Breaking the rules with an Orange Almond cake

I keep telling little bunny never to follow any recipe point to point. I don't know if she completely understands what I mean, but everytime she is observing me cook she asks me 'Mama are you following the recipe?'. And almost always I have to tell her the truth which is 'Not exactly my dear'. I hate following recipes to be honest so it is strange that here I am posting another cake recipe! I believe in adding a personal touch to almost everything I do, I guess it gives me the pleasure of having broken the rules.And then I wonder from where little rabbit has that streak in her that calls for breaking every rule that I set for her :-)

Talking about cakes and recipes I met S last night for dinner who according to me is a master or mistress of baking. I think she makes some of the most amazing cakes in the world and is one of the best cooks I know. She slipped a small packet into my hands when I went to pick her up and told me to try it and let her know how it tasted. It was a kind of streusel kuchen and she had added cranberries and Czech apricots which was grown in her friend's garden back in the small town of Most and bottled for her to use :-)  Bottled apricots reminded me of the salted pickled whole mangoes back in India. S had her own personal touch as I am sure that the original recipe could not have called for Cranberries. As always it was delicious, I think she is to blame for having converted me into a true cake lover. More about S and her cakes in another post, an amazing woman, one who truly inspires me.

So guys here is a lovely recipe of an orange almond cake or rather tart I would say. I love the fact that you use the entire orange in the cake, peel and all. I also like this cake particularly because there is no flour used at all. Yeah, a very unique cake and also very healthy - well minus the sugar. But again I personally like to use dark brown densely packed sugar rather than the chemically bleached white variety that I sometimes happily consume with large pots of coffee during a working day :-( So here you go. Make sure you have the following ingredients ready, and this time it is only 5 things you need!!!

1) 2 large oranges

2) 1.5 cups of brown sugar

3) 5 eggs - yeah makes it really yumm!!!

4) 2.5 cups of almond meal

5) 1 tsp of baking powder

- cook the oranges in boiling water and then drain and cool. Put it into a blender and puree until smooth, the whole fruit including the peel

- beat the eggs with the sugar until nice and creamy, add the pureed oranges, almond meal and baking powder. Mix carefully, not too much. For those of you living in Germany you get ready to use almond meal at the Rewe supermaket, it is called Mandelpulver.

- pour into a greased baking pan and bake for almost an hour at 200 deg c in a preheated oven.

- once done keep it on a rack to cool

Your cake is technically ready but if you want to turn this into a kick a* orange almond cake then continue to read for a personal twist. Take half a cup of brown sugar, the rind of one orange and also the juice from the same orange. Boil and caremelize the mixture and pour this icing over the cooled cake. Now wait for the magic to happen, by letting it settle overnight. Next day you are ready to savor some deliciously moist orange almond cake. So go ahead break the rules my friends, add your own twist but try out this simple recipe and let me know what you think. Have fun!!!

Chalo Bangalore!

Excited to be on the flight to Bangalore. 4 work days which will be packed from morning to night and really excited to meet my work colleagues whom I normally talk to on the phone or see sometimes on telepresence. At the same time missing my little darlings back home who wished me good luck with their energy packed kisses when I started from home today morning.Waiting to see the delight on their faces when I am back home and the warm welcome that awaits me.

On another note I Was reading the Sunday Times on the flight and was horrified to read an article about 'Unwanted children' mainly girls born to parents in Maharashtra who were named 'Nakusa'. Yes that's what the name literally means 'Unwanted'. These children were born when parents were repeatedly trying to have sons but then they would have a girl and since she was not in their grand plan they would be named Nakusa. Apparently the Indian government has a plan to rename these childen with the name Nakusa so that they do not have to bear futher social stigma while growing up!!!

The Indian food served on flights these days definitely seems to have improved. Or maybe I was just too hungry, but the dal makhni I should admit tasted the way it should be tasting. Post meal distress started when I was trying to figure out a polite way of handing over a mouth freshner to passenger sitting in the neighbouring seat, but deciced that a mouth freshner alone would not do the trick and hence decided that the whole action plan was futile and curled into the right most corner of my seat!!!

After working on some 32 + email responses, I decided to check out the inflight entertainment. They were playing the movie 'Chalo Dilli' which translates into 'Let's go Delhi' - seemed like a fun movie. A strange combination of characters - sophisticated no-nonsense business woman meeting her complete opposite on a missed flight. The moral of the story was live life happily don't complain about the little complexities that life throws your way once in a way but either accept them or work on changing your situation but dont complain! Though I saw only the last quarter enjoyed it completely and will definitely check out the whole movie with hubby dear back home.

Well its another hour to go and the flight will land in Bangalore, guess I will post this once I am in the hotel which will be way past midnight and if the internet connection works as I hope. Hopefully I get some time during the next days to post some glimpses of my Bangalore experience.

Magnificient Milan!

Everybody recommended that we do not drive into Milan. Of course it is not as crazy as driving in Rome but still trying to drive around in two separate cars with the family in a busy city like Milan probably may not have been a fun experience. So, we boarded the train to Milan from Portichetto a little village in the towm of Luisago. We loved the train journey especially reading out the names of the little Lombardian towns along the way. In about 45 minutes you are already in the Milano Cardona train station and we were all set to take in the sights of the city. Don't miss the statue of the needle, thread and knot outside the station, it took a while for me to figure out what it was.

Anyway, after about a ten minute walk we found ourselves standing in the grand Piazza Duomo which is one of the biggest squares in Milan. I had to hold on tight to little rabbit before she could run away and become part of the Italian crowds :-) Standing in the middle of the Piazza it was impressive to see the Duomo Cathedral, the Royal Palace and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II .

The Duomo or the Cathedral is fantastically grandiose, all the streets seem to be radiating from the Duomo or circling it, basically everything around the city seems to be happening around the Cathedral. I personally think that the cathedral from outside was more impressive than from the inside. What definitely will catch your eye is the statue of St. Bartholomew the apostle by Marco d'Agrate, a truly magnificient sculpture. Don't forget to walk behind the statue to really see the ghastly effect of this masterpiece. It made me read about the miracles of St. Bartholomew later on to find out the significance of this sculpture.

Over multiple espressos it was fun to check out all the fashionistas walking around the streets strutting their stuff. After all being one of the fashion capitals of the world with the major Italian fashion brands like Versace, Armani, Prada and the rest that I cant remember right now all have their headquarters here.

It was really cute to see Dad and Mom walk hand in hand making sure that they dont get lost in this bustling city brimming with life.

I am sure that if we had more days to spend in this city we could have explored a lot more interesting monuments like the Castello Sforzesco but that would have to wait until the next time around when we are here.

Savoring Silz

I just can't seem to get enough of the Southern Wine Route!! Every little town lining the Palatine forest is a little treasure on its own. Driving through some of these towns gives you the feeling that time has stood still and looking at the people who live there I always think that they don't have the slightest care in the world. Silz is a little town tucked away in the Southern wine route in the Wasgau region and it boasts of a 100 acre nature park called the Wild-und Wanderpark. It was Mother's day and it was a perfect sunny day to visit the park with the kiddies along with hubby dear and my parents.

There are several hundred animals who have made this nature park their home. Little bunny and rabbit met with fallow deer, deer, mountain goat, horses, rabbits, sheep and many other animal friends.

The deer roamed freely and some of them made it a point to walk all around the park with little bunny. She made sure that she collected enough animal feed for them and kept them very happy and it was no wonder that they followed her around very obiediently.

Indeed a great place for the kids and also for their parents. Plan to definitely go back there again one of these summer days.

The Robber Hotzenplotz

I heard about Robber Hotzenplotz for the first time from a friend who told me about what he had read to his son the previous night. That odd name piqued my interest and when I checked out the book which was originally written in 1962 and read some excerpts about it found the story really interesting. I decided that I would buy the book for little bunny and little rabbit. Then came the perpetual question of whether I buy the original 'Der Räuber Hotzenplotz' in German or the translated editon 'The Robber Hotzenplotz'. I decided to go for the translated editon that way having to avoid doing the pre-reading and making sure I know all the meanings of all the words before reading it to the girls ;-) This was our first book of the author Otfried Preussler and right from the beginning we were addicted to it. Bed times in those weeks used to be so easy because both little bunny and me wanted to know what was going to happen next and 'Hotzenplotz' would be the code word to go upstairs to bed :-) So when I heard that the Werkraum Theater in Walldorf was going to host a childrens performance based on the story of Robber Hotzenplotz I asked little bunny if she would like to go and watch it and it was no surprise that I got a loud and resounding 'Yes Mama'.



We loved the way the characteres we knew from the book came alive on stage with their costumes and their dialouges. The characters Kasperl and Seppel and how they get their hats exchanged and get their identities switched. The magician Petrosilius Zwackelmann and the Sergeant Dimpfelmoser with his Prussian spiked helmet, riding his official bike.

The fun part was when during the performance when one of the characters was enjoying the stolen 'Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut' grilled sausage with shredded cabbage asked the children if they would like to try some and little bunny immediately raised her hand. I thought it was a joke but the children who actually went up to the stage got their own sausages from the robber!! The older children put up a very professional performance and the little children definitely had a great time. I definitely plan to read some of the other well known books of the author Otfried Preußler and keep an eye open for theater performances of his stories as well.

Want to Buffalo race? Then Kambala it is!

I had heard a lot about it and had also read a lot about it, and they all talked about the burly buffaloes running down the slushy track. But what no one had talked about before was about the well sculpted men, tall, dark, lean and walking about with their six-packs like there was no big deal at all. All of them bare-chested wearing a very modest lungi. But for the sake of this post I will stick to telling you about the Kambala sport itself :-)

Kambala is a sport that originated in Coastal Karnataka where buffaloes race in slushy muddy tracks created in a paddy field. We were in a little town called Mulki where we took part in the local Kambala. I first found a prime position right beside the track and positioned myself with my camera lens and little bunny in tow. Somebody next to me shouted 'Move back with the child' and the race began and I literally realised how this whole race was shaping up.

The buffaloes raced down the track and I felt that they were charging directly towards me. I decided that the pavillion that they had built for the journalists was the better and safer place to stand. With the camera around my neck I did not have any problems getting up on that and could get little bunny up there as well.

 Little rabbit, hubby and hubby's Mom found a vantage viewing point as well. The drums were beating rhythmically and trumpets were reverbating in the air and the buffaloes looked menacing as they raced down the tracks. What an experience, I could feel the shiver down my spine imagining getting run down by one of them.

I figured out that the race was not just about who came first on the track but who could splash the water to about 6.5 - 7.5 high. Wow that was definitely interesting. I wondered all along how the village elders stood around the track without even getting a single stain from the muddy waters on their pristine white dhotis.

A great experience and definitely want to relive this again the next time I am in town.

It's X-Mas time everybody!

Festivities in the air, lights and Christmas decorations everywhere.... yeah, it is Christmas time again!! Last week little bunny and her Aunt in Bangalore got busy decorating the Christmas tree with trinkents and lovely little ornaments. She helped her dearest Chitta and was certified as a very able assistant. A fun activity which definitely keeps the little ones very excited and happy for couple of hours.

The best part is that at the end you have a very beautiful festive looking home. The only problem that was not yet solved was how we could protect all our hard work from little rabbit who was on her prowl :-) 

Back at hubby's hometown in Udupi also a lovely sight welcomed us home. Little bunny's and rabbit's Nani (grandma) had decorated the home so beautifully that put us into a festive spirit immediately.

Happy Christmas everybody, have a wonderful holiday season!!

Winzerfest in Wiesloch

August and September are the months for all the wine festivals in the wine producing regions in Germany. Entire villages get decked up for the occasion and you can sample some of the regional wines and also pair the wines with some of the local cuisines. Besides this there are tons of fun stuff for children.

Wiesloch is having their week long Winzerfest and like every year we got together with some friends and checked it out. The giant wheel in town of course was a major attraction for the kids.

I did not dare try it out but little bunny seems to have mastered the art early on. Luckily she went along with some of our friends and we told her that we would rather give little rabbit some company on ground level. It was fun for the kids to try out the bungee trampoline where they could wear a climbing harness and jump up and down on a giant trampoline.

I thought that the bumper cars was more my kinda thing but after two rounds I definitely had enough.

Hot waffles, crepes with nutella and lots of candy and I think despite the weather we made the best of the day.

Picnic time

This time around it was little rabbit's daycare group who organised a picnic with the whole family to the beautiful Luisen Park in Mannheim.

The day started early Saturday morning when all of us met at the entrance of the park and then after a nice little trek went on a Gondola ride covering the stream that runs through the park.

Of course after all this the kids were quite hungry and then we all decided that it was time to sit down and enjoy a nice long picnic.

All the little ones from the daycare got a nice folder with tons of pictures and documentation about what they had done in the last weeks. Looks like everybody was just waiting for spring to start planning trips like this one.