Rainbow Cupcake

 1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or melted butter)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
red, yellow, green and blue food colorings

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 10 cups from a 12 cup muffin tin (or line with paper cups).

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Pour in dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Divide batter evenly into 5 small bowls; each should have a little more than 1/3 cup batter (approx 6 tbsp or so for each).

Add about 1/2 tsp food coloring to each bowl to make red, orange, yellow, green and blue batters. Stir well, so no streaks of plain batter remain. Add additional food coloring if necessary.

Starting with the blue batter, add a small spoonful to each of the 10 grease muffin cups (just over 1/2 tbsp in each). Repeat with all remaining colors, working from green to yellow to orange to red, adding each subsequent spoonful on top of the previous color. Do not attempt to spread the layers of color out (as it can cause layers to combined), but allow them to spread on their own.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes on a wire rack before frosting.

Makes 10

Thanks To Baking bites

Eggless Orange Cake

 1 1/4 cup(190 gms) Refined flour/Maida
1/2 can(200 gms/ml) Condensed Milk
1/2 cup(125 gms) melted Butter/oil ,at room temperature
1/2 cup(125 ml) Orange Juice
3 tbsp powdered Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 tsp lime juice
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Orange Zest

Preheat the Oven @ 180 deg Sieve flour,baking powder,baking soda two times to ensure even mixing.

Mix well the condensed milk,orange juice,oil(or softened butter),sugar,vanilla essence,lemon juice with a whisk.

Take the sieved flour in a bowl and make a dent,pour the mixed liquid in the dent and mix well without any lumps,using the whisk.

Grease a baking pan,with butter and dust with some flour. Pour the prepared batter in the pan. Tap the pan gently once or twice to remove any big air bubbles.

Bake it to 30 minutes or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let it cool down for 5 minutes and then invert the cake over an wire rack and let it cool.

Thanks To : chefandherkitchen

Kozhi Nirachathu/ Stuffed Chicken

Chicken-1 small one (1 1/2 lb)
For the initial marinade:
Red chili powder- 2-3 teaspoon, or as per spice level
Turmeric- 1 teaspoon., Salt to taste

For the stuffing:
Egg -1 or 2

Onions - 1 medium sized ones,Green chilies- 4
Curry leaves- 1 sprig.
Coriander leaves- a handful, chopped
Ginger-garlic- Together 1 tsp
Coriander powder- 1 teaspoon
Turmeric- 1/4 tsp
Red chili powder- 1/4 tsp
Poppy seeds (Khus Khus) - 1/4 tsp
Cashew nuts- 6 chopped, Raisins- 10
Salt -1/4 tsp

For the gravy:
Onions - 2 medium sized ones, Green chilies- 5
Tomatoes- 2 medium ones. (Or 1/2 can tomato puree)
Curry leaves- 1 sprig.
Garlic paste- 11/2 tsp.
Ginger paste- 1 1/2 tsp
Lime juice- 1 tsp
Coriander leaves-a handful chopped
Curry leaves- a handful
Salt
Spices:
Coriander powder- 1 tsp
Turmeric- 1/4 tsp
Red chili powder- 2 tsp
Garam masala (biryani masala) - 1/2 tsp
Salt -to taste, Oil - for frying

Preparation Method:
1. Clean the whole chicken both inside and outside. Rinse with a dash of lemon juice to remove unpleasant smells. Mix the chili powder, turmeric and salt and apply all over the chicken. Cover and set aside in the fridge for as much time as you have.

2. Prepare the stuffing. Boil the egg(s) till fully firm and peel. The number of eggs depends on how big the chicken is. Heat 2 tbsp oil and fry the curry leaves, onions, green chilies, ginger garlic till the onions start turning brown. Add more oil if needed to prevent the onions from sticking to the pan. Add all the remaining spices (for the stuffing only) and saute well till the spices start leaving off an aroma.The raisins, cashew nuts and poppy seeds are optional.It adds a sweetness to the stuffing. Mix the boiled egg into this mix and keep aside.

3 Stuff the above mix into the chicken.....First the egg, then the onions into the chicken's cavity, taking care not to over stuff. There should be no stuffing coming out. Now tie the chicken's legs and hands together with kitchen twine.

4. Heat 1/3 cup oil in a saute pan large enough to contain the whole chicken and gently put the chicken in it and stir. Fry on medium heat till the chicken is browned on all sides. Not fully fried, just lightly browned.

5. Now drain the chicken and prepare the gravy. If you are not a fan of caramelized onion gravy, you could skip the gravy altogether and continue cooking the chicken in the saute pan or wok. Keep it covered for 10 mins or more on each side till the chicken is fully cooked on the inside. Alternatively, after the initial frying, you could cover it well in an oven proof dish and bake it for 20 mins at 350 degrees.

6. Gravy/sauce:
Slice onions and chilies finely. Grind aniseed to a fine powder and mix with all the other spices. Heat oil, fry the onions and chilies and coriander leaves and curry leaves. When the onions start browning in 10 minutes or less, add the ginger garlic paste and stir well.
Add the tomatoes as well and cook it on slow heat. When the tomatoes start breaking down, add the spices and fry gently till the whole mixture moves as one mass.
Add the salt and check taste.
Pour the gravy into a baking bowl and add the chicken to this mix .Ensure that the chicken gets covered with the sauce.
Cover and bake for 30 minutes. The onions should have caramelized into a sauce of dark uniform consistency. Wait till the chicken cools down. Remove the tie backs and carve.

Courtesy : Malabar Spices

Black Pepper Butter Cookies

 

 

Ingredients: Yield: 48 cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup sweet unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper

 

Directions:

Mix all ingredients (except for the extra sugar for dipping the glass) together well using a heavy duty mixer.
Roll into 1/2 inch size balls- to ungreased cookie sheets(about 16cookies per sheet).

flatten each dough ball on the cookie sheets.

  Bake in a preheated 350 F (or 180 C) oven for 8-11 minutes or until lighly browned on the edges- do not overbake.
Remove to wire racks to cool.

Vanilla Cup Cake With Pineapple Butter Icing

Ingredients:  Yield:20-25cupcakes
 2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar (if you like your cupcakes very sweet, add a little more.)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence 

Directions:
preheat oven to 180 c; line muffin cups with papers.
cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. beat in eggs one at a time.
add flour (mixed with baking powder and salt) alternating with milk beat well; stir in vanilla.
divide evenly among pans and bake for 15minutes. let cool in pans.

 Pineapple Butter Icing
Ingredients: Servings : 2
3 tbsp. butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
2-3 drops pineapple essence
4 drops of yellow colour
1 pinch salt
4-5 drops lemon juice

Method
    Put butter in a deep bowl.
    Add flavouring and beat till smooth.
    Add sugar, beat with a wooden spoon till well blended.
    Add salt and lemon juice, beat again till light, white and smooth.
    When spoon is lifted the icing lifted in a peak should hold.
    Spoon into an icing bag, fit nozzle as required.
    Pipe carefully over prepared cake.
    Refrigerate if required to be used later.