Yes,I'm a little cuckoo like that.

I got a tattoo.



Yes,it's a cupcake.

And it's on my ankle.

Believe it.
:)
 

White Chocolate and Strawberry Oatmeal Cookies

So much has happened in a year. There have been big 'whohooo' moments and then there have been the 'I-never-want-to-remeber-those-days' moments. There have been "lets go and kick ass' days and there have been "I never want to get out of bed "days. But all in all it's been amazing and filled with lots of love,cookies ,an endless amount of cupcakes and big,gorgeous cakes and lots and lots of sugar :).2011 was the year we pulled off the dessert buffet in college,the year I discovered that cheesecake could be made with Amul cheesepread and the year I realised just how tempremental those darn french macarons really are! What more could I ask for?
Welcome to 2012.

Sometimes it's alright to sleep a little longer on colder mornings,Sneak in an ice cream cone even though you have a terrible terrible cold,and add Big chunks of white chocolate to what were supposed to be 'healthy oat' cookies and take hurried photographs of the food you make because your rushing to go out or just plain lazy. Just sometimes.
I did that.
You can't blame me though..I made these cookies before even having breakfast!!Yes, I'm JUST that dedicated :p

 Anyway,
The strawberries that are available here at the market are not as sweet as I'd like them to be,But I've got to say I'm just happy we're getting them pretty easily atleast.Strawberries have always been somewhat of a risky fruit. I mean,even during season it is hard to get hold of sweet strawberries.These cookies are nice and different since I'm not used to using fresh fruit in cookies.Im sure dehydrated strawberries would taste much better but they're very hard to get a hold of. Also,the strawberries leave water once you cut them which might thin down your batter and give you a very 'cakey' sort of cookie.You can add s happens .a little more flour incaseyou need to adjust the consistency.

Strawberry and White Chocolate Oatmeal cookies

• 2 cups  roughly chopped fresh strawberries(big chunks)
• 1/4 cup sugar

•   2 1/2 cups       all-purpose flour
• 11/4  teaspoon baking soda
• !/4 teaspoon     salt  
• 1 teaspoon       ground cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cup         rolled oats
• 1/2 cup            butter, softened
• 3/4 cup            brown sugar
• 1/4 cup            sugar
• 1                     egg
• 1 cup              White chocolate chunks
• 1 teaspoon      vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 C.
2. In a small bowl mix together in strawberries and 1/4 cup sugar and set it aside.
3. Grease a baking tray or line it with a Silpat.
4. Sift together the flour,baking soda and salt.
5. In a seperate bowl mix together the butter,sugar,egg and vanilla extract.Stir in the rolled oats.
6. Fold in the flour mixture little at a time .
7. Once the flour is properly incorporated,stir in the strawberries and the white chocolate chunks.
8. Spoon 1 tbsp of the mixture on the baking sheet and flatten it slightly.
9. Bake at 190 C for about 8-10 min or till the cokkies are golden in colour.
10. Remove from the baking tray while the cookies are still warm and allow them to cool completely.

Christmas themed cupcakes

Hey .
I've been busy.
Busy would be putting it nicely:)

Hwever,these days I've also been extremely happy.
Don't really have much to say today,so I;m going to let the pictures do all the talking!!!

All the topper are thumb size or smaller!!!!

There ain't no food here!!

If you're here to look at pretty pictures of baked stuff, You won't find anything here today.
I've had a bit of a disasterous day with the oven today and I really need something to pick me up.
Here is a list of 5 things that made me happy :)

#5
This journal thingy:) I love love love stationary and as of now I'm in the middle of making one of my own!!!
This one is from Polka dot Robot

#4
Chumbak!!
Chumbak is  my newest obsession :) I browse through their website almost every single day and look at the stuff over and over again. It just makes me happy! :)

 The stuff is so cute and ridiculously creative :)

#3
Strawberry-ish things

Christmas Tequila Cocktail

#2
Jack Johnson's -No Other Way

Selena Gomez- Who Says
:)

Love the video.It reminds me of lazy evenings,and beaches.....And the dress is beau-ti-ful!!

#1
Crazy dreams....

 

Chocolate macarons. Not quite there yet!

Today has been bittersweet.
Considering that it has been a really long time since I've had a whole weekend off and a lazy lazy sunday afternoon without having to worry about interviews or procrastinating studying ; spending all afternoon baking was nothing but pure bliss.

If good ol' chocolate chip cookies are like the girl next door, then french macarons are like the Diva that has an endless list of bossy demands.
Now I've made an attempted to make french macarons before,and I ended up with a flooded mess of macaron batter.Let me be honest here. I'm not really the kind to be called chicken.I mean,I can handle a few bumps and bruises and I've had my fair share of kitchen disasters.But french macarons scare the living daylights out of me.
Wait a second.


What exactly does it mean when people say "scares the living daylights " mean? Nothing in that phrase even makes sense.
I mean,what exactly happens after the living daylights have been scared out of you?Do you black out?
I googled it! here.  Knock yourself out!! (No pun intended!)



Anyway,as I was saying,it's pretty easy to be fooled by these gorgeous looking cookies.I mean ,how hard can it be right?
Just whip the egg whites,fold in the almond powder and sugar.Pipe.Rest .Bake.
Right?


Yup,I thought so too.
But apparently, life isn't that easy.
These little fellows turned out to be more moody than I expected..
When I piped them out they looked perfect.They spread just the right amount.They rested well.The shell formed.They got all shiny.And then I put them in the oven.
Kaput!
In less than two minutes,20 out of 25 macarons had cracked.
:(
Luckily I had 3 more batches resting, and everytime I baked them there was some fault or the other.
They cracked,they didnt have 'feet' they stuck to the butterpaper and what not.
So all in all,everything that could go wrong,DID!!!
Oh,I also discovered that you could burn french macarons!! :|
Anyway,I managed to save these two and filled them up :)

I'm still pretty darn scared of making these again,but hey,Third time's a charm right?








! 

Mini Banoffee Pie

"Make me something decadent" he said,"but not cupcakes,okay?"
It's easy to see that this boy was really pushing his luck.I mean,it really takes guts to demand that I bake you something and then add that they better not be cupcakes!! Hmphff!!
However,life is unfair and he managed to get away with it, ;) and right enough ,three days later,these mini banoffee pies were happily being gobbled up.

These banoffee pies introduced me to something so simple,so amazing,and so unbelieveably addictive:roasted,candied almonds
I first made a test batch of candied almonds the day before I made the banoffee pies,just to try them out.I left them to cool on the silpat and went to watch TV for a while and when I came back they were all gone and my mother was innocently (pretending?) to sleep !! :)
These are so easy to make (and kind of easy to burn too!! so be careful!)
Yes, I know random facts like that.
Anyway, Since Mr. Bake-me-something-decadent was asking I decided to make him something from the Jamie Oliver book he had picked up at a book fair.
I'll give you 3 reasons to make this pie:
1.Dulce de leche .check.
2.Coffee.Check.
3.Those  you-want-to-eat-them-all-the-time almonds.check.

 


Mini Banoffee Pies
 Adapted from Jamies Kitchen-Jamie Oliver

Makes 6

150 gms Whole almonds(blanched or with the skin on)
180gms   Icing sugar

For the shortcrust pastry:
150gms   Flour
50gms     Powdered Sugar
100 gms  Butter

400gms   Dulce De Leche
6             Bananas
300 ml     Double Cream
 1 Tbsp     Instant Coffee Powder+ 1 Tsp Warm water




Method:
1.Preheat the oven to 180oC.Rinse the almonds,Drain them a little and mix them quickly with the icing su
 gar in a bowl until they are really sticky.
2.Place on a baking tray(I recommend you put them on a sheet of silver foil just to make the cleaning easier!!) and toast them for about 15 min, in the oven until they are golden and crispy,turning them every couple of minutes.Keep a close eye on them as they tend to burn pretty easily!!
3.Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Happily roasting in the oven.

Ta-dah!!

Shortcrust pastry:
1.Sift the Flour and Powdered sugar together.
2.Make sure the butter is absolutely chilled.
3.Quickly pulse the flour mixture along with the butter in a blender,in short pulses. Do not allow the machine to heat at up
4.Once,the mixture resembles the texture of wet sand,empty it out onto a clean work surface and bring it together by adding the chilled water to form a dough. Do not knead it !!!
5. Wrap it in clingwrap and allow it to chill in the fridge for about 20 min.
6.Take out the shortcrust pastry and rool it out to about 1/4 inch thick. Line the mini silicon moulds or loose bottomed mini pie dishes(If the moulds are not silicone,make sure to grease them with a little butter!!).Blind bake the shorcrust cases at 150'C and allow them to cool.

Bring it all together!!!
1.Spread the Dulce de leche as thick as you like across the base of the pastry in each mini pie case.
2.Slice the Bananas and place it on top of the toffee.
3.Whip the chilled double cream,till soft peaks form,and swirl the coffe mixture through it.
4.Dallop the cream on top of the sliced bananas.
5.Finish it with the roasted almonds on top of the banoffee pie and serve immediately!!!

What I like about this,is that it's the perfect thing to make on days when you feel like just pottering around the kitchen. Except for the shortcrust pastry,nothing else in this banoffee pie really needs any measurement and you can add as much or as little or all the different components.
Don't chill the banoffee pie because the dulce de leche will harden and there is a risk of losing a few teeth in the process. :)



This is comfort food.I mean its gooey and its topped with a big dallop of whipped cream.
Plus,it makes people very very happy :)
Next time I think I'll substitue the banana slices with chocolate chunks,or even bits of chocolate chip cookies.
:)

Trade test 101

The last few weeks have been slightly crazy.

Welcome to Campus interviews. 

Here are a few things I've learned over the last few weeks.

#1.When they tell you life in college will get hectic once campus interviews start.They were being nice.It get 10 times as crazy.

#2.The girls locker room before an interview is like a warzone. There is compact powder,blush  lipstick, hairpins and make up items I never even knew existed flying all over the place.God forbid you get in the way!!

#3.Just when you decide to put on you blazer,Mother Nature will turn up the heat by atleast 10 degrees.,your make up will literally melt off your face, and then it's back to the warzone for you.

#4. People will say the darnest things during the group discussions. If you manage to keep a straight face through it ,you are definatly blessed with a tremendous amount of willpower.

#5.If they ask you to draw a pretzel,it's not a trick question. They actually want you to draw a pretzel!!

#6.The fridge will never be as cold as you expect it to be during a trade test.

   

#7. NEVER EVER open the kitchen table drawer before a trade test.Nothing good comes out of it :S

#8.Keep your knife close ,and you fingers closer :)Otherwise,your fingers might go under someone else's        knife :)

#9 ALWAYS always,wear.Comfy.shoes. Unless of course you prefer swollen ankles.

#10. Dont take it too seriously :) If you say the capital of Gujrat is Vadodra in your nervousness and the interviewer thinks your blonde, just smile :)  You'll make it through :)

I managed to take a few pictures during out trade test for ITC Hotels

    Garlic and Chilli Rice with Chicken in pepper sauce ,and glazed carrots with mint and lemon.

 Zahabia 's Zabaglione :)
I think it's safe to say that this isher favourite dessert :) She might even be able to tell you the recipe in her sleep..!!! Its amazingly light and immediately after taking this photo I finished off half of it in a few seconds.

                   
                                                          Zahabia's Starter :)

                                      Mine:Chilled tomato and basil soup :)
                          Really really easy. Ill post the recipe soon!!

                                 Dhruv 's Apple crumble.
  Dhruv is someone who distinctly reminds me of Mr. Burns from Simpsons. :) He is'nt one of those dessert people but I cannot describe how amazing this apple crumble is.This apple crumble just goes to show that you don't have to make something fancy for it to be yum :)

                         Dhruv's Tomato and Olive salad

Sereena's Chocolate mousse: Just the right balance of dense and light .Ah-mazing!!

The Aftermath:

C'mon you didn't really think that restaurant kitchens look all shiny and peaceful now, did you?

Two and a half hours might sound like a lot of time to make a four course menu and an omelette with all the accompaniments but somehow time just seems to go by so fast once you start , and all of a sudden you hear someone yell "10 minutes to presentation!" and the panic sets in.

Stress,Panic,madness,failed recipes,last minute missing ingredients and ofcourse cuts and burns are a regular but in the end it's a lot of fun .

Oh,just a bit of advice,

ALWAYS.CHECK.FOR.SALT.

:)