I am a mommy now !!!!

I am very happy to announce the arrival of Baby sinfoodie :)our cute princess is doing well. :) needless to say , I will be missing in action here for coming months.

My Birthday Cake in different shades of pink

It was my birthday last week and I had  planned to treat myself by making this pink layered cake. Even though it meant a lot of effort as I have a small oven and I had to bake each layer one at a time, I was super excited.  Now, buying a birthday cake has become a passe at my home, and my husband who hasn't ever baked  a cake before wanted to bake one for me. Little did he know how long I had been wanting to make this cake. He wanted me to have a relaxed birthday but I was so excited that I had forbade him to bake a cake for me. 

The recipe I have used is for a 6" cake for each of the 4 layers. On hindsight,I feel I should I have reduced the amount  or baked it in an 8" pan. I have used 2,4,8,12 units of rose pink liquid food color for the gradient layers. I first started with 4 and 12 units, and decided that depending on the outcome after baking, I would increase or decrease the amount of colour for the next layer. The cake design is inspired by Call me Cupcake, though the recipe did not work for me as I had to prepare the batter separately for each layer as my oven is small. Though,for my first layer I tried that recipe by reducing it proportionately, but the quantity was so less for one layer, that the outcome was bad. I had to discard it and start afresh with a different recipe of a vanilla cake from here.

For Frosting I used the whipped cream frosting recipe which I had earlier used for Tuxedo Cake. I used 1/3rd of the quantity  for frosting the 4 layer cake.

Pink Gradient Cake

Ingredients

For one layer of a 6" cake 

1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup oil (vegetable, canola or extra light olive oil)
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
2. Grease and flour the cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. 
3.  In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir together with whisk, and set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds.  Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds.  Add vanilla and oil, beat.
5. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture.  Add half of the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour and the rest of the buttermilk.  Add the food colour and Beat until just combined.  Scrape down the side of the bowl.  
6. Pour batter into the cake pan
7.  Bake for 30-40 minutes till the skewer comes clean.
8. Let the cake cool completely. 

For making cake flour at home - Take one cup of all purpose flour and remove 2 tbsp from it. Replace the 2 tbsp flour with cornflour and sift together 2-3 times. Cake flour is ready to use.

Assembling

1. Once you have all the layers ready and cooled,  keep the darkest layer at bottom and apply the frosting and place the next layer.
2. Cover the entire cake with crumb coating and let it refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. 
3. Apply the final coating of frosting with a design of your choice.

Outrageous Brownies

These delicious brownies by Ina Garten  are one of the most popular recipe available online. With 500 reviews and most of them positive , I had to make them. My friends were coming over this weekend , so I thought what better occasion than this .The brownie uses a lot of butter , so it can only be indulged in once in a long while. According to the reviews, these taste better when kept refrigerated overnight and should be served  after refrigeration only. Also, they cut better upon refrigeration. I have only made half the amount mentioned in the original recipe.

Outrageous Brownies

Ingredients

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 pound  plus 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, divided
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3 extra-large eggs
1.5 tablespoons instant coffee powder (I used 1 tbsp and it was sufficient)
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
1 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1.5 cups diced walnut pieces (I used 1 cup)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13 baking pan. (325 degrees if using a dark non-stick pan)
2. Melt together the butter, chocolate chips[1/2 pound], and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler (I did this step in a glass dish in the microwave at 30 second intervals). Cool slightly.
3.  Stir together [Do not beat] the eggs, instant coffee, vanilla and sugar.
4.  Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.
5. Stir together the 1/2 cup flour, baking powder and salt.
6.  Add to cooled chocolate mixture. 
7. Toss the walnuts and 6 ounces chocolate chips with 2 tbsp flour to coat.Then add to the chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan.
8. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until tester just comes out clean. Halfway through the baking, rap the pan against the oven shelf to allow air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Do not overbake.
9.  Cool thoroughly, refrigerate well and cut into squares. Cut only after refrigeration. 

Recipe Source:Original Recipe:(Source: Ina Garten)  Half recipe by Brown eyed baker[Brown eyed baker]

Swedish Visiting cake

This one is the last one from  the baking bonanza I had while my sister was here. My other sister complains that all I send her are cookies, so this time I decided to parcel this simple tea cake for her. I can't say much about the taste , as I just tasted the crumbs :)) , but my sister called up to say that she loved it.  The recipe is simple and easy. The only issue was getting slivered almonds, which is not available here . Maybe it is available in some speciality store, but I haven't seen them yet. So, I did a bit of hard work in making these slivers from whole almonds.I don't have a pie pan or a 9"inch pan, so I divided the batter into a 6" pan and a tart pan. On hindsight, I should have reduced the baking time by few minutes since I divided the batter into smaller pans. The cake is supposed to be moist and it did lose some of it because of that. But , it didn't affect much.

Ingredients
1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
About 1/4 cup sliced almonds (blanched or not)

Preparation

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter a seasoned 9-inch cast-iron skillet or other heavy ovenproof skillet, a 9-inch cake pan or even a pie pan.
2. Pour the sugar into a medium bowl.  Add the zest and blend the zest and sugar together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and aromatic.  \
3. Whisk in the eggs one at a time until well blended. 
4. Whisk in the salt and the extracts. 
5. Switch to a rubber spatula and stir in the flour.  Finally, fold in the melted butter.
6. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.  Scatter the sliced almonds over the top and sprinkle with a little sugar.  If you're using a cake or pie pan, place the pan on a baking sheet.
7. Bake the cake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it is golden and a little crisp on the outside; the inside will remain moist.  Remove the pan from the oven and let the cake cool for 5 minutes, t
8. Then run a thin knife around the sides and bottom of the cake to loosen it. 

You can serve the cake warm or at room temperature, directly from the skillet or turned out onto a serving plate.

Recipe Source : Dorie Greenspan site

Dimpled Apple Cake

Apple cake is one of my favourite cakes, especially when flavoured generously with cinnamon. I had been craving for it for some time and would drag my husband to cafes just to have a piece of the apple cake. But as my luck would have it none of the cafes which earlier used to keep it, had it. So, finally I gave in to my temptation and baked this cake. I have baked apple cupcakes during my pre-blogging days and this time I wanted to try a recipe for moist cake .
The recipe I tried did have some problems, it took too long to bake and the people who had tried this recipe had listed those problems under the original blogger. But I reached the original blog only when I was almost done with the baking ,so I missed those tips.
In spite of the increased baking time, the cake turned out very delicious. It was a moody cake, tasted different every time I had it.  I liked it best when it was just out of oven, though it was difficult to cleanly slice it . I like my apple cake warm, but when I reheated it after storing it overnight, it didn't taste as good. Without heating, and just out of the refrigerator it again was very delicious and my sister and husband liked it more when it was cold. It also got cleanly sliced after being refrigerated overnight.
The best part of the cake was the crunchy cinnamon brown sugar streusel which also gave the cake sweet little dimples and hence the name.

Ingredients

For the Cake
1-1/2 cups Greek- yogurt, well-stirred [ I used homemade curd]
2/3 cup olive oil [ I used vegetable oil]
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 small tart apples, such as Granny Smith, [ I used regular red apples]
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon

For the Cinnamon Streusel
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 350 F/176 C. Generously grease a 9x13-inch baking pan with baking spray or olive oil.
2. Whisk together yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl.
3. Peel and core apples, and chop into chunks about 1/2-inch across. You should end up with 3-1/2 to 4 cups of apples. Stir chopped apple into the liquid ingredients.
4. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon right into the liquids and stir just until no lumps remain.
5. For the cinnamon streusel : In a small separate bowl, mix remaining 2 teaspoons cinnamon with the brown sugar and butter.
6. Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Cover with half of cinnamon-brown sugar mixture, dropping it on batter in small lumps. Cover with remaining cake batter, then top with last half of cinnamon-brown sugar mixture.
7.  Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, covering with foil if top gets too brown. When a tester comes out clean, transfer pan to a cooling rack and let it sit for at least  15 minutes before cutting.

Now the problems that were encountered by others and me.

• Baking time: In my case It took 30 minutes more for tester to come clean. The original blogger attributes that this could be if the yogurt was liquidy and she suggest draining. My curd was liquidy and as I said before I reached the original blog only after I finished baking. Since I had to increase the baking time, I covered it with foil to avoid too much browning. The browning was perfect once I did so.
• Slicing Difficulty: I still had the difficulty in slicing after having left it for more than hour. It sliced clean  only after refrigerating. 
• The photo is of the next day , so you can see that I didn't face the issue of cake turning like a bread pudding  which some other users faced.
• Some users suggested cutting olive oil  I didn't face any issues with vegetable oil.

Recipe Source: One Perfect Bite and the Original recipe at the Kitchn

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Collar

I had been wanting to try my hand at the chocolate collar after recently noticing several birthday cakes in the cake shops having them. Chocolate decorations was the other thing I had been postponing trying.  So, when my sister came visiting from Delhi just few days after her birthday, it gave me a perfect opportunity to bake a belated birthday cake for her and at the same time try my hand at chocolate decorations. For the cake, I again used the same recipe as the  Tuxedo Cake which is currently my favorite chocolate cake base.I kept it simple this time with just 2 layers of cake with the sides and the insides filled with chocolate coffee ganache.

It was unfortunately a very hot Sunday in Mumbai when I made this chocolate collar, so the chocolate took a lot of time setting up. I tried to hasten the process by keeping it in the refrigerator for 30 secs which was a bad idea as the chocolate hardened in that short time. I had to apply a thin layer of melted chocolate to make it stick around the cake. Thankfully, it was not that hard that it couldn't take the round shape of the cake.

I am just sharing the recipe of how to make the collar, for the cake recipe, you can refer to Tuxedo Cake.

Ingredients

Cake, frosted and assembled.
White chocolate [ For making patterns, decorations]
Dark/milk chocolate
Parchment paper.

Method
Measure the Cake :
Determine the height and circumference of the cake. This needs to be done after the cake has been frosted , as frosting will increase both of them and we don't want our chocolate collar to fall short.

1. The height can be measured with a ruler/scale . You can either keep the height of the cake same as that of cake or add some more centimeters if you want to cover your cake with fruit toppings. 
2. The circumference can be measured using a thread/yarn.Wrap the thread loosely around the base of the cake and add an additional inch to ensure that there are no gaps when you wrap it around. 

Cut the Parchment Paper: 
As per the measurement , cut the parchment paper.

Make Chocolate Collar and Wrap around the cake

1. Melt both the chocolates separately. 
2. Fill the melted white chocolate in a piping bag and cut a small tip. 
3. Place the parchment paper on your work surface. Make a pattern with the white chocolate. Since this was my first time at chocolate decoration too, I used the simplest zigzag pattern.
4. Once the white chocolate is set completely, apply the dark chocolate over the entire parchment paper using an offset spatula.Spread evenly.
5. Leave the chocolate collar to set, so that it is sticky/pliant and is  not fully hard/brittle. This is the step where the Mumbai weather played a spoilsport.
6. Pick up the band and carefully put one end on the cake and press it to the frosting, wrapping it around the cake.
7. Transfer it to the refrigerator for  30 mins to get it completely set. Once it is set, peel the parchment paper. It comes off easily :)

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I haven't blogged in a month and I haven't baked anything too since Christmas. I had made these Carrot Cupcakes during Christmas for my husband's colleagues and have been procrastinating since then to blog about it. The cupcakes turned out delicious and the feedback was great. Since I got to taste only a bite of it, I think maybe I should bake them again till the fresh red carrots are in market. 
The cupcake recipe is from here and for the frosting  I have modified the recipe which I used for Red Velvet Cupcake , by excluding White Chocolate. It tastes equally good. I remember, I had to use white chocolate then,as the cream cheese tasted sour, so white chocolate balanced the taste. The brand was different and now I stick to Philadelphia Cream cheese, which doesn't have a sour taste.
Ingredients
Makes 24 cupcakes
For Cupcake
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger [ I didn't use it]
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
4 large eggs
3 cups grated peeled carrots
1 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

For Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz cream cheese

2 1/2 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup icing sugar sifted

Preparation

For the Cupcake

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/177C. Line 24 cupcake molds with paper liners, or butter and flour them.
2. Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in medium bowl to blend.
3. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. 
4. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. 
5. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. 
6. Stir in carrots, walnuts and raisins, if using them. 
7. Divide batter among cupcake molds, filling 3/4 of each.
8. Bake cupcakes 14 to 18 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let cool in pan for five minutes or so, then transfer cakes to a cooling rack.
9. Let cool completely before icing them.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Beat Cream cheese and butter till light
2. Add vanilla extract
3. Add icing sugar and beat till smooth.

Chole Bhature

After a long time there is savory recipe on the blog and that too is not cooked by me, but by my dear husband.  And this time, It is my fault that I didn't put it up earlier, though it was made during Diwali. My husband mostly cooks non-vegetarian food and I am the one who cooks the vegetarian . This time, he decided to give me a full day break and I was not even allowed to enter the kitchen. It was a blessing, as I was already very tired making Diwali sweets. Though I have only put the Coconut Pistachio laddus on the blog, I had also prepared Churma Ladoo and Kalakand. I decided not to put these recipes on the blog, as Churma ladoo though very delicious, was very tiresome to make. And I don't want anyone to go through that ordeal : -D . And the Kalakand didn't turn as good as it is available in market. Maybe , I will try a different recipe for it and then post.

The Chole Bhature came out very delicious and everyone loved it. Usually the Bhature are very  heavy and oily and you can't eat more than one .These were one of the best Bhature I had, light and not oily at all.


Ingredients 

For the Chole :

250 Gm Chickpeas (Chole/Kabuli Chana)
1 teabag ( this is used to give the black color)
4-6 Big Black Cardamom (Badi Ilaichi)
Salt acording to taste
1 tsp Black Salt
3-4 Green Chilies  finely chopped
1 piece Ginger finely chopped
2-3 Tomatoes  finely chopped
2-3 tsp Coriander Leaves  finely chopped
1 Onion  finely chopped
1/2 tsp Mango powder (aamchur)
1 Tbsp Garam Masala
Red Chillies accoding to taste
2 tsp dry Coriander Powder (Dhania powder)
oil to cook
2  Bay Leaves
2 tsp Chole masala

For the Bhature:


2 cups All purpose flour (Maida)
1 cup curd/yogurt
Vegetable oil to fry
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda



Preparation

For the Chole:

1. Soak chickpeas overnight.
2. Add  Chickpeas along with salt and teabag in the cooker .Add enough water. Cook it in a pressure cooker till  3-4 whistles. Do not over cook. The tea bag gives it the black color.
3. Drain the  Chickpeas and do not throw the water. It will be used later.
4. Heat oil in the pan .Add bay leaves,Cardamom. 
5. When they crackle, add ginger,green chilies and onion. When onion is light brown, add tomato and  coriander powder,chilli powder garam masala.
6. Add  Chickpeas and mix well for 2-3 minutes, Then add chole masala, amchur and ginger and black salt.
7. Add the water in which Chickpeas was cooked and cook it for 10 minutes
8. Mash some chickpeas , it will make the gravy thicker.
9. Before Serving you can add some butter or ghee and  garnish with Coriander Leaves /Paneer Cubes

For the Bhature:

1. In a large bowl ,mix salt, baking soda and all purpose flour.Add 2 tsp oil and mix it well. 
2. Knead a soft dough using Curd/Yogurt.
3. Cover the dough with a wet cloth and let it ferment for around 7-8 hours.
4. Heat oil in  a deep pan. 
5. Divide dough into 12 equal parts. Roll it in a thick round or oval shape.
6. Deep fry till it is slightly brown .
7. Serve hot with Chole,onion rings salad, sliced lemon and some pickles/achaar :)

Recipe Source: Adapted from CookHealthy