Dev's lovely 1st birthday cake

NO, this cake is not my creation. I cannot be a computer engineer, study for my post-graduate degree, organize a birthday party for 150 people, be a mom AND bake the cake! And whenever I can't bake, the request goes to our cake baking lady and a good friend, Aisha. She's been baking cakes for us for 7 years now. She has an amazing ability to transfer my different north and south ideas into a beautiful edible creation. Everytime I ask her to bake a cake, its usually for an occasion. When we go through the design books she's got, I usually end up combining this design with that design, with a bit of this and that... and go away wondering how she's going to combine them all togethor. And then when I see the cake, I'm just left dumbfound and amazed at how beautiful it looks.

My son turning 1 was like the most special event for me ever, its like feeling that its my best birthday till date. I had to have a big bash and called everyone I knew. Offcourse there were skeptics who were saying, "Why such a big thing? Would Dev even remember this event?". But to me it is a big event and totally worthy of celebration. The best part is he laughed and played the whole time and didnt cry one bit!!! That just made my day!

When I went to see Aisha to ask her to bake the cake, this is what I remember telling her...

"I want a biiiiig ONE for the cake "

"...but for 150 people, its going to be a huge board size..." she said

" uhh, ya, okay then put it on a base, that should cover a piece for everyone" I said.

As I flipped through some pages I saw a square cake with a beautiful rainbow made with coloured sugar and just fell in love with it.

"...hmm cant we put this rainbow on the '1', it would be nice wishing him a rainbow... a promise for a bright colourful future" I said poeticly.

"hmmm..." she said.

"Oh please use warm yellow, red, orangy colours, he loves warm colours, no dark cold colours...no blaring blues, no dark purple and bottle green please"I said

"hmmm..." she said...

As I left her house, I thought to myself why do I make it complicated for her every time and tell her to add bits of this and that. Having a big 1 cake with a rainbow and only warm colours, is going to look like khichdi!!!

On the big day, as I was decorating the hall, the cake came in and I ran to see it...., and it was just amazing...... I was speechless!!! Thank you Aisha!

Trifle Green with avacado and kiwifruit

I love to make trifle for dessert when a small group of people are coming over or for a special treat. Its so easy to assemble and proves to be a hit with everybody. Usually I stick to a colour theme, and throw in fruits of the same colour. Sometimes seasonal fruits determine the colour of the trifle! Like when mangoes are in season, its Trifle yellow, and for peaches it Trifle orange and Trifle Pink with strawberries, and when there's no fruit around, then its chocolate all the way!! This time I decided to try green with avacado and kiwi specially for Meeta. It turned out yum, hope she likes it too!!!

what you need:

- 500gms of any sponge or madiera cake
- custard (vanilla) made out of 750ml of milk
- roughly chopped fresh fruit (here I used kiwi, pear and peach)
- 1 packet (50g) prepared fruit jelly (I've used green here)
- 250ml fresh cream
- 50gms icing sugar
- 1 ripe avacado peeled
- (preferrably) a nice glass trifle bowl or any glass bowl.

The amount of the ingredients above can be varied as some people would prefer more fruit as opposed to more custard or cake.

But the amount of ingredients above makes for around 20 people (when this is served for dessert!).

what you need to do:


Place, slices of cake at the bottom of the bowl. Pour in some milk to soften the sponge. Here you could easily use fruit juice, cream or liquor to soak the the cake slices.

Cover with a layer of custard. Custard can be prepared in advance (overnight) and used here. When preparing the custard, it can be coloured (with a few drops of green in our case) to go with the fruits too. I dont tend to use unnecessary artificial colouring so Ive just left it a creamy colour.

Throw in a layer of chopped fresh fruit. Really, we can put in any fruits here. Cover the fruits with a layer of fruit jelly. (Jelly usually has gelatin and vegetarians and can use the non-gelatin based fruit jelly that are made of agar-agar).

Repeat the layers of cake, custard, fruit and jelly. The thickness of the layers should be in relation to the height of the trifle bowl so that they all fit in. For example if the bowl has a short height, then put in thinner layers of everything.


For the top layer blend togethor the fresh cream, icing sugar and the avacado to get a lovely green fresh cream icing. The blending of cream with the sugar and avacado will thicken the cream in the process. Come to think of it, it would be great to ice a cake with this too.





Top the bowl with the yummy blend. Add in buttons of cherries, and serve chilled.


I'm taking this over to Meeta's big birthday bang, hope she likes this surprise and I get the bowl back licked clean!!!

Seb aur Gaajar ka Murabba (Apple Preserve and Carrot Preserve)

Why is it that as we grow up, one by one, we start liking, in fact relishing, those very foods and dishes that we detested when we were younger? I remember I used to hate ginger when I was a child, I used to hate the chilliness and tingling sensation felt on the tongue, but now ginger in a dish just ranks it so much higher to other dishes... and I love Injipuli (ginger chutney) to bits. There was a time I used to hate cabbage and cauliflower, ooh I used to stay far away from them, but now... I loooove to have my cabbage thoran and coleslaw; and one of my favourite things is to have chilli gobhi dry(cauliflower). I wouldnt mind even plain gobhi aloo like the one musical made a while back. I remember I used to hate green pepper once but now cant live without it in my salad and on my pizza and sometimes in my pasta... All this makes me think I shud now try all the things I used to hate to eat before, maybe I'll like them!!

Why I'm going on like this is because recently I was given a plate of 'Seb ka Murrabba' (Apple Preserve) by my mum. Its good for me in the winter months she says (knowing that I had an cholecysectomy operation recently and should be having good and nutritous things to eat). I made a big pout since I didnt like the stuff (or so I thought) and hadn't eaten it for years, and hesitatingly put a piece in my mouth.

WOW, it was like the flood gates of a huge dam of yummy fruity syrup had been opened up in my mouth.

"huggle muggle duggle" I said to her with my mouth full.
"WHAT??" she said.
"This is so yummy, how do you make this mum?"

She told me and I was stunned beyond words at how easy it was to make and how yummy it was tasting! I couldnt figure one bit why I had disliked it before. My mum says traditionally murrabbas are typical winter preserves and very good for healing and for example 'Gaajar ka Murabba' (Carrot Preserve) is said to be good for improving eyesight. Also Murrabbas are said to have a warming effect (Taasir) on the body so they are good to have in the winter months. The best murraba to have is said to be 'Aamla ka Murabba', but we've never seen fresh Aamla here in Africa and I promised I would have it on my next trip to India. Murabbas should be had only two to three pieces at a time with a handful of blanched and peeled almonds. That is so probably because they are so sweet and satisfying that you can't have more than that in one sitting. So mum made whole bottles full of carrot and apple murrabbas for me and I relished them all through my sick leave and recovery time. To my surprise I did recover whithin a couple of weeks, and what beats me is how can a syrup cooked fruit and veggie help so much to heal? I couldnt understand it from the scientific point of view.. Like, why shouldn't I have raw apples and carrots? Does anybody know? And what else do you know about murrabas and syrup fruit preserves? Any information would be so welcome. Enough rambling and now and onto the recipe!

Seb ka Murraba (Apple Preserve)

Like all cooking with apple the best to use is Granny Smith apples (the green and slightly tangy ones)

1 kg - Apples
1 and 1/2 kg - sugar
5gms - citric acid (preservant)
750mls (3 cups) - water

Peel and deseeed the apples. Keep them in a bowl of water as you peel others so that they dont discolour. Quarter the apples.

Combine in a pot the sugar, citric acid and water to make a syrup. When the syrup comes to a rolling boil, put in the apples. Boil for 10 minutes.

Cool and bottle with blanched, peeled almonds.

Gaajar ka murraba (Carrot Preserve)

1 kg - Carrots
1/2 kg - sugar
5gms - citric acid (preservant)
250mls (1 cup) - water

Peel and chop the carrots into bite size chunks.

Use the sugar and water to make a syrup. When the syrup comes to a rolling boil, add the carrots. Boil for 20 minutes.

Cool down and refridgerate in the same pot. Repeat the procedure the next day at the same time (boiling for another 20 minutes). Repeat one more time the third day.

Cool and bottle with blanched, peeled almonds.

Spinach and Feta Pizza

Most food bloggers that I have been reading recently are talking about the ‘lovely spring air’, ‘spring blossoms’, ‘warmer weather’, ‘fresh spring vegetables’, etc etc. While all the food bloggers brag about the warming weather in the northern hemisphere, here we are hit by colder and colder winter nights, and a chill in the air in the southern hemisphere, brrrrr.

Even though it doesn’t snow in most parts of Africa, it does get pretty cold, which makes me wonder how the Khoi-San people, no offense meant, survive in the Kalahari desert with just their animal skin chaddis. Ok back to my comfort recipe to indulge in, while some of us sit wrapped up in blankets in front of the TV. My hubby says the best pizza he’s had is the one made at home, so I make this quite often, and keep trying to experiment with different toppings. This spinach and feta one, I tried, came out way beyond my imagination. It had an amazing flavour, was warm and so comforting.

I’m wondering if I can send it in as a late entry to Indira for JFI & WBB : greens, I’ll give it a try!

What you need:
- 500g self raising flour
- 50g margarine
- 1tsp oil
- 2-3 cloves garlic crushed
- 150ml tomato puree


- A few sprigs fresh basil
- Dried oregano
- 50g feta cheese
- 500g fresh spinach leaves
- 200g mozzarella cheese
- Salt to taste
- White pepper and black pepper to taste




Makes two pizzas 30cm in diameter. This is for people who like a thin crust. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
Pizza dough: Rub in 50g of margarine into 500g of self raising flour. Add water to make soft dough. Cover with a damn cloth and keep aside.







Tomato base: Sauté some garlic lightly (don’t brown it too much) in a tsp of oil, and add the tomato puree with finely chopped basil leaves, dried oregano, salt and white pepper to taste. Keep aside when ingredients have combined and cooked well.










Toppings: feta cheese and crumbs and spinach puree. Cube the feta cheese making sure the cheese doesn’t crumble too much. Also we don’t have to use a lot here coz we will be topping with mozzarella finally. For spinach puree: blanch fresh spinach leaves, and puree them in the processor to get a thick dark puree.





To assemble: Roll out the dough into two circles of about 8mm thickness onto a baking tray. Spread the tomato base. Spread the spinach puree. Scatter the feta cubes.

Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese, salt and black pepper to taste. You can sprinkle dried origanum too.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees C until the base is cooked and golden from below. Switch on to the grill to cook the top until golden. Cool slightly, slice evenly before serving.