TRIFLE TALES…OF VISITING BLOGGERS & SWEET THINGS!
She works as a senior product manager, is full of beans, and blogs @ The Variable … is as variable as the name suggests. A finger in every pie, & time for everything … for family, for friends, for acting in theatre, for entertaining her little 2 1/2 year old niece, for baking cakes after getting back home at 9pm, for visiting Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi on a Sunday, for lovingly taking care of her car… & of course for pursuing her baking hobby!
She arrived with baskets of things, bits & bobs related to baking, silicon ware her brother had got from Melbourne, decorating sets her aunt had sent … she had a ‘plan’!! And here I was thinking we would just sit & chat, but what arrived the previous night by email was an ‘agenda’!! Yes, you heard right, here was a lady with a mission & she meant business! We set the ball rolling quite as soon as she arrived, & did manage to achieve a load that day. Somehow threw together a low scale lunch as well…
We had a hurried lunch of grilled chicken, penne in a mushroom sauce, a corn salad in buttermilk ranch dressing, & garlic artisan bread. Dessert was a delicious strawberry yogurt panna cotta which surprisingly set very well. I was unsure because I had eyeballed amounts due to the lack of time, but it was ‘goblet– licking’ good!
Post lunch we hit the kitchen. She really wanted to get a window on decorating cakes & cupcakes. I had made a batch of vanilla cupcakes the previous evening to give us a platform for practice! The good girl had baked her version of a Zebra cake & brought it for my kids, but she wanted to frost it first. Here’s what I taught her to do…like it?
Once that was done, we sprinkled the edges with the grated chocolate. The lady wanted a strawberry on top. So I sliced it fine, left it attached at the base, fanned it out, & placed it in the centre! The cake looked so good when it was ready, & tasted fab too. Nachiketa had added some coffee & cinnamon to spice up the flavours & extra chocolate too … all in all, it was YUM!! The kids had seconds, & tried, without luck, for 3rds!!
It was fun!! We did a cut-out butterfly on one, piped ziz–zags on another etc, & then used sprinkles to top them off. Another 5 minute excercise because we were short on time.
Will post the trifle & yogurt panna cotta recipe soon … both part of my strawberry overdrive! Oh yes, and there’s some frozen strawberry yogurt coming up too!! Sweet dreams!
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
55 Comments
Happy cook
I can imagine both of you sitting there and eyeing the bread and also eyeing the dough in the fridge too.
Beautifully decotated agg, i think i like the zebra cake with the decoration than the plain ones and it is a very beautifully decorated.
Marija
That’s great! I am so grateful for all the friends I gained through blogging!
Snooky doodle
oh that was surely nice day spent. Very productive too. The cake looks awesome and the cupcakes so cute. the trifle is yummy, I would lick the glass 🙂
Lucy
Absolutely wonderful was had w/great food !
Poornima Nair
Wish I lived in Delhi, I’d invite myself over :)…you guys accomplished a lot in a day…the frosting on the cake is perfect, looks beautiful.
Parita
hi Deeba the cake looks delicious and perfect…yummy 🙂
Maria
The cake looks divine. I love the decor! The cupcakes are cute too!
Bunny
How nice you had company for the day Deeba, the cake is beautiful and so are the cuppies!! You two certainly accomplished alot that day!!
Soma
I am totally at loss of words.. that cake! I wish i could do this atleast once in my lifetime, & i wish i lived near you, so i could make my agenda & come:-)everything looks gorgeous, & definitley shows the great time u guys had. waiting on the recipes. see why i told that i learn from all of u?
Dawn
I am so bad at my cake decorating skills. Even my cupcakes are, at times, not so great. I’ve been meaning to sign up for some classes, somewhere. I love the decorated cake the most here.
Clumbsy Cookie
That’s awesome! You two had a great time for sure and that cake is just gorgeous!
Barbara Bakes
How great that you got together – what a fun day! The cake is stunning!
Elenka
Ugh, you, Deeba, are no good for my diet !!!
I guess I’ll just have to cut and paste another recipe from you. Can’t help myself.
Nicisme
What fun! I love to meet fellow foodie bloggers, and how brilliant that you did some cooking together!
Lovely cakes!!!
MsGourmet
Sounds like you had an eventful day!
Donna-FFW
Oh what fun. Oh, Im so jealous. I would have loved to have been there and learned all those techniques!! Gorgeous cakes, sounds like an awesome day!
Bellini Valli
The two of you must have had such a blast together!!!!!!!
Helene
I would have enjoyed the day with you as well. Looks like so much fun. And I love everything you made.
Nags
so much fun!!! you should probably have workshops or something 🙂
Reeni♥
What fun you two cooked up together!!!
Divya Kudua
All I can say is…lucky Nachiketa..I agree with Nags-you should conduct workshops,so that we “lesser mortals” can gain from it.I simply loved the cake snap on your header and this post is making me drool.Thanks for giving step by step instructions..loved it!!!
Proud Italian Cook
Deeba, I justed stared at your gorgeous cake! So, so, beautiful!
I totally want your yogurt panna cotta too, can’t wait for the recipe,and btw that photo is stunning!
noble pig
Oh my word you all went crazy decorating! Everythng is beautiful, what a fun time you had.
Cate
I don’t know what looks better … everything looks so delicious.
Kerstin
I LOVE classic vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting – yours look fantastic! And, your cake is gorgeous – yum!
Manggy
I don’t like the frosting job… I love it 🙂 Sounds like a fun day, if pesky because of that darn electricity!
You gotta have pretty prehensile tongues to navigate the inside of that goblet! But for something that looks that good, mine just might!
coffeegrounded
Deeba, I love how you opened your home and your heart to this dear. I can only imagine the laughter and chatter the two of you shared. Such a beautiful story.
🙂
Anthony Sepe
Deeba,
Glad you were able to get together and share the day; what a nice story. Looking forward to your “Yogurt Panna Cotta” recipe.
Best regards,
~Anthony
http://fromadietitiansperspective.blogspot.com
Nachiketa
Can’t agree more with what Divya Kudua said… am so lucky…..
I had such a freaky time at her place…..
Check out Zebra Cake for the Rajpals
Lunch at Deeba’s
Cups of Magic ~ Vanilla Cupcakes @ Deeba’s
Ivy
That sounds like fun. Your friend is lucky to take some lessons from you.
Miette
Everything looks so delicious. Those sound like having fun and enjoy baking ! Very great lessons ! I’d like to share with you recipes and tips too !
Cheers,
Miette
Sara
Wow, simply beautiful!
ChefBliss.com
How fun!! And this all looks so delicious!
Camille
Wow! That was one crazy day of baking and the results look so incredible. The cake is stunning, but honestly all the rest looks so scrumptious. I’m stuffed just looking at it all.
Hillary
Looks like you two had a lot of fun. I can’t believe you decorated that cake in 5 minutes!
Dwiana P
WOW…. those look Yummy!! I would love to come to your house. You are such a good host:)
Arwen from Hoglet K
Sounds like you had a great day. You’ve done a beautiful job on the zebra cake. It looks really professional!
A_and_N
I wish I’d stayed near you! 🙂
aquadaze
the next time I make a choc cake, i am gonna decorate it like this! totally in love with its look 🙂
Ria Mathew
How i envy you Nachiketa!!! I really wish i lived in Delhi!!
Deeba! U r amazing!!! love you blog! It’s sooo inspiring!! Wish i was half as talented as you! 🙂
Will keep coming back for more!!!
Palidor
I’m so impressed. You ganache rings are perfect circles! You must have a very, very steady hand.
Lorraine @NotQuiteNigella
Gorgeous feathering work on your chocolate cake! I wish I could get mine as picture perfect! 🙂
Gloria
I really envy your friend dear Deeba I want go to your home and stay days and days baking!!! nice!!
all look beautiful, dear Deeba! xxxxxGloria
Gayathri
wow this is great entry, love the pic
lisaiscooking
Sounds like a fun day! Everything looks delicious, and the cake is so pretty!
Anonymous
That’s one good looking and neat cake. Hey Deeba, you’ve got to look at holding cake making and decorating classes! Seriously!! 🙂 Angela
Aparna
You sure had tons of fun. It sure was food all the way! 🙂
Vandana Rajesh
Lovely post Deeba. A chocoholic’s dream come true. Decorating a cake is one that have been running away for. A mental block. Tried your ganache the other day, came out well although I think I need a bit more of practice. This looks so professional and your block has been a great inspiration to take up baking and trying to decorate cakes. Tried your zebra cake too the other day, was wonderful. Is the base for this cake the zebra cake recipe?
kellypea
So fun to meet up with other bloggers. Sounds like you had a good time together in spite of having no electricity. Gorgeous desserts — where do you find the time? Wishing I had a sampling right now…
Prathibha
The cake looks really stunning…i wish i could have had a bite of it…
Raaga
Nice nice… when can I come over for a lesson… and of course, more importantly… to meet you?
Ingrid
AW, how much fun was that! Loved all the photos. I wanna bake with a fellow blogger! Fantastic job on the zebra cake…very impressive!
~ingrid
Purnima
With two live wires, this had to b the result! Simply marvelous, Nachi, wish I was in your place..which reader wouldn’t want to be watching Deeba’s skills!! Everything on this post looks mouthwatering!
Anonymous
Pretty insightful post. Never thought that it was this simple after all. I had spent a good deal of my time looking for someone to explain this subject clearly and you’re the only one that ever did that. Kudos to you! Keep it up
Anonymous
I usually don't post in blogs but your blog forced me to, amazing work.. beautiful !
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