Oscar night party!

Firstly, cheers for Javier Bardem. Wasn't he looking so handsome last night?

Anyway, coming to the point...I've been wanting to have an Oscar party for a while. So we got together with our friends last night all dressed up and played oscar bingo and a quiz as well. All in all it was good fun. I cooked up some oscar inspired appetizers and dessert while my friends bought dishes inspired by the foreign film category - yummy egg salad sandwiches, tasty pasta, mexican enchiladas and chicken teriyaki. They were so yummy!


Caramelized onions and cranberries on crackers with cream cheese -

Polenta triangles -

Baked potatoes infused with herbs and topped with pepperjack cheese -

Bruschetta-

Strawberry puree & lemon curd trifle with pound cake/strawberry and lemon jello/whipped cream. Yummm, I love fresh lemon...the fragrance and the tartness. I will post the recipe soon.

The trifle was then topped with Oscar royal icing creations. I drew the oscar statuette on parchment paper and them piped royal icing on them. Then I let them dry for over 24 hrs. Once dry, you have to be really careful at peeling them from the paper, which I didn't do. So unfortunately most of them broke apart. Look closely and you'll see the patchwork. ;) Also, I stuck these figurines in strawberries that were slightly slit to make them stand on the trifle pudding. Else, they would just sink.

Dora the Explorer cake - first time with fondant

All the previous posts of making Dora and her buddies with fondant is probably going to make sense now. It all comes together, finally!

This is the first time I was using fondant on cake and it was to celebrate a lovely 2 year old's birthday, who's really fond of Dora.

The cake that I made was a pineapple chocolate chip cake and I then filled and frosted it with dark chocolate ganache (lightly flavored with caramel and pineapple).

The cake was then covered with a green fondant representing the forest that Dora usually hangs out at with her friends - Boots, map, backpack and Swiper. Anyways,  some of the other things that I added the day before the party was the palm tree, stars (I added wiggly/googly eyes for some fun), tall mountain (made out of cocoa crispies) and river under the mountain. Everything was homemade including the marshmallow fondant that I got from this website (http://whatscookingamerica.net/). For some reason, I made two batches of this fondant on different days and the second time I made it, it just didn't work. Anyway, I'll leave this for a different post!

 Day before pictures -

Day of the party -

 

I have to thank my sister for helping me make the stars at the last minute and for helping with the cleaning (yes cleaning, I could go on and on about the mess that I make in the kitchen during baking, in this case I rather not talk about it) And I also have to thank my husband for rolling out the marshmallow fondant eventhough he didn't really want to. Didn't leave him a choice! This was probably the most difficult part as the fondant tears or sticks to the countertop. If you use store bought fondant, it's much better and does not drive you nuts like the marshmallow fondant. But again, it was my first time and hopefully, with practice it'll get better.

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Baked by Chitra is on the foodieblogroll!

  Finally after a few weeks worth of wait time, my blog has made it on the foodieblogroll. It's great to be a part of a blogroll with 10,000 members. Not to underestimate the challenge that it brings with itself...you've got to stand out and prove yourself. A little bit about what I've been thinking lately - I need to expand my horizons and add in other forms of cooking that might have inspired me to share it with friends. It's also great (I believe so!) to share dining experiences. In the past I have done so by talking about a bakery...only one so far! So you'll see a lot more happening on this blog but it's still going to predominantly remain a baking blog. Are you wondering by now that why am I telling you all this and why do you care...I am! My reply to that would be that you care (Awwww!!), which is why you're reading this at the first place (thank you!).

Anyway, for the curious souls, please do check out my blog and other that may interest you by clicking the link below:

http://www.foodieblogroll.com/blogs/sweettreatsbychitra-blogspot-com

Also,  just wanted to spread the word to help grow the network at foodieblogroll. You could be one of the few lucky ones to win a tote bag! Please see below for more details.

Giveaway: Spread the Word & Comment to Win a FBR Tote Bag - February 2011

Feb, 18 2011

We are very excited to announce another round of our most popular contest to help grow our network during February and March 2011! During the next 4 weeks, we will give away 4 custom Foodie Blogroll Tote Bags to members who help spread the word about the Foodie Blogroll!
The more members we invite to become part of our community, the better! As our numbers grow, we are able to get noticed by a wide variety of companies who will be interested in sponsoring more giveaways for our members.
To enter, just post about the Foodie Blogroll on your blog, or Tweet about it or become a fan of our Facebook page. Let's spread the word and grow together even faster!

The Prize:

a custom Foodie Blogroll Tote Bag. Perfect for those trips to the grocery store or farmer's market!

Region:

No geographical restrictions.

How To Enter:

Do one or more of the following:

• On Your Blog: Post about this giveaway on your blog.
• On Twitter: Tweet @FoodieBlogroll is giving away 4 Tote Bag.
• On Facebook: Fan Foodie Blogroll's page here.
• On The Giveaway Page: Leave a comment with your thoughts on the Foodie Blogroll Tote Bag

Leave a separate comment per activity to increase your chances.

Truffles to celebrate Egypt's victory!

The Egyptian people have shown a lot of courage and they've been creative at it as well, so I felt that I should do something (it's not so creative though) to celebrate the end of Hosni Mubarak's regime. This is a great victory for the Egyptian people and I had to treat my Egyptian friend, Mohammed, at work. He loves sweets and what's better than truffles!

He's a little camera shy, but he's really happy and proud of his people and country. So am I! Being brought up in the Middle east, I believe strongly that this is something that will revolutionize the way things work...it already has!

So here are some truffles that I shared with Mohammed!

They are just chocolate ganache (caramel and pineapple flavored) balls rolled in cocoa powder and then I piped some more chocolate on them.

Superbowl cupcakes!

Eventhough I was dissapointment that Jets were unable to make it to the superbowl (again) this year, the excitement doesn't fade to watch the superbowl! We had a superbowl party at a friend's place and I ofcourse had to make/bake something to take along!!

So I thought why not cupcakes - Green Bay vs. Steelers. I wanted to get an idea of how many people were voting for one or the other, but that was difficult to track down and ...a little too much. So, I decided to make my own creations - chocolate raspberry cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting (mini and medium sized, depicting the ball's color), carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (and this was my own creation with gud...indian name for jaggery). A few of the cupcakes had a plain white frosting and the others screamed Green Bay...Green Bay with a multi-colored green, yellow and white frosting! Sorry Hitesh! Along with two chocolate cupcakes with cayenne pepper and this was the centre of attraction with the fondant logo creations.

Playing around with the frostings!! I tried to get a rose on the cupcake...

Some more additions to the Dora family!!

 Backpack and Swiper - a total of 3.5 hrs to make these, so not so bad!!

Swiper's whiskers are quite long...so I need to trim them!!

Now comes Dora!! It took me a total of 5 hrs and 45 minutes (yes I timed myself) to make her and get her to behave!! Her arm kept falling off and out of those almost 6 hrs, I spent two hours only in getting the right brown skin tone that she has!

I need to fix her eyes...have to clean them up.

 Overall, I am not disappointed with the way she turned out. I thought she was quite close...Or maybe, I'm going to redo her till I don't get it right!