FOR SHE IS....

Beautiful and Strong As a Diamond In The Rough,
Resilient and Firm As Iron In Fires Of Catastrophe,
Giving And Protective Like Shade Of A Tree In Blistering Heat Of Life's Upheavals,
Nurturing And Soothing Like The Flow Of A Mountain Stream,
Life Is She..For She Created It,
Love Is She....For She Portrays It,
Beauty Is She...For She Exists...
I Am She...And Proud To Be..

SILVER LINING...

Never Seeing You Again Is Like Fires of Hell Burning My Insides, 

Never Hearing Your Voice Is Like a Deafening Scream Echoing Through My Mind..

As I Wander Along the Maze Of Life,

Looking For Peace and Love In My Life...

I Walk Alone...With Your Shadow Next To Mine...

Feel Your Presence like A Soothing Balm on Wounds of Time, 

Like A Silver Lining To The Dark Clouds Of Despair And Pain..

Like A Rainbow Across The Sky After Storms Of Bad Times..

Your Strength an Amour In This Battlefield Called Life,

Your Love Teaching Me To Wield The Sword Of Goodness And What Is Right..

Your Smile Breaking Through the Prism Of Oblivion,

Waves Of Reality Swirl Around The Sand Castles Of My Dreams..

Erasing Some, Changing Some Till No Traces Remain To Sight, 

Your Hands Firm against Mine Rebuilding Those Dreams Every Time,

Bigger And Better, Glittering With Renewed Hope And Pride..

At Crossroads We Part, As The Rules Of The Game Demand..

Each Holding The Others' Heart Like A Precious Jewel Never To Be Lost..

Till We Cross Over the Other Side, Our Paths Might Never Meet Again,

But Our Souls Would Never Be Apart...

THE MADNESS WITHIN....

The Madness In Your Eyes
Drives My Heart Wild..
The Playful Smile On Your Lips,
Lifts My Spirits High..
With A Passion Laden Voice You Beckon,
Stirring The Deep, Dormant Love Inside Of Me..

A Single Touch, a Caress Across My Face,
Fans The Fire Burning Within Me..
Your Arms Around Me,
Like an Anchor In The Storm..
Holding Me Tightly As If You Could Defy Eternity & Beyond..

Fate May Play Its Cruel Games,
Destiny May Spin its own Roulette,
Life's a Gamble, Yes I Know..

But a Sweet Smile, a Simple Touch of Yours Is My Winning Hand Always..

Madness Is Feeling You Next To Me Even When Your Afar...
Madness Is Smiling Even When The Heart Gets Torn Apart....

Madness To Dream An Eternity Together,
But Forever Exists,

In the Madness In Your Eyes
In The Wildness Within My Heart....

DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE FOR ONE OF THE DEVILS IN MY LIFE!!!

September 2012 was when one of my closest friends, Nachiketa Chandra of http://thevariable-nachiketa.blogspot.in/ fame was all pack to set sail to the high seas of London to become a professional Pâtissière. How we-Shuchi, Gauri [http://www.backyardbaker.com/] and I let her go without making sure she doesn’t forget us once she has moved to London!! So we decided to make this brief bittersweet parting of in our lives’ paths sweet rather than sad by throwing her a small farewell dinner...after all, she is going to be world famous soon and we all want to be the first ones to taste the sinful masterpieces she conjures up after the professional training (which she doesn’t really need!!!!)!!:-)

Now what does one serve someone whose already such an amazing baker? As I sat conversing with my trustworthy companion, Mr Google and seeking his advice (the poor guy is always there at times like these!) for something that would not make me break into hives while baking, I stumbled upon Nigella Lawson’s recipe for Devil’s Food Cake...something that had been always in the back of my mind to try ever since I had seen her make it in one of her shows on TLC. What attracted me towards it was its simplicity of preparing it and the promise of sheer pure chocolately heaven as the end result! :-)

And not to forget...the NAME! What could be more BEFITTING THAN A DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE FOR THE DEVIL’S REINCARNATION HERSELF, NACHI!!!! [I can hear her say...HOW MEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNN]:-p

Finally all sorted with the ingredients and an idea of decorating the cake like a Galaxy for the Star Guest it was being baked for, I set about with the mixing, whipping, tasting, pouring whiskey (ok couple of sips went into my mouth as well...after all, one has to taste every component while cooking!!!!;-) )

With the cake in the oven, with the warm chocolate scent slowly enveloping the air around me, I started on the frosting..and that’s when disaster struck!! Yes I know! How could it not when it’s me we are talking about right??

The frosting was supposed to be fudgy and gooey..the kind that tempts one to dip a finger into that dense, glossy chocolate and lick your fingers..even if your 50 and not a 5 years old!!

But either I was impatient (nothing surprising about that, is it??) Or I didn't follow the recipe to a T (and nothing surprising in that either!!!)
So to my utter disappointment, the frosting was not thick enough to give me a fudgy look but more of a ganache...tasted fab (after all, its CHOCOLATE) but I wasn't happy....anyways, everyone learns..I learnt to improvise!! :- )
So on went the ganache between the 2 layers after I added some whiskey on the cake and then on top it poured like a curtain of dark brown liquid silk!
I put the cake in the fridge so that it could cool down a bit and the frosting could set..after all, it had gone through a lot in my hands! :-p

Now, the task of turning it into a galaxy cake..so I went hunting into the big bad world of departmental and cake shops for different sized silver edible balls..had this image set in my mind that it would look like a galaxy, covered with planets and stars!

Living in Noida has its disadvantages! All I could find were lousy colored chocolate chips which I find very childish! Ughhhhh
So another minor disappointment and the image in my mind modified yet again of what my cake was suppose to look like:-(
Now, I could have easily left it plain sans decoration but I wanted to make it look a bit special...after all it was for a special lady!! So improvisation time yet again! Out came my little blender, couple of fistfuls of almonds and whizzed into a rough grind! Slapped them around the cake...YIPPPPEEEEEEE....saving grace...the last minute attempt worked and the poor cake looked pretty neat!!!!:-)

We all had a ball with Gauri’s charming hubby, Kartick keeping our glasses full and entertaining us with their “jab we met” storyJ, awesome food prepared by the Princess who Can Cook a.k.a Shuchi and take out from Burmese kitchen!

How the whole dessert tasted? Well, the guest of honour is whipping up sensational desserts in London and the other two ladies are still my friends!!! ;-)

DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE                 

           

Adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Recipe of Devil’s Food Cake:

Cake Ingredients:

• 50 gram(s) cocoa powder (sifted)
• 100 gram(s) dark muscovado sugar
• 250 ml water (boiling)
• 125 gram(s) unsalted butter (soft - (plus some for greasing))
• 150 gram(s) caster sugar
• 225 gram(s) Plain flour
• ½ teaspoon(s) baking powder
• ½ teaspoon(s) bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
• 2 medium egg(s)

I used Amul butter since I couldn’t find unsalted one and the saltiness of it was a nice offset to the sweetness of the frosting!

Frosting:

• 125 ml water
• 30 gram(s) dark muscovado sugar
• 175 gram(s) unsalted butter (cubed)
• 300 gram(s) dark chocolate (finely chopped)

Used 30 ml whiskey for putting between layers but its totally optional as the cake is super moist without it as well.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.
2. Line the bottoms of both sandwich tins with baking parchment and butter the sides.
3. Put the cocoa and 100g dark muscovado sugar into a bowl with a bit of space to spare, and pour in the boiling water. Whisk to mix, then set aside.
4. Cream the butter and caster sugar together, beating well until pale and fluffy by hand or hand mixer/free-stand mixer
5. While this is going on – or as soon as you stop if you’re mixing by hand – stir the flour, baking powder and bicarb together in another bowl, and set aside for a moment.
6. Dribble the vanilla extract into the creamed butter and sugar – mixing all the while – then drop in 1 egg, quickly followed by a scoopful of flour mixture, then the second egg.
7. Keep mixing and incorporate the rest of the dried ingredients for the cake, then finally mix and fold in the cocoa mixture, scraping its bowl well with a spatula.
8. Divide this batter between the 2 prepared tins and put in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
9. Take the tins out and leave them on a wire rack for 5–10 minutes, before turning the cakes out to cool.
10. But as soon as the cakes are in the oven, get started on your frosting: put the water, 30g muscovado sugar and 175g butter in a pan over a low heat to melt.
11. When this mixture begins to bubble, take the pan off the heat and add the chopped chocolate, swirling the pan so that all the chocolate is hit with heat, then leave for a minute to melt before whisking till smooth and glossy.
12. Leave for about 1 hour, whisking now and again –by which time the cakes will be cooled, and ready for the frosting.
13. Set one of the cooled cakes, with its top side down, on a cake stand or plate, and spread with about a third of the frosting, then top that with the second cake, regular way up, and spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides, swirling away with your spatula or a smooth look, anyway you prefer J

Hope you guys would try it at home and do leave your valuable suggestions J

CRINKLED CHOCOLATE GINGER COOKIES....BRINGING IN X’MAS IN MARCH..

You must be wondering what’s wrong with me these days, isn’t that so? Few days back, I posted about Vegan Chocolate Cake that I concocted more than a year back. And here I am, on 1^st of March, talking about Christmas Cookies!!!No, I am not living in some time warp...just that in the hustle bustle of my extra-ordinary life, delays in sharing my “sometimes good, sometimes not so bad” experiments with you allJ

I baked these crinkled chocolate ginger cookies as a pre X’mas surprise dessert treat for my close friends, Shuchi & Nachi, after one of our food reviewing/hogging sessions. Christmas for me defines warmth and a feeling of love all around...conjures up images of flames dancing merrily in the fireplace, mugs of eggnogs spiked with cognac...delicious aroma of spiced ham and Plum pudding filling the whole house....ohhh...just thinking about it is making me want to make it real right here, right now! Well, since I am a lazy bum [as can be attested by friends and foes!;) ], I absolutely denied myself from going through the tedious work of baking plum cakes! After all, I have a reputation to maintain as a ”quick & easy cook”...no pun intended please!!!So Crinkled choco-ginger cookies it was..something that translates all that I feel for Christmas in a biteJ

So, here we three musketeers were, savouring tender steaks of salmon, tenderloin and pork at Geoffrey’s’ steak festival while gossiping as we have been for the past decade or so now! [Sorry girls..i know a decade sounds like million years but well yippeeee for that!!!:-p ]

After that “huge yet every last bite scraped off the plate” lunch, I felt a bit intimidated about offering my attempt at the crinkled cookies that are my latest experiment to my guinea pigs a.k.a my dear friends! I am not too comfortable still with baking cookies...never too sure about the shape/size/textures et all.

Well, my guinea pigs assured me that the cookies where very good [in my lingo-edible!] and they love them![I think they have after so many tasting sessions of my experiments, tuned their responses to that for safety purposes!!:p ]

So, based on the feedback and my desire to spread Xmas spirit, even if spring is around the corner, here’s the recipe for the cookies. Do try it at home and share your comments with me. J

Crinkled Chocolate-Ginger Cookies

Prep Time: 2 hours [resting period]

Baking Time: 10-12 minutes

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 7 1/2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger [If not available*]
• Confectioners’ sugar for rolling

*If crystallized ginger is not available then for this recipe mix 2 teaspoons of ground ginger powder with 2 teaspoons of powdered sugar with water to bind it together. Leave it to rest for 5-10 minutes.

Procedure:

1. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, ginger, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

2. Combine the butter and 3 ounces of the chocolate in a medium, heat-proof bowl. Set the bowl over a saucepan filled with about 1 1/2 inches of simmering water (being sure not to let the bottom of the bowl touch the water) and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter have melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and set aside to cool slightly, about 10 minutes. (You can also melt the mixture in the microwave, heating it at about 20-second intervals and stirring periodically until it is melted and smooth.)

3. Stir the granulated and brown sugars into the melted chocolate mixture, using a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula. Drop in the eggs, one at a time, mixing briskly until smooth. Stir in the vanilla extract and gradually incorporate the flour mixture. Fold in the remaining 4 1/2 ounces of chocolate and the crystallized ginger. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator to chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

4. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

5. Shape the chilled dough into walnut-size balls, roll in confectioners’ sugar, and arrange them about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. (If your kitchen is quite warm and the dough becomes too soft, return it to the refrigerator until chilled and fairly firm.)

6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies have spread and the tops are cracked.

7. Cool the chocolate-ginger crinkle cookies on the baking sheets set on wire racks for about 2 minutes before removing them to the racks to cool completely. Store the crinkle cookies in an airtight container or in a zip-top bag for up to 4 days.

Enjoy J