A quick dessert : Rose Cake

Some food are always intertwined with memories. Memories of the town where I grew up, my school friends, our families, our community. Like this one on Rose cake....

Years back, almost 20 years back one of my dear friend's Maa ( Kakima , as I call her) served this to us in an afternoon. It was bit sweet and a bit of crunchy. And I was intrigued by the beautiful floral shape! Kakima told the name as Rose cake. I was not into cooking at that point of life. Never asked for the recipe or any other details of the process. But somehow the memory of the rose cake etched a strong impression on my mind.

Years passed by. My friend Buntu and I went to different city to finish our education. Orkut or FaceBook had not made their presence in social circle, so sadly we didn't had email contact of each other. In 2007 I first visited United States and heard back Buntu's voice once again after ages! Again the spirit of our friendship started kindling up! 

 A friend is there to listen to my frustrations, my whimpering, my questions and all other trivial and non trivial things! Buntu and I have studied together in the same primary and high school. When I look back, memories of roaming around on our cycles, going to movie together and doing silly things flocks into my mind!

2015 Kakima was in USA after a long gap! And this time, I made no mistake, I had to put a meaningful end to my quest of Rose cake! So after long 20 years or so, a phone call , a WhatsApp session resulted recreating the same in my kitchen! More detailed inputs came from Kakima - the recipe is common among Keralites as Acchapam!

Below is the recipe from Kakima, I tweaked a little bit rice flour in it to add more crunchiness. It is a quick recipe. The preparation hardly takes any time, frying is the only time consuming part. I purchased the mould from Amazon. 

Before I type down the proportion, few words :

• I fried the rose cake in a wok
• Like any other deep frying stuff, the temperature of the oil needs to be sufficiently hot
• Each time , the mold needs to immersed in hot oil for at least 1 to 1.5 mins before you put it to the batter. 
• Slowly put the mould in the batter and then place it out it to hot oil. Shake it gently , the rosette will slowly leave the suface of the mould
• Do not immerse the mold completely inside the batter, it might be difficult to shake off the rosette
• As you keep frying, you might feel the batter has become thicker, please add some more milk to it
• If you decide to change the mould shape in between fryings, proceed carefully, the mould will be very hot.

Recipe :

• 3/4 th cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 th cup semolina
• 1/4th cup rice flour 
• 1/2 cup ground sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tea spoon baking powder
• Few drops of vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup milk or slightly more ( remember this should be more thicker than a standard pancake mix. We are trying to get the batter get adhered to the hot mould)
• Oil for frying

Whisk all of the above ingredients to a thick smooth consistency. Heat oil in a wok. Put the mould and let it heat up sufficiently. Dip it in batter and put it back to the hot oil slowly. Shake gently when the rosette will slowly leave the mould.

This is sweet yet crunchy dessert. As a variation you might drizzle Maple syrup on the top it or eat it up just on its own!!

Serve these hot so that you can savor the crunchiness!
Bon appetit!

Little shoe print - Father's Day craft

As a kid we were never aware of  Father's Day or Mother's Day and hence we never celebrated them in India. Greetings card were meant for birthdays and New Year. No one knew about Hallmark or Archie's Gallery.
Greetings card were mostly hand made.
Those were  white colored blank greetings card where we would draw pictures, decorate with some stickers or die cuts and put up a favorite quote.

Slowly things changed. With globalization , everyone is caught up the fever of  "special day". I sometimes forget the count of these special days. There is Friendship day, Rose day,Valentine's day and lots of others. Am not going to debate on whether we should celebrate these or not, but sometimes I feel it is beautiful to express affection and warmth on these special days.

As the Father's Day is approaching, I thought of making a handmade card for Lil S's Baba! We used felt sheet, little bit of ribbon,lots of glittery color and off course the shoes for imprint!

And if you wonder why I am into making a hand made card, the reason is both of my parents are creative and energetic.  Amongst the many teachings they instilled, they also helped me to develop an affinity for doing DIY.
 My father even made a Guitar for himself. Those days there was no YouTube, figuring out a new project all by himself must have been tough, but he did it!

Creating best out of the waste was my brother's mantra! I remember instances when he would save shavings out of pencil and would put them to decorate a greetings card! When I look back at these memories I feel sad that many of these projects have been misplaced. I don't even have a picture, they are only etched in my memory.

Back to today's project. The project is fairly simple, with a toddler who is always grabbing my legs, standing next to me and try to reach things out of the table, I could use only 15 mins or so to create this project.

I had fun in making this project.

Each day we try to make Lil S grow up to a responsible and respectful adult.Whether you celebrate the Father's Day with a card or with a hug, let us enjoy the little things! And Father's Day is probably not only meant for our Father, but can be extended to the other Father figures in our lives.

Did you look into our previous attempts of toddler craft? They can be accessed from here