Hannah Montana Birthday Cake

Birthday Parties are fun! Birthday is a special occasion, and kids love to have a blast on their special day. For my daughter’s 9th birthday, she wanted to have a Hannah Montana cake. Hannah Montana cakes’ popularity is on the rise. Hannah Montana is very popular amongst pre-teen girls. My daughter is a great fan of Hannah Montana, so she wanted to surprise her friends with a Hannah Montana cake. She also wanted to have a homemade cake. On my culinary journey, this was a challenge for me.

I decided to be very creative and prepare a cake with the best things I could. I spent hours in stores, looking for creative colourful chocolates, and also paid a great amount of attention to the various available candy shapes. It’s a super easy cake, though it looks complicated. When the final thing came out, it was truly an amazing looking cake, and all the friends of my daughter envied her and praised the preparation.
I’ve used ready made frosting and ice-cream cones for the decoration. Guitar shaped chocolate has also been used, as Hannah Montana is a great singer.


INGREDIENTS:


Sponge Cake – 1 rectangle
White Butter – 250 gms
Icing Sugar – 250 gms
Vanilla essence – 4-5 drops
Ready made frosting – ½ tin – chocolate flavour
Ready made frosting – ½ tin vanilla flavour
Little heart biscuits – 1 packet
Ice cream cones – 2
Lollipops – various shapes - 3 to 4
Sprinklers coloured – as required
Jelly cubes – 1 packet.
Tinned Cherries – 1 cup
Cocoa Powder – 2 tblspn
Birthday Candles – As required

METHOD

Prepare icing by combining icing sugar, white butter, cocoa powder and vanilla essence.

Keep in the fridge for an hour.
Cut the sponge cake into two halves.

Soak each part with the cherry syrup.

Place pitted cherries on the first part of the cake.

Spread a layer of the prepared icing on each cake half.

Cover the first half of the cake with the second half, making layers.

Now cover the entire cake with the icing prepared above.
Level the icing with a broad knife dipped in cold water.
Make a border with the ready made frosting using icing gun.
Decorate the border of the cake with the little heart biscuits.

Decorate the candies, jelly cubes and ice cream cones.

Make ice cream on the ice cream cones with the prepared icing.
Sprinkle the sprinkler on the empty space.
Place the candles on the cake.
Keep in fridge till the party time.

Note: I have used ready-made sponge cake in this recipe for the Hannah Montana cake. But you can also use plain homemade sponge cake instead.

Laddoo Joker

Are you organising a birthday party? Thinking hard to have a different menu from the rest. Well here's the solution, Try and prepare these jokers made out of Laddoo, the traditional Indian sweet available in every sweet shop of India. I've used ready made laddoos from the market, if you desire you can make laddoos at home too. I've used ready made ice-cream cones to prepare the base and the cap of the jokers. Cadbury Gems to make the eyes. You can make your imagination run wild and use other decorations for decorating the cap . Put your creativity to its best and get going to organise a real cool birthday party for your adorable sweetie pie. Kids would love the new version of laddoos.

INGREDIENTS

Boondi Laddoo - 10

Ice cream cones - 10

Cadbury Gems - 20

Icing Sugar to paste the gems.

METHOD -

Cut the ice-cream cones for the base and the cap.

Arrange the base in the serving tray.

Keep each laddoo on each base.

Glue gems for eyes with the help of icing sugar.

Place the second half of the cone as caps.

Ready to be served.

NOTE- For the mouth I've used the laddoo garnish (Pista) which was already placed on the laddoo. If u're using plain laddoo u can glue a piece of pista for mouth.

Mutton Kababs. (Lamb Kebabs)

Non-Veg lover's heres a dish for you to enjoy this monsoon. When it's raining outside one can enjoy the hot mutton kebabs. A boneless mutton/lamb dish which would melt in your mouth. The secret touch to this recipe is that it's marination process which allows the salt and other spices to penetrate into the lamb pieces giving it a soft delectable flavour.

INGREDIENTS-

Boneless Lamb - 500 gm

Ginger Garlic paste - 6 1/2 tspns

Curd/Dahi - 1/2 cup

Chilly powder - 3 tspns

Salt - to taste

Refined Oil - about 5  tbspns

Sliced Onions - 1 cup

Roasted Gram Flour (Besan) - 2 tbspns

Juice of a lemon

Dry -spices -


Cinnamon (Dalchini) powder - 1/2 tspn

Cardamom (Choti Illaichi) powder - 1 tspn

Roasted Cumin (Jeera) Powder - 1 tspn

Jaiphal (Nutmeg) powder - a pinch

Roasted black pepper (Kali mirch powder) - 1/2 tspn

METHOD-

First Stage -

Combine Lamb meat, curd, salt, ginger-garlic paste and chilly powder.

Mix well. Keep it well covered in fridge for 3-4 hours to marinate.

Second Stage -

Transfer the marinated lamb with the entire marination in a pressure cooker.

Cook till it gives 7-8 whistles on low flame.

Third Stage -

Heat oil in a pan (Kadhai).

Put in the sliced onion and let it cook till reddish brown.

Add to it the cooked lamb from the pressure cooker along with the residue.

Cook on high flame. Keep on stirring.

The onion should be well incorporated into the lamb.

Sprinkle roasted gram flour and keep on roasting till mixed well.

Add all the dry spices one by one to the roasted lamb.

Squeeze in lemon juice.

Mix well.

Serve hot with Mango Tango.

Mango Tango

Mango is the king of fruits. Mango is loved by all. Mango is rich source of  Vitamin "A', Vitamin 'C', Vitamin 'K',Vitamin 'E', Beta carotene and Phosphorous. It also has a good amount of fibre. Before the season of mangoes comes to an end, lets enjoy a refreshing Mango mocktail. An easy recipe, ready in minutes, Serve Chilled with any snack or starter.

INGREDIENT-

Mango Juice Tinned - a little less than 1/2 cup

Mango Diced Cubes - 1/2 cup

Soda Chilled - as required

Ice Cubes - 8-9

METHOD -

• 
  
  Keep the glass in which u want to serve mocktail in the fridge for 10 minutes.
• 
  
  Throw in some ice cubes in the glass.
• 
  
  Add to it ripe mango cubes.
• 
  
  Pour in tinned mango juice.
• 
  
  Fill the remaining glass with soda.
• 
  
  Stir lightly.
• 
  
  Serve Immediately.

Yummy Baked Potatoes

Potatoes are good for health especially for kids. Combined with baked beans, Protein requirements are also fulfilled.  For fussy kids this is a finger licking dish. I've experimented this recipe with my children and they wait for me to prepare this dish for them. Apart from kids, this dish can be made as a starter for a party. It would be relished by everyone. Quick and easy to prepare. So here comes the recipe. While selecting the potatoes make sure they are larger in size and oval shaped.

INGREDIENTS -

Potatoes - 6

Baked beans - 1 tin

Onion - 1 medium - chopped

Tomato - 1 medium - chopped

Tomato ketchup - 4 tblspn

Processed Cheese - 12 tblspns - grated

Butter - 50 gms

Oregano - 1 1/2 tspn

Mixed dry herbs - 1 tspn

Chilly flakes - 1 tspn (optional)

Pepper - to taste

Salt - to taste

METHOD -

• 
  
  Wash and clean the potatoes.
• 
  
  Boil the potatoes with the skin. Do not over boil.
• 
  
  Cut lengthwise into two pieces. - see picture
• 
  
  Scoop out the centre portion and make a cavity.

• 
  
  Heat a flat non-stick pan.
• 
  
  Put butter and place the potatoes upside down.
• 
  
  Let them turn brown. - see picture below.
• 
  
  Turn sides.
• 
  
  Let it turn slightly brown on the side with the peel.
• 
  
  Remove with a slotted spoon.
• 
  
  Place all the potatoes on a flat plate,
• 
  
  Sprinkle salt and pepper on the inner side.

For the Filling

• 
  
  Heat a non stick pan.
• 
  
  Add little butter and immediately put the onions.
• 
  
  Saute till pink.
• 
  
  Add chopped tomatoes.
• 
  
  Saute till glossy.
• 
  
  To this add baked beans from the tin.
• 
  
  Mix well.
• 
  
  Add tomato ketchup. Mix well.
• 
  
  Sprinkle salt to taste and all the herbs.
• 
  
  Add chilly flakes if required.
• 
  
  Keep it aside to cool.
• 
  
  Place 2 tblspns of the filling in each cavity.
• 
  
  Top  it with grated cheese. - See picture below.
• 
  
  Microwave high for 1 minute or till cheese melts.
• 
  
  Serve hot on a bed of lettuce and chopped red cabbage.

Coriander Rolls

Monsoon showers have already abated the blistering heat of the North. People in other parts of the country are also enjoying the rain showers. When it's raining outside one feels like having some snacks along with tea. I remember my mom used to prepare these Dhaniya rolls when I was small and I used to relish. So today this recipe comes from my mom's kitchen, she's also a very good cook and I guess I've the same abilities. When I made this even my children loved this dish very much. The main ingredient is of course the fresh coriander. The outer cover is made of chick-pea flour or besan. A very simple to make dish ready in minutes.Let's see how it is made.

Ingredients -

(Outer Covering)

Chickpea Flour (Besan) -  200 gms

Turmeric powder            - a pinch

Salt  --                              to taste

Water -                      for kneading - as required

(Filling)

Fresh Coriander leaves -  1.5 cup

Dessicated coconut -        1.5 cup

Charoli, Chiranji, -           2.5 tblspn

(Buchanania lanzan)

khus khus dry roasted -     1 tblspn

onion                         -    1 small

Chopped green chillies -   3-4

Salt -                            to taste

 

(Curd - Mixture - Masala for sticking)

Fresh Curd                   -     1/3 rd cup

Garam Masala Powder -       1 tspn

Salt - a pinch

Oil for deep frying - as required

Method -

STEP -I

For the filling -

1. Clean, wash and finely chop fresh coriander and put it in a bowl.

2. To this add dessicated coconut.

3. Add to it chironji, chopped chillies, khuskhus - (poppy seeds)

4. Add salt to taste and mix well.

STEP - II

Mix all the ingredients under the curd mixture and keep it aside.

STEP - III

Knead a soft dough using all ingredients under Outer covering.

STEP - IV

1) Take a small ball of the dough and roll it like the picture given below.

2)Smear 1 tspn of the curd mixture on the chapati.

3) Put about 2 tblspn of the filling on the chapati.

4) Fold from below. like this picture

5) Turn from the other side - like the picture below:

6) Close the ends - see below picture

7) Boil water in a steamer.

8) Keep a perforated dish 1 inch above water level.

9) Steam the rolls for about 10 minutes.

(Note - I used idli pot)

10) Deep fry the rolls in hot oil till golden brown.

11) Serve hot with chutney/relish of your choice.

Note- Rolls can be served without frying.

The Lady in the Pink

Summers are already here and  is it you can't think of a variety of mock tails for your guests. Do not worry as I'm going to present a variety of thirst quenchers for my favourite fans and readers who can turn a summery evening into a delightful cool evening. Try this yummy-luscious mock tail ready-to-drink in just minutes. 

All you need is a glass, keep in the refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes so that the glass also gets chilled and it creates a magic for the guests.

Mock tails are mostly prepared directly in the glass.

Now coming to the method of preparing this mock tail:

1. 
   
   In a plate mix some strawberry crush and sifted icing sugar.
2. 
   
   Coat the rim of the glass with the above so that the rim has a pink border.
3. 
   
   Keep the glass on the kitchen island and tip in plenty of ice cubes in the glass.
4. 
   
   Add in some strawberry crush say about 3 tblspn to the ice.
5. 
   
   Pour in 1 cup of Litchi/Lychee Juice into the glass.
6. 
   
   Add Juice of 1/2 a lime and finally fill up the rest of the glass with sprite.
7. 
   
   Serve immediately and enjoy the refreshing effect.
8. 
   
   The mocktail and the prepared rim would blend together and give that amazing effect when sipped.

Yummy Rainbow Treat

Kids party and it kind of starts making me cook up plans to do the best of cusines as possible, something innovative and something gorgeous which gives an eye appeal and is absolutely stunning and fascinating. I love experimenting with the ingredients available on my kitchen shelf. It was my daughter's idea to have jellies for the birthday party as she was confident that its the kids weakness. I felt I should play with colours and there it was, really fabulously looking gorgeous glasses filled with the chiiled dessert. Here I've used three flavours of jelly and two flavours of custard to give that beautiful look which would definately leave the kids mouth watering.

INGREDIENTS

Ready made Jelly - Three Flavours (Pineapple, Apple and Strawberry)

Custard - Vanilla Flavour

Tooty Fruity

Transparent party disposable glasses

METHOD-

Prepare custard and jelly as per packet instructions.

Chill the custard and jelly seperately.

Arrange glasses in a tray.

Put a scoop of apple jelly in all the glasses.

Top it with custard.

Tip in the strawberry flavoured jelly such a way that part of custard is visible.

Give a sprinkling of the tooty-fruity green coloured for the final touch.

It's done. Chill well in the refrigerator before serving.

An absolutely yummy treat is ready for the kids in minutes.

Choclate Cup Cakes

It was my son's 5th Birthday and I wanted something special for his birthday so I prepared these cup cakes and used different coloured jam and also alphabet candies to decorate the topping. Each child chose the alphabet his or her name started with, this gave the kids a feeling of getting a specal treatment for the party he or she was invited to. With Easter round the corner, you can try this quick and innovative dessert recipe which is ready in minutes. Can be served as an evening snack to the kids or as a dessert as even the adults would relish it. These alphabet choclates are easily available in the confectionary shops present in the malls. 

Ingredients -

Bournbourn biscuits - 2 packets

Baking Soda - a pinch

Milk - about 3-4 tblspn

Butter cups - as required

Jam - different colours

Alphabet Choclates - as required

Ready made Vanilla Icing.

Method -

1. 
   
   Crush the biscuits in the food processor finely.
2. 
   
   Transfer in into a deep bowl.
3. 
   
   Add a pinch of soda.
4. 
   
   Add milk and mix well with the help of electronic hand mixer.
5. 
   
   Consistency required is dropping consistency like for cake.
6. 
   
   Pour into butter cups kept in muffin tray.
7. 
   
   Microwave HIGH for 3 minutes. (Power 100%)
8. 
   
   Test with a toothpick, should come out clean when inserted in the cup cake.
9. 
   
   If not done again microwave HIGH for a few seconds more.
10. 
    
    Standing time is 5 mins means leave the cup cake in the microwave for 5 mins when done.
11. 
    
    Cool completely before icing.
12. 
    
    Fill a piping bag with ready made icing. (available in the stores.)
13. 
    
    Decorate the cup cakes with the icing as shown and dot it with jam or decorate it with alphabet choclate.
14. 
    
    Serve.