There is something about cherries and chocolate that is a marriage made in heaven. Both are deep, dark, beautiful, and delicious, and their flavors blend together perfectly.
I love cherries in their pure cherry form – fresh or dried, with no additives and no enhancements, just pure cherry flavor is what I favor. I’ve tried cherry pies, cherry ice cream, Black Forest Cake with Cherries, cherry flavored drinks, I’ve tried them all – though they all taste wonderful, I always come back to my favored way of eating cherries – pure unadulterated cherries. If I want to eat cherries in some other form than fresh or dried – the only other way is with pure chocolate. Continue reading Sweet and Tart Sun-dried Cherries Dark Chocolate Bites with Fuchsia Blossoms & Rose Petals→
I was gifted a delicious apple bread loaf for Mother’s Day from our neighbor and friend Karen, and I have to say this apple bread loaf was outstanding. I’ve never had an apple bread loaf before, so naturally I didn’t know what to expect. What I tried I liked very much 😋.
The loaf itself is unusual as it is not like a cake but rather it had a whole grain nutty texture, which got me wondering if it was made with whole-wheat flour? I asked Karen for the recipe and she graciously shared it with me, and yes, it was made with whole-wheat flour.
This apple bread loaf had a thick topping of a yummy cinnamon sugar and nut mixture, while the loaf itself was not very sweet. In fact, it was so mild on the sweetness scale that if we wanted to we could have had it with some jam. But wait; there was a surprise inside when I cut the loaf! Continue reading Apple Bread Loaf→
An apple cake that is not too sweet, not too dry, but just right? This recipe is the one. This apple cake is the perfect balance of sweet with a little kick of spices, all mixed together with grated fresh apples and fresh ginger. I am loving fresh ginger in sweets and treats lately. I find it adds a nice spicy fragrant kick and especially balances the sweetness of cakes really well.
This is a teacake recipe that I came up with inspired by the giant zucchini our friend Karen dropped off from her garden. I had already made a zucchini curry and a zucchini soup with this giant squash. The next dish had to be something sweet and a teacake seemed like the perfect sweet treat for this super tender zucchini.
When I came up with this teacake recipe I was trying to replicate a zucchini loaf bread I used to have at Peets Coffee & Tea years ago. It was super moist, not too sweet, with some lovely sweet spices, and a few walnuts. I used to admire the delicate green specks of zucchini that always caught my eye when I would take a bite.
I love shortbread. That buttery cookie with just a hint of salt that goes so well with tea is a favored cookie of mine, mainly because it doesn’t compete with my afternoon tea. It satisfies my cookie fix without being too sweet. So I thought why not try making shortbread cookies at home? This way I can flavor it with some exotic spices to make it interesting.
It just so happens I had the perfect opportunity to make shortbread cookies as my friend Devi was coming over for lunch. Devi has been telling me for years that she doesn’t have too many sweets, but what she does have every day is a cookie with her afternoon tea. Instead of making a dessert for our lunch I decided to make shortbread cookies, and flavored them with cardamom and rosemary.
When one has an ice cream maker at home it is so much fun to get creative with ice cream flavors. The best part of having an easy to use ice cream maker is that we can make small-batch ice creams – just enough for one evening. This also means that we can experiment with different flavors in small quantities. The twins and I love trying out new and creative ice cream flavors over the hot summer months.
Saffron pistachio ice cream is a classic ice cream flavor in India called Kesar Pista, which translates to Saffron Pistachio. Used to be I could only find this flavor at Indian grocery stores or at Indian restaurants and ice cream parlors. But now with my easy to use ice cream maker, making Saffron Pistachio Ice Cream at home has become a breeze. Here is the recipe.
This recipe is for a strawberry mint lemonade simple syrup which is a concentrated syrup that can be stored in the refrigerator until you are ready to make a lemonade drink.
One of my twins Rani got in the mood to make some chocolate cupcakes a few weekends ago. But Rani is a picky one; she likes dark chocolate, even in her cupcakes. YES! I thought. I am going to be treated to an adult cupcake made with dark chocolate!
Now as you may know, there are countless chocolate cupcake recipes out there, hundreds of recipes actually. Yet somehow Rani was able to narrow down her search to this one recipe from Gimmesomeoven.com. She asked me to take a look at the recipe for 1: do we have the ingredients and 2: for approval – i.e. is this an easy recipe to follow. I gave her the thumbs up 👍. This is how Rani’s chocolate cupcakes turned out. Pretty cool!
I have been wanting to make this cake for a while now as I’ve been thinking lately of a sweet my Mom used to make when I was younger called coconut burfi – which is a cross between a cookie and a brownie like texture – kind of like a blondie bar but without the eggs. I typically make coconut burfi with coconut, ghee, milk, cardamom, and sugar, all condensed down into thick creamy dough. It is poured into a mould and then cut into pieces after it is cooled. It takes a long time to make and is a lot of work. This coconut cardamom cake is my attempt to replicate a coconut burfi flavor but in a cake form.
If you are like me, you may not be familiar with the pineapple guava fruit. To be honest, I only discovered this fruit five years ago after we moved to our new home. In this beautiful landscape we saw these evergreen bushes with the most gorgeous blossoms.
Berries and cream is our family’s all time favorite berry dessert. This sweet treat allows one to enjoy the fresh berry fruit flavor while at the same time elevating it into a dessert worthy of a special dinner. You only need 3 ingredients – berries, honey, and cream – that’s it. From these three pure all-natural ingredients you get a dessert that looks and tastes amazing.
Many berries and cream recipes involve whipping cream with sugar and vanilla or making a custard of sorts – both of which require that you mix and stir and use another pot and utensil or gadget. Not this recipe – I promise you. It’s the easiest dessert to make, it’s fresh, quick, easy, and delicious. Here is the recipe for our family’s tried and true Berries and Cream. Continue reading Berries and Cream→
