Birthday Bliss with Chocolate Devil's food cake

I celebrated my birthday last month and her's a look at the cake. I baked Nigella's Chocolate Devil's food cake. It was sinfully chocolaty and pure bliss in my mouth...need I say more!

The just frosted cake

cake in the fridge

just look at that amazing frosting...it took all of my almost non-existent will power not to lick the entire bowl

I'd baked the cake and frosted it the night before my birthday, so I refrigerated it till the next day. Now that is what you delicious anticipation! I couldn't wait until morning to cut the cake, but wait I did. Which just made it all the more better.

my birthday cake

I sprinkled some edible silver colored pearls and my mom placed a violet from her garden on the cake. It was absolutely lovely.

cutting my luscious cake

Happy Birthday to me...Here'a slice for you...

Mum and dad took me to Mysore for the day. They got me a piece of jewelry as a gift. Oh! just before we went to the jewelers Mum took me to temple, which as far as I have seen, is almost always closed when we go to Mysore. But this day it was open and I even got a laddoo as prashad. ( I know not much to get excited about...but this sort of thing never happens to me).

Sitting on the silver swing, mum and dad sure do look regal

We went to the restaurant at Hotel Metropole for lunch. I just love the old world grandeur of the place. As soon you enter it, you feel like you've been transported to a different era. I feel it represents the glory of bygone days, when Mysore was among the richest provinces in Princely India. They've retained all the original woodwork and furniture. The crystal chandeliers are so beautiful they take my breath away. The mirrors in their restaurant...Oh, those are masterpieces, am so in love with them. One day if they find it missing, it will definitely be me. ;)

Crystal chandelier in foyer of Hotel Metropole...I wish I could have one

At least I got a picture underneath the chandelier... I feel like a princess :)

All in all, it was a really great day. And I even did a spot of shopping before I got back. It was a wonderful birthday.

Happy Birthday Nigella, here's a Chocolate Irish cream cake for you...

Today is Nigella Lawson's Birthday. For those of you who don't know me, I think of Nigella as my Guru. She according to me is the best cook ever and is also one of the reasons why I love baking so much. She makes it all so easy, breezes into her beyond amazing kitchen, fiddles around with all those doodads, throws a few things together and Voila! you have a visual treat right before your eyes, which just makes you wish you could somehow wrangle an invitation to her house for a meal. And she does all this while she looks like a million bucks, for someone who is always around food! If I did that, I'd probably look like a freight train! (Scary image in my head now, definitely need to do some Power Yoga). 

Even if I cannot be a part of her birthday celebrations (for now, I hope I get to meet her someday) I thought she deserves a beautiful cake (which I would eat on her behalf). And well, it's just another excuse to bake a cake. And it couldn't be just anything... it had to bold, brassy and beautiful, in other words something that says Nigella or sort of describes her. I know she likes chocolate (who doesn't?) so I made a chocolate cake with Irish Cream.

Happy Birthday Nigella

I've always wanted to bake a cake using Bailey's. And lazy person that I am, I've always managed to come up with some excuse or the other. Most used was the lack of Bailey's Irish cream whiskey at home. The other day when we were at an aunts place for dinner, I found a bottle of  her Home-made Irish Cream and asked if I could borrow it. The original recipe called for Bailey's and since I didn't have any, I've used the homemade version. I've also added chocolate so the cake has a more intense chocolate flavor. It also made the cake more moist and delicious.

Irish Cream Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
250g plain flour

My very cute measuring cup and spoon set...was a gift from mum

1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)
60g cocoa powder

40g Good quality dark chocolate, chopped (or you can use chocolate chips)
300g sugar
250ml strong coffee (any temperature)
210g butter, cubed
375ml Baileys (or other Irish Cream liqueur, homemade works too as long as it's good) ( I used a li'l more approx 400 ml)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 160C, grease and line an 8 x 8 inch tin.
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.
Put the chopped chocolate, cocoa powder, sugar, coffee and butter in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat, whisking frequently until the butter and chocolate has melted and the sugar dissolved. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Stir in the Baileys Irish cream into the liquidy chocolate mix.

Add the eggs one by one, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract.

I prefer to crack the eggs into a separate bowl and then add into the batter, so you don't get any eggshell pieces by mistake

you should have a smooth glossy batter after mixing in the eggs

Add the flour mix and whisk gently until everything is incorporated into the batter.

be gentle while incorporating the flour mixture

Pour the thin batter into the prepared tin and rap the sides of the tin a few times to remove air bubbles. Smooth the top of the batter using a wet spoon to remove any air bubbles.
Bake for 1 hour, after an hour put foil on top of the cake and continue for another 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out with only a few moist crumbs

Cake in the oven

Let cool completely before dusting with icing sugar if desired. (we finished the cake way too soon, so it's not dusted with icing sugar...and I left the paper doilies I flicked from the Orange County soup bowls in my aunt's bag! I wanted to use it as a template for dusting the icing sugar on the cake for a nice pattern ).

Yum yum yum :)

Note* The batter is very very runny and may look like it will never cook, but don't worry it will. Just make sure not o shake the pan at all when it is in the oven.

Do not over bake the cake as it will dry out.

You can use a vanilla bean instead of the extract, just split the bean and scrape the seeds into the batter.

And lastly, it is very dense, very moist, intensely chocolaty and a very very boozy cake...you might get a li'l tipsy, so just don't feed it to your kids.

Now go bake some and tell me how it was.

Until next time, Happy Baking!

How Do I bake when there's no power or even post on this blog???

I know I haven't posted anything in a while and now I am trying to make for it by writing 2-3 posts on the same day. I won't say I've been really busy, because I have and I haven't been busy; make whatever of that you will. I have been just plain lazy. I went back home to Coorg in June and the day I reached, it started pouring and still hasn't stopped. And to make it worse we had no power for weeks together (I felt like I was in a an episode of that TV show Revolution). Oh! and the icing on the cake (a cake that wasn't baked coz there was no power!!!) we had Elephants living in our coffee estate! The happy Pachyderm family ( daddy elephant, mommy elephant and a very mischievous and destructively happy baby elephant) decided to park their humongous bottoms next to the Jack-fruit tree which is very close to our house (I could actually see them from the bedroom). For three nights in a row they'd walk all over the place, did some intelligent construction so that their naughty Li'l baby didn't fall into our lake and gave our poor dogs a fright! Well all's good now, coz the pachyderm family decided they were better off in the forest.

Since I didn't bake anything, here's another recipe from the baking class...This is not as simple as you expect it to be, but if you read the ingredients list and the recipe thoroughly and follow the instructions you can't go wrong. And you'll have a beautiful cake as proof!

Marble Cake

Ingredients:

5 ounces (140 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 tablespoon brewed coffee (optional)

2 1/4 cups (295 grams) all purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups (250 grams) granulated white sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup (80 ml) sour cream or plain yogurt, room temperature

1/2 cup (120 ml) milk, room temperature

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter, or spray with a non stick spray, a 10 inch (25 cm) bundt or tube pan ( If you don't have one, use a normal round pan).

In a heatproof bowl, placed over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate with the coffee. Remove from heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and sour cream.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk to the batter, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Remove a little more than half of the batter and place into a separate bowl. To the remaining batter stir, or beat, in the melted chocolate. Place the batters into the prepared bundt pan by alternating spoonfuls of vanilla batter with the chocolate batter. Then, with the end of a wooden skewer or knife, gently draw swirls through the batter to marbleize  it ( make swirly patterns on the cake). Don't over mix.

Bake for about 35 - 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center just comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes before removing the cake from the pan to cool completely. Can dust the top of the cake with cocoa powder or powdered sugar (I don't do this, what's the point of going to the trouble of making all those swirly patterns just to cover it up?). Serve warm or at room temperature. This cake is best the day it's made, but it will keep for a couple of days at room temperature or it can be frozen.

Well then...until next time... Happy Baking!

It's almost the end of the year and am back with a new post. I know it's been a really long time. But I really have been busy. I've been trying out recipes, reading the books that I've hoarded over the years and never found time to read, painted some glass, tried to learn how to knit and gave up ( for some reason, I cannot learn how to purl), got some really old Anchor stitch kits lying in some old cupboard and tried my hand at that too. And since I did not complete any of the above except baking, I think I have ADD. Overall, I cannot comment on the past year, there were some high's and some low's. But it was fine I guess. Any way moving on to what I love most, baking, let's talk about Lemon Syrup Cake.

I first saw this cake when Julia made it on Masterchef Australia Season 3. I love anything that has lemon in it,
So I just had to try it. I searched for Julia's recipe, and couldn't find anything. Fortunately, for me, I found another recipe  by Thanh of eat, little bird. Believe me, this cake is so good, it'll blow your socks off ! Thanks a lot Thanh for an amazing recipe. My Dad and I always fight for a piece from the edges.

Lemon-Syrup Loaf Cake

Ingredients

For the cake:

175 g (6 oz.) Plain Flour

125 g (4.5 oz.) Unsalted Butter

175 g (6 oz.) Castor Sugar

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

Pinch of salt.

4 tablespoons Milk

For the Lemon Syrup:

100 g (3.5 oz,) Icing Sugar

Juice of  1& 1/2 Lemons (large sized) (Approximately 6 tablespoons)

Zest of 1Lemon (Approximately 1 tablespoon)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a loaf tin.

2. Sieve together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

3. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add lemon zest and beat in eggs one at a time. If the mixture starts to curdle, add a tablespoon or so of flour and mix well.

4. Add the flour mixture into the wet mixture and then mix in the milk.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes , until the cake has risen and is lightly golden in colour.

6. In the last 10 minutes  of baking time, make the lemon syrup by dissolving the icing sugar in the lemon juice, in a small saucepan on medium low heat. Heat the syrup gently until you have a clear liquid.

7. Remove cake from the oven, but not from the tin. Using a skewer, puncture the cake all over. Spoon hot syrup evenly over the cake. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a wire rack. 

Note:

I always use extra lemon zest in the batter, it's just the way I like it. Also, I always make more syrup than the recipe calls for, since I like my cake drenched in lemony goodness.

You can reduce the amount of sugar if you want, but I like the  extra sweetness just fine.

In the picture above, I have added candied lemon zest on the cake. You can leave that out if you want. Also, I've baked the cake in a square glass dish.

You can also try making the cake with limes instead of lemons. Tastes just as good.

Until next time, Happy Baking!