Lamington cup cakes

Lamington cupcakes

These were made by a very dear person, a great chef in her own right..! more about her inventions later..but these cupcakes are to die for..

Im not a coconut fan, but i could'nt resist these..I dare you try them....

This is the traditional Australian lamingtons, but with a twist! they are cupcakes!!! easier to make, bake and treat.. the dare is, that you cannot stop at one!!!!

Ingredients

2 cups of all purpose flour

2 tspn baking powder

1/2 tspn baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

125gm unsalted butter

7tbsp sugar- powdered

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract/essence

1 1/4 cup milk

For icing and dusting

2 cups icing sugar

3 tbspn cocoa powder

1 1/2 tbsp butter

3/4 cup water

2 cups dessicated coconut

Method:

Sift together dry ingredients- salt, flour, baking powder in a large bowl. In another bowl, beat together butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one and beat until thoroughly combined! Add flour in batches and mix well by adding milk in between, add vanilla extract and beat well. Pour into cup cake paper in cupcake tray

place into preheated oven at 180 C for 20 minutes. Allow to cool

Meanwhile- mix together sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl. In a saucepan boil water and butter. once butter melts, add this to sugar cocoa powder- mix and stir well until it becomes a thick syrup..please dont burn it, keep flame at medium and do not leave unattended! the syrup must not be lumpy.

Setting them:

Dip the top portion of the cupcake on the chocolate syrup and dip them again over the desiccated coconut till well coated.

If your not a coconut fan, you can always add roasted unsalted nuts crushed as topping- it wont be lamingtons though!!

If you dont have desiccated coconut, get grated coconut, dry them under the sun for an hour and place them for 15 mins in a hot oven(180 c) ! Voila..desiccated coconut is ready!

Makes 12 cupcakes..

broken..carbon?

As zaara was playng with her toys, her attention shifted to the colouring book, barney..did he know that zaara would colour him blue, black and give yellow spots over, and call him"ill" on barney colouring book??? that what i was witnessing on a lazy tuesday afternoon...
Guess the friction was too much for barney to take and he gave up... the page tore and zaara was like "carbon mamma carrrbon..."
I smiled and as a dutiful mother worried at the very many accents she speaks in and getting tongue tied at seemingly simple words(she called a tomato a MATATO) corrected her-" Zaara, its Broken or tore..the page tore, you dont call it broken, or carbon for that matter" she still ran around the house with the page screaming" carbon...carbon"
Later that day,Mr Z walks in after a tiring site visit and she says.."Dada...barney colouring book CARBON!!!!" He gives me a confused expression and i explain" she calles it carbon broken i guess!
He still asks..but why would she say broken for a torn page? same instant, her beloved toy microwave door cracks open..she goes again" carbon mamma..carbonn"
I roll my eyes...about time rite..emphasising on the fact that i was right..shes just mixed words around saying carbon for broken!
Mr Z is still not convinced, but we have a good laugh...we still cant come to terms of her chattering away, her questions...we're in the AWWW stage still....cant believe how much shes grown..and so quickly.....time does fly!
After a few days... Mr Z texts me about our so called carbon... talking to some Arab friends, he realises that karbaan and not carbon..means spoilt or torn/ruined in arabic...
Little did we realise that she picked up a different language at nursery! using la for no and hada zaara were all pushed aside as hearsay
Children...they just amaze you...dont they?
so now zaara says "kharbaan" and i dare not correct her...just check what she has now wrecked!!!
"haada zaara haada mamma haada dada"
"la! la! la.."and laughter when i tickle her..
"badein mamma" when i ask her to clean up:D..and thats zaara for you..growing up learning little by little the very many things this world has to offer!

Tradition with a twist- Fish cutlets of Isha Bhavan

Hi Peeps!!!

Sorry for being away for so long..but this is a food post..YAY!!When we got married, we were invited(virunnu) for dinner/lunch to relatives' and friends homes... what a wonderful delight!!!Its quite a tradition to invite newly weds to give them a warm welcome to the family... so this was more of zain being welcomed into my gelf malayali family :D

We were super excited for the first few invites, but seeing our expanding waist lines, and lack of time to actually spend with each other (we both had full time jobs in dubai, and ended up going during weekends,would spend a considerable time at relatives places as it would be rude to walk out after food!) we dreaded them..I still liked meeting all of them and had loads of fun!!! Once while getting ready to another party, Mr Z asks..whats with the Fish cutlets and your family??? I was like- "So whats with it.."Thats when i realised that every home we went to from my side, fish cutlets were a permanent fixture...be it in different sizes, shapes,colours...these crunchy delicasy actually defined us....

I even introduced it to my in laws who still ask me to make it for them when we visit!!! It is delicious and a MUST TRY!!!Hence this recipe is a tribute to my sister(who makes the best of em all), my mum who taught us this and my aunts and cousins...who all have perfected their various forms of the FISH CUTLETand excelled in it..

I also have my own version and of course a healthier option to the original too!!!

Here goes:

Ingredients:

Tinned Tuna in water/ oil(white tuna better, in low sodium water option for the health consious)-2

Potatoes-1 medium boiled and mashed

Green chillies-2 medium chopped

Onion- 1 medium chopped thin

Ginger paste- half teaspoon

Oil- 2Tbspn, 300ml for deep frying
Bread crumbs 1 cup

Egg beaten- 1

Salt to taste

Method:

open tuna tin and drain water/oil and keep aside.In a non stick frying pan, pour 1 tbspn of oil, saute onions till pink, add ginger and green chillies mix well.lower flame and add potatoes that are mashed well, add tuna to this mix and stir, it form a warm dough.Check salt..only add more if necessary as the tuna is usually salted. Take vessel from flame and stir in the mix well that they look homogeneous. This where the fine chopping actually pays off. Let this cool dwon completely.make them to small patties makes around 8-10 with above quantities.

dip in beated eggs and roll over bread crumbs so that they are evenly coated, keep aside. You can leave the patties plain without egg and bread crumBs and grill them(with a tbspn of oil) for the healthy option..turns out equally yummm..

Picture of the healthier option above! In a kadai, heat the oil and deep fry the coated ones till golden brown!!!Tomato ketchup is an ideal accompaniment!

Happy munching