Rich and creamy puddings…

I wasn’t into avocado until I tried Avocado milkshake, one of the best milkshakes I’ve ever tasted. Guacamole was the first avocado based dish that I had  tried a few years ago at a Mexican restaurant and after that I’ve had salmon and avocado sushi. Last weekend, I had bought a few avocados with the intention of making milkshakes and ended up making pudding. Avocados are excellent for making puddings, they imparted a rich and creamy taste to the puddings.

Avocado Pudding

Ingredients

• Avocado, ripe- 2
• Milk, skim milk- 2 cups + 1/4 cup for pureeing the avocados
• Condensed milk, non-fat- 3/4 th of 300 ml can or according to your sweet level
• Agar-agar strands, cut into 1 inch- 1/2 cup
• Water, for melting agar-agar- 1/3 cup
• Strawberries, halved- for garnishing

Preparation

1. Use ripe avocados for making this pudding, cut them and scoop out the flesh.
2. In a blender, puree the avocados with 1/4 cup milk
3. In a saucepan, combine 2 cups milk and condensed milk, heat it.
4. Let the mixture come to a slight boil.
5. Remove the saucepan from the heat.
6. Add the pureed avocado and combine well, avocado puree wouldn’t mix thoroughly with the milk.
7. Transfer the avocado mixture along with the milk into a blender and blend it to a smooth constituency.
8. Return the blended avocado mixture into the saucepan and place it over low heat.
9. In a pan, combine agar-agar strands and water, place it over medium heat and let the agar-agar dissolve in the water.
10. Pour the melted agar-agar into the avocado mixture and combine well.
11. Remove the saucepan from the heat.
12. Pour the mixture into small bowls and let cool down a bit.
13. Keep the bowls in the refrigerator for a few hours to set.
14. Garnish with halved strawberries or any fruits of your choice, serve chilled.

Tips:

• You could increase the amount of condensed milk according to your needs.
• You could use gelatin instead of agar-agar.

Wrapping up 2011 and welcoming 2012 in the sweetest way possible…

A few more hours to bid farewell to 2011 and to welcome 2012. Every year on Dec 31st I go through my picasa album and look at all the beautiful pictures, cherish all the moments that I had in that year and will end up making a collage of all the beautiful moments. I did the same today as well, I can only say that I did have an amazing 2011 and no regrets whatsoever. There were ups and downs and I believe that’s what makes life thrilling. One of the best moments of 2011 was when my husband became a pilot and flying with my pilot was the most amazing part.

I had made a New Year’s resolution to photograph my dinner everyday for 365 days straight, I was able to stick to my resolution and have successfully uploaded all the dinner pictures. This year, I was featured on a gazette and two other websites and was chosen as one of the best food bloggers of 2011. I am so happy that what I am doing with all my heart and passion is finally getting recognized. I can’t thank enough all the lovely people who follow my cooking and who support me unconditionally. Without my readers and fans, I wouldn’t have reached so far. I have no words when it comes to conveying my gratitude to everyone out there who are a part of my life’s journey. THANK YOU!

I have always followed one thing in my life: keep it simple and be genuine, then everything will turn out to be beautiful!

I always make something sweet and delicious for New Year’s eve. Last night, I couldn’t resist and made strawberry-almond swiss roll. As I made the cake with gluten free flour, I was little concerned about the texture of the cake. When the cake came out of the oven, I jumped out of joy seeing the soft and fluffy texture of the cake. Made the strawberry filling and whipped-cream frosting from scratch. The swiss roll tasted so delicious, it was unbelievably soft and creamy. This is a very simple recipe and can be made without much effort.

Wishing everyone a Fantastic 2012!!!

Strawberry and Almond Swiss Roll Recipe

Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients

For making cake:

• Large eggs – 4 (separate yolks and whites)
• Granulated sugar- 3/4 cup
• Almond extract or vanilla extract- 1/4 tsp
• All purpose flour or Gluten free flour- 1/2 cup
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Confectioners sugar or powdered sugar for dusting- 3 to 4 tbsp

For making Strawberry filling and Whipped-cream frosting:

• Strawberry syrup (thick syrup) or spread- 1/4 cup
• Heavy cream- 2 1/4 cups
• Sugar- 1/4 cup

Preparation:

Making cake:

1. Separate egg yolks and whites from the 4 eggs.
2. In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks along with 1/2 cup granulated sugar until it turns pale yellow ( You could use an electric hand mixer to gently beat it).
3. Add almond or vanilla extract and flour to the yolk mixture, whisk just until combined (don’t over mix the batter).
4. In another large bowl, using an electric hand mixer beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks form.
5. Slowly add remaining 1/4 cup sugar (1 tablespoon at a time) and beat until the egg whites turn stiff.
6. First, whisk in one third of the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture.
7. Gently fold in the remaining beaten egg white using a rubber spatula, keep aside.
8. Preheat oven to 350 F.
9. Grease a 10-by-15 inch baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
10. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
11. Coat the parchment paper with non-stick cooking spray.
12. Spread the prepared cake batter evenly on the parchment paper.
13. Bake for 15 minutes until a fork inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
14. After 15 minutes, remove the baking sheet from the oven.
15. Gently run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen up the cake.
16. Dust the top of the cake with confectioners sugar.
17. Place another parchment paper on the top of the cake and gently invert the cake on it.
18. Peel off the parchment paper that’s now on top of the cake.
19. Starting from a short side of the cake, gently roll cake along with the parchment paper.
20. Place the seam side or the side where the rolling ended down on a baking sheet and let cool for 20 minutes.

Making strawberry filling and Whipped-cream frosting:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk strawberry syrup with 1/4 cup cream, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer beat remaining 2 cups heavy cream with sugar till soft and stiff peaks form.
3. Fold half of the prepared whipped cream into the strawberry filling, this is to spread on the cake.
4. The remaining whipped cream is the whipped-cream frosting to spread over the swiss roll.

How to assemble:

1. After 20 minutes of cooling the rolled cake.
2. Gently unroll the cake.
3. Spread the prepared strawberry filling on the cake, leaving a 1/2-inch border.
4. Starting from a short side of the cake, gently re-roll the cake along with the filling.
5. This time discard the parchment paper.
6. Place the seam side or the side where the rolling ended down on a platter.
7. Spread over and the sides of the roll with whipped-cream frosting.
8. Using a flat spatula, clean the frosting so that it’s spread evenly. Or using a fork gently run over the frosting to make lines.
9. Garnish the top with roasted almonds, colored sugar balls, sprinkles, glitters etc as per your preference.
10. Refrigerate the swiss roll for at least 2 hours or keep it overnight.
11. While serving, using a sharp knife slice into rolls of 1 to 2 inches wide.
12. Enjoy this delicious swiss roll with your dear ones.
13. This roll tastes delicious and sets really well the next day, so it will be good if you refrigerate this overnight.

A petite dessert to fulfill your sweet craving…

A few days ago there was a bake sale event at work, for that I had baked a lot of cookies: chocolate marshmallow cookies. The money raised was donated to the Children’s Aid society. The cookie that I made was topped with chocolate frosting, all the cookies sold out, but I had some leftover frosting in the refrigerator. I somehow wanted to finish the frosting, I could have made a cake and spread the frosting over it. This week I am already high in sugar and the thought of working out for more hours made me let go the idea of making the cake. I was rather keen on making a petite dessert or a bite size dessert so that I can enjoy the sweetness without much guilt.

I had a box of marie biscuits, took that out of the pantry, smeared the biscuits with chocolate frosting and layered four of them. Covered the layered biscuits with chocolate frosting, kept it in the freezer to set, sprinkled sweetened coconut and topped it with almonds. Voila, petite dessert was ready before I knew.

I have to confess that while making the dessert, I couldn’t resist gobbling up the biscuits smeared with the frosting. It tasted so delicious that I kept eating. One of my favorite ways of eating marie biscuit is after smearing it with honey.

You could use marie biscuits or digestive biscuits. For North Americans, biscuits means soft leavened bread, while in Europe and Asia biscuits are crispy and baked which resembles to cookies. Marie biscuits are available in Indian, Asian stores and some American stores.

Marie Biscuit Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

For making Chocolate Frosting: 

• Confectioners’ sugar or powdered sugar- 1 cup
• Butter, melted and cooled- 2 tablespoons
• Cocoa powder-1/8 cup
• Milk-1/8 cup
• Pure vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp

Preparation:

Making chocolate frosting:

1. Place confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl.
2. Add butter and cocoa powder.
3. Using an electric hand mixer, combine the butter, cocoa powder and sugar together.
4. Add milk and vanilla extract, and whisk until well combined and soft peaks are formed.
5. If the frosting is not too thick, refrigerate it for 30 minutes to thicken.

It’s Mango pudding! When I think of ripe mangoes, first thing that comes to my mind is- Mango frooti, fresh and juicy! I hail from the tropical paradise of India, Kerala and this explains my love for mangoes. I grew up eating lots and lots of mangoes and during that time I took it as granted. But now I often crave for fresh and juicy ripe mangoes. If I am lucky I can find some good mangoes at Indian or Asian stores during summer, however mango puree is always available in Indian stores. Every time I visit Indian store I get tempted to grab the mango puree, so that I can make mango lassi, mango chicken, mango ice cream etc. Good thing is you can make both sweet and savory dishes with ripe mangoes.

If you want to whip up an easy yet delectable dessert with ripe mangoes, then this mango pudding is what I would recommend. You get to taste the mango flavor, it’s creamy and it just melts into your mouth. Last night, I got a sudden sweet craving and luckily I had mango puree in my pantry. Without much pondering I made this pudding as it calls for very few ingredients and in just 15 minutes this pudding was ready. This time I didn’t use pudding cups or ramekins, instead I poured the pudding into the cupcake pan and refrigerated it for 30 minutes. While serving, I placed the pan on the table so that the guests can scoop their own pudding from the pan. I found this to be a fun and interesting way of serving this pudding.

Mango Pudding Ingredients:

• Mango Puree, canned- 1 cup
• Milk, whole or skim- 2 cups
• Condensed milk, sweetened- 1/3 cup of 150 mL
• Agar-agar, strands cut 1 inch long- 1/2 cup (or use powdered gelatin- 1.5 tbsp)
• Water- 1/2 cup (to dissolve agar-agar)

Preparation:

1. I used agar agar instead of gelatin. If you don’t have agar agar use gelatin instead.
2. If using gelatin: Sprinkle 1.5 tbsp gelatin over 4 tbsp water and keep aside to soften it for 5 minutes.
3. If using agar agar: In a small sauce pan, combine agar agar strands and water together.
4. Boil the agar-agar and water on low medium heat till agar agar completely dissolves in water.
5. Dissolved agar agar should be used immediately else it will start to thicken. So dissolve it only after your pudding mixture is almost ready.
6. In another saucepan heat milk at medium heat.
7. Add condensed milk to the milk, combine well.

• Since the mango puree is already sweet I only used 1/3 cup of condensed milk. If you want it to be really sweet you could add more condensed milk.
• Let the milk come to a boil.
• Remove the saucepan from the heat.
• Now, add the dissolved agar-agar or softened gelatin into the milk.
• You could strain the dissolved agar agar to remove any undissolved agar agar strands.
• Let the milk cool down for 3-4 minutes.
• Slowly add mango puree while stirring to the milk till it has combined well.

• Warning: Don’t add mango puree to the boiling milk, it will curdle so make sure the milk has cooled down a bit.
• Pour the mixture into puddings cups, ramekins or into cupcake pans.
• To prevent the pudding from sticking to the cups, you could first grease the cups or ramekins with non-stick cooking spray.
• Let cool down and keep the pudding in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes till it sets.
• You could scoop the pudding from the cupcake pan and serve on dessert plates.

Tips:

• Don’t add mango puree to the boiling milk, it will curdle so let the milk cool down for 3-4 minutes and then add the mango puree.
• Don’t keep the dissolved agar agar for long as it will start to thicken, so use it immediately after it has dissolved in water.
• Add condensed milk according to your sweet level, remember mango puree is already sweetened.
• Agar agar is available in Indian or Asian stores.

A simple dessert at its best…

You can have this as a pudding or as a pudding drink, either way it’s going to taste yummlicious. One of the desserts I often had while growing up is milk pudding. It’s the easiest and the simplest dessert ever. Just a couple of ingredients and very less time are needed to prepare this and you get to indulge in a delicious dessert. Last week, I tried to give a makeover to my usual milk pudding and it turned out to be delectable. I made milk pudding and strawberry coulis, layered them both, it tasted terrific!

Milk pudding with Strawberry Coulis:

• Serving: 4 cups

Ingredients:

For making milk pudding:

• Milk, whole or skim- 2 cups
• Condensed milk, sweetened- 3/4 of 400 ml can
• Agar agar strands, chopped 2 inch slice- 1/4 cup
• Water- 1/3 cup to dissolve agar agar

For making Strawberry Coulis:

• Strawberry, fresh or frozen, halved- 3 cups
• Granulated sugar- 1/3 cup
• Lemon juice- 1/2 tbsp

Preparation:

1. In a saucepan heat milk.
2. Add condensed milk to it and let it come to a boil.
3. Lower the heat and let simmer for 10 minutes.
4. In the meantime, combine agar-agar strands and water together in a small pan and heat it, let the agar agar dissolve completely in water.
5. Strain the dissolved agar agar into the milk, combine well.
6. Remove the milk from the heat and pour it into a bowl, let cool down.
7. After it cools down, keep it in the refrigerator to set, for an hour or so.

Making Strawberry Coulis:

1. Heat a saucepan, combine strawberry, sugar and lemon juice together.
2. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes till the strawberries get mashed up.
3. Remove from the heat and let cool down.
4. Chill the strawberry coulis in the refrigerator for 15- 20 minutes.

Serving:

• In a tall or short glass: first layer with milk pudding, top with chilled strawberry coulis, repeat this one more time.
• Top layer should be strawberry coulis.
• Garnish with mint leaves and serve immediately.

300th post has to be something sweet, right? I still remember when I first started this website I truly wondered if I would be able to post recipes constantly. I also wondered how I would come up with so many recipes that would be  of interest to my readers. It’s been two years now and I am still wondering. But this time around, I am wondering on what recipe to post next because my recipe list has grown so fast and I am trying to keep up. My picasa album is overflowing with food pictures that I click everyday and my laptop is full of recipes that I have tried – recipes from my mom, family, friends and others. I wish I could blog everyday and share all the recipes with everyone out there, sigh.

Both blogging and cooking have been the two things that I’ve done with utmost interest. After a long day at work, I relax and release my stress by cooking and blogging. Above all, I can’t thank you all enough for following this blog and keeping me motivated. You guys are the sole reason why this blog is still up and running. I know I have said this many times and I will keep saying this as long as this blog is alive. Thank you!

Alright, I am getting emotional now, let me talk about this apple crumble cake. Last weekend, I tried making this and it came out absolutely delicious. I used gluten free flour instead of all purpose flour so that my hubby could enjoy it too and he gobbled up with so much greed. I loved the addition of ground cinnamon and the house smelled divine while the cake was baking in the oven. A perfect dessert you could serve in the evening along with a cup of hot cappuccino.

Apple Crumble Cake

Ingredients:

• Apple, chopped small- 2 no’s
• Butter, unsalted and slightly melted- 1 stick or 1/2 cup or 8 tbsp
• Brown sugar- 1 1/2 cups
• Eggs- 2, large
• Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
• All purpose flour or gluten free flour- 2 cups
• Baking soda- 1 tsp
• Ground cinnamon- 1 tsp
• Salt- 1/2 tsp
• Yogurt- 1 cup

For topping:

• All purpose flour or gluten free flour- 1/4 cup
• Brown sugar- 1/4 cup
• Butter, unsalted and chilled- 1/4 cup or 1/2 stick
• Ground cinnamon- 1/2 tsp

Preparation:

• In a large bowl, sift together all purpose flour, baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon.
• In a bowl combine butter and brown sugar, cream using electric hand mixer.
• Add eggs to it, one at a time and beat it.
• Now, add half of the dry ingredients: all purpose flour, salt, baking soda and ground cinnamon to the mixture.
• Add half of the yogurt and vanilla extract, combine well.
• Add rest of the dry ingredients followed by yogurt, combine well.
• Fold in the chopped apple to the mixture and combine to it.
• Grease a 10 inch baking pan with 1 tbsp butter, pour the batter into it and smooth out the top.

Making topping:

• In a bowl, slowly combine using your hands: all purpose flour, brown sugar and butter till it resembles to a coarse crumble texture.
• Make sure the butter is chilled, if you use melted butter you won’t get the crumble texture.
• Evenly top the batter with the crumble.

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Bake the batter placing it on the lower rack for 35- 40 minutes or till the center has cooked well.
• Even after 40 minutes, if the center hasn’t cooked well, place the pan on the upper rack and bake for another 5 more minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let stand in the pan for 10 minutes, by doing this the center of the cake will turn firm.
• Cut into square shapes and serve warm or chilled

My intention was to make vermicelli payasam, when I was half way through I took a new route and made truffles out of vermicelli. As I started munching the truffles I was so glad to have followed the new route rather than the old one. The truffles tasted heavenly. My mom often used to make vermicelli balls as evening snack, my sister and I after coming from school would finish up the whole plate with so much greed. It’s been a while since I made anything with vermicelli and a bag of vermicelli had been sitting in my pantry untouched.

This evening while surfing through the pantry my eyes fell on vermicelli, I grabbed it with the thought of making payasam. As I started making payasam I was reminded of the snack my mom used to make, I changed the cooking route and finally ended up making crunchy vermicelli truffles. I coated a few of the vermicelli balls with chocolate and a few with sweetened coconut as well. Everyone can have their own favorite: with chocolate or without, with coconut or without. All of them tasted equally delicious and we kept on munching the crunchy truffles.

Vermicelli Truffles:

• Makes- 6 no’s
• Preparation time- 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• Vermicelli, broken- 1 cup
• Condensed milk- 1/2 can or according to your needs
• Almonds chopped- 1/4 cup
• Saffron- 2 pinches soaked in 1 tbsp water
• Milk- 1/4 cup
• Ghee- 1 tbsp

• Semi-sweet Chocolate chips- 1/2 cup
• Water- 1 1/2 tbsp
• Sweetened coconut flakes- 3 tbsp

Preparation:

1. Place a non-stick cooking pan over medium heat, add ghee and let it melt.
2. Add vermicelli and roast it in ghee till it turns light golden brown in color.
3. Add condensed milk and keep stirring it.
4. Add chopped almonds and saffron to it, combine to it.
5. Add milk and keep stirring till all the liquid evaporates and the mixture starts to thicken.
6. Vermicelli should have a slight crunchy texture, so make sure not to cook till it turns tender or gets mashed up.
7. Remove from the heat and let cool down.
8. After it has cooled down, roll the vermicelli into medium sized balls, keep aside.
9. You can have the vermicelli balls just like that or if you prefer you could coat it with chocolate and coconut.
10. Melt the semi sweet chocolate along with water in a double boiler (boil water in a large saucepan and place a small saucepan with chocolate chips in it over the boiling water, stir constantly and melt the chocolate)
11. Dip the vermicelli balls in chocolate.
12. If you prefer, you could even coat the chocolate coated vermicelli balls in sweetened coconut as well.
13. Chill the chocolate covered truffles in the refrigerator for half an hour.
14. Serve in a plate and enjoy the creamy, chocolatey and crunchy truffles.

I’ve come across a lot of Indians who just love this particular sweet. In fact almost all women in my family especially my mom, sis, aunt and my cousins are die hard fans of this sweet. They all are born with huge sweet tooth and when they see sweets they just want to finish up the whole thing. I was the only exception in my family as I get dizzy even seeing these sweets and can eat just one or maximum two. I know how unlucky am I!

Now, I am living with someone who has a major sweet tooth, and that happens to be my hubby. Most of the times I make sweets or pastries with the intention of sharing it with my co-workers as well and the truth is that it never lasted even for a day. By morning, I could only see the empty platter. Yup, I’ve even tried hiding from him and it was an yet another terrible failure.

Balushahi for North Indians and Badushah for South Indians, resembles closely to glazed doughnuts without the holes. They are not too soft like doughnuts, but definitely sweet and delicious like them. This sweet is sold in almost all sweet stores in India and is served often for special occasions. Until two days ago I had a feeling that making badushah in my kitchen is something beyond my expertise. Well, I proved myself wrong. The recipe called only for 3 main ingredients and needless to say it was extremely easy to make. You don’t have to master the art of cooking nor you need any expertise to make this in your kitchen, just follow the recipe and you have the most delicious badushahs which will taste exactly like store bought ones.

I adopted the recipe from Sanjeev Kapoor, I had to tweak the amount of flour added to 2 cups as with just 1 1/2 cups of flour it turned watery when combined with the oil. Also, I loved the fact that this is fried in olive oil, but you could always use vegetable oil of your choice.

Balushahi or Badushah

Ingredients

For making the dough:

• All purpose flour or Maida- 2 cups
• Olive oil or vegetable oil- 2/3 cups
• Baking soda- 1/4 tsp
• Yogurt, beaten and not sour- 8 tablespoons

For making sugar syrup:

• Sugar- 2 cups
• Water- 1 cup
• Milk- 2 tablespoons
• Saffron- 2 pinches (optional)

For frying:

• Olive oil or vegetable oil- enough for deep frying

Preparation:

• In a large bowl, combine the flour and baking soda using a fork.
• Slowly add olive oil and rub against the flour till it resembles bread crumbs.
• Add the beaten yogurt and knead into a soft dough.
• Cover the dough with a damp cloth or paper towel and let it rest for 45 minutes.
• After 45 minutes, make small balls out of the dough (don’t over mix the dough at this point) and make a small dent on the middle of the ball.
• Heat enough olive oil for deep frying in a frying pan.
• When the oil gets hot, place the dough and deep fry it in low-medium heat.
• Make sure the balls are fully immersed in the oil for even frying.
• Flip over and fry till both the sides turn golden in color (don’t over fry the balls)
• Transfer to a paper towel.

Making sugar syrup:

• Boil sugar and water in a large saucepan
• Stir consistently to dissolve the sugar in the water.
• When the sugar and water comes to a rolling boil, add 2 tbsp milk to it.
• The scum will rise to the surface, remove them using a slotted spoon.
• Keep removing them until the syrup is clear.
• When the syrup is clear add 2 pinches of saffron.
• Boil the sugar syrup till it reaches a two string constituency.
• When the syrup gets thick, place a drop of syrup between your thumb and index finger and slightly open the fingers if the syrup forms two strings you could stop boiling the syrup, else boil for some more time.
• Let the sugar syrup cool down a bit.
• Soak the fried badushah in the syrup for 30 minutes.
• Gently using a flat spatula remove the badushahs from the sugar syrup, the syrup will be slightly solidified, so be careful not to break the badushahs.
• Place on a serving plate and let stand for sometime
• You could garnish with grated pistachios or cashew nuts.
• Any leftovers can be refrigerated for 2-3 days.

This day, two years ago  in Chicago, I started this blog with the sole intention of keeping a track of and sharing my recipes with everyone. At that time I honestly never thought that I would come this far with 250 recipes and a fan page on Facebook. I owe big time to those people who constantly inspired me, supported me and encouraged me with all their heart. Most sincerely, my gratitude first and foremost goes to my dear mom and my darling hubby, then to all my readers/fans/well wishers/fellow bloggers/chefs; without you people I wouldn’t have reached this far.

Thanks a bunch to each and every food lover out there for your support.

Kitchen has been one of the places I love to hang out, inhaling the aroma of the spices, mesmerized by the colors and putting together all the flavors, at the end of all the cooking fun a platter with delicious food will be ready to indulge in.

When I first started off, for a few days I was skeptical whether I would be able to post at least one recipe/week. As days passed by, my Picasa album started to flood with food pictures and I had many word documents of the “tried”and “soon to try” recipes. Both cooking and blogging is relaxing to me and I find extreme pleasure while doing these two activities. I hope I’ll stick to this passion throughout my life and continue to share my recipes with everyone.

When I saw the pictures of Butterscotch Pecan cake on my Picasa, I knew that the recipe for this cake is going to be the apt post for the blog’s second anniversary. I had made this cake two months ago to surprise my friend on her birthday. Well, I did surprise her and she felt extremely happy for making her feel special on her big day.

I got this recipe from Martha Stewart’s website. Whenever I want to make a cake, I go to her website, most of the recipes have worked well for me.

For making the cake I followed the recipe without adding the rum, but for the butterscotch sauce I only made half the amount of what is mentioned, it was good enough to spread the top of each cake.  If you are making a three layer cake, you’ll be using all of the frosting. If you are making only 1 or 2 layered cakes, reduce the amount of ingredients accordingly.

I love butterscotch flavor, that’s the main reason why I picked this recipe. Loved the cake, butterscotch sauce and the frosting. While making the frosting and sauce you would feel that it’s going to be too sweet, believe me it wasn’t that sweet as it looks like. In fact the cream cheese in the frosting compensated the sweetness of the brown sugar. Also, do try with brown sugar only then you’ll get the butterscotch flavor. Pecans sprinkled over the cake did give a crunchy and nutty flavor to the cake. You could use any nuts if you prefer.

Butterscotch Pecan Cake:

Made for my friend’s birthday I reduced the candles to 12 to put a smile on her face, lol.

For making 3 cakes:

Ingredients

• Vegetable oil cooking spray, for pans
• All-purpose flour- 3 3/4 cups
• Baking powder- 1 1/4 teaspoons
• Baking soda- 3/4 teaspoon
• Coarse salt- 2 1/2 teaspoons
• Unsalted butter, softened- 10 ounces (2 1/2 sticks)
• Packed dark-brown sugar- 2 1/2 cups
• Eggs, room temperature- 4 large
• Pure vanilla extract- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon
• Buttermilk, room temperature- 1 1/4 cups

For making Butter scotch Sauce

Vishu is a celebration of Kerala, which represents the Malayalam New year. On Vishu day it is a custom to set up the “Vishukani” which in Malayalam means “the first thing to see after waking up on Vishu day”. Vishukani consists of ritual arrangements of auspicious things, and the people who celebrate this festival see those things first after they wake up. It is a belief that seeing those things first would bring prosperity and happiness all year round.

There will be family gatherings and a grant feast “Sadya” will be often served. They wind up the day by bursting crackers and there will be fireworks as part of the celebration. Last night, while I was thinking of Vishu celebration in Kerala, my mind went behind Sadya and I got a sudden craving for Ada payasam or pradhaman. Ada payasam or pradhaman is a popular Kerala dessert, made during special occasions and celebrations. It is made using rice flakes, jaggery, coconut and coconut milk.

I didn’t have Ada(rice flakes). I had rice pasta and so decided to use this as a substitute for Ada to make the payasam. It came out pretty delicious. Since it was an instant decision I was out of cashew nuts so had to skip garnishing the payasam with it.

If you have Ada which is available in Indian stores do make with it, else use Rice pasta fettuccine after breaking it to 2 inch pieces.

Rice Pasta Payasam or Pradhaman

Ingredients:

• Rice pasta fettuccine, broken to 2 inch pieces or use Ada- 30 no’s
• Jaggery, melted using little water- 1/2 cup or according to how sweet you want
• Coconut grated- 1/4 cup
• Whole Cardamom, smashed- 2 no’s
• Dry ginger, smashed- 1 inch slice or use 1/4 tsp ground dry ginger
• Coconut milk- 1 can or 400 mL
• Cashew nuts, roasted in ghee- 1/4 cup
• Ghee- 4 tbsp

Preparation:

• Cook rice pasta or Ada in boiling water till it turns tender, drain the water and keep the pasta aside.
• Melt 1 large cube of jaggery in 3-4 tbsp water, strain the syrup,we’ll be using 1/2 cup of it. 
• Heat a saucepan, add 3 tbsp ghee and roast the grated coconut till it turns golden brown in color.
• Add the melted jaggery to it and give it a stir.
• Add the smashed cardamom and dry ginger to it.
• Put the cooked rice pasta or ada to the mixture, combine well.
• Pour coconut milk to the mixture and let it cook for a few minutes.
• Let the payasam come to a boil, when it starts to bubble remove from the heat.
• It should have not so watery nor so thick constituency. When the payasam cools down it gets thicker constituency.
• Roast cashew nuts in 1 tbsp ghee.
• Garnish the payasam with roasted cashew nuts.
• Serve warm, tastes delicious when chilled.

Tips:

• Adjust the amount of jaggery according to your sweet level.
• You could also garnish the payasam with coconut slices roasted in ghee.