Homemade Condensed Milk

Preparing condensed milk at home is easy, cheaper, yummier, and yes – my cravings for this sweet milk can be taken care of anytime I want to 😀 . It tastes just like the condensed milk purchased from the market!

Ingredients:

(measurement for 1 tin condensed milk)

• 1 litre milk (full fat)
• 300 gms sugar
• A pinch baking powder

The recipe to make:

• Boil the milk. Transfer it to a pan, add sugar and keep boiling, stirring at intervals. You can boil it on high flame in the start, but once the milk starts thickening, reduce it to low flame to avoid the milk at the bottom of the vessel from burning. Stir more frequently.

• As the milk reaches a consistency a ‘little’ thinner than that of the actual condensed milk, add just a small pinch of baking powder, stir and switch off the gas.
• The milkmaid will thicken a little more while cooling. Our yummy, delicious and homemade condensed milk is ready!!

Tips:

• In case the condensed milk forms lumps in the end, not to worry, just blend it in a blender to remove the lumps.
• NEVER wait for the right consistency of the condensed milk before switching off the gas, as on cooling it with thicken even more.
• You can store it in the fridge for upto 2 weeks! Voila!

Until next time, Adios:)

Chocolate Truffles!

Chocolate!! – This is just enough to make my heart want more!! The word itself has so much power, that nothing more needs to be added.

And chocolate truffle – its like a true bliss, like heaven! Haha 😉

That’s how crazy I am about chocolate and anything related to it. So, one day I finally decided that I’m going to learn the art of making Chocolate truffles from one of my very close friends here at Stanford. And to my surprise, it was by far any of the easiest and yummiest recipes I’ve ever had. Trust me!! – Don’t believe it? Then see it for yourself.

Let’s get started!

Ingredients :

• Unsweetened baking chocolate bar – 4 oz
• Dark chocolate (Ghirardelli/ Nestle or any kind) – 8 oz
• Condensed milk – 14 oz
• Unsalted butter – 1 stick or 8 tbsp
• Cocoa powder – for garnishing
• Cointreau(orange) liqueur, Chambord (Black raspberry)Liqueur – 2 tbsp (optional, can be totally avoided)

Method :

• In a deep bottomed pan, melt butter. Do not over heat the butter. As soon as it starts melting, switch off the stove.

• Add both the chocolate bars and mix well.

• Add condensed milk to the above mixture.

• Pour into a bowl and stir vigorously until smooth.
• Mix until all the ingredients are incorporated well and the consistency turns thick.
• Add any liqueur of your choice at this point. This step is totally optional.

• Remember : it should not be a pouring consistency. But not too thick either.
• Let it freeze atleast for an hour, to the point you can scoop it.
• After an hour, take the bowl out from the freezer.
• Scoop out one tbsp of the mix and make small balls by pressing it between your palms.
• Continue till you finish all the truffle balls.
• Roll in cocoa powder or even finely chopped nuts of your choice.
• Tada!! – Chocolate truffle balls are now all ready to be eaten 🙂

 

Double Chocolate Mug Cake- Eggless!

With Valentine’s day being around the corner, all of us want to do something special for the ‘special one’. With busy schedules and hectic work, it gets so difficult to take time off and make something for our loved ones. My husband loves cakes and I wanted to bake a dozen cupcakes for him, but alas I just couldn’t fit it around my work schedule. So I decided to make something a little different yet yummmmy to show that I honestly tried 😉 Hahaha.

So here is a quick recipe of the double chocolate cake I made in a coffee mug. Real quick, very simple and trust me it’s truly yummmy and guess what- ITS EGGLESS!! I got inspired to bake this when I came across a similar recipe in a blog I read a few days back. Thanks to her, I should say that I totally nailed this one! (http://www.tablefortwoblog.com)

So lets get started:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup All purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1/4 tsp Baking powder
• 2.5 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp cookie and cocoa swirl (or any spread you like – peanut butter, chocolate or hazelnut spread etc)

Method:

• Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

• Add milk and oil and whisk it well to break all lumps.

• Pour the batter in a microwave safe coffee mug.

• Add 1 tbsp of your favorite spread on top of the batter.
• 

• Microwave it for 65-70 seconds on high temperature.
• Enjoy the yummmy cake with your loved ones.
• Allow it to cool and alternatively you can top it with vanilla ice-cream/whipped cream and decorate with sprinkles or any other decoration of your choice.

Happppy cooking!

Spreading Love 🙂

Adios!

Eggless Pineapple Cake

Who doesn’t like cakes and especially if it is homemade with love and tastes sinful 🙂

This eggless version of pineapple cake is a must try and no failure recipe. I am currently teaching an Eggless Baking Class at the Stanford International Center and I must admit that this has been one of the most cherished experiences ever. Thanks to the ladies for letting me take pictures during the class.

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour (or) Cake flour – 2 cups
• Baking powder – 2 tsp
• Baking soda – 1 tsp
• Salted butter – ½ cup
• Sugar – ¾ cup
• Pineapple extract – 1.5 tsp
• Milk – 3 tablespoons (as per consistency)
• Curd – ½ cup
• Oil – ½ cup
• Apple sauce (unsweetened) – ½ cup
• Tinned pineapple slices

Frosting :

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• Sugar (as per taste)

Method:

• Firstly, sift all the dry ingredients – the flour, baking powder and baking soda and keep aside.
• Cut the butter into cubes and place in the mixing bowl. Add sugar & cream it till soft and fluffy.

• Add pineapple extract, apple sauce and curd and whisk well until everything is incorporated well. Add oil to the batter and mix again.

• Next add the dry ingredients mix a little by little and remember not to over-beat the batter at this stage
• Add milk till you get a good consistency of the batter. Nor to , neither too stiff.

• Pre-heat the over at 180 degree celsius or 350 F.
• Transfer the batter into the cake mould and bake for 20 mins.
• Do the knife/toothpick test to check if the cake has been cooked properly.

 

Frosting:

• Place the beater blades and the bowl your going to whip the cream in, inside the fridge for at least 30 mins. This fastens the whipping process.
• Add cream and sugar, whip till it forms soft peaks and does not pour over when you turn the bowl.

Assembling the cake:

• Divide the cake into 2 and gently pour a little pineapple water (from the tin) on the halved cake.
• Places pineapple pieces randomly around the halved cake and then generously coat it with the cream.
• Place the other halved cake over this and spread the cream all over on the top and sides.

• Decorate with pineapple and raspberry/strawberry and serve chilled 🙂

 

P.S : A few of the pictures below are from the class. I’m sure the ladies will approve it. Haha 🙂

Happy Baking!

Adios 🙂

Different nozzles to frost cup cakes!

I love baking. And who doesn’t like cupcakes with beautiful varieties of frosting. This is a post I stumbled upon in Pinterest and thought it will be really useful !! I’m not too sure who is the right owner of this post, but I thought it’s something worth sharing 🙂 thanks to the owner – for sharing this wonderful pic with all of us !!

Don’t forget to like, comment and do share your experiences 🙂

Happy baking 🙂

Basic Eggless Sponge Cake

My mom did a baking class when she was newly married, and passed on the how-to-make steps to me! These simple baking steps are the most accurate ones I’ve come across, and using this basic sponge cake recipe (eggless!), I’ve done cupcakes, zebra cake, marble cake, doll cake, etc etc etc (oh yes! The two of us just love baking). My daughter’s 2^nd birthday is coming up in a month, in June, and she loves watching ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse’. Well, easy guess on what cake I’m planning to bake!

To make an eggless sponge cake, first gather the following ingredients:

• 1 tin condensed milk / milkmaid
• 250 gms all purpose flour / maida
• 100 gms unsalted butter
• ½ cup or 55 gms powdered sugar
• 1 level tsp soda bicarbonate / cooking soda
• 2 level tsp baking powder
• ½ cap food coloring of your choice. It’s ok if you bake without adding this too.
• 2 caps food essence of your choice. (I personally love vanilla and pineapple)
• Around 1 ½ cups warm milk (if required)

Lets start baking:

• In a vessel, beat milkmaid and powdered sugar using a blender.
• Melt butter till it attains the semi-liquid form, which does happen very soon. Do not let it melt completely.
• Add the butter to the above and beat.
• Add essence and color and beat till light and fluffy. To know if it is light and fluffy, once you finish beating, stop the blender, and you will notice small bubbles arising out of the mixture. There, you have done it!
• In a separate vessel, sieve the all-purpose flour, cooking soda and baking powder together.
• Slowly add this sieved flour to the fluffy mixture. Keep mixing with your hands as you add. Make it a smooth batter.
• This batter generally tends to be a little thick. Add a little of warm milk and keep mixing till you get a batter with a dropping consistency.

To check dropping consistency, dip your fingers in the batter and lift them. If the batter tends to flow down smoothly and yet stick to your hands, it is done.

• Grease a baking tray with butter and flour (I generally tend not to throw away the plastic in which the butter comes. This comes very much in handy in greasing the tray). Do not leave any space without greasing, as the cake gets stuck after baking.
• Pour the batter in the greased tray.
• Pre-heat oven for 10mins. Bake at 180C for 15-20mins.
• To check if the cake is properly baked, insert a knife into the cake, if it comes out smooth, your eggless sponge cake is ready!