Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake.......and an excuse for missing from blogsphere

I've been off from the blog sphere from almost last 3 weeks or so, my last post was on auto schedule. Thanks to those of you who stopped at Spicebuds to write down some wonderful words and also sorry for missing all those wonderful posts out there. Now reason for not being active here, it's not me being lazy but we decided on a little road trip of  940 miles in two days.......many days went into packing before the trip & unpacking is still going on, two vehicles, two adults, two kids, two days, start to finish 7 states covered.......

excitement of thinking back & writing about all this adventure made me forgot to mention that one vehicle was a U-haul.......I know, I know what all you guys are saying Oh!!!!! "moving" now the story is clear...."How possibly some one would take a adventure trip amidst all the snow storms we are getting this season here in USA" right? that's what U guys were thinking??? But believe me if I ever start a travel blog I'll have many such adventure trips to share(not related to moving at all)......but really Thankful to GOD, No Complaints at all, the days we were in the process of moving(loading, travelling & unloading) skies were clear and sunny, it was colddddd but clear skies.

Now coming to the recipe, no I didn't baked it for our trip but it was baked back in dec. for Teacher Appreciation Day in my 3rd grader's school. When I asked the event Organiser about any suggestions what to bake, she simply said for some reason teachers like anything with chocolate in it. So I decided to make Orange Chocolate Cake because I had some good oranges on hand. Google to the help and instantly decided on this recipe which is originally from Nigella Lawson, but as the ingredients were weighed in this recipe so started to do some calculations of mine & somewhere between that time again googled and found this recipe which again is from Nigella Lawson(yes, it's basically same recipe) but this second link gave the ingredients measured in spoons & cups, making my work little bit more easy. I did tweaked the recipe a little bit acc. to what I had in my pantry at that time and also reduced the quantity of butter. I used 9x5x3 inch loaf pan, recipe given is for one loaf, here goes the recipe :

What I used :

For Cake/Loaf

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (used unbleached kind)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup buttermilk at room temp.
• 2 small oranges, zest of (1 tablespoon)
• 1 small orange, juice of (3 tablespoons)

For Orange glaze :

• 1/2 cup Confectioner sugar
• 2 tablespoon Orange juice

What I did :

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Grease 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix the butter, honey, syrup and sugar until smooth. I used electric mixer.
3. Add egg & mix in.
4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and cocoa powder.
5. Mix around 2-3 tablespoon of the dry ingredients into the liquid mixture.
6. Add half of the buttermilk and mix it.
7. Add few more spoonfuls of dry ingredients and another round of mixing.
8. Add rest of the buttermilk.
9. Mix in remaining dry ingredients, mix everything together and now it's time for orange zest add it and lightly mix it.
10. Finally at the end, add the orange juice.Pour batter into the prepared pan.
11. Bake for 45 minutes or so.
12. Leave it in the pan for a while, take it out on the wire rack to cool completely.
13. Once the cake is cooled, make the glaze by mixing both ingredients to pourable consistency & drizzle it over the cake. If needed adjust the quantity of sugar and juice to get the consistency and taste U like. 

Note : I did made the same recipe without egg & it turned out good just replace egg with 1/4 cup buttermilk. Also baked this in the med. size bundt pan(6"), above recipe was perfect for two med. bundts, they are not only cute but perfect size for a small family. Did used a little extra cocoa powder in this and also choco. glaze to suit kids taste buds.....

Eggless Baking : Chocolate Banana Bread & Mini Bundt Cakes

Again some bananas waiting for their turn to be used up and thinking, if nobody is eating may be we'll get a good shake with milk......but wait it's snowing outside chances are very less to mingle with the milk......slowly turned black from outside, perfect for baking, may be now somebody will see us.......and finally lady of the house decided their faith.....Chocolate banana bread & mini bundt cakes with blueberries.

Base recipe used here is of my other banana bread but this one was baked to mainly clear few things from the cooler-box and pantry. And it's very forgiving kind of recipe one can easily substitute with what they have in hand or how healthy they want to make it, butter can be totally left out from this recipe as banana works well as fat substitute. Addition of chocolate make it more acceptable by kids even when it has lots of good stuff in it. Please do check the notes at the end, as list of ingredients might make u think it's a very long recipe, which is not, only the list of ingredients is lengthy otherwise it's just mix & bake kind of recipe.

What U need :
Dry ingredients :

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour(I used whole wheat pastry flour, atta works fine)
• 1/2 cup oat flour(grind regular/old fashioned oats in coffee grinder)
• 1 cup all purpose flour + 1/2 tablespoon (used maida from Indian store)
• 3 tablespoon flaxmeal (dry roast flaxseeds when cool grind then using coffee grinder)
• 1 cup almond meal (grind almonds fine or coarse, as per your taste)
• 4 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1&1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Wet Ingredients :

• 2 tablespoon butter at room temp.
• 3 medium over ripe bananas
• 2 tablespoon ricotta cheese
• 5-6 tablespoon sweet condensed milk
• 1 cup buttermilk(or homemade dahi/yogurt can be used, dilute it with little water in case if it's thick)
• 1/2 cup water(might need little less or more depending upon what proportion of diff. flours u r using)

Other Ingredients(totally optional) :

• handful of blueberries(needed to finish these too)
• handful of mini chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoon of sweet coconut flakes(rest of the packet is waiting to be turned into coconut cake....ahhh!!)

What U do :

1. In a large bowl using a whisk, mix all the dry ingredients making sure that there are no lumps. Keep it aside.
2. Make sure all the wet ingredients are at room temperature. In another bowl using a whisk mix butter, banana, ricotta and condensed milk till they are smooth. Slowly add buttermilk & 1/2 cup of water & again whisk them.
3. Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture little at a time & keep mixing them till all the dry ingredients are mixed together with wet. It's kind of a thick batter but not too tight. So if needed use little extra water.
4. Roll blueberries in 1/2 tablespoon flour. Fold berries & choco. chips to the batter. I added coconut flakes to only one loaf. So after filling the bundt pan & one loaf pan I folded coconut flakes to the batter.
5. Pour it into greased pans & bake it in the 350 degree F oven, for timing check below and for filling bundt pan check notes.

Baking Pans and Time :
I made two small loaves & 12 mini bundt cakes out of this batter. Mini bundt cakes or if U plan for cupcakes usually take around 16-18 minutes. For mini loaves, it took 30 minutes.

Notes :

1. I have used 3 different flours basic idea was to have around 2 cups of flour, recipe works well with only whole wheat flour also. So U can change the quantity of diff. flours, as long they measure 2 cups in total should work fine.
2. In wet ingredients also I'm using quite a few things as I had to finish those & bread came out very good with addition of all those. U can check other version of banana bread here which is not using condensed milk & ricotta cheese and play with the recipe as per your taste.
3. If using mini bundt pan filling the batter into small cavities can be little tricky & messy at the same time. So, here's the easy solution just fill a large Ziploc with the batter, cut 1 cm. from one corner & squeeze the batter out into cavities(fill only around 3/4) or if U happen to have large pastry bag use that. And don't throw the bag wash it, let it dry & use it next time when U again bake mini bundt cakes.  

This chocolate banana bread & mini bundt cakes are off to Champa for her weekly bake-off.

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.

Mango Ice-cream & Coffee Ice cream

Now a days we are enjoying pure home made ice cream treats as lunch, specially when outside temperature is in 90's. Kids don't want to eat lunch specially when they are slepping till 10 in the morning & by the time they finish their breakfast or I should call it brunch it's almost noon. So, as soon as one batch is made, plan for next batch is already in discussion.....so Mom do U think we can make choc. flavour next time. I'm only the incharge of making sure that we have enough supplies on hand as the credit for this delicious ice cream goes to my 8 yr. old & her Dad. Now for the recipe :

What U need :

• 3/4 cup whole milk, chilled
• 3/4 cup regular sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream, chilled
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract(optional)
• pulp from 2 medium size mangoes, chilled

What U do :

• Using a blender puree the mango pulp, use pulse if u like little pieces in it, keep aside.
• Using a hand mixer or a whisk combine the milk & granulated sugar, until it dissolved.
• Stir in heavy cream & vanilla to taste.
• If using ice cream maker follow the instructions of the ice cream maker. Towards the last 10 minutes of churning add chilled mango pulp & once done(usually whole process takes about 35 min.) transfer it to air-tight containers & let it freeze for at least 2 hours or so.
• If U don't have ice cream maker blend everything together including mango pulp & let it set in the freezer in air tight container & every couple of hours take it out whip the ice cream(to break the ice crystals), freeze it again. Repeat the process for at least 3 more times.

Here's a pic of Coffee Ice cream with home made brownie bits as topping(Coffee + Chocolate nothing can beat the combination). For coffee version omit mango pulp & blend 3 tablespoon of instant coffee powder  with the mixture & during the last 5 minutes of churning process add 3 tablespoon of chopped semi sweet chocolate + 3 tablespoon of roasted chopped almonds.

Note : It's been 5 years since I'm using my Cuisinart ice cream maker but have never tried manual method but it's a common process & in my case comes from an experienced person who in his childhood has done lot of arm wrestling for this yummy cold treats, yes you guys guessed it right it's DH.....in fact he has some first hand experience of making "mutki wali kulfi" too.....but for that I'm gonna need matka first so till then I'm happy with my electronic ice-cream maker.

Orange Biscotti almost Eggless

Biscotti - twice baked Italian cookies, to get that extra crunch so that biscotti become hard enough to be dipped into coffee, milk or sweet wine & not crumble. But they should never be so hard to crack a tooth. It was on my "to do list" from a long time or I should say it was on His list for me to do. Past sunday for Father's day brunch I decided to surprise him with home made biscotti along with fresh home made pizza(DD's request).

Now before moving to the recipe I would like to mention that source of this recipe is the book called "the Cake mix Doctor" which I got from Champa of VersatileKitchen back in the month of may. Around that time only I also bought a cake mix box for the first time in my life, thinking that I'll try a cake with that, but whenever I bake I'm so use to of all purpose flour/maida that cake mix box kept waiting in the pantry for it's turn. Finally night before father's day I sat with this book to find out some recipe for the cake but when I saw recipe for Lemon Pecan Biscotti, I decided that's it. I had Orange supreme cake mix so I used that & I was out of almonds otherwise I would have used that so  instead I used mini choc. chips. Also I decided to go eggless with this recipe so used  two frozen bananas which were left after making eggless choc. banana cake, but while making the dough I felt it was too tight so I ended up using one egg yolk(as I had no more ripe bananas & was not sure about using milk). Finally here goes the recipe :

What U need :

• parchment paper for the pan
• 1 package(18.25 oz.) orange cake mix(I used Duncan Hines)
• 8 tablespoons(1 stick) butter, melted
• 2 large ripe bananas(might need half extra banana if bananas are med. size)
• 1 egg yolk(my bananas were toward the smaller size that's why I added egg)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts(I used mini choc. chips)

What U do :

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven, preheat to 350 degree F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper & set aside.
2. Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl & blend on low speed for 3-4 minutes. Dough should come together into a ball. Transfer it to the prepared baking sheet. With lightly floured hands, shape the dough into a rectangle about 14 inches long by 4 inches wide by 1/2 inch thick. Mound the dough so it is slightly higher in the center.
3. Bake the biscotti rectangle for around 30-35 minutes, do the toothpick test(like u do it for cakes). Remove the baking sheet from the oven & let the biscotti cool for 10 minutes. Leave the oven on.
4. Using a sharp serrated knife slice the rectangle on the diagonal into 1 inch-thick slices. You should get 14 slices. Carefully turn these slices onto their sides, on the same baking sheet. Return the baking sheet to the oven.
5. Bake for another 10 minutes. Turn the oven off, and let the biscotti remain in the oven until they are crisp, 30 to 40 min. more. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, transfer the biscotti to a rack, and allow them to cool completely,.
6. Enjoy it with your fav. drink milk, tea or coffee & store leftover biscotti in an air tight container at room temp. for up to several weeks.

receipe source : the Cake mix Doctor by Anne Byrn

Notes : though I had baked them for the minimum specified time, still mine were little overdone, but still tasted good. I did checked them little before the mentioned time but they were not done at that time so I guess for next time I'll reduce the temp. from 350 degree to may be 340 degree. so that they don't get too brown from outside so quickly.

I'm happy that I tried these, not only because everybody loved it but also because it tasted quite similar to our very own Indian cake rusk, a very popular tea snack in Delhi. We love those &  I usually get those from Indian grocery store, please don't get confused with plain rusk here, as plain rusk are not sweet & they are kind of a hard toast but cake rusk are buttery & very much similar to biscotti. Now I feel no need to buy those as this was really a easy procedure & I'm surely gonna make it on a regular basis but with different flavors.

Biscotti is off to Champa  for her weekly Bake-off & also to  Suma of Veggie Platter, who's hosting this month's Baking from the book  event started by Champa.

Chocolate Cake with Whipped Icing & Buttercream decoration

I'm back.......kind of, it's been almost 3 weeks I was off the blogging, no particular reason just busy with the kids, being absent from the blogging gave me the feeling of bunking the classes.......hard to decide now ,how to come back, well made this cake past week, so decided to post it. During the past weeks, missed on reading all the wonderful posts on my favourite blogs, will surely try to catch up when ever I get some time. Here's what we baked  to celebrate DD's spring break : "Chocolate Cake".

I mainly followed the recipe from here, but instead of making it layered cake I halved the recipe & baked only one 8" round pan. Thou, the changes I made are very small but still I'm going to write down the ingredient list so that next time I don't have to do all the calculations again, if any of you want to make it 2 layer please check the original recipe that way it'll be more easy.

What U need :

• 3/4 cup of water
• 2 ounce unsweetened chocolate bar/chips (I used semi sweet so i decreased the quantity of sugar)
• 2 Tblsp. of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/ 2 cup unsalted butter(1 stick)
• 4&1/2 Tblsp. granulated sugar
• 4&1/2 Tblsp. light brown sugar (I used only 1 Tblsp. b'coz of semi sweet choc.)
• 1 whole large egg + 1 egg yolk (I use organic ones)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour (I used cake flour 1 cup + 2 Tblsp.)
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• pinch of salt

What U do :

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Grease & flour  pan.
2. In microwave heat water & chocolate chips, stir them to make a smooth mixture add cocoa powder & again whisk it till creamy & smooth, set aside & let it cool.
3. Sift flour + baking soda + salt.
4. Cream butter for a minute or so, add both sugars & beat it for another 2 minutes until light & fluffy.
5. Add one egg at a time. Mixing well after each addition.
6. Add the flour mixture & melted chocolate alternately, stirring well after each addition.
7. Pour it into prepared pan & bake it for around 20 minutes or so, mine was done in exactly 18 minutes. If  you use more or less batter, baking time will vary accordingly.

Now, baking a cake is one part, making it a real cake is next part. Yes, you guys read it right....A cake is not real if it doesn't have any frosting on it.....frosting on the cake makes it real cake, at least that's what my daughter says. At least once a week I bake cupcakes for her & whip up some heavy cream for her as a frosting and she loves that but once in a while I guess it's O.k to spend some extra time to decorate cake/cupcakes so kids feel extra special, so this was one of that kind of day. Result happy kids & happy mom & dad........well for two reasons one, she got a real cake and second,because I was busy experimenting with the icing so I get off from the dinner duty....NO....NO....No he didn't cooked but he was happy to bring home pizza. Finally the icing :

To frost the cake I used fresh whip cream : 1 & 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream + 3 Tblsp. of confectioner sugar, whipped together till a stiff peak is formed. Once you get the right thickness(stiff peak) stop, don't over beat it. Ice the cake and keep it in the fridge until you are ready to decorate.

Butter cream icing for decoration: 

• 3 Tblsp. unsalted butter
• 3 Tblsp. vegetable shortening( I use Crisco brand)
• 1 tsp. corn syrup
• 1 Tblsp. water
• 1/2 tsp. clear vanilla flavor
• 1 &1/2 to 2 cups of confectioner sugar
• pinch of salt

Cream butter, shortening, water, corn syrup & flavoring. Add dry ingredients(add only 1 & 1/2 cup at this point) and mix well, until creamy, taste & if feel more sugar needed add rest of the sugar you might need another tsp. of water if you are using all the sugar, beat until creamy. This process may take 5-10 minutes if using hand held beater, stand mixer makes the job little easier.

Divide the icing into two parts. Add 2-3 drops of red color to get the pink shade in one & mix it properly so that color is mixed well. Now to get the red shade it takes little extra color, in my case I ended up using at least 10-12 drops of red but still couldn't get rich dark color. But all that color made my icing little loose so I had to add extra tablespoon of confectioner sugar & mix it well(make sure no lumps are formed).

Using cookie cutters mark the pattern on the cake and finally prepare two pastry bags with each icing color and using different star tip # 13, 16, 21 fill  the design with stars and shells on the borders.

Note : As I'm using freshly whipped cream for frosting and also butter in the buttrecream icing, the decorated cake may not withstand the hot temperature. So, it's best to keep it in the fridge, take it out may be half an hour before you are ready to eat it.

I'm sending this cake to one of my favorite blogger Champa of Bangalore Baker for her ongoing Bake-Off event.

Eggless Banana Marble Cake with no fat

An over-ripe banana, leftover coffee from the morning, complaint from husband : you don't make coffee cake anymore.......,hot oven ready to bake anything(after my home made Pav's), something(that's my DD's voice) telling me all the time, make chocolate cake......... that's how this cake is born. Well it's on the line of marble cake so basically half of the batter is chocolate & half is regular, I'm not calling it white or vanilla as because of banana & coffee the color of regular one was also toward light brown. Very easy to make, no fat used, hardly took me 6-7 minutes to put it together, here's how it goes :

Ingredients :

• 1 cup all purpose flour(i use maida)
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon powder
• 1 med. size over-ripe banana
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar(i'm using little less than usual)
• 1 tblsp. cocoa powder
• 1 tblsp. instant coffee powder
• 1/3 cup prepared coffee(no milk) *
• 1/2 cup home made dahi/buttermilk
• 1/4 cup milk

* Note : As I had some leftover coffee so i used it, instead of that increase the quantity of instant coffee powder according to your taste, how strong you want. And also increase the quantity of milk(liquid).

Method :

1. Sift first 5 ingredients together.
2. In a mixing bowl mash the banana using back side of the fork. Mix sugar to it. Add all the liquids one at a time(any order) & mix them together so that banana is well incorporated into the liquids.
3. Now add dry mix to it little bit at a time(for some reasons I always add it in three parts).
4. Divide the batter into two equal parts.
5. Add cocoa powder to one part mix it & if needed add a spoon or two of milk/water to bring it to cake batter consistency.
6. Pour any one batter into the greased & floured cake tin. Once settled now add other batter in the centre & using your finger/small spoon swirl the mixture little bit.
7. Bake at 350 degree F pre-heated oven for around 20-22 minutes. Cake tin I use is around 8 inches, the measurements are for small cake. If you increase or decrease the quantity oven timings will also change.

Enjoy it with some fresh whip cream on top. Sorry no pics from inside, once the cake was done, we were so busy eating it, that didn't get a chance to take more pics. I'm sending this cake to Sara for her blog anniversary event Cakes n Cookies and also to Radhika & sudeshna's Food for 7 stages of life : In love with Detectable desserts, pastries & Ice-cream event.

Worm in the Mud Cupcakes

"Whatever Cupcakes"

I know Halloween is gone but I wanted to share these "whatever cupcakes" I made this Halloween. Why I'm calling these whatever cupcakes, because in my mind I planned to make my regular cupcakes but then I realized that DD wanted Chocolate one this time.....so i added little bit of cocoa powder then I noticed I don't have enough buttermilk & I also like to throw in a spoon or two of almond meal to make things little bit more healthy. So this recipe is more of a guideline then exact......

Ingredients :

• 1 cup all purpose flour (maida)
• 2 tblsp. whole wheat flour(Chappati atta)
• 2 tblsp. cocoa powder
• 2 tblsp. almond meal (fine or coarse grind almonds)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 2 squirts of honey
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar(sugar is less then regular b'coz I planned to do icing)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup regular milk
• approximately 1/4 cup orange juice(water or milk can be used)
• around 6-7 Oreo cookies broken into pieces.
• few gummy worms

As I wrote above one thing lead to another, so I basically used muffin technique. Mixed all the dry ingredients in one bowl. Take another bowl mix together buttermilk, milk, honey & sugar using a whisk. Now add dry stuff to wet mixture & whisk it together, if you feel batter is too tight add little bit of orange juice at a time, mix together till u get nice cupcake consistency batter.

Now pour approximately 1 tblsp. of batter into each muffin mould then sprinkle few broken pieces of cookies & then pour rest of the batter on top(that's for the surprise when u bite into it, alternatively you can use choc. chips or coarsely grind nuts also). Bake them at 350 degree F for around 20 minutes, till the toothpick comes out clean.

Once cool do your favourite icing & then again sprinkle them with few broken pieces of Oreo cookies & for worm part just make a hole in the cupcake using the backside of wooden spoon(the one which have round handles) & stick a gummy worm in it .

Note : I didn't used any butter or fruit sauce & buttermilk is also less then how much I use regularly, so these are best eaten at room temperature or warm. If you eat them direct from the fridge you might feel them little hard & also less sweet,but warm tasted very good.

Trick-O-Treat

It's SPOOKY......., it's carved, it's orange in color, but wait a minute it's not pumpkin......sooooo does it count as Jack-O-Lantern....U decide.....

Well if you think it's Orange then that's right....yes a carved Orange....I found it on Parents magazine in the morning & had Orange also in the fruit basket so why not try it......well it's filled with chocolate pudding which I didn't had but instead i melted some choc. chips & mixed it with some instant vanilla pudding.....so here's our this year's baby jack-o-lantern over to PumpGrins at Chef in You.

How to do it :

Take one orange, cut the top of it like a lid, save that. Using a fruit knife & your hands take out all the pulp out of the orange(it gonna be juicy task).Carve it with fruit knife.

Make instant chocolate pudding, keep it little thick, use only 3/4 of the milk quantity, mentioned on the pack (for one orange I used only half a pack). Let the pudding set little bit then fill the orange & put the lid back. I tried to put the pudding directly to the orange, which made it come out of all the holes. so I took it out and let it set in normal bowl & once it was set then scooped it into carved orange. Once you set the pudding it sure gonna make u drool.

Hope all of you had a spooky Halloween.

Eggless Carrot Cupcake

My last post was applesauce which in my house means that next thing is going to be cupcakes or muffin......so this time it was eggless carrot cupcake or can we call those muffin ??? well what's in a name....a cupcake by any name will still be a cupcake......just a little frosting and kids are happy.

These were really moist & soft cupcakes because of two reasons: first the carrots of course & second buttermilk.....I've noticed when I substitute buttermilk for eggs, cakes are really moist, soft & light(not very dense).As I wrote in my previous post i eat my cupcakes when they are still hot right out of the oven.....this time I finished half of them(to be exact 6) in less then 1 day. And after that I decided now onwards, I will make half of them with whole wheat & half regular.....my DD eats the whole wheat ones, but not every time, may be every other time.....but wait a sec....I did used handful of oats & almonds plus they are carrot cupcakes, so do you think these count as healthy bites......

Ingredients :

• all purpose flour(maida) 1 cup + 2 tblsp.
• almond meal 2 tblsp.(grind almonds using coffee grinder,can do coarsely or fine as per your taste)
• handful of instant cooking oats
• pinch of salt
• baking soda 1 tsp.
• cinnamon 1/2 tsp.
• buttermilk 1/2 cup
• vegetable oil 2 tblsp.
• light brown sugar 6 tblsp.(carrots & applesauce will also provide some sweetness)
• unsweetened applesauce 1/2 cup
• vanilla 1/2 tsp.
• grated carrots 1&1/2 cup(with their juice)
• a handful of chopped nuts or chocolate chips(optional)

Method :

1) Sift the dry ingredients then mix almond meal, oats & sugar to it.

2) In another bowl mix buttermilk,veg. oil, applesauce, vanilla & carrots, that's all the wet ingredients.

3) Now mix dry mix to wet mix. Mix everything together gently(no need to mix it for longtime).

4) If using nuts/chocolate chips fold them into the batter.

5)Bake them in the greased or lined muffin pan for around 20-23 minutes in 350 degree F oven.This recipe should yield around 12 cupcakes.

I usually make muffins/cupcakes once a week, so most of the time i kind of eyeball many ingredients & I do substitute one for the other, depending on what I have on hand.....like if I don't have buttermilk I might use apple juice or carrot juice.But one good thing(there are many other too) about blogging is, that I've started to measure the ingredients for these kind of recipes and also now my recipes have one place, where whenever I want I can find them....hopefully no longer they will be hiding from me somewhere on the piece of paper in some cupboard or on the last page of my personnel notebook & now my phonebook will finally have only phone nos. in it & not "flax seed instead of egg in cupcakes" kind of notes written on it.

And now, here are my first Awards passed to me by SE of Denufood, thanks a lot dear. I feel like a little school girl again...Happy.....And I'm passing these awards to some of my favourite blogs....few blogs I'm reading from last few months then there are few to which I'm new but really like them....

To Soma of ecurry, Supriya of Redchillies, Yasmeen of HelathNut, Shilpa of Aayi's Recipes and also back to SE of Denufood.

Eggless Chocolate Almond Cake

My experience of baking cake goes way back to my school days. I guess that was the first thing i ever cooked(does baking cake counts as cooking??) for so many years & loved it. It use to be basic cup-a-cake, no frosting & i use to do it in the old fashion way with no oven, yes you read it right, No Oven. So what's the secret, "cooker", that's how i learned it from one of my friend's mom and that's how i made it for years before my mom got the oven & even after that. That was then but what about now, I still loves to make cakes but now they are mainly in the form of cup cakes(hello....I've kids & who doesn't like to get the whole cake & sometime two....it's a different kind of satisfaction).

But now with the experience i try my hands on different kinds of cakes mainly eggless & less butter & sometime butterless. Now what's with this cake.... O.k it was my hubby's birthday past week & my daughter was saying can u make a real cake.....means cake with layers & frosting(which i usually don't do). Birthday boy wanted it to be something like he saw on the food network a day before, a "German Chocolate Cake with Nuts" & he really wanted it to be full of nuts. The moment he described his desire for the cake, dear "R" announced if you put nuts in it I'm gonna take them out from my share. Well I myself, was looking more towards "German Black Forest Cake" from past few days. So 3 different tastes to cater but one common thing : "Chocolate".

So the solution, half side of the cake was decorated with the coarsely chopped roasted almonds & rest half with the sprinkles. Icing was basic chocolate icing. I did put some whip cream & a cherry on the top for my satisfaction that it has some touch of Black Forest plus a lot of whip cream on the side.I did do a little bit of cheating from R, while putting the layers together i added chopped almonds to the chocolate filling. While eating she thought that those were chocolate chips...ha...ha...ha..

End Results : One Tasty & good looking Cake + One Happy Family.

Before you read this recipe I have to tell you, this is not how i make my usual cakes, normally i use very very less fat in my cakes but this is after a long long time that i used this much butter but then i really really wanted to make something like this & then it's a four layer cake also.But one good thing it's eggless and c'mon it's not bad to indulge yourself occasionally & believe me this was really really Moist Soft Rich & Tasty Cake. I'm gonna make it again but may be with half the butter & if u want sugar can also be reduced in case if icing is to be done, so u can eat it guilt free.

Ingredient :

1. All purpose flour : 2 cups
2. Unsweetened Cocoa powder : 3/4 cup
3. Baking Powder : 1 tsp.
4. Baking Soda : 2 tsp.
5. Salt : a pinch
6. Unsalted Butter : 1/2 cup (1stick) at room temp.
7. Buttermilk : 1 cup at room temp.
8. Milk(i used 1%) : 3/4 cup at room temp.
9. Vanilla Extract : 1 tsp.
10. Sugar : 2 cup (can be reduced up to 1& 1/2 cup)
11. Roasted almonds(chopped) : 1 cup or more(plain & not salted) (optional)
12. Semi-sweet choc. chips : 1/2 cup
13. Milk for choc. filling : 3-5 tblsp. (2% or full cream)

Steps:

1. Sift first 5 ingredients together to make sure that there are no lumps.

2. Take a large mixing bowl & beat the butter in it, add sugar & keep beating. Once the sugar is mixed nicely with the butter it's time to add buttermilk.Now add the milk.While mixing the batter remember to mix it in one direction only.

3. Next add the dry ingredients in batches. At this stage if batter is of little tight consistency add 2 more tblsp. of the milk, mix it well & repeat the process till u get nice cake like batter.Add vanilla mix it nicely.

4. Grease 2 round baking pans with little butter & dust with some all purpose flour. Shake the extra flour off the pans by turning them upside down.Pour the cake batter evenly in both the pans.Bake these at 350 degree oven for roughly 30 minutes (mine were done in around 28 min.). As time & temp. varies from oven to oven so i always give it a check after first 25 minutes & after that go accordingly.

5. Once they are done(do the toothpick check-toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean) let them cool on the shelf for around 20 min. or so. To take them out of the pan run a knife around the sides of the pan to make them slightly loose & then put a plate on top of the pan & while holding it together turn it upside down & very gently shake it. Now let the cakes cool down completely.

6. Time to assemble the cake : first make the chocolate filling, microwave the choc. chips with 3 tblsps. of the milk for 20 sec. stir them again microwave for another 10 sec. stir it. Keep repeating the process till choc. chips are melted. Also you might need to add more milk but 1 tblsp. at a time only. This filling gonna be of smooth & thick consistency(it should coat the back of the spoon ). in case of it getting too liquidy you can always add more choc. chips but that will add to the quantity of filling at the end.So go slow on the milk.

7. Once the chocolate is melted add half of the almonds to it & mix them well so that they are fully coated with the choc.

8. As i wanted to make it 4 layer cake i had each cake cut into two circles so that I've 4 cake rounds. Now take the first cake put it on a flat surface & spread the chocolate almond filling on it, top it with the other cake & repeat the process for all the 3 layers. Top it with the final(4th) layer.

9. Now finally cover the whole cake with the basic choc. frosting. Spread rest of the almonds on the top & you can also put them on to the sides as the icing will hold the almonds, you might have to press them a little bit......messy but a tasty job.

10. Let it set in the fridge for at least 20 min. but only if you could wait that long. In our case we (me & my daughter) did till step 8 in the afternoon & put it back in the cooler box(yeap i mean fridge) and when we were doing final decoration my dear hubby came & we forced him to cut the cake quickly so that we can feast on it.Yummmmmmm.

Note : I will post the Basic Chocolate frosting recipe also in few days.