Celebrating 3 years of Yumsilicious Bakes.. And A giveaway to Celebrate

Update : Winner announced at the end of the post.

Today, my little blog turns 3. Hard to believe. Thank you to everyone that has supported this blog, and loyally followed even though I had a period when life's little dramas made my slack off on the blog. Seriously, thank you. I hope you stick around, and now I'm trying to be a much better blogger. I've finally updated the About page too :)

Rather than write a heartfelt note to mark this day, I've decided to show you my top 10 recipes, that I always end up turning back to, and have made countless times over the years, though they're in no particular order, since it was hard enough to narrow it down to 10.

1. Chocolate Salted Caramel Cake from the awesome guys at Baked NYC



2. Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Truffle Cookies



3. Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream



4. Outrageous Chocolate Cookies



5. Swedish Visiting Cake



6.Chocolate Hazelnut Ferrero Rocher Cheesecake



7. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies


 8. Apple Pie


 9. Fudgey, Goeey Brownies


10. Creamy Lemon Squares




Onto the giveaway. It's this beautiful 10 oz. Cornishware mug, part of their red collection

To win, you can do any of the following, leave one comment for each thing you've done -

1. Become an email subscriber [leave email address in the comment]
2. Like me on Facebook [leave name in the comment]
3. Share on Facebook, mentioning the page.
4. Follow my boards on Pinterest [leave name in the comment]
5. Follow me on Twitter [leave handle in the comment].
6. Tweet about the giveaway, mentioning @AvanikaYB.
7. Post a picture of a recipe you've tried from my blog on my Facebook page [extra entries - leave 2 comments if you do this]

Giveaway is open till May 19, 2012, worldwide. Good luck xx

Giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to the winner, Katrina for comment #4. I've sent you an e-mail.
Everyone else, thanks for participating, and the wishes. See you around xx

German Christmas Market in Birmingham

Happy 2012!! I know I've been away, I'm on a visit back home for the holidays. And I'm having the absolute best time, this year has been amazing so far. I finally managed to get some time in to do this post, which has been pending since forever. Back when I was still in the UK, I went over to the German Christmas Market in Birmingham, after hearing a lot about the food there. Frankfurts make me happy :) After getting some shopping done at my paradise, the Bullring, we went over to the Market.

It was so so much fun. I had the best food and beer there, even though I'm not a fan of beer. It wasn't a very big thing, but the stalls that were there, were absolutely amazing.



The steakhouse, that had one of the best beef burgers I've ever eaten. It was moist, juicy, and their homemade sauces just took it to a whole other level.


So many different types of frankfurts, supersized :)



And ofcourse I had to try out the desserts. These crepes were fantastic, rivalling what I'd eaten in the streets of Paris. They had a ton of options.


I had the Nutella Marshmallow one - messy food is always more fun - and the Bailey's one, because I just had to try one of the tipsy ones :) The Nutella Marshmallow was delicious, but it's the one with Bailey's that hit it out the park, it was so good, and completely a new taste for me, I hadn't seen crepes with any alcohol before this.


A line up of all my favorite men. After the Bailey's I wanted to try every other version too. :)


So many options here too. Can you tell that I absolutely loved this stand?


This stall was all about the nuts. In every flavor imaginable!

There were a ton of other stalls, for German chocolate, some great tasting fudge that I pigged out on for an entire week, for various crafty things and for some great popovers, that I didn't get a chance to try. I didn't manage to click too many pictures of it though unfortunately, we were tired after a long day of shopping, holding a ton of bags, and just too exhausted. But on the whole, the Market was absolutely amazing, and if  it weren't for the damn exams, I'd have easily spent a whole day there, gaining tons of weight :)

With that thought, Happy New Year again!! This year, I've resolved to not make any weight loss resolutions :D

Where I've been

Hello you all. I apologise for neglecting you and the blog so much. It's time to finally tell you what I've been upto.

I've moved to the UK!! I'm at the University of Warwick's Business School for my Masters here. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it, and then I was very busy prepping and packing and the like.


I've been here just under a week, I'm still setting up, and considering I don't even know how to cook, it's gonna be a task, for sure. But the University is very highly recommended, and its gorgeous here too. Culinary school has been put off, probably after 3-4 years.

I hope to have a post up soon, as soon as I can manage to buy all the pots and pans and ingredients. Please stick around, and wish me luck :)

New Look

Do you like it??? I did it all on my own!!

I've been completely MIA from the blog, facebook, twitter and even e-mails. I'm sorry about that, I was working on the redesign. It's something I've wanted to do since forever, but with all the distractions, I just couldn't. I finally resolved to shut everything till I launch the new design, and got it done :) All thanks to the Google gods and my design classes.

There are still a few small tweaks to be done, but this is basically the essence of it. It's still in line with the previous theme, the colors of chocolate and pink!

I've started e-mail subscriptions now, had a lot of you ask for it. It's over to the right! So sign up <3

I've also created a recipe index page, but it's empty for now, I hope to have it up and running asap!

So.. leave feedback, I'm up to changing some stuff up if needed!

Meet Sir Mix-a-Lot ... Plus A Giveaway to Celebrate :)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS :D

I'm having the absolute best time, enjoying the holidays!! I really hope all you guys are too! I have someone I'd like you to meet. He actually came into my life early November, on Diwali actually, but I have only got about to showing him to you now! His name's Sir Mix-a-lot [yes, I'm still into princesses and royal stuff]. He's one the best things ever, I'm so in love!! I love the arms, it always seems like he's saying, 'hug me'!

He's a 6 quart onyx black pro 600 that I had shipped over to me from the US. Yes, yes I know we have voltage issues, but we had a refrigerator that worked for a good 10 years with a transformer without any issues. Got one for him, and it's perfect! There is a slight risk, so don't go by what I say and blame me later, I felt it's worth the risk.

To celebrate his arrival, I'm having my first giveaway ever. I just wanted to share the love, and decided to go with the CSN giveaway that's been popping over on all the blogs. It's actually a pretty good thing, you can choose what you want to buy using $55, since they have all sorts of kitchen stuff, awesome bakeware, even modern bedding and heels! They only ship to the US, but if someone who's not from there wins, I'll do the shipping portion, and have it sent to you. So basically, this giveaway is open to Everyone!!! I'm awesome, aren't I? <3


The ways to enter, comment once for each. Don't forget to leave your email id's if they aren't posted on your profile -

1. Comment on this post with anything you want me to do/improve on the blog [recipe requests, functionality, anything]. If you've got nothing, just say Hi, that's totally ok :)
2. Become a RSS subscriber using the link on the left sidebar
   
3. Follow me on Twitter
4. Share this on Twitter, including @AvanikaYB in the tweet so that I can track it.
5. 'Like' my page on Facebook
6. Share this giveaway on Facebook, including @YumsiliciousBakes in it for the same reason!

This giveaway will be open till Wednesday, Jan 5, next year!! It's so much fun to say that <3 Good luck! Happy Holidays, have a great year, see you on the other side :)

Tricolor Halva for Independence Day

Happy Independence to you all my dear Indian readers!! It's been 64 years, and India is really shaping up to become a great country. I just know I won't be happy anywhere else, India is home, India is heart for me! Usually, in many posts, I'm cribbing about the non-availibility of some or the other ingredient or gadget, but today, I decided to embrace it, and make something that is truly Indian.


Halva is a traditional Indian dessert, made in a jiffy in most homes, and is quite fattening, thus, true comfort food! I wanted to make some dessert with the Tricolor, and I initially thought of making decorated cookies. But later, I decided making Halva would be a better fit for the day. It's actually a very easy thing to make, took 20 minutes in total. And it looks so pretty, though ofcourse, color isn't usually added. It's a sweet, veryy slightly gelatinous,pudding-y buttery sin!! Though here's something that should surprise you- I cooked. This recipe doesn't use the oven at all, it is completely done over the stove, something that I hate doing!!

There are as many variations to this recipe as there are people in India, but this is a basic one, you can add whatever you want! Elaichi [cardamom] is something I like adding, people add crushed pineapple, all kinds of nuts, basically, whatever they choose/





Tricolor Halva
This recipe is usually made according to ratio, so that you can scale up and down as you want. To fill an 8 inch cake pan 3/4 of the way - follow the amounts I've given below. Feel free to change the cup size as you want, and follow the recipe. You get about 4 times the volume of the cup used.


1 cup suji [semolina]
2/3 - 1 cup ghee [I prefer using 2/3, it's still pretty buttery, but now overpoweringly so]
1/4 cup raisins/cashews [optional]
1 1/3 cup sugar
3 cups water/milk, as per preference [Water gives a lighter, more traditional halva, milk makes it richer, creamier. I usually use 2 cups water : 1 cup milk]
3-4 drops orange color
3-4 drops green color


Instructions -

1. Divide the water/milk mixture into 3 parts, color 2 of them orange and green respectively. Leave one plain. Keep the orange and green mixtures in wide pans, they will go on the stove later.
2. In a kadai [wok shaped pan], over medium hear, dry roast the suji for about 5 minutes to bring out the flavor. Constantly stir throughout the halva process, otherwise it will burn.
3. Add the ghee, and let it brown, about 15 minutes.
4. Add in the raisins and cashews or whatever else you choose, cook for a minute.
5. Reduce the heat to slow, mix in the sugar, and immediately divide into 3 parts, add one each to the orange and green liquid containing pans. Add the plain water/milk mixture to the remaining part.
6. According to your desired order of layering, decide the order of semolina mixtures to be cooked. Since I would invert the pan later, I chose orange first.
7. Cook the orange mixture until it thickens , and leaves the sides of the pan. Layer onto a prepared pan, or ring mould while hot, it will be easiest to handle.
8. Now cook the white mixture and then green mixture until ready, layer them both while hot, packing well, and then invert the entire thing. The halva has enough ghee that it will come out easily, and if you pack it well enough, it won't crumble either. When refrigerated, it will look like above, when hot, it will be crumbly, and delicious :)
9. Serve warm [usually served in bowls, not packed like above], keep in the refrigerator for atleast a week.

Caramel Pudding

I've got news : I've got braces! For the second time! Can you believe that?? I hated having them, some 7-8 years ago, for almost 1 and a half year! Luckily, this time around, it's only a 6 month thing, which, however, involves one surgery! So I had two of my lovely teeth extracted for them, and it was the MOST painful thing I've ever gone through! I couldn't eat for one entire week. And that's where this pudding comes in.

After the pain receded a bit, I was able to eat semi-solid things, and by that time, I was fiercely craving some rich, luscious dessert. I had this pudding from Smitten Kitchen bookmarked ever since she posted it, and it seemed perfect for me. It so was. I'm a little intimidated of caramel, but this was soo easy. With just 5 ingredients and 15 minutes, you achieve a delicious cupful of dulce-de-leche ish delight! The caramel taste was prominent, even though I wimped out and took it off the gas too soon! And it just deepens with time. It's perfect comfort-food.

The first step is to caramelise sugar, which starts off like this -


You want to keep going until you achieve something of this sort, or you could go even furthur if you're not a wuss like me.


Once you add the milk, the color really lightens, don't worry, we darken it later, for added caramel goodness :)



Caramel pudding
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen,  who adapted from Food & Wine

4 cups milk, whole or 2%
5 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup [240 g] sugar

Instructions -

1. In a small bowl, whisk together In a small bowl, whisk 1/2 cup of the milk with the cornstarch, vanilla and salt until smooth. Set aside.
2. In a large saucepan, combine the sugar with 6 tablespoons of water and bring to a boil. Cook over moderately high heat, undisturbed, until a deep amber caramel forms, about 8 minutes. Do not leave the stove at any point, there are only ever a few seconds between perfection, and burnt, unusable caramel. Once you are satisfied with the color, remove the pan from the heat.
3.  SLOWLY whisk in the remaining 3 1/2 cups of milk. You don't want to hurry this up, because the caramel will bubble up like an erupting volcano! Don't worry about the color, which will darken, that is what you want to achieve for maximum flavor! The caramel might clump up as well.
4. Once all the milk is added, return the pan to the stove, over medium low heat, to dissolve the clumped up caramel. Keep going until the mixture is slightly thicker, and the color has deepened, about 10 minutes.
5. Now add the milk cornflour mixture to the pan, while constantly stirring. The pudding will thicken up almost immediately, about 1 minute.
6. Pour into small bowls [keep the serving sizes small]. If you feel you couldn't get all the clumps out, or if you want perfection, you could strain the mixture. I didn't, and you couldn't tell. Also, if you want to avoid the pudding skin, you can lay plastic wrap directly over the bowl, touching the pudding to avoid its formation.

I just happen to really love pudding skin. When I was younger, I remember watching a Seinfeld episode  where Kramer had a genius idea to isolate and sell only pudding skins. And at the time, I fell in LOVE with the idea, and also tried persuading Mom to start such a business!!

Anyway, no matter which way you roll, this pudding is delicious, creamy, and just fills your mouth with the caramel-y goodness that you can see below. The gelatin-y looking bite is just off the edge of the bowl, you can see the creaminess of the pudding below it!

Europe!!

I'm back from Europe!! :D :D :D


I've been away from this blog for too long!!! I missed it soo much. But after returning on the 5th, between getting back to life, and catching up on all that I missed in college, somehow I haven't found time to do a write-up on my trip. Oh I had the time! But I just haven't been able to put into words what I felt on the vacation. All I can say was, it was the best one, I'm so happy I went. It gave me a nice break from the mess that is called life, and I had great fun. Here are some of the best moments, I'll try and keep it as short as possible -


I was travelling with a horde of cousins from here, with a few joining us over there. So I couldn't do EVERYTHING I wanted, since when you're travelling with so many people, you can't go off anywhere without them, especially since we had children with us too. Even still, I had a lot of fun. Only thing I couldn't manage was going to the Wilton store, which disappointed me a lot in the start, but was for the good, since I was already massively over the baggage limit, not even halfway through the trip.


On the flight to Paris, like a true food blogger, I watched Julie and Julia :P





I fell in love with Paris. The beauty. The weather. The hustle-bustle of the city, while still maintaining a strange calm in it. And I don't know where the 'French people are rude' myth came, because EVERY single person I came across was beyond sweet and helpful. We did the usual tourist-y things like go on the city tour, visit Eiffel etc etc. I really piled on a lot of weight in Paris, eating SO much amazing food. Especially street-side hot crepes while shivering in the cold! The above picture is of Champs-Élysées, on Christmas Day. There were numerous markets, and we all went all out on the food there!





And of course, there were the macarons! Pierre Hermé's Macarons! They were great, perfect texture, but I've realised, I just don't like macarons too much, I found them way too sweet!





And this way the day I had the most FUN in paris! Disneyland! It was truly magical. I've vowed to visit the other two Disneyland's asap, I loved it so much! Loved the rides, the shows, the everything. I would love to work at Disney :P





The Barcelona market La Boqueria, which was pure heaven for any food lover! I can't even begin to describe the amount of things I bought here!!





I fell in love with the creations at the chocolate museum, they were so amazing! Wish we could eat them, though :P


From Barcelona, we went on to Andorra, which is a tourist destination for shoppers and ski-ers, and is where my cousins live. It is this part of the tour that was real fun, where we did a lot of exciting things, Paris and Barcelona, though both cities I totally love, didn't have too many exciting things to do, it's more just marvelling at the beauty of things.


In Andorra, I experienced snowfall for the first time in my life, and how fitting that it was in the first few hours of the new year. Gave me a wonderful start!





Please ignore all the flab you can see, I was carrying loads of holiday weight. And yes, I was freezing, but I was so excited, I ran out without my coat! In Andorra, we ice-skated, skiied, played paintball in the snow, sat on a 5.3 km long ride... basically had the best time ever!! Though I was covered in bruises by the end of it all :P





So in all, I think I still managed to create a horrendously long post. There is just soo much to talk about. To sum it up, I had the best vacation ever, really bonded with my cousins, and got a new perspective on life over here as well!! I'm going to try and make this an annual thing! :P :P

About Yumsilicious Bakes

Hi there. Welcome to my blog. I'm Avanika, a 22 year old from Bombay, currently in the UK to do my Masters in Marketing and Strategy

YumsiliciousBakes is the result of my attempts to join my two favourite things - baking, and the internet. This site is a way to record my attempts - successful or not. If you're wondering about the yumsilicious part, that's just my way of giving the highest possible rating to a particular food item, and a word I absolutely love using, because if I'm saying it, it means I've found heaven. :-)

I've dappled at cake decorating, however I don't use it as much since everything I bake has to ultimately appeal to me, and I've somehow always found the rustic looking cakes much harder to resist.
 
I will work in the corporate world a few years, and then I hope to go to a culinary school once I've gained enough life experience, to ultimately open my own bakery back in Bombay.

 
For any PR or advertising inquiries, or to simply drop a hello [which I love], please email me at yumsiliciousbakes (at) gmail (dot) com