Pineapple cake

With a three month old, there is no such thing as a routine. But its a boon to have my mother around, giving me the much needed break. The break is usually utilized by hitting the bed and getting a power nap. But I see things getting a little more manageable now. The fact that I actually got time to bake a cake for my husband's birthday and take a few pictures, actually says a lot.

Usually I would have done dinner and called friends over, but this time it was only cake cutting post dinner. Nothing fancy just a simple sponge cake with pineapple and whipped cream icing.

So here goes the recipe

For the sponge cake you will need:

Eggs: 4

All purpose flour: 1 cup

Sugar: 2/3rd cup

Butter: 2 tbsp

Vanilla essence: 1tsp

* this is good for an 8x8 sponge, we would need two cakes like this.

For the icing:

Tinned pineapple (in pineapple juice) : 2 tins

Pineapple jam or preserve: 1/2 cup

Heavy whipping cream: 2 cups

Sugar: 2-3 tbsp

Dry coconut: 1 cup

Method:

For the sponge cake

1. Grease an 8x8 cake tin, and preheat oven to 350 degree.
2. Beat the eggs and the sugar over a warm water bath, till it reaches the ribbon stage. This means, that when you lift up the beater, the batter falls down like a ribbon.
3. Add the vanilla essence.
4. Slowly fold in the flour one tablespoon at a time. Make sure you DO NOT add the flour all at once, as this will make the sponge flat and result in a hard cake. Fold with a gentle hand.
5. To this add the melted butter, and pour it into the prepared tin.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 mins, or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Let it cool.
8. Cut horizontally right through the middle.
9. Make two cakes like this, if you want a four layered cake.

For the icing.

1. Beat the heavy whipping cream with the sugar, till firm. Do not over beat or the cream will turn into butter.
2. Reserve the pineapple juice from the tin. Chop up 8-9 rings of pineapple, and keep 4-6 rings for decoration.
3. Now place one layer of cake on a cake stand or any other plate your going to present the cake.
4. drizzle a few tablespoon of the pineapple juice on the cake,to moisten it.
5. Spread a little of the pineapple jam or preserve, add some chopped pineapple and spread a generous helping of the whipped cream. Add the other layer of cake on top, and repeat.
6. Repeat till you use up all the four layers of cake.
7. Now on the top most layer, add the whipped cream, and spread it all over with the help of a flat spatula or a butter knife. Cover the sides too. Dont worry if it looks untidy, here is where the grated coconut is going to come to use. Take the coconut and stick it onto the sides of the cake.
8. Decorate the cake on top with the pineapple rings.
9. I had some cherries so added that for the decoration.

Done, now all you have to do is run the knife through and serve a slice on the plate.

Must tell you , a pretty easy cake that tasted really yummy. I must tell you though that the cake tasted much better the next day. So my suggestion make the cake a day before and let it be in the refrigerator overnight, trust me the cold pineapple along with the whipped cream and the moistened sponge cake...........simply delicious.

Hope you guys like this recipe. Feels nice to be back. Hope to hear feed backs.

Thanks

Its a Girl

In my last post I wrote about my pregnancy and today I am elated to share with everyone the good news.

Our little girl is already two months old. Still getting use to her cues and learning every step, what motherhood has to teach. Simply the most challenging role,is that of being a mother. With sleepless nights, dirty diapers, hunger cries and tons of burp cloths, taking care of a newborn is sure overwhelming at times. But as soon as you hold your little one in your arms and feel her warmth its priceless.

After two months, I am slowly trying to get back to a little routine. I am hardly cooking as my mom is here from India, and I am simply letting her take charge of the kitchen. But it wont be long before I get back to some cooking.

Just wanted to share this news with all my blogger friends. Will see you all soon around.

Love and keep cooking

Karuna

Me and my pregnancy

As an old saying goes, for men may come and men may go but time goes on forever.......

It just felt like that, today when I actually logged on to finally get my blog going again. It felt like the blogging world just doesn't stop, it goes on forever. I last logged in January......god!!! But there were other things much much more important to take care of.

The biggest change that could happen in a woman's life, that could actually turn things around is- Pregnancy. From physical to emotional, to hormonal, social.....you name it and pregnancy comes with it all. For me its not been even one bit different. In my third trimester now, everything seems to be going well, except that I was diagnosed with Gestational diabetes. Another solid reason for not getting on to the food blogs, as all it would do is trigger more cravings and hunger.

The sugar test is usually done around 28 weeks, when mine came back positive and they asked me to do a three hour Glucose tolerance test, I was in a state of denial. I searched the Internet about why and how could I get Gestational Diabetes. I was frustrated and sad.

Thanks to my husband,who talked to me and helped me come to terms with the situation and told me to take control of it all.

On my doctors reccomendation I met with a Diabetic educator, who would explain me about carb counting and would ask me to test my sugar 4 times a day. They gave me a two week period, where in if levels would not be normal I would have to take insulin. That was yet another ordeal. And the ironical part was, that I have been a Nutritional counsellor myself 4 years back when I was working in India. I was totally bumped.

My meeting with the Diabetic educator went off well. She told me about counting carbs, restricting my intake to 30 gms for breakfast and snacks, and 45-60 gms, for lunch and dinner.

She gave me a glucometer and told me to monitor my sugar levels, four times a day, which included fasting, and post meals.

I took this up as a challenge. Being a Nutritional counsellor, helped. I must say. After two weeks when I went to my doctor, he was pleasantly surprised and happy, that my levels were well under control and the baby measured fine too.

Its been two months now, and I am just four weeks away from my due date, and I have managed to keep my levels under control. offcourse with a lot of monitoring, yoga and walks.

It does get taxing at times, specially when you go out with friends. But its all worth the effort.

That is why I was avoiding all food blogs and updates, as it would have added fuel to the fire.......!!!

The sample diet that I got from the Diabetic educator was very generic. It simply divided the carbs through out the day. But I needed something that fit our Indian eating pattern. I searched for diet samples online and did not find anything that catered to our Indian palate.

So I thought it would be a good idea to simply write down what I ate and put it up on my blog. Just in case someone needed help with planning menus during Gestational Diabetes.

Because I eat non-veg, it became a lot more easier to plan and count my carbs. So from now on, I will share a few sample menus on my blog, which I think might be a little helpful for Indian pregnant women suffering from Gestational Diabetes.

The waiting game has begun for me. And I hope and pray everything goes well.

More later.

Karuna

"Mix It All Up Salad "

Salads: My husband is not a big fan, I simply love them. I find them easy to prepare, fresh, bursting with colour and flavour and not to forget that they are pretty healthy too.

I often end up making salads by mixing up all that is available in my fridge and I must agree sometimes- actually most of the times, the concoctions turn out to be pretty good. Though I don't always remember to document them.

The other day, I was hungry at lunch time and did not want to have the usual Chapati and vegetable combo. So I started to look through my fridge and see what all I had to make dish out a salad. Well to start off with I did have this bag of salad leaves and some cherry tomatoes. One ingredient after the other.......and my "Mix it all up" salad was born. Voila.

lolzzz, enough of my dramatization, here goes the recipe.

You would need:

Ingredients:

• 1 small bag mixed salad leaves
• 1 Pear
• 4-5 Mozzarella balls (I had the ones you get in trader joes, they are dipped in oil. You could simply use any cheese cut into cubes. )
• 5-6 cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 celery-chopped
• 3-4 baby carrots,halved
• 8-9 almonds
• 1 tsp jalapenos-chopped. (This is optional, I just wanted to add some zing...)

Dressing:

• 1/2 cup Taziki sauce (A greek yogurt sauce. You could simply use some thick yogurt)
• 1 tsp tomato sauce
• sea salt,to taste
• pepper
• 1-2 tsp balsamic vinegar

You have to :

1. Mix all the ingredients for the salad dressing and keep aside.
2. In a large bowl, add the salad leaves, the mozzerella balls or cheese cubes, the cherry tomatoes, baby carrot, jalepenos, celery and pears
3. Pour the dressing on top.
4. Mix it all up and add the almonds for the crunch.
5. Now all you would need to do is simply....dig in.

Extremely simple and trust me the crunchiness of the almonds, and the tangy taste of the dressing complimented perfectly to the sweet pears and the bite of the carrot and celery.

Enjoy.

A Very Happy 2010.

Woww, we are already four days into the New year. 2009 got over with a blink of the eye. I donut think it was just me who felt that way, lots of my friends had the same to say. Wonder why?

Well hope 2010, paces itself. Hope we all have our dreams come true, and achieve our goals and aspirations. And hope all of us are able to keep up our New year Resolutions. Mine being......Be regular with my posts. Well I think I will be cause as of now, there is isn't much of extra curricular activities to distract me.

On that note, Here's wishing every one a very Happy and safe 2010.

Though no new posts I would like to send in a few entries to Divya's Show me your cake event. Here are the entries.

A total of five entries are allowed. I choose the best 3 cakes that I have made.

The first one is Praline and Fresh Fruit Gateau

The Second one is the one, that I had made for husband's 30th birthday.

The Corona Beer Bottle and Beer Mug Cake

And the last but not the least, my all time favourite,

The Marble cake

Here's wishing all a very sweet 2010.

Take care.

Enjoy.