Jelly Cakes and Chicken Biryani...

I've never had much luck making cupcakes.  They tend to fall flat or overflow or brown too much.  My sister gave me her recipe for her All in Together cake which she uses when making jelly cakes.

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The cakes turned out quite well but were a little flat.  Lucky it doesnt matter once you dip them in cold, near to setting jelly then roll them in coconut.  These were the prettiest six - the others were a bit uglier but hey! - close your eyes and they taste the same.

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I put them all in the freezer as soon as they were finished - after I piped cream inside - (you should have seen the mess with all that coconut!). They are going to work for smoko (my belated offering for my birthday). They will have thawed by smoko time and ready to eat, lovely and cold.

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I tried another curry last night.  I had watched Rick Stein's India on Saturday afternoon and he made a Chicken Biryani.  It looked so good I had to make it!  This is the spice mix of green chillies, garlic, ginger, Kasmiri chilli powder, coriander, turmeric which is mixed with natural yoghurt to marinate the chicken in...

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I trimmed the chicken thighs to get rid of any excess fat and chopped each into about 6 pieces.

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This is the finished biryani. In there is layers of fluffy basmati rice, drizzled with saffron milk and rosewater then the chicked is laid on the rice, sprinkled with crispy fried onions then the layer is repeated.  It is then baked a further 30 minutes to heat it all through so it is steaming. Finally topped with roasted cashews and pistachio nuts...

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It was so good!

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chicken_and_rosewater_70042

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Served with a cucumber mint raita, I think its one of my favourite curry recipes so far.

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Cheers - Joolz xx