Chocolate Cake Redemption

 

 

I think most of you would remember my very public humiliation when I tried to bake a chocolate mud cake at Christmas. Even if you don't, the memory of the soap flavored sunk cake is painfully etched in my memory. But alas I have been able to redeem myself with this recent success at finally baking a dark chocolaty, moist cake. Coz in my book unless you can make a kick ass bakery level chocolate cake your baking journey has not even started.

 

So here goes the recipe I used (this one is new coz I am very impatient and don't like baking the same thing twice - far from a perfectionist)

http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/the-best-chocolate-cake-recipe/

 

I used a chocolate ganache icing using good old Bourneville. The cake turned out great and this recipe I would love to use again & again since the end product is soo delish!

 

 

And trust me if a clumsy, sloppy person like me can bake, ANYONE CAN! All my friends and family can vouch for the clutz that is me! :D

  

PS: The gooey icky stuff you see in the first picture under the icing is a strawberry. Totally unnecessary just a result of my impulsiveness. Just go with all chocolate goodness on this one. TRUST ME it requires no strawberries or anything!

Moist Banana Bread with Chocolate Chunks

 

 

This is a lovely tea cake, moist and with a lovely sweet smell. We used to get this banana bread from the local gourmet grocery store almost every week. But this recipe is so simple and the result was so super delicious that we have long forgotten the store brought bread. :D ( I know, I'm very modest ;P)

Okay so here goes the recipe:
http://princesspinkygirl.com/chocolate-chip-banana-bread/#_a5y_p=1499089

Other than the dessert itself the heavenly smell that will engulf your house while you bake this cake is beyond words. I use good old Cadbury's Bouneville (55% cocoa) for all my cakes,no fancy shmanzy (don't mind my Punjabi lingo :P) 80% dark chocolate. And the result is way more than satisfactory :).

 

Bananas are always around in most houses,  just get a bar of chocolate on your way home and you should be good to go. You may also add a handful of walnuts to this cake for that added crunch.

Next up is:
Chocolate Cake Redemption :D
 

 

 

Chocolate Ginger Bread Cake

 

As the winter season is coming to an end I am attempting to try out all the luscious, warm, cinnamon laced desserts I usually crave. Gingerbread is one of them. For those people who have never tried it, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it. Its just one of those foods that screams Christmas and one imagines having on  crisp winter evening with a steaming hot beverage. The chocolate versions is even more yummy.

Here's the recipe I tried:

http://www.food.com/recipe/chocolate-ginger-cake-486199


Few Observations :

1. I used grated ginger instead of ginger powder. Conversion charts recommend you use 4-6 teaspoons of grated ginger for every teaspoon of ginger powder the cake requires. I have an additional tip - squeeze juice of the grated ginger into the batter first then add the grate ginger strands to extract maximum flavor.

2. Instead of molasses, I used golden syrup as that was the only option available. 

3. And my chocolate obsession makes me add chocolate chunks to every cake these days.

The cake turned out great ; sticky, sweet, moist and the heat from the ginger adding an interesting dimension to the otherwise regular chocolate cinnamon cake. And add to that the large bits of dark chocolate - Ahh Christmassy Heaven :D 


 

PS: Today, I am making up for all the weeks I haven't posted anything. Coming up next, Banana Chunky Chocolate Cake Recipe!!!

LEMONY LEMON CAKE



This is one of the first few cakes I baked. What inspired me to try this cake was the lemon cake I had umpteen times on a past trip to Amalfi, Italy. I was trying to replicate that lovely freshness and zing. After a couple of attempts and experimenting I am ready to confidently share with you my favorite lemon cake recipe.

Here's the link:http://www.myrecipes.com/m/recipe/nathans-lemon-cake

A few notes:
1) Buttermilk seems to turn all cakes moist. Since its not readily available in Delhi, unless you want the spiced one ;) better known as chaachh. What I use is half skimmed milk and half greek yoghurt in its place
2) Icing  - Melt the butter in a saucepan first on a low flame so that sugar dissolves easily. Be careful with lemon zest, ensure that you have not grated the pith ( the white part) of the lemon. This will give bitterness to the icing.

Bonus Tip for the Adventurous: Add finely chopped BASIL (yes you heard it  right) to the icing for a lovely summery freshness. TRUST ME it takes the cake to another level!!

Here are a few pics to get you motivated:

 

New Year, New Motivations, Newer Resolutions

Here's to 2015

I started this blog on an ambitious tone, with a long list of to dos to accomplish before the year ended. Well the year has ended (so has my maternity leave) and the to do list is only somewhat shortened. Here's a recap:

Cooking                                  

1)Apple Caramel Custard  Tart - Pending

2)Chocolate Mousse - Done
3)Chocolate Brownie - Done- need to revisit for better results
4)Perfect the Texas Sheet Cake Recipe - Replaced with mud cake - A TOTAL disaster
5)Nail the icing on Nathans Lemon Cake - Next on My List
6)Date and walnut cake on special request from inlaws - Done and Done - twice

7)Bake a Christmas Cake +  Ginger Bread = Chocolate Gingerbread Cake - Done - still need to write a post - This cake got over almost faster than it was baked so no pictures - made two versions 

Photography

1)Try Back button Focusing - Done
2)Understand light better - experiment - Done - Post Coming Up
3)Exposure Compensation Learn to Correct - Done Post Coming Up
4)Find the prime lense's sweet spot - Pending
5)Capture detail of the eye - Tried and Failed
6)Take Pictures of  a Water Drop – Learn to play with shutter speed - Pending

 Looking at the list of items struck off, I'd say i've fared poorly given that I had 15 extra days in 2015 to accomplish the above mentioned tasks. But I tend to look on the brighter side of things and honestly am feeling quite proud of my self for getting over my fear of baking and trying out so many new recipes (including the strawberry chocochip cake that was not on the list) , taking good pictures of my food and even blogging about it !!!

I know, I know, I am full of myself but hey that's me :D. Shamelessly Smug.

Anyways since its a new year, I feel I need to create a new improvised list. And since my maternity leave has ended, I am not going to be too hard on myself and will this time give myself the entire "Q4" (this is what getting back to work does to you ;P) to accomplish this list of things :

1.GET BACK TO WORK - STOP MOPING AROUND - get over Working Mom's Guilt - Make a smooth, happy transition to get back to full time work - I know Easier Said than Done!! Right?

2.ORGANIZE PHOTOES - Get Albums Made - I have I don't know how many GBs in photographs in my old laptop :-O

3.PROJECT NURSERY - Get that Window Seat made and those oh so cute cushions :)

4.LEARN HOW TO DRIVE- ARE U SHOCKED?? Me too :P. This has been my new year resolution since 2004. I know, I am hopeless.

5.PLAN THE NEXT TRIP :D Yay!! - Post about old ones - Travel is my bliss!! Sigh!

6.GET BACK IN SHAPE- So far I have been solely concentrating on my biceps (thanks to all the baby toting). Also I jog my baby to sleep instead of rocking him to sleep. Results could be better :(

7.BAKING:
a) Carrot Cake
b) Mud Cake - RETRY
c) Try Savoury Stuff - a Quiche will be a good place to start
d) Apple Cake
e) Banana Bread
f) Try Cupcakes
g) Vanilla cake with strawberry cream frosting
h) Pineapple Upside Down Cake
I) Other pending stuff from previous list

8.PHOTOGRAPHY - Finish all pending stuff

9.ONE NEW BLOG POST EACH WEEK - Must Do

I think that's a lot even for Q4. Rest we'll go with the flow.

There is freedom waiting for you, on the breezes of the sky, and you ask 'what if i fall?' oh but my darling, what if you fly?"

{erin hanson}

Hope you guys will continue to follow my journey of self exploration :) which might lead to some self discovery :O :P.....

BACK WITH A BANG:
Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cake

So its taken me a while to get back to baking after my mud cake fiasco :(. But my recent tryst with the oven had me smiling ear to ear with luscious strawberries and chocolate smeared all over my face :D.

 

This is a summery cake recipe but boy did it uplift my mood in these dreary Delhi winters. Not only is this cake delicious and fresh, it is also pretty light in terms of calories (compared to other cakes of course ;)). Just one egg and three table spoons of butter. IMAGINE !! 

Follow the link below for the recipe:
http://juliasalbum.com/2014/06/strawberry-chocolate-chip-cake/

Here are a few changes I made:

1) Okay there were no chocolate chips in the store, so I chopped up some milk chocolate .Chocolate chips or no chocolate chips, I just had to bake something, coz the end of my maternity leave inching closer was depressing me :( .
2) NO Vanilla Extract - I thought I had some in the kitchen :(

Other than the above mentioned changes I stuck to the recipe to the tee and voila .... a fresh summery strawberry chocolate chip cake. Looked just like the recipe image :) and tasted airy, light and downright delicious. 

Next time I am going to place a chocolate cube under every strawberry. Wicked Eh ? ;P.

Coming Up Next :
Want some warm gingerbread cake ??

 

 

 

 

 

OPERATION MUD CAKE : FAILED :(

This Christmas I had planned a lovely brunch with a few close friends. With my past few successes with baking, I was feeling pretty confident about trying something new and formidable. Instead of making the Texas Sheet Cake, I decided to go for the more elaborate Chocolate Mud Cake.

I found a suitable recipe, with ingredients & measurements I am comfortable with (Cups, Tsp, Tbsp etc.). I started off pretty confident, melting dark chocolate, whisking away happily, following the recipe to the best of my lazyassedness. Things began to look slightly off when the batter seemed too dense to whisk. Even my toned biceps ( thanks to lifting and bouncing my lil cutie) began to ache. But I slogged on and put the strangely dense batter (close to dough like consistency) at the right temperature, in the right mode, in the oven.

A few minutes into baking, the cake started to rise evenly and all looked well. At the end of the designated time, I inserted a knife to find the cake was a little underdone. I put it in the oven for another ten minutes and the knife came out clean but the cake sank in the middle :(. I was disappointed but I consoled my self that the real test was taste. So I went ahead and made a killer  Chocolate Ganache icing and slathered it on to the meteor crash site look alike cake. All the while hoping that the cake would taste great.

My friends have been following my blog and were expecting a decent dessert. But alas, even though the cake seemed great in texture in terms of softness and springiness, it had an awfully bad after taste from the baking soda. It wasn't edible (don't go by the half eaten cake pictures, coz my glutton of a husband will eat anything).

It was heart breaking. I felt like giving up on baking altogether after such a public fiasco :(. Okay I am being over dramatic!!

No ways in hell am I going to give up so soon. So what went wrong?:
1) Mistake ONE - The recipe mentioned that after melting butter and chocolate for one minute in the microwave, whisk and re heat for 30 second till chocolate is fully melted. I stopped after heating it once for one minute coz the chocolate seemed to be melted. This may have resulted in a dense batter. Had the chocolate been hot enough, sugar would have melted easily.
2) Mistake TWO - Obviously I put in too much Baking Soda
3) Mistake THREE - The recipe suggested that the batter be divided into two tins to create two layers. I only put the icing on top.

I am going to correct all of the above mistakes next time and update you on the result. Till then never give up and keep dreaming...