Summer skirt for Tanvi!

My niece, Tanvi, loves short twirly skirts! I had made this earlier for P2.....and decided to gift Tanvi one made specially for her :)

This is the simplest skirt knit pattern I have come across - and thankfully it was free pattern :)

I have used a shaded wool for this pattern - and used needles larger than the one recommended - thereby giving an airy and light look to the skirt.

I have picked this pattern from http://www.to-knit-knitting-stitches.com/girl-twirly-skirt.html

Pasting the design here for reference along with the pictures of what I made....

Materials for Girl Twirly Skirt:

1. 1 ball (total of 500m) of wool
2. 40cm-circular knitting needle 6mm
3. 80cm-circular knitting needle 6mm
4. 4.5mm crochet hook for chain and flower
5. ¾ inch-elastic waistband
6. Tapestry needle
7. a sewing needle and thread

Directions for Girl Twirly Skirt:

Waistband: With 40cm-circular knitting needle Cast on 100 stitches. Form cast on row into a ring by knitting into the first cast on stitch, make sure not to twist the row. Knit 6 rows. Purl 1 row. Knit another 6 rows. Purl 1 row. This part is a skirt's waistband.
Begin skirt body tier 1: Knit 19 rows. P 1 row.
Increasing Row to form tier 2: *K1, yf repeat from * to the end. P1 row. (200 stitches total)
Begin tier 2 body: Knit 22 rows.
Increasing row to form tier 3: With 80cm-circular needle K1p1 into every stitches until the end of row. (400 stitches total) Knit another 21 rows. Then do Garter Stitch edge (p1row, k1row) twice. Bind off all stitches. Cut off yarn if you don't want picot edge. Don't cut off the yarn if you want to have picot edge and do the following;
With a crochet hook, *chain 3, skip 1, sc into the 3 st; repeat from* to the end. Cut off yarn and secure to back of work.
Cut out 22 inches of elastic waistband and sew both ends together to form a ring. Turn the skirt so that the wrong side is show on the outside. Place the elastic band at the 7th row and fold the first 6 rows of the skirt over it. Sew along the closing edge of the band with the same yarn using tapestry needle.
Knit or crochet a long chain and thread it through the eyelet at the beginning of tier 2. Tie a little bow. Make a daisy flower (see instruction below) and attach it on top of the bow.
Instruction on how to crochet daisy.
Chain 6 and join in a ring with slip st.
Round 1: 14 sc in ring, sl st to 1st sc at beginning of round to close.
Round 2: (into front strand of each sc work 1 sc, ch 6, 1 sc) 14 times, sl st to 1st sc to close.
Round 3: (into back strand of each sc work 1 sc, ch 8, 1 sc) 14 times, sl st to 1 st sc, fasten off.

 

KNITTING!!!

I have taken up a brand new hobby - KNITTING & CROCHET!!!

Baking has taken a back seat......as I m totally engulfed in my new found hobby of creating a new pieces of garments for my lil princesses!!

It started off with a pair of small booties for my new born Ira......and there was no stopping after that!

Here are some pics of the what I have made till date......will post the designs for each of them separately.....

 

Dora Cakes

P2's favorite Dora Cakes!!!

I had prepared them some while back and forgot to save the recipe.....so went through the entire effort of searching for the recipe online again :(

This time, I am actually taking out the time from my very very hectic schedule (being a mom of 3 leaves you soooooo short of time!) to save this precious recipe for my lil angels :)

The link for the recipe - http://yummyindulgences.blogspot.in/2012/03/elaines-kitchen-custard-dorayaki.html

The below recipe calls for cake flour, but I didn't have any, so used regular flour. And for the filling between the Dora Cakes, I simply used chocolate butter cream.

The recipe below and the pics below are taken from the above website directly....

Dorayaki Batter

4 Medium eggs

60   g    Sugar

60   g    Honey

 3    g    Baking soda, dissolved in 1 tbsp water

240 g    Cake flour, sifted

40   g    Corn/Sunflower oil

30   g    Milk

Sugar syrup
50 g   Sugar    
50 ml  Water

Bring sugar and water to boil in a pan then set aside for it to cool.

To make the pancake batter: 

1. Beat eggs with an electric whisk till foamy.

2. Add in sugar and whisk till soft and light.

3. Add honey and mix well before adding in the baking soda mixture.

4. Fold in cake flour gently before combining oil into the mixture.

5. Wrap the bowl of batter with a cling film and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. 

6. After 30 minutes, remove the batter from the fridge and add milk into the batter and stir incorporate the milk gently with a whisk. The batter will be slightly runny but not watery.

The batter: Before and after adding milk.

7. Heat a non-stick frying pan on high. The reduce the heat to low (Level 2) and add some cooking oil and swirl it round. Wipe off excess oil with a kitchen towel.

8. Gently drop 1 tbsp of batter into the frying pan at 2cm height. The batter will form into a nice round disc on its own and it should expand to approx. 6 - 8 cm in diameter.

9. If you have quite a large frying pan, you can fry a few pancakes at once to save time. 

Dorayaki at different stages

10.  Allow the pancakes to bubble before flipping over to the other side. This process will take approx. 4 mins and 30 secs. (I timed it with the stopwatch function in my phone!). 

11. Let the pancakes cook for further 30 seconds once the pancake has been flipped over. 

12. Transfer pancakes onto a plate and brush it with sugar syrup mixture to keep the pancake moist. 

13. Leave aside for the pancakes to cool down. Repeat the process above until the batter is all used up. You might also want to cover the pancakes with a damp cloth to seal the moisture in the pancakes. 

 

Happy eating :)

Vanilla cookies

Next on the baking agenda today were simple vanilla cookies, to be packed into the gift boxes. Thoroughly enjoyed making these, as it was soooooooooooooo simple!!!! And I used some cutters to get cut outs of stars, flowers, hearts and diamonds :)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup soft butter (room temperature)
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 2 cups plain flour
• few drops of vanilla essence

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees centigrade.
2. Beat the butter soft.
3. Add the sugar and mix well. Add vanilla essence.
4. Add the flour and mix to form a soft dough.
5. Divide the dough into large balls.
6. Roll out each ball till about 3mm thick.
7. Cut out into desired shapes and place on a baking tray.
8. Bake at 170 degrees centigrade for around 10 mins.

I had just finished baking these by the time the kids were back from school. P2 was so excited to see the cookies and all her favorite shapes! It all so worthwhile just to see that excitement on their faces :)

Vanilla chocolate cupcakes

I can't believe a year has passed by, and I am totally out on updating my recipes :(. SO much cooking has happened, but no time to get them updated. Finally I felt it was time I started recording the recipes that I really want to keep for the future, recipes that someday, hopefully, my daughters will go through too :)

P2's fifth birthday is tomorrow, and was racking my head as to what to pack for some gifts for her classmates. The usual trend these days is to give a stationery box with toffees. I decided to give them small pretty boxes with a cupcake, cookies and a Perk. So spent a good part of the afternoon baking the cupcakes and cookies.

I wanted something different, not the usual cupcakes. So come up with this idea of a layered vanilla chocolate cupcake. It looked awesome! Will put the pics up shortly......

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients :
Chocolate cake layer:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup cooking oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup curd 

Vanilla cake layer:

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cooking oil
  
• 2/3cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup milk

Recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees centigrade.
2. Follow the same procedure for both the batters separately. 
3. For the vanilla batter - 

• Mix the sugar and oil well. Add vanilla essence.
• Add one egg at a time and mix well
• In  a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt.
• Divide the flour mixture into 3 parts. Add one part to the oil batter, followed by half of the milk. Mix well.
• Add the second portion of the flour mixture to this batter. Mix well.
• Add the remaining half of the milk and continue to mix well.
• Add the rest of the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Do not over beat. 

Follow the same procedure for the chocolate batter. Mix in the cocoa to the flour mixture and proceed as above.

In the muffin tray, add a spoonful of vanilla batter and over that, add a spoonful of the chocolate batter. Do this for all the muffin moulds.Bake at 170 degrees centigrade for around 14 minutes.
Check if cooked and let them cool on a grill.

Simple, isn't it!

Orange Cake

Another cake created to utilise some of the leftover food in the house :)
This time, its oranges! I had 3 oranges, which nobody wanted to eat...........so off they went into this cake and were devoured in no time :)

Again, this recipe is courtesy - joyofbaking.com.

Ingredients:

6 large eggs, separated plus 1 (30 grams) additional egg white
2 1/4 cups (225 grams) sifted cake flour (or you can use 2 cups of maida and 1/4 cup of cornflour)1 1/2 cups (300 grams) superfine white (castor) sugar (sugar grounded in a mixer)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable oil or safflower oil
3/4 cup (180 ml) freshly squeezed orange juice (2 - 3 large Oranges)
2 tablespoons (10 grams) orange zest (grate the skin of the oranges to get the zest)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (or you can use a few drops of lemon juice)
Method:
Separate the eggs and place the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (170 degrees C) and have ready a baking tin (ungreased) ready.
In the bowl of your electric mixer (I used the food processor), fitted with the paddle attachment, place the flour, sugar (minus 3 tablespoons), baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the egg yolks, oil, orange juice, orange zest, and vanilla extract. Beat about one minute or until smooth.
In a separate bowl, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar/ lemon juice and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 3 tablespoons (42 grams) of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
With a large rubber spatula or wire whisk, gently fold the egg whites into the batter just until blended (being careful not to deflate the batter).
Pour the batter into the ungreased baking tin and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. (When lightly pressed the cake will spring back).
Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven invert the pan and place on a flat surface so it is suspended over the counter. Let the cake cool completely before removing from pan (about 1 1/2 - 2 hours).

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