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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.
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 1/4th cup hot milk
1 3/4th /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.
December should be dubbed Good Food Month. For, this is the one month where I end up bookmarking the maximum number of recipes. And it’s also the one month where I tell myself I can eat without feeling too guilty because, well, everyone else is (see, this kind of peer pressure isn’t bad).
Given that people are looking for Holiday recipes, I thought I’d get myself into the Holiday baking mood and have some fun along the way, so I made some party nuts – simple and oh, so good – these ginger and honey roasted almonds have a very, very high return on time and effort invested. I made these today and had my colleagues chomp them down in no time.
The brown sugar, ginger and salt make a very potent layer over the honey coated roasted almonds. With this method of making the nuts, the coating sticks so beautifully to the nuts instead of falling off or sticking to your hands instead of the nut while eating.
Because they last for a week, they are excellent to make ahead of time so you can focus on your main dinner when the dinner party date is getting closer. Serve a big bowl of this at your party and be sure that you will have an empty bowl before the night comes to an end (so you should double the recipe). And packed in a cute little box, these would make excellent gifts.
These are supremely addictive. Go make them NOW!
Ginger and Honey Roasted Almonds
Yield 5 cups
5 cups almonds
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp water
2 tsp canola oil (or another flavourless, odourless oil)
- Preheat oven to 325°F/160°C
- Place nuts in a single layer on two rimmed baking sheets. Toast until nuts are fragrant, 10-15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through cooking. Meanwhile, combine sugar, salt, and ginger in a small bowl and set aside.
- Combine honey, water and oil in a large saucepan. Bring it to a boil over high heat.
- Reduce heat to low and add roasted almonds while still warm. Cook, stirring a few times, until all of the liquid has evaporated and evenly coated with the honey, this will take 3 to 5 minutes. It should look nice and shiny at this point.
- Now, spoon the sugar mixture over the nuts, stirring between every addition of sugar and spice mix and then tossing it thoroughly to coat evenly. Spread nuts in a singer layer on a sheet of parchment paper to cool. Can be kept in an airtight container for 1 week.
Oh and for those of you from Bombay, I’ve put up a post on
Baking in Bombay so you know where to get your ingredients and equipments from!
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.
