.

Now for today's recipe here's a simple Strawberry and Blueberry Preserve/Jam.

Simple ingredients no fancy stuff, I'm making this from almost last 5 yrs. One of his Aunt when she visited us from dehradun-India(hub for strawberry cultivation in India) gave me this simple recipe, since then I usually make it every other week in strawberry season. My husband doesn't like store bought Jams/Preserve but this is one home-made preserve he eats with everything. I even freeze it for couple of months(I don't do canning) when I get big supply of strawberries, just thaw it in the fridge before use(see notes). I prefer to keep it in the fridge and it goes well with pancakes, as a spread on toasted bread, on top of ice cream or simply spoonful from jar to mouth. Now for the recipe :

What U need :

• 
  
  1 pound of fresh strawberries
• 
  
  1/2 cup fresh blueberries
• 
  
  3/4 to 1 cup white sugar (depending upon the sweetness of berries)
• 
  
  juice of half a lemon

What U do :

1. 
   
   Wash all the berries. Hull the strawberries & roughly chop the strawberries.
2. 
   
   In a heavy bottom steel pan(non-reactive) put all the berries and mix sugar in it. Let it sit for 3-4 hours.
3. 
   
   On a medium heat bring the berry mixture to a boil add lemon juice & let everything cook together till it becomes thick & glossy, keep stirring in between.
4. 
   
   Once the fruit is cooked & all soft you can mash it with the back side of your spoon, that way it's still chunky but don't have too big pieces of fruit. It might take around 20-30 minute or so to cook the whole thing depending upon how juicy the fruit is. Once cool transfer it to sterilized jar. 

Note : You can easily leave the blueberries out for only strawberry version. Also this is not very sweet, it's more of sweet & tangy in taste but if U like more sweeter version U can simply increase the quantity of sugar. For freezing I usually portion it into roughly 2 week supply & fill it into glass bottles and don't fill to the brim, because when it freeze it expands so need extra space otherwise the bottle will crack. I usually fill 3/4 of the bottle.

As I'm writing this post, in my mind I'm planning to make a fresh batch of this preserve in the morning as the one made last week is already finished, little one enjoyed licking it from the plate. So go ahead and try it at least once before the strawberry season slips away.

Mango Ice-cream & Coffee Ice cream

Now a days we are enjoying pure home made ice cream treats as lunch, specially when outside temperature is in 90's. Kids don't want to eat lunch specially when they are slepping till 10 in the morning & by the time they finish their breakfast or I should call it brunch it's almost noon. So, as soon as one batch is made, plan for next batch is already in discussion.....so Mom do U think we can make choc. flavour next time. I'm only the incharge of making sure that we have enough supplies on hand as the credit for this delicious ice cream goes to my 8 yr. old & her Dad. Now for the recipe :

What U need :

• 3/4 cup whole milk, chilled
• 3/4 cup regular sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream, chilled
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract(optional)
• pulp from 2 medium size mangoes, chilled

What U do :

• Using a blender puree the mango pulp, use pulse if u like little pieces in it, keep aside.
• Using a hand mixer or a whisk combine the milk & granulated sugar, until it dissolved.
• Stir in heavy cream & vanilla to taste.
• If using ice cream maker follow the instructions of the ice cream maker. Towards the last 10 minutes of churning add chilled mango pulp & once done(usually whole process takes about 35 min.) transfer it to air-tight containers & let it freeze for at least 2 hours or so.
• If U don't have ice cream maker blend everything together including mango pulp & let it set in the freezer in air tight container & every couple of hours take it out whip the ice cream(to break the ice crystals), freeze it again. Repeat the process for at least 3 more times.

Here's a pic of Coffee Ice cream with home made brownie bits as topping(Coffee + Chocolate nothing can beat the combination). For coffee version omit mango pulp & blend 3 tablespoon of instant coffee powder  with the mixture & during the last 5 minutes of churning process add 3 tablespoon of chopped semi sweet chocolate + 3 tablespoon of roasted chopped almonds.

Note : It's been 5 years since I'm using my Cuisinart ice cream maker but have never tried manual method but it's a common process & in my case comes from an experienced person who in his childhood has done lot of arm wrestling for this yummy cold treats, yes you guys guessed it right it's DH.....in fact he has some first hand experience of making "mutki wali kulfi" too.....but for that I'm gonna need matka first so till then I'm happy with my electronic ice-cream maker.

Eggless Chocolate Banana Cake with Toffee Bits

As the name say it's a Chocolate Banana Cake, but believe me it taste like chocolate cake only...moist & chocolaty. If you are like me who's not a big fan of baking with banana(b'coz they over power all other flavors) than this cake is for you. Even after eating 2 slices each DH & DD didn't noticed that cake has banana in it. You might be thinking if I don't like baking with banana than why did I baked this cake.........I froze 4 bananas couple of weeks back, as the whole family was under the attack of cough & cold & no one was eating them.....so took out two to make banana oat muffin & then came the sweet request "can U make chocolate cake instead, so that we can eat like cake slice". So here comes the cake......

What U need :

• 1 & 3/4 cup Cake flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tap. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3 Tblsp. cocoa powder
• 3 Tblsp. light brown sugar
• 1 cup + 1 Tblsp. milk
• 4 Tblsp. vegetable oil
• 4 Tblsp. semi sweet choc. chips
• 2 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

optional for filling & decoration :

• handful of semi sweet choc. chips
• handful of toffe bits

icing/glaze

• 4 Tblsp. cocoa powder
• 5 Tblsp. icing sugar
• approx. 4-6 spoons of warm water

What U do:

• Sift all the dry ingredients. Add sugar to it & mix it.
• Using microwave melt 4 Tblsp. of chco. chips along with 1 Tblsp. of milk. Stir it to make sure all the chips are melted. Let it cool.
• Add all the wet ingredients to the above melted chocolate.
• Now mix wet ingredients into dry ones & mix them gently, until well combined.
• Pour the batter into prepared deep round 8 in. cake tin or into two smaller cake tins(I used two 6 in. round pan).
• Bake at 325 degree F for about 1 hr.(do the toothpick test to check the doneness) if using deep pan. In case of smaller pans check around 22 min. or so, mine were done in 24 minutes.

After cake is cool, mix cocoa & icing sugar with warm water to make thick or thin icing as u like. Use less water for thick consistency.
Spread half of the icing on one layer of cake, spread it, spread  choc. chips & half of the toffee bits.
Stack the second layer on it & pour the icing on top of it & decorate with remaining toffee bits.

Note : 1) Cake is not very sweet as the amount of sugar used is very less but if U are planning to use icing than it's perfect.

2) Quantity of icing is not too much, it won't cover the whole cake(i mean all sides) but for our taste it was good enough, just to give you that little extra sweetness.

Needless to say half of the cake was vanished quickly, it was still warm when we ate it....yes I didn't had patience to wait for it to cool down completely, so I pour the icing when it was still warm & once it's ready it's hard not to eat...... so we had dessert before lunch......and we all loved it. Most important of all, other than me no body noticed(from the smell & taste) that it's a BANANA cake. And those two bananas in the picture are still waiting in the freezer for their turn, they only came out for the picture shoot.

Chocolate Cake with Whipped Icing & Buttercream decoration

I'm back.......kind of, it's been almost 3 weeks I was off the blogging, no particular reason just busy with the kids, being absent from the blogging gave me the feeling of bunking the classes.......hard to decide now ,how to come back, well made this cake past week, so decided to post it. During the past weeks, missed on reading all the wonderful posts on my favourite blogs, will surely try to catch up when ever I get some time. Here's what we baked  to celebrate DD's spring break : "Chocolate Cake".

I mainly followed the recipe from here, but instead of making it layered cake I halved the recipe & baked only one 8" round pan. Thou, the changes I made are very small but still I'm going to write down the ingredient list so that next time I don't have to do all the calculations again, if any of you want to make it 2 layer please check the original recipe that way it'll be more easy.

What U need :

• 3/4 cup of water
• 2 ounce unsweetened chocolate bar/chips (I used semi sweet so i decreased the quantity of sugar)
• 2 Tblsp. of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/ 2 cup unsalted butter(1 stick)
• 4&1/2 Tblsp. granulated sugar
• 4&1/2 Tblsp. light brown sugar (I used only 1 Tblsp. b'coz of semi sweet choc.)
• 1 whole large egg + 1 egg yolk (I use organic ones)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour (I used cake flour 1 cup + 2 Tblsp.)
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• pinch of salt

What U do :

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Grease & flour  pan.
2. In microwave heat water & chocolate chips, stir them to make a smooth mixture add cocoa powder & again whisk it till creamy & smooth, set aside & let it cool.
3. Sift flour + baking soda + salt.
4. Cream butter for a minute or so, add both sugars & beat it for another 2 minutes until light & fluffy.
5. Add one egg at a time. Mixing well after each addition.
6. Add the flour mixture & melted chocolate alternately, stirring well after each addition.
7. Pour it into prepared pan & bake it for around 20 minutes or so, mine was done in exactly 18 minutes. If  you use more or less batter, baking time will vary accordingly.

Now, baking a cake is one part, making it a real cake is next part. Yes, you guys read it right....A cake is not real if it doesn't have any frosting on it.....frosting on the cake makes it real cake, at least that's what my daughter says. At least once a week I bake cupcakes for her & whip up some heavy cream for her as a frosting and she loves that but once in a while I guess it's O.k to spend some extra time to decorate cake/cupcakes so kids feel extra special, so this was one of that kind of day. Result happy kids & happy mom & dad........well for two reasons one, she got a real cake and second,because I was busy experimenting with the icing so I get off from the dinner duty....NO....NO....No he didn't cooked but he was happy to bring home pizza. Finally the icing :

To frost the cake I used fresh whip cream : 1 & 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream + 3 Tblsp. of confectioner sugar, whipped together till a stiff peak is formed. Once you get the right thickness(stiff peak) stop, don't over beat it. Ice the cake and keep it in the fridge until you are ready to decorate.

Butter cream icing for decoration: 

• 3 Tblsp. unsalted butter
• 3 Tblsp. vegetable shortening( I use Crisco brand)
• 1 tsp. corn syrup
• 1 Tblsp. water
• 1/2 tsp. clear vanilla flavor
• 1 &1/2 to 2 cups of confectioner sugar
• pinch of salt

Cream butter, shortening, water, corn syrup & flavoring. Add dry ingredients(add only 1 & 1/2 cup at this point) and mix well, until creamy, taste & if feel more sugar needed add rest of the sugar you might need another tsp. of water if you are using all the sugar, beat until creamy. This process may take 5-10 minutes if using hand held beater, stand mixer makes the job little easier.

Divide the icing into two parts. Add 2-3 drops of red color to get the pink shade in one & mix it properly so that color is mixed well. Now to get the red shade it takes little extra color, in my case I ended up using at least 10-12 drops of red but still couldn't get rich dark color. But all that color made my icing little loose so I had to add extra tablespoon of confectioner sugar & mix it well(make sure no lumps are formed).

Using cookie cutters mark the pattern on the cake and finally prepare two pastry bags with each icing color and using different star tip # 13, 16, 21 fill  the design with stars and shells on the borders.

Note : As I'm using freshly whipped cream for frosting and also butter in the buttrecream icing, the decorated cake may not withstand the hot temperature. So, it's best to keep it in the fridge, take it out may be half an hour before you are ready to eat it.

I'm sending this cake to one of my favorite blogger Champa of Bangalore Baker for her ongoing Bake-Off event.

Sweet Saffron Rice and Awards

Sometime for no special reasons & without knowing we forget our traditions. Similar is the story with this dish, till this date I never made Sweet Saffron Rice, not that they are complicated or anything but somehow I never made it. Last week while talking to my Mom she told me that's it's Basant Panchami make sweet yellow rice, that's how we refer it in our family. Basant Panchami is a festival to celebrate the first day of spring(basant) and also celebrates the birthday of  Saraswati : Goddess of knowledge and arts. Yellow color of the energy giving Sun has a lot of importance in regard to this festival, the coming of Spring after a long and arduous winter, the mustard fields in bloom are a bright yellow, exuding the warmth of an imminent season of Basant or Spring. In north India people celebrate this special day with religious activities and also by wearing kesari(yellow/saffron color) clothes and making yellow color foods.

So, here you go Mom I did made sweet yellow rice on the basant panchami for the first time. And the sweet aroma of desi ghee, cardamons and saffron is really incomparable. My mom usually put thin slices of dry coconut(available at Indian grocery stores) for garnish, but I didn't used as I didn't had any.

What U need :

• 1/2 cup basmati rice soaked for around 20-25 minutes.
• 4 Tblsp. of sugar(add more if you like it really sweet).
• 2 green cardamons(elaichi), seeds taken out & crushed.
• 2 pinch of saffron(kesar) soaked in 2 Tblsp. of warm milk.
• handful of raisins(i used dry cranberries).
• handful of slivered almonds, toasted.
• 1 cup of water
• 1 Tblsp. of clarified butter(desi ghee)

What to do :

1. Drain rice.
2. Heat ghee in a heavy bottom pan, add cardamons and rice. Stir so that rice get coating of ghee.
3. Add raisins, sugar, saffron along with the milk and water.
4. Cover & cook the rice on medium, till all the water evaporates.
5. Garnish with toasted almonds & coconut(if using).

Note : If you don't have saffron, 2-3 drops of yellow food color can be used. Also once the rice are cooked, taste them for the sweetness, if needed add more sugar while they are still warm.

Time for Awards: My first regular visitor on this blog was SE of Denufood, she was the one who passed me my very first award and here are couple of more awards from her, Thanks dear for sharing them and being so nice and regularly not only visiting but taking time out to write few lines on each single post.

Rules for accepting the Kreative Blogger award :

1) Thank the person giving the award
2) Copy the award to your blog
3) Place a link to their blog
4) Name 7 things people don't know about you
5) Nominate 7 bloggers
6) Place a link to those bloggers
7) Leave a comment letting those bloggers know about the award

I would like to share these awards with :

1) Sidhhi of Cooked Dil Se....

2) Sowmya of Creative Saga

3) Sushma of Authentic Food Delights

4) Supriya of Redchillies

5) Sage of  SageCuisine

6) AshKuku  of Asra....Ashaon Ka.....

7) Gulmohar of Collaborative Curry

I just noticed my most of the blogger friends have name starting with "S" and now the list of 7 things people don't know about me :

1) Would love to have my own kitchen garden one day, till then I'm planting my herbs and veggies in the pots.

2) Can't watch T.V without reading some magazine or doing some crochet along with it.

3) Love fried foods, thanks to not properly ventilated kitchens here I don't fry often.

4) Love to start my day by taking all the veggies for the whole day, out of the fridge. Looking at the basket full of fresh veggies(though sometime they r in the fridge for almost a week) makes me happy.

5) Love to end my day doing some crochet/knitting even if it is for 10 minutes.

6) Not a health freak but believe everything in moderation is good.

7) I'm not an environmentalist but do my share in reducing, reusing and recycling. I try to use my own grocery bags but still end up with lot of produce bags as we mainly use fresh produce only. Below is the picture of plastic bag dispenser I made using used produce bags.

                          

Eggless Banana Marble Cake with no fat

An over-ripe banana, leftover coffee from the morning, complaint from husband : you don't make coffee cake anymore.......,hot oven ready to bake anything(after my home made Pav's), something(that's my DD's voice) telling me all the time, make chocolate cake......... that's how this cake is born. Well it's on the line of marble cake so basically half of the batter is chocolate & half is regular, I'm not calling it white or vanilla as because of banana & coffee the color of regular one was also toward light brown. Very easy to make, no fat used, hardly took me 6-7 minutes to put it together, here's how it goes :

Ingredients :

• 1 cup all purpose flour(i use maida)
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon powder
• 1 med. size over-ripe banana
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar(i'm using little less than usual)
• 1 tblsp. cocoa powder
• 1 tblsp. instant coffee powder
• 1/3 cup prepared coffee(no milk) *
• 1/2 cup home made dahi/buttermilk
• 1/4 cup milk

* Note : As I had some leftover coffee so i used it, instead of that increase the quantity of instant coffee powder according to your taste, how strong you want. And also increase the quantity of milk(liquid).

Method :

1. Sift first 5 ingredients together.
2. In a mixing bowl mash the banana using back side of the fork. Mix sugar to it. Add all the liquids one at a time(any order) & mix them together so that banana is well incorporated into the liquids.
3. Now add dry mix to it little bit at a time(for some reasons I always add it in three parts).
4. Divide the batter into two equal parts.
5. Add cocoa powder to one part mix it & if needed add a spoon or two of milk/water to bring it to cake batter consistency.
6. Pour any one batter into the greased & floured cake tin. Once settled now add other batter in the centre & using your finger/small spoon swirl the mixture little bit.
7. Bake at 350 degree F pre-heated oven for around 20-22 minutes. Cake tin I use is around 8 inches, the measurements are for small cake. If you increase or decrease the quantity oven timings will also change.

Enjoy it with some fresh whip cream on top. Sorry no pics from inside, once the cake was done, we were so busy eating it, that didn't get a chance to take more pics. I'm sending this cake to Sara for her blog anniversary event Cakes n Cookies and also to Radhika & sudeshna's Food for 7 stages of life : In love with Detectable desserts, pastries & Ice-cream event.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake - Cake to indulge on

For me it's comfort food - gooey & good, I'm happy to eat it all without sharing it. No one for exact knows it's origin but it's All-American - a classic dessert, invented somewhere around the beg. of 1900's, many a times cooked on the stove top in cast iron skillet or in the oven just like any other cake. But it's served upside down so all the caramel rich pineapple comes on the top. No need to decorate this cake, you only need fresh whip cream with it.

Gooey, sweet caramelized upside down pineapple cake + fresh whip cream = HEAVEN.

It really tastes good, though it may look like little delicate to make but it's really easy.I would like to send this cake to Radhika's cook for yourself event, as her first blog anniversary celebration, once again Congrats dear.

Sorry no-photos in this post as I'm not able to upload the pictures, will post with next one.

Ingredients :

• 1 recipe vanilla cake batter of your choice(for 8" pan)
• 2 tblsp. butter
• 5 tblsp. brown sugar
• 5 pineapple rings( I used dole canned pineapple sliced into rings)

Method :

Heat cast-iron skillet on med. heat. For caramel heat butter add sugar & stir it. Cook it over medium heat till mixture get bubbly than arrange pineapple rings in it. I arranged 3 whole rings & cut rest 2 into quarters & fill the area which was empty.Cook for 2 min. or so then flip them and cook for 1 min. & turn the gas off let it cool little bit.

Now add cake batter on top of it & cook for 25-30 minute on 350 degree F oven. Once done let it stay in the pan for 5-7 min. after that invert it onto the cake plate. For that just put the plate on top of the pan & invert the pan & take the pan & cake is ready. Best served warm with some fresh whip cream.

Note : as we are using sugar to caramelize the fruit, I suggest to reduce the amount of sugar in the cake batter. I used half, of the required according to the recipe and it was perfect with lightly sweet cream.

Variations : Other fruits like apples, pears or peaches(firm one) can also be used. If you don't have cast iron skillet, use regular cake pan but prepare the caramel sauce & fruit in any heavy bottom pan & then transfer it to prepared cake tin & top it with cake batter.

Worm in the Mud Cupcakes

"Whatever Cupcakes"

I know Halloween is gone but I wanted to share these "whatever cupcakes" I made this Halloween. Why I'm calling these whatever cupcakes, because in my mind I planned to make my regular cupcakes but then I realized that DD wanted Chocolate one this time.....so i added little bit of cocoa powder then I noticed I don't have enough buttermilk & I also like to throw in a spoon or two of almond meal to make things little bit more healthy. So this recipe is more of a guideline then exact......

Ingredients :

• 1 cup all purpose flour (maida)
• 2 tblsp. whole wheat flour(Chappati atta)
• 2 tblsp. cocoa powder
• 2 tblsp. almond meal (fine or coarse grind almonds)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 2 squirts of honey
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar(sugar is less then regular b'coz I planned to do icing)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup regular milk
• approximately 1/4 cup orange juice(water or milk can be used)
• around 6-7 Oreo cookies broken into pieces.
• few gummy worms

As I wrote above one thing lead to another, so I basically used muffin technique. Mixed all the dry ingredients in one bowl. Take another bowl mix together buttermilk, milk, honey & sugar using a whisk. Now add dry stuff to wet mixture & whisk it together, if you feel batter is too tight add little bit of orange juice at a time, mix together till u get nice cupcake consistency batter.

Now pour approximately 1 tblsp. of batter into each muffin mould then sprinkle few broken pieces of cookies & then pour rest of the batter on top(that's for the surprise when u bite into it, alternatively you can use choc. chips or coarsely grind nuts also). Bake them at 350 degree F for around 20 minutes, till the toothpick comes out clean.

Once cool do your favourite icing & then again sprinkle them with few broken pieces of Oreo cookies & for worm part just make a hole in the cupcake using the backside of wooden spoon(the one which have round handles) & stick a gummy worm in it .

Note : I didn't used any butter or fruit sauce & buttermilk is also less then how much I use regularly, so these are best eaten at room temperature or warm. If you eat them direct from the fridge you might feel them little hard & also less sweet,but warm tasted very good.

Trick-O-Treat

It's SPOOKY......., it's carved, it's orange in color, but wait a minute it's not pumpkin......sooooo does it count as Jack-O-Lantern....U decide.....

Well if you think it's Orange then that's right....yes a carved Orange....I found it on Parents magazine in the morning & had Orange also in the fruit basket so why not try it......well it's filled with chocolate pudding which I didn't had but instead i melted some choc. chips & mixed it with some instant vanilla pudding.....so here's our this year's baby jack-o-lantern over to PumpGrins at Chef in You.

How to do it :

Take one orange, cut the top of it like a lid, save that. Using a fruit knife & your hands take out all the pulp out of the orange(it gonna be juicy task).Carve it with fruit knife.

Make instant chocolate pudding, keep it little thick, use only 3/4 of the milk quantity, mentioned on the pack (for one orange I used only half a pack). Let the pudding set little bit then fill the orange & put the lid back. I tried to put the pudding directly to the orange, which made it come out of all the holes. so I took it out and let it set in normal bowl & once it was set then scooped it into carved orange. Once you set the pudding it sure gonna make u drool.

Hope all of you had a spooky Halloween.