Soft Oatmeal Cookies

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup oat bran
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg powder
1 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
4 egg whites
1/4 cup milk
1 cup raisins+chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Beat the egg whites till they are frothy. In another bowl, cream the sugar and shortening and add the eggs to it. Then add the milk and mix. Mix all the dry ingredients to this and add the raisins and walnuts. The mixture will be sticky. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Make round cookies of about 1 tbsp mixture and 1/8 inch thickness. Place it on nonstick cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Makes around 3 dozen cookies

Source of recipe is from http://www.cooks.com/

Easter Strawberry Pastries

We were having a playdate for the easter weekend when I had made these pastries for my "little friends" attending the playdate..I happened to be at the party city the week before and got the cute little bunny picks and got the idea of fixing it on the pastries!!

INGREDIENTS:
1 packet strawberry cake mix (betty crocker/pillsbury/duncan hines)
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 lb fresh strawberries
2 cups whipped cream

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare a 13x9 inch cake as per the directions on the cake box. When the cake cools down, trim the cake by cutting the side crusts of the cake. Then cut through the cake to make two halves of the cake. On the bottom halft spread half of the cream and freshly cut strawberries. Put the upper half of the cake and decorate it with the remaining whipped cream. I used the green color cream which was left over from my previous cake. Then I made a striped apperance with the cake comb and cut the cake into sqaure pastries. Then on each pastry I placed thinly sliced strawberries in a "plus" sign and inserted the bunny pick in between. I made 15 pastries from this cake.

Chocolate Mousse Racetrack Cake

It was my sweetiepie's 8th birthday and like all other boys my son is also a "car-crazy" guy!! So I decided to make a racetrack cake in shape of figure 8 for his birthday..When the cake was set on the table, one of his friends cried aloud "wow is that the cake your mom made home?? it looks awesome"..Hearing this I thought that I had got the reward for all the pains I had taken to make this cake look special..

INGREDIENTS:

1 pack of Betty Crocker's chocolate mousse cake mix

3 eggs

1/3 cup veg oil

1 1/4 cup water

1 1/4 cup milk for mousse

FROSTING:

Whipped cream frosting (recipe in 2010 blog posts).

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare two 8 inches cakes as per the directions on the box. Let the cakes cool down. Chocolate mousse needs to be prepared just before using it.

DECORATING THE CAKE:

Take both the cakes and cut off the upper domes so that both of the cakes are flat and leveled. Arrange both in a figure 8 shape. Cut off the bottom portion of one of the cake in a small semi-circle shape so that the upper portion of the second cake can fit into it and the cakes are sort of joined together and are at the same level. Then cut both the cakes into halves horizontally using the serrated knife. Keep aside the upper halves of both the cakes. Prepare the chocolate mousse and pour it over both the lower halves and spread it evenly all over with a spatula. Place the upper halves and press firmly so that the cakes remain tight together and in place. Then prepare the green frosting by mixing the green color in the whipped cream. First cover the sides of the cake with the cream. Then using the star tip trace the upper and lower borders of the cake. Then trace the inner border and fill it up to give it a grassy appearence. In this way, you will also create the track. I also filled up the cream over the cake board on which the cake was placed and lined it up with M&Ms. If you dont want to fill up the cake board you can place the M&Ms around the lower border of the cake. I fixed some race flags prepared out of toothpicks and paper over the track.

I placed the cake over a white foam board which I had already decorated with some race flags and racetrack names. I placed a few cars around the cake on the board. The look in every kid's eye after looking at the cake was the real appreciation of this cake I guess...