Bloom Fairy Birthday cake for Winx Club Fan

What was I thinking? When I thought that now my older one is out of Princess & Fairies age,  here comes the new favourite The Winx Club....more hi-tech kind of fairies. Yesterday my 4th grader turned 10.....do you notice it's double digit number. Now, for the cake.....last year the picture she drew for me had 6-7 fairies on it, which I totally rejected and we finalised this cake with roses & she loved it. Now, this year she had only planned for one fairy....her fav. one "bloom" matches with the season also we are in right now....spring....but when she showed me the pictures of her I again said "NO". In return she said It's not that difficult "it's just that you have given up on the cake decoration"......do U see she was not even 10(we r talking couple of days before her birthday) at the moment she gave me that push....as my husband says U want to get anything done from her(that's me), challenge her and your work is done....she just did that.

After couple of days of bad cold, thanks to home remedies I woke up feeling 95% good on Sunday morning. now, before starting anything else let me explain you few things so that just in case if you plan to do something like this, you are prepared in advance.

1. Lots of goggling help, but in this case there were only couple of sites out of which first one she totally rejected, because the figurines were not up to her marks. Second one she just didn't liked, except the glitter part of her decoration.

2. I did this on Sunday, means everyone home....so make sure you have a husband capable of making breakfast even when his favourite thing to make poha(flatten rice) & bread both are out of stock in your kitchen. OR better if possible send him with the kids to do breakfast in IHOP or somewhere else. Why?? I'll come to that point later, but just an FYI he did made upma.

3. Make sure you do all the process of making the figurine when everyone is sleeping. OR better if Grandma lives near by plan ahead to leave kids with them for half of the day and send your husband to Best Buy with the punchline "Shop till You Drop". Why ?? explanation coming...

I spent almost 2 hours of my early morning to finalise the picture I'm gonna follow for Ms. Bloom and also had this blog picture open for my moral support. I kneaded & tinted(color) the fondant in desired colors. Made some ribbon roses as a warm up session. Started working on the body and here comes my army, one by one......

he : good morning...& directly to the computer....
me : oh...oh..oh...one sec. what r U thinking honey...some body is working here....
he  : ek minute yaar(one sec dear)......
4th Grader : OOOOOO.....so U r making it....
me : Yes....doing back & forth to the desktop, requesting unwanted guests on my desktop, please open that other window......thanks....

4th Grader : U know actually her skin is not pink(it's not even 5 minutes that she's watching me....& it's just the beg.)
me : it's not pink.....showing her the fondant in natural light....

4th Grader : What ???? from where do U even get  that color....
me : showing her the skin tone wilton gel color bottle.....

4th Grader : r u using that picture, I even don't like that....U know actually her hairs have yellow streaks.........blah...blah....blahhh
me: I'm not doing it, if U gonna instruct me on every single thing....

4th Grader :fine :(, moves to her room....

U get the picture when kids are around U CAN NOT DO THIS KIND OF THING, at least in my house....they will have thousand questions, million suggestions.....so for next hour or so I kept calling her to get her approval and her little sis will also come every time, and every time little one will cry that it's my b'day & not Didi's(big sis) and Didi will not forget to remind her that it's not your but MY b'day.

Finally after standing for almost 4 hours(U can definitely sit & do but in my case my little mouse loves to climb everywhere & put everything in her mouth specially when it's in the sugar form, so I needed some place where I can reach before she reaches there) as the breakfast is served,  the doll is ready as per the 4th grader's suggestion she is in sitting position, exactly the way she wanted.....with the best dress mommy could make after wasting spending half an hour,trying to make frills which looked nothing like the one 4th grader wanted. Now everyone is happy,even me feeling little proud of myself  BUT when I said no wings..........

4th grader : WHAT ????? OMG! what' s the point....she is a fairy....
me : but she was not always...have many pics without wings....

4th grader : but have U noticed...."The dress U have been trying to make" (point to remember I was never able to make that dress) is the fairy one.....means Wings....
me : so what ? I never made that dress....
4th grader : yeah.....but that's what we have been thinking.....
me : alright, but it will be difficult to put them on.....

now, he, who have been listening to all this....feels he should also have his say...

he : just melt some sugar....drizzle it & it will be all shiny & glittery....beautiful....
4th grader...yeah.....in any case wings are like that kind.....transparent, shiny.....
me : hello......
he : what were U planning to make them with otherwise????
me : fondant....
he....no dear,use sugar....

See, this is exactly why, I  told you in the beginning that hubby & kids need to be out of the house while U are working on cake decorations. No, I did not get into the talk, my legs were aching kitchen sink was full of dishes and I had no more patience left for few days at least. If you have no idea how those wings looks like, to get some idea watch this video . This is one another thing on my to-do list.....may be in couple of years when the little one will also go to school full day. I did made the wings they were pretty good but fragile too.......before putting them onto the cake when I was picking them they broke :(  see the crack above....but I did managed to put half of it in the front of the cake. :)

I used store bought fondant,  as my earlier experience with home made fondant is not very good when U have to make figurines, so I decided to go with store bought. Home made or store bought I figured one thing, it's the sugar, if kids like to eat it they gonna finish it before U can even imagine....I had to hide all the decorations from the little one who acts like a sugar monster....she was eying on the little figurine,from the moment I made it....she kept coming & asking me can I eat Didi's cake....for her cake means icing in all forms, actual cake has no importance, it's just a stand to hold all that decorations & icing :)) Hope U guys enjoyed this, as for me it's still not over, this cake was just for us "the Family"......she gonna have a little b'day party after spring break is over but for that I have already planned something...now, only if she doesn't get me into some talking :-).

ICC World Cup 2011 Game Day Menu : Bhaturas & a Cake to Share

Apr-02-2011.......A date marked in Indian History, India won Cricket World Cup 2011 after 28 long years, there's nothing one can compare with the festivities which took place after Dhoni(Indian team captain) hit the ball for the winner sixer. India became the first nation to win a ICC World Cup on home soil. I really missed being in India at that time. Congrats to all the Indians all over the world.

The date 2nd April was marked in our calender long time back, not that we had any kind of future forecasting for India winning World Cup but it was on this date 9 yrs. back I got to hold my little precious daughter in my hand for the first time, Yes! I became MOM. So it's being her birthday she got to choose the game day menu and she made the perfect choice of classic Punjabi dish Chole Bhature, not only my or my family's favourite but I believe it's on every Indians list of fav. food.

Unlike it's cousin Poori(another famous deep fried bread from India) which is made with whole wheat flour, Bhatura is made using White flour/Maida/All purpose flour. It is little crispy on the outside soft,fluffy & spongy on the inside and have a little chewy texture(as it gets colder) because of Maida. It's a very easy recipe only thing is you need to plan ahead of time as the dough needs to ferment. There are quick versions too....one of my husband's colleague shared their quick fix for bhaturas is regular Tacos, fry them & they are ready. Another friend of mine uses yeast that brings down the ferment time from 8 hrs. to 2 hrs. of rising time only. I have also heard of using ready made pizza dough for it. But as a Delhite who has eaten tastiest bhaturas in the town for most of her life I prefer to either plan it or instead make poori alloo and leave Chole Bhature for some other day. If U are wondering why I said poori alloo(potatoes) & not poori chole because that too need planning ahead of time because I use dry chickpeas & not canned version. So for me planning ahead is not a problem because when I'm going to soak dry chickpeas for Chole part at that time only I can make dough for Bhaturas.

For Chole's(chana masala) recipe U can click here I posted last year, for new readers just to let U know that you really don't need any store bought chana masala just few regular masalas from your spice box & you can whip this delicious Chana Masala . Now for Bhaturas...................

UPDATE on July/14/2015 : On my quest to add more multigrains & millet flours to our everyday meals, without compromising on the taste, today I tried a different version of these Bhaturas.  I used equal part Unbleached all Purpose Flour + Whole Wheat Flour + Millet Flour(I used Bob's RedMill Brand). Rest of the recipe is pretty much same except that I didn't measured the water as U might need more or less as we have changed the flours. Taste & Look wise no body noticed any difference, everyone enjoyed it as ususal but with less guilty. So these Multigrain Bhaturas are family approved(kids + adults) :). 

What I used : (this recipe yielded me 14 med. size(around 4"x6") bhaturas.

• 3 cup Maida/All purpose flour ( I use unbleached variety)
• 1/4 of tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup yogurt/dahi (preferably sour dahi/curd)
• 3 tablespoon oil
• salt (i used 1 & 1/2 tsp.)
• water as needed(roughly 1 cup)
• oil for deep frying the bhaturas

What I did :

1. Mix salt & baking soda in the flour. Add oil & yogurt and rub it into the flour.
2. Adding only little water at a time knead it into a soft dough.
3. Once it's not sticky any more, rub oil on your palms & roll the dough ball in it & place it in a greased bowl. Cover with wet kitchen towel & let it sit at some warm place for 8-10 hours for ferment(* see notes below). I usually do it overnight as I always make it for breakfast/brunch.
4. When the dough is ready(after ferment), rub little oil on your hands and divide the dough into 12 or 14 equal size balls(little bigger than ping pong ball), keep them covered with a wet kitchen towel. Using rolling pin roll them into flat oval disc(* see notes) and deep fry it on med. heat till you get little brown spots on both the sides(make sure rest of the stuff like chole & salad etc. is ready to go before you start frying ).

Serve it hot with Chole/Chana Masala and some red onions sprinkled with salt & lemon juice and last but not the least Punjabi Mango pickle.

Notes :

In cold weather some time it's difficult to get the dough fermented so I usually make it not only night before but almost 24. hrs. before I'm gonna use it. As heat from the cooking keeps my kitchen warm during the day & it helps the dough also and in the night I keep it in the oven. However this time I only left it overnight(around 11-12 hrs.), it was soft to touch but in volume it didn't rise a lot but still bhaturas came out really good.

You can shape them round but because of the elasticity in the dough it's somehow more easy if U make them in Oval shape. Even back in Delhi also I remember the best bhaturas were almost always Oval shaped as Halwais(professional who makes Indian sweets & also savoury snack/munchies & breakfast kind of stuff) don't roll them using rolling pin instead they smack the dough ball between their hands & that motion of smacking against the hand & slightly pulling them gives them kind of oval shape. So as far I'm concerned in my 11 years of cooking, for this reason I guess I never even thought of making round bhatura, though I roll it.

Now for those who have never eaten bhatura here's another look but from inside, can U see the slightly crispy top outside layer, the thin little brown kind of :

and another one to show U how spongy it is from inside, see the holes, the kind U get when U pull any soft white bread:

and if you are familiar to these yummy breads then I'm sure these photos can assure you that you gonna get the best bhaturas right in your kitchen.

We finished our meal with big glass of Lassi (Punjabi yogurt drink) & I was screaming and jumping at that time because that was the time to celebrate India's victory. And here's the picture of B'day cake we had on that day, DD had given me a full drawing of what kind of a cake she wanted but I believe I need lot of practice before I can do that but she was happy with what I made.

I tried my hand for the first time on candy clay. I started working on it only the night before, should have tried that atleast a week before as the figure she wanted on her cake couldn't be done because the clay was getting too soft too quickly but it was fun to work with it so changed the plan & made the roses instead. I guess somehwere in my heart I knew India gonna win or I should say like any other Indian I also wanted Indian team to win so I decided to go with pink for my daughter & blue for our team & B'day girl was happy.

Eggless Black Forest Cake BUT no cherries

November is the month for party & celebration in my house. Other than regular festivals we have 4 birthdays and 2 wedding anniversaries to celebrate and out of these 6 celebrations 5 fall within the period of 10 days . This year I decided not to bake any cakes for anniversaries but for birthday's no excuse. So today I'm sharing this birthday cake I baked for my little one, she is two now, independent enough to do everything by herself(at least that's what she thinks). She had lots of fun whole day singing her b'day song...."Happy birday toote cakeah" and do I need to say the girl enjoyed the cake as much as she enjoyed singing her b'day song.

Recipe is simple, you basically need two or more layers of chocolate sponge cake, fresh heavy whip cream, some maraschino cherries and some good quality chocolate bar.  And once you assemble all this tasty stuff into layers the end result will be Black Forest Cake. My cake won't count as true Black Forest as cherries are missing from mine, mainly because b'day girl love MnM's and also I opted not to use any cherry liquor(kirsch) which is traditionally used  to soak the cake but rest of the elements are there. Mainly it's the whip cream which my kids love to eat cakes with so I decided to go for this. I baked the batter divided into 2 equal parts in 6 inches round pan, it sounds small but with our family of four I found this is the perfect size of cake plus it's going to be double layer so everybody gets enough.....plus I've a personal reason also, if I bake big cake then I get to bake less often....so small cakes mean more baking. Now for the recipe :

What U need :

For Cake :

• 1 cup all purpose flour/maida
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup sugar(not using much sugar here as we r using sugar syrup & sweet whip cream)
• 1 cup buttermilk OR 3/4 cup of home made dahi + 1/4 cup of water
• 4 tablespoon butter at room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla essence

For Syrup :

• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon regular white sugar(adjust as per your taste, how sweet u like)

For Filling and Assembly :

• 1&1/2 cups fresh heavy whip cream(I only had 2 layers of cake in case if u r using more layers, will need more cream)
• 2-3 tablespoons on confectioner sugar(depending upon once taste.....more or less sugar)
• handful of M'n'M's (for filling if U can find small M'n'M's that works great, I was out of them so I used regular size only)
• semisweet chocolate bar

What U do :
For Cake :

1. Mix all the dry ingredients & sift  them to make sure no lumps are there.
2. Cream butter & sugar. Add buttermilk or dahi. Mix it.
3. Slowly add dry ingredients & mix everything together.
4. Divide the batter into two 7 inches greased pans & bake them in pre heated oven at 350 degree F till the tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
5. Let the cakes cool completely.

For Syrup :

1. In the mean time while cake is cooling mix the water & sugar & make a syrup. Keep it in the fridge.

For Filling and Assembly :

1. Whip up the cream with confectioner sugar to stiff consistency.(* see Baker's Notes) Keep it cold by placing it in the fridge when not working with it.
2. Keep one cake onto cake board/serving plate, using a pastry brush drizzle/rub some syrup into it.
3. Spread some whipped cream, around 1/2 inch thick layer & sprinkle some M'n'M's(see Notes if using cherries) onto it.
4. Now put second cake upside down on it (* see Baker's Note at the bottom).
5. Drizzle some syrup onto it.
6. Using a offset spatula spread some icing on all the sides, if U have a turntable make sure to use it here because it really makes it easy. If icing on sides is not very smooth don't worry as in any case chocolate shavings will cover the sides.
7. After icing on the sides ice the top of the cake, smooth it out.
8. On parchment paper grate/shave the chocolate bar, I like to use my vegetable peeler, just make sure it's washed & dry(no vegetable odors)(*see Notes)
9. Now come the most tedious or U can call it fun part  decorating the sides with the chocolate shavings. I did it the way I've always done it. Before starting with icing I always cut 4-5 strips of wax/parchment paper around 4-5 inch wide put them around & under the cake in a way so that half of the strip(width wise) is under the cake, so in case if icing etc. fell on the cake platter it's much easy to clean. Now either use your hands directly or put some choc. shavings on a piece of parchment paper & try to put it on to the edges.....icing will work as glue and will hold the shavings but there will be lot of chocolate shavings falling down & will get sticky & melty too so when it's done, to clean up U just pull the strips at the end and as a bonus U get to lick all that chocolate which falls on these strips...BUT now this is tedious way that's what I think & till now I never thought about googling it also as I normally decorate a cake once in a while(and my kids in routine are happy with some lots of whip cream & sprinkles on top). But now as I was writing this post thought about checking on web about same issue.....except the first result of my search nothing else(at least on the first page) delivered what I was looking for but that one result does answer this problem(click here if interested) and next time I'm gonna try that and yes it will change the sequence of steps in the filling & assembly part as according to that forum this should be the first step.
10. Decorate the top of the cake as U wish with M'nM's or cherries or cover it totally with chocolate shavings.

Click of Baby Black Forest (it's hardly 4-5 inches in diameter) I made last year when hubby dear said no to Black Forest cake for his b'day (made after his b'day to satisfy my craving) & instead he wanted this one. 

 Notes :

1. If using cherries drain & de-seed them. 
2. For filling crush some cherries and spread them inside the layer along with the whip cream, making sure do not spread them to the edges, keep at least 1 inch margin from the edge of the cake, otherwise when U put the second layer on top of it filling will come out.
3. Try to handle grated chocolate gently as it will melt quickly with your body heat.

Baker's Note :

1. Whenever U want to decorate a cake make sure to use downside up(or call it upside down) because that's the smooth side.
2. When whipping the cream make sure the bowl, whisk & cream everything is chilled otherwise it might not give U the right results.

Off goes this cake to Champa for her weekly bake-off.

Back to blogging and a Flower Cake to share

First of all thanks to new followers & my readers who asked for my well being thru emails and sorry also as I could not respond to those mails or for that matter any mails during past 6-7 weeks. There I was back in mid of September, working on one of my post which I never get to complete and sudden plan for trip to India, my mind started working on another post just to tell the Blog world about my break & I never get to write that too. Now in the middle of night, making good use of jet lag, while I'm writing this post I'm thinking what happened to all that time where did it go, some of that is captured in camera as life long memories, some of it is in suitcases(in terms of shopping I did there) which are still lying every where in my living room but most of it is in our mind and hearts.....the time spent with family, watching kids playing and fighting with their cousins, urge to eat every single food which we like over there (still missed on so many), watching my little one that how she picked up new words and now her favourite word is "nahi" instead of "no" which is basically hindi for no only.....instead of "give me" now it's "lele" (hindi for take it)......list goes on & on.

Now, coming to the cake part this is the cake I baked for my DD's 8th birthday party this year back in April but never get to post it. So, I thought why not share it now. It was a basic egg less chocolate cake with butter cream frosting. This was my first public debut cake I would say, not that I have not baked cakes for friends & family before but in terms of real cake(decorated one) as my daughter say, this was the first one. I have always loved to bake cakes & my family and friends always enjoy it also but back in march when I told my DD how about I bake cake for your b'day party this year, reply was "Ohhhh.....no...no...no!!!". But once cake started to take shape she was on the cloud nine and me too..... it was a relief when the cake was totally done.

Here's another look....ready to go to party place....

tried my hands on making figures(using some help from the net) with fondant to give it a  little 3-D look, worked wonderfully

some leftovers after serving around 25 guests and getting few best compliments of my life

finally my helping hands

If anyone wants any details on the cake let me know I'll be happy to answer. That's it for now, will be back soon.