Yummylicious Crumbly Blue berry muffins

These muffins are so colorful and my family loves them. Posting a beautiful and a simple blue berry muffin recipe. (Courtesy - Allrecipes.com but made some tweaks to the recipe to suit my taste)

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Sugar - 1 cup
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Vegetable oil - 1/3 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Egg - 1 nos
Milk - 1/3 cup
Vanilla Essence - 1/2 tsp
Fresh blueberries - 1 cup

For the crumb topping:

Sugar - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 1/3 cup
Butter - 1/4 cup
Ground cinnamon - 1 1/2 tsp

Preheat the oven to 375 deg F

Preparation of Muffins: Mix the flour,sugar and baking powder. Pour the vegetable oil to a measuring container which can hold one cup quantity. To this add the egg, vanilla essence, and the milk till it measures one full cup. Combine this to the flour sugar mixture. Fold in the blueberries. Grease the muffin tray and fill to 3/4th of the height to leave some space for the crumbs and also for the muffin to rise.

Preparation of Crumb topping: Mix together 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/3 cup of all purpose flour, 1/4 cup of butter and 1 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon and sprinkle this mixture over the muffins before baking.

The baking takes 25-30 minutes until the crust is nice and golden brown. Loved the extra overflowed crust which is very evident in the pic.

Bon Appetit!

Yummy Pumpkin cup cake

New Year and Pongal wishes to you all, although a bit late.  I was flooded by relatives and family over the past month and was extremely busy with the guests. Felt very guilty at neglecting the blog site but literally could not find time. This one was drafted last month and hope you all enjoy it. This is my elder daughter's recipe and the credit goes to her. Since,she could not post it, I am doing on her behalf.

It is a big trouble to keep thinking what to do with the Halloween pumpkin.  Usually the carved and lit pumkin would adorn my porch for sometime till it had to be discarded. But, this time with the addition of my second one and keeping pace with his crawling, it was difficult to cut and carve. Hence, the pumpkin was lying unattended. Only the costumes and the sweets came to the forefront. Not wanting to waste it, was looking out for some nice recipe to bake a pumpkin cake. Found this one here and was an easy preparation. The taste was amazing and this is the fourth time I am baking this cake since Halloween :):) A big thanks to Diana for her recipe. I send them  to my daughter's class and the surprise look at tiny tots' faces was unforgettable. I came to know from the teacher that everyone loved these and wanted a second one. This is the perfect verdict..

Here goes the recipe:

All purpose flour - 2 1/4 cups
Sugar - 1 1/3 cups
Butter - 1/2 cup (at room temperature)
Cooked/canned pumpkin - 1 cup
Eggs - 2
Milk - 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 tbsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon powder - 3/4 tsp
Nutmeg powder - 1/2 tsp
Ginger powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp

Sift the dry items and transfer into a bowl.  Mix butter and sugar until  light and fluffy.  Beat the eggs and add to the butter sugar mix.  Blend the mashed pumpkin to this mix. Add the dry ingredients alternating with milk into the butter-sugar-eggs-pumpkin batter blending well after each addition. Spoon the batter in greased cups.  Bake at 375 deg for 25 minutes.

Yummy cup cakes are ready to devour.

A simple pound cake

These pound cakes are perfect for all occasions. Tea time, picnic, guests or if you are just bored, you can gulp in a piece of this cake.  This recipe is good and the outcome satisfying. One can understand that if the outcome is good, the tin gets emptied in no time else we would have to keep reminding or maybe serve our family members to get it finished. It has happened many times in my  household too. I have a beautiful cooking range with grill and gas oven. Since my baking and other recipes were done in the microwave, did not bother much to utilise the gas oven. Instead, that portion of the cooking range served as an instant storage. When searching for a good pound cake recipe, came across a lady who had baked in a gas oven to perfection. I wanted to give this a try and succeeded, now planning to give microwave baking a respite.

This recipe is adapted from  Rosa Levy Beranbaum of Cake Bible. I found her recipe very interesting as it does not follow the usual butter sugar mix. A very simple way of mixing the dry ingredients with the wet ones and the end result is amazing.

Ingredients:

Self raising flour- 1 1/2 cups
Eggs - 3
Butter -185 gms.or 13 tablespoons
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Milk - 3 tbsp
Baking powder 1 tsp
Salt -1/4 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1 1/2 tsp

Preheat the gas oven for 15 minutes. In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt and the baking powder) and keep aside. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla and keep aside. To the dry mix bowl, add the butter and one third  of the egg milk mix. Blend well. Gradually add the egg mix in two additions beating the mix well in medium speed after each addition. Spread on a cake pan and bake for around 45 minutes in gas oven. I kept in the middle tray which avoided burning of the top layer and ensured uniform baking. Timing of baking would differ in the  normal oven. If the toothpick comes out clean , then the cake is done. Cool it well before slicing. This would help you get very clean slices without the cake crumbling.

Enjoy this simple cake, can add nuts and raisins too to enhance the flavour.

Gorgeous Vanilla cup cakes-Jungle theme

If you are in and around New York, one would not have missed the 'Magnolia' cup cakes. They are too soft and the taste is beyond description. Being an ardent fan of cup cakes, tried for their recipe online and to my surprise found it here. My four year old daughter has been requesting me to make cup cakes with jungle theme for her birthday. With the excitement of the recipe in hand, thought would create this for her birthday and no doubt, it was a grand success. The above click was taken after arranging them to take to her school.

You might be wondering why I call them 'gorgeous'. Here is the proof and this is an awesome recipe which cannot go wrong at any count. Here, goes the recipe as followed from the original. The recipe calls for eggs and butter at room temperature to acquire the perfect sponginess and taste of 'Magnolia'.

Ingredients:
All purpose flour -1 1/4 cups
Self-raising flour - 1 1/2 cups
Eggs - 4 (at room temperature)
Unsalted butter - 2 sticks (at room temperature)
Sugar - 2 cups
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
Milk - 1 cup

For the icing:

Unsalted butter - 1 stick
Confectioners Sugar - 2 cups
Milk - 1/4 cup
Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp
Assorted food colors -I used Mc Cormick brand

Pre-heat oven to 350 deg.

Line muffin pan with cup cake liners.

In a bowl, combine the flours and set aside.

In another bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until soft and fluffy. Now, keep adding eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Now, add the flour mixture in three parts alternating with milk. Do not overbeat. Add the vanilla extract and mix well. Once the ingredients are blended, carefully spoon about 3/4th of the cup cake liners. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Cool the cup cakes well before starting the icing process. Even if a little heat is there, the icing would not set and will begin to melt. Hence, complete cooling of the cake is necessary.

For the icing:
Mix the butter, sugar,milk and the vanilla and beat until smooth and creamy. Now, depending on the character on ur cake, one needs to decide upon the mix of colors. I used an array of colours like dark orange (mixture of red and yellow), light orange, black, brown (acquired by adding an equal amount of red,blue and yellow).

I successfully recreated the tiger and monkey. For the tiger effect, with the help of spatula, spread the deep orange icing evenly and a shade of light at the centre and M & M's were used for the ears and eyes. For the monkey, with dark and light brown icing again M & M's were used for the ears and eyes. Not a very difficult task for a novice.

This is my first attempt at creating jungle animals and the verdict from my 4 year old and her friends were ' awesome'. Phew, I passed the test :):)

Enjoy!!!!!!!!

'Cup cakes are dangerous, you cannot just stop with one !!!!!!! '- Unknown

Simple yet tasty Nankattais

This is one of the best Desi version cookie and am sure everyone would have their own recipe. I found the recipe of Suja of Kitchen Corner very easy and perfect. Thanks Suja for your recipe. This recipe calls for just simple basic ingredients and can be prepared in a jiffy.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 cup
Corn Starch - 2 tsp
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - a pinch
Salt - a pinch
Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup
Butter - 1 stick
Cardamom powder - as desired.

Pre-heat oven to 200 deg.F. Combine the flour, corn starch,baking powder, baking soda, cardamom powder and salt and keep aside. Mix butter and sugar till the batter is light and fluffy.

To the batter, add the dry mix and combine well till it forms soft lump-like texture. Make into small balls and flatten it a little. Grease the baking tray and arrange them with enough gaps between them as they expand while baking. Bake for 15 minutes and allow it to cool completely.

You can add nuts and dry fruits according to ur taste. Yummy nankattais which would disappear as fast as it is baked is guaranteed.

Moist marble cake with semi sweet chocolate morsels

I had wanted to bake a marble cake for quite sometime and today decided to bake it, but on checking many recipes, I found that it required cocoa powder too.  Unfortunately, I ran short of the same and began my hunt to bake a marble cake with chocolate morsels and found one which was very easy and believe me, this was a hit straightaway.   The cake had its chocolate tinge but the original vanilla flavour was evident and was not overtaken by the chocolate flavour. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Butter - 1 1/2 sticks (room temperature)
Eggs - 3
Semi-sweet chocolate morsels - 50 gms
Yoghurt - 1/4 cup
Milk - 1/4 cup
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Pre-heat oven to 375 deg.F

Melt the chocolate in the microwave for 30 seconds and make into a smooth paste.

Mix the baking powder,baking soda and the salt to the all purpose flour and sieve it well.  Mix together butter and sugar till it is soft and fluffy.  To this add eggs one at  a time beating well after each addition.   Once the eggs are well incorporated, slowly add the dry mix alternating yoghurt and milk. Add the vanilla extract and fold the mix. 

Grease the baking dish and pour this mix into the dish and even it with a spatula.  Now, pour the melt chocolate over it and spread it out evenly with a fork.  Once you start spreading with the fork, the design automatically appears and gives the cake a beautiful design. 

Bake this in the oven for 35 minutes.   Cool thoroughly before slicing it.  Try to click the cake immediately else will be 'gone in a few seconds'.

'A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece'. - Ludwig Erhard

Chocolate chip cookies

Cookies are always a delight to bake and fits into 'any time preferred snack'.   My family loves to have these freshly baked chocolate chip cookies with warm milk, an ideal combination.  Once the cookie jar is filled, it just needs a few hands to just pop in, taste and empty the jar.  It was a delicate balancing act to stack these cookies :):)

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 2 1/4 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Brown sugar (packed) - 3/4 cup
Eggs - 2
Butter - 2 sticks
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Semi sweet chocolate chips - 1 1/2 cups

Combine the dry ingredients viz.flour,baking soda and salt in a bowl.  Blend butter, sugar, brown sugar and the vanilla extract till it is creamy.  Add eggs one at a time mixing well each time as u add.  Add the flour mix and gently mix it.  Pre heat the oven to 375 deg.F.  Make into small balls and bake it for 10 minutes.  Remove from the baking dish and cool it thoroughly before emptying into the tin for storing.

Stays fresh for a week in an air tight container.

'Absolutely love making chocolate chip cookies. I mean, it's fun. It's exciting. Beyond the fact that I love making them, I love eating them.'- Debbi Fields