PonPulari

So tell me… are you a curiosity-kills-the-cat kinda person like me? In that case, I’m not testing your patience. Here are the winners of the giveaway…

Winners of Amazon Gift Coupons:

1. Sonia Thomas
2. Preethi
3. Maria John
4. Sanyukta
5. Tina R.M

Winners of the Cupcake Giveaway:

1. Seeba
2. Reena

Thank you so much for your lovely comments. It does make us feel wonderful.

Ok, now after reading the name of the winners, you will be in either of the 3 states below:

1. You got lucky today and too excited to think about anything else…

2. You didn’t get lucky and think “yeah, it always happens to me, I aint that lucky” and start to grumble about how unlucky you are.

3. You couldn’t care less about the giveaway n stuff. You are too busy with other stuff to fret about such silly things…

Let me tell you something… irrespective of your state of mind, I definitely want you to please care about this recipe. This is absolutely worth it! I waited almost 6 years for this recipe! Yep… 6 loooong years! This recipe is from a professional baker. I’ve been having this cake almost every other week for the past 6 years but the recipe remained a mystery to me. I speculated about the ingredients and techniques for long and wondered, how can anybody bake something so so moist and yummy. I got a shock of my life when I got the recipe finally!

There weren’t any ingredients from the alien world or complicated techniques as I had speculated. That again proves something, you don’t have to be complicated or extra ordinary or even different to be special in life. I guess being simple n easy is the best! Anyways, coming back to the cake, it was just like any other cake recipe, in fact it is just sooo simple and easy, you wouldn’t believe me! The end result is so magically moist and you feel like drowning in that deep dark rich brown goodness. Ok, I think that’s enough talk! The thing I liked most about the cake is that, its not too sweet, even if you top it up with some ganache. You will be able to still think straight & act normal even after having a huge slice of it. Yeah…  I dont like ‘a piece of cake’ controlling my behaviour

Yeah yeah… ok here’s the recipe, but I wanna share something else with you before that (please bear with me a minute). So we celebrated the fifth b’day in a grand way, I suppose. Yep, it was pretty grand for us, considering the fact that we are not the type who make every event into an occasion, this was pretty grand. Ok what I was trying to say is that, MariasMenu got her b’day wishes, you got your return gift, but what about the b’day present for the b’day baby? Ohh yes! She also got a gift, yep a new lens! You’ve already seen the work of the lens in the Chicken Tomato Roast. I dont know whether you noticed any difference there, did you? You know what… I’ve this habit of trying to relate each n every situation in my life to some proverbs/wise saying/ old saying. Here’s how I feel about the new lens in my hands… “pattikku muzhuvan thenga kittiyathu pole” or “Korangante kaayil poomala kittiya pole” ( I guess translation will not give you the exact idea, so my non Malayalee friends, please excuse me ) what to say, it’s a tie!

So here is the recipe for the Ultra Moist Chocolate Cake:

1. Milk – 1 1/2 cups
   Butter – 100 gms (1/3 cup + 2 tbsp approx)
   Oil – 1/4 cup (I used sunflower oil)
   Coco Powder – 1/2 cup ( I used Hershey’s)
2. Self Raising Flour – 1 cup (Refer notes for substitute)
   Egg – 1 beaten, room temp
   Baking Soda – 1/2 tsp (refer notes)
   Sugar – 1 cup + 2 tbsp (250 gms)

Preheat the oven @ 180 C/350-375 F, 10 mins before baking. Heat together milk, butter, oil & coco powder till the butter melts. Let it cool to room temperature (btw, dont get disappointed if you dont get the dark brown colour at this stage, you will get it once the cake is baked). Add flour, baking soda, sugar & beaten egg to the cooled wet ingredients. Beat it well using an electric beater or hand whisk till it is mixed well. You can either use it to make cupcakes or cake. I made a 9 inch loaf & 10 standard size cupcakes with the above qty. Bake in the preheated oven for 15- 20 mins  for the cupcake & 25- 30 mins for the loaf cake. The baking time can vary depending on each oven.

For cupcakes: Line your cupcake tin with paper liners (I use 2 liners per cupcake) & pour 3 tbsp of batter in each case. I’m referring to the standard size muffins here.

For cake: Grease your cake tin well & line with parchment/baking paper. Pour the batter.

For Ganache:

1. Whipping cream – 1/2 cup
   Baking chocolate – 3/4 cup  (I usually use Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Chips. You can also use Hershey’s semi sweet chocolate chips for this)

Place the baking chocolate/ chocolate chips in a bowl. Heat the whipping cream on low flame till small bubbles start appearing around the edges.  Pour the heated cream to the bowl with choc chips. Let it rest for 5 mins. Whisk it using a manual whisk. This will give you a liquid consistency ganache. If you want to thicken the ganache for spreading, place the bowl on some ice & whip it. It will start thickening. Spread the ganache on cooled cupcakes/cake. Enjoy!

Notes: This is an extremely moist cake, so I wont suggest it for making it as a layer cake. You can store the cake (without ganache/icing) @ room temp for 3-4 days in an air tight container. The original recipe calls for baking powder. But I’ve read somewhere that for chocolate cake, baking soda is good. The explanation for that is Baking soda will react with coco powder and gives a darker colour to the cake. I used castor sugar for the recipe for easy blending of ingredients. However you can use the regular sugar. You can serve this cake as a dessert along with a scoop of your fav ice cream

Substitution for self raising flour – to get 1 cup self-raising flour, add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder+ 1/4 tsp salt to 1 cup all purpose flour. (source: http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html)

Why not leave a comment? Quick, head on over to MariasMenu.com for more tasty, delicious and simple recipes! Remember to check out the Recipe Index to find some easy-to-cook dishes. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about MariasMenu!

We are meeting after a small gap I guess? Yeah…my last post was around Easter time. I was hoping to say hi to you in between but didnt work out. Something or the other popped up just like that. Anyways, what news at your end?

I’m here with a baking recipe after a long time. It’s mainly because baking has taken a back seat recently. I was trying so hard to cut down on my sugar & butter intake, but it only increased my cravings & ended up having more from outside Anyways I baked these cupcakes when some friends came over. It was such a pleasure to bake after a long time & these little cuties did a good job in motivating me to start baking again. After all there is nothing like good old vanilla cake smothered with chocolate frosting.

Btw, I didnt tell you..these are eggless cupcakes. Though I’ve posted some eggless bakes before, it’s not party stuff…That was mainly some healthy bakes. Nothing wrong with that, but I do prefer some sugar & butter high when I’m in a mood to celebrate Yep, I’m in a mood to celebrate. You remember Adi boy, my nephew? Well, I’ve two nephews now, my brother & family is blessed with a cute little fella, Siddharth on 5th May. I’m so looking forward to meet him & also my niece Liana

Talking about celebration, no celebration is complete without chocolates, right? Check out See’s Candies. They have a great collection of chocolates designed for special occasions like these. Their varieties include truffles, candy bars, sugar free etc; I’d like to try their Springtime Truffles, it looks so delicate & smooth. I’m sure they will make an awesome gift item too. I for sure dont mind receiving a beautifully wrapped Chocolate Box as a gift

Now, shall we hop on to the recipe?

Here we go…

1. All Purpose Flour (Maida) – 2 1/2 cups
   Soda Bicarbonate – 1 tsp
   Baking Powder – 1 tsp
2. Powdered Sugar – 2 cups
3. Butter – 3/4 cup (170 gm), softened
4. Yogurt – 1 cup, room temp
5. Hot Milk – 1/2 cup
6. Vanilla Essence – 1/2 tsp

Preheat the oven @ 180 C, 10 minutes before baking.

Sift together all purpose flour, baking powder & soda bicarbonate. Beat softened butter, powdered sugar, hot milk, yogurt & vanilla essence together till light & fluffy. Fold in the sifted flour. Line a muffin/cupcake tray with liners. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 mins.

Notes: This is originally a cake recipe, so you can bake it as a cake also. For the above mentioned qty, you can use a 8-9 inch round cake tin. I made only half the qty mentioned above & got 12 standard size cupcakes. I stored the cupcakes at room temp for 3 days in an airtight container.

Recipe Source: My friend, Dolly Aunty

Hersheys “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Frosting

Why not leave a comment? Quick, head on over to MariasMenu.com for more tasty, delicious and simple recipes! Remember to check out the Recipe Index to find some easy-to-cook dishes. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about MariasMenu!

Looks like it’s blogging season again! Its time for me to start bombarding your inbox again, with updates from Mariasmenu Before that …

I’m at loss of words to thank you, so I decided to borrow some words from wiser people. In my previous post I told you I was double minded about sharing what had happened. I’m glad that I shared it with you. Your support & prayers & blessings indeed helped & strengthened us. You were kind enough to share your experience with us too. We felt truly blessed to receive so much prayers, love & care from you. Once again thanks a billion for your support & prayers.

With new hopes and new dreams for this year, let me share the first food post of 2011 with you. I wanted to start with something sweet and this cookie recipe has been in draft for long time. Since its chocolate it can be included in the “V” day celebration also. I Know its a bit late, but never mind That reminds me… I didnt ask you… what are your plans for the V day? Do you you usually celebrate or do you think its over rated?

I know what you are wondering… whether me and Jose celebrate it or not. We are neither here nor there. We don’t celebrate it nor denounce it. It’s like a spur of the moment thing. Anyways this year with both of us in different places, (Jose is in Bahrain & I’m in Cochin)  there’s no celebration as such. That doesn’t stop me from wishing you a Very Happy Valentines Day. Have fun!

So here comes our recipe. It’s a cookie version of brownie. Though its a pretty simple & easy one, the addition of 3 different types of chocolate makes it special too . Now you feel like having a bite into that chocolatey goodness with a glass of chilled milk, dont you

Here you go:

1. Butter – 250gm, softened
   Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
   Caster sugar- 3/4 cup (165gm)
   Firmly packed brown sugar – 3/4 cup 9165 gm)
   Egg – 1 @ room temp
2. Plain Flour – 2 cups
   Cocoa powder – 1/4 cup (25gm)
   Bicarbonate of soda – 1 tsp
3. Finely chopped roasted hazelnuts – 1/3 cup (45gm)
4. Coarsely chopped dark eating chocolate – 2/3 cup (120 gm)
   Coarsely chopped milk eating chocolate – 2/3 cup (120 gm)
   Coarsely chopped white eating chocolate – 2/3 cup (120gm)

Preheat oven to 180 C/ 160 C fan-forced. Grease oven trays & line with baking paper. Beat butter, extract, sugars & egg in a small bowl with electric mixer until liht & fluffy; transfer to large bowl. Stir in sifted flour, cocoa & soda in two batches. Stir in nuts & chocolate. Roll level tablespoons of dough into balls; place about 5 cm apart on oven trays. Bake about 12 mins. Cool on trays.

Makes about 48

Notes: I made only half the qty.  I used Hershey’s Semi sweet choc chips, milk choc chips & white choc chips. I used soft brown sugar. I didnt use any nuts. My cookies were ready in 7-10 mins. I lined the baking tray first with aluminium foil & then with baking/parchment paper. This can be stored @ room temp in an airtight container for almost 2 weeks. I used soft light brown sugar.

Substitution for Caster sugar: to get 1 cup caster sugar. process 1 cup granulated sugar (usual sugar) in a food processor/mixer until fine, but don’t powder it like icing sugar. (source: http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html)

Recipe source: Australian Women’s Weekly Cookies & Biscuits

Why not leave a comment? Quick, head on over to MariasMenu.com for more tasty, delicious and simple recipes! Remember to check out the Recipe Index to find some easy-to-cook dishes. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about MariasMenu!

It’s been some time right? No, this time I wasnt lazy, I was a bit busy. I myself cant believe that I was busy, some of my friends were saying “even Maria is so busy these days, what has the world come to” Looks like it’ll be like this for the next few days too…So I thought I’ll just drop in and say hi and share this recipe for the traditional Christmas Fruit Cake.

Coming to think of it, I was always a hard core tea cake fan and used to wonder how can somebody like plum cake/fruit cake. It was changed only a few years ago when I baked a fruit cake myself just for the heck of it and I became an instant convert at the first bite itself. But I still don’t like the store bought plum cakes that we get back home in Kerala. I think they are overloaded/crowded with raisins. This recipe suits me well, it has fruits but not overpowering the cake portion.

Before going into the details of this recipe, let me ask you something. Did you notice our new look? How’s it? Well, if you’re thinking I was busy working on the new outfit for MariasMenu, I’m sorry to disappoint you. It’s all done by Jose, wait I did my part, actually what I’m good at. Just demanding what I want in the site So if you like it, the credit goes to you know who…me,because the idea is mine right We’ve added some new pages like upcoming book ,Buzz section & reader’s T&T (tried & tested). Please check out when time permits, ok?

So what were we talking about….right, fruit cake. I got this recipe a few months back from my friend Sumi. It’s her mom’s recipe. I had this when I visited her and I made sure that she mailed me the recipe in a few days I made it first with dates, since I was flooded with dates at that time & was very happy with the result. One another thing I’m happy about is the color of the cake. The color of the cake very much depends on the color of the caramel you make. I used to play it safe with caramel and always ended up with golden brown color caramel. But in this recipe, it was specifically stated to make a dark caramel & I decided to let my hair loose. When I tasted the caramel, it had a slight bitter taste and I was worried whether it’ll spoil the cake, but nothing like that happened & in fact I’m very happy with the color, texture & almost everything Thanks a ton Sumi for sharing your mom’s wonderful recipe with me.

Here goes the recipe:

For Soaking:

1. Mixed fruits – 3 cups
   Rum/Brandy – 1.5 cups (I used dark rum)

For Caramel:

1. Sugar – 1/2 cup
   Water – 1 tbsp
2. Warm water – 1/4 cup

For Cake:

1. Plain flour (maida) – 2 cups
   Baking powder – 1 1/4 tsp
   Baking soda – 1/2 tsp
2. Sugar – 1 cup+ 2 tbsp
3. Unsalted Butter – 250 gms (1 cup + 2 tbsp, approx) @ room temp
4. Eggs – 4 @ room temp
5. Vanilla essence – 2 tsp
6. Jam – 1 tbsp (I used apricot)

For Spice Powder:

1. Cloves – 2
   Cardamom – 2
   Cinnamon – a small piece
   Nutmeg – a small piece

Soaking of Fruits

I used a combination of sultanas, seedless raisins,currants & candied orange & lemon peel.  I didn’t chop the fruits & used it as such. You can use dried fruits of your choice. If you are using dates/apricots etc; chop it into small pieces & soak it.  I soaked it for almost 1.5 months. Try to soak it for a minimum of 1 week, at least. Shake the jar of soaked fruits once in a while.

Caramel Preparation:

Combine 1/2 cup sugar & 1 tbsp water in a sauce pan. Heat it & let the sugar melt. When the color of the melted sugar becomes dark brown, remove the pan from fire & add 1/4 cup warm water to this. You need to be very careful at this stage since the water tends to splash & can cause burns. Bring it back to the heat & boil for a few more mins, 3-4 mins. Remove from fire & let it cool completely. You can prepare the caramel in advance & refrigerate it. Check out the caramel picture at Annita’s place, if you want to get an idea about the color.

Spice Powder:

Grind all the spices with a pinch of sugar, to a fine powder & keep aside.

Cake Preparation:

Preheat the oven @ 180 C for 10-15 mins, before baking.

Drain the soaked fruits & keep aside. Retain 4 tbsp from the drained liquor. Toss the drained fruits in 1-2 tbsp of flour. (This will prevent the fruits from sinking to the bottom of the cake). Sift the plain flour with baking powder & baking soda. Powder the sugar & keep aside. Separate the yolks & white of the eggs. Beat egg whites till soft peaks form. Keep aside. Beat the egg yolks & add the softened butter to it. Beat it till it forms a smooth paste. Add powdered sugar to this, gradually. Beat after each addition. When it becomes smooth add vanilla essence & cooled caramel & spice powder & beat again. Add the sifted flour in 2 batches. Beat after each addition. Add jam & combine.

Fold in the beaten egg whites in 2 parts & combine till no white streaks are visible. Fold in the soaked fruits & 4 tbsp of retained liquor. Grease the baking dish (refer notes) & line with baking paper. Pour the batter into the prepared tins. Bake in the pre heated oven for 40-45 mins or until the skewer inserted comes out clean. The baking time can vary depending on the oven & also the size of the tin used.

Notes: I used a 9 inch round tin & 9 inch loaf tin for baking the above qty. If you feel that the top of the cake is getting over browned, cover it loosely with aluminium foil.You can store the cake @ room temp, in an air tight container for up to 2 weeks. However you can refrigerate it for a month in an air tight container. The 4tbsp of retained rum added in the end along with the fruits, can be reduced to suit your taste. I like that extra rum taste and hence added 4 tbsp. You can add anything between 1-4 tbsp or skip.

For Bahrain Readers: I used Heritage brand Mixed fruit packet from Al Jazira supermarket & I used Captain Morgan dark rum for soaking the fruits.

Please see the picture of Fruit cake made by Anupama Antony, based on the above recipe. Thanks a lot Anupama

Check out other Xmas recipes:

Also check out the Christmas Menu.

Why not leave a comment? Quick, head on over to MariasMenu.com for more tasty, delicious and simple recipes! Remember to check out the Recipe Index to find some easy-to-cook dishes. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about MariasMenu!