BIRTHDAY UPDATES!

S

o we have shared ten birthdays together till date. May is our birthday month and we start the month celebrating Jobin's and end the month by celebrating mine. Even though there are many weeks in between our birthdays, it somehow flies by so quickly! The beginning of May is always busy with planning what to make to make his day special and rest of the weeks, I am kept busy being asked what I want for my birthday! Our children enjoy it so much and they are so excited about making cards and gifts the entire month! We get many gifts that they make before, on and even after our birthdays. I wish we all could be as excited about everything as children are!

As you all might have read here before, we bake each others birthday cakes and it's our own little tradition that we started 10 years ago! We thoroughly enjoy the process and I was telling Jobin how our children enjoy it ( maybe much more than us!) and that they might carry on this tradition of ours into their lives later on. I really hope they do because it definitely feels special! That whole excitement of being asked what cake you want to seeing it being made with full love is worth experiencing!

Like always it was Lamingtons for Jobin and they baked a lovely moist Yellow Cake with Chocolate Buttercream for me. It has been my favourite for a while. I can confim now that gone are the days when a chocolate cake could excite me like how it used to before. I have lost a little bit of my sweet tooth along the way and these days I bake mostly what the little ones ask me to. I love the whole process as much as I used to (or maybe even more!) but when it comes to eating, a bite or two is enough. I am definitely getting old! :-)  I hope all of you are keeping well in these crazy times! I will be back soon with a lip-smacking recipe for an Egg Curry. Stay tuned!

BIRTHDAY UPDATES

This year has taken us to many places. We've been travelling pretty much every month and sometimes even thrice a month! It's been very hectic packing and unpacking with all of the laundry in between. I feel packing is definitely more fun than unpacking,especially after a few months trip to India. The amount of clothes that needs to be put away is crazy!

While I was missing from this space, we got to celebrate all our 4 birthdays! This year Jobin's birthday was celebrated in San Francisco with store bought cupcakes! It was way too crazy to pack his cake/ lamingtons with us as we were in California for three nights and all three were spent at different hotels! So you can pretty much imagine how that cake would have been by then. :-)

My birthday was at our home in Minneapolis and it was houseful! Jobin's sister and family, his cousin and family and his mom were at home then. I was really skeptical if Jobin & kids could bake my cake this year with all the commotion at home. They asked me to choose what kind of cake I wanted and I chose a simple yellow cake with chocolate buttercream. They made it and it was literally the best cake I've eaten so far in 2019.

Ian's birthday was celebrated twice this year. One in Kannur with his Appuppa & Ammumma and the other one with his friends from school once we reached back to Minneapolis. For the first one, I made a number 7 chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and for the 'Pizza & Cake' party at home, I made a police themed  vanilla cake with lemon buttercream frosting. He loves tart things now, especially lemon.

For Zara's birthday party, we had two cakes. One for the real birthday and one for the party. She is crazy about a character called ' Nina' from a YouTube cartoon called Pocoyo.So for the real birthday, I baked a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and it had Nina's face on it. For the Brunch party, I baked the same cake again and it had a standing Nina over it. She was literally the most happiest person on earth that day! I also stitched her birthday dress this year. It was a simple dress with balloon skirt and roses by the yoke. I remember wearing balloon skirts when I was little so I wanted her to have one too!

Zara's Third Birthday Party Menu

Homemade Jelly Tarts

Lemon Tart

Butterscotch Tarts

Pumpkin Scones

Ham & Cheese Scones

Savoury Muffins

Lemon Macarons

Brigadeiros

Coconut Candy

Paneer  Mousakka

Cucumber & Mint Bread Salad

Maple Glazed Cinnamon Rolls

Mushroom & Onion Quiche

Carrot Lemonade

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes

Chocolate Fudge Cake with Chocolate Frosting a.k.a  "Nikkunna" Nina Cake 

I took a good couple of days to relax & recover from having hosted two parties in under two weeks right after getting back from India. September has flown by and now that Jobin is in India on work for two weeks, I am sure October is going to fly by as well!

I have a little news to share...I have started an online boutique, so feel free to follow my Instagram account here. I am really excited that I can  still keep in touch with my textiles background this way!

BIRTHDAY UPDATES!

Hello everyone,hope you all are doing good! Every time I tell you guys that I will be regular here, I end up doing just the opposite! We were in Kannur for the whole of Summer and got back about a month ago. While we were there, I was literally buried in orders for my Doughnuts, Brownies,Jams, Cakes & Desserts! It was a lot of fun and work. I got to meet a lot of you this time when you came to pick up your orders, at various Malls, at Supermarkets etc. It felt really good to put a face to your name!

Before we left for Kannur, Jobin & I celebrated our birthday's in the month of May. We baked each others cakes, like we do every year. The kids were really excited about it, more than us actually. There's something about cake cutting & candle blowing for them and of course, for us. Turing a year older with my beloved family around was definitely the best way to celebrate my birthday! For his birthday, I baked a Fresh Pineapple Cream Cake with a naked cake style appearance of sorts. And for mine,they baked a moist Yellow Cake with Chocolate Buttercream. This year, I was actually home for my birthday,so we celebrated mine a few days early,before we left. :-)

While we were in Kannur, we celebrated Ian's 6th Birthday. It was a small birthday party with a few of my niece's & nephew's. Ian wanted a Mario cake this time and I was pretty sure that we will not get anything related to that in Kannur. So I carried a few things along with us when we went home. Jobin had come down around Ian's birthday and we travelled extensively and reached Kannur a day before his birthday. So basically, I had only one day to prep and host the birthday party. The menu was designed around what Ian enjoyed the most. Since Amma was around to help with everything, it was such a breeze. The only person I can work smoothly with, is Amma. No one else understands my workflow or how I think in my head!

Menu for Ian's Birthday

Mario Birthday Cake 

(Chocolate cake with Chocolate Buttercream)

Guava Punch

Monaco with Onion & Garlic topping

BBQ Chips

Chicken Lasagna

Batura

Chicken Ghee Roast

Channa Masala

My little brother Ritchie, now works in Dubai and was home for a month while we were home. So we all got to spend some quality time together and the kids had a great time having their Uncle around them. His birthday is on September 25th and since he would be spending it alone, I felt like celebrating his day while we were together. So I made a Chocolate cake layered with cream cheese frosting, covered with Nutella buttercream and finally covered with Chocolate Ganache with little swirls of Nutella buttercream on top. When Appa asked me the name of the cake, I was lost and he was like,' If you needed to make this again,do you know how?'. I nodded in agreement! :-)

Then when we got back home in Minneapolis, I started planning for Zara's 2nd birthday party. I knew I wanted it to be a Tea Party,so Tea Party it was! We had a bunch of our good friends over and Zara had a really nice time! There were a lot of kids this time,which is always a good idea, so the noise level was really high with joyful screams & laughs! We have a life size playhouse in our backyard and therefore, most of the kids were playing inside it. The weather also co-operated so all in all, it was a spectacular day!

Menu for Zara's Tea Party

Teddy Bear Cake

(Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Buttercream)

Madeleines

Strawberry Cheesecake Macarons

Glazed Orange Scones

Sausage Rolls

French Onion Puffs

Cucumber Cream Cheese Bites

Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches

Waldorf Chicken Tea Salad Sandwiches

Malabar Chatti Pathiri Bites

Stuffed Paneer Buns

Peach Iced Tea

Passionfruit Lemonade

It really feels good to come back here and share some photographs and updates about our life in general. Ian is in First Grade this year and loves going to school. Zara is one talkative child! She speaks non stop, fluent Malayalam so it's so much fun to have her around during the day while Ian is in school. She is a big helper and loves to do the chores I give her around the house. If you really like to catch upon more about us, please follow me on Instagram where I share a LOT of snippets from our daily lives!

I hope you all had a fabulous Summer and is ready for FALL! It's been a really cold day here today. Brr!

MISSISSIPPI MUD PIE CAKE...a cake for me from him (them)!

So I turned a year older yesterday.If you have been following this blog for a while, you will know that Jobin bakes my birthday cake every single year. I just have to choose a cake and give him a recipe and that's it! The cake that I've been dreaming of as my birthday cake will magically appear on the table every May 31 since 2010. Ian was THE most excited person while baking it. He has been chanting the name Mississippi Mud Pie Cake for almost 2 months now.

While we were in Kannur, Ian and I were going through Amma's cake decorating books and had a ball of a time deciding what cakes we should bake for everyone's birthdays. He wanted to know what I wanted and I told him that I wanted them to bake me a Mississippi Mud Pie Cake. From then on, that was the only thing he could associate with his Amma's birthday. Of course that was followed by many handmade cards and hugs whenever Jobin would mention that Amma's birthday is fast approaching! Children are the best !

That cake you see above was phenomenal! It had four layers.The first /outside layer is an Oreo crust which was filled with a flourless chocolate cake topped with a delectable chocolate pudding followed by a layer of lightly sweetened whipped cream. So you can imagine how rich a small slice would have been. Creamy, crunchy, slightly sweet and so chocolate-y! It was just delicious!

This recipe comes from the famed Baked guys from Brooklyn, NY. I went ahead with the slightly modified version by Jacklyn from Cooking Classy. If you have not seen her blog yet, you should! It's brilliant! If you would like to see the original recipe, please take a look here. You can even see a video of how it is made.It is a multi step process to make this cake but that shouldn't intimidate you. Read through the recipe calmly and you will figure out how easy it is!

MISSISSIPPI MUD PIE CAKE
Makes a 9inch super rich cake

Ingredients:
Crust
40 Oreo cookies
5 tablespoon unsalted butter

Flourless Chocolate Cake
1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
6 large eggs at room temperature, separated
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulate sugar

Chocolate Pudding
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups whole milk

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup (3 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Whipped Cream
1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Method:
Crust : Grease the sides and bottom of a 9inch springform pan and set aside. Powder the cookies,cream and all, to a fine powder. Add the melted butter to it and mix well using a fork. Press it into the base and sides of the prepared tin. The crust on the sides should come within 1/2 inch of the top of the pan. Now preheat your oven to 300 F and put the prepared crust into the freezer for 10 minutes.Once the oven is preheated, remove the frozen crust from the freezer and bake it for 10 minutes. Once baked, remove from the oven and set it aside to cool.

Flourless Cake : Increase the oven temperature to 350F. Melt the chocolate and butter using a microwave. In a small bowl, mix together water,cocoa powder, salt and vanilla. In a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and brown sugar on medium high speed for 5 minutes until pale and fluffy,double in volume. Add the melted chocolate and mix until just combined,scrape the bowl and mix on low speed for 5 seconds longer.Scrape down the sides and add the water mixture.Beat until just combined. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until foamy. Gradually add the 1/2 cup sugar and beat until soft peaks form. Gently fold the whites into the egg yolk mixture,1 cup at a time and transfer the cake batter into the cooled crust and bake for 38-40 minutes or until the sides have set and the centre is still a bit jiggly. Take it out and let it cool completely. Cover the tin tightly with a plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge overnight.

Pudding: In a medium saucepan, mix together sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, salt and egg yolks. Drizzle the milk in and whisk to mix. Cook over medium heat until thick and glossy. Take it off the heat and add in the butter, chocolate and vanilla.Transfer the pudding to another container let it cool down for 15 minutes.Then press a plastic wrap over it and let it chill in the fridge overnight.

Whipped cream : Whip the heavy cream with sugar using an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.

Assembly : Take the chilled pudding out of the fridge and give it a quick whisk. Pour it over the chilled cake - cookie layer. Top it with whipped cream. Garnish as desired. Slice the cake (use a hot knife for a clean cut) and enjoy!

I think that's the longest recipe I've typed so far! This cake is not for the calorie conscious,it is rich in every sense of the word. I think this is by far the most chocolate-y thing I've eaten. One slice was enough for me. If I were to eat another one,I would have fallen asleep right where I was sitting! :-)
Once I figure out where our tripod is, my family of 4 can fit into one frame. Until then, it will only be the birthday girl /boy with the other two :-)

HAPPIEST FOURTH BIRTHDAY, IAN!

That little boy of ours is FOUR now! Where did the time go? I think I ask that question to myself a lot these days. He has grown so much in the last one year. He also helps me a lot with things at home. His specialty is clearing up the mess and folding his own laundry! From the time he could walk, I made sure that he cleaned up after his own mess,every single day.He has been happily doing his share of things around the house without being asked to these days. The best thing is, he tells me that he is very good at cleaning up stuff!

He has recently started folding his clothes and puts them away in a nice little pile. His Malayalam is pretty awesome for his age and we are strict about speaking in Malayalam at home. His favourite cartoons still remain the same so I decided to surprise him with a Pocoyo on top of his birthday cake.I made that for my last term in school and saved it for his birthday. His favourite cake is still my Chocolate Cake.

When I asked him sometime back in February what cake he wanted for his birthday, he immediately told me that he wanted a red racing car. So, for the birthday, I made him a Butter Cake with Malted Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and for the birthday party next day, a Red Racing Car Cake ( courtesy Pinterest) with his favourite Chocolate Cupcakes. He was really excited about those and had a great time with friends both at his Montessori and at home.

Birthday Party Menu ( Dinner)

Pork Ularthiyathu

Cherry Cheese Pineapple

Maharaja

Curried Chicken Dip with Tortilla Chips

Chicken Biriyani

Fish Moilee

Homemade White Bread

Raita

He couldn't wait for me to finish taking pictures of him as he wanted us to light the candles and sing for him! Look at that face, isn't that worth more than a million bucks? Be still my heart.
 

HIS & HERS BIRTHDAY CAKES

Hello June! I hope you are going to be as kind as May was to us. May literally flew by for us.  We both celebrate our birthday's in May,literally at the beginning and at the end so it's a busy month planning what to gift each other and what cake (s) to bake for each other. Our schedules have been so crazy that there have been days where I don't see Jobin at all! Sometimes I feel I need the time to stop moving by so fast because there's a little boy in our lives who is growing up at lightning speed! His vocabulary has increased so much now and he talks ALL the time! Jobin thinks he has taken after his mother when it comes to talking! ;-) I think so too!

Jobin had two cakes for his birthday this year. His most favourite Lamingtons,which is slowly becoming 'our' favourite and another super soft,delicious Lemon Cake with Mascapone & Lemon Curd filling. That cake turned out super awesome! This month, our dear fridge had no space for anything else other than cakes and desserts. We are not complaining one bit,okay? :-)

It was my birthday yesterday and as always, Jobin & Ian baked the most delicious cake for me! It was so soft that it fell off of the fork! Ian was super excited this time as he loves spending time in the kitchen,especially when it involves chocolate. The little spatula that he is using to stir, is his own. He's got two of those!It was my Golden Birthday, as well. For some reason, I did not want a cake this year which kind of put Jobin into a sad mood.He's been baking all my birthday cakes for all these years,so he was really excited for this year too! Finally, I gave in around 7.30 pm (on May 30th - which happens to be my parent's wedding anniversary!!)when he was watching a Suresh Gopi movie on T.V. I told him I needed a cake and I decided that to be a chocolate cake since that's Ian's most favourite flavour in cakes. Jobin loves Suresh Gopi's movies and likes the entire house to be pin drop silent when he watches any movie.So I was literally laughing in my head when I gave him the green signal for the cake. In return, he was offered some Kerala Porotta's & my Amma's special Kozhi curry for dinner that night! ;-)

This small tradition that we built for ourselves, is something that I look forward to every year. There's something really special and magical about having your birthday cake baked by your beloved!

ICED ITALIAN CREAM CAKE...for my 30th!

This time,I just didn't want a birthday cake for my birthday. I don't know why but when Jobin started asking me about what cake I wanted for my big day, I couldn't decide on any. Finally I told him that I didn't want a birthday cake and I didn't have a reason to give him for that choice of mine.Then he told me that they both (Father & Son ) wanted to make a cake for me.I agreed to it with the condition that they can cut it the day after my birthday ;-)

Anyhow, I agreed to join them and we chose a cake that I have been eyeing for a very long time. It was an Italian Cream Cake by Trisha Yearwood. It's a pretty straightforward cake loaded with calories! Since it was my birthday,I didn't care for the calories.It's a day to celebrate and not sit around counting how many grams of fat a slice of cake has,right?
Ian was very eager to help his Appa in baking the cake. Every single time I turn on the mixer,he is by my side. It was the same this time as well. We have to be a bit careful when he is around as he likes to add an extra cup of flour or an extra tablespoon of baking soda to the mix!

This cake is super spongy,moist and delicious! It is filled with sweetened coconut and pecans, a very Southern thing! The crunch from the two were irresistable! I still cannot believe that it's been 3 years since I made the 30 layered Nutella Crepe Cake for Jobin's 30th! Time sure flies! I had made a list of stuff that I wanted to achieve before I hit 30 last January...you can call them New Year resolutions too! I had only 5 months to achieve them and yes,I have ticked off the main thing off my list! I hope this new decade has plenty of good stuff in store for me. I am pushing myself into doing new things now and I really hope it's for the best!
Also, have you guys heard about Food Panda? You can search, choose,order food online from your favourite restaurants and it will be delivered for you !

ICED ITALIAN CREAM CAKE
Serves 12-15

Ingredients:
Cake:
1 stick unsalted butter,at room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs,separated
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut

Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese,at room temperature
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 pound confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Method: 
Cake: Preheat the oven to 350F / 180 C and prepare 3 9 inch cake pans.

Sift flour and baking powder together .In a large bowl,beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. In another bowl, beat together butter,shortening and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in the egg yolks one by one and beat well after each addition,15 seconds each. With the mixer on low speed,add the flour and buttermilk alternately,starting and ending with flour.Fold in vanilla,pecans and coconut. Divide the batter among the tins and bake for 22-25 minutes. Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn them out onto a cooling rack and let them cool completely.

Frosting: In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter till fluffy. Add the confectioners sugar and vanilla and beat well to incorporate. Frost the cake as desired and scatter the chopped pecans on top.

 

HAPPIEST FIRST BIRTHDAY, IAN!

This post has taken me the longest to write.I really don't know where to start or what to say.I want everything to be perfect when it comes to our Ian Vaava.I see myself stretching my limits to the maximum (I always thought I knew where that maximum limit of mine was,oh well!) when it comes to doing things for our baby.I am sure it's the same with almost all parents.

Can you believe that he's been with us for more than a year now? I still very clearly remember telling you about his arrival last July. I still remember the way he looked at me when I first laid my eyes on him.His eyes were wide open and he was looking straight into mine,lying down on my chest ...all bundled up.Our bundle of joy!He was and still is, the most wonderful smelling thakkudu kuttappan!

That little darling of ours just turned the BIG ONE last Monday,22 July.The party was not until Saturday,the 27th when all our close friends came together for a Picnik Birthday Party on an Island by the Mississippi. It was good fun. Ian had a lovely evening with his friends.I don't have any photographs from the party,our photographer will send them to us,shortly. Once we recieve it, I'll share some with you all!

I baked 2 cakes for him.The Mr.Bear cake inspired from Bakeaboo was for the big bash and the other one was for his little party at home.I wanted that cake to reflect what he is. So I jotted down all his current favourite words on top of the cake, so that,we will always remember what he liked and blabbered at that age.I wanted it to look as homemade as possible, so the decor was bare minimum. The dots you see around the edges of the cake was piped when he was on my hips, so the line has gone haywire! :-)

Menu for the First Birthday Party

Carrot - Lemon Cooler

Sesame Crusted Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches

Chinese Spring Rolls

Curried Crepes with Curried Veggie Filling

Petite Caramelised Mushroom & Onion Tarts

Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches

Veggie Sloppy Joes

Cheesy Jalapeno Cornbread

Coleslaw

Birthday Cake