Carrot Cake

Hi This is Beena. I'm a non blogger and I have no idea how to begin and how to present my recipe.
I am all inspired by my friend who has started her blog.  So I thought I will give it a shot and participate in this contest. 

I was planning to bake a cake for my husband's birthday and came across this fantastic carrot cake recipe which is delicious as well as healthy and absolutely kids favorite.

Not trying to exaggerate anymore I will get straight to the recipe. I cannot stop bragging about this recipe. Oops did I forget to mention this cake can be eggless too. 

Ingredients:
All-purpose Flour (Maida) – 2 cups
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Baking Soda – 1 tsp
Cinnamon Powder – 1 to 2 tsp 
Nutmeg Powder - 1/4 tsp
Yogurt – 1 cup (I used homemade yogurt)
Brown Sugar – 1/2 cup
Sugar – 1 cup
Vanilla -1 tsp
Carrots – 2 cups finely shredded
Walnuts – 1/4 cup, chopped 
Almonds - 1/4 cup chopped
Salted Butter – 1 stick melted (If using unsalted butter, add 1/2 tsp salt to flour)
Eggs – 2
For eggless cake – Flaxseed Powder – 2 Tbsp mixed with 6 Tbsp warm water (allow it to sit for 10 mins)

For Frosting:

Butter – (1/2 stick) at room temp
Cream Cheese – 8 oz at room temp
Vanilla – 1 tsp
Powdered Sugar – 1 cup

Ok Lets go step by step

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F or 180 C

• In a Mixing bowl add All Purpose Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Cinnamon Powder, Nutmeg Powder, Salt. Mix well

Add caption

• In another bowl mix Yogurt, Brown Sugar, Sugar, Vanilla. Mix well till sugar melts. Add 2 eggs or Flaxseed mixture. Mix well. 

•  At this point add flour and mix well into a smooth batter. 

•  Now add carrot, almonds, walnuts and melted butter and mix well.

• Lightly butter the baking pan and dust with flour. Transfer the batter to the pan and bake it at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. The best way to know if your cake is baked is to pierce a toothpick gently and remove. If it comes out smoothly without any batter sticking to the stick then your cake is baked. Remove from oven and allow it to cool completely before going to the next step

•  Now its time to make yummy frosting. Beat Butter, Cream Cheese until smooth. Now add Powdered Sugar and beat well until smooth

•  Apply the Frosting on the cake generously all over.

•  Decore the cake with grated carrot, walnuts, almonds and any nuts of your choice.

• Enjoy your yummy carrot cake.

Who is the Greatest Indian Captain?

As entire India erupted in a frenzy, when the lump of leather left M.S.Dhoni's bat and sailed into the crowd for a massive six, the World Cup dream had morphed into an euphoric reality, turning India into being 2011 World Cup - Champs, yet again, post 28 years, in retrospect of 1983. The man, M.S.Dhoni a.k.a Mahi, for all reasons, who had a poor batting average in the world cup thus far, having no big knock to his name, had strolled to the pitch that night with India in disdain, losing Viru and Sachin pretty early. We all know, we expected Yuvi to walk in instead. The devil Mahi grew in confidence and slowly loomed large over the opponents, there was no looking back, he did see India home to an unforgettable world cup victory. Congrats to Team India and Mahi for a stupendous show.

This definitely opens up another huge debate - Is Dhoni the best captain India has ever produced? Let us take a step back and try to live in the past for a while.

This dates back to the year 1999/2000, Hansie Cronje had confessed all about the match fixing episodes and had opened up a huge can of worms which had dire repercussions on Indian cricket too. India lost Azharuddin, the then successful captain who faced a life ban from cricket, alongside Ajay Jadeja (4 years ban) too. This had left the team in shambles, with nobody to lead. One man had the guts and dared to take the reigns from a de-moralized team and rebuild it from scratch. This man turned out to be an innovative leader who changed the face of Indian cricket for ever. He increased the inflow of youngsters into the team. He handpicked young players like Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Dhoni, Mohammad Kaif, Irfan Pathan and many more. This man had a flair of running the show his way, he induced a glut of aggression into the team, made the team believe, nothing was impossible. He always looked into the eye of the opponents, took the attack to them. All in all his fabulous leadership had transformed the team into a single playing unit. Who is this guy? Undoubtedly, he is Sourav Ganguly a.k.a the Prince of Kolkata, known to be the most successful Captain India had ever produced. Dada's cricketing life was a roller coaster, making a lot of come backs, slapping the critics in its face by amazing performances.

It makes me believe that M.S.Dhoni has inherited some of Ganguly flair in his Captaincy, barring the fact, not being as agressive as Dada was. So what was different about Dhoni? His cool as a cucumber attitude? was it his luck playing in his favor all the time? He soon lead India to T20 World Cup title followed by the ICC 2011 World Cup title, makes him now one of the most influential persona, ranking 52 in Time's list leaving Iionel Messi and the President Barak Obama way behind.

If winning most prestigious title's on a big stage converting those finals into victories is a measure of being the greatest Captain, then M.S.Dhoni is the man.On the contrary, if the pre-work, the effort, to build such a winning team from scratch is a measure of being the greatest Captain, undoubtedly Sourav Ganguly is the best ever.

It is up-to every Indian to aptly weigh these personalities at different levels for different cricketing reasons and call them the greatest ever in Indian cricket thus far......

IPL T20 - A Revolutionary Storm?

I grew up in India, a nation where the game of Cricket is more of a religion than a mere sport. There have been just two popular forms of this game, the Test and the One-Day International, all along the 20th century, the latter being a more popular one. If I were to discriminate between these two forms of the game, I would say the Test Cricket is a true examination of a player and the One-Day being an exhibition.

Stepping into the first decade of 21st century, less did we dream of a much shorter form of Cricket, IPL-Tewnty20 , storming into the existence? When all the cricketing nations in the world, gave a thumbs-up to IPL-T20, I think they walked into this storm blind-folded. This storm for sure has created a whole new cricketing landscape, with an enormous glut of attraction to this new format of the game.

The IPL-T20 being run by the hardcore business franchises along side some of the Bollywood stars, giving it a commercial essence. So, this raises a concern if it has clearly amputated the true spirit of the game? Are we to bemoan the death of longer forms of first class cricket ? A meteoric rise and an euphoric success of IPL-T20, in the recent past, is looming large over other forms of this game. The popularity of prime IPL -T20 matches seems to have even pushed back some of the major Bollywood releases with the fear of jeopardizing their box-office revenues.

The IPL definitely has an upside to it though, as it has produced a crazy mix-and-match of players from around the world. This crazy unpredictable format has bubbled a lot of local youngsters into the surface of limelight. The local boys with absolutely no recognition had a lee-way to rub their shoulders with the greatest players around the world.

The IPL format has morphed the game into an entertaining business. It is the same lump of leather being hurled at the batsmen from 22 yards away, but the batsmen are seen rushing through the overs, with humungous shots sending the ball whistling all around the park, treating the bowlers with absolute disdain. Who cares? The crowd is entertained, the money is pouring in with an exponential increase in viewership. I must say that the IPL has turned the players into gladiators entertaining the world with just 20 overs.

The match-fixing and tax dodging controversies surrounding IPL currently are making things quite murky, nevertheless, the IPL is here to stay on, rocking glamorously. The only prevailing concern here is whether the grand success of IPL would have the Tests and One Day forms fade away into the oblivion? Well, all this is only as clear as mud, we will wait along time for our answers....

Life without "Internet" !

Being an internet savvy person, as I was chatting up with a friend of mine, my internet connection died on me. Apparently, my modem gave up the ghost. There was a serious issue with the connection that kept me isolated from the "internet-web" life. With no second thought, I gave a ring to the customer care, to have it fixed.To add up to my despair, this fix was to take place in a couple of days, as the service provider had hit a serious snag.

With no options, but to wait for this whole turn around for a fix, I began to envisage a world without internet. I know it makes you all go berserk, having to step back in time, into a world with no internet. Having been trapped so deep into the world-wide web, it would become hard to imagine, going back to the snail-paced life. The internet phenomenon is a true example of the advancement of technology in the recent decades. Imagine if every one of us would have to wait for all our mails to be delivered to us through the mail-man? The online match-making, dating and proposals would take a deep slump in the pace, with no internet around. Imagine yourself being bombarded by your paper bills along with a lot of spam stuff at your door? The "Go-green - paperless" would see an eternal sunset. Communication would deteriorate at a global social circle, being isolated this way. Probably, the telephone bills would sky-rocket with the internet chats fading away into oblivion. Commercial businesses would also get a lot sloppier with the absence of e-Commerce.

Alongside the internet evolution, the "work-from-home" concept was born, that had people earn while at home. This concept would have to meet a burial in the absence of internet. Imagine yourself having to drive to office whilst it is a filthy weather outside. Having said that, internet is a real boon to keep the business as usual, no matter what.

Needless to say that the Social Networking on the internet has now become an integral part of everyone's life to stay acquainted with friends and families. Taking away the internet would devastate and vaporize this kind of diverse social networkings into the atmosphere quite quickly.

To top it all, the internet accessibility has made its way into the mobile cell phone devices, pushing the internet to the next level. The iPhone from Apple Inc. is one such innovative touch phones that forms an icing on the cake, completely revolutionizing the way people perceive cell phones today.

All in all, internet has been serving as a humungous treasure of information at a global level. There is just about any kind of information known to man ranging from business law and services, trade fairs and conferences, market information, new ideas, technical information, weather reports, the list is end less.

I realized the importance of internet being shunned away for a couple of days from it. Having the internet back into life was like waking up from a deep slumber. I now have to get back to my friends online and make up for the lost time.

Thanks to internet for bringing global connectivity into our lives...

What's the Color of Your Skin?

Today, as I watched myself in the mirror, I began to think what's the color of my skin? Well, with a grin on my face , I murmured, how on earth does it matter? It baffles me though how "racism" has managed to make it's way through from the ancient times, into modern world in different forms? When I think about the word "race", I prefer to state that there is just one race, that's "human race". Every known living organism on the face of the earth is made of a genetic supporting device called DNA, set aside the color of skin.

It would sound fair enough to point "European Continent" as the hub where racism and colonialism was born. A continent with many small countries with different race, witnessed the World War I and II. World can never erase the horrendous and nightmarish thoughts of "Holocaust" , performed by the Great Dictator - Adolf Hitler. It was the largest genocidal act ever that took away millions of lives. Thanks to Schindler, to have saved thousands of lives from the wrath of Hitler and Nazism.

I guess the Darwin's theory of evolution was the seed to the racist colonization, widely accepted by the western world. This very theory of Darwinism instilled a sense of supremacy into the Europeans over the other races in the world. As the world remembers that the Nazism was supposed to be a true inherent of Darwin's evolution theory, that was defined as the "survival of the fittest". As Adolf Hitler once stated "Take away the Germans, nothing remains but the dancing apes". Come to think, if only Hitler's unholy desire of conquering the whole world would get true? I bet there would exist no other race, but the Nazi Germans. To top it all, I do feel happy about the "Continental Drift" that split the single land mass into different continents far apart, else it would make such dictator's dream come true, far too easily.

In the light of such nonsensical evolution theories emerged the concept of imperialistic ideologies, that led to a lot of killings of other innocent native races by the Europeans, with a justification of them being inferior. I wish all humans on this Earth had possessed the same pigment types, probably this would have bridged all differences and would have killed the discriminations regarding the color of skin, race etc,.

Well, all that was history, should we really shun it away as a bygone era that doesn't repeat? I second the thought that racism still persists in the modern world in some way , shape or form. We still do get to hear about a lot of such racist killings to this day in this modern world.

When we say that "the world is mixing on a global scale", we better think again. The imperialist ideologies have managed to survive the test of time in many different forms to this day. I do understand if we define the "racial discrimination" as a mere cultural difference among different races, however, I do oppose the -"we are the superior race" theory from the bottom of my heart.

I wish to be a part of the world where the racism has been completely eliminated and the globe could be painted white with no other colors. Well, my friends, will this wish remain my poor reverie?

Reality Shows - Fading Away for Real?

Gone are the by-standing days of struggling youngsters to have a meteoric rise to a stardom, hey! there are zillions of reality shows on almost every TV channel today that can get you there. A "reality show", in true terms to me, is a show that is not scripted.Well, certain series of events on these reality shows seems to me like they are scripted, which leaves me really flabbergasted at times.

To me, a reality show should lay a launching pad to the commoners, as opposed to the one's who are already a celebrity. In the recent past, roping in celebrities into the reality shows has turned into a dark reality of obsession, to earn higher TRPs. There has been shows like the "Big Boss", the Indian version of the "Big Brother", Nach Balliye etc,. that stands out as an example. Talking about a show like "Big Boss", brings out the filth and demeaning qualities of the celebrities as they throw their starry tantrums, back stabbing and bitching around to eliminate others from the show. Is it really worth it to display your disgraceful side to win the game?

The one that stands out and makes me roll with laughter is the recent reality show "Pichle Janam Ka Raaz", a melodramatic and hypnotizing act that mirrors your previous birth and past life to you. How ridiculous does that sound? It is like measuring Karma of your past life, should we call this show a Karma-meter?

The exponential increase in the reality shows is probably downsizing the viewership. A lot of shows that mimic each other in their formats and this way the ratings will for sure take a tailspin. The viewers will remote-out these shows at this rate.

This is my perception of where these reality shows are heading towards, I leave it to the readers to guess if the scripted shows will loom large over the reality shows again?

A French Kiss Could Save One's Life

Taking a peep into the world history, I would love to revive a few facts and fictions here.

As we all know, France had a powerful President named Charles De Gaulle (22 Nov 1890 – 9 Nov 1970) , was a French General and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969. Earlier Algeria was a part of French rule and the Evian Agreements had granted the independence to Algeria, which in turn supposed to have created enemies motivated to assassinate President De Gaulle.

OAS was supposed to be one such anti-DeGaulle organization which planned the famous assassination attempt against De Gaulle during Aug 1962, which was supposed to be the last ever unsuccessful attempts against De Gaulle in the history. De Gaulle was miraculously safe in spite of 14 bullet holes into the Citroen DS car carrying the President.

Jumping to the fictional part, relating to the best selling thriller "The Day of the Jackal" by Fredrick Forsyth, unfolds the famous ever assassination attempt aftermath the 1962 attempt. This is my favorite author, he mixes the facts with fiction wonderfully. As in the case of this novel, that depicts one of the most unparalleled man-hunt of a relentless killer code named "Jackal" ,who was supposed to be the man who got closest to the killing moments of the President De Gaulle.

Yet, the Jackal fails to take into account the gallic custom of France, kissing both cheeks as opposed to the hands shake. Also for the fact that Jackal always aimed the head instead of a chest shot. De Gaulle was known for his towering stature, Jackal's first shot misses De Gaulle as he bends over to kiss the medal-of-honour recipient. Jackal is killed even before he could think of the next shot.

I am unsure of the fact that this spine-chilling novel should end this way, but I am very sure of the fact that "A French Kiss Could Save One's Life".