Merry Tummy: Tempting Doughnuts With Chocolate Glaze, Guest Post By Vineetha

One thing about blogging that I love is -one gets many friends who shares same passion- cooking and blogging. One among them is my friend and fellow blogger Vineetha. I met Vinee at Blogger’s Buzz and I was simply adorned by her simplicity. Her best quality is that she is a very good listener; she smiles and listens to you very patiently After meeting her face to face I can only say that she is a perfect example of “Simple living and high thinking”

When I came back from the event I browse through her site Malabar Ruchi and I can say that I had a little blog crush :). I requested her to do guest post for my blog and she thankfully agreed.With her simple yet innovative recipes, superb fondant cakes and impeccable photography no wonder that Malabar Ruchi is one of the most popular Indian food blogs. If you do not believe me, then look for yourself, stop at her site and see the breathtaking recipes like Princess cake, Vanilla cake with strawberry mousse, Power Ranger Cake , Tuna cutlets and many more.

I am super excited that Vinee agreed to guest post on my blog. I happy to announce that Merry Tummy loves- Malabar Ruchi.

Now to our Chit-Chat session

Shweta- You are a busy mom and kids generally choose junk food. How do you manage to cook food for his taste also keeping in mind the needs for nutrients? Is there any tip that you will like to share with other mothers?

Vinee- I am a lucky mum when it comes to my son's food habit, he was introduced to all kinds of food at a very young age so he is not a fussy type and when it comes to junk I am a strict mum, I don’t buy or stock junks at home. We can't tell kids not to eat junk food if we ourselves eat it in front of kids, so I believe that if parents sets a good example of healthy eating habits ,kids will follow it.

Shweta- What made you start blogging? How long have you been blogging? Is there any particular etiquette that you like to maintain while blogging?

Vinee- After moving with hubby, away from home, family and friends days seemed longer to me and just to keep myself occupied I started my blog with the passion for cooking.I have been blogging for 5 1/4 years now but in between I took a big break when my little one joined us :)

Regarding etiquette,I always try to respect the audience and try not to post anything offensive to hurt anyones feeling.Also when I follow a recipe from other blogs, I always give due credits to the original recipe.

Shweta-Let us now talk about cooking. Which is your favorite ingredient in the kitchen and why?

Vinee- Favorite ingredient in my kitchen?hmmm… It’s a tricky one, I should say my spices and among the spices my favorite one is Fennel, love it so much!

Shweta- Ok! Now which ingredient scares you the most and why?

Vinee- I have to say hot oil scares me the most…its mainly because In college since pharmaceutical chemistry was my subject I had to spend lot of time in labs and my friend and roomie had a splash of some hot chemical into her eyes which gave me the biggest scare ever !

Shweta-Hot oil and you still chose to make doughnuts! This is called as facing the fears. How do you spend your time other than cooking and blogging?

Vinee- Other than cooking and blogging I spend my time playing with my son, catching up with friends, and also little bit of volunteering in my son’s nursery.

Shweta- Like any other profession, I am sure cooking also has its share of difficult instances. Any such awkward moment?

Vinee- Of course I had some awkward moments, especially during the initial days of cooking. I remember long time back when I invited someone over for dinner I somehow added a little extra chilli powder and poor guests were sweating and going red and struggled a lot with my spicy food.

Shweta-He he that’s funny. I can see some real wonderful food pictures in your blog. It is said that one eats with his/her eyes before actually tasting the food. Do you believe so-your comments?

Vinee- I strongly believe in that now, here is an interesting story which happened recently, there was an international food tasting day in my sons nursery and I prepared some banana fritters for the kids and so did the other mums and the clever 3-4 year olds were eating only the food that looked good with sprinkles and decorations and half of the kids were not even ready to taste my fritters :( So I learnt my lesson that day, even if a food tastes delicious it it won’t be a winner especially with kids if it doesn't look good :)

Shweta- Uh! That was interesting. You bake some real good and perfect fondant cakes. Was this a self taught skill? What would be your advice to someone who has never made fondant cake?

Vinee- Thank u Shweta, I am a self taught decorator and I learnt the basics of fondant decoration like covering a cake with fondant, coloring it, cutting out shapes, making simple figures etc from YouTube’s and I am sure if are a kind of person who enjoys playing with kid's play dough, you will surely enjoy working with fondant and with little practice and patience anyone can do it.

Shweta-And finally, which is your most proud moment in the blogging?

Vinee- Proudest moment is when somebody tries my recipe and let me know that they liked it, I feel so happy and proud at the same time :)

With warm welcome over to Vinee-

Making doughnuts were in my " to do list " since a long time especially because my little one is a big doughnut fan.For his 3 rd birthday party he picked doughnut as a party food and I bought 12 -15 of them and the down side of those store bought ones were they were too big for 3 year olds especially after eating other the party foods,so when u make them at home you can make smaller ones and choose the icing of your choice.I was pretty happy with the way they turned out ,not too sweet and had a milky flavour too.Next time I might halve this recipe as I ended up making 11-12 doughnuts.

Recipe source: Rias collection

Ingredients(makes 11-12 medium doughnut )

Flour - 250 gm

Yeast - 1 1/2 tsp

Warm Water - 100ml

Granulated sugar - 60gm

Milk powder - 1tsp

Egg - 1 (beaten )

Butter - 40 gm

Baking powder - 3/4 tsp

Salt - 3/4 tsp

Oil for deep frying

Method

1.In a glass add yeast,warm water,sugar and keep it side until it froths.

2.Sieve the dry ingredients and keep it aside.

3.Rub butter and flour with your fingers until it becomes flakes.

4.Make a well and add yeast and mix.

5.Add beaten egg and knead well until you get a smooth dough.

6.Let it proof for 30 mins - 1 hours until the dough is double in size.

7.Once its double punch the dough and divide the dough into 11-12 balls and flatten it a little bit to a circle of 1/2 inch thickness and with a bottle cap or round nozzle cut out the middle.