Holiday Themed Homemade Pasta

Often during holidays, we cook together as a fun family activity; usually its something we have never tried before. This Thanksgiving we decided to venture past the convenience of store-bought pasta, and I must say that nothing beats the taste of fresh homemade pasta — not even store-bought fresh!  While I made the dough, kids enjoyed cutting/shaping the dough and exploring other creative possibilities, while hubby dear was happy tweaking his base recipe of pesto!

The pasta is tender and so satisfying by itself, it doesn’t need any additional frills.

Herbed-Ricotta-Ravioli with a light olive oil drizzle, and fresh basil-mint pesto!

Dough : normal,red (addition of beets)       Pappardelle

   

Kids experimenting with colorful Ravioli

Pasta drying ( 10 min )

Bow Tie pasta boiling

Ingredients   (Dough - 2 servings)

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 tablespoon salt

2 large eggs

1/2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Method:

I used a food processor to combine all the above ( add little bit more flour, water to bring dough to a proper consistency).

Let the dough rest for at least 30 min.

For the red dough, add 1 boiled pureed beet. Add more flour until the consistency is reached

Roll by hand or pasta machine, then cut into desired shapes.

Let dry for at least 10 min before boiling ( only 2-3 min )

Simple heart shaped cake

With our Parents’ anniversary coming up, my Brother and I wanted to bake a special cake for them. I could not keep it a complete surprise, as I still need help from my mom to put things together, but surely one day I will be able to manage totally on my own!

We decided to go with a heart shaped cake, and asked our Mom to help us bake our favorite dark-chocolate cake with dark-chocolate ganache, and make buttercream for the frosting!

Since my elder brother was also keen on participating in the cake project , I taught him how to decorate the border with buttercream. We asked Mom to leave the kitchen; and the fun began. We decorated the cake with borders and pearls. Hmmm…the sides of the cake begged for more creativity. Luckily, Mom had made some extra fondant for my birthday cake just few days back. So we decorated the sides with heart shaped fondant cut-outs. Something was still missing. Yes, the flowers! My mom loves flowers, so we called her once again, and asked her help to make edible rose flowers and leaves. Mom had never made flowers with fondant before but she was happy to try. Luckily, the flowers came out looking real. The cake now looked complete and beautiful!

The cake was a  surprise for Dad and (almost!) for Mom!

Art Themed Cake

My 10th birthday was art themed. Like always, my mom helped me make the fondant and bake the cake a day before my party. For me, a birthday cake is a blank canvas where I can paint my ideas just the way I want!

Custom cake made in-house!

The cake is a light delicious vanilla flavor, and all decorations are edible made with fondant and chocolate sticks.

I loved making the colored pencils, a spilled can of paint, and paint oozing out of a paint tube, while my mom made the artist palette with the paint brushes. It’s a team effort with my mom with no detail design in mind but just going with the flow.

Me and my friends had a fun time eating the colored pencils and paint brushes on the cake!

I also enjoyed doing craft few days before my actual birthday.. …like cutting out artist palettes with colored construction paper, paint splatters for the table cover, and making food label easels with popsicle sticks. My neighbor who is also a great friend joined to help me out with the craft fun!

The flower vase is a recycled Clorox wipes container with colored pencils around to blend with the theme!

My friends really enjoyed the “paint your own cupcake” activity….

    

…and eating the wet paint brushes!

The backdrop with falling paint….

..and the table looked so colorful!

We then added more color to the party by coloring our own canvases…

Birthdays are so much fun!

Baby Shower Cake

My mom helped me bake and carve this beautiful baby carriage cake for a baby shower.

I thoroughly enjoyed my entire Friday evening decorating it with our homemade buttercream frosting!

 

The cake was baked in one 14 inch and two 6 inch round pans.

The cake’s frosting and baby shower decorations were all in blue. In fact, the cake was inspired by a lawn sign we got for putting outside the party location! 

Surprise Cake!

How do you come up with a cake at a very short notice? We bake a cake for my dad every birthday. However, this year he was supposed to be traveling on his special day when his office trip got cancelled at the last minute. To keep the tradition of homemade cake every birthday, we had to get a cake ready in few hours.

This cake is so quick to make! We quickly rushed to the store to get a watermelon and whipping cream . My mom helped me cut the watermelon into a round cake shape, while I quickly whipped some cream, hid the cake in the frosting and then decorated with fresh fruit.

There you go! When my dad was cutting the cake...it was a bit hard than real cake, so he thought it was an ice cream cake. He was very pleasantly surprised to see the inside of the cake. Not only it looked beautiful but it was such a healthy cake!

The only thing I wished was that I had whipped the cream a little stiffer like my mom had advised me. However, I was super excited to put it all together so didn’t have the patience to continue whipping. As you see it started melting while I set it on the table! But that's how we learn....and as long as the cake did not reveal itself before my dad cut it, I think the purpose was served!

Banana-Walnut-Chia Bread

This is a healthier version of banana bread loaded with walnuts and chia seeds.

Ingredients

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

2 cups walnuts

4 tablespoons chia seeds

4 mashed overripe medium size bananas

4 tablespoons honey (or according to taste)

1/3 cup butter

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Method

Preheat oven to 350F.

Thoroughly mix dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls.

When the oven is preheated, mix dry and wet ingredients together and pour batter into a greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

Bake for 70 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool for few minutes, and enjoy!