The Great Indian Bride Hunt – with a Side of Sponge Cake.

No don’t get me wrong. A sponge cake has almost nothing to do with a bride hunt of any kind whatsoever. Although I must add that it does have a HUGE role in keeping my senses intact and energy levels up and running while I’m participating in this bride hunting circus quite actively.

So the bride in question is my brother’s significant other – and I’m assigned a rather huge responsibility to sniff that right match out from a bevy of matrimonial portals. The groom to be is totally in sync, but completely perplexed by the complexity of the internet diaspora and rather confused of with the manner the online marriage psyche goes.

To begin the great Indian bride hunt, we (me and my brother) made his matrimonial profile, ceremoniously loaded it with all the indispensable details, added our parental blessings to it and put it up online for the prospective brides to view. All well so far, just that there were no real matches (like from girls who might be interested in us) to choose from! Disappointed with the results, I relied on the Web’s creativity to bail me out, and there I hit upon a facial feature search, in which if I like a girl (perhaps purely for her looks) I can ask the web to do a similar search and if will hunt all the similarly looking girls and line up for us to choose. I tried, and I had five 25 year old with a dimpled chin gazing at me from my computer screen. Whoa, it can’t get more hilarious that this!

 Now if you are thinking that by now the match is already fixed and my brother is gleefully exchanging numbers and meeting women, you can’t be far from wrong.


Why Not? You ask. SO, as far as the online matrimonial dynamics go (or what I understand of it), the bride and the groom come in the second round of screening.   My brother is mightily miffed, but has grudgingly accepted the fact that if he were to start calling the prospective brides, he will run the risk of being seen as a ’no values’ guy. As it’s not really a US speed dating in an Indian Avatar. It’s truly an ‘ancient traditions weds Web 2.0’ circus come alive. 

The current modus operandi for us is that the elders of my family (even I fall into this category now as I have been assigned the task-remember?) do the first round, where the ideal matches are sorted out, spoken with and moved to the second round only after getting the affirmative nods.

Interestingly, most of these searches are done on a weekend, which is why I’m here talking about it. So today our entire family gathered online, communally wracked their brains on the perfect matches and participated in the exercise of mailing the doe eyed brides. Now, we practically have nothing to do expect for to wait and watch.

And what I do during these in between times on a semi –idle weekend is bake a cake, And nothing' better than  a light and airy Sponge Cake to lift the spirits up.  I certainly can’t do it better than Smitten Kitchen.  My only adaptation was to to leave out the cognac and lemon combination for the lack of both in my pantry.

Airy Sponge Cake

Ingredients: 

1 3/4th cups (226 gms) butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (200 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) baking powder
Salt
4 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar

Method : 
Do the usual cake dance, like the dry together and wet together. The only trick is to fluff the eggs like feather and sifts the flour fine. Once done, Mix it and bake it.

The sweeter side of the bride hunting madness.

Quick Yellow Cake with Chocolate Ganache frosting : Celebrating Twos

Two is a magical age.

(But I’m also getting the hang of what it means by the word troublesome twos.)
My little Miss S has started talking non-stop…with all her words clear as a day…and my days are always so full answering her inane curiosities.

Oh how she loves everything around her, whether it’s the garbage man ringing the doorbell in the morning or the loud whoosh of the incoming bikes in our society in the evening. She welcomes one and all with a warm hello. She’ll laugh at all playful stupid antics (and sometimes the non-deliberate ones too, when you do actually fall or hit your head accidentally) and the silly tickling sessions, dance at the most mellow hint of music and never stop looking, gazing and breathing it all in.

Birthdays are her latest fascination. We whole heartedly give in, considering it is her birthday month. She claps at the sight of a cake, and all she wants is a knife and a candle. Of course she offers me bite once she is done with the role play of being the birthday girl, but what enthralls me more is the glint in her eye when she is in front of the cake, and in my world it indeed calls for a party.

Party we did. That too three times over. I’ll not get into the details of chronicling those, expect for sharing the joy we felt looking at her cream stained lips  and having leftover bites of her freshly cut cake.
She is our little cakelet …and by the time you read this, she will be two years old.

I know, I’m not alone in this… you too must love your little one(s) with this muchness.

Here’s the Butter cake with Chocolate Ganache recipe which, I baked for her. I’m certainly not a baker and neither great at decorating cakes – but I still feel that these were the only moments in my life where I felt the cakes came alive. Yes, my little S’s grin vouched for it.

Quick Yellow Cake with Chocolate Ganache frosting

Ingredients for Quick Yellow Cake

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Ingredients for the Choclate Ganache

250 gms chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons flavored liqueur (purely optional)

Method for the cake : 

Mix all the dry ingredients together, all I did was to whirr for 30 sec to mix and aerate.
Then all the wet ones, which includes the eggs, plus any extracts (such as vanilla) go into another bowl and lightly whisked.

Mix both until well blended.

Pour all into whatever well greased pan you are baking in, and bake for around 35 min or until done.

Method for the Choclate Ganache

Heat heavy cream on medium high till it reaches the boiling point, then remove cream from heat and pour the cream on the chocolate and still until the chocolate melts and mixes evenly and is glossy to look . Allow the Choclate Ganache to cool before pouring over cakes as a glaze.

I cooled my cake before glazing. Then covered with sprinkles and added a kit kat boundry.Tied with a satin ribbon.

Done!!

Yogurt and Orange Tea Cake

Yogurt and Orange Tea Cake

 Its monday morning 8 AM , not a best time for a working mom who has to dress up a jumpy toddler, put breakfast up on the table , eat , get dressed and zip out of the house all in an hours time. Who has the time to listen to insane food requests, but then I'm  a MOM. One look at my little ones hope filled eyes and I'm all a MELTED CANDY. Today she wanks a yummy cake for her daycare snack time.

All of 1.5 years,she knows to spell C-A-K-E allright. and if she wants a yummy one, who can deny.

Run Run Run - dig into the pantry take it all out. Mix -Mix - Mix . . shove it in the oven . We are set :)

Easy peasy.

By the time we are done with the morning routine. The cake is ready and smiling in the oven. And now my little one is smiling along too.

My Monday is blue no more. Digging into a warm freshly baked cake is therapeutic. don't you think?

Today I finally had my moment of glory when I could sink my teeth into this warm and fluffy goodness. It was heaven . and oh! I have to mention this that NOT all good and heavenly tasting cakes are sinful. Here is the recipe if you want to try. Go colour your Mondays!

1 1/2 cups low fat plain yogurt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Rind of one orange (optional)
I/4th cup orange juice (optional)

Heat the oven to 150°C. Grease a 9-inch baking pan lightly with baking spray or oil,.

Briskly whisk together the yogurt, oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and nutmeg right into the liquids and stir just until no lumps remain.
Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 35 minutes, till a tester comes out clean. Once done transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan.
Serve the cake warm or at room temperature. When well-wrapped, this keeps very well for several days.