My blogging attempts!:)

Hi again everyone!:)  Gosh, I am so BAD at this blog thing!  I just don't seem to be able to think of anything to post here!  But yes, I am going to make a valiant attempt from now on...shake myself out of this laziness to write, and more importantly, so that I don't have to wish that there was a hole in the ground into which I could disappear every time someone tells me that they have visited my blog a million times and asks why there have been no posts in the last eight months!  Is my blog redundant?  Am I still holding classes/doing cakes? :))  Why do I have a blog if I don't bother to update it? :( So yes, this is me, rambling on here, all the while thinking at the back of my head about what to "actually write!"

You know what my problem is?  Firstly,  I'm terrible at these technical things!  Figuring out how to post in itself was a huge deal, and yes, I'm mightly proud that I finally figured how to do it!  Next comes the posting of pictures...God! That's the next hurdle!  A bigger one actually, because I have to find pictures to post, and, you guessed it, I have no idea where to find them since (of course) I would have saved them all over the place, very indiscriminately, in multiple folders...a complete and thorough mess!  Wait!  Before I can create a mess of that nature, I would have had to take the photographs, right?  So that's another story...figuring out how to use the camera! :(  Okay, I finally take the pics and upload them (I got lucky with that) and along comes S, my daughter, and gives me a long tutorial on how to brighten, sharpen, and do lots of other wonderful things to my pics, which of course, yes, you guessed right again...leaves me in a bigger mess!  Well, she then lets out a long, deep sigh, takes over my laptop and starts cleaning it out, sorting out files and folders, sharpening and brightening pics and what not for the next one hour...by which time my focus is "off elsewhere"!  After a final lecture on how I should maintain my folders, pictures, blog and everything else, she looks at the time and says "God! I've wasted a whole hour doing this, when am I gonna study!  Why didn't you tell me it was so late!" And off she goes and slams her door shut!  I look proudly at my new post, bright, sharp pics and all, and hit "Publish Post"!  Yay!  I did it!  I just made a new post!  Now to relax and forget all about it for the next eight months! :))  Kidding! I promised myself right?  At least one post a week? Yes.  So please everyone, don't give up on me, please come back and check from time to time....if you're...err..lucky....you just might find something new! Bye for now and happy baking!

Butter and more butter!:))

Thought of trying out a new recipe for a really, really rich chocolate cake yesterday...just for fun!  The recipe I've been using for so many years now works just great...lovely and light and fluffy...but I wanted to check out one of those "sinfully rich and decadent" chocolate cakes which everyone seems to drool over!  Okay, so I found myself a recipe and got to work setting out the ingredients.  Fifty gm of flour...a little on the minimal side I thought, but maybe that's what would make the cake all yummy and gooey, so in went fifty gms of flour!  Then came the butter...oops! One hundred and fifty gms!  A wee bit...wait a minute...wayyyyyyy too much I felt, so the miser that I am, I cut it down to half and in went seventy five gms!:)) The rest of the ingredients seemed normal so I proceeded to bake the cake.  Here are the results!  Gooey and fudgy, but way too rich for my taste!  That being said, I do believe that a thin, thin slice of it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream would make a great dessert...but just a VERY thin slice!  I think I'm going to stick to my old, tried and tested chocolate cake recipe....gooey is fine, but it's also nice when you have a happy tummy after eating it!  Truly "Death by Chocolate"!:))

One Rainy Afternoon!:))

The last time it rained really heavily...little hailstones and all...I was in my kitchen on the terrace, baking.  My kitchen has metal roofing and the din of the rain hammering down on the roof was quite deafening...absolutely LOVELY...just puts me in such a happy, happy, happy frame of mind!:))  Anyway, in walked S, my daughter..."Can you think of anything better than the smell of warm cinnamon rolls baking in the oven on a rainy, wet afternoon?" she said.  Need I say more?:))  Out came the flour, cinnamon, raisins and everything else and here are the cinnamon buns....hot and yummy...with a crunchy caramelised topping!:))

Healthy Tea Cakes!

Okay:)) since I have finally taken the plunge and begun to update my rather empty blog, I may as well post pics of the class I had a few days ago on "Healthy, Low Calorie Cakes"!:))

                                  Carrot Cake



The class was great fun, wonderful people again...made lots of easy, healthy, yummy goodies....to be tucked into, totally guilt free! Yay!:))                                                                        



Fruit and Nut Bars

                                         Banana and Walnut Cake

Whole wheat dark chocolate cake

Pics of my first class!

Hi everyone! I'm back again with a new post....dedicated to my friend C who was horrified to find that there had been no new posts in the last six months since my blog was created...and also to my daughter who keeps reprimanding me to update, update and update some more!:))) These are pictures taken at the first class of "Fresh Cream Cakes" that I took, again, the credit of which goes to one of my students V, who took them so systematically and very kindly mailed them to me! (Thinking of making her my "official photographer"...maybe give her a discount or something to entice her into coming, what say V? If ever you read this :)))

Anyway, jokes aside, the class was great, lovely people and wonderfully encouraging...what a fantastic way to make more and more friends every day!

Finally posting a picture of my little kitchen on the terrace :)...my creative (and untidy) getaway!  I've heard that good chefs always clean up as they go along, but the best ones are those who put in all the effort on what they are making (or so I like to believe:))
Baked a whole wheat, low cal pizza a few days ago for friends who were over at my place for dinner.  It also doubled up as a trial for my classes (smart, don't you think? Using my poor pals as guinea pigs?:))  Apparently they all liked it, since what I planned as an appetiser, turned out to constitute almost all of dinner!:))
Caramelised onion tartlets...yes, you guessed right :)) also tried out on the guinea pigs....verdict...successful!