Mom's favourite Banana Oats Wholewheat Bread

Let me come straight out and say it. My mom is a health nut. I know i am supposed to value half my audience when there are only 2 people reading this whole thing, but hey its true. And she doesn't look like she is going to get cured of it anytime soon. I mean i 've been waiting for what thirty odd years now. I 've learnt to pick my battles when discussing what food is good for you. That is, not pick any when the person on the other end is mom. It's then easier to change sides and quickly jump over to the winning side.

So while my bakes have been commended by one and all, mom has, at best, been quiet about them or gently chided me on why these sugar laden goods with white flour are not really the best for me or anybody. Consequently, when picking a recipe to bake for mom, i hesitantly picked one that i thought had a fighting chance. Little did i know that it was going to be a huge triumph. That this simple bread would be raved about and second helpings would be asked for. And i would finally get unequivocal praise on my bakes from highly health-conscious mom. Of course, she did suggest that i could have done completely without the sugar in this recipe. So there :-)

Fresh Strawberry Cake for my wonderful neighbours

I have wonderful neighbours. They love my cake. This one woman especially, who has a big sweet tooth, always sends me a message telling me how much she likes my cake after every new experiment. And then praises it again when she sees me in the balcony. She's half my inspiration for trying out new cakes, including this. So i 've made friends with this set of women who live in the apartment block next door and they were planning a potluck to celebrate New Year's Eve. I was told about it, invited, then reminded and persuaded to also attend. While i declined giving all sorts of excuses that included the in-laws, the husband and the little one; i still could not throw away an opportunity to share my 'apparently famous' cake baking skills.

Homemade Fried Chicken inspired by KFC

I never really wrote for myself. Though i loved writing prose from as long as i can remember. Writing a good piece made me happy, but it was never enough. I needed the high from someone else telling me how good it was. And so i never wrote without an audience in mind. Now i sit in front of the computer to update my blog and find that i have lost my audience. (understandably of course, because who waits a year and more to find out what you are up to and what eats interest you) And i realize it really is time for me to write for myself. To get lost in my words, so that they may make me happier than what i am. To find paths through my mind that will excite me, as i walk the same old roads everyday in the physical world. To accept that it's alright to not always have to be proclaimed as the best, just to be the best within your unchangeable circumstances without giving in to despair. I need to put these into written words to believe them, to read again when that despair starts to creep up.

Because there was cake

The animals were the first to disappear - into the mouths of waiting kids

Yes, birthday cake! My son's first birthday cake! No i didn't bake. I just ate. Lots of it. More than i should if i were sane. But it was a birthday cake, and i am supposed to eat my little one's share too, right? Right?

I know i have been completely absent from the blog this year and mostly absent last year too. I wanted at least one post to show in the archives against 2013, so hurriedly typing this up before i am too late and the year whizzes past me before i can take notice. And i am now truly amazed by new moms who have been doing fabulous work to keep their blogs active.

Fresh Pineapple Upside Down Cake

It's not that all i do is bake cakes. Its just that baking cakes gets me excited enough to come here and leave a record of it. And so a couple of months after my last post i come back here to talk about another new cake i baked and how good it turned out. This was my first attempt at baking the much famed pineapple upside down cake, my first attempt at making caramel and i had absolutely no expectations about this whole attempt resulting in an actual cake. I had lots of hopes of course, but no real expectations. I was prepared for a gooey mess that would fall apart when taken out of the cake mould and was then delighted with the perfect colour and shape of the entity that proudly stood in front of me at the end of 45 minutes in the oven.