Sweet lil gifts from my cousins

Off late I have been showered with lot of gifts by mom & my lovely cousins and I thought I'd share them with y'all :)

My Uncle is the MD for a Vanilla Export company and last weekend we were staying with them. So when we were about to leave he gave me these goodies . And BOY! I was almost jumping with joy!!

They introduce new products almost every month. So this time it was Vanilla Cocoa powder. They smelt like heaven. Just incase you guys need some of the above mentioned vanilla goodies, drop in a mail or leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Have a good day!

Coffee Chicory Macarons & A MAC attack!

The twitter world was recently flooded with Mac attack SOS and whatnot! I had made Macs before and it was a tiny success( I got feet!! YAY! ;D ) and therefore when the MAC attack gang was formed, I was quite OK with it. Had lil confidence left in me from the previous attempt. So I went ahead with the MAC Queen Helen's recipe (again!! ;D).

It all began with Aparna and Deeba! Then many more joined in including myself ;)

I wanted to try some filling for it though but I somehow din't feel like doing it then. Since the round up was on 15 Sept, I thought I had plenty of time to make another batch with filling but ALAS my mom came up with the idea of starting my trousseau shopping due to which nothing happened on the MAC front as I had planned! Hmph! So here are the macs minus the filling :)

The recipe for the macaron can be found here. Helen, you are the BEST!! xoxo I din't have a proper nozzle to pipe it out so I used my nozzle holder instead. And so my Macs were slightly bigger in diameter than mentioned in the original recipe.

The macaron sans the filling was DELICIOUS to the last bite and I so badly regret for not filling it with even a plain ganache...they would have been a killer for sure!! Hmph! But there's always a next time! :D

A big thanks to Jamie who is doing the wonderful round-up for us. She has been a wall to all of us! xx Check out her blog on 15 Sept to see the work of the MAC attack gang! :)

Have a good day!

♥My Grand Aunt's Chocolate Cake♥

I love collecting tried,tested and trusted recipes. That's why I named my diary 'My Collections' and also my blog :) This is my granny's sister's recipe. I got it from my cuz Roshini and it happens to be her fave chocolate cake recipe.

Recently when my dad went to Trivandrum (that's where Roshini lives) she packed me a box full of these brown beauties. But he had a halt at my mom's house and we were supposed to join him the next day. And you all can easily guess what must have happened :P The box was half full when we reached there...

Nevertheless I made up my mind to try them out once I get home. And that's when I had my lil cousins Niki and Tashu visiting us. So I got another reason to bake something!! :D

♥Ultra Moist Chocolate Cake♥

Recipe sourced by Roshini from Ammini Aunty

Ingredients

Butter-200g

Sugar-1 3/4 cup + 3/4 cup ,powdered

Eggs-3,separated

Flour-2 cups

Baking Powder-1 3/4 tsp

Cocoa powder-8 tbsp diluted in 1 cup milk

Vanilla -1 tsp

Method:

• Beat butter until light and fluffy. Add 1 3/4 cup of sugar and beat it.
• Add egg yolks and vanilla.
• Beat egg whites + 3/4 cup sugar to stiff peaks.
• Fold into the batter. Add cocoa dissolved in milk to it.
• Fold in the flour and pour the batter into a prepared tin.
• Bake at 180 deg. for 45-50 mins or till done.

This is THE best home made chocolate cake that I have ever tasted. Now it's not just Roshini's...but also our family favourite chocolate cake! My bro had 3 huge slices at one go! :)

♥Chocolate Marble Pudding ♥for my lovely lil cousins♥

As I have said before, I never let go of a chance of making a dessert/desserts. I just LOVE the whole process of planning what to make, how to decorate it et all. And finally when your guests relish it there is nothing beyond that :) I know you all know how it feels :)

I have my lil cousins Nikitha and Natasha visiting me with their mom. They are on their Onam vacation. But Natasha whom we fondly call as Tashu is allergic to eggs. A wee bit of egg in her food causes rashes, severe stomach ache,dizziness etc. So this time I was literally digging into my recipe diary for eggless recipes.

When we usually don't think of the limitations, we don't realise whether it has eggs or no eggs. But this time when I searched for recipes,I was indeed surprised to find many! I had quite a few eggless ones :)

And they LOVE chocolate! Especially Tashu, and since she is allergic, I thought of incorporating an egg free + something chocolate-y for them.

♥Chocolate Marble Pudding♥

Recipe source: My Mom

Ingredients

For the base:

Salted butter-100 g

Sugar-5tbsp,powdered

Cocoa-2tbsp

Water-1/4cup

Heat the above ingredients and for a thick custard on low fire.

Remove from fire and add the following:

Coconut- 1 cup,finely grated

Cashewnuts-1/2 cup ,broken

Marie biscuits-1/2 cup crushed

Mix it with the custard and line a pie dish with it and pack firmly.

Leave it in fridge to set while you make the filling.

For the filling:

China grass/Agar-10g

Water-1 1/2 cups

Condensed milk-1 tin

Milk-2 tins [condensed milk tin measure]

Vanilla-1/2 tsp

Sugar-5 tbsp

Cut china grass into tiny bits and soak in water for 1 hour.

Melt china grass(It must be very liquidy,no lumps pls! ).

Simulatneaously heat milk,condensed milk and sugar. Before it starts to boil,add the melted china grass. Stir continously.

Keep on fire till it starts to thicken. Take it off from fire.

Strain if lumps are seen.

Pour on top of the crust and let it set in a fridge.

For marbling:

Take 1/2 cup of condensed milk batter and mix 3-4 tbsp of chocolate syrup/sauce and drizzle them over the white layer.

Marble it using a toothpick/skewer.

This pudding has always been a hit and will continue to be so :) Every single bit of it was relished by our guests and they went back home with the recipe :)

P.S. This is an automated post as we are off to Goa on a vacation. See y'all as soon as I am back! :) Have a great weekend!!

♥Vermicelli & Sago Payasam♥ A peek into our Onam Celebration ♥

Onam is Kerala's own festival celebrated in the month of 'Chingam'. It is celebrated by people from all walks of life irrespective of caste, religion etc.

Making a flower carpet or 'pookalam' is a must for Onam.

It is said that Kerala was ruled by a very people-friendly and loving king 'Mahabali'. And Onam is a celebration where in you welcome him into our homes every year. :) So a big feast is prepared on the 'Thiru Onam' day.

Celebrations include snake boat races, 'thiruvathirakali' ( dance perfomed by the ladies), 'ujanlattam' ( swinging very high on swings made out of coir tied on the bark of trees) etc.

Must say this was one of the best Onam that I had...Our house was full and I had my cute lil cousins visiting us. I haven't seen them since 11 years! :) We all were busy in the morning putting the 'pookalam' ( flower carpet) while Amma was sweating in the kitchen making lunch. Yes, lunch and NO sadya :) We took an easy way out this time with our fave Chicken Biriyani :)

But we had our favourite Vermicelli & Sago Payasam to end our meal with :)

♥Vermicelli & Sago Payasam♥

Recipe by my mom

Ingredients

Vermicelli - 200g ,roasted

Milk-2 ltrs

Sugar-1 cup -1 1/2 cup

Sago-50 g

Water-2 cups

Cashewnuts-25 g

Raisins-25 g

Cardamom pods- 4,crushed

Ghee/Clarified butter-4 tbsp

Method:

• Heat ghee and fry the nuts and raisins in it till golden brown. Reserve.
• Soak sago in water for 30 mins.Boil for 10 mins or till it is cooked.
• Mix and cook roasted vermicelli, sago and milk. Let it boil.
• Add sugar and stir continously till the sugar dissolves.
• Let it thicken. It will take approx 20-25 mins.
• Add the cardamom powder and mix.
• Garnish with nuts and raisins.
• Serve hot /well chilled.

This payasam is my mom's favourite .It is milky and mildly sweet. We love it when it is eaten warm. I love biting into the sago ...somehow it fascinates me :)

Wishing you all a very Happy Onam!