Chocolate Smash Cake (Egg-less) for Baby Boy's 1st Birthday

It was my son's 1st birthday in April this year and I wanted to bake a cake for him, all by myself. He had not had eggs till then (was waiting for his first year vaccine). So I had to do an egg-less cake for him. I went on a search and tweaked the recipe into amounts that would make a baby cake for my baby. When I say cake I mean a tiny one, made just for him, for his consumption..I would give him the cake and he could do whatever he likes to do with it - that was the idea!! 
This basically is called a ''Smash Cake''.....I had got this idea from my sister-in-law Shweta (brother's wife)..She had done the same thing (of course a cute pink one though!!!) for her daughter's 1st birthday and I had really liked the idea...

What is this Smash Cake?
It is a concept where you bake your one year old baby his very own cake, and he can do whatever he likes with it...Babies at this age mostly smash the cake with their hands, and hence the name. Massive destruction and splattering of the cake and a big mess is what results..But trust me it is worth every moment, and all the effort..

I did this thing for my son and seriously it was quite fun and enjoyable...We put him on his high chair and let him play around with his cake - he definitely took some time but eventually came around it...Some babies in fact eat the whole cake..
Also not to forget the lovely pictures we took which will definitely be treasured for years to come..By the way, if you are interested in the thing but not in making it yourself, you could go ahead and buy it too - most bakeries in USA make those...I guess any bakery could, as it is nothing but a tiny very of any normal cake!!!

All that I used :

(Serves - The 'One' birthday boy)

• All purpose flour - 6 Tbsp (1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp)

• Sugar - 1/4 cup

• Unsweetened cocoa powder - 1 Tbsp

• Baking soda - 1/4 tsp

• Salt - a pinch

• Vegetable oil - 2 Tbsp

• Water - 1/4 cup

• Vinegar - 1 tsp

• Vanilla extract - 2-3 drops

• 4'' * 2" round cake pan - most important

For the frosting - 

• Cream cheese - 3 oz

• Unsalted butter - 3 Tbsp

• Vanilla extract - 2 drops

• Confectioner's sugar - 1/4 cup

• Blue food color - 2 drops (optional)

• Icing set - Star tip (number 32), disposable bag, tip coupler

How I made it :

Cake

• In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients - flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, salt.

• Warm up the water (just about boiling). You could do it in the microwave - in a cup for about a minute, or boil it in a pan on the stove for about a minute.

• Now take another bowl and put all the liquids in it - oil, hot water, vinegar, vanilla extract. Mix well and let them blend nicely.

• Now add the liquid mixture to the dry powdered mixture till they are combined well.

• Grease your tiny cake pan with little butter. Pour the cake batter in it.

• Preheat the over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake the cake (on lower rack of the oven) for about anywhere between 20 - 25 minutes. Mine took 24 minutes. Make sure you do a quick check at 18 minutes, with a toothpick and see if that comes out clean when you poke it into the cake.

• Wait for about 5 minutes, then take the cake out. I used a spring-foam pan so it was easier for me to take the cake out!!

• Allow the cake to cool completely and then do the frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• Get the cream cheese and the butter to room temperature.

• Take the cream cheese and mix with the butter, until creamy (about 2 minutes on low speed of a hand mixer).

• Add the vanilla extract and the sugar and mix till a smooth paste is formed (another 2 minutes on low speed of a hand mixer).

• This mixture was now an off-white shade. Since it was my baby boy's birthday I added blue food color to make it a perfect boyish cake!! Mix well, so that it is a uniformly colored blue frosting.

• The design of the frosting on the cake was just spontaneous and random. You could anything you like. I had couple of tips and I picked up the star tip (number 32) and used it.

• I filled up the icing bag and then just went on squeezing it out of the cake. I let it cool in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. This is what the end result was. 

A close look on the frosting!!

Recipe Source : Barbara Bakes

Gobi Fry

Yet another easy peasy recipe. Actually I was planning on making something else and hence fried the gobi (cauliflower) but somehow time did not permit and I was left with fried gobi. So instead of waiting to make my originally thought of dish I took a detour and this quick and simple yet amazingly tasty recipe out of the fried gobi sitting on my kitchen counter. I admit it was a bit time taking (due the deep frying of the gobi) but the taste at the end was too delicious that on demand I had to make it the very next week again!!

All that I used :
(Serves 6)

• Cauliflower - 1 big

• Onion - 2-3 medium sized

• Green chilly - 2-3

• Oil - for deep frying

• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

• Tawa fry masala powder - 1 Tbsp

• Salt - to taste

How I made it :

• Cut the cauliflower into small to medium sized pieces.

• Wash and clean those cut cauliflower pieces nicely. Let it dry on its own for some time and let all the water drain out.

• Heat oil in a deep pan for frying. By now the cauliflower must have dried also.

• Deep fry the cauliflower in the hot oil, in batches, keeping the heat on medium to high.

• Set aside all the fried gobi on a flat plate.

• Once all the gobi has been deep fried, take another wok / kadhai and heat it.

• Drain out the oil from the plate where you put the fried gobi onto the wok you just put on stove.

• Slice the onion into thin long pieces. Chop the green chilly.

• Once the oil is warm add the cut onions and the green chilly and fry them for 3-5 minutes on medium-high heat. The onion needs to be crunchy.

•  Add in the fried gobi and toss it well.

• Now add turmeric powder, the vegetable tawa fry masala powder and salt to taste.

• Mix well. We need not cook the gobi for long  on the wok as we want the pieces to be intact and crunchy.

• So about five minutes in total for the gobi on the wok on medium-high heat and we are done with this delicious dish. This five minutes will let the masala powder sink into the gobi pieces.

We ate with garma-garam (hot) phulka (Indian wheat bread)..And everyone just loved it!!! 

Well you could serve it as a starter dish too...

Note:

• I use the Tawa Fry Masala made by MDH company.

Colorful Mushroom

Does the name sound too catchy?? I couldn't help but call it this :)

Actually when I was done cooking this and I saw this on my plate, all I could think of was, 'colorful mushrooms'. It is this way because I have used red, yellow and green pepper (capsicum) and seriously  no other stunts. Pretty basic and simple recipe, which came out more of necessity rather than any other reasons. I had mushrooms and some red, yellow and green  pepper (leftovers from the day when I had made Tortilla Rolls) and somehow I had to use them. So I cooked them all together without adding no spices whatsoever and what came out was really nice and tasty, best part being - it was done with so quickly.

All that I used :

(Serves 3-4)

• Mushroom - about 20

• Red pepper - 1 small

• Yellow pepper - 1 small

• Green pepper - 1 small

• Onion - 1 medium sized

• Green chilly - 1 or 2

• Oil - 2 tsp

• Salt - to taste

How I made it :

• Chop the clean mushrooms into small squared shape pieces. Use the stems as well.

• Chop the peeled onion into small squared pieces.

• Chop the washed red, yellow and green into small squared pieces.

• Chop the green chilies.

• Heat the oil in a skillet.

• Add the chopped onion and the green chilly pieces. Toss and stir them for a minute on medium heat.

• Now add the mushroom. Keep the heat on medium to high as the mushroom might leave water and we want that to evaporate soon. Keep mixing well.

• Since mushroom is cut in tiny pieces, it will not take much long to cook them. So cook them on medium heat now for about 3-5 minutes till they start getting softer.

• Add the cut colored peppers.Toss nicely. We want the pepper to be crunchy so we won't be cooking them for long and the mushroom is almost done now too.

• Add salt to taste. Mix well.

• About 2 minutes and we should be done. Switch of the gas. If you want the peppers to be little more soft, cook a little while more.

Serve it with hot roti or plain paratha.

Note:

• You could do this with just any one kind of (colored) pepper. I used all three colors as they were readily available with me.

Baked Salmon (with lemon pepper garlic)

Abhishek had been wanting me to bake Salmon since like ages!! And every time I end with Catfish ;)

So this time he took matters to his hands, went to the shop on his own last to last weekend and got 1 big fillet of Salmon and gave me an ultimatum that I better bake it...What did I do?? I was not able to make up my mind on how to bake it so I put in the freezer for about till this Sunday. Weekend was kind of busy so Abhishek kind of forgot about the fillet of Salmon. Finally today when the guilt feeling set in, I pulled it out and decided to make something with it finally. 

Tell you what, we both enjoyed it thoroughly!!

 

All that I used :
(Serves 1- 2)

• Salmon fillet - 1 (about 8 oz / 200 gms)

• Garlic - 2 pods

• Lemon juice - 1 Tbsp

• Black pepper - 1 tsp

• Salt - about 1 tsp

• Olive oil - 2-3 Tbsp

• Baking dish / tray

• Aluminium foil

How did I make it :

• The fillet was clean so there was no time needed to get the fish ready.

• Mince the garlic very finely.

• Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

• Preheat the oven to about 375 degrees Fahrenheit (should take about 10 minutes).

• Spread the aluminium foil on the baking dish / tray.

• Place the salmon on the foil (on the baking dish / tray). Put the mixture all over the salmon, making sure its covered on all sides properly.

• Wrap the foil and get the salmon closed nicely.

• Put it in the oven for about 15 minutes.

• Take it out carefully (remember the tray is very hot), open the foil, take a fork and make small pokes on the salmon. Turn it upside down and repeat.

• Wrap the foil again and put the salmon inside for baking for another 15 minutes.

• It should be done after about 30 minutes of baking. Just check with the fork to see if the salmon flakes easily. And also the salmon would have changed its colour.

What else...The salmon is baked to perfection, in the most simple way..Eat it hot!!!!

Note:

• You can use any cooking oil, just in case olive oil is not handy.

• Once the salmon is baked and you open the aluminium foil, there will be some juicy gravy. If you don't want the juice, you may drain it. But try it before you discard it, I surely liked it, tangy and garlicky it was..