Papaya Halwa - Happy Pongal

Happy Pongal Everyone !!

Makara Sankranthi / Pongal is one of the most auspiciously celebrated festival in India. It is celebrated on 14,15,16 and 17th  January when the harvesting season begins.

Known through various names, it is called Pongal in Tamil Nadu and is celebrated for 4 days.


Jan 14th - Bhogi 
Jan 15th - Thai Pongal
Jan 16th - Maattu Pongal
Jan 17th - Kaanum Pongal

During these 4 days a lot of sweets and savouries are prepared in traditional vessels like earthern pots in a traditional log wood stove decorated with sugarcanes .A lot of recipes are prepared for Pongal. As per usual I prepared a few of them sweet pongal , savoury pongal , sambar and Papaya Halwa.

In this recipe the color of the halwa is purely from the papaya.I have not used any food coloring .The pure lustrous red color comes from the goodness of the fruit.So I call it the "Red beauty" :) .

Here is an interesting article on the health benefits of papaya by well-beingsecrets.com . Do check it out here.

What you need :

• Sweet ripe papaya - 1 full

• Sugar - 2 cups

• Ghee - 1/2 cup

• Almonds - dry roasted and finely powdered - 1/4 cup

• Cardamon powder - 1/2 tsp

• Saffron(optional)

• Salt - a small pinch

• Cashews and Raisins - 1/4 cup

Christmas Sugar Cookies

Christmas is all about sharing love with your loved ones.

May your home be filled with the joy of the Christmas season. Here’s wishing you a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Sharing these freshly baked Sugar Cookies from my home to yours :)

Sugar cookies are crunchy unlike normal cookies.They are baked flat on top so we can start icing on them easily.You can store them in the refrigerator for almost a week.

Diwali sweet Recipes - Happy Diwali !!

Happy Diwali folks !!

With Diwali right around the corner , kitchens all around the world are getting busy with scrumptious fragrance of ghee and spices.The happiness of eating desserts on Diwali with family chatting around,watching few mass movies in TV :) ...is something everyone should experience..

Well I have rounded up some sweet recipes. They are easy to do recipes with step by step pictures.Hope this festival of lights bring loads of happiness to you and your family.

Jack-O-Lantern Fruit Bowls Recipe - Pumpkin Cups made with Fruit and Oreos - Happy Halloween !!

Happy Halloween everyone !!

Its fall and we see pumpkins everywhere..I mean literally everywhere..I wanted to buy a large pumpkin,carve it and do all the stuff..But my patio is full of fall leaves and all wood and I was worried putting a candle inside of it especially when im not at home.Whats the purpose of having a real Jack-o-lantern without the candle inside??

So I decided to make mini Jack-O-Lantern Fruit Bowls.These are Pumpkin Cups made with Oranges.

First we have to cut the orange on top and scoop out all the pulp.We are gonna use the pulp and make a compote.

You can fill them up with fruits,ice cream,pudding and much more...I wanted something light so I filled them up with strawberries, orange compote and Oreos.

These are super cute,healthy and will make an awesome dessert for Halloween. Just look at those fresh ingredients !!

Ok lets move on and see how you do this cutie :) 

Kala Chana / Kondakadalai Sundal - Navaratri recipes

Happy Navaratri everyone !! As festivities start in full swing all the gollu steps are readily arranged with silk dhoties or sarees covering them.Then comes all the cute dolls which we have been collecting over the years.We bring down all our dolls from the attic and clean them. With mom's  help the dolls are arranged in the steps in no time.We invite friends and family over to see out beautifully displayed arrangements of dolls and wait for them to start appreciating...And all those hard work pays right off..This is the tradition of gollu in my house.Hope you all have similar wonderful gollu stories like mine.

And the best comes in the last. - Sundals.

Every evening mom makes yummy sundal and we get to taste it before the guests arrive...My favorite of all sundals is the kala chana or kondai kadalai sundal.

They are legumes which are dark brown in color and have a strong earthy nutty taste.They make an awesome evening snack and makes you feel full for a really long time.Its packed with nutrients and are so yummy to eat.

Ok lets move on to the recipe,

Christmas Chocolate Pirouette cake with Nutella frosting

Christmas Chocolate Pirouette cake

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone :) 

This is a chocolate 4 layer cake with Nutella and Chocolate butter cream frosting.Making a layered cake takes time and patience.So this post is gonna be quite long with lots of pictures.

Seven cups cake - Diwali sweet recipe

Happy Diwali everyone :) Hope you all had a wonderful Diwali with your family.Diwali, the festival of lights is really the happiest time of the year when we get together with family to celebrate the triumph of good over evil with colorful dresses and sweets.Bursting of crackers is a tradition followed in India during Diwali and who doesn't love the bright colors in the sky :)

So I thought of making something sweet and unique this time to represent Diwali. I decided to make small lamps or diyas or velaku however you call them ...edible with the sweet.Considering the texture,size and taste,I decided to go ahead and make the 7 Cups cake (aka) 7 cup sweet.

Crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside

As the name suggests there are seven cups of ingredients which makes this soft mildly sweet delicacy.It consists of 1 cup each of Besan,milk,coconut,ghee and sugar.You can use 3 cups of sugar for authentic recipe but I wanted to make it lightly sweet so made it with just 2 cups of sugar.

Carrot Milkshake / Carrot Kheer - A healthy summer drink

This summer has been so hot and I am trying to quench my thirst by experimenting with various fruits and veggies.So, I decided to try out a simple and tasty milkshake.The good part of this recipe is that carrots are already sweet so you don't have to add much sugar or any sugar at all in it.

This is a healthy milkshake and you can have as much as you like without worrying about your weight.Whats more delicious than having a healthy drink without counting the calories right? .With that happy note lets go the recipe.

Shahi Tukra - Krishna Jayanthi Special

Happy Krishna Jayanthi everyone !!

Krishna Jayanthi or Krishna Janmashtami denotes the birthday of Lord Krishna and it is celebrated all over India.In Southern India, houses are decorated with footprints made out of rice flour on the floor, to symbolize Krishna's childhood sport of stealing butter and running away. With kids in the house,it is  even more fun as baby's teeny tiny cute foot is dipped in the flour to create the footprint all around the house.

The baby Krishna tales are really interesting and I have been collecting various baby krishna pics since my childhood.

This recipe Shahi Tukra is a bread pudding with lots of milk and crunchy nuts.Ususlly bread in fried in oil and dipped in sugar water but I am making a low fat version of it.So we are going to make a lot of changes in the original recipe.

Beetroot Halwa - Low fat dessert made with the goodness of beetroots

Beetroot Halwa

I decided to try out a simple,low fat and highly nutritious dessert for this Tamil New Year.When it comes to holidays or festivals we often crave for desserts.After eating them a little too much we feel bad.Well,this dessert is a Savior as you can have it as much as you like as its filled with all the goodness of nature - beetroots.

This is my mom's recipe and she makes it whenever we have a craving for dessert.The good part of this recipe is that beetroots are already sweet so you dont have to add much sugar in it.Whats more delicious and nutritious than having a dessert without caring about your weight right? 

Makara Sankranthi / Pongal Recipes - Ven Pongal ,Sakkarai Pongal

Ven Pongal ,Sakkarai Pongal 

Happy Pongal Everyone !!

Makara Sankranthi / Pongal is one of the most auspiciously celebrated festival in India. It is celebrated on 14,15,16 and 17th  January when the harvesting season begins.This festival is celebrated on a large scale by Hindus.

Known through various names, it is called Pongal in Tamil Nadu and is celebrated for 4 days.


Jan 14th - Bhogi 
Jan 15th - Thai Pongal
Jan 16th - Maattu Pongal
Jan 17th - Kaanum Pongal

Cupcakes with rose flavored buttercream frosting - Piping a rose on a cupcake.

We have all heard the poem,

"Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet,

 And so are you."

Admit it!!! Girls love flowers especially roses.Dunno why a rose cheers a women and makes everything look lovely for the rest of the day.However bad a day can get, a bouquet of roses makes you smile.

I always get an urge of eating those teeny ting buds.They are not that sweet , believe me !! I did try eating them.So ,I came up with an idea of creating a rose flavored cupcake frosting that is so irresistible to see and taste that you will never go back to your vanilla butter cream frosting again.

Cupcakes with rose bouquet piping

I made these cute rose cupcakes for my husband's birthday and he loved it !!!  You can make this for Christmas,Valentines day , birthdays or anytime you feel like having it  :) 

In this recipe I am gonna show you how I piped the rose bouquet on chocolate cupcakes with step by step procedure with pictures so that you can try it out too :).

For this recipe you will need  pure rose extract / rose water.Its hard to find, I know but try using the pure one instead of the imitation.Its worth all the trouble.

This recipe is for chocolate cupcakes and rose butter cream frosting.

Mysore pak / Gram flour fudge - Diwali sweet recipe

Diwali is one of the most important festivals in India popularly known as the festival of lights .We celebrate it by lighting lamps all over the house and bursting crackers which denotes the triumph of good over evil and the best part is we get to wear new clothes and eat lots and lots of sweets :)

This is one such happy occasion where family and friends gather to have fun and exchange sweets and burst crackers together.

Wish you all a very happy Diwali :) 

Coming to sweets ,Mysore pak is  frequently made in southern India.It has the richness of ghee , sugar and mouth watering fudgy texture of gram flour.

Halloween cupcake - Spiderman themed icing

Hey guys, Happy Halloween  !!!

Halloween is just around the corner and to make your cupcakes more spook-tacular, here is a Spider-man themed cupcake.

Spiderman has always been my favourite superhero of all times.I love his costume, the colors and the fact that he can jump and do all kinds of stuff  :) . I have always wanted to do something with my cupcakes that had a Spiderman theme.So i tried a Spiderman themed icing which had a spider web in two colors- Red and Blue.I used a gel based food coloring and the colors looked amazing on these cupcakes.

This is the recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting.