DIY Cupcake Molds

Inspired by this video, I decided to make my own cupcake molds for baking the chocolava cake. Turns out, they were sturdy enough to hold my cake batter.

Here are the steps I followed:

1. Take an aluminium foil and fold it. I folded it just once.
2. Take a glass and trace the shape of the aluminium foil on it. Fold the edges and make it even. 
3. And there you go - you are all set for baking cupcake!

Choco Lava Cake

A cake with liquid chocolate in the center always made me curious on how one would bake such a thing. After having made this for the first time (and with success), I realized that it is the right baking technique that gives this cake the form. Although I must admit, this is a cake only for the special occasion as you can get your sugar levels very high!
Long long ago, when pizza was my favorite Wednesday dinner, I always used to order the chocolava cake as a side from dominos and would be in awe looking at the chocolate ooze from the cake. It somehow seemed very difficult to do. But having learnt the recipe, I must admit, this was definitely a "cake" walk 😊

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour (Maida) or Pancake Mix - 1 cup
Cocoa - 4 tbsp
Sugar - 0.5 cup (powdered)
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Milk - 1 cup
Chocolate squares - 6
Butter - 4 tsp

Oil - 1 tsp (for greasing the molds)


Preparation:

1. In a bowl, add the pancake mix, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and mix well.
2. Add half cup milk and mix it thoroughly.
3. Take the chocolate squares and butter in another bowl and microwave it. Add this liquefied mixture to the above cocoa mix and stir well. (If you don't want to liquefy the chocolate squares, you can also place them in the mold after pouring the mixture from step 2 - be sure to add butter to the mixture though).
4. Add the remaining milk and make it a smooth texture.
5. Grease the molds with oil and pour this mixture into each mold. I had 1 ceramic container at home and I handmade 4 aluminium molds using these steps which I found to be very creative and enjoyed making them.
6. Preheat the oven at 355 F for 10 mins. Once the oven preheats, place the filled molds into it.
7. Bake for 12 minutes. After that taken the molds out and let it cool down for 3 mins. Tear away the aluminium foil for the aluminium molds and keep the cake on a plate. For the ceramic one, slide a knife through the side so that the cake comes off easily and then invert it onto a plate, tap it gently and the cake should come off.

When you cut the cake, you should see the chocolate oozing out. Yum!!

Chocolava cake is ready to be served.

Bread Roll

Your choice of stuffing rolled inside a bread and pan fried and voila- you have the bread roll. A very simple snack that makes up for a great accompaniment to your Chai time, you can get very creative with the stuffing each time and never get bored of this dish. Here's a stuffing that I tried with paneer and it was a hit at the home.

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Grated Paneer - 1/2 bowl
Coriander leaves - handful
Green Chilly - 1
Ginger - small piece
Garlic - 2 cloves
Salt - as per taste
Milk - 0.5 small cup
Bread - 5

Preparation:

1. In a mixer jar, take coriander leaves, green chilly, ginger, garlic and salt and grind it into a fine paste.
2. Add this paste to grated paneer and mix well.
3. Take half the milk quantity from the ingredients and add it to the paneer mixture. The mixture should not be too dry nor too wet.
4. Take a bread slice, roll it using the rolling pin to make it a very thin layer.
5. Take some mixture and spread it evenly on the thin bread layer.
6. Start rolling the bread and then apply some milk to the edge to seal it. 
7. Repeat this process for all the remaining bread slices
8. In a pan, heat some butter and place these rolls to fry. After each interval, keep changing the side so that the roll cooks evenly on all sides.

Bread roll is ready to be served with ketchup.

Banana Bread with Pancake mix

Banana Bread needs no introduction. A nutty sweet bread which is quite popular American baking dish and I made my version from the leftover overripe bananas and leftover pancake mix. I have always eaten banana bread in a bakery, and it was pretty exciting to finally make it at home. A very simple process and I hope you enjoy baking this as much as I did.

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Overripe Banana - 1
Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Oil - 1/2 small cup
Milk - 1/2 small cup
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Sugar - 3/4 small cup (powdered)
Cashews (or any nuts of your choice) - handful
Pancake Mix - 2 small cup

Oil - 1 tsp (for coating)


Preparation:

1. Peel the overripe banana and mash it into a bowl.
2. Add lemon juice, oil, milk, baking powder, powdered sugar and mix well.
3. Add cashews (or any nuts of your choice), pancake mix and mix thoroughly.
4. Take a glass or ceramic container and coat it with oil. Transfer the banana bread mixture and put it in oven to bake at 350F for 45 mins.
5. After 45 mins, turn off baking and let it stay in the oven for another 10 mins (I do this because I don't preheat the oven).
6. Next, slowly trace the sides with a knife so that the bread is ready to come off into a serving plate once it cools down. Leave it for cooling and once it cools down flip it onto a plate and cut it into slices.

Banana Bread is ready to be served.

Kaccha Chivda

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Nylon Poha (Preferrable)/ Thin Poha - 1.25 lb
Oil - 6 tsp
Peanut - 0.5 cup
Green Chilly - 2 (slit and chopped big)
Curry Leaves - 2 sprigs (chopped)
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 3 tsp
Salt - as per taste
Sugar - 1 tsp
Putani (Roasted Chana Dal) - 0.5 small cup*

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a pan.
2. Add the peanuts and let it fry a bit.
3. Add the green chillies and curry leaves and switch off the gas and keep it aside.
4. Add the turmeric powder to the above mix.
5. Next take jira, salt and sugar in a mixer and grind it to a powder. Keep it aside.
6. Next take putani in a mixer and grind it to a fine powder.
7. Mix the jira powder and putani powder together.
8. In a separate pan, take poha and fry it for a few seconds.
9. Once done, put the poha and the ground powder mix to the peanut mix and put it back on stove.
10. Carefully mix it so that the flavors spread evenly and also do it gently so that the poha does not break.

Kaccha Chivda is ready. Once it cools down, you can store it in the jars and they last for weeks.

*small cup = idli vati

Veggie Pizza

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Warm Water - 0.5 cup
Sugar - 1 tsp
Dry Yeast - 1 tsp
Maida (All Purpose Flour) - 2 cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Olive Oil - 5 tsp
Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce - 0.5 cup
Mozzarella Cheese - 1 cup
Oregano - 1 tsp

Toppings:
Your choice of veggies. Below combination tastes great!

• Mushrooms - 1 small box
• Capsicum - 1
• Onion - 1 (optional)
• Broccoli - 1 bowl

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, take warm water, sugar and dry yeast and leave it aside for 5 mins.
2. Then add maida, salt, 3 tsp of olive oil and knead it into a soft dough.
3. Add 2 tsp of olive oil on the side and leave it covered with a muslin cloth for 2 hrs. After 2 hrs, the dough fluffs up. 
4. We divided the dough into 2 equal portions since we had a medium sized pan. Onto the pan, spread aluminium foil, sprinkle some dry flour and slowly spread the dough evenly with the fingers, pushing the extra dough slowly to the outer rim.
5. Next make some fork shapes in the center and spread the pasta sauce. We used the tomato basil organic pasta sauce, but you can use any tomato sauce.
6. Next load it up with the toppings of your choice. We used lots of mushrooms, capsicum, onion and broccoli.
7. Top it with Mozzarella cheese. We love cheese, so we covered it up nicely.
8. Sprinkle some more pasta sauce on the top if you like it.
9. Sprinkle some oregano evenly. You can also sprinkle some chilly flakes if you like it.
10. Preheat the oven for 10 mins at 390 F
11. Now transfer the pizza onto an aluminium tray and put it in the oven to bake for 18 mins.
12. Once its baked, take it out. Use a pizza cutter to slice it. 

Pizza is ready to be served. Enjoy and relish it!

Methi che sukha jhunka (Methi Leaves Dry Jhunka)

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Methi Leaves - 2 bunch
Onion - 1
Grated Jaggery - 1 tsp
Oil - 8 tsp
Hing Powder - Pinch
Red Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 0.5 tsp
Garam Masala - 0.5 tsp
Besan - 1 small cup*
Salt - to taste


Preparation:

1. First, clean the Methi leaves, chop it fine and keep it aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan.
3. Fry the chopped onions in oil until it cooks well.
4. Next put the chopped methi leaves. Cover this with lid.
5. Once this cooks well, it will shrink in size.
6. At that point, add hing powder, salt, red chilly powder, turmeric powder and garam masala powder. Mix well and close the lid. The steam will cause the water to form. 
7. Add besan and mix well. Close the lid for 3 mins. After that, again mix well.
8. Scrape anything stuck at the bottom of the vessel so it doesn't burn.
9. Finally add grated jaggery.
10. Keep it on low flame for 10 mins and then mix well.

Methi Leaves Jhunka is ready to be served with Chapathi or rice.

* 1 small cup = 1 idli vati

Kandhe Pathi Che Sukha Jhunka (Spring Onion Dry Jhunka)

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Oil - 8 tsp
Spring Onions - 5
Hing Powder - Pinch
Red Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 0.5 tsp
Garam Masala - 0.5 tsp
Besan - 1 small cup*
Salt - to taste


Preparation:

1. First, lets get the spring onions ready. Separate the spring onion bulbs and the leaves. Chop them separately and keep both aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan.
3. Fry the chopped spring onion bulbs in oil until it cooks well.
4. Next put the chopped leaves portion of the spring onions. Cover this with lid.
5. Once this cooks well, it will shrink in size.
6. At that point, add hing powder, salt, red chilly powder, turmeric powder and garam masala powder. Mix well and close the lid. The steam will cause the water to form. 
7. Add besan and mix well. Close the lid for 3 mins. After that, again mix well.
8. Scrape anything stuck at the bottom of the vessel so it doesn't burn.
9. Keep it on low flame for 10 mins and then mix well.

Spring Onion Jhunka is ready to be served with Chapathi or rice.

* 1 small cup = 1 idli vati