Make Your Own Muffin or Cupcake Moulds at Home ~ Quick Tips

Learn how to make your own muffin or cupcake tray at home using readily available utensils

Baking can seem a daunting thing when you are just starting out and realise you need different types of baking trays to get started making cupcakes and muffins. It's often not a great idea to go out and buy everything you see or feel you need especially if you are just trying your hand at baking and may not even end up liking it that much (although that's hard for me to imagine!). That's why learning how to make some basic bakeware at home really helps. So here's how you can improvise and make your own cupcake tray using an Indian spice box and small cups inside. 

All of us have to start baking at some point in our lives. I started when I was 10 because I have a mom who baked a lot. Even then, we had just 2 cake trays - one was round and the other was heart-shaped. We had no cupcake trays so we never baked cupcakes.
But, that really shouldn't stop you. Here's a quick tip on how to bake cupcakes with no cupcake moulds using your Indian spice box - or masala dabba as we call it back home.

- Take out the individual holders inside and clean it if you were using it for your spices

- Dry well with a clean kitchen towel

- LIne evenly with aluminium foil (this is for even baking)

That's it! Pour your batter 3/4 of the way and play on a baking tray in the oven. You will get perfectly shaped cupcakes of the same size each time and you don't have to spend on an extra cupcake tray unless you bake very often.

My sis and I also did this for the perfect pound cake we baked when back in Kottayam. We I mentioned, our mom only has 2 trays and both were too big for the amount of batter we had so we improved by using the masala dabba container. We removed the smaller containers from inside), lined it with aluminium foil, and baked as normal.

Idli Upma Recipe | Upma Recipe with Leftover Idlis

Idli Upma with Leftover Idlis

Amma makes idlis in bulk and stores them away. We also have dosa batter at home, dosa is our staple food, much like rotis are to those of you who have it every night or almost every night. For us, it's dosa. Idli was initially meant to be made only the day after the batter was made but later on, amma started making idlis with more than half the batter and storing them away.

We kids are not fans of idlis. So when we visit, she tries to make things more interesting by either making us some other kind of breakfast like appam or puttu or idiyappam, or we have idli upma. Simple, mild, and a delicious breakfast with hot filter coffee or cardamom tea.

These series of pictures are from my mom's kitchen, at her old yet gleaming stove near the window that lets in gorgeous golden light through the day. If I say anything more, I am going to get terribly homesick so on to the Idli Upma recipe!

Idli Upma

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves 4-6 people
Recipe source: amma

Ingredients:
15-20 idlis
2 onions, sliced thin
5-6 dry red chillies, halved
2 stalks of curry leaves
3 tbsp of oil
1 tbsp of channa dal / kadala paruppu
1/4 tsp of mustard seeds
Salt of to taste
1/4 cup of grated coconut (optional)

How It's Made:

1. Crumble the idlis fine. Actually you can decide how fine or chunky you want it to be, amma does it quite fine. It also helps if the idlis are a bit cold, crumbles easier.

2. Keep your red chillies, curry leaves and onions ready.

3. Heat oil and add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the channa dal.

Fry until they turn golden brown - about a minute. This gives out a nice flavour to the idli upma.

4. Add the chillies...

... and onions.

5. Fry until the onions turn a golden brown. Throw in the curry leaves and salt. Be careful with the salt, since the idlis are already salted. Mix well.

6. Add the crumbled idlis...

... and mix well to combine everything. Keep flame at medium-low at all times, or the idlis will start to fry. We need to maintain its softness at all times.

7. Sprinkle the grated coconut on top (if using)...

... and mix again well to combine.

All done! Serve hot with sambar and chutney. We normally just have it with some sugar or leftover pulusu / kozhambu from the day before.

Simple and delicious!

Notes - if you feel like the idli upma is turning dry, sprinkle some water as you mix it. Don't add too much though. Also, be generous with the oil and always keep flame at low-medium.

Sambar Sadam Recipe | Sambar Rice Recipe (Rice Cooker Recipes)

Sambar rice made in rice cooker is an easy one-pot weeknight dinner for us on many days of the month. I posted a poll on the sidebar a few months back asking if you had a rice cooker or not. More than 70% came back with a yes. Well, I have one too and I hardly ever make anything in it apart from rice, which is inexcusable because there's so much more you can do with a rice cooker.

If you like easy rice recipes, some of my favourite recommendations are - South Indian lemon rice, paneer and peas pulao, and this easy vegetable pulao made in a rice cooker too. 

So I am starting a mini-series in here featuring rice cooker recipes. If you have a favourite, please leave a comment, I'd love to try it.

My rice cooker is a Zojirushi 5.5 cup induction cooker which I bought from Tokyo. Frustratingly, it was more expensive than Amazon and in-store in Singapore but I like to believe it's worth it. It does cook rice perfectly each time and by perfectly, I mean it's fluffy and soft and unlike any other rice I've cooked using any other method. Anyway, more on that in a review soon.

Sambar Rice (Sambar Sadam) in a Rice Cooker

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 cup of rice
3/4 cup of toor dal, soaked for 30 mins in warm water
1 carrot, sliced
10 green beans, sliced
12 shallots (or 1 large onion)
2 tbsp of sambar powder
2 tbsp of oil
1/2 tsp of cumin / jeera
1/4 tsp of mustard seeds
1/4 tsp of hing powder (asafoetida)
1 stalk of curry leaves
Salt to taste
1 lemon-sized ball of tamarind
1 + 2.5 cups of water
A small bunch of chopped coriander leaves, for garnishing

Instructions:

0. Soak the tamarind in the 1 cup water for 10 mins. Extract juice and discard pulp.

1. Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and cumin. When the mustard seeds pop and the cumin seeds turn a golden brown, add the hing. Fry for 5 seconds.

2. Add the shallots immediately after and fry for 2 mins.

3. Add the vegetables .Stir to combine well and let it cook for 5 mins until they begin to soften.

4. Top up with the sambar powder and curry leaves.

5. Mix well and let it cook for another 5 mins, stirring once or twice in between. Turn off flame.

6. Wash and rinse the rice and add to the rice cooker bowl...

... followed by the soaked toor dal

... and the cooked vegetables, water, tamarind extract, and salt

7. Mix well and cook per your rice cooker instructions. Mine is an induction cooker so it takes longer to cook the rice than regular rice cookers.

Voila! Rice cooker sambar sadam is ready.

Garnish, mix, and serve hot with curd, chips, and pickle.

Notes:

- You can add vegetables of your choice or none, if that's what you prefer. I like to make it a balanced one-pot meal so I add whatever vegetables I have in hand. The shallots or onions are a must-add though

- Soaking the toor dal helps make it mushier in the rice cooker. Mine doesn't cook dals to a mush so I have to help it along. If you want super mushy sambar rice, add more water and soak the dal longer, or cook in pressure cooker before adding to the rice cooker. That would make the process much longer though, obviously

- You can do the initial sauteeing in the rice cooker bowl itself, once it's heated up. I haven't tried this since mine is an induction cooker and takes a while to heat up. Let me know if you try it this way in yours

- Adding salt to the uncooked rice and dal may make it tougher to cook to a mush. Try adding salt after the dish is done. I will try this next time and see if it makes a difference

Dark Chocolate Fudge Doughnut Cakes

Sometimes, you need to bake something for friends you are visiting for dinner. When you are trying to decide what to make, you need to figure out how to use that amazing Valrhona cocoa powder you've been saving up for too long, the doughnut pan which you thought was such a smart and essential buy, and you also need to make sure your own chocolate craving is satisfied.

I turned to one of my favourite books to address all of the above - A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman. I managed to use up the cocoa powder, inaugurate the new doughnut pan which I am in love with now, and get some super fudgy, sticky, not-so-sweet, delicious chocolate doughnut cakes.

Win!

The original recipe was for Dark Fudge Bundt Cake but that shouldn't deter us. Make it into anything you like - a cake, bundt cake, cupcakes, or these lovely doughnut shaped ones if you have the right pan.

Dark Chocolate Fudge Doughnut Cakes

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Makes 18 - 20 doughnut cakes
Source: A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman

Ingredients:
1 � cups of white sugar
1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup of unsalted butter, melted
3 eggs
2 tsp of vanilla extract
3 � cups of all-purpose flour
� cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp of baking powder
1 � tsp of baking soda
� tsp of salt
1 � cups of warm coffee (I used warm water mixed with 2 tsp instant coffee powder)

How to Make Chocolate Doughnut Cakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350F / 180C. Generously grease a cupcake tray, (grease the liners if using), doughnut pan, ramekins, or bundt pan, whatever you prefer to use. This cake tends to be quite sticky after baking so make sure you grease your pans well. You can make out the stickiness from the first picture, actually!

2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together until well blended.

3. In a separate bowl, combine both the sugars with the melted butter. Mix well.

4. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for a minute until smooth. I did this in my Kitchenaid to make things easier (and also so I would I get some use out of it!)

5. Then add the flour mixture and stir to moisten the batter.

6. Slowly drizzle in the coffee, stirring at the same time carefully to make a smooth batter. I mixed it gently just enough for all the ingredients to blend well. Don�t overbeat.

7. Spoon batter halfway into the prepared moulds or pans and bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 mins until the top glistens and springs back on touch.

8. Remove and cool before sprinkling with icing sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature.

After 2 days, store in the refrigerator for up to a week and serve warmed in the microwave for 30 seconds or after leaving it out for about 2 hours.

These carry really well for a party or pot luck. I love them as-is with no frosting or even dusting of sugar, with a glass of cold milk. Yum!

Notes:
- This recipe makes a lot of cake so halve it if you'd like. Some of the measurements are not easy to halve so do what I do. If you need to halve 1/3 cup for instance, just take a 1/3 cup measurement cup and fill it half way. For eggs, just use 2 instead of trying to use 1.5 eggs.
- I've mentioned it in the recipe but I'll say it again. The cake comes out quite moist and sticky so grease your pans well
- If you'd like a sweeter cake, increase sugar amounts. I know it looks like a lot but we are also adding a fair bit of chocolate and coffee. Adjust accordingly. You can also frost it if you'd like, keeping the amount of sugar the same as in above recipe
- To make this cake eggless, follow usual substitution ingredients (eg: flax seed meal, Ener-G, yogurt, etc)

UPDATE: I was asked by a lot of you about the deep colour of my chocolate doughnut cakes and the reason is the Valrhona cocoa powder I used. It's amazing, gives a lovely purple hue and great depth recipes it's used in. If you are wondering which cocoa powder to buy, highly recommend Valrhona cocoa powder. (Not paid advertising)

Spinach Adai | Keerai Adai Recipe

I love adai. I love any recipe with spinach. So when these two are married? Oh boy!

It was love at first sight when I saw this gorgeous adai on Anu's blog. I made it soon after and absolutely loved it. Since adai batter doesn't need fermenting, this is far easier to make than regular dosa. I had the batter for 3 days in the refrigerator and it was just fine.

Spinach Adai | Keerai Adai Recipe

Preparation time: 3 hours
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Makes ~20 adai
Recipe inspired by Anu

Ingredients:
1 cup of rice
1/3 cup of toor dal (tuvaram paruppu)
1/3 cup of channa dal (kadala paruppu)
1 large bunch of spinach
1 tsp of cumin seeds (jeera)
3-4 dry red chillies
1 tsp of coriander seeds
1/2 tsp of black pepper powder
1/4 cup of grated coconut
1 tsp of oil
Salt to taste

How to Make Spinach Adai:

1. Add the dals to the rice, wash, and soak for at least 2 hours.

2. Heat the oil and add add the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, red chillies, and pepper. Fry for 30 seconds and add the spinach, roughly chopped. Cook for 2 mins until the spinach begins to wilt and shrink.

3. Grind the soaked rice-dal mixture along with the spinach mixture and coconut with some salt and water. The mixture can be slightly coarse, that's totally fine.

4. You can make the adai immediately. Make sure both sides are cooked until slightly golden. I used gingelly oil to cook them up.

Serve hot with coconut chutney. For a change, I served it with two of my favourites - chow chow kootu - and tomato thokku. Yum!

Thanks for the awesome recipe Anu! You rock :)

Rajma Masala Recipe | Rajma Chawal Recipe | STEP BY STEP

Rajma Masala is a great side dish for chapati and roti and goes fantastic with a hot bowl of jeera rice too. Apart from the soaking of the rajma (red kidney beans), this recipe requires very little time to prepare. If you buy canned rajma, you can avoid even that long step. 

I am in New York for a week and as is the norm, after a total travel time of 28 hours (including a 6-hour delay in Frankfurt), I feel brain-dead. The euphoria of being in New York again helps but not enough to bring me out of my migraine-induced coma.

But wait, I should have written this in the past tense because it's been 1.5 days since I got here and I am better. Not yet perfect, but better. And as Mondays have the tendency to come sooner than later, I am at work, taking a quick coffee break.

So a quick post this shall be.

Rajma Chawal (kidney beans gravy in rice) has often been described to be as comfort food. Not so much to me because I didn't grow up on rajma. In fact, my sis introduced Rajma to my mom a few years back and she called it Rajamma for the longest time :D

Anyway, while dal chawal and I have become fast friends, I don't turn to rajma chawal for comfort. But it's still a great dish to cook up when you are short on time.

Rajma Masala | Rajma Chawal Recipe

Preparation time: 8 hours
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 2-3
Adapted from: Tarla Dalal

Ingredients:
1 cup of rajma / red kidney beans
1 cup of rice, cooked
1 large onion, sliced thin
1/2 tsp of cumin / jeera
1" piece of Indian cinnamon, powdered
1" piece of ginger, grated
2-3 green chillies, chopped (or 3/4 tsp red chilli powder)
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
1 tbsp of coriander powder
1 tsp of amchur (dried mango powder) or use a little tamarind as a substitute
1 tsp of chaat masala
2 tbsp of oil
Salt to taste
1 tomato, sliced (optional but recommended if you plan to serve as rajma masala with rotis)

How to Make Rajma Masala for Rajma Chawal:

1. Soak the rajma (kidney beans) for at least 8 hours or overnight. Pressure cook for 3-4 whistles until soft yet not mushy. Set aside.

2. Heat oil and add the cumin seeds. When they sizzle and begin to change colour, add the onions. When they turn pink, add the powdered cinnamon, ginger, and green chillies. Fry for 2-3 mins.

3. Then, add the coriander powder, amchur or tamarind, and turmeric. Mix well and cook for another 3-4 mins. My onion-masala mixture is red because I used red chilli powder instead of green chillies.

4. Add the cooked rajma along with the water used to cook it in and the sliced tomato. Mix well and let simmer for 5 mins.

5. When the gravy thickens a bit, add the chaat masala and salt. Mix well, bring to boil again and turn off heat.

You can stop at this step, serve this in a bowl with rotis and call it rajma masala. Or, you can go ahead and make a one-pot meal out of it. Add cooked rice and mix gently.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves (cilantro) and serve warm with some yogurt. Rajma chawal thayyaar!

Note:

1. You can cook the rajma and rice together too. For that, make the masala as above and add the soaked rajma and washed, uncooked rice to the pressure cooker and cook for 4-5 whistles. I wanted to make sure I could adjust the spices and taste so didn't opt for this the first time. Maybe next time that's what I will do to save time.

2. Using canned rajma (red kidney beans) will make this a super quick dinner idea. Or even otherwise, if you remember to soak the rajma in the morning, making it for dinner on a weeknight is a breeze.