Friday, August 26, 2011

Honey & Almond Cake

A Hard Day’s night; that’s what I am going to call this one.
So, while we watch ‘wake up sid’ for the umpteenth time, here I am, despite being completely exhausted, loving this. Today was a çommuni-cooking day (not in a perfectly cooking manner though). After a bad day with a completely clogged throat, half a day of work and trying to get some god-forsaken ID, I was back home at a ‘so-called’ reasonable time in order to rest. Ak fancied Murgh Malai Tikka for dinner, and so that was tested out; but will be shared another day. The marinade worked but the oven ditched me L, by drying out my richly marinated malai tikkas. I discovered that mom’s tried and tested technique of  making tikkas in the pan on medium heat actually works much better... round 2, therefore, got a better response.  Will crack the oven soon, and re-post this one.

          Feeling extremely disappointed, I wanted more; and therefore, I set out to test my new flowery cake tin. The benefits of marriage are quite brilliant; giving you the permissible luxury to splurge on baking tools :P  (justifying shopping to bring in what’s missing). Its not like I didn’t do it earlier, but, now, I can make it an évent’. After, spending enough time to look for the right recipe with key factor being only ‘2 eggs’ (from what was lying in the fridge), ‘we’ decided to embark on the Honey and Almond Cake- Courtesy Ipad (a baking app!). ilove technology.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Chocolat Twisties

I have taken forever to do this. And I am not sure what is special about today, that I am finally here, writing my first post. I will share a recipe (well- hardly a recipe!), but a moment, which for the first time made me conscious of the joy that I experience each time I bake. Also, reminiscent was the emotion, the whiff in the air that would encapsulate my home, slightly vanilla-ish, slightly flour-ish, and slightly bake-ish…however, I should probably date this to sometime in early 2010.
      I hate to call it ‘The recipe’ and hence, I call it the moment. From the movie ‘It’s complicated’, in that particular scene, where Meryl Streep brings back Steve Martin- her new boyfriend (ironically- an architect) to her bakery. She asks him to pick one thing, which she would bake- especially ‘for him’. He chooses a chocolate croissant- no words can clearly portray the moment that they share and I wouldn’t want to disrespect the authenticity of the scene. What is relevant is that this inspired me to bake my own mini- chocolate croissants or chocolate twisties as I now call them. It was the process that moved me, I and twisted it to make my own-, almost surreally architectural.  I did start out by making the puff pastry as well, but soon figured that it’s as good with the readymade frozen pastry dough available. The movie is a must-watch, but until then, enjoy the act-