December 15

Deck the halls with boughs of holly

Fa la la la la, la la la la 

'Tis the season to be jolly

Fa la la la la, la la la la

It is that time of the year! A season of happiness and joy. It already feels a lot like Christmas!

It has been a different kind of year and we learned a lot and also we have a lot to be grateful about. If you ask me, after such a treacherous year do I still feel jolly? I would say yes. Somehow once we are into December I feel an infectious amount of joy bubbling inside me thinking about Christmas. 

I am a huge Christmas fan. I don't think one needs to be of a particular religion to feel the spirit of this season.  I love everything about Christmas-every single thing - the Hallmark Christmas romance movies, reading holiday stories, decking up Christmas trees, baking Christmas cookies, making gooey Christmas cakes, putting up pretty lights, buying Christmas decorations, making DIY wreaths, attending Christmas Mass, visiting places in and around Pune which puts up pretty decorations for Christmas, enjoying mulled wine with a good Christmas dinner - you get the drift.

So no matter what I do feel good at this particular time of the year. If you look at my list of movies on Netflix right now at least the first 10 would be all the new Holiday movies. Thus when I think about seasonal recipes the flavors that play in my mind are of oranges, chocolate, rum, raisins, cranberries, rosemary, cinnamon, star anise red currant and so on. Funny thing is when I was in the US we never did any seasonal baking though I had access to all the finest ingredients. Instead I spent my time walking around the bakery section of the super marts taking in all the aroma of the freshly baked goodies. This was an indulgence I never missed. We also got an artificial 6 ft Christmas tree from Walmart and decorated it with very pretty baubles as one of my roommates back then was a Christian and we all took the opportunity as an excuse to indulge in some Holiday fun decorating the tree together over cups of hot cocoa and spicy gossips! However the massive ( more than 10 ft ) Christmas trees that were put up in the lobby of our Mansel Office was what awed me every year. The decoration was right out of any Hallmark Prince Movie and absolutely stunning. I would find excuses to go to the lobby and admire the Christmas tree when there was no crowd around. It felt like my private moment with the tree that way. 

My home was in Atlanta which didn't have snow during Christmas. Once during the Christmas time I had to be in Omaha (Nebraska) for official work and it was basically freezing. The night before Christmas the mercury had dropped considerably and the receptionist told me in all probability it would snow. I looked up the weather apps and checked for the exact time when the snow was expected and put an alarm. However it was hard to get any sleep because of the anticipation and post midnight I saw the flurries coming down. I cant explain how much joy I felt at that sight. I kept staring out of the window for long before I slept. And the next morning when I opened the curtains to my room I saw the entire scenery before me had turned a glittering shade of white. Cars and trees were all under a thick layer of snow! Post breakfast that day we went out and frolicked in the snow like kids. The only thing that remained was making snow angels and throwing snowballs. Which I was very much tempted to try out but since we were on a very formal office trip, I had to resist the temptation.  We ended up having a white Christmas eventually with an amazing Christmas dinner setup by the Marriot Staffs. Though I was away from home it was one of the best Christmas I had.

Christmases in Pune are nothing near to what I had experienced there but nonetheless I try to make it up with the different seasonal cooking and baking at my place. I kind of zero in on the quintessential recipes and then add a dash of improvisation to add a little fun into the whole process. I found that any Christmas cooking if done with friends or family in tandem becomes more enjoyable as you also exchange so many stories while you are making something.  Since mom is also here with me now, the baking sessions become very engaging. We have difference in opinion many a times about a certain recipe but then that's part of the fun, to pick and choose and to experiment at times.

So when I decided to make a mugcake which celebrated the essence of the Christmas flavors I wanted to go slightly overboard with the ingredients. It had to be something which clearly spelled C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S! 

So here is the mug cake recipe which is eggless, super moist, flavorful, gooey and delectable and gets done in under 2 minutes flat! It has the beautiful flavors of fresh orange, vanilla, rum, coffee, milk chocolate and blueberry which uplifts your mood the moment you bite into it! Ya you don't need to wait a month to make a rum cake, this one gets done in a jiffy :). 

Now when you try to get access to quality fruits like blueberry or cranberry it might happen that you don't get them year long. I have come across a brand True Elements which sells a lovely quality of dried blueberry, goji berries and cranberry which you can have as is or use in any of your recipe. They also have a plethora of healthy seeds and breakfast option. I have used the dried blue berries from them and I must say I loved them a lot! I ended up eating the berries just like that while I waited for the mugcake to get baked. And when you would bite into the berries in a spoonful of the beautiful mugcake you would actually feel it is better than any rum cake in the world ! You can buy them from their site or even from Amazon. Now convenient is that now! You will see me incorporating their products in some of my upcoming blogs.

I am leaving the brand names and link for all the ingredients I used in this recipe at the end of the blog. Be sure to check it out!

Preparation Time: 5 minutes  

Procedure

1. Juice the orange and keep the orange zest ready.

2. We start with the dry ingredients first. Take a mixing bowl and sift in the dry ingredients - all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder, coffee powder and salt. Mix them well

Tip: The coffee powder I used was an orange flavor coffee just to enhance the orange aromatics in the final cake. You can use any normal coffee powder too

Note: Please ensure you are sifting all the ingredients just like you do for a normal cake to make sure you get a nice and fluffy cake.

3. Now we add the wet ingredients. To the dry ingredients mixture add the oil, vanilla, milk, rum,  orange juice and orange zest. Whisk the batter until smooth and shiny. The batter should not be runny. Now add the chopped orange rinds, dried blueberry, chocolate shavings and give it a light whisk. 

Tip: you can add any dried fruits of your choice at this stage  like cranberry, rains etc. 

Note: Do not add too much of blueberry it might prevent the cake from rising properly.

4. Now pour the batter into a microwave safe cup. 

5. Cut a chocolate cube into 4. So in total we would have about 12 small cubes. Now just poke them in the cake batter in the cup and leave a few at the top too.

Tip: adding chocolate chunks would ensure the mug cake has lovely gooey chocolate pockets when you eat it. That's the part you will love best in your mugcake.

6. Put it in the microwave for about 90 seconds. This time will depend entirely on the power of the microwave. I have a 1400 watt microwave and it took me 90 seconds. I would recommend you keep it for 80 seconds and then keep add 10 seconds each time till the cake is done.

To check the doneness, insert a toothpick in the middle of the cup till the entire length and if it comes out clean it is done.

7. Now garnish with a generous drizzle of gooey Chocolate syrup, finely chopped orange peels and a few silver sugar balls

Tip: the chopped peels give a lovely spurt of citrusy flavor in each bite.

How to remove the pith from the orange peel to use in garnish?

The pith is the spongy white substance that's between the peel and the fruit in oranges and other citrus fruits. Its bitter hence should be carefully removed from the peel.

Peel off the skin of Orange normally and take out the flesh. Now for the next step take a paring knife or any knife which is not too big but sharp. Now make small 2 inch pieces of the peels and place the peel flat surface on a cutting board with the zest side facing down, and use a sharp paring knife , pare away the pith carefully following the curve of the peel.

Brands I used for this recipe

1. Milk chocolate - Amul

2. Dried Blueberry - True Elements

3. Orange Coffee - Country Bean

4. Rum - Bacardi / Old monk

5. Vanilla essence - Sprig Vanilla Extract

6. All purpose Flour - Josef Marc

7. Chocolate Syrup - Amul

8. Cocoa Powder - Weikfield

9. Baking Powder - Weikfield