Layers of Chocolate Delight (For a sweet Christmas)

A very warm Hello after a long time. I believe we all need all the warmth we can get in this cold cold weather. My long break this time is due to the fact that my broadband connection was cut off and I could not access the internet for quite some time. But all is fixed now I am back. While I was away from blogging I did do a couple interesting things that I would love to share with you all.

I sold my first cake ever . Yesss ! I did. It was at the Christmas Bazaar in my son's school that I got the opportunity to do so. They had a cake stall at the bazaar and I made a Banana Cake. I was very happy .

And secondly I gave my first ever cooking lesson. OK maybe calling it a cooking lesson will be an exaggeration, as it involved only showing a friend how to prepare some Indian dishes. But all the same I did prepare for it very thoroughly. I showed her Chana Bhatura and Paneer Tikka . The Paneer Tikka will soon feature on Food-n-more. I really enjoyed doing it.

So doing these two things in the last 2 weeks has given me great joy. Today I am going to share with you another dish that I tried out a couple of days back for the first time.It's a very quick Chocolate Pudding. I saw this one on TV . It's a dessert that has maximum flavour with minimum efforts and ingredients. It's simply delicious and with the Christmas holidays coming up, it's the thing to make.

Ingredients:

200 gms dark chocolate,

200 gms double cream,

250 gms ready to eat custard,

one small plain sponge cake coarsely crumbled (or any other plain cake),

Method:

• Place a heat proof glass bowl over a saucepan with simmering water, break the chocolate into small pieces, place these in the bowl and melt the chocolate slowly. Take care that the water in the saucepan is just simmering and not boiling. Also the base of the glass bowl should not touch the water.
• After the chocolate has melted set it aside and let it cool down.


• In another bowl whip the double cream until it has soft peaks,


• When the chocolate cools add the chocolate to the whipped cream and fold it in gently.


• Next add to this the custard and again mix it in gently. This mixture has the same consistency as that of a mousse. And it's delicious to eat even at this stage. But let's take it a step further .


• I used ordinary glasses to serve this pudding. In the bottom of the glass first put a layer a layer of the chocolate mousse, then a layer of crumbled cake and then again a layer of mousse and continue alternating these layers till you come to the top. at this stage chill the pudding well . When serving decorate the top with a big dollop of whipped cream and grate a bit of chocolate for a special touch.

Believe me your guests will be asking for seconds. I am now going over with this delicious treat to Tasty Treats where JZ of Tasty Treats is hosting Santa's Holiday Challenge, a fabulous Christmas Event which will showcase all kinds of delicious Christmas Sweet Treats.

Quick Coffee Cake in a Microwave

For past few days hubby and son keep craving something sweet after meals. I mean my son has always favoured sweet more than spicy but hubby dear is going even further and asking for desserts everyday. It's quite unusual for him. It's probably all the Christmassy ads on TV showing all different kinds of yummy desserts that is causing these cravings. It's also maybe because it's winter it really feels nice to tuck into a hot dessert after dinner while sitting warm and cozy in front of the telly.

So I just went out and bought a few ready to eat desserts that can be like warmed up in the microwave for a few seconds. But then I also browsed the internet for some easy to make desserts and came across some pretty good stuff. What caught my eye this time was this very fast to make Coffee Cake that can be baked in 5 mins flat in the microwave. I am great fan of "coffee anything" and immediately got down to making it.

There was also a butter frosting in the recipe and I had my usual doubts about it. I love frosting in moderation as long as it is not very very sweet and does not completely overpower the original taste of the cake. But I went ahead and made it anyway. I am glad I did. The coffee flavoured butter icing was delicious. It really enhanced the taste of the entire cake and the cake tasted even better the next day. This recipe makes a lot of batter so I made 2 cakes instead of one large one

Here's the recipe:
Preapare two microwave proof dishes by greasing with butter and dusting them with flour.

Ingredients:
225 gms or 1 cup salted butter (butter has to be really soft at room temp)
225 gms or 1 cup sugar
225 gms or 2 cups plain flour
5 eggs (also at room temp)
45 ml or 3 tblspns coffee essence
1 tblspn cocoa powder (this was my addition to the recipe as coffee and cocoa really enhance each other
1 tspn baking powder

For the frosting:
2 tblspns coffee essence
1 tblspn instant coffee dissolved in 2 tblspns on water ( this is also something I added to the recipe to the make the frosting brown in colour)
175 gms butter
150 gms icing sugar

Method:

• Beat the butter and sugar together until really soft and light.
• Add to this the eggs one by one beating well after adding each egg
• Add the coffee essence and cocoa powder next and stir in well
• In another bowl sieve the flour and baking powder together
• Slowly fold in the flour completely and evenly into the wet mixture. Do not over mix.
• Pour the mixture equally into the 2 bowls and bake one at a time in the microwave at full power for 5 mins.
• Let the cakes rest for another 4 /5 minutes.
• A cocktail stick inserted should come out dry.
• Wait for the cakes to cool completely before turning them out and icing them.
  
  

  
  For the frosting mix all the ingredients and smooth the frosting over the cake . To get best results use a palette knife (which I do not have). I used the star nozzle to decorate the borders.

I think this is a good cake to make for the Christmas holidays

Wish you all A Fantastic Christmas!!!!

Here's wishing all my dear dear bloggo-buddies A Very Very Happy and Grand Christmas from all my family and these two guys here!!!! Happy Holidays

Santa is just around the corner.

Spicy Christmassy Carrot Muffins

Spicy Carrot Muffins, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Hey people!! I am really getting into the Christmas mood. After the Brownies here's my next christmassy creation.

Here's how it goes:

225gms self-raising flour, 2tspn baking powder, 150 gms muscovado sugar, 50 gms walnuts, 100gms carrots grated, 2 eggs, 1tsp cinnammon powder, 1/2 tspn clove powder,150ml sunflower oil

Preheat the oven to 180degC and place paper cups in a muffin tray,alternatively if you do not have paper cups just grease and dust the muffin tray.

Procedure:

Sift the flour and baking powder twice . Beat the eggs . Then mix all the ingredients in a large bowl . The mixture should look lumpy. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tray. Fill each muffin mould upto 2/3rds. Bake for 15 to 20 mins.

Let cool a little and then unmould the muffins by just inverting the tray and gently tapping on it. Dust with icing sugar.

This is my Christmas Offering to Nandita's WBB8 Christmas Special