Vanilla Cupcakes (Oh! I love them.....)

After my happy experiences with the Blueberry n Banana Muffins and the Mangoes n' Figs Muffins, I decided to learn cupcakes. Both Rj n' me, we love vanilla cupcakes. Ok, I stand corrected, he loves it more than me. We used to buy them often before, but he turned sugar conscious a while ago n' we stopped buying them. I baked these babies n' he is begging for more on most days. Ever since I tried them the first time, I have made them twice again after that. That's how good this recipe is.





The recipe source? Ria's Collection. If you check her blog, on the homepage it self, you will see these oh! so pretty vanilla cupcakes she had baked recently with a friend. I had visited her blog to check out another recipe, but I saw these n' fell in love instantly. I just had to try them, n' the cupcakes comes out perfectly. The texture is just great. I didn't use the chocolate frosting, that will go well with this, just coz we like them plain. The lesson I learned from it? Find a reliable source for good simple baking recipes n' I can get over my fear and have good results. I haven't changed the recipe much, I have just reduced the amount of salt by half from Ria's recipe. With this I learnt the simple n' yummy basic cupcakes. My sincere thank you to Ria for sharing such a nice recipe.



Ingredients:
(Makes about 16 cupcakes if you are using big cupcake liners)
1. All purpose flour: 2 cups
2. Baking powder: 2 tsp
3. Salt: 1/4 tsp (omit if you are using salted butter)
4. Castor sugar: 1 cup
5. Unsalted butter: 1/2 cup (room temperature)
6. Eggs: 2nos
7. Milk: 1/2 cup (room temperature)
8. Vanilla extract: 2 tsp

Method:

Step 1: Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F. Keep the cupcake trays also ready by placing the cupcake liners in them.

Step 2: Sift the dry ingredients (Flour, Baking Powder and Salt) together, if possible, thrice.

Step 3: Cream the butter and sugar for 3 mins.Add in the eggs one by one and beat it will for 1 minute after each addition. (I'm guessing the time is mentioned coz we need to get the consistency right, I loved that bit of precision in the recipe. Great for an amateur like me.)

Step 4: Next with the motor running,add the sifted flour and milk alternately starting and ending with flour.By now the batter should be light and fluffy.

Step 5: Spoon it into the cupcake liners, about 2/3 rd's full, which will be about 2 1/2 tbsp.

Step 6: Bake for 20-25 mins or till the top is lightly golden brown in colour and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (it took mine only about 20mins)

Step 7: Remove from the tin immediately and let it cool completely before frosting (if you opt to frost it).







Honestly, I loved this recipe n' it helps me produce great results. In a span of 3 weeks, I have made this three times. Having guests at home helps. :) Happy cooking!!! or better still Happy Baking!!! :)

Mangoes Figs n' Walnut Muffins

I have been missing from here since a while now. Just having been having some issues with time management. Have been having people over at home n that has kept me off the Internet n' in the kitchen or out shopping with them. :)....I wonder how many awesome recipe updates I must have missed out on of my blogger friends out here. Well, I hope to catch up on that in couple of days...:) After my big proclamation about learning to bake in my kitchen itself. I have been kinda doing well in the baking department. I'm guessing it has something to do with the great recipes I have found. I'm gonna do 2 small posts today.









I'm baking something again today n' I'm looking forward to it already. The first post are these muffins. The Blueberry Banana Muffins I had done had come out so well I wanted to try some more. Just to make sure it wasn't fluke n' that I did have a great recipe n' some amount of skill to get it right. Why this combinations? I'm not too sure, I just went with things I like n' I had with me in the kitchen. With this second batch also coming out really well, I'm comfortable with my muffin recipe n' would substitute the fruits with anything in season n' know that they will turn out well. I have used the exact recipe from the Blueberry Muffins recipe here. The only change is I have used fresh ripe mangoes, along with some chopped figs n' crushed walnuts for sprinkling on top instead of Blueberry n' Banana. With this I salute my Muffin Recipe. I made 15 muffins using this recipe.

Ingredients:

1. All Purpose Flour (Maida): 3 cups minus 2tbsp
2. Baking soda: 1tsp
3. Baking powder:2 tsps
4. Heavy pinch of salt
5. Caster sugar: 1 cup
6. Vegetable oil: 1/2 cup (or half a cup of melted butter) *
7. Egg: 1no
8. Yogurt (plain n unflavored) : 1 generous cup (throw in extra if you want)
9. Mangoes(ripe n fresh):1 and a half cup
10. Figs (chopped): 1/2 cup
10. Vanilla Extract/Essence : 1tbsp
11. Softened Butter, for muffin tins (I used the cupcake liners so didn't need this)
12. Caster sugar (optional): for sprinkling on top.
13. Walnuts (crushed): to sprinkle on top

(* to my horror I saw that I didn't have enough Vegetable Oil with me. So I used melted butter instead. They say that while mixing the wet ingredients as mentioned in Step 3 below, one should take care while adding the hot butter to eggs. What I did was I added butter n' then added yogurt before adding the eggs n' I was safe.) This is what I had done for the blueberry recipe n' I did the same this time around too.

Method:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 180° C.

Step 2: In a large bowl sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Step 3: In another large bowl whisk together sugar, oil, vanilla essence, egg, and yogurt.

Step 4: Add the dry ingredients (I sifted it in little by little) and stirring to a count of 10.

Step 5:Add the mangoes and the chopped figs, to mixture and stir 3 times. (At this point I got a little worried, coz the batter looked really different from anything I have ever baked. But I decided to proceed as instructed.)

Step 6: Add mixture to well-buttered muffin pans or like I mentioned the Cupcake liners. Sprinkle some walnuts on top and press down lightly. Sprinkle a little sugar over top. (Brown sugar can be used instead.)

Step 7: Bake 20 to 25 minutes and allow to cool completely.

Blueberry and Banana Muffins

Let me start today's post by giving a heartfelt thank you to all who have left me a comment on my previous post. I will try the recipes you have taken the trouble to recommend to me. :) Here is my first post from a small series of Baking goodies I want to do this month. I had never made muffins before. I have eaten them a few times. But seeing these blueberries in the stall pushed me to buy them. I have heard on countless occasions how these are filled with anti oxidants, that pushed me a little too. I bought only a 100gms (what with the being so expensive in Bangalore n all that), that left me with very few recipes I could actually try. The first classic things that came to my mind were these Blueberry Muffins n' a Blueberry Compote on pancakes. But Rj doesn't like Pancakes n' I would've had to finish the whole thing on my own...how can that be interesting? That left me to choose these Muffins.






I really didn't know muffins were this easy to bake. An ingredient lead me to choose the dish, but boy am I thrilled with the results or what? So this is the first baked dish I taught myself. :) I will shamelessly say, what helped me the most is the fact that I didn't make any changes to measurements of the base ingredients. (normally i'm always keen on that coz I don't want too many baked things on my table) I got 15 baked muffins with measurements and there are only 3 left. :( If nothing else at the end of my baking journal, I will be overweight at this pace. :) But even that daunting thought is not killing my spirits. :) So, here you go. The recipe is adapted from here.






Ingredients:

1. All Purpose Flour (Maida): 3 cups minus 2tbsp
2. Baking soda: 1tsp
3. Baking powder:2 tsps
4. Heavy pinch of salt
5. Caster sugar: 1 cup
6. Vegetable oil: 1/2 cup (or half a cup of melted butter) *
7. Egg: 1no
8. Yogurt (plain n unflavored) : 1 generous cup (throw in extra if you want)
9. Blueberries (fresh):1 cup
10. Banana (chopped): 1 cup
10. Vanilla Extract/Essence : 1tbsp
11. Softened Butter, for muffin tins (I used the cupcake liners so didn't need this)
12. Caster sugar (optional): for sprinkling on top.

* to my horror I saw that I didn't have enough Vegetable Oil with me. So I used melted butter instead. They say that while mixing the wet ingredients as mentioned in Step 3 below, one should take care while adding the hot butter to eggs. What I did was I added butter n' then added yogurt before adding the eggs n' I was safe.

Method:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 180° C.

Step 2: In a large bowl sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Step 3: In another large bowl whisk together sugar, oil, vanilla essence, egg, and yogurt.

Step 4: Add the dry ingredients (I sifted it in little by little) and stirring to a count of 10.

Step 5:Add blueberries and the chopped bananas, (reserving 1/2 cup of blueberries for later), to mixture and stir 3 times. (At this point I got a little worried, coz the batter looked really different from anything I have ever baked. But I decided to proceed as instructed.)

Step 6: Add mixture to well-buttered muffin pans or like I mentioned the Cupcake liners. Sprinkle remaining berries on top and press down lightly. Sprinkle a little sugar over top. (Brown sugar can be used instead.)

Step 7: Bake 20 to 25 minutes and allow to cool completely.

They came out so well, I looked at them and I could cry with Joy. I just couldn't stop smiling. Rj was at work n' I took some to my cousin Seena, who is passionate about baking. I just had to get her view on them. She liked them too n I was ecstatic. When Rj came home, he was balled over with the texture n' the fact that I used blueberries for the muffins. :) All in all I feel like a Happy Baker! Happy Baking!

Chocolate Carrot & Walnut Cake

The first time I had freshly baked carrot cake with some freshly brewed black coffee....I really experienced heaven! My ex-colleague in Bahrain, Ruby Monkhouse, bakes the best carrot cake I have tasted. Jeff, Marise n' me, we would just wait for Rubz to bring some carrot cake treat for us. Rj on the other hand, who has never had them already declares he wouldn't like them. Rj is a foodie, but a real fussy one. Drive me up the wall most of the time.




I have been craving for some carrot cake since a while, but have been putting it off thinking, I will eat one piece, max to max 2 pieces..then who would eat the rest? That's when I came across the idea of Chocolate Carrot Cakes n' I thought to myself...wow....this exactly what I need. I mean they don't look like carrot cakes at all...:) So I just went ahead n' baked them, we have finished almost half the cake n' Rj is none the wiser as to what the main ingredient is...the only comment he made was..."this chocolate cake is slightly different" n' I said, "yeah, it must be the walnuts!"....lol...(lucky for me he doesn't read my blog....lol) So here you go..




Ingredients:

1. All Purpose Flour: 1 cup
2. Baking Powder: 1 and 1/4tsp
3. Baking Soda: 1/4tsp
4. Salt- 1/4tsp
5. Eggs- 2nos
6. Carrots: 1 and 1/4th cup (grated)
7. Caster Sugar: 1cup (adjust this a little if you don't want it too sweet)
8. Butter: 1/2 a cup* (room temperature)
9. Vanilla Extract: 1 1/2tsp
10. Cocoa Powder: 1/2 a cup
11. Walnuts: (crushed) a handful (add more if you like it)

Method:

Step 1: Heat oven to 180°C or 350°F. Grease a cake tin and line the bottom with a greaseproof paper. ( my Oven becomes hot fast, so as part of saving power, i always do this step just before I mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.)

Step 2: Sift together all the dry ingredients like flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, caster sugar and cocoa powder.

Step 3: I would grate the carrots only at this stage. (as they will be fresher this way)

Step 4: Whisk the butter until really smooth n' creamy, add the vanilla essence and mix well.

Step 5: Add eggs one at a time and whisk well.

Step 6: Add the sifted dry ingredients in portions and whisk well,fold in the chopped walnuts.

Step 7: Pour out the same into the greased cake tin. Tap the bottom on to your work surface to ensure that there aren't any air bubbles.

Step 8: Bake it in the oven for about 30mins. Check the cake after 30mins, the centre of the cake should feel light n' springy, if you dip a toothpick in the centre it should come out clean. If you feel it is still sticky, bake it for another 5-10mins.




Cool it for 15mins or so and then cool it completely on a wire rack. I really liked it, but I thought it needs an icing, Ruby uses a Cream Cheese frosting with her carrot cake n' its just lovely, I haven't found cream cheese here in Bangalore yet, so couldn't do it. But a light icing would do wonders to this already great cake. Happy Baking!!

Corn Pepper Lime

As I'm sitting down to type this post, I see I have mail from Arundhuti of My Saffron Kitchen, I quickly click on the mail and see that I have won my first ever giveaway prize and that too a cookbook called "Cakes and Bakes" by Sanjeev Kapoor. I'm thrilled to bits and I'm thanking Arundhuti from the bottom of my heart. I mean, I really need to improve my baking n now I feel like God and Arundhuti (along with Sanjeev Kapoor) is gonna help me achieve this mission. :) She mentions that she will be doing more giveaways, please do visit her blog for more details.


Coming back to this post,I saw some really fresh corn in the veggie shop today and decided to buy it, without having a clue as to what I want to make with it. I'm into finding out the benefits of my ingredients now. I mean if I can, I would love to eat healthy food and Corn I read is a good source of Zinc. But having boiled corn for this recipe, I wonder if the nutrients were retained. Anyway,I have had this flavoured corn in a cup at least a zillion times when we go out (mostly found in Malls). I used to have them even when we were in Bahrain. My favourite flavour is Lime and Pepper. So for a lazy Sunday evening, I decided to try making this as evening snacks. It turned out easy, healthy and tasty. Its really simple..




Ingredients:

1. Corn Pods/Seeds: of 1 medium sized cob
2. Butter: 2tsp
3. Lemon Juice: half a lime (or as per taste, i love it sour)
4. Pepper Powder: 1/2tsp 5. Salt: as per taste
6. Water

Method:

Step 1: Boil the corn pods/seeds in water. Add some salt to the water while boiling. Roughly 10-15mins. (The pods should almost double up in size and should become really soft.). Set aside and corn in a deep bowl. Retain a little of this water separately to use later.

Step 2: Melt the butter. Add the lemon juice to this and mix well. Add couple of spoons of the salted water used to boil the corn to this. (If you are using salted butter, just remember to keep checking the seasoning)

Step 3: Add pepper powder to the bowl of boiled corn, add the lemon juice mixture and whisk well to get the corn coated well, and this is ready to serve hot. :)

When we buy this, I'm always trying to lick off even the last drop of liquid in my cup. So when I made this at home, I decided to give myself some extra juice.:) In the theatre we spent nearly Rs.50/- for this much corn last week, having made this at home I don't think I have spent more than Rs.20/- on this. ;). Between,if you are wondering the reason why I'm garnishing every post these days with Mint, its coz I have a nice mint plant in my small terrace garden now. ;)

You can replace pepper with the other flavours like chili flakes, chat masala etc. Add some chopped tomatoes and you can serve this as a Salad. I'm sending this off to the event Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays hosted by Deb from Kahakai Kitchen.

Marble Cake

If you look into my blog you can see that i'm a novice at baking. That being said i'm thrilled to bits today coz I baked my first marble cake without using a ready mix....yipppeeee....i'm just so happy....Even though I prefer savoury things to sweet things, I do love a good Marble Cake. My appa used to buy me a marble cake from Anns Bakery ( a famous chain of Bakery from my part of Kerala) as I leave home to come to Bangalore. Honestly, I used to loathe sharing it with anyone. But RJ likes it even more than me, I think. He is cake-aholic of sorts.

These days, I sorta ask him everyday morning..."what would you like to try today?" (makes it sounds very 'oh I can make anything n' everything you want types')...but in reality, i'm really scared of making things I have no clue about. He asked me for a Marble Cake yesterday n' lets just say I didn't make it..But anyways today morning, I decided to give it a go. Feels like I have accomplished something huge....:D...i'm so glad I like my Marble Cake too...i'm just dying for RJ to come home n' get a taste of this....;). So here we go.




Ingredients

1. Butter: 225g (softened)
2. Caster Sugar: 225g
3. Eggs: 4nos
4. Flour : 225g
5. Baking Powder: 1tsp
6. Baking Soda: 1/4tsp
7. Salt: a pinch
8. Milk: 3 tbsp
9. Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
10. Cocoa Powder: 3 tbsp

Method

Step 1: Heat oven to 180°C or 350°F. Grease a 20cm cake tin and line the bottom with a circle of greaseproof paper. ( my Oven becomes hot fast, so as part of saving power, i always do this step just before I mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.)

Step 2: Sift together, the flour, baking poweder, baking soda n' salt. (try n' sift it atleast twice to be sure that baking powder n' soda mixes well or alternativly just use 225 self raising flour)

Step 3: Beat the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Step 4: Fold through the flour, milk and vanilla extract into the above until the mixture is smooth. ( I got a little worried at this point, coz the mixture seemed much more thicker n' fluffier than my BC cake mix that I'm used to. But I just blindly trusted the recipe n' went ahead)

Step 5: Divide the mixture between 2 bowls. Stir the cocoa powder into the mixture in one of the bowls. Take 2 spoons and use them to dollop the chocolate and vanilla cake mixes into the tin alternately. ( The only thing I will do differently the next time is reduce the quantity of the mixture which i'm using to mix the cocoa powder that way I think I will get more defined portions once the cake is baked.)

Step 6: When all the mixture has been used up, tap the bottom on your work surface to ensure that there aren't any air bubbles. Take a skewer and swirl it around the mixture in the tin a few times to create a marbled effect.

Step 7: Bake the cake for 45-50 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Turn out onto a cooling rack and leave to cool.

This recipe is a keeper. I'm gonna give it ★★★★★ ;)

Chocolate Mud Cake (Eggless)

This is my first post this year, infact its more like my first post since almost a year. Too many things have happened since we moved back to bangalore n' I have not been able to keep up with the bloggers here at all. But my work timing after I started working in Bangalore, left me with very little spare time. Now I have left my job, having decided to take a career break of sorts.

Have been meaning to get back to blogging since a month now, but just couldn't find that start. Today is my Ammachi's (granny's) b'day. She would have been a 100yrs old if she were here with us. She passed away 10yrs back. We were very close and I miss her on some days more than other days. She was an amazing n passionate cook. She was blind but that never stopped her from cooking. I rememeber how I used to sit by her side waiting for her to give me the cake mix bowl once she pours out the mix into the baking tin. Licking the mixing bowl clean esp if its a chocolate cake was an amazing experience. Infact she would leave some extra for me to polish off just coz I loved the dripping chocolate mix so much. But I never spent anytime with her learning to cook. I was interested only in eating what she made, I regret that now. I wish i had learnt from her, would've made me a better cook. So here I am, trying to get better at cooking and dedicating a post to her.




This recipe is called 'Magic Chocolate Mud Pudding' can't remember who I got this from. Yeah 'pudding' but for me the final result is more like a cake. I tried this recipe last week n' it wasn't great. I was amazed my instincts had turned faulty, coz I had fallen in love with the recipe and it didn't taste as awesome as I thought it would. So for the first time I decided to give it a try again. (I mean I never retry recipes which don't turn out well the first time around.) But I made a few changes and now it tastes really nice. I'm dying for RJ to come home n' taste it.

Ingredients:

1. Butter: 50gms or 1/4 cup
2. Muscovado Sugar (light): 200gms or 1 cup (generous)
3. Caster Sugar: 1tsp
4. Milk: 475ml or 2cups
5. Self- Raising Flour: 90gms or 1cup (pls refer to comments if you have only plain flour)**
6. Vanilla Essence: 1tsp (the original recipe asked for 1 tsp of ground cinnamon)
7. Cocoa Powder: 5tbsp
8. Vanilla Ice Cream to serve it with

** Mix 1 and 1/4tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt to flour if you don't have self raising flour with you.

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 180°C or 350°F. Lightly grease an ovenproof dish and place a baking sheet inside. (since my oven heats up pretty quickly i did this step just before I mixed the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.) It is mentioned that something like a soufflé dish is perfect for this.

2. Portion or Divide the Brown Sugar, Milk and Cocoa Powder as mentioned below.

First Portion
Brown Sugar: 115gm or 3/4cup
Milk : 150ml or 2/3 cup
Cocoa Pwdr : 1 tbsp

Second Portion
Brown Sugar: 85gms or 1/4cup
Milk : 325ml or 1+1/3rd cup
Cocoa Pwdr : 4tbsp

3. Place the butter in a saucepan. Add 115gm or 3/4cup of sugar and 150ml or 2/3rd cup of the milk and the caster sugar. Heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted and all the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat. Add vanilla essence to this if you are using it instead of cinnamon.

4. Sift the flour, cinnamon (if you are using ground cinnamon instead of vanilla essence) and 1tbsp of cocoa into the pan and stir into the mixture, mixing evenly. (i used a hand mixer this time on low speed). Pour the mixture into the prepared dish and level the surface.

5. Sift the remaining sugar and cocoa poder into a bowl, mix well, then sprinkle evenly over the pudding mixture in the dish. Pour the remaining milk over the mixture.

6. The recipe asked for 45-50mins (but i thought this was too much) so i think you need only abt 30-40mins depending on the quantity you are using and the dish size. In any case, check after 30mins to see. The sponge should have risen to the top and it should be firm to touch.




This is best served hot with some ice cream. Because it hadn't turned out well the last time, I reduced the quantity by half this time, but now i wish i hadn't. :) In my picture, it looks really different from a pudding or a cake coz it looks so thin. I didn't have a small dish to bake my small qunatity in, had to use the big baking tin itself. Will try n' post a pudding pic when I serve this to RJ with some icecream on top. Happy Cooking!

Banana Bread- my first baking adventure

My first baking adventure, so to speak has to be this. I have never tried baking other than with Betty Crocker mix, i have never found the need to bake from scratch when BC has such an easy n' good cake mix made available. Well, all that changed when Ruby my friend baked some Banana Bread n' got it to office. I just loved how simple n' undemanding the bread/cake felt. What she gave us was more like a cake than a bread.

But i was inspired n' i just had to give it a try. The recipe i'm using is by a Pakistani cooking expert- Shireen Anwar. It is so simple, i baked it twice already. Mine came out exactly like a bread. Gave it to friends from office n' they said they liked it. We had it with some hot coffee in the morning n' it tasted even better...as usual i made this before heading off to work with little time to spare for a creative photograph. Pardon, the crinkly look on the side, it is coz of the baking paper i had used to line the baking pan which on my second try i realised was not even necessary. :(

Ingredients:

1. Banana: 3nos (medium)(mash it into a thick paste)- use the extra ripe ones if possible
2. Flour: 2 cups
3. Baking Soda: 1/4 tsp (i didn't have any with me, so i didn't use this)
4. Baking Powder: 1tbsp (since i didn't add baking soda i used 1 1/4 tbsp of baking powder)
5. Vanilla Essence: 1tsp
6. Oil: 1/2 cup (i used sunflower oil)
7. Caster Sugar: 3/4cup (i used brown sugar instead n' hence took 1cup)
8. Eggs: 2nos
9. Walnuts: 1 cup (broken/crushed)
10 Yogurt: 1/2 cup
11.Butter: 1tsp (mainly to grease the pan, add the extra bit into the mix)

Method:

Step 1: Grease a baking pan with butter and keep it aside. Pre heat the oven on 180°C.

Step 2: Mix all the ingredients other than flour, baking powder and walnuts. Beat everything together at a low speed. Don't over beat just enough to mix well.

Step 3: Add the flour n' baking powder in portions into the above mixing it at the same time to avoid any lumps to form.

Step 4: Add the walnuts and mix well.

Cooking time should be 45-50mins depending up on your oven. If required, check only after 35minutes to see if it's already done. Since i used brown sugar it wasn't very sweet and i liked it that way. So if you prefer your cakes sweet, use caster sugar itself.

All thanks to An Open Book (who let me know about this event) i'm gonna send in my first entry for an event. The event is Bake Off and it's hosted by Champa from Stories from an Indian Kitchen. Don't know if my entry will qualify, but no harm in trying i guess. :)

Betty Crocker...is a blessing

I had never baked a cake... ever...and i remember how i used to sit with my grandmother while she prepares everything for the cake and i used to sit there waiting to get the bowl to lick the last bit...;)....i loved it....and i would say oh it smells so good and she will immediately scold me saying i shouldn't make any comments while its being made and doing so will get bad results...Well irrespective of hers always turning out to be the best, she used to scold me every time i said that...;)....i think grand parents are the best, i have found such unconditional love in them. Maybe my relationship with my grandparents is what makes me feel at home with older people.

Now i'm digressing again, the point is i made my first cake last month and i took the easy way out...i used a Betty Crocker mix...it came out so well..so soft...i got half of it to the office... my friends at work enjoyed it almost as much as my husband did… ;) and some told me that their Mix doesn't turn out to be this nice....made me feel so proficient! (Could’ve been beginner’s luck!!)

I decided to get a little adventurous the next time around and tried the Chocolate Swirl Cake. This turned out to have a step or 2 more than the Dark Chocolate Cake Mix, but comes out as nice. The best part is the kitchen smells divine afterwards and it is all ready in 45mins (including a hands on time of 15mins.) ;)

That reminds me to thank my Moulinex Hand Mixer. It's so easy to use and clean. This has to be my best impulse buy to date. So if you are like me hesitating to start your baking…this is the way to go…try it…I have seen these mix even in Bangalore, but hadn’t tried it there coz I didn’t have an oven feature on my microwave. But now there is no stopping me. ;)