Ragi (finger millet ) has not been my favorite for a couple of reasons and this month I have tried my best to start liking it by using it in interesting forms and surprisingly I did like it. I think the one common reason why some people may not be excited about ragi is the dull appearance it lends to the cooked dish. I think that a dish should not only be healthy but it should look good too. So I was thinking of ways to make ragi look more appetizing and came up with this idea.

I would say that blogging has definitely made me more responsible than I ever was. Since so many people are visiting the website, I have to be very careful about the authenticity of the information I post and for that I’m doing quite a bit of research too. When I announced the Corn event, one of my blogger friend had a doubt if the makai ki atta (maize flour) available in India is whole grain. I also had a similar doubt, if Masa di harina I see in the stores here is whole grain. So I set off to find some information on the following:

• What is masa de harina and makai ki atta?
• Are they one and the same?
• Is it the whole grain form of corn?

From the information I have gathered so far I’m pretty sure that masa di harina and makai ki atta are one and the same. To get both, maize (corn) is dried and soaked in a lime solution. The process is called slaking. The hull loosens after soaking, which is removed and then the damp corn is ground into fine flour. Actually this flour is nutritionally superior to cornmeal (I’m thinking that the cornmeal mentioned here is the degerminated cornmeal and not whole cornmeal) because the lime water adds calcium to the corn and makes the niacin in the corn nutritionally available.

Now that we know that masa de harina and makai ki atta are one and the same and they are nutritionally superior too. Are they whole grain forms of corn? I’m guessing the answer is “no” because the hull is removed during the slaking process. That being said I think that it is less refined than all purpose flour and also has the added benefit of calcium. This is my take on this topic. Please feel free to share your views here and correct me if I’m wrong.

Shall we move on to the recipe now? If somebody asks me to pick my most favorite recipe, it would be without a doubt this low fat blueberry coffee cake. I have sung it’s praises in that post and am going to do it again here because it is that good. Before trying that cake, blueberries was not in the list of my favorite fruits, but after baking that coffee cake I stock blueberries so much that one day my husband (and others too) might start calling me “that crazy blueberry lady”. So one day last week, as I was raiding my fridge, what do I find? 3 packs of blueberries and a cup of blueberry soy yogurt. You know what I would have decided to do. Of course bake the blueberry coffee cake, but with few changes. Since I’m hosting the “Corn” event, I wanted to incorporate that too in the recipe and now here we have a very light, not so sweet, vegan blueberry cornmeal coffee cake.

Course 3 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating Series covers some more designing with buttercream icing, royal icing and fondant. I was eagerly waiting for this course thinking that dealing with fondant would be easier than decorating with the other icings. I couldn’t have been any wronger. Fondant is very high maintenance and at least it was very difficult for me to handle. It’s going to take a lot of practice for me before I can decorate something decent. Taste wise too, I prefer buttercream icing to fondant.

The following were covered in Course 3:

• Cornelli Lace
• Sotas
• Brush Embroidery
• Drop Strings
• Ruffles

• Lily
• Poinsettia
• Petunia
• Morning Glory

For everything about how to decorate with Fondant check here for exhaustive details.

• Fondant Rose
• Fondant Curlicues
• Fondant Bows

Coming to the cake recipe which I used for the class, I found it on the box of Ener-G Egg Replacer. It’s a recipe for an egg free Victoria Sponge Cake. I made 2 changes to the original recipe. Used barley flour instead of all purpose flour and canola oil instead of vegetable shortening.

Hello friends, I’m very thrilled to inform you all that EgglessCooking.com has been nominated for the Best Food Indiblog of the year 2008 by Indibloggies. Take a look at the other Indian food blogs nominated and if you like mine the most, vote for me here.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! Course 2 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating series concentrates more on flowers and especially flowers made with royal icing. What is different about royal icing? Royal icing does not use any fat (butter/shortening). It’s just a combination of confectioner’s sugar, meringue powder and water. Unlike buttercream icing, royal icing creates hard-drying and long lasting decorations. This means you can make these decorations ahead of time (even months ahead) and simply place them on your cake. Another interesting feature of royal icing decorations is that it will not soften or crumble when stored properly. It should not be kept in bright light, as colors can fade. Just like buttercream icing, consistency of royal icing is very important. Another item used in royal icing decorations is the Color Flow mix. This again has egg whites posing a problem to vegetarians and vegans.

Is royal icing better or buttercream icing? Since royal icing hardens it cannot be used to frost on cakes, even though it is edible. It is used as a glue while making gingerbread houses, decorated on cookies and for other long lasting decorations. Taste-wise buttercream icing gets my vote, but if you want to have a spectacular visual presentation royal icing is good. I didn’t like the taste of the flowers I made, it is just hardened sugar. Of course children can’t get enough of this. Another important thing to note is royal icing is high maintenance. The tips, decorating bags, the bowl in which you prepare the icing, the mixers and anything that comes in contact with royal icing has to be very clean and grease free. There is no excuse for this at all, because even the slightest amount of grease will affect the texture of the royal icing and you won’t be successful. So it is advised to have separate set of tips, containers etc for preparing royal icing. If you use the same stuff you use for buttercream icing and don’t clean it well the fat from this icing will affect the royal icing. So use a dishwasher and my instructor also suggested cleaning the tips, etc with vinegar before using it with royal icing.

We learned a lot of cool floral decorations in Course 2 but I did not get everything right. It requires a lot of practice. The following is the list of things we covered:

Using Buttercream:

• Reverse Shell
• Rosebud
• Chrysanthemum
• Basket Weave

Using Royal Icing:

• Color Flow Decorations
• Apple Blossoms
• Violet
• Victorian Rose: Similar to the buttercream icing roses, but you would be using royal icing instead. Also tips 97 (right handed) or 103 (left handed) is used instead of 104.
• Daisy
• Daffodil
• Pansy
• Primrose

I was looking for a good white cake recipe to bake for my husband’s birthday. I saw a recipe for vegan white cake in The Vegan Family Cookbook by Chef Brian P. McCarthy. Actually that book has a lot of interesting recipes, especially vegan baking recipes and I literally want to try each one of them. Wish I had the time for it. So do look for that book in your local library.

• Apple
• Figure Piped Baby Heads
• Grapes
• Leaves
• Shell
• Star Drop Flower
• Swirl Drop Flowers
• Clown
• Heart
• Rosette

Barley flour is quite a new addition in my kitchen pantry. This cookie recipe is my first experiment with barley flour and I’m happy to tell that it’s a huge success. Unlike whole wheat, barley flour did not impart a raw smell and taste in the cookies. It’s finely ground so there is no grittiness too. I found Bob’s Red Mill Whole Barley flour in the organic aisle of the grocery store. Like any other whole grain flour, barley flour too should be stored in the freezer. Be sure to bring it to room temperature before baking. Barley flour is less glutenous, so if you want to experiment with it start with cookie recipes first. Since cookies need very less or no rising at all, substituting upto half the quantity of all purpose flour in a cookie recipe should be fine.

I have finally completed the Course 1 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating Courses. It was fun and interesting. It covers the basics of cake decorating. One can get the hang of various tools and materials needed for decorating a cake after completing this course. What seems impossible at first looks quite easy after taking the class. I decorated 3 cakes during the 1st course. They were not perfect but at least I’m getting better than simply slathering frosting unevenly on my cakes. Like any other art, cake decorating too requires a lot of passion, patience and practice. So if you are patient enough and can devote some quality time to practice you can master it in no time.

Usually each course has 4 classes, with one class per week. So in a month you will be completing 1 course. Having 1 class per week also gives ample time for you to practice and clear the doubts you have when you go for the next class. Depending on the instructor you can take a cake or a cake dummy to the class. I hear that some instructors are strict and ask you to get the cake. Mine was flexible so quite a few in my class got the cake dummy. I didn’t know that such a thing existed, so I baked a cake. It’s a model cake made with styrofoam available in various shapes (I have seen square and circle) and sizes. So you can practice on it, after you are done wipe the icing with a damp sponge and reuse it. Cake dummy is available in Michaels and other cake decorating supplies stores. If you live in Canada, locate a Bulk Barn near you and forget Michaels. You can get almost all Wilton cake decorating, candy making supplies at cheaper prices than Michael’s. They even rent character cake pan sets.

Another interesting tip which I found here, is using a cake pan upside down instead of buying the cake dummies. That’s really awesome. It’s very easy to use, already in the shape and size of the cake you will be baking, easy to clean and you can reuse it countless number of times.

Assuming that you can bake a decent cake the next step is preparing the icing. The course book has the recipe for the Buttercream Icing used in the class. The recipe calls for meringue powder, which is a combination of egg whites, cream of tartar and other unrecognizable chemicals. Now this was the first hurdle for me. I was in such a dilemma whether to use that powder or not. I have eaten store bought cakes and will also be eating it in the future and I don’t mind the eggs. Bringing eggs home and cooking with it, is my phobia. By getting this powder I was not bringing actual eggs but I did not want to post here even the pictures of the cakes decorated with that icing. When I asked my instructor about a substitute for the meringue powder, she felt sorry that she did not have an answer. I was thinking maybe I should use equal amount of EnerG Egg Replacer powder itself. Then I discovered Wilton’s Buttercream Icing Mix. The instructions read that I just had to add water and butter/margarine to it and beat it with a mixer. When I read the ingredients, I was happy that nothing related to eggs was mentioned. So I happily picked it. After coming home I was scanning the list again and found mono-glycerides. I have read earlier that unless and otherwise it is clearly specified vegetable derived mono-glycerides, all other glycerides are derived from animals. So I couldn’t use that and returned it. Many omnivores and even some vegetarians may be thinking what’s the big deal. In this day and age of packaged and processed food one can’t be really sure about what one is eating and the source. But what to do I’m one among the million quirky vegetarians!

The day for the 2nd class was nearing and I was supposed to take 3 cups of icing and here I was still wondering what to do. I thought maybe I should simply follow the recipe, prepare it, learn the decorating techniques and once I’m sort of good, I can start experimenting with a substitute for the meringue powder. But I need not have worried after all in this era of Google serving information at your finger tips. A couple of recipe sites had Wilton’s Buttercream Icing without the egg powder and the reviews were good too, telling that it had the consistency perfect for decorating. It was the exact same recipe given in the course book but minus the meringue powder. So I too decided to do the same and kept my fingers crossed. To my surprise my instructor while testing each of our icing with some designs told me that mine was perfect for decorating and she couldn’t believe when I told her that I did not add the meringue powder. So girls, one problem solved. (There is another one in the 2nd course too! Yes I enrolled for it and the 1st class is already over. Hope I will be able to find a solution for the Royal Icing too). What a relief!

Now that we have found an egg free buttercream icing recipe, what to do next? We would be requiring icing in 3 consistencies. Stiff, Medium and Thin. Stiff consistency icing is used to make those gorgeous roses and other flowers and objects you see on the cakes. Medium consistency is used to make borders and related designs. Thin consistency is for writing on the cake and frosting the cake. So while preparing the icing, you usually start with stiff, then add some water to get medium consistency and some more water to get thin consistency. One should be careful while adding water, it’s usually 1 or 2 tablespoons to the maximum. Again any mistake done is not irreparable, you can always add some confectioner’s sugar or water to get the desired consistency.