Monthly Mingle | Honey Cream Cake with Honey-Saffron-Cardamom Brittle

I have been trying my hand at baking and frosting a cake from scratch, in preparation for Ina’s birthday cake for later this Fall.  So we’ve been having cupcakes with and without frosting crop up every now and then.  The aim is to be able to make a homemade cake with no artificial coloring/ flavoring.  Too much of food coloring in the kiddie birthday cakes, sort of turns me off.  I cannot seem to resist the urge to spoon out all of that color loaded cream and give Ina just the cake, when we are birthday parties.  Somehow, the blues and greens on the cake transforms me into this panic stricken mom!  The last time we had a large gathering for Ina’s birthday I made sure we had a white cake with whipped frosting without any major bells and whistles.  Yes, that’s true - the multi colored- food dye  loaded buttered frosting adorning a cake, especially a birthday cake, is truly one of my pet peeves!

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Daring Bakers Challenge | My adaptation of the Armenian Nutmeg Cake

A few of my friends asked me when I was going to get back from France (smile), while I was sitting right beside them.  At first, I had this puzzled look on my face, not quite understanding their question. Took me a while to figure out that they were hinting at the ladle – yes, the one that wanders (smile).

The experience of a culture is either through food or art, predominantly, irrespective of whether or not you have physically visited the region.  Wandering Ladle started with a purpose of exploring the world through food and photography and thus far, the culinary expedition couldn’t have been better.

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Spinach and Gruyere Quiche

After a long tiring day, I need truckloads of motivation to get into the kitchen and cook. On such days, my mind goes completely blank and all I can do is gaze at the pantry finding it extremely difficult to figure out what exactly I could make with minimal muscle movement. This time it was a little different. We had an extensive but overall a very productive day as we got a lot of things scored off from our long list of “to-do’s”. Each of us had a few chores assigned and we were able to get all that done. What started out on the emotional scale as ‘being overwhelmed’ just got turned into ‘relief’ and of course, a sigh!
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Assorted Macarons

Growing up, a ‘macaroon’ was either a chunk of a cookie loaded with coconut or a tough sugary meringue cookie with bits of cashew nuts and almonds. Either ways it was always a ‘cookie’.

Well, all that changed when I was introduced to the world of French Macarons (pronounced mah-kah-RONES) by a friend. Much lighter and delicate, these are like little pastry sandwiches and not exactly cookies, like they get referred to as at times. The filling can range anywhere from being really simple with a sweetened mascarpone creame or even the very tropical passion fruit-mango-coconut cream. More than just treats these are like a bite sized symphony (of flavors) in your mouth.

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