Category: Cakes, Cookies & Desserts

For the cake layer:
Dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cups – plain flour
1 cup – sugar
3 tbsp – unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp – baking soda
1/2 tsp – salt

Wet ingredients:
6 tbsps – oil
1 tbsp – white vinegar
1 tsp – vanilla extract
1 cup – ice cold water

1) Mix all the ingredients very well with a whisk.
2) Pour all the liquids into the dry flour mixture and mix well with a whisk until the batter is smooth. Do not over beat.
3) Pour the batter in a 9″ cake pan with a loose bottom or a spring form pan. Bake the cake for about 20 – 25 minutes or until the top is springy when touched. When it’s done, take it out and cool completely.
4) Once the cake is cool, brush it with some brandy or amaretto (optional). 

For the dark chocolate mousse:
150 gms – mini marshmallows
50 gms (1/2 stick) – unsalted butter 
250 gms – dark chocolate (at least 60% cacao), chopped
1/4 cup – boiling hot water
250 ml – heavy cream
1 tsp – pure vanilla extract

1) Place all the ingredients except heavy cream and vanilla in a non-stick saucepan and stir together on med-low heat until it’s all smooth and melted. Take off from the heat and let it cool.
2) While the chocolate mixture is cooling, whip the cream and vanilla until soft peaks form (not stiff).
3) Gently fold in the cooled chocolate mixture until it’s all mixed. Pour this mousse on the cake layer and chill it in the fridge until it’s well set.

For the white chocolate glaze:
1/2 cup – white chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp – heavy cream
1/2 cup – sour cream

1) Heat the heavy cream till it’s hot but not boiling.
2) Pour it over the chopped chocolate and let it sit undisturbed for 2 minutes. Then stir it up till all the chocolate melts. Let it cool to room temperature. Then whisk in the sour cream and pour the glaze over the dark chocolate mousse layer. Refrigerate till set.
3) Decorate with berries of your choice and serve.

White chocolate and raspberry is my favorite dessert combination in the world. I love how the sweetness of matte white chocolate and sourness of bright juicy raspberries complement each other. And, needless to mention how pretty they look together!

DC vs. Baltimore food truck Saturday..out of the 50 trucks there, I had my eyes stuck on this one truck that sold white chocolate raspberry cheesecake on a popstick.

A few months back, we had a friend visiting from the Midwest. So I made Paneer Pesto Wraps for dinner and tarts for dessert. I filled some of the tarts with the classic PBJ and some with pastry cream and strawberries. Then I had some leftover tart shells (they keep well for a good month) with which I made these Raspberry & White Chocolate Tarts.

The usual tart pastry recipes call for rubbing cold cubes of butter into the flour, forming the dough with egg or water and refrigerating the dough before baking. But this tart shell recipe is the complete opposite — uses melted butter, doesn’t use any egg and no refrigeration required. And good news is that it’s a guaranteed fail-proof recipe so do give it a try.

For the tart pastry:
90g – unsalted butter
3 tbsp – water
1 tbsp – vegetable oil
1 tbsp – sugar
Pinch – salt
1 cup – flour

1) To make the tart pastry, preheat the oven to 200 C (400 F).
2) Place the butter, water, oil, sugar and salt in an overproof bowl.
3) Put the bowl in the oven for about 15 minutes, until the butter is melted, bubbling, and just beginning to brown around the edges. This step can even be done by placing a saucepan on a stovetop on low heat.
4) Carefully remove the bowl from the oven and dump in the flour. Stir quickly, until the dough comes together and pulls away from the side of the dish.
5) Put the dough into the base of one 10″ tart pan or divide it equally into six 3″ tart pans.
6) Press the dough around the base of the pan with a spatula, and then once it is cool enough to handle, use your hands to evenly press it into the base and up the sides of the tart tin.
7) Prick the dough all over with a fork and place the tart pan(s) on a baking tray.
8) Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown all over. Remove the pans from the oven and cool completely before filling.

For the white chocolate filling:
3/4 cup – heavy cream
2/3 cup – whole milk
1 tsp – pure vanilla extract
6 oz – white chocolate, chopped

For the topping:
1 cup – fresh raspberries
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

1) Whip the heavy cream till soft peaks form. Refrigerate.
2) Bring the milk and vanilla to a simmer. Pour it over the white chocolate and let it sit undisturbed for 2 minutes. The hot milk will help melt the chocolate. After 2 minutes, give it a good stir until it’s smooth. Cool this mixture to room temperature.
3) Gently fold in the whipped cream into the white chocolate mixture.
4) Pour this filling into the tart shell(s) and refrigerate for about an hour or till the filling is set.
5) Arrange the fresh raspberries on top.
6) Dust the confectioner’s sugar on those gorgeous red rubies!

My sister is a chocolate cake monster. I make a chocolate cake ever so often and every time I make it, she refuses to share. She finishes the entire cake herself in less than a day. And it pains to think about how ridiculously unhealthy it must be for her gut.

So this time, for her endless chocolate cake cravings, I decided to take the “skinny” (healthy) way out, without compromising on taste. A few days back, I mentally created a chocolate cake recipe with whole wheat flour, oil and carrots. This weekend, I set that mental creation to action. Result — a super moist chocolate cake with the hidden goodness of carrots, and whole wheat flour of course. Next time, I plan to replace some of the wheat flour with ground oats, the oil with applesauce, and the sugar with agave nectar. I’m certain to make this “skinny” cake again. You should too! 🙂

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups – whole wheat flour
3 tbsp – unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp – baking soda
1/2 tsp – salt
1 cup – caster sugar

Wet Ingredients:
1/3 cup – oil
1 tbsp – white vinegar
1 tsp – pure vanilla extract
1 cup – diet coke

3 medium – carrots, finely shredded
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

1) Sift all the dry ingredients.
2) Mix together all the wet ingredients.
3) Pour the wet into the dry and mix until combined well.
4) Fold in the shredded carrots.
5) Pour into a greased 8″ baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 C/350 F.
6) Cool completely, dust with the confectioner’s sugar and slice.

I love vanilla cake over any other type of cake. Love it to the extent that I once asked my sister to get me three loaves of plain vanilla pound cake as my birthday present. A perfect vanilla cake is one that is slightly dense in texture, buttery in taste and has an evenly browned crust.

I’ve made numerous attempts at making the “perfect vanilla cake” in the past which have yielded both failures and successes. However, the one I made last weekend was the best one I’ve ever made. I would like to call this a pound cake but am a little hesitant because real pound cakes are made of butter and this recipe uses oil. Although the cake didn’t taste buttery, it was still moist and perfectly dense. The original recipe called for 1 cup of oil (to 1 cup of flour) which I thought was too much. So I tweaked the recipe a bit by adding only 1/2 cup oil and replacing the other half with buttermilk, hence making it less fattening.

1 cup – plain flour
1 tbsp – cornstarch
1 cup – caster sugar
1/2 tsp – salt
1 tsp – baking powder
4 – eggs
1/2 cup – oil
1 tbsp – pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup – buttermilk

1) Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F.
2) Sift the plain flour, cornstarch, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
3) Break the eggs in a blender along with the oil and vanilla. Blitz for 1 minute.
4) Pour the egg-oil mixture into a bowl and gently fold in the flour mixture alternating with the buttermilk.
5) Pour the batter into a generously greased 7″ baking pan.
6) Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely before slicing.

Wintry Baltimore is finally starting to get warm and this weekend my mum and I are going to New Jersey to visit friends from Abu Dhabi. I love to bake, they love to eat and we love how perfectly this always works out! 🙂

As per usual, I was having trouble figuring out what to make. I knew I had a feel for making muffins as they would be easy to pack and take, but didn’t know what kind. A few days back, I came across this recipe for a chocolate chip rosemary cake and I had had that on my mind since then. The combination sounded way too interesting (and maybe a little weird?)

The recipe of this cake batter rightly resembled a muffin batter recipe and so I thought of making chocolate chip rosemary muffins. Although this recipe had great reviews, I was still anxious about the combination of flavors. Yet, nothing stopped me from giving this a try.

I made the muffins, took them out of the pan and stared at them for minutes. They looked scrumptious. Regardless of how pretty they looked, I was afraid to taste them. But my sister and mum taste-tested them with quite a lot of incitement. They loved the flavors and went ahead to take a second bite. My mum said her favorite part about the muffin was the crunchy top.

I made two batches of these muffins — in the first one, we felt that the rosemary sharply overpowered the bitterly sweetness of the chocolate and so I decided to reduce the amount in the second batch. Apart from that, these muffins were perfectly dense in texture with tender crumbs, chunks of dark chocolate, peppery rosemary and fruity olive oil all held together.

Chocolate Chunk, Rosemary & Olive Oil Muffins
adapted from Oeufs Mayonnaise who got the recipe from 101 Cookbooks

Olive oil for the pan

Dry ingredients:
3/4 cup – spelt flour (can use ground oats instead)
1 1/2 cups – plain flour
3/4 cup – sugar
1 1/2 tsp – baking powder
3/4 tsp – kosher salt

Wet ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup – olive oil
3/4 cup – whole milk

1 1/2 tbsp – fresh rosemary, finely chopped (I used 1 tbsp)
5 oz – bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao), chopped
2 tablespoons sugar for top crunch

1) Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin pan with olive oil.
2) Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl, pouring any bits of grain or other ingredients left in the sifter back into the bowl. Set aside.
3) In another bowl, whisk the eggs thoroughly. Add the olive oil, milk and rosemary and whisk again. Using a spatula, fold the wet ingredients into the dry, gently mixing just until combined. Stir in 2/3 of the chocolate. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, smoothing the top. Sprinkle with the remaining chocolate and 2 tbsp of sugar on the top.
4) Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until the top is domed, golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
5) Serve warm or cold.

My cousin recently got engaged and we are visiting her in-laws (to-be) in North Carolina this weekend. The last time she visited, her mom-in-law gifted her a cookie press and asked her to make some cookies using it and send her pictures. Well, that never happened, and being the biggest baking freak, I couldn’t resist using her cookie press. So I decided to make my favorite butter cookies and take with us to NC.

I love this recipe because it uses very few ingredients, there is no hassle of using any machine, they are just mildly sweet and so buttery that they magically melt in your mouth. Since I was in the mood for making something cutesy looking, I made little flower shaped cookies with 100’s & 1000’s.

3/4 cup – plain flour
1/4 cup – cornstarch
1/4 cup – confectioner’s sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) – unsalted butter (softened but not melted)
1/2 tsp – pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp – salt

1) Combine the flour, cornstarch and salt together.
2) In a separate bowl, whisk the butter, sugar and vanilla using a wooden spoon until it’s smooth.
3) Add in the flour mixture and combine. You’ll have a soft dough ready.
4) Spoon this dough into your cookie press and press out the cookies on an ungreased and unlined baking sheet. If you’re not using a cookie press, simply roll the dough into small balls and flatten them slightly. Place on an ungreased baking sheet and proceed.
5) Decorate with cherries, chocolate chips or anything of your choice and bake for 12 – 15 minutes in an oven preheated to 350F/180C. The cookies are done when the edges turn slightly brown.
6) Remove from the oven and allow cookies to stand for 3-5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Once again today, like any other random day, I was in a high spirit for making a dessert that I had never attempted before. While I was driving to the grocery store, my mind deliberately activated its thought process, trying to figure out what to make. I felt as if several desserts were running a marathon, hastily working towards hitting their finish point — my mind.

As I was cruising my cart through the aisles, I unintentionally passed by the tea and coffee aisle. That suddenly reminded me of the giant jar I had in my kitchen that was filled with Thai tea leaves. I reminisced how my sister went to every Asian store that possibly existed, just in search for Thai tea leaves and came back dismally failed. Her endless Thai iced tea cravings finally got her to order a massive bag of Thai tea leaves online and hence the jar full of it.

My sister loves crème brûlée and so do I. But the only one I’ve had in the past is a plain vanilla one with raspberries and a pistachio crème brûlée with a chocolate ganache and pistachio brittle (best ever). As much as we love crème brûlée, we also love Thai iced tea. So today, I thought of combining the two favorites resulting in a Thai Chai Crème Brûlée.

It’s rich and creamy and has a bright orange finish, almost like that of a Halloween pumpkin!

Thai Chai Crème Brûlée
adapted from myself

1/2 pint – heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup – sugar
2 tsp – Thai tea leaves
2 – egg yolks
1/2 tsp – vanilla

1) In a saucepan, heat together the cream, sugar and tea leaves. Heat the mixture until bubbles appear around the edge. Turn off the heat and strain the mixture. (I used a cheesecloth to strain  it to avoid any fine leaves.)
2) Lightly whisk the egg yolks and vanilla. Slowly add in a couple spoons of the warm cream mixture while still whisking continuously in order to temper the eggs.
3) Pour the tempered egg mix back into the warm cream and mix well.
4) Ladle the custard into 4 ramekins placed in a fairly deep baking dish. Slowly and carefully pour hot water into the pan till it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
5) Bake them in a preheated oven (350 degree F) for about 15 minutes or until the custards are just set but still wobbly in the center. Let them cool completely in the water. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
6) Right before serving, sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of sugar evenly on the top of each custard and “brûlée” (burn the sugar) the tops using a torch to form a crispy, golden layer. If you don’t have a torch, you can heat up the top broiler in your oven to the highest temperature possible. Move the top rack in your oven up as high as it can go. Place the ramekins in the oven on the top rack, and broil for 3 – 5 minutes, rotating them frequently so that they broil evenly. Take them out when they are golden brown and bubbling. Allow the crème brûlées to sit for at least 5 minutes before serving. I like them cold, so I put mine back into the refrigerator for no longer than 30 minutes, else the crunchy sugar layer will begin to soften.

I was in the mood for making a dessert on a random evening last month. But I wanted to make something I had never made before. I had a bazillion desserts running through my mind but the evening was short and I had to figure out what to make. As I sat down trying to ease up my dilemma, I suddenly recalled this Mango & Coconut Panna Cotta that I had ordered at a restaurant couple years ago. However, I acutely remember the flavors of the dessert weren’t pungent enough and I didn’t enjoy it much. Point being, I came to a conclusion of making a panna cotta, but a different flavored one. I desired something refreshing and so lime was the way to go. For a while, I had been wanting to make a lime and rosemary flavored dessert. So I thought of making a lime and rosemary panna cotta.

As soon as I made up my mind, my sister Shivani, came frenziedly hopping into my room asking me what I was going to make. When I told her, she firmly disapproved of my idea of flavors. She suggested I make a lime and basil panna cotta instead of lime and rosemary. For once, I became partially reluctant and serenely agreed with her idea.

Lime & Basil Panna Cotta
adapted from my sister and myself

1 pint – heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup – caster sugar
juice and zest of 2 limes
1 handful – fresh basil leaves, torn
2 1/4 tsp – powdered gelatin
2 tbsp – cold water
Strawberry coulis to serve (recipe follows)

1) Place the sugar, lime juice, lime zest and torn basil leaves in a saucepan.

2) Rub it together using the back of a spoon so that the sugar gets infused with the lime and basil flavors.
3) Then add in the cream and mix. Let it sit for 20 minutes.
4) Meanwhile, soak the gelatin in the water for 10 minutes.
5) Heat the cream mixture on medium heat until bubbles appear around the edge. Do not bring to a boil.
6) Turn off the heat and add in the soaked gelatin. Stir until the gelatin dissolves.
7) Strain the mixture and pour it into 4 lightly greased custard cups.
8) Let them cool to room temperature and then set the cups in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or until completely set.
9) To serve, run a sharp knife around the edge of each panna cotta and unmould onto a serving plate. Garnish and serve.

Strawberry Coulis
adapted from Laura Vitale

1 cup – frozen but thawed strawberries
1 tbsp – sugar (more or less depending on your taste)
1 tsp – fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp – cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp water

1) Place the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a blender and puree it. Strain it through a fine sieve and place the puree in a small saucepan.
2) Bring the puree to a simmer and add the cornstarch mixture and cook stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and pour it in a small container and let it cool completely.