I couldn’t think of any gifts but bake a delicious cake to impress my husband. And Yes! he did fall for me hook, line and sinker I’ve been wanting to make a coconut cake for quite sometime now and finally I nailed it. I adopted this recipe from Martha Stewart’s website and tweaked it well to fit my ” not too much butter and sugar criteria”.

The cake came out pretty good, loved the coconut flavor it had and the crunchy roasted coconut flakes sprinkled over the cake. The filling is what made the cake taste delicious. So I highly recommend to make the filling.

If there is anyone out there still looking for a delicious cake to surprise your valentine, then here is it. Don’t think anymore, just step into your kitchen and let the baking fun begin.

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentine’s day!

For my Valentine with love…

Coconut Cake- 2 layered cake with filling

Ingredients

• Sweetened flaked Coconut – 1 1/4 cups ( for garnishing the cake)

For making cake:

• Butter, unsalted and slightly melted- 2 sticks or 1 cup
• Sugar- 1 1/2 cups
• Eggs, large- 3
• All-Purpose flour – 2 1/4 cups
• Baking powder- 3/4 tablespoon
• Heavy cream – 3/4 cup
• Pure Vanilla extract – 2 tsp

For making filling:

• Heavy cream or half and half cream – 1 cup
• Sugar – 3/4 cup
• Butter – 1/4 cup or 1/2 stick
• Corn starch – 2 tbsp
• Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
• Cold water – 1 tbsp ( to dissolve corn starch)
• Sweetened flaked coconut – 1 cup

For making whipped cream:

• Heavy cream – 1 cup
• Powdered sugar – 3 tbsp

Preparation:

Step: 1

• Pre heat the oven to 375 F.
• Spread 1 1/4 cups of sweetened flaked coconut on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Bake the coconut for 5 minutes till it turns light golden in color.
• After the coconut turns golden in color, remove from the oven and keep aside.

Step: 2 Making the cake batter:

• Preheat the oven to 325 F
• Grease a 10-inch round pan with butter and keep aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar at speed 2 until it turns smooth and fluffy for about 4 to 5 minutes.
• If you don’t have stand mixer, use electric hand mixer to cream butter and sugar.
• 
• Add eggs one at a time and beat until creamy, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl using a spatula.
• In a bowl, combine flour and baking powder together.
• In a different bowl, mix together the heavy cream and vanilla extract.
• With the stand mixer on low speed, add flour mixture, alternating with cream mixture, beginning and ending with the flour, beat until just combined.
• If you don’t have stand mixer, use electric hand mixer instead.
• 
• Pour batter into the grease cake pan and bake until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, for about 45 minutes.
• After 45 minutes, if the center of the cake is not well done, place the cake on the upper rack of the oven and bake for a few more minutes.
• Let the cake cool down completely.
• 
• Gently run a knife through the sides of the cake and cover the cake pan with a plate.
• Flip the pan and tap the pan gently, the cake will fall onto the plate smoothly.
• 
• Using a sharp knife, very carefully cut the cake into two halves and keep aside.

Step: 3 Making the filling:

• Combine heavy cream or half-half cream, sugar and butter in a saucepan and heat it stirring the mixture frequently.
• In a bowl, combine corn starch, vanilla extract and cold water together till the corn starch dissolves completely.
• Pour the corn starch mixture into the cream mixture, stirring it frequently.
• Let it come to a boil and simmer it for a few minutes.
• When the mixture starts to thicken, remove from the heat.
• Grind the sweetened flaked coconut slightly in a blender or food processor.
• Add the coconut into the cream filling and combine well.
• 
• After the filling cools down, chill it in the refrigerator for half an hour.
• Before using the filling, place the filling in a stand mixer bowl with the paddle attachment and beat until creamy and smooth for 4 minutes and keep aside.

Step: 4 Making whipped cream:

• Place the heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar in the stand mixer bowl with the wire whip attachment.
• Whip it at high speed ( speed 8), till soft peaks forms.
• 
• Don’t over whip as the cream will curdle.

Step: 5 Assembling the cake:

• Spread the prepared cream filling on top of one of the cake halves.
• 
• Place the other half over it and gently press down.
• Cover the cake with whipped cream and sprinkle the top generously with roasted sweetened flaked coconut.
• 
• To decorate the cake, I used Betty Crocker decorating Icing which came with the design tips as well.
• Refrigerate and chill the decorated cake for about 4 to 5 hours before cutting it.
• This cake will last for 5 days when kept in air tight container in the refrigerator.
• I can guarantee one thing that this cake is going to finish in just a matter of seconds.

Tips:

• For making 4 or 6 layered cake, just double the amount of ingredients.
• Don’t skip the filling and the roasted coconut sprinkled over the cake, both of these made the whole difference.

Make this Valentine’s day more personal, give a touch of love to everything, make it delightful and romantic…

This V-day skip making a reservation to a restaurant, instead whip up a delightful  dinner in your kitchen in under 30 minutes. Oh ya, you heard me, Valentine’s day dinner in under 30 minutes which includes appetizer, main course, salad and dessert. If you think that you can’t make restaurant style fancy dinner at home, then you are totally wrong. If I can make it, you can make it too.

Here are a few special dishes I whipped up in under 30 minutes which could be made for V-day dinner. It’s not about just cooking food, give your special touch to everything you make, get creative and you will see the magic. Everything will turn out as perfect as you want.

Also, while serving food for special occasions, do spend little time on plating and arranging the table. Make it simple and it will look elegant!

Appetizer:

• Onion Rings: Click for recipe

• Scallion Tempura: Click for recipe

Main Course:

• Baked Succulent Salmon: click for recipe

Salad:

• Romaine Sweet Hearts: click for recipe

Dessert:

• Chocolate Pistachio covered Strawberries: click for recipe

Fruits:

• Strawberry and Raspberry

Sharbat:

• Rooh Afza

One batter, two veggies and you get to devour two crunchy deep fried appetizer…

Onion rings and tempuras are my favorite deep fried appetizers. I had the best onion rings at Clementine’s restaurant located in downtown South haven, MI. We had been a frequent visitor to South Haven during summer and used to stop at this restaurant just to taste their homemade onion rings. Since then I wanted to try onion rings in my kitchen and it took a while for me to make this.

Recently I had scallion tempuras in a restaurant and that was my inspiration to try tempuras with scallions.

I used the same batter to make onion rings and scallion tempuras. They came out crunchy and puffed up.

Onion Rings and Scallion Tempuras:

Ingredients:

For making batter:

• Flour- 1 1/4 cups
• Cornstarch- 1/3 cup
• Chilly powder- 1tsp
• Baking powder- 1 tbsp
• Salt- 1 tsp
• Ice water- 1 cup + 2 tbsp

• Scallions or green onions, cut 3 inches long- 4 stalks

• Onion, cut into 1/4 inch thick rings- 2
• Vegetable oil- for frying

Preparation:

• In a large bowl of cold water, soak the onions for 15 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

• Fill in a large bowl, halfway with ice.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt and chilly powder.

• Add the ice water and stir until a thin batter forms.

• Place the batter bowl inside the bowl of ice.
• In a deep fryer or skillet, heat enough oil for frying.
• Using tongs, dip the scallions and onion rings in the batter, letting the excess drip off.

• Drop the rings and scallions in batches into the oil and deep fry until golden.

• Using a slotted spoon, transfer the rings and scallions to a paper towel.

• Serve the onion rings and scallion tempuras with tomato ketchup.

Salmon coated with breadcrumbs seasoned with fresh lemon zest and tangy dill, baked and ready to serve in minutes…

Salmon is a fish that’s rich in omega-3 fats and widely available in the US. However, I am not a huge fan of salmon and so I end up buying other fishes from the fish market. My husband being a salmon fanatic, gets to eat this fish only at restaurants. During my last shopping, when I saw this orange beauty I grabbed a bag of them and had kept in the freezer. I wasn’t quite sure about how and what to make with them. This afternoon, I gave it some thought and instantly pulled them out of the freezer. In just 15 minutes, a flavorful entree was deliciously ready.

Baked Succulent Salmon Fillets

Ingredients:

• Salmon fillets, skinned or de-skinned – 4, 4 0z each
• Bread crumbs, plain- 1/4 cup
• Fresh lemon zest- of half lemon
• Dill, chopped- 2 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Cooking spray

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 400F.
• Ina  bowl, toss together bread crumbs, lemon zest, salt, pepper and dill.

• Lightly spray each salmon fillet with coking spray.

• Coat the salmon fillets with the bread crumb seasoning.

• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, spray the foil with cooking spray.
• Place the fillets on the foil.
• Bake salmon at 400 degrees F for initial 15 minutes.

• After 15 minutes, flip the fillets using a spatula to the other side and bake for another 5 minutes or depending upon desired doneness.

• Serve hot with lemon slices and dill.

Refresh your meal with this deliciously light and crisp salad…

Romaine hearts has been always close to my heart. I might consider eating a salad with the presence of these hearts loaded in them. And a bag of romaine hearts always come in handy for me, most of the time to decorate a dish and for platting purpose. None of them ever got wasted. I love the subtle flavor and the crispiness of the leaves.

While making a fancy salad, I first mixed mayonnaise, lemon juice scallions and a hint of pickled jalapeno. Topped the romaine lettuce with this and for a sweet touch added raspberries.

Romaine Sweet Hearts

• Romaine lettuce from the heart, fresh- 5 leaves

• Mayonnaise- 4 tbsp
• Fresh lemon juice- 1 tsp
• Scallions chopped- 2tsp
• Pickled deseeded Jalapeno, minced- 1/2 tsp
• Fresh or frozen raspberries- place 2-3/ leaves

Preparation:

• In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, scallions and jalapenos.
• Place the romaine lettuce leaves on a platter, top with mayo spread and add raspberries on top.

“A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.”
-Ingrid Bergman

[poll id="2"]

My Valentine’s day recipes:

• Chocolate Pistachio Covered Strawberry
• Valentine’s Day French Toast

Chocolatezzz, is there any taste buds that wouldn’t surrender to this???

The thought of chocolate itself is enough to tantalize my taste buds. Everyone, irrespective of age loves it, adores it and never will be able to resist it even if it is miles away from them.

This weekend being the Valentine’s day weekend, there will be high demand for chocolates all over the world. Obviously, chocolate has been the most selling gift in any store for valentine’s day and other special occasions. Without a box of chocolate, any gift for our dear ones would be incomplete. It’s the perfect gift to express your love.

Lately, I have been thinking what makes it so absolutely perfect gift for someone we love. While doing some internet research about chocolates, I read these interesting facts about chocolate.

Chocolate contains phenylethylamine-the same chemical that is released in our brain when we fall in love which then leads to the increase in the pounding of heart and the sudden gush of excitement, which is also called as the ‘love chemical’. The sweetness from the chocolate also triggers the production of endorphins, which gives the blissful feeling after a wonderful session of love making.

In the fruit world, strawberry with the shape of a real heart and being an aphrodisiac has been considered as the fruit which symbolizes love.

After knowing these, for this valentine’s day I decided to combine the two symbols of love: Chocolates and Strawberries. For an extra flavor, I even added pistachios.

Chocolate Pistachios covered Strawberries make the perfect dessert to end your romantic candle light dinner or just a platter of this on the table would make the whole setting even more elegant. This could be made in just a matter of seconds.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Chocolate Pistachios Covered Strawberry

Ingredients:

• Fresh strawberries- 1 box

• Semi-sweet chocolate chips – 1 1/2 cups

• Coarsely ground pistachios- 1 cup

Preparation

• Coarsely ground the pistachios and keep aside in a bowl.

Melting chocolate  in a double boiler:

• Fill bottom of a double boiler with water and place on low heat.
• Place the chocolate chips in the top of the double boiler over hot water ( not boiling water) and let the chocolate melt.

• Do not cover the pot.
• Stir constantly until the chocolate melts and is smooth.

• Remove the top of the boiler from the hot water.

If you don’t have double boiler:

• Fill the saucepan half full with water and place on low heat.
• Put the chocolate chips on a glass bowl and place the bowl on the hot water in the saucepan.
• Stir constantly and let the chocolate melt.
• Carefully remove from the glass bowl from the saucepan, it will be hot.

Dipping the strawberries:

• Take one of the strawberries, first dip it in the melted chocolate.

• Then dip it in the pistachios.

• Place the chocolate pistachio covered strawberries on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to harden.

• Repeat the same with other strawberries.
• It will take around 20-30 minutes for the chocolate to harden.

Tips:

• If you don’t like pistachios you could avoid this, dip just in the chocolates.
• You could do this with other fruits or nuts like cherries, apples, cashew nuts, walnuts etc

Seeing marshmallows in my pantry, I got creative and made these: