Posts tagged as:

cakes and sweet bakes

The Big News + Chocolate Hazelnut Marbled Cake

December 21, 2009

Before I get to the delicious cake, I want to tell you about the big news I was holding on to a while ago.

If you’re following me on Twitter or Facebook, you might have heard me gushing about finally signing ‘the contract’.No, it’s not some corporate contract boohockey or a typical 9-5 job. This contract is my entry into the world I’ve only dreamed about until now. It’s a world full of butter, sugar and flour – a world I know I’m going to be happy in. Starting January 2010 I will work for a lovely, first-of-its-kind, startup French pâtisserie here in Bombay. Here, I’ll work with two absolutely amazing chefs from Le Cordon Bleu, Paris. When I first baked with them, the day went by quickly and I lost complete track of time – that’s when I knew that this is my kind of place. The two of them are so professional and so much fun at the same time. I’m going to love it here!

I’m sure as hell going to miss orangefoodie and my friends at my current workplace, but I know this is one step closer to where I want to be. 5 years ago, when I learned about Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and got my hands on their brochures, I knew I had to study there – I just had to. Back then, my parents didn’t take my passion so seriously and thought my interests were as fleeting as summer, and cooking/baking for a living sounded absolutely ludicrous to them. Luckily, they are so much more supportive of the career switch now more than ever. I am so thrilled about this – my dream of baking for a living is finally becoming a reality.

Here’s a wonderfully moist chocolate hazelnut marbled cake that I made yesterday. I used Dorie Greenspan’s mocha walnut bundt cake recipe as a framework to create this cake. I substituted hazelnuts for walnuts and cocoa for espresso. While recipes usually call for milk at room temperature, I’ve noticed that using warm or hot milk is important for producing really soft cakes that makes all the difference. Don’t be scared, the hot milk won’t cook the eggs. My mom wolfed down most of the cake and asked for more to take for my grandmom.

Chocolate Hazelnut Marbled Cake
Adapted from: Baking From My Home to Yours -Dorie Greenspan
Yield: 1 large bundt cake

2 ½ /310g cups flour

½ / 100g cup ground hazelnuts

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

9oz. / 250g. butter

3oz./ 85g. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

1 tsp cocoa powder

1 1/4^th cup hot milk

1 3/4^{th /350g} cup sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350F/160C. Butter a 10 inch bundt pan or a loaf pan and dust the inside with flour. Tap out the excess flour.
Whisk together the flour, ground hazelnuts, baking powder and salt.
In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water, melt 2 tbsp butter with cocoa and chocolate. Heat until the chocolate and butter have melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside.
In a bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl, mix together the butter and sugar for about 3-4 minutes – this will look like a thick paste.
Beat the eggs in one at a time, until the mixture looks smooth. Add the vanilla extract.
Now either on a reduced speed, or by folding in by hand, add the flour and hot milk alternately, starting and finishing off with flour (so, flour-milk-flour-milk-flour)
Now take a little less than half the flour and mix it with the chocolate mixture that you set aside earlier. Stir till it is thoroughly blended – don’t overdo it.
What I did was add the white mixture then the chocolate mixture and then the white mixture again into the bundt pan and then run a knife through it once or twice for very visibly distinct two layers. For a pronounced marbled look, stir the knife through the batter a few more times.
Bake for 55-65 minutes or until the knife comes out clean. Let it cool for 10 minutes or so before unmoulding.
Slice and eat! It’s lovely with some mascarpone dusted with caster sugar or some chocolate sauce.

{ 43 comments }

Dulce de Leche cake with Vanilla Bean

October 24, 2009

Flour, butter, sugar and eggs are the most important ingredients for a baker. And I’ve been having a hard time for the past few days because we have been faced with a short supply of butter in the market. Yes, butter. The butter I have been wanting to drench my toast with (topped with Nutella, even better!). The butter I wanted to use for herb butter mushrooms. The butter that makes everything better (watching Julie and Julia has its influence, alright!).

I was itching to bake and I could not for the life of me find a way around this (no butter substitutes, please). As luck would have it, my grandmom had a handful of sticks stocked up in her freezer and she sent some to me!

I had seen an eggless cake recipe on Divine Taste and couldn’t resist making something similar just for the lovely crumb. When I saw the recipe, I instantly knew I’d use Dulce de Leche instead of condensed milk. And then later it struck me that steeping the vanilla in milk would add so much more depth to the flavor instead of using extract.

One point to note here is that besides the sweetened condensed milk, there is no sugar added. I found that I needed something to increase the sweetness in the form of an icing – I drizzled some milk-sugar icing, you could use anything. Most might be stumped about a recipe that doesn’t call for eggs, but this recipe works beautifully without them and yet results in a soft, moist cake. I have finally found my go-to eggless recipe!

just look at the specs of vanilla!

Dulce de Leche Cake with Vanilla Beans Steeped Milk

Inspired from: Divine Taste

Yield: A 9 inch cake or 1 8 inch bundt cake + 4 cupcakes

7 fl oz / 200 milk

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

8 oz. / 225g flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

14 oz. / 400gm dulce de Leche (oh, you must click though – just for the photos!)

110 gm/1 stick butter

4 tbsp yogurt

For the icing

125g icing sugar

2-3 tbsp milk

Scrape out the innards of the vanilla bean and stir it into the milk along with the remains of the bean. Simmer for 2-3 minutes and remove from heat. Let this continue to steep for at least another 30 minutes.
Grease tin generously with butter. Preheat the oven at 175C/350F.
In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda.
In a large bowl beat the butter and the dulce de leche together until it is combined. Mix in the yogurt and beat again.
At this point, reheat the milk until it is hot and mix it with the butter and dulce de leche mixture.
Fold in the flour mixture, with a spatula.
Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes for an 8 inch bundt cake or a little longer for a 9 inch cake at 175C/350F.
To make the icing, put the icing sugar in a small bowl and add 1 tbsp of milk at a time to moisten the sugar. Keep stirring and add the milk a little at a time until the icing is thin enough to drizzle from a spoon. Drizzle this icing over the cooled cake. Did you know the tines of a fork work beautifully for this?

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Pear and Ginger Cake with Walnuts

October 4, 2009

A few days ago my dad brought the most juicy pears home. They were small and so full of flavour that after downing as many as I could fresh, I decided to make a pear cake I’d been meaning to try ever since I saw the recipe in a cute little Marks and Spencer baking book my cousin gifted to me.

What intrigued me was the addition of ginger to complement the pear. A simple cake batter flavoured with a hint of dried ginger (though next time I’m going to try fresh or a combination of the two) and topped with sliced pears and a generous sprinkling of walnuts. SUPER YUM!

You know what’s the worst part of blogging about this cake? That I cannot eat it as I type, like all the other things I make.

Pear and Ginger Cake with Walnuts
Yield: 1 8/9inch cake that serves 8-10 people
Adapted from Easy Baking, Marks and Spencers

200g / 7 oz butter
200g / 7 oz sugar
200g / 7 oz all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp ground ginger
3 eggs
450g / 1 lb pears – peeled, cored and sliced
1 tbsp raw sugar or granulated sugar (for sprinkling)
50g / 2 oz walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and grease a 8 (preferably) or 9 inch round tin and line it with parchment paper.
In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and ground ginger.
In another bowl, beat the sugar and 175g/6oz butter together. Add the eggs, one at a time.
Reduce the mixer speed and add the flour mixture or fold it in by hand.
Spoon this mixture into a prepared tin and arrange the pear slices on top of the cake. Sprinkle with the 1 tbsp of sugar, dot with the remaining butter and scatter the walnuts on the pears.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Let it cool slightly before cutting yourself a slice.

{ 49 comments }

2 Years, Gratitude, and Red Velvet Cupcakes

September 23, 2009

It’s hard to believe that 2 years have gone by since the time I started this blog. Sometimes it feels like I’ve been blogging forever and other times I feel like a newbie. Irrespective, I’ve had an awesome time here; learning new things and meeting new people has been very enriching (at the risk of sounding overtly formal).

Just to track progress, some changes that I’ve noticed…

Starting from a blue Thisaway theme (should have captured a screenshot, for keepsake) theme to this customised blog design, I love tweaking the blog layout.
My cookbook collection that has grown from 2-3 books to 50 odd (and still counting).
I find myself moving away from cooking and falling more and more in love with baking with each passing post.
Better photographs!
And pretty much everything from my 1st blog anniversary post still stands.

Whether you’ve read the blog since the time I started, or hopped on this delicious journey a few months ago, or have just been around for the last 30 seconds – thank you! Thank you for reading. Thank you for your comments. Thank you for your e-mails. Thank you for your tweets. It really means the world to me.

The cupcakes are just wonderful – red (of course!) and soft and moist. And the cream cheese icing is to die for! I couldn’t stop licking it as I waited for the cupcakes to cool. I was reminded of the first time I tried a very Ameircan red velvet cupcake at Magnolia bakery. I’m sure they originated in some fairytale. The recipe is from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, so I think I can’t stop extolling the recipe right about now.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Adapted from: The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook
Yield: 12 cupcakes. Double the recipe for 2 9 inch layer cakes.

Reference: There is a really helpful red velvet cupcake comparison on The Way The Cookie Crumbles. Also, please make sure you either use the cup measurement or the metric measurement. Don’t swing in between! Like most red velvet cucpakes, this recipe calls for vinegar, but I didn’t use it. Instead, i doubled the amount of baking soda required.

4 Tablespoons / 60g. butter, at room temperature
¾ cup / 150g. sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 / 10g. Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp / 20ml. red food coloring
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup / 120ml. buttermilk or well beaten yoghurt
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (if you’re using unsalted butter)
1 tsp teaspoon baking soda

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170°C/350°F.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda.

In another bowl, beat butter and the sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy and well mixed.

Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well incorporated.

In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a very thick, dark paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula).

Turn the mixer up to slow speed, add a third of the flour mixture, then half the buttermilk, a third of the flour, half the buttermilk, and ending with the rest of the flour. You can fold in the last third of flour by hand.

Spoon mixture into cupcake mould line with paper or into silicone moulds.

Bake for about 20-25 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Let cool completely before frosting the cakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

( double recipe to frost a 2 layer 9-inch cake)

2 1/3 cups / 300 g. icing sugar, sifted

3 Tablespoons butter / 50g. room temperature

4 ounces / 125g. cream cheese, cold

Method:

Beat the powdered sugar and butter together in the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-slow speed until it comes together and is well mixed. Mine kinda looked crumbly.
Add the cream cheese all at once and beat on medium to medium-high until incorporated.
Turn the mixer to medium-high and beat for 5 minutes, or until the frosting becomes light and fluffy. Be careful not to over beat or the icing might get runny.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

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