If you know me, you know how I plan ahead for kids birthdays. I get so excited about them and plan everything well. But this year was completely different. It has been a very busy year and I did not plan anything till last moment. I had plans for inviting his friends from school since it is his last year at that school. But I did not book anything till last moment. Then I stumbled at last moment to get everything ready. I asked Ayaan which cake he wants, he kept changing it (I always prepared themed cakes for both my kids based on the things they liked entire year). This year the decision was a little difficult since we had a Flash cake last year and tennis cake the year before – those are the things he is currently crazy about. Then he came to rescue and said he wants Hulk cake or may be a spiderman. I combined both and made this Hulk Smash – spiderman cake which the kids thought was super cool – what is not to like about M&Ms and KitKats.
During the party, there were kids who requested a piece of either Spiderman or Hulk. I took some extra M&Ms and Kitkats and served them with cake piece – yeah, for once gave them too much sugar!!. I have to admit, this is one of the easiest birthday cakes I have ever prepared since the candies cover most of the cake and there was no need to work too much on smoothing out the cake. We ordered pizza and got some chips and dips. So it was very simple affair. We had the party at a kids gym which they loved. It was a chocolate cake with buttercream icing.
Aayi makes some of the amazing pickles I have ever tasted. I never liked any of the ready made pickles because of this reason. She puts very less oil and her pickles remain good for a very long time (more than 2 years, if I don’t finish them off before that). Her pickles are very popular among friends and family. But somehow I don’t remember tasting her sweet pickle. I always loved the spicy pickles, so it is possible that she stopped making this since I never ate it as a kid. Since my brother is not a big pickle fan, most of her pickles come to me. Now I have my husband’s and SIL’s company, who both are great pickle fans.
Aayi just sent me these pictures. She used the big totapuri mangoes for this. Any unripe mangoes can be used. This pickle needs to be used up in 2-3 weeks.
Mango sweet pickle(GooD nonche)
Ingredients
- 20-25 big pieces of raw mangoes
- 2-3 tea spn chili powder or 7-8 whole red chilies
- 2 tbl spns jaggery
- 2 tea spn mustard seeds
- 1/2 tea spn fenugreek seeds
- 1/4 tea spn asafoetida
- Oil
- Salt
Instructions
- Mix mango pieces with jaggery, salt and chili powder.
- Cook till the pieces are slightly cooked and all jaggery is melted and the syrup becomes slightly thick. Take off from heat.
- Heat oil and fry mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds.
- Add asafoetida. (Take care not to burn anything, mustard becomes bitter when it gets burnt). Make a powder.
- Add the powder to the cooked mangoes and mix well.
- When it is cooled to room temperature, pour it in air tight container and refrigerate it.
- This can be consumed immediately.
- This pickle is usually served with chapathis.
