Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

So how was your Christmas? Mine was great filled with loads of fun, lots of gifts and cartloads of happiness and love and we are all set to receive the new year with the same spirit. Last two weeks were super busy with pappu's holiday party and Christmas baking and then followed by his Christmas holidays. This week has been a rollercoaster ride, first it was pappu down with the flu and then it came down to me. Boy O Boy, how I wish I was resistant to the cold.
Its been simple rasam saadam for the past one week and only today did I make something yummy, something simple and something that reminded me of my mom, childhood and nagercoil.

Coming to this recipe, I made these for my son's Chirstmas party. The kids enjoyed these totally diving in head first into the frosting. I don't know what but there is something about carrot cupcakes and cream cheese frosting that makes it totally divine and irresistible. This recipe is a keeper and it makes the softest of the soft cupcakes and the smoothest frosting that pairs perfectly with these cupcakes.

Adapted from here ~*What U Need*~ All purpose flour - 1 1/4 cups Baking powder - 1/2 + 1/8 tsp Baking soda - 1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon - 1/2 + 1/8 tsp Nutmeg - 1/4 tsp Ground cloves - a pinch Salt - 1/4 tsp Carrots - 1/2 lb, peeled and grated Granulated sugar - 3/4 cups Light brown sugar - 1/4 cup Large eggs - 2 Vegetable oil - 3/4 cup For the frosting: Cream cheese - 6 oz, not softened Unsalted butter - 4 tbsp, room temperatue Vanilla extract - 1/2 tbsp Confectioners' sugar - 2 cups How I Made it: Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line one cupcake pan with paper liners. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt; whisk together and set aside. Add the carrots to the bowl with the dry ingredients and set aside. In a stand mixer, whip the sugar and eggs until light and frothy. Add the oil with the mixer at medium speed. Beat till the mixture is light. Stir in the carrots and dry ingredients until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain. Scoop evenly into the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for about 20-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan at least 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. To make the frosting, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, add milk to bring to the desired consistency and then beat until smooth. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.

Serve with love!!!

So thats it Folks... With Love,
Vimitha
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Christmas Fruit Cake | Kerala Fruit Cake

I made this cake two days before Christmas, stored it carefully feeding it with rum every day and then on the D day, I shared it with friends, devoured it to hearts content and then totally forgot about it. Today when I was going through my food pics, I found this and I came to realize that I had missed posting this for Christmas. Well now that I have found it, I am not going to spare another moment to share this recipe with you. Its the best and just like all other christmas cakes it gets better and better. I have been following this recipe for the past 2 years but each time I use a different pan and do not flour it believing that the non stick coating would do its job but finally I would end up with the cake sticking to the pan. So this time I made it a point to grease the pan, line the pan with parchment paper and grease and flour the pan too. And look how neat and yummy the cake looks!!!

Recipe adapted from here ~*What U Need*~ For soaking the dried fruits Dry fruits - 1 1/2 cups ~ Raisins, dates, pineapple, apricot, cranberries, dried papaya, dates, almonds, cashews Rum - as needed (I used CaptianMorgans. U need to immerse the fruits completely in rum and then refill as and when you find the amount reducing) Caramel syrup - 2 tbsp (2tbsp sugar + 1 tbsp water) For Caramel Syrup to be used in cake Sugar - 3/4 cup Water - 2 tbsp Hot water - 6 tbsp For the cake: Butter - 1/2 cup, room temp Powdered sugar - 1 1/4 cups Eggs - 2, separated All purpose flour - 1 1/4 cups Baking powder - 1 tsp Baking soda - 1/2 tsp Salt - a pinch Coarsely powdered nuts - 1/2 cup(almonds and walnuts) Orange Zest - 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp Clove powder - 1/4 tsp Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp Nutmeg powder - 1/4 tsp Jeera powder - 1/4 tsp Ginger powder - 1/4 tsp How I Made it: Heat 2 tblsp sugar with 1 tsp water on medium heat until the sugar melts and browns up. Take off the heat and carefully add the water and stir well. Atleast 2 weeks in advance , chop all the dry fruits and place them in an airtight container. Pour the rum on top of it, add the caramel syrup and allow to soak. On the day of baking, heat 3/4 cup of sugar with 2 tbsp water in a saucepan. The sugar will start melting. COntinue heating till the syrup turns brown or almost black in color. Take it off the stove and add the hot water and stir well. Allow to cool. Preheat oven to 350F and grease your cake pan. Sift together all the dry ingredients with the spices. Add the powdered nuts, mix well and keep aside. Beat the butter with powdered sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the egg yolks one at a time and mix well until well incorporated. Add in the dry ingredients slowly and mix until combined. Add the Vanilla essence, orange zest and Caramel syrup and combine everything together. Strain the rum soaked fruits (save the rum), and coat the fruits with some all-purpose flour and add the fruits into the cake batter. Fold the fruits into the cake evenly. Beat the Egg Whites until soft peaks form, add powdered sugar and continue to beat until the peaks look stiff and glossy. Gently fold the egg whites into the cake batter. Pour the cake batter into the cake pan and bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the cake center comes out clean. After taking the cake out from the oven, immediately pour 2-3tblsp of the saved rum over the cake. Allow the cake to cool for 15 mins and then flip the cake pan onto a wire-rack. Once cooled brush the sweet rum all over the cake. Keep the cake covered with aluminium foil/plastic wrap and brush the cake with more Rum everyday until you cut the cake.

Serve with love!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Gingerdoodle Cookies

Ginger is one among my favorite spices. A warm cup of ginger tea with some goodday biscuits is what I always crave on a chilly evening. It is memories of those days that made me make these ginger spiced cookies to go with our tea. The molasses adds a very unique flavor to these cookies and pairs perfectly with the spices added. Ginger is a very strong spice and if ginger tea or anything with a strong ginger flavor is not your thing then these cookies are not for you. But to me these were the perfect accompaniment for our evening tea.

~*What U Need*~ Unsalted butter - 1/4 cup, softened Granulated sugar - 1/4 cup Brown sugar - 1/4 cup, packed Egg - 1/2, beat an egg and use half of it Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp Molasses - 2 tbsp Cinnamon - 1/4 tsp Cloves - 1/16 tsp Nutmeg - 1/16 tsp Ground ginger - 1/4 tsp Salt - 1/4 tsp All purpose flour - 1 cup Baking soda - 1/2 tsp Granulated sugar - 2 tbsp, for rolling How I Made it: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients and set aside. Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Stir in egg, vanilla and molasses. Beat for 2 mins. Stir in remaining ingredients and mix until dry ingredients are just combined. Roll 1 tbsp of dough into a ball and coat in granulated sugar. Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes or until outside looks cooked but inside is still soft and gooey. Cool 5 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to cooling rack. Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Serve with some milk!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Eggnog | Homemade eggnog | Boozy Chirstmas Drink

When it comes to eggnog you either love it or don't. If you are a spice lover then you will love it. But then if spices are not your thing then this drink is not for you. As for me, I love eggnog. Its creamy, its luscious and its comforting. This here is an adult version like the one where Jake drinks and sings "mammio daddio" in Two and a half men. Most of the eggnog recipes that I came across uses uncooked eggs and whipping eggwhites and folding it into the drink. Well I hate uncooked eggs and this recipe was just right for me. I referred lot many recipes and came up with my own version. As for the rum, you can totally skip it and add imitation rum extract or if you are one who doesn't love rum flavor then skip it.

Prep time: 5 mins; Cooking time: 15 mins; Serves: 2 cups ~*What U Need*~ Egg yolks - 4 Sugar - 1/4 cup Whole Milk - 1 1/2 cups Heavy cream - 1/2 cup Freshly grated nutmeg - 1/2 + 1/8 tsp Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp Ground cloves - 1/8 tsp Cinnamon - 1/8 tsp Rum - 2 tbsp How I Made it: In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture doubles in volume and is a nice pale color{I missed including that in my step by step pictorial}. Add the cream, milk, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg in a saucepan and bring it to a gentle simmer. Add about half of the hot milk into the egg yolk stirring constantly. Add this into the saucepan with the remaining liquid and cook stirring constantly until the mixture reaches 160 degrees or coats slightly the back of the spoon. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve, add the rum and vanilla and place it in the fridge to cool completely, best if refrigerated overnight to allow the flavors meddle.

Serve chilled with a dollop pf whipped cream!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Baked Rum Doughnuts / Donuts & New Year Wishes

First of all lets start with "Advanced New Year Wishes to your family". I am sure that I will not be touching the blog for another few days cos we have loads of stuff planned for the new year. Pie making, friends get together party and loads of shopping is sure gonna leave me dead tired and I am not gonna touch the blog until next year. So advanced wishes... I will be starting the new year with a classic dessert and so stay tuned. Here is my toast to a fun filled year for each one of you. That being said, lets move on to the recipe.

I love clearance, who doesn't and when you get Wilton donut pans for half its price, who wouldn't. Right... Whenever I visit a store, the first stand I visit would be the 70-80% discount ones. You never know what treasures they hold, like this donut pan. There was a store closing nearby and the discount announced was 80-90% and just like anytime I dragged the huss to have a look. The shop had been cleaned out already and all that was left were some dresses hanging in one corner and quite a few other stuff stacked here and there. Thanks be to the huss who had his eye and pointed out the donut pans for me. All he said was "Didn't you want to have one of those for a longtime" and it took me less than a minute to digest what it was and grab one of those beauties.

We love donuts but I have always wanted to enjoy them guilt-free and so the baked ones have always seemed my type. This donut pan is a perfect addition to my bakeware and I see more baked donuts cropping up in this little space of mine. Coming to these donuts, I did mention that I made the rum cake in my last post and how it did collapse when unmolding the same from the cake pan right. I made these donuts from the leftover rum. I browsed for some rum donut recipes and with Google failing to show up recipes I adapted this one from a baked dounut and made changes as needed. I dipped them in a cinnamon sugar coating. While it seemed perfect for me, the huss wanted to have an additional jazzing up and so I coated his share with melted dark chocolate. Both ways they were good and we had it with some cold milk.

~*What U Need*~ Unbleached All purpose flour - 1/2 cup Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup Baking powder - 3/4 tsp Sugar - 3 tbsp Salt - a pinch Butter - 1 tbsp, melted Egg - 1/2 or 1 egg white Dark rum - 1/2 cup Milk - 2 tbsp Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp Nutmeg - a pinch Vanilla extract - 1 tsp For the coating: Unsalted butter - 2 tbsp Caster sugar - 2 tbsp Cinnamon - a pinch to 1/8 tsp How I Made it: Preheat oven to 350C. Grease a 6-hole doughnut pan with some oil. Melt butter in a saucepan, once cooled add the egg, milk, rum and vanilla. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Spoon the batter into the donut holes and bake for 17-20 mins. Allow the doughnuts to cool for 5 mins in the pan and then remove to cooling pans. Once fully cooled, mix the caster sugar and cinnamon in a bowl, melt the butter and dip the doughnuts in the butter and then in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Serve with some milk!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Eggnog French Toast

Have you ever been in a situation where you have been waiting to taste something for a long time but the moment it touches your lips and your tastebuds start realizing the flavor, you are not that happy with the taste... This was my first experience with eggnog. I had always wanted to taste eggnog but when the fact that it is made with raw eggs strikes me, I back off. However last week when I went grocery shopping I saw this pack of organic eggnog and I picked it up after that feeling of compulsion took over me. I opened the pack as soon as I reached home, poured out a tall cup and sat on the couch with that sense of satisfaction.

One sip and I knew that this is just not my cup of tea. Something urged me to take another sip and yet another and by the time I was half way through the cup, I started enjoying the flavors. However the huss didn't enjoy it as much as I did and left the job to me to finish up the carton. Okay 1 carton of 16 servings of eggnog and each serving with a calorie count of 236. Do the math, that sounded a sure increase in waistline. When I was thinking of ideas to use up the eggnog, I saw this recipe in the back of the carton itself. Creating a festive french toast by replacing the milk with eggnog for your french toast sounded just right for me. Since I wanted a pronounced kick of flavors I added some nutmeg, cinnamon and rum extract.

Speaking of which, do you remember the McCormick hamper that I won sometime back. The rum extract is part of that. The hamper is a true haul and has everything that a baker would love to have in her pantry.

~*What U Need*~ Bread slices - 4-5 Eggs - 2 Eggnog - 3/4 cup Sugar - 3 tbsp or more Cinnamon - 1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg - a pinch Imitation rum extract - 1/4 tsp Butter or ghee - to toast How I Made it: In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, rum extract, cinnamon,and nutmeg. Add in the eggnog and whisk well. Heat a non stick tawa till hot but not piping hot. Dip the bread slices in the milk mixture and cook till evenly cooked through and nice and brown.

Serve warm with maple syrup.

** My Notes:
** To those who donot have to eggnog just increase the nutmeg, cinnamon and rum to taste.
** If you are using freshly ground nutmeg use just a pinch cos it gives a strong flavor.
So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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