Eggless Vanilla Cake and Happy Holi to everyone!!

Dear All,

Wishing you all a very Happy Holi!  May god gift you all colors of life, colors of joy, colors of happiness, colors of love, colors of friendship and all other colors you want to paint in your life!

I know I have been away from the blogging world from quite sometime, I do appreciate all your emails and FB messages concerning my disappearance and I sincerely want to thank you all for remembering me.

Today's cake was a special request from one of my closest friend and my roommate S for her sister. It was around 6.30 pm on Thursday and I was in office eagerly waiting to go home and I got a call from S, the conversation went something like this.....

Me: Hello S...
S: Hey are you busy right now?
Me: Nah...tell me what happened?
(Just then there is lots of disturbance in the line..it happens all the time)
S: Hello...Hello...can you hear me?
Me: Ha ha... bolo na....
S: Hello...heelllooooo?
Me: S throw your mobile away...grrr...
S: Hello..yes now I can hear you...actually I wanted a favor from you?
Me: Sure..?
(Again disturbance in the line)
S: Actually I wanted to know if you can make a caaalle...
(and the line went dead, I literally jumped from my seat as I am sure she meant CAKE)
Again S called up and this time from her office phone
S: Hello Parita...
Me: Kaunsa cake banana hai??
S: Eggless vanilla banaate hai na..my sister has specially requested
Me: Neki aur puch puch... DONE!!!

Unfortunately I reached home pretty late that day, it was almost 11 pm when we finished our dinner so we decided to get up early the next morning and make the cake. We got up 5am in the morning to bake this cake....yeah i am one crazy baker..and it was well worth the effort! I have used this recipe as my base and tweaked a bit to suit my needs. As you can see in the picture the cake turned out beautiful....perfect crumbs. It was soft, moist and spongy..didn't miss the eggs at all! This is going to be my keeper recipe for eggless cakes! Of course you can tweak this recipe as per needs ..replace vanilla with almond or lemon or orange..anything would work! Do give it a try!

Eggless Vanilla Cake
Original Recipe here
Ingredients:-
2 cups all purpose flour (Maida)
1 can sweetened condensed milk, about 400 gms
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup melted unsalted butter
1 cup aerated soda water
1 vanilla bean, split and scrapped or 1 tbsp vanilla essence

Procedure:-

• Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.
• Grease and flour a pound cake tin or any other cake tin that suites your needs.
• Sieve together flour, baking powder and baking soda.
• Mix melted butter and condensed milk together, just until both are well incorporated.
• Now add in vanilla beans or vanilla essence and mix well.
• Now add in flour mixture along with soda water and mix well after each addition.
• Pour the mixture in the greased tin and bake for 40 to 45 mins until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
• Once baked, remove the cake pan from the oven and let it cool completely before removing and slicing the cake.

Anzac Bicsuits for my 100th post !!!

Dear Foodies,

Finally I have reached my 100th post. The journey till here has been quite a roll-a-coaster ride sometimes slow and sometimes with lots of bumps but I cant complain as this has been one of the most beautiful and enriching journey for me and my blog. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you who have supported and encouraged me, a very big heart felt thanks to all of my readers!

If you have been following my blog closely you would know I am not a big cookie person in fact the only cookies I love to munch are Chocolate Chip Cookies and very recently I have fallen in love with Anzac Biscuits. Anzac biscuits are very popular in Australia, made with oats, flour, sugar and golden syrup, it has been said that wives of soldiers used to make these biscuits during the WWI. These biscuits are extremely easy to prepare and taste extremely delicious, if you like your cookies eggless, mild in sweetness and chewy then these little drops are for you!

Recipe adapted from here
Recipe yields 24 cookies
Ingredients:-
1 cup (240 gms) all purpose flour
1 cup (90 gms) rolled oats, I used quacker
1 cup (85 gms) dessicated coconut, I used 100 gms
3/4 (155 gms) cup brown sugar
1/2 cup + 1tbsp (125 gms) unsalted butter
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp water

Procedure:-

• Preheat the oven to 160°C, line a baking tray with parchment paper.
• Sieve the flour in a bowl, add in oats, coconut and sugar, mix well.
• Put butter, honey and 2 tbsp water in a pan, stir over medium heat until butter is completely melted. Add in baking soda.
• Pour the butter mixture on the flour mixture and stir until well combined.
• Roll a tbsp of mixture into small balls and place on the baking tray 5cm apart from each other.
• Using a fork, flatten the top of the cookies lightly.
• Bake for 12 to 15 mins until lightly browned. If you like your cookies crunchier than bake them for 2 to 3 mins more than the specified time.
• Remove the cookies from oven once done, let them cool down for 5 mins and then transfer them to a cooking rack. After 20 mins store these in air tight containers.

Verdict? These cookies were fantastic in taste, not over sweet and just perfect for some tea time munching. I did not have golden syrup so i substituted honey and it worked like a charm! I love my cookies a little crunchier so I baked these for close to 17 to 20 mins or until the top was golden brown. I shared these cookies with my friends and colleagues and got great reviews, everybody loved these! 

These were so easy to prepare, no heavy beating or mixing required, just fold in all the ingredients and you are ready! I urge everyone to try these wonderful cookies once, do share your experiences with me and you can always email me if you have any questions or doubts and I will try to answer them to best of my knowledge! Until next time thank you an wish you all a wonderful week ahead!

Eggless Strawberry Cupcakes/Eggless Strawberry Muffins

Dear Foodies,

Hello everyone! I know I have been away for quite sometime but last two weeks have created quite a stir! First of all there is this never ending assignments and work in office, on top of this monsoon has finally hit India. Last couple of days have been a complete mess. It rained quite heavily here in Pune, with strong winds blowing there was quite lot of destruction. Several trees have fallen, cables wires have been uprooted, infact we almost had an accident in our office with the glass doors bursting due to strong winds! Thank god no one was hurt! With electricity gone for 2 days and maid not turning up for work I was really frustated!

So when V asked me if i could bake a batch of muffins for her office party I got the much needed break! She wanted something other than the usual chocolate and vanilla flavors. I had strawberry extract in my pantry, so thought of making some Strawberry cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing. She loved the idea and she wanted to use the same color combination which I had used for the cake which I made for my parents anniversary.

This is off to Bangalore Baker's Bake-Off event!

Eggless Strawberry Cupcakes/Muffins
Recipe yields - 9 muffins
Ingredients:-
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 tin (200 gms) sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp strawberry essence
1/4 cup limca or plain aerated soda water

Procedure:-

• Preheat the oven to 180 degress C, grease and flour 9 muffin moulds.
• Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda together.
• Beat butter, condensed milk and icing sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the strawberry essence.
• Alternatively add flour and limca and beat well after each addition.
• Fill in the muffin cups to 3/4 full and bake the muffins for 15 to 18 mins until tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
• Remove from oven and cool them completely before going ahead with icing.

Buttercream icing, recipe here

Verdict? I got great reviews on these cupcakes and everyone in the office loved them! As compared to other eggless recipe, i like this one the most as I have always got fantastic results! Muffins were light and fluffy, perfectly baked! With vanilla buttercream icing it was a winner! Do try these and let me know, you can replace strawberry essence with any other flavor and it will still work like a charm!

Celebrating 1st Anniversary with Eggless Blueberry Coffee Cake

Dear All,

I know a lot of you were expecting a cake from my side to celebrate my blog's first anniversary, finally the wait is over and with drum rolls please I present to you Eggless Blueberry Coffee Cake!! My sister is crazy behind blueberry though she has never had them before and hence she really wanted to taste them, she even asked me if I could request my colleagues to get some fresh blueberries from Switzerland while they are coming back...can you believe it? This time to my visit to Alfa I got a tan of blueberry pie filling and I immediately thought of my sis, I am sure she would love to gobble down the entire tin with some fresh cream, she is crazy behind fresh cream too and her waist line permits her to do so :) 

Before my darling sis could empty the entire tin I planned to put them to good use. Quite sometime back I had bookmarked DK recipe for Eggless Blueberry Coffee Cake which really looked too good to be true for an eggless one! I decided to use the blueberry pie filling in place of fresh ones, if nothing else it certainly increases the moistness of the cake though I would highly recommend using fresh ones, as in India we dont get fresh blueberries I had to substitute them. DK has also used applesauce, another ingredients not easily available here, so I substituted it with curd. To make the cake less in fat I have used oil in place of butter but I will recommend everyone to use butter as i think the cake wasnt as rich as it would be with some real butter!

Ingredients:-
2 cups all purpose flour
1  cup vanilla sugar or normal
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup beaten curd
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries or blueberry pie filling

Procedure:-

• Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Grease and flour a pound cake tin.
• Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda keep it aside.
• In a bowl beat sugar and oil for 2 mins until well blended. Add in vanilla extract , again beat for a min.
• Beat in flour mixture along with sour cream and curd alternatively in well blended.
• Finally fold in the blueberry filling and mix gently, donot beat.
• Pour the batter and bake at 190 degrees C for 45 to 50 mins until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Serve warm with a dollop of vanilla ice cream or some whipped fresh cream.
• Enjoy!!

Verdict? My sister loved this cake and according to her its heavenly with a dollop of fresh cream :D I would highly recommend serving this cake warm with some fresh cream or vanilla ice cream, the combo is unbeatable! Hope you all enjoyed the cake and thank you once again for your wishes!

Eggless Low Fat Hot Chocolate Muffins

Dear Foodies,

Its been quite a while since i last baked anything with chocolate. The baker in me was desperate and it was like a race against the time as my work was keeping me quite busy. Finally my craving got better of me and i decided to give up, but to my horror i was out of eggs as well as cocoa powder, I felt as if my world turned upside down!! No that is not an exaggeration and I am sure the bakers would understand my sentiments. Now i really had to bake something chocolaty, ok so i decided to go for eggless muffins, quick and easy but to go for cocoa powder hunting at 11pm in the night was out of question. I could use some of my dark chocolate which i got from swiss but i just have few slabs left until my next batch comes from abroad and so i guard them with my life!! Argghh.....pacing up and down in my room i saw some hot chocolate sachets of Lindt, do i need to mention what happened next?

My recipe for these low fat, eggless chocolate muffins is inspired from Mandira's recipe for Eggless Chocolate Nut Muffins which i had bookmarked sometime back.

Also I am sending my Jain Vegetable Makhanwala to Think Spice : Poppy Seeds event guest hosted by Rv brainchild of Sunita.

Recipe yields 6 large muffins
Ingredients:-
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar (adjust according to taste, if required)
1 1/2 tbsp good quality hot chocolate powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp oil
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract


Procedure:-

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
• Line 6 muffins holders with liners or grease them.
• Sieve together flour, hot chocolate powder, baking soda and baking powder.
• Add in oil, milk and whisk properly until everything is mixed properly. I did not use a beater for this, hand whisk is fine.
• Finally add vanilla extract and mix well.
• Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full and bake for 15 to 18 mins, until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
• Serve them warm with a cold glass of milk, enjoy!
  

Eggless Tutti Frutti Cookies

Dear All,

Christmas is coming very near and baking season is in full swing everywhere. Though we dont celebrate christmas here but i love the season as i get a chance to bake lots of goodies. My friends have started calling me Baking Fairy who spreads baking love all around, now that certainly makes me very happy! I have been eyeing these gorgeous tutti frutti cookies from Sailu's blog from a very long time and finally i got some time last week to create them. My cookies are not as white as her's since i used vanilla flavored custard powder but that doesnt alter the taste at all. These are soft and chewy in the middle with crispy edges. I shared these with my colleagues and everyone loved it, few even mentioned that these cookies are better than ones we get outside, that certainly made me climb high. The recipe is deifnately a keeper and i'll be making them very often.

These cookies are off to Eat Christmas Cookies - Season 3 hosted by Susan of Food Blogga, you can view the round up page here. 

These cookies are also off to the Cakes & Cookies event by Sara and to EC's WYF Tea Time Snacks event. Happy Hosting gals!!

Original Recipe Source :- Sailus Food
I have made few changes to the original recipe.

Recipe Yields: 14 to 15 cookies
Ingredients:-
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup vanilla custard powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
tutti frutti morsels for garnishing

Procedure:-

• Preheat the oven to 180 C degrees.
• Sift together flour, custard powder, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl.
• Beat together sugar and oil well, add sieved dry ingredients and vanilla essence.
• Mix well to form a dough, the consistency should be right to roll out the dough into round balls.
• Incase the dough is too dry and difficult to roll out balls, add in few drops of milk and chill for few mins.
• Flatten the balls slightly and garnish with bits of tutti frutti morsels, press them slightly in the dough.
• Place the cookies on on greased tray or line the baking pan with parchment paper. I used butter paper as here i donot get parchment paper, butter paper works fine.
• Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 mins, remove the completely cool them.
• Once baked after 12 mins, the cookies might appear soft to touch but they will firm up once completely cooled.
• Store in an air tight container.

Weekend is nearing so wish you all a very happy and relaxing weekend, until then cia!

Eggless Whole Wheat Spring Onion Scones and Awards!!!

Dear All, First of all I am very sorry for this unannounced break, frankly i never was on a real break but with all the work pressure and shifting to a new apartment, left me tired and exhausted at the end of the day with no energy to blog. I must say this was my first experience in shifting to a new home and its extremely tiring and painful. Most of the past days i have either taken a take away or had rice for lunch and dinner, didnt find much time to cook. Finally yesterday i got some time to make something which i have been planning to make since a long time now....Scones. This is the first time i have made scones at home and they came out quite well. They taste delicious when served them warm with a dollop of butter, perfect for tea time. Googling i found two wonderful recipes Savory cheese & Scallion scones and 5 herb eggless scones, which i have adapted to make these. Sashi, Suparna, Ann, Faiza Ali and Sushma have passed the below awards to me along with a tag! I would like to thank you all for your support and appreciation. It really means a lot to me. Answers to the tag : 1.what is your current obsession? Blogging! 2. What are you wearing today? Capri and a Tee 3. What’s for dinner? Biryani with Raita 4. What’s the last thing you bought? Groceries 5. What are you listening to right now? Truly Madly Deeply by Savage Garden 6. What do you think about the person who tagged you? Suparna is a sweet heart, have known her for a while and we share a grt rapport , her comments always cheer me up , thanks dear! Her recipes are simple and delicious! Sashi i came to know recently, she has some wonderful collection of recipes on her blog, do check out! Ann has a fantastic blog, i have always admired her healthy way of cooking! Faiza is very creative in her cooking and has some yummy dishes on her blog Sushma's blog is a food paradise, i love her passion and creativity in cooking. Once again thank you all! 7. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be? Definately Switzerland! 8. What are your must-have pieces for summer? Capris, Tee's, cotton clothes 9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go? Paris or Italy 10. Which language do you want to learn? German and French 11. Who do you want to meet right now? My mom 12. What is your favorite colour? Sky Blue 13. What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own closet? An embroidered blue, pink and white churidar 14. What is your dream job? Would love to be a cake decorator, would like to work for old age homes and for children's orphange. 15. What’s your favourite magazine? I dont read magazines 16. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on? Chocolates! 17. What do you consider a fashion faux pas? Heavy makeup and unappropriate clothes 18. Who are your style icons? None. 19. Describe your personal style? Simple, elegant and classy! 21. What are your favourite movies? Lots! Jab We Met, HAHK, DDLJ, Ice Age 1,2 &3, Hum Tum etc 22. Give us three styling tips that always work for you: Simple hair style, decent comfortable clothes and confidence. 23. Coffee or tea? Sometimes coffee 24. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed? Eat chocolates, go for shopping, bake a cake, read a novel, basically try to divert my mind. 25. What is the meaning of your name? Angel :) 26. Which other blogs you love visiting? Lots, infact all the blogs which i have been following 27. Favorite Dessert/Sweet? Rasmalai and chocolate cake 28. Favorite Season? Rainy 29.Which is your dream destination? I am living currently in :) Switzerland... 30: Which is your favorite international cuisine ? Italian My Question: Your favorite kitchen tool? The rules are: Respond and rework – answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, and add one more question of your own. Then tag eight or ten other people. I want to pass the awards and tags to the below friends. Please accept these awards and pass on! Priya Nithya Anshika Mandira and Lakshmi of BakingBuddies Shubha Padma Srilakshmi Ushanandini Pratibha Pari

Ingredients: 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (normal roti atta is fine too) 2 spring onions or scallions finely chopped along with their greens and whites 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 2 tbsp cold butter 1/3 cup milk (or as required) 2 green chillies chopped finely 2 tbsp freshly chopped coriander Salt to taste (about a tsp) Procedure:

• Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C
• Mix together flour, baking powder and baking soda
• Add in butter and mix together to resemble crumbles.
• Now add in the chopped spring onions, coriander, and salt to taste.
• Slowly add in milk as required and make a soft dough.
• Roll the dough to about 1 inch thickness and cut with a sharp knife into pieces, similar to cutting a pizza.
• Bake these for 20 to 25 mins until golden brown.
• Serve them warm with a dollop of butter.

Eggless Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

After my successful attempt of baking with whole wheat flour with Plum Baskets I wanted to try my hands on muffins and with berries in the season I immediately set my mind on blueberries. So my search started for a perfect recipe, there are thousands of eggless and vegan muffin recipes, majority of them call for egg substitutes like tofu, yogurt, flax seeds or applesauce. To my horror I didnt have any of these at home, as i have mentioned before I am trying to empty my pantry and not buying new things as i will be shifting to a new place. While going through my reader I saw the Classic Blueberry Muffins by Happy HomeBaker and thought my prayers were answered. I have been following HappyHomeBaking blog from quite sometime now and I have tried few of her recipes, they always turn out perfect! I twisted and tweaked the recipe to make it eggless and they came out perfect. These were sooooo good, I didnt miss the eggs in the muffins at all. They were light and fluffy, well risen and baked beautifully! A glass of cold milk with warm muffins is perfect way to start your day! Oh these are so easy you dont even require a hand mixer, just a spatula is enough :) Sending these to Madhuram's Whole Grain Eggless Baking event.

Ingredients: 2 cups white whole wheat flour (whole wheat pastry flour is also fine) 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 2 tsp baking powder 3/4 cup sugar (170 gms) 1/2 cup milk (125 ml) 75 ml vegetable oil (i used sunflower oil) 2 tsp vanilla essence 1 cup fresh blueberries (125 gms) Procedure:

• Preheat the oven to 200 degress C, line 12 muffin molds with wax paper.
• Wash blueberries and pat them dry with a kitchen towl. Add 1tbsp of flour and coat them well. Set aside.
• Sieve together whole wheat flour, baking soda and baking powder.
• In a seperate bowl whisk together oil, sugar, milk and vanilla essence.
• Make a well in between the flour mixture and slowly add in the liquid mixture, fold lightly using spatula. DONOT over mix .
• Now add in the flour coated blueberries and fold in lightly.
• Spoon the batter into the muffin pans, filling upto 3/4 full. Bake them fo 20 to 30 mins, until tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
• Remove and serve them warm with a cold glass of milk or ice cream!

Note: The batter should not be runny but thick consistency, if its too dry add a tsp of milk.

Parisian Apple Tarts for Taste and Create and an Award

Dear Foodies,

This is the first time I have participated in Taste & Create, a lovely event started by Nicole of For the Love of Food. Every month you are paired with a fellow food blogger and you need to create a dish from their blog. Its a great way to meet new bloggers in the blogosphere and to share your creations! I was paired with very talented Marthe of CulinairyDelights. Like me she too loves to bake and has wonderful collection of recipes, do check out her blog here. I wanted to make something fruity especially with apples, its been a long time since i used apples in my baking. Also I had lots of apples stuffed in my fridge which i needed to finish off before next week as i'll be shifting to a new home :) Initially I had chosen Apple Cranberry Phyllo Turnovers but I couldnt find phyllo sheets here and I wanted to stick to the recipe as much as possible. So i chose these simple and delicious Parisian Apple Tarts! These tarts are simply irresistible, just 4 main ingredients and they are ready in no time. I made a very small batch of tarts, the below recipe will give 3 medium tarts.

Anshika of Cooking Pleasures and Anita of Leave No Room for Dessert have nominated me for "Kreativ Blogger Award". Thank you so much both of you, I love to read your blogs and I am glad you like mine too :)

The Kreativ Blogger award comes with some rules:- 1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.

5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.

6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated

So onto the seven things you may (or may not) find interesting about me:-

1. I am allergic to garlic, I dont know if you have not noticed this yet but in none of my recipes you'll find usage of garlic.

2. I love baking , especially cakes, it has been my passion ever since i started few yrs back. Would love to learn advanced cake decorating techniques some day.

3. Light or Sky Blue is my favorite color, infact there was a time when my wardrobe was full of light blue colored clothes, anything i see in light blue i tend to buy immediately until my mom threatened to throw my things away that i stopped :) Still it is my fav color and will always remain, plus makes me look good :)))

4. I dislike ripe Mangoes or rather i should say I am not fond of them...yeah i know sounds stupid and i think i am the only one who is not fond of mangoes :( the only mango dessert i really liked was my very own Mango Pannacotta with caramelized mangoes and hazelnuts and i do love raw mangoes especially sprinkled with salt and chilli powder :)

5. My all time favorite food is Masala Papads :)) There was a time when i didnt go to a restuarant because they didnt serve good masala papads , i can eat them for lunch, dinner or even breakfasts :) Here comes a real kicker, once i ordered for a masala papad right after having my dessert, the waiter serving us thought i m nuts and till now he gives me a weird look :)))

6. I am completely a chaat person, I am sure I have mentioned this before too. I love chaats to such an extent that once i celebrated my bday dinner on a roadside chaat stall..ah it was so much of fun with dahi puri and kalakhatta gola :))

7. I am toooooo much of a diet conscious person, hence i avoid oily, fried (though i love it) and cheesy stuff.

And the seven bloggers whom I am nominating for this award (in no particular order) are:-

1. A2ZVegetarianCuisine - Sadhna & Muskaan 2. HealthNut - Yasmeen 3. PlantainLeaf - Rekha 4. HomeCookReceipes - Lavi 5. 4th Sense Samayal - Nithya 6. Dishes from My Kitchen - Pavithra 7. My Experience with Cooking - Pooja

Pls accept the award and pass on the kreativity!

Ingredients: 1-2 pastry puff sheets 1 granny smith apple, peeled and chopped finely 1-2 tbsp brown sugar for sprinkling 2 tsp softened butter Cinnamon powder (optional)

Procedure:

• Preheat the oven at 200 degrees C.
• Roll out the pastry puff into 1/4 inch thick circles of your desired size.
• Leaving 1 inch space from the corners, spread the finely chopped apples.
• Fold in the sides over lapping each other.
• Generously drizzle brown sugar and butter on the apples.
• Bake them for 20 to 25 mins until lightly browned.
• Serve them warm with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

I am back with Mini Plum Baskets.....My 50th Post

Hi Everyone, I am back with my 50th Post..yuhuuuuuuu..never thought I'll reach this far. Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement shown in past few months, love you all!!!

I wanted to post something sweet for my 50th post hence I made these cute looking tarts with plums. To be honest I wasnt fond of plums until few days back when i tasted the most sweetest and juicy plums ever. I made these mini baskets using whole wheat pastry flour and semolina, adding semolina makes them extra crispy and crunchy. You can choose any other filling of your choice, just make sure that the filling is not too watery or else it may take a lot of time to bake and also the tarts may become soft and not remain crispy. These are wonderful and absolutely guilt free tarts which are sure to make you drool!

I was shocked when I checked my reader this morning with 300+ posts from my dear blogger pals, frankly I have never missed anything so much as I have missed visiting and reading your posts, blogging now has become a part of my life and i owe this to all my friends who have showered their love on me! I would like to thank each and everyone of you with my whole heart! I promise to visit you all soon, it might take few days to go through all the post so pls forgive me if I am a bit late!

Sending these to BSI:Plum hosted by Lk of Healthy Delicious and also to Madhuram's Whole Wheat Eggless Baking event

Ingredients: (adapted from Kitchen UnPlugged by Gattina) For tarts: 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour 1/2 cup semilona 1/2 tsp sugar 1/2 tsp salt 3 tbsp cold butter cut into pieces 2-3 tbsp cold milk as required For Filling: 2 plum chopped finely 1 tbsp vanilla sugar 1 tbsp raisins 1 tbsp chocolate chips 1 tsp finely chopped pistachios 1 tbsp almond meal Procedure:

• Mix wheat flour, semilona, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut in the cold butter and mix with pastry blender or fork until crumbly. Now add in milk little at a time to make dough. Chill the dough for minimum 2 hours.
• For the filling, mix ala the ingredients together and keep it aside.
• Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and using a cookie cutter or a glass cut round pieces and place them in greased muffin pans making cups.
• Fill the baskets with a tbsp of the plum filling, sprinkle some chocolate chips on top.
• With the remaining dough cut small thin strips and arrange them as basket handles, use little milk or water to stick them to the sides.
• Bake these in preheated oven at 200 degrees C for 20 to 25 mins until golden brown.

Eggless Raspberry Tiramisu Cake and few celebrations

The month of may is a celebration month with many birthdays and anniversaries in my family. Last week it was my parents 29th wedding anniversay......yippeee, though i was not present with them but i did make this lovely tiramisu cake for them. We also celebrate many birthdays this month...my cousins Kayur, Nikita and Dwiti celebrate their birthdays and my bhabhi Manjri and Smita too celebrate their birthdays in may......I wish all you dears a very happy birthday...though I am very far but i still do miss you :)) I am dedicating this cake to all of you sweet people who celebrate their special day in this month and to all the MOTHERS as today its MOTHER's DAY....so here's wishing every mom A Very Happy Mothers Day.....I love you Mom and i miss you very much...:))

This cake is very easy and quick to make and its eggless, perfect for vegetarians. The moment i had tried tiramisu first time, i absolutely fell in love with mascarpone cheese, its melt in mouth texture is perfect for desserts. I have used raspberries here but i think you can experiment with other fruits like strawberries, blueberries, mango etc. This recipe is inspired from Happy Home Baker and you can find the original recipe here .

This dish goes to MM:Spring Cakes event by Meeta and to My Favorite Things : Cheese guest hosted by Poornima, event started by Bindiya of In Love With Food . I am also sending this to Ivy of Kopiasta who is celebrating Mother's Day on her blog.

Ingredients:
1 cup dark espresso coffee
1 tbsp kahlua coffee liquor
1 tsp sugar
250 gms mascarpone cheese
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tbsp of sugar/vanilla sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence(omit if using vanilla sugar)
1 cup fresh raspberries
chocolate shavings for filling and decorations
1 packet of lady finger or savoiardi




Procedure:

• Add 1 tsp sugar and kahlua in the coffee and keep aside.
• Mix mascarpone cheese and 3 tbsp of vanilla sugar together in a bowl.
• Beat the heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form, add the cream into mascarpone mixture and gently fold in. You can now add in little vanilla essence if required.
• Take a spring form pan, align the lady fingers on the side of the pan as shown in the pictures.
• Now dip the remaining lady finger one by one in the coffee mixture and align them on the base of the pan.
• Add in mascarpone mixture on top and gently spread to cover all sides.
• Add in some fresh chopped raspberries and chocolate shavings.
• Similarly repeat the procedure once again. 
• Cover and chill the cake overnight in fridge.
• To serve, decorate the cake with raspberries and chocolate shavings.
• Cut and serve chilled.