Project - My 7 Links

Is this beginning to sound familiar to you? I came to know of this very recently, as in a couple of days ago, when Deeba nominated me for this project. Boy!! I must say I am so happy about this and also flattered (blush, blush, blush!!!). Thanks a ton Deeba, that was really very sweet of you! If Project 7 Links is new to you, allow me to tell you a bit about this. This project is the brain-child of Katie @ Tripbase, the idea behind it her own words is to 'To unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again'.  Each of the nominated bloggers need to nominate up to 5 bloggers and this goes on. The Isn't this such a fabulous idea?

As bloggers, we all have our favorite posts, the one we think is most beautiful, the post your readers find really useful. And not to forget those posts or a post which we sigh about, as it was good, but due to some reason did not get the attention it should have got. Maybe we posted this on a weekend or on a holiday? ( The days I think get less people to your blog, well at least mine!). Would you not like to get all nostalgic about your virtual child and share a few of your favorite posts, highlight them again to your readers? Oh yes, I certainly would!! Or perhaps, see them in a different light now? And I would also like to say a few things about each of my posts below, bear with me, but I can't resist this. Since this is going to be an unique and lengthy post, I thought this deserves to be a post on its own...The blog is very blogger's pride and such an important part of us, and most of us are obsessed with it... go on admit it!!

Well, I have been blogging since about18 months now and have about 176 posts here. Looking back, these would be some of my favorite posts...

My Most Beautiful Post. I think this would have to be The Queen Of Sheba Cake which I posted as my 100th post. This cake, made famous by Julia Child, is very delicious and moist with melted chocolate and ground almonds, tastes like a Ferraro Rocher in a cake. If I would have the chance to bake just one cake out of my blog, I would bake this one. The taste apart, I was really happy about smooth draping of ganache it got. Since this cake stays good without refrigeration, its a good one to 'ship' to someone if you need to...

Close on the heels of this cake would be the Coffee Cream Cake I baked for my birthday, this has my favorite coffee cream layered with my favorite fat less sponge, Deeba's recipe. A winner of a recipe for me always!

My Most Popular Post : This, without doubt, is the Baking Supplies & Ingredients In Bangalore post which comes with Google maps. When I started to bake, my biggest challenge was to find baking ingredients and sources in the city.  Back then, I was unaware of blogs and had very limited access to the internet (no system or internet connection at home and my son was a baby then) It was with difficulty and with help from the local bakeries and a bit of exploring the city, I found some places where you could buy baking supplies. This was one of my very first posts on this blog. I wrote it as I thought it might help anybody searching for supplies here. Little did I know that this would go on to be the most read post on my blog and so many people would find this useful. Its also become as sort of interaction space for baking enthusiasts in the city. There are192 comments for this post including my responses. I try to update this post as and when I find new information and try to respond to queries as much as possible.


The Post I Am Most Proud Of : Chocolate Chip Bread

Well, for one, I had an extremely disastrous beginning with yeast. Apart form my lack of knowledge and experience, little did I realize that the yeast we get here was the major culprit. Well, if you have not seen or worked with good yeast, how do you recognize bad yeast? It took me SO many hair tearing experiments, to figure out that yeast was the problem and the BIG one. Then came Gloripan instant yeast and it was so much easier. Whew!! I sincerely am not someone who creates recipes, I just follow good recipes. So with my teacher's guidance, I baked  Chocolate Chip Bread with half whole wheat and half APF. Was I so proud it worked so well and produced a beautiful loaf! I baked this twice ( I bake twice a number of times) before I put this on my blog... just to be sure..

 Most Useful Post : Home Made Piping Gel

 Apart from, Baking Supplies & Ingredients In Bangalore , the recipe for Home Made Piping Gel is among the most read, gets me visitors, so hopefully useful also. Since we do not get piping gel here in Bangalore and I wanted this to decorate my kids' birthday cakes, I had tried out this recipe long back and it had worked well for me so went on the blog. You can draw cartoon characters etc on fondant with it, as I have done here for the Kiddie Helicopter Cake. Don't go by my clumsy hand, you can do pretty stuff with it ! I had not anticipated ( definitely not when I blogged about this when I had just begun) that this would continue to get me visitors long after also. If you like decorating cakes for kids, give this a try...I have not made this in a while, will make this again and try to give more details in the post.

Surprise Success Post : Instant Microwave Brownie - In Just 2 Minutes!!

A brownie in the microwave cooked in microwave mode - takes all of 2 minutes to put together and 
 2 minutes to cook. A warm very chocolaty brownie for that insane dessert craving when you or your kids want a chocolate dessert instantly! I don't know of a quicker and better way to satisfy a chocolate craving. This one is a simple chocolate dessert and a no-bake one at that alright, but still gets people to my blog.


Most controversial post - none so far, none hopefully in future!!


Post Which Deserves Attention, But Did Not Get As Much : Orange Biscotti - And A Mail To God!

A foodie's mail to God. Given our obsession with cooking, baking and eating, isn't it unfair how tasty food can be disastrous for us? God has to play fair and read my mail to him and heed my prayers too! Most of us are foodies and this post did get its share of visitors, but I do think, it does deserve a bit more... The power of collective prayer ;-)

Now, its my turn to nominate 5 bloggers for their 7 Links. As always, its difficult to chose just 5 people. I would like to nominate

Divya Kudua of Easycooking

Champa Of Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen

Mallika Of VegBowl

Ayeesha Of Taste Of Pearl City

Pratibha Of The Chef And Her Kitchen

To read more about 7 Links, check Katie' link here. Thanks Katie for this wonderful idea, you just got all of us nostalgic and proud of our virtual spaces. Thanks again Deeba, for giving me a chance to bring out this blast from the past..