ndia is the land of festivities. Believe it or not but national and regional festivals together would probably go into three figures. What's more is that these vary widely in the way they are celebrated from one region to another. Some are quiet and solemn including prayers and worship, some an expression of love and affection and most are attributed to deities and celebrated with quite the pomp and fervor.
e Indians love our spices as well as sweets. Festivals, celebrations or any happy occasion for that matter is definitely accompanied with sweets or as we call them, 'mithais'. There is mushrooming of mithai shops and local halwais on every nook and corner wherever you go. There is usually such a variety of sweets that it is difficult to decide what you want to eat. It is said that culture in India changes every hundred miles. With culture comes its food. Every region has its own sweet specialties and varieties so you can imagine how vast and expansive the world of Indian sweets can get. 
his delicious and classic Indian dessert is a huge favorite with dear hubs. The warm aroma of the sweet succulent carrots cooking in the milk with saffron, cardamom, all slowly cooking and simmering in pure homemade ghee fills my house with a wonderful pleasing and festive aroma that always draw him to the kitchen... always.
ather's day this year was special as it has been for the last four years since we were blessed with our little princess. Now she is daddy's little girl so this Father's day I figured I'd make something that would be manly enough for papa and would be fun for his little princess to make and eat and they can sit together and enjoy. Little and I made these incredible pancakes for dearest papa this Sunday ~ warm, fruity, rich, decadent and gourmet breakfast/brunch with the best mango compote/chutney ever (dad is a BIG mango lover)... and yes if you look closer, these are pancakes with no eggs! The feedback from both of my critics was very positive :) Hubby later explained how amazed he was that the pancakes were as light and fluffy as the ones with eggs except only better as they did not have the eggy taste. Me personally am not much of a pancake fan so cannot say much about it but I surely have a thing or two to say about the compote. If this is any proof, every time I open the refrigerator I lick a fingerful of this chutney :) Tangy and sweet, very fruity taken to the level of exotic with the dash of saffron flavor. You will never go back to your syrup again.
ne afternoon when I was sitting around thinking what I could cook up next, my baking genes started to flare up. The obvious question was what to bake. As I sat there and thought, I basically kicked myself for not having thought about the most common form of cake that I ate and made growing up - a cake with Indian flavors.