Cherry and Cranberry Cake

The pressure of naming your child..and that lovely nickname…we were stuck with so many names in case its a girl child…But you see..the moment she was born…all I could think was calling her Cherry. since then although number of names have been doing round for my little angel…Cherry is what she is to me and she too cherishes that name. Cherry is cutest, Cherry is mumma’s doll..well now you can relate why this cake or the mere mention of cherry takes me on my happy ride. Chocolate is nowhere in this cake and I was pretty sure she won’t even touch the cake…to my surprise she not only helped me in pitting the cherries…she waited and waited till the cake was out of the oven (1hr 20 minutes u see is a long wait for her). Her joy in turning out the cake on plate..nudged my heart and quickly whisked Chocolate sauce by https://www.davidlebovitz.com/the-best-chocol/. The result…my darling actually ate a non chocolate cake…yay happy me🥰

Preparation time- 20 min
Cooking Time- 1 hr 20 min

Ingredients

200 g Glace’ Cherries
175 g Butter
175g Castor Sugar
3 eggs
zest and 2 tsp juice of orange
225 g flour
50g dried cranberries

Method

Sieve, rinse the cherries in cold water and let them dry. Pre heat the oven at 160°C, beat butter and sugar in a bowl, add zest, eggs, make the batter fluffy, add flour gradually. Chop 3/4 of cherries and keep the rest aside. Add the chopped cherries and cranberries in the batter. Mix, and layer it in the lined cake pan, top it with cherries. Bake at 160 for 1hr 20 minutes, check with skewer and if required bake further for 10 minutes. Allow it to sit in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn it out on the serving dish and serve warm with warm chocolate syrup.

Apricot and Chocolate Delight

Apricot is such an amazing fruit..you can eat it fresh, bake, dried Apricots again in Muesli…seeds mixtures, and yes baking. Brownies again spell chocolate..so wanted a break from it..but you see I have my set of gramophone record of chocolate chocolate…so just to trick her i decided on making blondies. White chocolate once in the pan with butter she couldn’t be lured to kitchen…but oven..hes a culprit…hot oven and yumm yumm chocolate…she gave a look at them..was trying to understand.it sure smells chocolate but where is the color…after some convincing gave her a bite and her yep yep made my day❤️

Preparation time- 10 min
Cooking time- 30min
Yields- 20

Ingredients

Butter- 125 g
White Chocolate – 300g
Castor Sugar- 175 g
Flour- 175g
Dried Apricots- 125g
Baking powder- 1tsp
Vanilla Essence

Method

Pre heat oven at 180°, line a roasting tin with parchment paper. IN a pan melt butter and half chocolate. Chop the rest of chocolate. In a big bowl, whish eggs, vanilla, sugar to fluffy peak, add flour, meted butter and chocolate, chopped chocolate and chopped apricots. Mix and layer it in the tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes, it would be a bit wobbly in middle. Cut in squares and remove the paper.

Creamy Cheese Pasta

I’ve been on my guilty pleasure stream off lately…Be it the cupcakes and now Pasta. You see when you hit a certain age..No Carbs.No Cheese…infact a lot of No’s are part of routine. So today morning when I woke up with a certain urge to eat pasta ..tried ignoring it…but realized that halfway through my Yoga session my mind was still stuck on the aroma which is just there in my mind. Diet, Healthy eating please take a back seat..im going on a ride today. Now some might just stick to one less fat version,but as my mind is on overdrive, I ended up making Pasta two ways. Baked version had to come…but how could creamy cheese sauce version stay behind..

Preparation time- 5 min
Cooking time- 15 min

Ingredients

Penne Pasta- 1 cup
Butter- 2 tbsp
Flour- 2 tbsp
Milk- 1 1/2 cup
Olives
Salt
Black pepper
Onion powder
Thyme
Cheese- 1/2 cup

Method

Boil pasta al Dante with oil and salt. In a pan melt butter, add flour…sauté till the raw flour aroma goes away, add milk gradually whisking away so as no lumps are left. add onion powder, black pepper, salt, keep on whisking, add cheese and a dash of Vinegar. Stir and add thyme pasta and olive. Dig in slowly in the hot a creamy cheesy sauce.

Baked Cheesy Pasta

I’ve been on my guilty pleasure stream off lately…Be it the cupcakes and now Pasta. You see when you hit a certain age..No Carbs.No Cheese…infact a lot of No’s are part of routine. So today morning i woke with a certain urge to eat pasta…I tried ignoring it…but realized that halfway through my Yoga session my mind was still stuck on the aroma which is just there in my mind. Diet, Healthy eating please take a back seat..im going on a ride today. Now some might just stick to one less fat version..but as my mind is on overdrive, I ended up making Pasta two ways. Baked version had to come…but how could creamy cheese sauce version stay behind..

Preparation time- 10 min
Cooking time- 40 min

Ingredients –

Penne Pasta- 1 cup
Chopped Onions- 1 cup
Chopped Garlic – 2 Tbsp
Chopped Ginger – 1 tbsp
olive oil
Chopped Tomato- 1 cup
Tomato puree- 200g
Corn kernels- 1/4 cup
Bell Pepper – 1 cut into chunks
Cheese (Mozeralla or Cheddar) – 1 cup
Cream- 1/2 cup
Chilli Flakes- 1 tbsp
Oregano
Salt
Oil

Method

Pre Heat oven at 180. Boil pasta al Dante with oil and salt. In a pan, add olive oil, sauté garlic, onion, ginger. Add corn and bell pepper, add salt, sauté. Add chopped tomatoes, sauté till they are soft, add puree and seasoning. if it gets dry very quickly add a bit of water else add cream, stir for 1 minute. Remove from flame, in the oven dish add the sauce, layer pasta and cheese then pasta and top off with cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes…and please wait …let it cool before you dig in.