Carrot Cake recipe tested

Baking is very therapeutic and rewarding when your little one likes to help you in the process and enjoys the result since "they" made it! I like trying new recipes all the time and it is about time I write about how good this recipe is. I feel baking is very precise and if you don't follow your recipe as it is you might not be getting the same result as intended. If I am to make any changes at all I just add a little bit more flavour but that is all I do unless I have tried it more than one time and feel that it could do with a bit of alteration. This carrot cake recipe is one of my favourites as it does use cinnamon and nutmeg like I would like and especially at this time of the year also it uses yogurt which makes this cake super moist. Also, I completely agree that this cake tastes better the next day when all the flavours have seeped through perfectly. Carrots and walnuts marry so beautifully together like there is nothing that can taste this good, I do like walnut and chocolate cake!

It is that time of the year when you have guests dropping in or neighbours making a quick visit and what you need is something ready to serve with tea. This cake is just perfect for it or for the evenings at the park with little one. Easy to make as well and keeps well in the fridge for upto 5 days (if it lasts that long!)

I tried another new recipe for vanilla cake  as well, the recipe is good but I think I overcooked my cake a bit which made it a bit dry. I thought it was a bit eggy in taste for me so I added some orange zest which definitely has enhanced the flavour. Hope you enjoy these recipes and let me know how did your cakes turn out!

Felt Ornaments For Christmas Tree

It is that time of the year again when I watch christmas movies on TV and snuggle up on my couch after E has gone to bed. Only now I have found a love for felt and I want to keep making new things with felt while I watch a movie. Embroidery is one of my favourite things to do and with felt work I can embroider much easier and smaller projects. I did want to make some tree ornaments this year and apart from the wooden ones which H will help me with I have made these felt ones. These are very simple shapes and very basic techniques with which I have finished these tree ornaments. Heart for my love and star for the blessings for my loved ones. When you have some time to look back and think then you find it that there is no bigger joy than making something by hand even if it is a small little token to show your affection during a special time of the year. I remember making cards and gifts by hand for mum and dad on their anniversary or birthdays when I was in school and they appreciated it more than I had expected. Mum used to wait for me to reveal my surprise on her birthday even if it was just a poorly cooked breakfast or a sugar loaded ice cream sundae. E comes to me and asks if what I was making is for her or for someone else and if it isn't for her she doesn't touch or let anyone else touch it, her love for all things I make is very encouraging and rewarding to say the least.

 I use either pure wool felt or a blend with more percentage of wool in it and it does make a lot of difference to how your finished product looks and feels and even better if it is a hand dyed felt. I just cut out my shapes and then use blanket stitch to finish or embroider the designs. I wanted to use some christmas colours and since our tree is green it is best to use contrasting colours for ornaments. I used two layers of felt and finished the edges without adding any wool stuffing inside. If you like you can use some stuffing but make sure to cut the circles out a bit bigger to allow some room for the wool.

 A lot of love for my loved ones this Christmas. I miss my family and friends even more during holiday season and hope to make some new memories with them the next time we are together!

Bird Stacker Wooden Toy

I am so proud of H and for the way this toy has come out especially after colouring with the natural dyes. This design is of a stacker with a bit of a twist to it. The birds will only stack at the correct positions and since the wood is not very wide it is all about balancing the stacks on top of each other. E loved them even when they were just a drawing on a paper and once H had cut the wood out she picked up the pieces and began stacking them even before we could smooth out the edges. We had to paint them after E went to bed as she wouldn't let us touch her new toy. She loves the weight as they are very light weight and the fact that she can hold them in her tiny hands, E has hands the size of a one year old. My very tiny little girl has a big mind of her own, she stacked the pieces in different arrangements and began role play with the smallest baby bird sitting a nest in the tree!

I like the translucency of these natural dyes and how they enhance with the grain of the wood as well as the different textures in every piece. Just the idea of being able to not only provide but also make natural toys for your child is so satisfying. After spending hundreds of dollars on buying hand crafted toys for E these new additions have made me so happy and pleased on H's craftsmanship.

None of the pieces are perfect in shape or colour but they fit together so perfectly and I like what they do to a two year old's imagination, look at how she likes to play around with her toys and can do this again and again without getting bored. 

Making toys by hand appeals so much more to E than asking her to choose one at a toy shop where she usually picks up the toys but never really comes back home with them. At one point she actually cried and said "I want to help you" as we were not letting her near the sand paper or the paints, leading by example is a great idea after all.

Wooden Cave Puzzle

Finally H made one of the wooden puzzles I have been nagging him for months now. I am a happy girl and E said to H "you made it!" Ever since H has taken over woodworking seriously I have been making my lists of things needed to be made and something or the other happens and my list gets pushed back, but with long sunny summer days I have gently brought back my list. I drew this puzzle freehand for H and he cut it out from pine using his latest tool, the scroll saw, yes I have to buy him tools if I want something made!

E enjoys wooden toys, I think it has something to do with the time she spends with her dad in his workshop. Every time she goes in the workshop with dad she picks up blocks of wood and starts to make something of her own and tells her dad "Enna making something". She likes wooden puzzles and I have few for her but for the more basic ones I had given H the order which he delivered finally. This cave puzzle is simple but yet complexed as I made it a bit more curvy, which made finishing it a bit harder as well.

H cut the pieces out of wood and I helped him sand the edges and then we stained the wood together. We spent a nice warm sunny afternoon doing things we like doing, making stuff for E. I haven't been keep very well lately so this toy was a much needed mood lifter!

I couldn't keep myself from photographing it from all possible angles and as many as pictures as I could take without making it a very long post. The finish on these puzzle pieces is so smooth that I am very comfortable with E playing and handling it as she likes. I hope H continues making all the toys on my list, soon before E outgrows them!

Felt Christmas Tree Activity

E is really excited about Christmas this year, as she can see all the shops decorated and the excitement of Santa in the air! I am really happy with this new development as for the past two years we have been trying hard to make E feel festive during the holiday season and this year she is dictating her terms with a big list for Santa. I get to ask her to be nice or she will be off the list, well I should be able to benefit somehow. It's only mid November and a bit too early for the real tree so I have put up a felt activity for E on my kitchen wall. I must say that this activity only entertains her for a bit at one time but she does come back and put up another decoration after a while.

E loves candy canes and she even has a garden candy cane decoration which is bigger than her and she still loves to walk around with it. So I added some candy canes for her tree as well. Another fascination E has is with monsters, hence the blue monster teeth ornament on her tree. The presents just had to be there as that is what the holiday really means for her!

This tree allows E to keep experimenting with patterns and arrangements as she likes. There is never a set arrangement for the ornaments on the tree and I kind of like that. Quite a few mums have given the instructions to make this activity and I liked this blog  It really is as simple as it looks. Just cut out the shape of the tree from a felt fabric, I used half a metre fabric to get this size of tree. Then cut out simple ornament shapes from coloured felt and decorate by pasting contrast colour felt stripes or dots or a zig zag pattern. I used craft glue for the ornaments and a double sided tape to hang the tree on the wall. A star ornament on the top and presents at the base of the tree and it is all done. As felt sticks to another felt fabric without any glue, your child can take the ornaments out and the put them back on without any hassle. I kept a tray on the floor near this tree so that E can pack them away after she is done and then start over next time she visits her tree! Simple yet engaging.

Table Top Christmas Tree (Paper Craft)

Another year and another Christmas is just six weeks away! Where does time fly, it feels like just yesterday I was posting some christmas crafts and now here I am with more fresh ideas! I always like to start with paper crafts as they are so simple and you can see the end result almost instantly. there are so many beautiful printed card stock papers available that it just makes life so much more easier if you have a good collection of them or better still buy what you need and save the leftover bits, there are great for birthday cards. This style of making table top is probably something I remember from my school days, I saw them recently at a kids christmas crafts workshop and I just had to make some with E. I must say that it was a "It's my glue stick mum" and "can I can I" well I wouldn't expect anything more than this from a two year old with a glue stick in her hand. 

What you need

Some card stock paper plain and printed

Glue stick

Paper cutter

Ruler

Magnetic strips, 

(I used the fridge magnet from advertising material I get in mail)

How to 

These paper pyramids or trees are really simple to make but a bit hard to explain in words so I hope the pictures below will be helpful in understanding.

Cut three squares from plain card stock paper of same size. I used 10 cm squares for the small tree. Now cut three printed paper squares of same size and cut then diagonally through the centre. Fold the plain paper squares in half diagonally and paste the printed papers on one side as shown in the pictures below. 

Now paste the printed paper overlapping the plain side of another square paper as shown in picture below. all three squares will be overlapping such that the printed side is over the plain side. now paste the magnetic strip on the plain side of the last square and under the printed side of the first square as shown below. Make the tree stand by closing the magnetic strip opening and making the tree stand upright.

  You can add some paper flag or a message to the front of the tree. These can be gifted instead of cards and you can write your message on the inside. Use any printed or plain combination of papers ad create something special.

DIY Diwali Bandhanwaar

Bandhanwaar is such an integral part of Diwali decoration and finding a good one here is really hard. I have been making my very own bandhanwaars every year for Diwali ever since I moved to Melbourne. The very first year I made it I handpainted a very intricate pattern on a cardstock paper and then used some large silver sequins in the centre. My Italian neighbour loved it so much that he asked me not to take it down, atleast till it doesn't fall off on its own, such a great compliment! This year I used felt and sequins to create my bandhanwaar. Felt is one of my favourite craft materials, it is not only easy to work with it doesn't need finishing on the edges. It's not that I don't like the traditonal bandhanwaars, I just wanted to make something simple, yet beautiful. I used very basic traditional Indian colours and combined with some sequins in gold, silver and copper.

I was so happy with how the first one turned out that I made another one with paisley motifs. I used more green than red on the second one and probably more copper sequins.

All you will need:

Felt in some contrasting colours
Sequins or any embellishment of your choice
Fabric scissors
Craft glue
Lace or fabric tape to hang the bandhanwaar

 Cut the base colour felt to the length that fits your front door. Leave the top end straight and give the bottom end a scalloped edge. Add the contrasting colour felt in different shapes like paisley, heart, circle or triangles. You can play around with the pattern and design as you like before pasting them with craft glue on the felt base. 

Add the sequins and keep up the creativity and fill in the negative spaces on the bandhanwaar. Add the fabric tape on the top side of the bandhanwaar, I used a gold colour tape as shown in the picture below.

You can play around with the design and come up with something completely different to the one I made and add pearls or kundans instead of sequins and decorate your bandhanwaar.

DIY Diwali Paper Lantern (Kandeel)

Diwali is just a few days away and I am still not organised for the biggest festival of the year! Still I managed to make a few decorations and get into the mood which is pretty hard to explain to a toddler when we live out of India. There are no decorations in the markets or crackers on the street or aroma of delicious food coming out of every door in the neighbourhood. Oh how I miss home during Diwali! It is just not the same but H and I are determined that E would enjoy Diwali just as much as we did as kids so here I am starting with the very first craft for this year's Diwali, the Kandeel and it hangs beautifully outside my main door!

This shape of the Kandeel is very popular in recent years. The Kandeel would be made of tissue paper or plastic sheets so that it illuminates when the light passes through. I have used much thicker paper and didn't even punch any holes in mine so it is not very "functional" but it solves the purpose nevertheless!

I like bright traditional Indian colours for the Diwali decorations, so I've selected a Yellow sheet with glitter spots for the base and orange and red origami paper for the rest.

what you need:

You need to decide how big you want your kandeel first.
I have used a rectangular (22inch by 10 inch) card stock paper strip for the base. 
5 inch Red and orange origami paper squares
Red tissue paper for fringes
sequins or any embellishments
double sided sticky tape
sticky tape
a string for hanging
pinking shears
scissors

Here is how to make this:

Roll the card stock paper into a cylinder of any diameter you like your kandeel to be. Use sticky tape to hold the ends of the cylinder in place. Now cut the red colour origami paper into four with a pinking shears. Stick these in the centre of the orange origami square papers. 

Now stick together two diagonal ends of the origami square paper using a sticky tape. Make roughly 10-12 of these shapes. Use double sided tape to stick this on the yellow paper cylinder. 

Make sure to add some double sided tape on the sides as well as shown in the picture below.

 Add some sequins or stones or any embellishments you like to decorate your kandeel and then add some tissue paper strips as fringes on the bottom edge of the kandeel using a sticky tape on the inside.

                     

All done! It is very simple to make and can have as many variations as you like. Add different shapes or use different edged scissors or make it multicoloured, get creative!

Dark "Heavenly" Chocolate Fudge Recipe

My dark chocolate fudge has been a total sellout at any gathering and I can personally guarantee that this is truly addictive! So unless you are willing to share don't make this fudge for just yourself. I enjoy cooking with condensed milk as I get to lick the spoon afterwards. The best part of this recipe is that it is gluten and egg free. I've added pistachio but you can add almonds or walnuts they will taste just as good although pistachio makes it taste and look very gourmet! I know a few friends who would be very happy that I finally managed to post this recipe. Apologies as I haven't been able to take any pictures of the cooking process, it just is so simple that you really would not need any more pictures than these lipsmacking tempting pictures below!

What you need:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

80 gms unsalted butter

400 gms really good dark chocolate

handful of crushed pistachio 

How to make this sinful treat:

Before you start cooking, it would be ideal to line a slice tray or a cake pan with some baking paper. Chop the chocolate in a bowl in small pieces. I usually combine two different brands of chocolate. Now add condensed milk and butter to a pan and heat it on medium heat. Once the condensed milk starts to boil pour it over the chocolate and stir it. If the chocolate doesn't melt completely it would be best to put the bowl over a pot of boiling water and stir until it melts completely. Now pour the chocolate mixture in the lined tray and sprinkle crushed pistachio over it. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for two hours. Slice into small pieces and enjoy! You can store in an air tight container for upto 5 days.

This recipe really is very simple, the only care you need to take is don't let the fudge set before you transfer in the lined tray. Just keep stirring and transfer as soon as the chocolate melts. It really doesn't matter if the top of the fudge doesn't look very smooth trust me the taste makes up for everything else! Enjoy xx

Pumpkin Soup Recipe; very child friendly!

I have worked really hard on getting E to like soup and accept it as a delicious meal but with little success, until now. My very own version of the classic soup is not only delicious but is also not so sweet which makes it child friendly especially for those who are not very fond of sweet meals like E. My little toddler is not really a fussy eater, she just doesn't find it interesting to waste time on eating when she can be doing so much more fun. It is the age of exploration and I don't mind it a bit it is part of the growing process but still wouldn't it be nice if she would finish her meal before getting distracted, hmmm! I love soups just the idea of all that good nutrition going down my throat is so very satisfying. I think if the pumpkin is roasted it would add to the flavour of this soup but I just wanted a recipe which is no fuss and tastes delicious.

 I like this soup with some crumbled feta cheese but E enjoyed it just plain and simple with some butter on top. Pepper gives it a bit of a punch for me.

Ingredients

one big or two small carrots

one medium onion

one medium washed potato

around 2-3 cups of kent pumpkin

1 inch piece of ginger

1 glass of water or vegetable stock if you prefer

1 tbsp full fat cream

1tbsp salted butter

salt  and pepper to taste

crumbled feta cheese to serve

coriander leaves optional

How to make the soup:

Roughly chop all the vegetables and add water to the pressure cooker. I prefer the pressure cooker as it is faster if you would like to boil them in a pot that should be alright as well, just keep an eye on the water level add more if required. I usually add some salt while cooking the vegetables. Pressure cook for 10 mins or 2-3 whistles.

Blend the vegetables once they are cooked, ginger might be the hard one to grind completely so look for the pieces before serving. Now boil the soup again add some more water if the consistency is not as you like it. 

Add the cream and butter to the soup at this stage.

Crumble the feta on top of your soup before serving and some chopped coriander leaves. Crack some pepper and serve hot with bread of your choice!

Hope you and your little one enjoy this version of pumpkin soup just as much as we did. I'm not sure if E would continue enjoying it but at least for now she allows me to serve her some!