I Baked my Baby's First Birthday Cake!

I guess I'm the baking kind of mum. I love it :) I baked my baby girl's first Birthday cake. I knew I wanted a cake that would A) taste delicious and moist B) look elegant, girly and cute C) feed about 40 people. So I decided on a layered cake with classic chocolate and moist vanilla, with a light whipped cream filling. The frosting was something that had me thinking for a while. I wasn't sure if the whipped cream would hold in room temperature and since I was planning on making the cake the night before, I wanted something that would still look and taste as good on the morning of the party. I pondered over fondant, but somehow wasn't very keen on it. And then one morning as I woke up, the idea of a white chocolate ganache came to me, just like that :) Maybe because I always knew that I wanted  something white(ish) with a sprinkling of colour on it, or something. And I ended up making a (pretty) tall cake frosted with decadent white chocolate ganache and topped with Smarties in the colours of the party. I was rather happy with the result, although it did look very homemade, which I think is quite endearing :)

Ganache is not something difficult at all! I can say it quite confidently now. When I started looking for recipes on the Internet, I read a lot about how tricky it is, how it can go horribly wrong, etc. But I must admit, I found it actually very simple and foolproof. Either that or I was very lucky :) Here's how I made it -

I used -

• 1 part heavy whipping cream
• 3 parts white chocolate chips (roughly chopped so they melt quicker)

Method - 

• Place chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl (preferably either stainless steel or a microwave safe one)
• Heat cream in a saucepan on a low flame until you start seeing tiny bubbles around the edge.
• Pour heated cream over the pulsed chocolate chips and let sit for a minute or so.
• Using a spatula, gently stir in everything, until the chocolate and cream turn into a smooth paste. It will be quite runny at this stage. If you feel the cream wasn't hot enough to melt all the chocolate, stick the (microwave safe) bowl into the microwave for about 30 seconds. Be careful not to burn the chocolate.
• Once you're happy with the mixture and there are no lumps, leave it (preferably uncovered) on the counter to cool down completely.
• Now you need to wait for this ganache to 'set' to a nice, soft spreadable consistency. If the room is cool enough, you could leave it out on the counter overnight. If not, simply cover with cling wrap and pop it into the fridge.
• When you're ready to frost your cake next morning, take ganache out of the fridge and reheat in the microwave in short 30-second bursts until the desired spreadable consistency is achieved.
• Frost away!

This mixture holds well and I did not have any problems with it considering the frosted cake was left on the table all day! You could even store remaining ganache in an airtight container to use later.

If you want to make a dark chocolate ganache, it's 1 part heavy cream to 2 parts dark/semi-dark chocolate. The procedure is the same.

Oh another thing I saw on the Internet, if you're using  heavy whipping cream, like I did, you could even whip the ganache just before frosting for an even lighter and creamier texture. I didn't this time, but maybe will try it the next time.

I'm still very much an amateur when it comes to cake decorating and I had quite a hard time trying to get a smooth finish on my cake and getting the sides 'straight'. I tried for a bit, but then decided I was quite happy with my homemade look :) The cake tasted good and that's all that mattered, well, to me!

Here I am!

So, yes, it's been like decades since I posted something here! What can I say? Still, to the point of sounding very cliched, I do have to say that too much has been happening in my life lately. For starters, we had our baby, then got totally into the 'what-just-happened' phase where everything was so overwhelming! Then when I slowly started getting it, we moved house. Then there was more of that overwhelming feeling with at least a few dozens of cartons waiting to be opened and things inside to be put away, all while managing to maintain the routine that we had painstakingly set up for our Little Miss. Phew! Talk about growing up, it kind of suddenly happened in our lives I guess :)

In the midst of all this, I still cooked. And sometimes made some yummy, really nice things. But as usual, I did not take pictures and write down recipes. Like I had the energy and patience, didn't I just finish whinging? And then slowly, the strong creative juices, bottled somewhere deep inside my soul, started oozing out to the surface and I did make it a point to take some impromptu pictures on my (new buddy) iPad. 'I'll blog about it later', I'd say to myself as I clicked a few pictures before things went on a plate and into our (waiting) tummies.

Here's something I made when we had friends over on a Saturday night - Black Forest Cake. I'd never thought I'd attempt to make it at home, something we always bought from a bakery for Birthdays and Anniversaries. But then I thought I'd try it myself when I saw how easy Madhura made it look. Actually, I had stocked my pantry with everything I needed and had planned to make it when a good friend had come to stay with us with her little darling kids. But sadly, the big baking project was doomed right at the beginning when the base chocolate cake gave way and cracked right in the middle as my heart let out an exasperated sigh. So we just salvaged the crumbly cake and ate it as is.

But the next time I was careful. I started by baking two round chocolate cakes, then carefully sliced them into two, so ended up with four layers of basic chocolate cake, waiting to be transformed into the much-loved Black Forest cake. You could make the chocolate cakes from scratch, but I cheated and used cake mix. If I can do it, so can you. Here are the other things you'll need -

• Cherries in syrup (or fresh cherries and then some cherry liqueur, mmmm)
• Thickened cream, the kind suitable for whipping
• Icing sugar
• A bar of chocolate

Once your layers are ready, drizzle a couple of tablespoons of cherry syrup all over them so they turn nice and juicy.

Next start assembling your cake, preferably on a cake pedestal.

Whip cream and icing sugar until fluffy and stiff enough to spread. The amount of cream and sugar is entirely up to you and depends on how much you want to slather on your cake (yum!). I used about 2 jars of 300mls thickened cream and about 3/4 cup icing sugar.

Now simply layer all the slices with a generous spread of whipped cream between each layer.

Once you put the last layer on top, cover the entire cake with whipped cream. Top with cherries and grated/shaved chocolate. You could go all over the cake, the sides and everything with grated chocolate, but I couldn't get how to do it without it looking messy. Then again, who cares right? Messy or perfect, chocolate and whipped cream? You could never go wrong :) As you see in my picture, I do need some serious cake decorating lessons :) But the cake? Oh-so-delicious! And the gooey feeling in your heart that it is home-baked is absolutely awesome! This turned out to be a rather tall cake with some really gigantic slices, but no one's complaining :)

I found time to bake!

Hello hello! I'm still cooking, so I'm alive :-)
With Little Miss' arrival I have hardly been in the kitchen for more than 15 minutes at a stretch, during which I manage to cook some one pot wonder to keep the hard working husband (and myself) well fed.
So the other day I was mighty pleased with myself 'cause I baked this yummy fruit cake/bread. With Little Miss napping peacefully, I was surfing the Internet and generally looking at some recipe videos when I stumbled upon this. So easy! And I had all the ingredients at home, yay! So I baked it right away and when husby darling called out 'Honey, I'm home' that evening, I was super excited to serve him a nice big slice with some hot coffee. Of course, saving a couple of slices was quite a challenge as I'd already started gobbling up pieces of the hot bread, straight out of the oven! I say pieces because I had no patience to let it cool before I could make, how shall I say...civilised slices of it. So I just literally tore it off and popped the still hot pieces into my mouth. A serrated knife works best, by the way and wait it cools down before you slice it. If you want it to look pretty, that is. If you can't be bothered then just do what I did. I'm pretty sure you will :-) Okay, enough said. Here's the recipe. You don't really need to have a degree in aeronautical engineering or something to figure out that this recipe has five cups of something, duh! So here's what you need, a cup of each -

1. self raising flour (I only had plain flour, so I just added 2 tspns of baking powder to it)
2. sugar
3. milk
4. chopped fruits 'n' nuts (I used sultanas, cashews, almonds, walnuts and sunflower seeds)
5. dessicated coconut

Actually, you only need about 1/2 a cup of sugar or so, but you know, '5 cups recipe' sounds too cute. I mean '4.5 cups fruit cake' would only sound silly :-)

So then, you sift the flour (and baking powder if you're using plain flour) into a large bowl and add all other ingredients. Mix well with a wooden spoon and pour the (rather thick) mixture into a loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180deg (oven settings may vary) for about 40-45 minutes. That's it, really :-)

So go on, bake this super easy cake, cut a nice chunky slice for yourself, make a nice cuppa and sit back and enjoy! Ah, a blissful moment for me indeed!

I'm here!

Considering that I baked these cookies during Christmas last year, this post is long overdue...way too long! Well, what can I say? I've been so preoccupied lately that my dear little cooking blog has been totally neglected :(
I have been cooking though, more so now that I haven't blogged here for a while - what an irony! I wish I had had the patience and the enthusiasm to take pictures and journal all those recipes I tried and that turned out well. Well...I didn't, so nothing much I can do about it now. So I thought I'd slowly get back to blogging and decided to post about these cookies :)

Recipe Source: Nicko's Kitchen

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 200gms butter
• icing sugar + water + food colour (as desired)

Simply mix the first three ingredients to form a soft dough. Roll out into medium thick sheets and cut into desired shapes.
Place on a cookie tray and bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for about 20mins (check to see they don't over bake and burn).
Have fun decorating them!

Baked on Christmas

Christmas came and went on the calendar, but this quote sums up its true essence -

 "Christmas is forever, not for just one day,

for loving, sharing and giving are not to put away

like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.

The good you do for others is good you do yourself."

-Norman Wesley Brooks

 I baked a very simple cake-mix vanilla sponge cake at teatime. I have never baked with a cake-mix before (yeah!) and I really liked the way the cake turned out. I simply followed the instructions on the packet and 45 minutes later pulled out a very light, spongy and perfectly risen cake from the oven. I'm sure it would've tasted just great as it was with tea. (the words 'selling like hot cakes' kept ringing in my head and I could imagine why!) But when I turned the cake tin over my wire rack, gently tapped the base and lifted the tin away, my heart did a little dance :) The cake was perfect! It easily slid off the tin, it had just the right amount of browning and was well baked. I had to make a topping of some kind, it was too hard to resist. I decided to keep it simple, so I skipped the rich creamy frosting. Instead, I just melted some white chocolate buttons (with a teeny bit of milk) in a saucepan over hot water and spread a thin layer of it over the cake. Then to the same sauce I added some drinking chocolate in order to get a darker shade of brown and drizzled it over the white. That's it! Delicious vanilla sponge cake with a simple white chocolate sauce.

I think I have learnt that the joy of cooking is doubled when the people you cook for enjoy eating. I find happiness in these simple pleasures of life :) I often say this, and couldn't mean it more - 'Good friends, good food, good times!'

Mango Cupcakes

Hello! A quick little post to share a great recipe I found here.

I simply doubled the recipe as I wanted about a dozen of these :)

I've been spending some good time in my cozy little kitchen. I should take more pictures and post more often here. Sigh!

Baking @ Home

Baking is so much fun!

Benne Biscuit or Butter Cookies - based on a couple of recipes I found on the internet.

 Masala Bun. Recipe here.

Will be back soon with more!

Everyone's Favourite

The classic chewy chocolate chip cookies! I found the recipe here. It's so simple, you can't go wrong with it! And the cookies, my-oh-my! They turned out great :) The only thing I'd probably do differently next time is make smaller ones. These ones didn't quite get into my cookie jar! But they are absolutely divine - crisp 'n' chewy at the same time :-D





So here's the ingredients list - Makes about 12 really large cookies :)

• 1 and 1/8 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• a stick of unsalted butter (soft)
• 6 tbspns white sugar
• 6 tbspns brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tspn vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup choc chips

Mix everything as you would for any cookie dough. Refrigerate for about 30mins atleast. Preheat oven to 165 deg. Divide the cookie dough into small portions and roll each portion into a ball. Place on a cookie sheet (these really spread) and bake for about 15-17 minutes or until lightly brown. 

The video in the link is fab! Take a look.

An Indian Twist to an Italian Favourite!

It was Saturday and we had done quite a bit of mindless, impulsive shopping. Husby's face was growing longer and sadder as the day went and I still hadn't taxed him with the weekly grocery shopping yet! After a snail paced episode of shopping at the local supermarket, husby darling just about had enough patience to push the cart (normally) towards our car without crashing it into some poor unsuspecting shopper in frustration. I tagged along to keep up with him while I scanned the longish receipt to see if we were charged right for everything. As we loaded the boot of our car with the many bags, I tried cheering him up by promising to make pizza for dinner. He didn't seem like he cared much. But when the pizza was made (and the kitchen smelt so good!), cut and served with some yummy garlic and cheese bread, he finally smiled, ear to ear :) 

Here's what I did - 


Make at home Pizza with Indian flavours. I can't help it! I'm Indian and I love the masalas :) 

• store bought pizza base
• tomato sauce/ketchup - 1 tbspn
• toppings (use as desired) - thinly sliced onion, thinly sliced capsicum, diced paneer , thinly sliced jalapeno chillies (de-seeded to save the mouth from catching fire), grated cheese, chopped coriander
• spices - (use as desired) paprika, chilli flakes, curry powder, salt

Method - 

• Preheat oven to 200 deg Celsius
• Spread tomato sauce over the pizza base and load it with toppings
• Sprinkle on the spices 
• Bake for about 10 mins (might vary from oven to oven)
• Serve hot with more ketchup and chilli sauce

It was so much better than as good as the ones we usually order in, honestly.

Your Wish is My Command, Master!

On one of our grocery shopping trips, HD was scanning the shelves in the biscuits/cookies aisle while he decisively said, 'Make those melt-in-the-mouth Iyengar Bakery* cookies for me, please.' I felt oddly good as I pictured myself as the quintessential house wife in the 50s, donning a flowery apron, wooden spoon and mixing bowl in hand, dutifully baking a batch of warm cookies and beaming in satisfaction as my darling husband munched on them (wow! some imagination!) Anyways, he was lucky as I was still on a 'new oven' high. So I decided to bake some cookies and although I chose not to make them Iyengar Bakery style, he seemed pretty content with the Peanut Butter Cookies, my style :)

Here's the recipe:

100gms unsalted butter
2 tbspns peanut butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups plain flour (or as much as the mixture needs to form a dough)
1 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn vanilla extract

Method:

Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar in a mixing bowl.
Crack in one egg and whisk gently.
Add vanilla extract.
Sift flour and baking powder into the creamed mixture and gently work into a dough.
Cover in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
When you're ready to bake, remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and shape into balls, about an inch each.
Place on a cookie tray and lightly press down flat with a fork, making a criss-cross pattern. (They do expand a little, so allow enough space.)
Bake for about 10-12mins in  a preheated oven at 180 deg.
Cool on a wire rack and store in a cookie jar!

I must say, the smell of cookies baking in the oven, the cold winds outside, a tired husby back from work and two nice hot cups of coffee - bliss! I read somewhere that cooking is love made visible, I couldn't agree more :)

Hope you enjoy baking and eating these cookies with someone you love!

*Popular local bakeries in Bangalore.

A Delicious Accident!

The other day, I wanted to test the oven here at our new apartment and I decided to bake a basic vanilla cake. I don't really stick to any one specific recipe for a plain cake. I just kind of go along with the flow. That's exactly how I started when I had this sweet little accident and ended up with some yummy banana bread kinda thing instead :) See, what I did was cleverly replace one egg with a banana that was crying out to be used, what with all the mushy bits and dark spots! In the end, the house smelt heavenly as the banana and vanilla in the oven did a slow waltz and wafted through the kitchen. And yeah, well, I found that the oven works, very efficiently :)

My accidental recipe for banana bread - 

1.25 cups plain flour

100gms unsalted butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 (very) ripe banana

1 tbspn milk

1tspn baking powder

a few drops of vanilla essence

Method-

1. In a large mixing bowl, throw in the (softened) butter and sugar and whisk well until combined.
2. Break in the egg and continue to whisk.
3. Mash the banana and mix into the contents in the bowl.
4. Add the vanilla essence.
5. Sift the flour with baking powder, add in slowly to the mixture and keep whisking to form a smooth batter.
6. Add milk to adjust consistency of the batter, which should be neither too stiff nor runny.
7. Pour into a greased and floured baking tin and chuck it into a preheated oven.
8. Bake at 180 deg for about 20mins or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the cake.
9. Serve warm with a dollop of love :) 

Husby was as thrilled as I was! He kept saying that I should bake this often, which I really think I will. Maybe I'll try using wholemeal flour the next time. Or buy some bananas and wait until they look pathetic, again!