KAHLUA BROWNIES & SNOWFALL!

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Temperatures have fallen significantly! It snowed today- and quite a lot, going by our small mining town standards! Fresh snow looks so beautiful- and during the holiday season it means even more!

I decided to celebrate the snow by making brownies. I have already posted a brownie recipe before (Maida Heatter’s version). This time I wanted to try Nick Malgeiri’s version. The other day I was surfing through Chowhound’s discussion forums and in the topic “50 dessert you should know” everyone was raving about Nick Malgeiri’s supernatural brownies! I had to give them a try now, and today seemed like the perfect day.

I did want to jack these up a little, in the spirit of the holidays, you know with the new year around the corner ;). I thought Bailey’s would give a perfect twist to the traditional brownies. I wasn’t sure that we had some but the other day V reassured me there was a bottle in our pantry (hmm…how did my eyes miss that?!) I took his word and what would you know, the wife is always right! There wasn’t any bottle.

Now, completely in the mood to jack the brownies up, I decided to use Kahlua. I also added a little coffee powder and a tablespoon of hazelnut creamer.


The brownies came out really good. There is a slight hint of the Kahlua- not too strong, which is good, but any one who wants a stronger flavor I would suggest increasing the amount of Kahlua. V liked them (to be fair he likes everything I make 🙂 ). Taking for my friends tomorrow- the real verdict will be given then.

I am sending my recipe for Divya’s Brownie event

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Lavender Chiffon Birthday Cake

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It was my birthday yesterday and finally I turned 18 (or so I would like to believe..sigh…how I wish that was true!!!). Christmas is over but the hang over is still there. The weekend was spent in Vegas (I know- life is gooood!!). It was my first time there and after a long time I had so much of fun! Three days of drinking, eating, drinking, gambling, drinking, shows, lights and did I mention drinking?! Came back late night 26th since V was working on Monday, 27th – my birthday. Called people over for cocktails and cake- it was supposed to be a surprise but V had to tell me since the house was in a mess after the long weekend. So much for the surprise!

Luckily, the cake was already planned. A few days back I discovered Deeba’s blog, and was floored by her baking skills. The moment I laid eyes on her version of the Lavender Chiffon Cake, I knew this was it- this was the birthday cake I had to make. Impressed with the whole look of the cake I decided to replicate it. I tried my hand at the firm white chocolate ganache decoration too with a mango motif design, though with not much success. Of course, Deeba’s cake looks so much more beautiful and wish my pictures were as good (I should have photographed in day light- but the cake got ready in the evening, just in time for the party). Looks aside, the cake was excellent- just baked, it was springy to touch like a chiffon cake should be, and light as a feather! So what if my photography and decorating skills aren’t that good! As they say, you learn from your mistakes and am happy to come out of this as a more experienced decorator- I promise next time would be better.

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CHRISTMAS FRUITCAKE

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Merry Christmas!

When I was young, every Christmas, one of my mom’s friends, would gift us a loaf of fruitcake. It was the most delicious cake I have ever had. Growing up, I experimented tasting other fruitcakes, but nothing ever came close to that cake and well, the other fruitcakes just put me off fruitcakes altogether. This Christmas I wanted to recreate the same recipe. I tried asking my mom to get the recipe from her friend, but, unfortunately she did not have her number. One thing my mom did know about the recipe, though, was that she would make it at least a month before Christmas, soaking the cake with booze every few days.

So, the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, I started prep for my version of fruitcake. One thing I was sure that I did not want to use in the cake, was candied fruit. I was so sure about that, that even before searching for an apt recipe, I had already bought dried fruits. So I looked into my cookbooks, but none carried the recipe that made the cut. Then , I turned to my next best friend, google, for the recipe. And I found Alton Brown’s. Now, I loooooove his series Good Eats and the recipe is from one of the episodes of the series that aired this recipe. Besides not including any candied fruits, the recipe also got rave reviews. I did tweak it a bit by including the dried fruits I bought. My list included black figs, calmyrna figs, dried currants, medjool dates, dried cranberries, crystallized ginger, monukka raisins, pitted prunes, sultanas. I used brandy instead of rum as thats what I had on hand. Since, I planned to gift the cakes to a few of my friends, I tripled the recipe.

The dried fruits chopped up and covered in sugar

I have never baked so many cakes together at one time before. And, there was this nagging feeling telling me- this is not a good idea. I did not have a bowl big enough to mix the whole batter. Then the oven wasn’t so big to accommodate all the cakes and having enough space for air circulation. Anyways, I thought to myself, if they are an utter failure- well, I’ll keep them for myself and make a pudding!

Three weeks later, they are all wrapped and ready to be gifted to friends, save for one- the one for us. Now, of course, I don’t remember the taste of the fruitcake I had eons back, but this version has been the best I have eaten since then!

All wrapped up!

Alton Brown likes to have his slice toasted with some mascarpone cheese! Like Alton Brown says, this is Good Eats!

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