12 years...

...is called a 'Tapa' in Sanskrit literature. My little one, not so little anymore, turned twelve on the 18th this month, and I cannot let the month go by just like that.

So. We're currently big time into cooking. A little different from assisting mamma in the kitchen. Though, of course, it has to be a food item that she likes that she takes charge of. That, and the current interest in the ongoing Masterchef US, meant that the theme for a party was already decided.

Taking the DIY idea forward, I let her take charge of everything except deciding on and planning the actual contest, so that she could participate as a contestant in all fairness. She decided on the return gifts and the prizes, who to call, and the format of the contest. There were 9 girls, including her, so we decided on having 3 teams of 3 each, decided by drawing lots. The winning team from among these would then go on to round two, so that we would have three dishes again. The winner among these would be the masterchef, and there would be one runner-up.

Prizes? The winner would be presented with an apron on which we had hand-painted the masterchef logo in red. As also a copy of The Usborne Little Book of Chocolate. Lots of history and customs about chocolate, fun facts, and easily do-able recipes, and plenty of yum looking pictures.

pic courtesy usborne.co.uk

Runner-up would get a copy of The Deadly Royal Recipe, written by Ranjit Lal, published by Duckbill books.

pic courtesy saffrontree.org

The rest of the participants were to get a copy of Subhadra Sen Gupta's book, The Secret Diary of the World's Worst Cook. Wonderful book- historical fiction on the background of the Mughal period.

pic courtesy penguinbooksindia.com

Now, I am not sure about the comfort levels of the invitees' parents while working with knives, fire, etc. So I decided to keep it fairly simple, with an adult assisting.

Round 1: The best and yummiest class of food that could be prepared with a bit of planning were the chaats. I made the imli chutney and the green chutney at home. Got the veggies chopped up in the morning - onions, tomatoes, boiled potatoes, fresh coriander. Bought a few packets of murmura(puffed rice), sev, farsan, paani-puri puris, khara puris, etc., and was all set. I also kept a few bottles of unrelated stuff like ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, chilli garlic sauce, etc. Of course, if they incorporated any of that in their recipe without messing it up, they could!

The judge was a neighbour, a friend who is a wonderful cook herself, and who is also wonderful with kids. Having a grandchild a little younger than A, she knows how they tick.

So there were the kids, having donned their aprons.  We told them the rules- about adult supervision, teamwork, and about cleaning up after getting their dish ready. And then the fun really began.

The winning chaat entry - tikki chaat. A's team made this, and went to the second round. The three children in the winning team went on to round two.

Second in the chaat round. Paani puri and sev puri.

Third in the chaat round. Bhel puri.

Round 2: The winning team went on to Round 2. Now they worked individually. The three of them had to put together three desserts from the ingredients given. There were sliced cakes, fruit of different kinds, ice-cream, waffle sticks and chips, sprinkles, jams, honey, dessert toppings, cooking chocolate, and then some.

The winning entry in the second, dessert round. I didn't get to taste this, but was told it was slices of cake topped with fruit, covered by strawberry ice-cream, and garnished with gems and chocolate sprinkles. Pic taken after all entries were judged, hence the messy, melted ice-cream.

A's entry for the dessert round. Two servings of banana split. Second place. Oh, and for those interested to know, since she already has a copy of The Deadly Royal Recipe by Duckbill books, we drew lots to give away the copy bought for the runner-up to one of the guest children!

Third place - Sponge cake slices stacked with layers of peanut butter, covered by chocolate icing, garnished with gems. coloured sprinkles and waffle sticks.

And the birthday cake. Red pumpkin cinnamon bundt cake baked by me, covered with vanilla icing by the kid!

Happy Birthday, my little one!