Opera cake - Baking partners challenge

    This month's Baking partner challenge was suggested by Savitha,  Opera cake is an famous french pastry where almond flavoured sponge is filled with  coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache with an liberal soaking of coffee syrup.  The final layer is glossed with tempered chocolate and is refrigerated overnight for the coffee flavour to infuse.

The first time, I tried almond sponge, it completely broke, and yes, sadly landed in garbage.  After watching an lot of youtube vidoes,   I gave them another shot.  Yayy... my sponge came out right!  I, divided the recipe by one third as I had an small oven, with baking tray supporting 9 inch by 10.5 inch.  This cake requires an lot of labour, so prepared sponge by day one.  Day two,  morning, prepared syrup, ganache and buttercream.  Assembled by evening and refrigerated overnight, this cake was ready for consumption by third day.

One bite into this pastry, was fabulous with an strong hint of coffee and some chocolate.  Initially, I was  worried when both sponge recipe and buttercream recipe demanded eggs.  But, this pastry had no eggy smell at all.  They were soft and delecious, like Bakery bought ones.  I never though that I could make them this delecious, thanks to Savitha and Swathi Iyer for bringing out such an challenging recipe.

Classic Cheesecake

 Cheesecake is  made of three or more layers.  They are supported with the crunchy crust of cookies and butter at the bottom.  The middle layer is soft  because of cream cheese and easily melts in your mouth.  Finally, they are topped with fruit compotes or any syrup/freshly cut fruits.  That said, it is an explosion of flavours and textures in one bite.     This is really a much-relished treat, for any season, though they are feasted a lot on summer.

They can be baked in an oven or can exist as non-baked as well.  Here, we are going to how they are baked, using a water-bath.  It's always best to use springform pan when making these, otherwise, they may get messy, when removing  from pan.

I topped them with strawberries and they were total yum.  Not only did they taste great, but also instantly melted in your mouth. This soft consistency comes from the lightness of cream cheese and also because of the fact that they are baked with a water-bath.   But, please opt if and only if you prefer a heavy dessert.  These are not for any light takers. 

On the whole, we had a hearty dessert, that completed our weekend.  Hope you tried the same and let us know :)

Rainbow ruffle cake

Initially, when I took to baking, I would search all types of cakes available online.  The one cake, which would impress me the most is this rainbow cake.  For long, I had been thinking of making this and surprising my kid, but as routine life goes on -this cake remained as an sweet memory inside my heart.  Now, when Swathi Iyer  and Julie announced this month's challenge, I almost jumped with joy! Yes, the challenge to bake my sweet-heart cake!

This cake needs an lot of patience, to bake each layer and also to assemble them.  I flavoured green layer with pista, red with strawberry  (which went according to the recipe source provided) and orange, yellow went with orange and mango fruit juices.  Rest I made as plain sponge and coloured them.

As soon, I started assembling them, I could see an huge tower of cake, to be feasted.  :)  I used Tropolite cream for frosting.

Each and every slice was delecious with whipped cream frosting.  As expected, my kid was very excited.  :)  At the end, that is all what every baker wants, to get amazed by their pretty hero's and heroine's of their life, isn't it?  :)

All thanks to Swathi Iyer  and Julie , this challenge was amazing and I am eagerly looking forward to another one!

Yellow polka dot cake / Mango fudge cake/ Vegan cake

   Hi everyone :)  This special cake,  is one I made for hubby's birthday.  I wanted this cake to be very special, and designed them visually,  therefore,  this has also given me many sleepless nights with regards to flavour, essence and ingredients.  Since, mango was favourite with him and kid, I went by this yellow polka dot cake :)

I prepared this  mango cake with Tang - mango powder. They were easily available in the nearest super-market.  Also, I wanted this cake to be eggless - hence made an vegan cake which was fudgy as well.  But, this fudgy mango cake, was very well compromised with vegan whipped cream. I have prepared mango cream, using the tropolite cream for polka dots.   You can also have the plain cake as tea-time snack, if you wish to have them without cream.   So, all thanks to Tang, mango powder - they infused such an amazing mango flavour.

Every slice of this cake, quite easily melted in mouth.  All thanks to the turn-table and palette knife I got recently, they made the frosting part easier and quite professional.  I will also, recommend you guys to buy the same for an neat finish.  

Watermelon-look alike cake/ fondant sponge cake

     I love to bake.... baking, not only ends up with an beautiful, gorgeous end-product, but also relaxes my mind and eases the day. (Now, let us forget about the sink getting loaded with lots of dirty vessels.... and the overall messy work, LOL) Though, I would love to bake all the time, my regret is not on the cost I had spent, but on the consumption part.  Since, we are an family of three (I would say, two and an half :D ) I can't proceed to my next bake, untill and unless my previous one got completely out of stock.

So, when my sambhar cake disappeared, I was wondering what to proceed.  So, when I explored my refrigerator, my eyes shined gloriously over the cling wrapped fondant.  Yes, this fondant is very special to me, since I experimented myself, with stocked on condensed milk.  Isn't that exciting?  I, dragged this fondant and along with icing colours played an little to create this magical watermelon look-alike cake.  Basically, there is no watermelon(Beleive me, not even an drop of essence or juice),  but an sponge cake topped with fondant to create an fake look.  Though I am not uploading details of fondant here, I promise to get back soon with an detailed post :)

Strawberry Trifle shots

  For my potluck party, this month,  I decided to go for dessert.  What else can I settle for my awesome bloggermates??  :P  Yes, dedicating strawberry trifle shots for an rocking party...

'Trifle' is an dessert made by layering of sponge cake, custard, jelly, fruits and finally whipped cream is used as an garnish here.  I, utilized this humble opportunity to clear my lazy strawberries resting @ refrigerator :P  :P   With an bit of planning, you can, also make them instantly. (Apart from whipped cream, which does not come at handy...)  I made mine at shot glasses and hence the name :)

At home, everybody feasted on them.  The crumbled cake-base went well with with sour jam and sweet custard.  I am planning to make them quite often :P

YULE LOG - Baking partners December 2013

The very same date, previous year was my first post for Baking partners ..still cant beleive it is since an year now, feeling very nostalgic :) And ever since I bought an OTG, and got many flopped outcomes, I had been scratching my head for an better alternative.  Introduction to this Baking partners was an 'blessing in disguise', through one of my friend's blog.   Let me take this as an ideal oppourtunity and list out other bakes I made,

1. Plum cake
2. Apple pie
3. French Macaroons
4. Cheese cake
5. Newyork-styled pizza
6. Chocolate eclairs
7. Chiffon cake
8. Biscotti
9. Kronut
10. Pumpkin bread
11. Pataqueta

    Don't get hard on counting, since I missed february month :)  So, each bakes listed here, has lots of tactics or lots of tips/details involved.  Since we were given links to knowledge each details, the entire baking became like an 'internal assessment' to us :P   Now, I have the confidence of baking my own cookies/cakes, thanks all to this humble community.

Coming over to this month's challenge, it is YULE LOG.  YULE LOG is an dessert/cake made especially during Christmas.  Here an chocolate cake/genoise cake is baked using an swiss roll pan, filled with vanilla icing, rolled over and again frosted with chocolate icing.  Fork impressions are made in order to make them resemble like an log!   Making them was quite interesting and nourishing the delecious outcome was the BEST DAY in my life.  Thanks all goes to Tanushree and Swathi Iyer.

Red velvet cake with creamcheese icing

   November month is full of birthdays & anniversaries.  So, with lots to plan - I settled for this Red velvet cake with Cream cheese icing for his birthday.  Red velvet cake is known for its velvety texture is paired here with the tangy cream cheese frosting.

Carrot cake with cream,cheese icing - a birthday treat for my lovely daughter

August month is always exciting for me, yes, it has my cute pie's birthday.  From the first week itself, all the planning starts.  With tonnes of cake variety online, it gets only harder to settle for one.  Nonetheless, the carrot cake won my heart.  Not only known for its simplicity - it will impress any mother, who wants to load her child's tummy with vegetables.  So a win-win for both!
   

The day started with going to the temple, offering prayers.  Back at school, we arranged a cake cutting from a bakery nearby.   So, this carrot cake was reserved for her evening bash.  The best thing about carrot cake is that they are  made with oil, rendering their texture so soft even when consumed directly from the refrigerator.

Tangy cream cheese frosting went along well.  So, let's buckle up and enjoy the cake in making....

Ingredients required

For carrot cake

• Self-raising flour - 2 cups
• Powdered sugar - 11/2 cup
• Egg - 4
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - 11/2 cup
• Shredded carrot - 3no or 21/2 cups

For cream cheese icing

• 125 gm of Cream cheese
• 125 gm of unsalted butter
• 5 tbsp powdered sugar

Method

Stir in salt to the flour.  Keep aside.  

In a separate vessel break four eggs, add powdered sugar and beat well till they are combined.

Add in oil, vanilla essence and beat again

Slowly fold in shredded carrots.

Finally,  add in flour mixture in three batches till they are well incorporated.

Pour them on a parchment paper lined 6-inch round baking pan and bake at preheated oven 180 -degree celsius till done. Cooling the cake can be done by inverting them over the wire rack for two hours.   I got four muffins and an entire cake made of 6-inch pan.  

Now prepare cream cheese icing, in a blender blend in cream cheese and powdered sugar.  Later on, add softened butter/melted butter and blend again till you get a fine paste.   This is our icing.

After the cake has been thoroughly cooled, cut into two and ice them on centre.

Close over the other half and ice the entire cake.

You can also make spiky patterns on a spoon's back.  Refrigerate them to set.  

On her Birthday, cake cutting was done and here we go, a yummy slice for you all!!  :)

HAPPY BAKING :) :)

Lemon glow chiffon cake

   This cake is an part of Baking partner's anniversery challenge! Quite a surprise that  this community has reached almost an year with marvellous output every month they come up with.  Warm anniversery wishes and a great hug for all members!!

 

Though chiffon cake was quite satisfying with its easy-peasy ingredients, making them was of course a complex process!!  I did go through a lot of tuitoricals as suggested by Saraswathi of Sara's kitchen.  And yes thanks to her for such an helping hand.  Click here, here and here for more info.  Chiffon cake is an  light airy cake resembling like sponge cake usually had on bakery.  The only difference is that here egg whites are beaten into stiff peaks and folded into the batter while for the latter entire egg is added.  Also unlike regular cake which is made of butter, this cake is made of oil which retains their soft texture even after they are refrigerated.

Plum cake

Hi guys this is christmassyyy time, so let s bake a plum cake with sooo simple, available ingredients at home.

I am doing it as my first challenge or task from Baking Partners, which has the logo as follows:

Ingredients required

• 100gm butter
• 125 gm maida
• 125 gm powdered sugar
• 3 tsp sugar (to caramelise)
• 1/4 cup of boiling water
• Two eggs, with yolks separated
• 125 gm of combined mixture like cashew, pista, badam, raisins, chopped dates, chopped orange peel
• One small packet of apple/grape juice
• 1 tsp of baking powder

Initial preparations

• First, let us caramelise the sugar.  In a deep pan, add 3 tsp of sugar and 6 tsp of water, let the sugar melt.  After the sugar passes two-string consistency, it darkens its colour from white to golden brown, which will take ten to twelve minutes. Don't stir in the entire process.    When it starts to darken, switch off the flame and add 1/4 cup of boiling water and swirl the pan.  After sometime, you can see golden brown caramelised sugar syrup, you can also view some videos online that explains the complete process.  Now keep the caramelised syrup aside
• Mix nuts, dates, orange peel and marinate them with apple/grape juice in refrigerator for one week.  Traditionally, rum or brandy is used, but i preferred apple juice better.  
• Sift flour along with baking powder in a separate plate, mix them also add marinated nuts-dates-orange peel (draining the  liquid after a week's time)  and mix again in plate such that nuts get coated with maida very well.  This is done so that nuts dont go and stick down to cake.  

Method

 In a vessel blend butter and sugar using electric blender.  Now, add two egg yolks and blend again.

In a separate vessel, add two egg whites beat it till they turn fluffy. 

Now add the egg white mixture to butter-sugar blended mix and stir well.  Also add in caramelised syrup.

Now add maida-baking powder-nuts mix 

Now pour the batter in baking dish and bake at 180 degree celsius for about one hour

Plum cake is now ready to serve!!!!!

Wannaaaa a sliceeeee?????