Harveen's Baking Affair

Here in the Carolinas, we still have a few weeks of summer left before school stands and the dreaded  daily grind begins. For now we all enjyoing the laz y routine and spending all the  extra time with our kids making special memories , but have to admit that keeping them creatively engaged and unelectronically (just created a new word)occupied is always a challenge . The parents of our community were ready for the challenge  , so we got together  and putting on our thinking hats , came up with the idea of a summer club  where each one of us would take turns teaching the kids something that would be a break from the serious academic stuff taught at school . Be it applying henna or designing basic web pages , we would try our best to enhance their creative summer .  Today as you might have guessed  was my turn and much as I wanted to try something different , my baking reputation intervened and the kids started asking me expectantly as to what...

I have never shied away from saying that I love trying different flavors in cakes rather than overly decorating them. Covering a cake in multiple layers of frosting may increase the "wow" factor but somehow doesn't appeal to me. I would much prefer to consume calories laden with flavour rather than trying to find flavours within layers of buttercream . Though cake decorating did fascinate with me for sometime but after many buttercream flowers later , a good cake for me is pure flavor and not spoonfull of sugary cream or even fondant for that matter. Last year tropical flavors were on my lust list and were incorporated into many bakes and for this year it seems as if exotic flavors have caught my fancy. Baking an eggless date cake has been on  my bucket list for the past few months. But as in life , there is a time for everything seems true for baking as well. Other bakes kept on getting preference and the box of dates kept to itself in the pantry. Not that...

The word "Custard" is like a time portal for me. Any mention of it and I am transported back to my childhood where I can see myself relishing the chilled fruit custard served at countless parties and formal dinners. It was my favorite dessert and I could gorge on it without feeling any remorse as to how many calories were consumed . Life was much simpler without the constant calorie watch . So, imagine my excitement when I came across this custard cake recipe . Of course, my excitement was doubled when I found it was eggless . Almost daily there are requests for eggless bakes and now was my chance to oblige. This is a great recipe with minimum preparation time , handful of ingredients and a dump all in a bowl approach. Only a few things need to paid attention to .Just remember to have your milk and butter at room temperature. Sieve your flour and custard powder and do remember to grease the pan . I forgot to do so ..honestly..still was lucky enough that it conse...

Vanilla chai and I go way back together. Some , fourteen years ago when I had just moved to the States , it was  my must have beverage. I was way younger and could afford to drink the sugar laden chai ..rather I used to crave for it ! Older and much wiser, my relationship with it has much lost much of the it's fervor . The passion is there but have manged to restrain it to a  moderated level. The fact that vanilla chai is not available at all outlets of Dunkin Donuts might have helped too ! Who knows ? When I came across this recipe , my joy knew no bound. I could now eat vanilla chai too !!!! In cake form of course ! Betty crocker has a chai cake recipe but it has eggs and here I was looking forward to an eggless cake recipe. I came across a similar recipe from Chef Zarnak which was eggless. I adapted from both and the result was simply divine.  Note : I used Vanilla chai tea bags for the flavor I love..you guys are welcome to try any flavor of tea ba...