Christmas Tree Cake

Hi!!!! First of all, I would like to apologize to all my viewers for not blogging lately, I've just been very busy. Now back to the post, I made a Christmas Tree Cake. Now, this wasn't meant to be a professional cake, it's just a cake that I wanted to make since a) it's the holidays :D and b) I had the idea ever since December 1. Usually I'd give a detailed procedure with many pictures but this time I just wanted to bake a cake with no stopping or interruptions so I tried to take pictures of immediate steps. Plus, the cake was made using mixes from Wilton and Betty Crocker but I will tell you how I made it and the items I used so let's get started!!!

Yes, I was about to make the best Christmas Tree ever compared to other of my cakes. So, I was originally going to use a vanilla, confetti or French vanilla cake mix and add green food colouring but I decided to go with chocolate fudge cake mix of Betty Crocket because logically the wood is brown, I guess? Please feel free to go with any other flavour and to make it green just add green food gel/colouring and mix until its all green. I made the chocolate cake according to the instructions and put it in a buttered rectangular pan. If you don't like buttering the pan then you can just use parchment paper but you need to remember that 1) parchment paper can NOT be in an oven thats 400℃ and up even though the cake is to be baked in 350℃ which is okay and 2) you need to cut the parchment paper so it's flat and does not bend otherwise it messes with the cakes shape. For the oven, make sure that there is nothing on the top left stove because thats where heat comes from the oven. Bake your cake for 30-35 minutes if using a rectangular pan which is good to use for this cake. Then once fully cooled, assemble by cutting a Christmas Tree shape, if you would like you could cut out a star. If cutting the shape is too hard, just cut three triangles and arrange them from smallest to largest. Cut a small rectangle for the trunk if wanted.

Time for the icing. I decided to make buttercream icing, my favourite. The reason I don't like to make buttercream from scratch is because when I make it, I some times run out so I have to make a new batch. One day I was in Superstore and as soon as I entered the baking isle, the first thing that caught my eye was this Wilton buttercream mix. I thought that if I buy this mix I won't have to keep on making buttercream numerous time for one cake and I was right, it helped a lot. It was 6$ but worth it, and let's face it, many Wilton products are expensive haha. You can also purchase this and almost all Wilton products from Micheals. The thing is that one box is for one cake but I'm okay with that. As you can see, in front of the box is an offset spatula also known as an icing spatula. These are heaven when icing a cake, and especially the sides which I didn't do. I found this at Walmart and it was 8$ I think, and again 1) this spatula is awesome and 2) perhaps you can get this from Micheals too. By the way, it's not a Wilton product but maybe you could find one that is.

Before I did the above coat, I did a crumb coat which I unfortunately didn't take a picture of. For those of you who don't know what a crumb coat is, it's basically a layer or coat of icing that goes on the cake before final icing. The crumb coat is not supposed to be perfect as the purpose of doing it is to keep all the crumbs together before you do the final layer. Once you make a crumb coat, you would pop the crumb coated cake in to the fridge for 15 minutes. Remember to not put a warm cake in the fridge which is why we completely cool the cake before icing, we also cool it so it doesn't melt. After you do the crumb coat, you can put the rest of the buttercream. What I did is get the buttercream and add green food gel that's really useful. Add many drops to get a colour darker than the one I have if wanted. I must admit that this icing colour is great to make a grinch cake. After smoothing it out with my spatula I made an outline around the cake with icing.

And it is done! I finished the cake with pearl sprinkles and finished with small sprinkles, which are the tiny sprinkles scattered on the cake. As you see, I added in my trunk. The cake itself was delicious and I can not wait to eat it. I hope you also decide to make a tree like this, or to boost your skills, I challenge you to maybe make a Christmas tree cake, a grinch cake or maybe a Santa cake and share the pictures with me.  Please do comment if you have any questions and don't forget to share!! Merry Christmas to all of you celebrating ☺

Stay Green

Hello again! This blog is the start  of decor journey. I'd like to thank  http://pinkzpassion.blogspot.ca for inspiring me! Please check out her blog as its been 3 years since she has been blogging!!!

Ok so, this is our green corner. Here we have green plants and a green Buddha which is so cute.♡ 

 Let's talk a little about this corner. I got a small square table that is brownish in colour. I added a light blue, wait for it, PILLOWCASE on top of it. Why not use the resources around me LOL! I placed a cute  green Buddha I got from a store inside a mall. That store is my go to place for decor ☺To the left I have added a Jasmine plant in a marble pot and in front of it is a plant with leaves, I guess? Sorry I forgot the name :/ . Beside this is a framed picture of lord Rama, Sita, Lakshman, and Hanuman. in either sides of the picture is two small little Sai Baba statues. Now these are the small idols that are meant to go on cars but I think this was a better place for these cute idols. In front is a small stainless steel plate holding a clay diya from Diwali. This diya has a tea light candle inside.

I hope this inspired YOU to create this. The more calm or zen spaces you have inside your home, the more peaceful you feel. Clutter effects us negatively, we feel claustrophobic and the clutter might make us mad. But when you have beautiful, clean and Zen like spaces, you start feeling more calm and happy! With this thought, I will take your leave! Cya!!

Happy "Belated" Diwali!!

Hello my friends. Just a quick announcement. I have made an Instagram account for this blog! If you search @pinch.of.ronit you shall surely find it. Now this account is temporary just to inform others of my blog so it will be taken down after a while! ☺. Ok let's begin this post

Diwali was a blast! Celebrated with family and friends, lit a small amount of sparklers to prevent pollution, had a divine prayer and lit many diya's (oil lamps) and candles!

 We hold Vedic Pooja's which I have learnt. One ritual in the Pooja (prayer) is after deities have been bathed and dressed, 4-8 diya's are kept around Goddess Lakshmi. These Diya's are then put around the 4 corners (if 4 diya's are lit) or 8 corners (if 8 diya's are lit) around the outside of the house after the Pooja. These primary diya's keep the house bright. After the Pooja other diya's and candles are kept as well. I was awed at seeing this divine sight. We placed Goddess Lakshmi on a bamboo plate and kept the diya's around her in the eight directions (N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW). She was offered pink and red carnations to enhance the sight!

 I personally don't like dealing with coloured rangoli powder (rangoli is a design made in Indian homes). I made a Rangoli with 4 diya's and 4 flowers. I kept these around the yard to make sure everywhere was bright 😊

 This is the Kalash. A kalash is a sacred pot kept in prayers. I was loving this Kalash plate!!

This is a picture of one of the shelves in our Prayer Room cupboard. We lit our Aarti diya (left) and Lakshmi/ Kamakshi Diya too (Right).  These diya's are available in puja stores from small to big, it is very auspicious to keep a Lakshmi Diya/Deepam in your home! Behind is our little Bal Gopal and to His right is Lord Ganesh and to His left is Lord Ram, Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman. To the right of the Lakshmi Deep is a statue of Kartikeya/Murugan. The big photo in the middle is Goddess Lakshmi, Lord Ganesh, Goddess Saraswati all together. What a divine sight ☺

 I made this Diwali centre piece! We were gifted this plate thing (idk) and it came with these pebbles and colour assorted beads. When I cleaned this, I had to take out all the beads and I didn't want to sort  out all the beads so I just mixed them up. I then added these diya's and tea light candles and it looked magnificent. I still have this centre piece in my living room!

Thanks for watching, see you soon!!!

Paintings I've Made

One of my hobbies are painting. I am a self taught painter which is something I am proud of! You will see tutorials of Hindu God paintings and other paintings in this blog too. Here are the pictures I've made!

 So, this was my first ever painting. There is a pretty interesting story behind me making this painting and starting to paint. I wanted to attempt to create a Kerala Mural Art painting of Lord Krishna. I spent an hour looking for Krishna Kerala Mural Art pictures on google and then found one. The tutorial video I saw was for Ganesha's Kerala picture. As I always do for art, I went to Micheals t o get the items which included carbon paper (which I couldn't find 😕) , a ball pen (couldn't find), tracing paper (wouldn't go on the canvas), acrylic paints and a canvas'. I came home and tried tracing the layout which didn't work. I couldn't free hand draw the layout because Kerala Mural Art is too detailed! So I gave up. Then I thought of painting Ganesha! So I spent, wait for it, 10 minutes looking for, not mural, but ABSTRACT Ganesh paintings. I finally chose one, painted the background and Ganesha, and I was done! I was so proud of myself. I guess even Ganesha wanted me to start this Abstract painting journey with His Grace! Om Shreeman Maha Ganapataye Namaha!

 This is a painting of my dear Lord Krishna. This and all my paintings are free hand painted, no design, no outline, just paint! I started with a background with a mix of yellow ochre and burnt sienna. This is my favourite background mixture and I use it for all majority of my paintings. I painted a corner with prussian blue and a little bit of sap green to maintain the dark colour. I was trying to go with the theme of blue representing the night and the yellow and sienna (which is like red) representing the light and day. Like I said, I TRIED!😜 I painted Krishna with blue and yellow. I added a turban and a cute little peacock feather. I avoided adding face details and decided to put a Vaishnava Tilakam and a small line underneath it.  I finished it off with a Prabhavali, which is an arch placed behind the deity in most temples.

 Okay, can we take a moment to appreciate my decorating skills?! So, this is a painting of Krishna's hands holding a flute. It is in a black hole which is surrounded by my favourite background colour burnt sienna and yellow ochre. I kept it in our kitchen (which is why you can see a Roti keeper LOL). I usually take pictures of my paintings so to make it look fancy, I added a vase of beautiful pinkish carnations.

 This painting was made a month before Maha Shivratri (I think). It is a picture of Lord Nataraja, my favourite aspect of Shiva. I decided to use a black canvas and white painting with burnt sienna for details (mostly cause those were the only 2 colours I had left and I was too lazy to go to Micheals LOL). I painted Lord Nataraja with hair flowing out and merely a Tripundra Tilakam cantered with sienna since it looks red. I added a moon on His hair, and detailed his Panchakacha. I added some mountains that barely look like the icy Himalayan Mountains. I added a Trishula which is his weapon.  I wrote Om Namaha Shivaya in Hindi and Tamil just cause.

Finally I made dot art inspired by Aboriginal dot art. I took a black canvas, white and burnt sienna paint and dotted away. 

These are the paintings I have made so far and I can not wait to make more to show you all!!!!