Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart (Queen of Tarts)

Oh my. That was my first thought when I saw this tart online. Oh. My. I had to have it. I don't even like peanut butter as much as one of my friends does (she knows who she is) but it just looked far too delectable not to try.

Chocolate Buttermilk Bundt Cake

In the event of having too much buttermilk, as noted in my previous entry, I decided to try a chocolate buttermilk cake. I also hadn't used my bundt pan in ages, and felt like it needed some attention. Also, I just really wanted a classic simple chocolate cake around the house.

Keep in mind I doubled this recipe and my bundt pan is huge. This can easily be stored in your fridge or freezer for up to a month and enjoyed whenever... especially for chocolate emergencies.

Pandan Coconut Macarons w/Ginger Filling

The latest MacTweets challenge asked for a combination of fruit and spice in a macaron. I had been thinking of testing out a pandan (screwpine) mac for a while now. I love the smell and flavor of pandan, even though I've never actually seen or tried the leaves, and only purchased the bright green paste at Asian stores.

Buttermilk Pie

I want to say, this past week I became part of a fabulous new website called Honest Cooking. It's got lots of tips and recipes to check out, and I'm a contributor! If you click on the badge on the right side of the page, you can see my articles... The site in general is very cute, interesting and well-written. I love how international it is and I'm so glad to be a part of it!
Now on to the pie...


This pie mainly came out of the fact that I just had too much buttermilk in my fridge. I had to use it up! I can't stand to actually drink buttermilk but I love it in baking.
My mom and most of my family though, enjoy drinking a different kind of buttermilk straight up.... My grandmother makes buttermilk at home in India and they often add salt and/or spices to it. It's common to be had after meals.

Chocolate Cake w/a Secret Ingredient

I made this a while back for my housewarming party. When I made it, I was so intrigued by the "secret ingredient" that I didn't even notice that it was gluten free until later...
I tried to make everyone guess what the ingredient was but no one could until Joe kept saying things like "it's an alliteration!" "it starts with a b!", heh. 
Some of the guests weren't too surprised since it can be made with brownies as well. But either way, the cake was finished so fast I never took a photo and had to make it again recently... just for photography purposes of course....

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes (Eggless & Butterless)

Wow. I never thought I'd bake a vegan cupcake. I didn't even realize it was vegan until much later...
I rarely bake for myself, mainly because if I made desserts that I would want to eat... well, I'd end up eating all of it. But this week I decided to cave and make something with my favorite flavor combination of all time... mint and chocolate.

I had also seen a chocolate cupcake recipe with coconut milk as its base instead of butter or eggs and I was intrigued. Since I'm not actually vegan, I decided to indulge with a mint mascarpone frosting. 

To keep it vegan for my vegan peeps, I whipped up a simple vegan ganache. Did you know that coconut milk acts the same as heavy cream? You can actually whip it up the same way! Although I'd heard of this, I'd never tried it till now. I brought it to a boil and stirred some chocolate into it, and it was smooth, just like ganache. No whipping or beating needed, it was thick and pipe-able in minutes. 

Chai Creme Brulee

I finally got to use my blowtorch, which was a lovely gift from one of my favorite aunts :) 
I was kind of afraid to use it for a while, and then when I finally opened it, I found out I had to buy the fuel for it... I actually went to Home Depot on my own, which I don't think I've ever done... I felt like such an adult! And then when I brought home the fuel, turns out the HD guy gave me the wrong one.. It looked odd to me but the guy convinced me that for a chef's blowtorch that was all I needed.

Black Sesame Cupcakes w/Green Tea Frosting

I held my first macaron tutorial last week! It was a success :) We made black sesame macarons and this time I tried a matcha green tea cream cheese frosting instead of my usual vanilla one. I'm a little afraid of too much green tea flavor, since it can turn bitter fairly quickly, so I added the powder with caution.

Gluten-Free Banana Almond Tart

I want to try more gluten-free options. I made a gluten free cake a couple weeks ago and I never got to take a photo of it because it was inhaled by my friends... So I'll have to make it again (I'm sure no one will complain about this) but I've been trying other new recipes instead.


This is a banana almond tart, no flour, no butter, no oil... It was rather delicious! Perfect with tea or coffee. One side of the pan was slightly overdone so next time I need to remember to rotate the tart pan halfway through the baking time.
And it's a one bowl recipe which is always nice. 

Lime Yogurt Cake with Raspberry Sauce

I had some raspberries sitting in my fridge that I needed to use up and I noticed this recipe online that involved a fruit sauce. I also had some nonfat plain yogurt in my fridge that I keep to go with any Indian food I make, which hasn't happened lately...