Harveen's Baking Affair

T'was the night before Christmas and I was still vacillating about my appetizer choice ...we had a get together at our place and though the main dishes had been taken care of..the appetizer choice was giving me a tough time...maybe the fact that my brain had slowed down contributed to the indecision ...blame all the brain activity on the holidays ..before I venture further into this tangent ,let me make clear that I  wanted the appetizer to be easy to make /assemble and in the traditional holiday colors.  Not a big fan of food colors , was looking for inspiration the natural way when Mother Nature in the form of Ree Drummond  came to my rescue. Her Christmas Tortilla roll ups were too perfect to ignore ! The only way in which I begged to differ from her was that I didn't use spring onions..Please don't ask why ...I might get a tad bit emotional. Firmly keeping my rambling thoughts aside , here is what you guys have to do if you want to wow your guests the next ...

Red velvet (cup)cake - the name evokes rich flavor and texture along with the characteristic red hue. Paired with cream cheese frosting , it has  become the new culinary obsession. I joined the bandwagon a bit late though . Not that I was unaware of it's hype but the  right place and setting was missing ... I got officially hooked when on a cold cold winter evening , had this warm tender cake at the  Ritz Carlton bakery in Charlotte.fell in love with the buttery taste and the fact that red is my favorite color must ahve played a part too !  Some tastes linger with you and apparently with your family members as well.Dearest daughter has her birthday coming up and was thinking of baking cupcakes as  birthday  treats for her native language school friends. Upon asking  as to what her choice of flavor would be for the cupcakes , her reply was ...you guessed it correctly...red velvet ...hence the blog pose !! they had my vote too ..with Christmas appro...

It's that time of the year again...time when supermarkets bring out their baking goods display right at the entrance to tempt us into baking . You can find anything ..say from the plastic gingerbread spatula to candied green cherries ...and speaking of glazed cherries...it is also the time for fruit cakes . Fruit cakes, the quintessential  holiday cake ...raise your hand if the mere mention of it  rings back childhood memories of feasting on them or helping your mom beat the eggs in order to bake one ..fruit cakes for me takes me back to my convent school days , when they were given as a  Christmas treat complete with Christmas carols playing on the intercom. No, I don't have the recipe for that particular fruit cake of my childhood , though it wouldn't hiurt to be in the possession of it .. purely for sentimental value. Enough of a trip down memory lane...coming back to the fruit cake mentioned in this blog ...This particular one does not require any pre...

Life throws a curve ball sometimes....encountered one recently . Without going into much details , let's just say that it has not been a great year ..and when you are facing tough times or as I like to say have dark clouds hanging overhead..you try to cling to mundane ordinary things that make you happy and restore some normalcy ...baking is one such "thing".....it keeps me sane and focused when things get chaotic ! Enough of a rant ...on to cheery things like baking pinwheels and getting  the Christmas cookie platter ready ... December is a great month for baking colorful cookies , so comes as no surprise  that my first addition to the Christmas platter are these pinwheel cookies. You may  also call them as "spin cookies " or "swirl cookies"...the possibilities are endless ! Wanted to bake them in the traditional holiday colors but hey ..what can you do if you simply run out of red and don't want to run out to buy it in gloomy weather ?...