Rainbow cupcakes

    CUPCAKES.......those wonderful, tiny delights topped by an gorgeous swirl is my all-time-inspiration. I love to experiment with cupcakes, but running almost an nuclear family, restricts me to bake  twice an month.  And with not-so-cream loving hubby, I had to opt for an minimal or no-creamed cupcakes.  So, once when I came through sour rainbow strips in an super-market, I really knew what to make from them.... :D  :D  Do check out my other cupcakes collection.... Dairy cupcakes, Butterfly choco cupcakes, Orange cupcakes, Panda cupcakes  Vanilla cupcakes with white chocolate icing. 

Rainbow-themed cupcakes, which can also be smeared by blue coloured buttercream, topped with white buttercream swirls with rainbow crossing over, is an perfect party food and would please any kid with an summer boredom :)  I avoided blue buttercream, and replaced it with an blueish cake batter, thus my icing-usage was reduced, an fact to satisfy my hubby's soul :D

How to make an small batch of buttercream?

     There is always an need to stay in shape, isn't it?  Most of us are foodies and we try to explore with high-calorified contents, forgetting about their impact with our waistline:P  So, what happens when we make more than needed buttercream or any other sinful delights? We try to consume them someway or the other, adding more fat to our peaceful life.  So, as an extra-cautious tip, let me start my post about making an small batch of buttercream for your delicious bakes.

And, what is extra special about this batch is that, it has cornflour, which stabilizes the cream from high temperature. Also, due to hot summer, I prepared them with an touch of 'icebath'.   The resulting buttercream was super-creamy and delecious.  They can be cling-wrapped and stored in refrigerator, for upto two weeks.

Sambhar

    Hi all.... back from my short vacation.  And since my daughter leaves to her summer camp, my routine life is almost back... Filling up my refrigerator with freshly brought veggies and fruits, cleaning up my partially-messed home, ... list goes on.  Going on vacation sounds much easier, but when it comes to post-vacation work, I always save an huge 'sigh' :/   Yesterday, day went quite interesting watching over election results.  Victory was predicted, as usual, but winning by 1:6 ratio (Congress: BJP) was quite an 'whooping result'.  Similarly goes with Tamilnadu where ADMK gained 37 out of 39 available seats.  Fabulous, isn't it?  Let us see if this decision solves our stagnating economy and deals with the price rise as well....

   Yes and coming back to our post, born and brought up at Chennai, I could'nt miss this special SAMBHAR prepared by my mom.  Infact, this is my favourite and same with my husband too.  Sambhar is south-indian dal preparation, mostly tuvar dal (yellow pigeon peas), with sambhar powder (an aromatic powder made out of chana dal, dried red chillies, curry leaves, whole cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds, asafoetida, few peppercorn etc), tamarind, assorted set of vegetables (like brinjal, drumstick, snakegourd, pumpkin etc), finished with an sweet touch of jaggery.

The trick in preparing an perfect sambhar lies in perfect balance of spice-sour and an sweet taste.  As an first-try, I have messed up by adding more sourness (more amount of imly/tamarind) into my sambhar.  So, I strongly recommend you to add only half of prescribed tamarind during cooking, other half you can wait till you complete the cooking, check the sambhar and add accordingly.  Also, kindly note that this 'sour' factor depends on tomatos you are adding.  Since, I have added hybrid tomatos, I have included tamarind.  In case, I am going with country tomatos ,(which has an higher sour content) I would prefer not to add tamarind as the former itself gives out required 'sour' effect.

Boti kebab

   Boti kebab, traditionally refers to chunks of mutton, marinated overnight with yoghurt and other spices.  This, the next day was grilled to perfection.  The name, boti is from sanskrit language which means, 'small chunks of meat'.  The following recipe is adapted from Morphy richard's recipe guide, where both chicken and mutton were given sited, I proceeded with former one.

One interesting fact with the guide was that they used wine for basting the marinated pieces, in between their grilling period.  I was very curious with this, and yes, used wine (first time in my blog :D ) for the same.  I could foresee an sweet- sour taste from the wine.  Minced onions gave an added sweet touch and with other spices, the dish appeared spicier too.  Finally such an sweet-hot- sour combination brought out an mesmerizing yield and all thanks to my recipe guide.  

Chocolate babka muffins

Chocolate babka muffins are yeast-raised muffins, that have an delecious chocolate filling, topped by streusel (an mixture of butter-flour-sugar, topped over bread in order to get an 'crumbly' effect)

 The word, 'Babka' is derived from word, 'baba' also known as grandmother in Polish (from Poland).  The original derivative of this sweet yeast-raised bread were known to be stout and round, hence the name.  Lateron, these were twisted and baked on loaf pan with an filling of cinnamon flavoured chocolate.  Slowly, this muffins originated from traditional loafs.   Instead of baking them as loafs and slicing them,  an effective method of slicing the dough (before baking) and transferring into individual muffin trays was done.

The rich taste of flaky, buttery dough combined with delecious chocolate filling, did win many hearts back at home. To my surprise, my not-so-chocolate-lover hubby, loved them totally.  I couldn't have asked for more :)  All thanks to Tamy and Swathi Iyer for this wonderful challenge.