Thursday 27 November 2008

Hummingbird Cake



I love making this cake, simple reason that it is not difficult to make.
You just dump all the ingridients in a big bowl , give it a good mix , pour it to the cake tin and , there is a delicious cake ater a hour or so.

I love the frosting also and i was in a palyfull mood so i just added a bit food colour to the frosting.
This is a recipe from one of my favourite cake book.
It is full of easy cake and dessert recipes. It is a Australian Women's Weekley Cookbook called Sweet Old-fashoined Favourites.
I have made a lot of recipes from theis book and each time it was real good.



Ingridients:
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1 cup Sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinamon
1/2 tsp bicarboante of soda
3 eggs lightly beaten
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup chopped peacan
1/2 cup undrained crushes pineapple in heavy syrup. ( I have never seen this here in the shops, so i just use tin pineapples and just slice them in small pieces)
2 cups mashed overripe bananas.

Cream chesse frosting:

60 gm Ceam cheese
30 gm butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
Food colour of your choice ( optional)

Lightly greas 23 cm slab pan, line base wiyh grease paper. I used a 20cm round tin

Sift flour sugar, cinamon, baking soda into a large bowl. Stir in eggs , oil, nuts, banana and pineapple, stir intill just combined.
Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin, bakein moderate oven about 1 hour.
Stand the cake 10 minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool.
Spread the cold cake with the cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese frosting:
Beat everything in a bowl, with electric mixer untill light and fluffy.
I am sending this to DK's deadline is by Nov: 30th. So if you have forgotten to send her, do hurry up.
Also sending this to Ruth's Kitchen Expiriments for her

Sending this to Manasi of Fun and Food for her

Tuesday 25 November 2008

Spelt Bread



Here at home we have bread twice a day.


For breakfast and for evening dinner.
I remember after getting married and comming here to live, and saw everybody eating bread for breakfast and for dinner, except on weekends, then we have bread in the afternoon and i make a cosy dinner so that we can open up a bottle of wine with the food.

So seeing here bread , I was like WHAT at home back in India we only ate bread when we were sick. I am talking about when i was at home, which was years, years, years a,d years ago. Now the eating habbits have changed there also.
Really the time when we had bread at home was when we were sick.

You should know that in India we always have warm food for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

So when I rang home and told everybody that I am eating bread twice a day they were really sorry for me.
But I got used to it and I enjoy my different variety of bread. Especially if i make them at home.


Which I mostly do. Unless if it is holidays for my daughter, then I have no time to make bread as one is busy doing other things.


Have to admitt nothing beats home made bread.


When I make bread I always use spelt flour , more informations here.
If I use normal bread flour it is difficult for digestion for hubby dear, so years ago we changed to spelt flour .
The main reason I started making bread at home was this, as spelt bread was really difficult to get from the bakers and also very expensive. So making them at home was the solution if we wanted to have them. Now i think it is available everywere.



Long Spelt bread

Priay of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes tagged me to bake a bread for The Worldwide Blogger Bake off Challenge.


In my draft these bread have been there fro months, i had taken the pictures when i was making round and long shaped bread, so thought I will post them both for this good cause.

Breadline Africa is a South African-based charity that is seeking to put a lasting end to poverty South Africa (and further afield in Africa) by breaking the cycle of poverty and helping communities to achieve long-term self-sustainability. Breadline Africa was founded in 1993 when a group of community and social workers in South Africa (who had first-hand knowledge of the uniquely African problems that they faced) formed an alliance with like-minded colleagues in Europe (who were well-placed to source donations in valuable foreign currency). Armed with this unique combination of skills, Breadline Africa has been able to raise funds in Europe and use their local knowledge to identify which small, ground-level projects in Africa are most likely to succeed with a financial boost.

On Blog Action Day, Breadline Africa launched their Worldwide Blogger Bake-Off Campaign.. The aim is to raise $1 million in funds for a project to convert shipping containers into locations for food production and distribution in Africa. It is hoped that these sustainable community kitchens will not only provide food such as bread and soup to those in need, but also opportunities for skills development within poor communities. Bloggers can download the Blogger Bake off Widget n tag five other bloggers to do this challenging bake off..

Sending this to YeastSpotting. You should all do for a visit to Wild Yeast, there is such a huge variety of bread there.

Round Spelt bread

Now here is the recipe for splet bread.
I buy my splet flour from a farmers oraganosation shop. The recipe is written in their bags and I have been using this recipie from the start.

250 gm brown spelt flour
250 gm white spelt flour
7 gm yeast
320 ml water
15 gm butter
10 gm salt.

Mix all the ingridients and mix for 10 minutes untill you have a soft ball.

Put the dough in a bowl and cover with the cling film and keep in a warm place for 1 hour or untill it has doubled up.

Take the dough punch out a bit and shape into a ball and keep in a Greased and floured abread pan and leave the dough covered in a warm place for
another 50 minutes.
Preeat the oven to 200°c and bake for 50 minutes.
To check if the bread is baked you just have to knovh with you knuckle , it should sound hollow.
If you have a bread machine look to the instruction in the book and make them.

Sunday 23 November 2008

Announcing Home Made Christmas Gifts Event


I have been blogging now for more than a year and till now have not hosted any events here.

So I thought it was about time I did one. It is not a monthly one, it is just for the holiday season.Actually the reason I thought of doing this event was because I got a comment from Shankari of Stream of Consciouness , she commented on one of my post if I was going to do edible christmas gifts this year too like the teas bag I did last year.

And I was saying to myself I would love to blog about the home made christmas gift I am doing and send for a event, but there is no event to send for, so then why not do it myself.

If you want to have ideas , just go and check Zlamushka's spicy kitchen for wonderful ideas from last year. She is the reason why I made the spicy tea mixture last year.
I would like to ask all my fellow food boggers to

Post about their home made gifts, which they lovingly prepare for their loved ones and friends.It can be any thing, few examples are

Masal powders
chuntney's, pickles
cookie mix
cookies
Jams
Any thing edible or which you can used for your cookingAnd it is christmas so why not bottle it up, wrap them up give it a holiday feeling.

1. Your name :
2. Where you live :
3. Your blog’s name and URL
4. The URL of your entry :
5. The name of the gift :
6. A picture 200X200 pixel, it doesn't matter if it is not the exact size, i have noticed I can never have them in the exact size when ever I try to resize them.
7. Email me your entry to mykitchen_treasures(at)yahoo(dot)com

When you write a post, link to this page and to the round up link, so everybody can see them if they want to have ideas for their home made gift.
The event deadline is 20th December.I am not doing a round up.

Don't be SHY to send more than one. You may send as many as possible.

If you like use the logo too.

Instead of round up I will post here, from the time I start getting entries so, everybody who is intrested in giving homemade christmas gifts will get ideas from now itself and they can strat making them too.

Home Made Christmas Gifts Round Up

These are the wonderful Entries I have got till now......


Aparna of My Diverse Kitchenfrom Goa - India
Send these Candy Cane Cookies, Snowflake Cookies and Nutty Chocolate Fudge in those packets there is three variety of cookies, they are Nutty fudge bars, Candy Can cokies, Snowflake cookies she made them for her daughter friends, I do wish i was one of her daughters friend, then i would get them too.


Deeba of Passionate about baking from Gurgaon, North India
Send these yummy Herb Creamcheese Crackers with buckwheat, oatmeal & za'atar for Deeba it was like working in the Chemistry lab back in school, when mixing different solutions resulted in magical colours


Jerri of Simply Sweet Home from Alabama
Send this Cake Mix Cookies Here's an incredibly easy cookie recipe that she just tried for the first time the other day. These are so sweet and delicious,


Ume of Essence of Andhra from USA
Send thes cute and delciious looking Christmas Cupcakes sg-he made this for her daughter’s class for their fun-filled holiday tradition called ‘Secret Santa’,



Stef of Cup Cake Priject from St.Louis MO
Send these yummy Fudge Brownie cupcakes Fudge is the secret ingredient in both the cupcakes and the frosting. In fact, the fudge brownie cupcake frosting is simply fudge that has been melted and spread on top of the cupcake! Doesn't it sound DIVINE



Stef of Cup cake project from St.Louis MO
Send these yummy fudge i would love to just take those yummy fudge and pop in my mouth, wait till you see what she has made with them



Dell of Cooking and the City from Melbourne- Australia
Send these Gingerbread Muffins they are a favourite in her house and with friends. She often make a batch to put in Christmas hampers.


Sukanya of Sukanyas Musing from Singapore
Send this OATMEAL COOKIES IN A JIFFY i am sure all of us will agree this is a wonderful way to make cookies, why? simple you don't have to bake them.


Navita Hakim of Zaayeka from Hong Kong
Send this Easy Pancake Mix this is one of her cheats recipe, she makes these and everybody thinks she has been slaving in the kitchen to make them :-)


Navita Hakim of Zaayeka from Hong Kong
Send these Pop in Pakodas, She loves her moms pakodas but she had to make herself these as yeah she is married and living aways from mom.



Purva of Purva's Daawat from London - UK
Send this super moist and delicious Chocolate and Walnut brownies
If you want to know shortcuts to make bronies just hope over to her place.



Arfi of HomeMades from newzeland
Send this Delicious Fleu de sel macroons don't they just look gorgeous. Wish I had the courage to make these beautiful and delcious macroons. Well i can just sit here and drool.


Deepthi Shankar of Vegetable Platter
Send this Oat meal Cookies these cookies are one of the fastest & easiest to make. and a joy to eat these along with a HOT mug of coffee. This sounds really good to me


Mahima of Indian Vegetarian kitchen from Los Angles
Send these Dates and nuts fudge can you believe these delicious cuties are all natural, healthy, sugar free and guilt free, yeahhhhhhh that sounds indeed yummm



Chandani of Chai's Corner from Pitsburgh, PA
Send these delicious Christmas Cake thise dry fruits inside the cake looks like precious stones.


Navita Hakim of Zaayeka from Hong Kong
Send this delicious Quick Strawberry Jam These are so easy to make, so ladeis try to make these if you want to give someone special a home made jam which taste and looks delicious and they don't have to know it was easy, just tell them you slaved the whole day to make them


Deeba of Passionate about baking from Gurgaon, North India
Send this Nibbly Buckwheat Chocolate-chip Cookies I can imagine nibbling to these delicious and beautiful cookies, she didn't know buchwheat was available untill recently, apprently it is widley available in Indian in the name of 'kuttu ka aata', good that she discovered so we could have these delcious cookies.


This is my favourite home made gift i made till now
Home Made Vanilla Extract they were surprisinly so easy to make them abd don't have to pay a fortune and it makes a wonderful christmas gift


Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes from Paris-France
Send these Vegan choco - oats cookies, I am sure all of us will be delighted to see on any party tables as we can have double portions.




Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes from Paris-France
Send these yummy Brownie Cupcakes they looks so perfect and delcious, i am sure if it was me, it woudn't get to the person who i am giving this as a gift




Tara of Should you eat that? from Melbourne-Ausralia
Send this Peanut Butter Truffels, while making them shae had more than one and while she was rolling them in the crushed peanuts she really had to remind herself that it is midnight and she won't be able to sleep if she is on a chocolate high. I am sure even i would do the same.


DK of Culinary Bazaar from CA USA
Send this Christmas Popcorn this is not at all the normal popcorn they are christmasy ones with all the raisins, cherries , almonds etc.......eat these delicious popcorns, watching a Charles Dikkens movie


Bee & Jai of Jugalbandi from North Western U.S.
Send this Lavender oil Bee wanted to capture and preserve the aroma of lavender, just as Bri had captured the essence of roses in her Ecastatic Organic Rose Vanolaa icecream.


AnuSriram of Chandrabhaga from Newjersey
Send this Almond Coconut cookies, she says these cookies make a special treat. Not just for the holidays , baking them is so easy that you just have to mix up the ingredients, bake'em and have it ... whenever you like.



Purva of Purva's Daawat from London - UK
Send this berrilous Very berry surprious the Colombus within me wanted to cook Strawberry Cream, an exotic dessert


Bharathy of Spice Chilly from India
Send this Mexican wedding cookies she sayw they were real melt-in-the-mouth, perfect with a cup of hot tea. Looking to those snowy cookies I am certain they were indeed melt in the mouth.


Susan @ Food Blogga from San Diego, CA
send this Italian Pepper Biscuits these are the cookies made by her dad as her mom prefers when her dad does because he twists each cookie so uniformly. Seeing them I totally agree with her mom they all look perfect size.


Anne of Anne's Kitchen from UK
Send this Cherry topped coconut shortbread These are lovely, melt in your mouth biscuits but very fragile so package carefully


Swapna of Swapna's Cuisine from Kuwait
Send this super delicious looking home made Date Wine, don't you just love the colour her mom and aunt were the best wine makers in theirfamily....and she too have inherited some of their talent, wish i had some too


Ricki of Diet, Desert and Dogs from Toronto, Ontario
Send this Brandied Apricot-Ginger Spread it is my kind of spread, it is a smooth, glossy spread which will keep for more than a month in the refrigerator, why it is my kind as it has alcohol , there is quater cup of brandt in it.................


Aquadaze of Served with love from Singapore
Send this beautiful Christmad Stocking cake, for her baking is absolute passion, her husband is convinced she suffer from withdrawl symptoms if she let a week go by without baking.
From this beautiful cake i would say indeed she must be baking a lot to come up with something so beautiful and delicious.




Roopa of My Kitchen Treats from Massachussets, USA
Send this Red Velvet Cake doesn't that slice a real beauty, looks so inviting and so festive. The colour of the cake just amazed her.


Susan @ Food Blogga from San Diego, CA
Send this yummy Peanut Butter Fudge this is her mom's fudge and it is thick and creamy without being overly sweet. There is no bakinginvilved and you can add any nuts, marshmellows etc...... and any way as we all know , moms recipe's are always a winner


Viji @ Vcusine from Kuwait
Send this cute looking Cherry Blossoms can you imagine there is only 60gm of butter in it, I am sure going to make this. Viji says they just melt in your mouth cookies, the thought itself makes me want to make them.


Anudivya of ...and a little bit more... from Unites States
Send this Low fat Almond and Oats Cookie - Eggless, she found this recipe when she was throwing away a plastic bag which previously contatined oat flour. Are we gald that she found it as now all of us can enjoy this healthy delicious cookie.



Jz of Tasty Treast MN, USA
Send this super delcious looking Cranberry-Pistachio Biscottis according to her these are lil cuties. And I totally agree with her. JZ gave us a hint how to enjoy these cuties.
Snuggle up on a couch with a cup of hot cocoa and a few of these biscottis and trust me, you will be in heaven! Oh yes just reading them I am in heaven :-)




Jaya of Spice and Curry from India
Send this yummy kalakand wish i had few of those, her MIL was so full of praise for her kalakand and i am sure that says itself what a delicious kalakand it is.


Maria of Marias Menu , from Bahrain
Send this delicious looking Chocolate Chip Cookies bundle, She almost given up making cookies thinking they don't like her as it was always didn't turn out perfect, am I happy that she didn't give up, otherwise i would not have got these delicious cookies.




Sowmya of creative saga from Singapore
Send this cute little Thumbprint cookies she is overjoyed that these cookies turned out to be so perfect as the last time she made them, they were not. I myself am ovejoyed , that she send me this perfect cute and delcious looking cookies.


Soma Rathore of e.curry from Texas, USA
Send this beautiful looking Spiced Cranberry Raisin Bundt Cake when she saw the recipe and knew that this had to be it, Cranberries, Spices and all the Colors, Flavors & the Festivities of the season were all in it. I totally agree, i would love if some one gave me this cake as a gift. it is a reall joy in a bundt :-)


Maria of The Goddess's Kitchen from England
Send this ( I grabbed them, how can you resist not to :-)) Delicious Cranberry Jam she has mentioned in her place, this jam recipe the cranberry fruit does it all for you, due to its pectin-intensity, that it sets to jam once the berries have burst. I love this jam on toast or warm, buttery croissants or you could use it as a filling for Cranberry muffins/cupcakes.
Using for the muffin filling, yeah that is indeed clever.


Cham of Spice-club from California (USA)
Send this Christmas Fruit cake , doesn't it look super moist , I love this cake as it only took 45 minutes to bake. I have not made my christmas cake till now, I think I am going to make this as it only takes 45 minutes.


Ramya of Pennin(g) mu Cooking from Pune -India
Send this Super delicious looking Banana litchi jam , I think that is a wonderful combitaion, imagine spreading them lavishly on to your toast.....


Deeba of Passionate about baking from Gurgaon, North India
Send this nutty delicious & healty Oat Walnut Wafers, the cookboof from whcih she got this recipie is Australian Heritage Cookbook and she knows it from page to page as she was reading them when her daughter was sick and she had to stay in.


Laavanya of Cookery Corner from USA
Send the Honey Roasted Almonds, she is trying to make her husband getting to like these delicious almonds. Well I am sure we all love these and we would be perfectly happy to have a bag of these. If her hubby doesn't like this, we will all have double the portions


Tara of Should you eat that? from Melbourne-Ausralia
Send this "drumroll" Home made Vanilla Essence. And she siad , it is REALLY simple to make ( i totally agree mine is in the drak corner in a shelf), you just split some vanilla beans and throw them in a bottle of vodka... leave it to brew for a few months in a coold, dark place and you have vanilla essence - a massive bottle of it!


Tara of Should you eat that from Melbourne, Australia
Another one of a delicious home made gift include is Cherry Jam, she makes them as her mom loves cherry jam ans she is also going to give them to her other family members, well i would personally love to get one of these pot of cherry jam


Tara of Should You Eat That? from Melbourne, Australia...
She send this Christmas M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies, She used christmas M&M, What i like about this was, she made a bunch and then freezed the rest in balls so that she can make them later , so that she get the feeling christams last longer, now isn't that a wonderful idea.


Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes from Paris-France
Send this Vegan Rice Krispies Oatmeal Cookies which is made from with canola oil n applesauce and they are very very crispy, tasty n healthy.


Happy Cook ;-) of My Kitchen Treasure from Belgium
I loved making these delcicious Christmas cupcakes, with marzipan cane and having fun with all the colours. I think I should keep a box with me so when ever I feel a bit down, i just have to look to these colourfull cupcakes and I am sure I will feel colourfull myself.



Katie of Apple & Spice from UK
Sebd this Apple Date and Raisin Chutney. Katie says ,This is a lovely winter chutney, sweet and fruity but with a gentle warming glow from chilies and fresh ginger. It’s the perfect accompaniment to cheese and some good crusty bread but would work equally well with ham or a wedge of pork pie. You know ladies she has 4 jars of these cooling on then counter, woudn't we all love to have one.


Cakelaw of
Laws of Kitchen fromMelbourne -Australia
Send this Delicious looking Golden Panforte.
Wish i had a silice from it, she stillhave to slice and pack them, but i was too impatient, so I grabed them to have it here as everybody can enjoy the sight of this super delicious Panforte


Ivy of Kopiaste from Athens Greece
Send this delicious healthy Oatmeal chocolate pistachio cookies she send these delicious cookies to her friends in Crete. And if i say a whole bunch, I mean a whole bunch. You should check out her place she was baking these cookies like nothing to send for them. Wouldn't we all love to have a box of these delicious cookies.


Rosie of
Rosie bakes a 'piece' of cake from England,UK
Send this Delicious looking Cranberry Almond Fudge and according to her , This fudge is a little sensation it’s so easy to make without the need for a sugar thermometer! Just a few combining of ingredients on the heat and of course stirring before being placed into a lined baking tin for chilling

Of course I coudn't resist to open them up and have a taste from these delicious fudge :-)


Tracy of Rah Cha Chow from New York, USA
Send this Tripple dipped pretzels, doesn't it looks beautiful and colourfull, I wouldlove to have them in my basket and she had writen,
Here's a fun, easy gift from the kitchen. I've made these for teacher gifts and used them in various gift containers. They are nice because they can add some height if you are doing an assortment of goodies in a basket or other container.


Sweta of Tasty Curry leaf from New Jersey,USA
Send this yummy Hazelnut Snowballs, she says simple and easy cookies made with hazelnuts and rolled in powdered or confectioners sugar.Hazelnuts or Cob Nuts , it mightbe simple ,but it sure looks delicious to me and.


Natalie of Snookie doodle from Malta
She send this delicious Almond and date balls, they are llow in fat and low in sugar, a delight to have something light, especially during the holiday season. You would be surprised how easy these are to make.



Rosie of Rosie Bakes A 'Peace' of Cake from UK
made this Delicious Spicy Mocha Mix
In Rosie's Words
Homemade gifts are a wonderful, thoughtful gift to give to family or friends at Christmas time. They are exclusively made for the person receiving the gift(s) and add that little extra treat of luxury you maybe unable to find in shop brought gifts.
I am sure all of us would love to receive a wonderful Mocha Mix like this


Maria of The Goddess's Kitchen from England
In Maria's own words
Anyone can buy a present from a shop, but if you want to go the extra mile, why not make something yourself? Homemade gifts make really thoughtful and often better value presents.
I do agree with her, who woudn't want to have this cranberry -studded mince meat if i had them i would certanly make delicious mince pies from them.


Maria of The Goddess's Kitchen from England
Looks at these Christmas Spiced salt, don't those puink red pepers and chilies look like tiny emeralds.

Roma of Roma's Space from Banglaroe - India
She send this Brownie Bikkie ala Cikkie , that is what her lovely little one says when mom ask her what she want to bake. So this lovely blink pack with the brownies are for her the little one, wish I would open up that blinkie with all the brownies in it

Maria of The Goddess's Kitchen from England
She send this Cranberry and Apple Chutney woiudn't you love to have them too especially with you cheese sandwitches or cold meat.