ABC Series: DESSERTS

The theme for ABC Series this month is DESSERTS. A dessert is the last course of a meal and is usually sweet food. Desserts can be ice creams, puddings, cakes, mousse, pies, tarts, pastries, cheesecake, Indian sweets, payasam etc. All of us love to have some dessert at the end of a special meal. So, this month lets celebrate with desserts !

The previous events on my blog can be found HERE

Rules for the event:

1. Send any DESSERT recipe before 31-Jan-2012.The recipes must be posted on your blog between Jan 1 - Jan 31, 2012.
2. Please link back to this announcement page and use the logo above. The use of logo is mandatory as it helps spread the word about the event. To participate, all you need to do is to link the recipe using the inlinkz tool. The link tool doesnt support images, so I would be doing a roundup in the first week of Feb.
3. Archived entries are most welcome. Please re-post it with a link to this announcement page and use the logo 
4. If you have any issues in linking, please post a comment or send a mail to events.ramyasrecipe@gmail.com. Non-bloggers can send the recipes to this email id.

ABC Series: CAKES for CHRISTMAS event roundup

Hope all of you had lots and lots of cake during the Christmas-New year time. I am so happy to receive many entries for the CAKES event. Thanks to each and everyone for their awesome entries.  This time I got to know many more blogger friends through this event. Here is an award for all of you, please accept it and I would be really happy to see it on your blog.

Poornima, Sobha Shyam and Prathibha gets a special one - Top contributor Award for sending 3 recipes each.

So, lets move on to the Roundup.

The first entry was Dates cake with buttercream frosting from Chitra of Chitranna. This also happens to her son's 3rd birthday cake. Belated Happy birthday, Shridhar.

P

Amina has sent her Soft Sponge Cake. Her blog also features her crafts and creative skills.

Poornima who participated in my blog event for the first time, surprised me with 3 yummy cakes Eggless custard powder snack cake

Strawberry chocolate mousse cake

Fruit and Nut cake

Eggless Brownie from MyIndiaRecipes. This also happens to be the 200th post on the blog. Congrats and keep posting yummy recipes !

Teena has sent this beautiful Plum upside cake

Eggless fruit cake from Resh of Daily Cuppa. Fruit cakes are my favourite.

Chocolate cake -  Egg and dairy free from Reva. Love the raspberries on it.

Rathai's Fruit cake perfect for the festive mood.

Vidhya has sent Chocolate rum raisin cake, I just love the combination of raisins and rum.

Sobha has sent this unique Stuffed Banana Muffins, Eggless oats banana muffins and Eggless carrot cake. Thanks dear, for supporting me from the beginning.

Chocolate lava cake recipe oozing chocolate from Malaysian Delicacies

Christmas Rum cake from Richa Priyanka for the festive season.

Prathibha has sent Christmas Fruit cake, the traditional kerala plum cake

A three tier cake that also happens to be her daughter's 2nd birthday cake 

and some Chocolate Chip cupcakes

Amy has sent these cute Rainbow cupcakes and Vanilla cupcakes

Sandhya's awesome Chocolate cake with nutella biscoff

Hyma's cute Eggless choco brownie cupcakes

The previous events on my blog can be found HERE

Vegetable pulav

A yummy and healthy pulav loaded with veggies. A one pot meal perfect for lunchbox.

Ingredients:

Basmati / Biriyani Rice - 2 cups, washed and drained

Onion - 1, finely chopped

Tomato - 1, chopped

Chopped mixed vegetables - about1.5 to 2 cups 

(I used beans, carrot, capsicum, green peas, potatoes, cauliflower and babycorns)

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Ghee or oil - 2 tbsp

Green chillies - 2 or 3, grind to a paste

Salt to taste

Whole spices

Cinnamon - 2 inch piece

Green cardamom - 2

Cloves - 4

Star anise - 1/2 of a flower

Bay leaves - 2

To garnish

Cashewnuts and raisins roasted in ghee 

Coriander leaves chopped

Preparation:

1. Heat ghee/oil in a pan and add the whole spices and fry for a minute. Then add ginger garlic paste and ground green chillies and saute. Add onions and mixed veggies and tomato and saute for 2-3 minutes.

2. Add the rice and combine everything well. Meanwhile boil 4 cups of water in another pan/kettle. Pour the boiling water and enough salt and cook covered till rice and veggies are cooked and all the water is evaporated.

3. Garnish with coriander leaves and Cashewnuts and raisins roasted in ghee.

Enjoy with raitha, papad and pickle.

This image is for Susan's B&W Wednesday.

The healthy pulav goes to the following events

Cook with spices: Cardamom

Royal feast - Biriyani

Let's Cook: Rice

Kerala Kitchen - Jan 2012 hosted by Kaveri

Simple tea cake for the New Year

This recipe is a simple one with minimal ingredients. I am in Bangalore now and I do not have a conventional oven to bake. So I decided to try baking in my microwave oven. This is my first attempt baking in convection mode and so I chose a simple recipe. And the result: A Soft and Spongy cake. I couldnt find any difference in the texture of the cake baked in convection mode, it was just perfect like the ones baked in a conventional oven.

Ingredients:


All Purpose flour/Maida – 2 cups
Baking powder – 2 tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp (omit if using salted butter)

Sugar – 1 cup
Softened Butter – ½ cup (100 g)
Eggs – 3 at room temperature
Vanilla essence – 1.5 tsp
Milk – 1 cup at room temperature

Preparation:

1. Sift together flour,baking powder and salt to a bowl.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together till fluffy.Add the eggs one by one and whisk well. Add the vanilla essence and combine well.
3. Add half of the milk and half of the flour and whisk well. Add the remaining half of milk and flour. Whisk till the ingredients are combined well and the batter is smooth without any lumps.
4. Grease a cake tin with some butter and pour the batter.
5. Set the oven to convection mode. Preheat the oven to 180C. My oven took 7-8 mins to pre-heat. After the oven beeps, place the cake tin and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Insert a skewer or toothpick at the centre of the cake to check if it is done.