Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt Cake

Is there anything called over-indulgence with respect to bundt cakes? As the new owner of bundt pans it is indeed natural for one to try out various recipes. This is with a large bundt (12-cup) pan.

I once again turned to Divya's blog for a chocolate-cinnamon-bundt cake.

Ingredients
Butter – ½ cup

Water – 1 cup

Vegetable oil – ½ cup

Cocoa powder – 5 tbsps[I used Cadburys]

Plain flour – 1 ½ cups
Wholewheat flour – ½ cup

Sugar – 1 1/2 cups

Salt – ½ tsp

Buttermilk – 1 cup (replaced 2 eggs with half a cup of buttermilk)

Baking soda – 1 tsp

Cinnamon – 1 ½ tsps

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Method

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). I set it to 180 degrees C.

Grease a large bundt pan with cooking spray.

Put butter, water, oil, and cocoa in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, whisk together both flours, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well.
Then, add the buttermilk and baking soda.

Add the cinnamon, and vanilla to the batter. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake 35-40 minutes.[Mine took 10 minutes extra]. Allow cake to cool completely in the pan.

Verdict: Wonderfully rich and moist cake. But I usually prefer cakes that do not use oil. That is just my taste I suppose. But for the glossy look and moisture in the cake, I loved the taste.

Eggless Hershey's Marble cake

What does one do with a bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup lying the pantry unopened and the little one refusing to have milk shakes made from it. Well there are a lot of things one can do with all that syrup, but the little one was more interested in having a marble cake... And as always the little one wins...

Recipe adapted from Hershey's website

Ingredients
1 cup Hershey's syrup
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 3/4 cups APF
3 eggs - substituted with 3/4 cup whole milk for eggless 
1 1/4 tsp baking soda, divided
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sugar (the recipe says 2 cups sugar, but I reduced it)
1 cup butter

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degress F or 180 degrees C. Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan.

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until fluffy. Add the milk and beat well. Stir together flour, 1 tsp baking soda and salt and alternately with buttermilk to butter mixture, beating until well blended.

Measure 2 cups into a small bowl, stir in syrup and remaining 1/4 tsp baking soda. Pour chocolate batter over vanilla batter in pan. Use a wooden spoon and gently swirl the batters to create the marble pattern. Do not over mix. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. I omitted the glaze or frosting that the recipe suggests.

Verdict: The cake was yummy. Need to say more? 

Original Eggless Banana Oats Muffins

 "A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others." - Ayn Rand.

I bake at my own pace. Blog at my own pace. There are a few disasters every now and then ofcourse. And those do not make it to the blog, most often not even to the dining table. Mom and me bury the secret right at the kitchen... That is only until the subsequent attempt is a success. No accolades, only lots of creative inputs from family and friends, plenty of tips and feedback from blogger friends... But the underlying passion to create and consume keeps me going. A creativity that fuels productive pursuits... And a product of that pursuit is this original recipe from my kitchen.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup butter milk
1/4 cup butter
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
a pinch - salt
Blueberry or Chocolate syrup - optional

Method

To make Buttermilk
Measure 1 cup of milk minus 1 tbsp into a bowl. Add one tbsp of vinegar. Gently mix and let th emilk stand for 5 - 10 mins.

In a large bowl, whish together the all purpose flour, wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Place the oats in a large bowl and pour the buttermilk over it. Let it stand for 10-15 minutes.

Melt the butter and keep aside.

Mash the bananas and keep aside.

Make a well in the dry flour mixture and pour the oats-buttermilk mixture in the centre. Quickly combine the wet and dry ingredients using a spatula. Add the melted butter and mashed bananas and combine. Do not overmix or the muffins will turn out tough and rubbery.

Grease and line the muffin cups or muffin tray. I used a mini-muffin tray and 7 normal size silicone muffin molds

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Spoon the muffin batter to fill half the mold. Pour a few drops of blueberry or chocolate syrup and cover again with a spoon of batter. I just did this for some extra zing. The muffins turn out sticky in the middle. You can omit the syrup.

Bake the mini-muffins for 15 minutes and normal sized muffins for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre of the muffin comes out clean.









Verdict
Super-soft spongy and yummy muffins. The mini muffins were downed in no time :)

September Challenge on Baking Eggless - Ferrero Rocher Tarts

On my first visit to Malaysia, I almost bought a big box of "Ferero Rocher" at an unbelievable price, only to realize that it is a duplicate product (note the missing "R") at the time of billing. The box, the logo, the wrapping, everything looked authentic. Such was the fascination for these lovely smooth, nutty flavoured chocolates, that I was terribly disappointed then. I fondly remember the times that I bit into these yummy chocolate, every time I taste nutella. I was super excited to see this month's challenge for the same reason and enjoyed this one every step along the way. 

We typically have a few approaches to problem solving in computer science. The most popular trick is to modularize or break down problems into smaller sub-problems, solve the smaller problems and combine those solutions to obtain the final solution. This is called the "divide-and-conquer" approach. I practically adapted the same for making these tarts. 

Four components to the tart and each one a lengthy procedure by itself with a proofing or chilling period. It had to be done this way in my completely chaotic and disorganized kitchen. 

So looking at the recipe, it seemed simple enough. Roast hazelnuts and caramelize them. Except that hazelnuts are not available in this part of the world. So that left me the option to go with walnuts or almonds and I picked walnuts. Next was the Chocolate Hazelnut Thing - I had to again use Nutella here. That seemed simple enough. The tart shells were a regular affair. That seemed fine too.

The tricky part seemed to be the Hazelnut Mousse. Making eggless custard was not the problem here. Haven't we been making custards eggless in this part of the world from ever since I can remember? For me, the tricky part was the use of gelatin. I had never used gelatin before and I was not sure how long it takes to set. I should have probably made the mousse first, instead of making everything else and waiting for the mousse the set. Hmm... Lesson learnt. 

Please bear with the lengthy post and read on till the end. I promise you there is a point to my philandering ways ;)

Please find the original recipe from Trissalicious at the given link. I am presenting the converted-to-eggless and scaled-down-by-half recipe here:

First the tart base. Probably you should bake this last. 

Tart base adapted from Matt Moran:

Ingredients: (converted from weight to volume)

Cocoa powder - 6 tbsp

Cold butter - 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp

Caster Sugar - 3 tbsp

Egg - 1 ( replace with 3-4 tbsp of cream)

All purpose flour - 1 1/4 cup

Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Method

1. Place the butter, caster sugar, cocoa powder in a food processor and pulse until it resembles fine bread crumbs.
2. Add the cream, flour and baking powder and process until the mixture just comes together.
3. Lay the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a disc measuring around 2 cm in height. 4. Cover with plastic wrap and place int he refrigerator for an hour to rest.
5. Place the dough back on to a lightly floured surface and roll out until around 2 mm thick.
6. Cut the dough into circles, 1 cm wider than the shell, to form the wall.

7. Place the cut dough in the tart shells and allow to refrigerate for another 1 hour.
8. When ready, blink bake for 10 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C.
9. Once done, bake for another 5 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and allow to cool.







Hazelnut Mousse (adapted from Baking and Pastry, Culinary Institute of America):
Ingredients
Milk - 3/4 cup
Caster sugar - 3 tbsp
Omit the 1 1/2 eggs from the original recipe.
Cornflour - 2 tbsp
Nutella - 2 tbsp
Cream - 1/2 cup
Gelatin - 1 tsp

Method

1. Mix the sugar and cornflour with about 1/4 cup of milk and make a smooth paste.
2. Heat the remaining 1/2 cup of milk and when it comes to a boil, quickly add the milk-cornflour paste stirring all the while.
3. Keep cooking until the mixture becomes thick.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
6. Mix the Nutella with the custard using a whisk.
7. Semi-whip the cream and keep aside.
8. Place the gelatin crystals in a small bowl. Pour a table spoon of water to soften the gelatin crystals.
9. Heat the gelatin bowl in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.
10. Mix the gelatin into the custard.
11. Fold the custard into the whipped cream.
12. Cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Chocolate-Hazelnut thing (adapted from David Chang's Momofuku Cookbook)
Ingredients
Nutella - 2 tbsp
Chocolate (semi-sweet or milk) - 4 tbsp
Oil - 2 drops
Salt - 1 pinch
Corn Syrup - 1/2 tsp
Crushed Caramelized walnuts - 2 tbsp

1. Place all ingredients in a microwave bowl.
2. Microwave in 20 second intervals on high until the chocolate has melted.
3. I repeated the process twice.
4. Add the caramelized walnuts until ready to use.

Caramelized Hazelnuts
Ingredients

Sugar - 2 tbsp
Water - 1 tbsp
Toasted walnuts - 3/4 cup

1. Place walnuts on a roasting tray.
2. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes until the walnuts appear slightly browned. Slightly rearrange the walnuts in-between the microwave duration.
3. Crush the roasted walnuts.
4. Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a saucepan.
5. Add the toasted walnuts and take the pan off the heat.
6. Mix the nuts until the texture changes to become sugary.
7. Bring the pan back on the heat.
8. Mix carefully until the sugar turns into golden caramel color.
9. Place on parchment paper to cool.

Assembly
To assemble the tarts, pipe some hazelnuts mousse on to the chocolate tart shells and then top with the chocolate hazelnut thing and a few caramelized walnuts.

Verdict Given the ingredients that go into this tart, there is hardly any doubt as to how it would have tasted. The texture turned out well too. Just that I should have taken care of the order in which these components had to be made. First the hazelnut mousse, then the dough for the tart shell, caramelized nuts while the dough is chilling, chocolate hazelnut spread when the tart shells are baked and allowed to cool down. So the moral here is, even if you adopt the divide and conquer approach, the order in which you solve the sub-problems matter. 

Crispy Cream Doughnuts - Eggless

Doughnuts are a relatively new baked good to us. It is not available at a local bakery and one would have to go to specialized stores to find it. But with yeast in hand, we can bring the specialty store home and that is exactly what this recipe did to us.
Recipe Source: Allrecipes

Ingredients
Original recipe makes 18 doughnuts:

2 teaspoons - instant dry yeast
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup curd (this was substituted for 2 eggs)
1/3 cup shortening
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 quart vegetable oil for frying

For the Sugar Glaze
1/3 cup butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 tablespoons hot water or as needed

For the Chocolate Glaze
1/2 cup cooking chocolate finely chopped
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp butter

Method

In a large bowl, mix together the yeast, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and 2 cups of the flour. 

Mix for a few minutes at low speed, or stirring with a wooden spoon. Beat in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl. Knead for about 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a greased bowl, and cover. Set in a warm place to rise until double. Dough is ready if you touch it, and the indention remains.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and gently roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter. Let doughnuts sit out to rise again until double. Cover loosely with a cloth.

Sugar Glaze
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in hot water one tablespoon at a time until the icing is somewhat thin, but not watery. Set aside.
Chocolate Glaze
Heat water in a saucepan. Place a heat proof bowl over the saucepan. Let the water in the saucepan not touch the bowl. Place the chocolate, butter and milk in the bowl. As the heat reaches the bowl, slowly stir with a spoon until the chocolate melts and becomes a smooth paste.

Frying doughnuts Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large heavy skillet to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Slide doughnuts into the hot oil using a wide spatula. Turn doughnuts over as they rise to the surface. Fry doughnuts on each side until golden brown. Remove from hot oil, to drain on a wire rack. 

Dip doughnuts into the glaze while still hot, and set onto wire racks to drain off excess. 

Keep a cookie sheet or tray under racks for easier clean up.

Verdict: My little girl warms up to new stuff after a couple of tries. But these doughnuts were an immediate hit with her. They tasted divine.

Jam-swirled muffins - Eggless Baking Challenge June, 2013

Weekends come and go. There is so much domestic stuff to be taken care of. Laundry, finding the kid's stationary, getting her to complete her homework, cooking up something delicious to get her to eat properly. These take preference... and by the time that long pending curry you wanted to make for rotis is made and you have successfully made her eat a couple of spoonfuls of it, you realize that the weekend is already over. Pantry clearance is the last on the list. And sometimes, the monthly challenges from baking groups misses the list. In this rigmarole, I was late for last month's challenge. Unable to do much about my weekend routine, I was hoping this month's challenge will be something simpler to bake.

Thank you Priya for choosing a simple yet delicious recipe for this month's challenge. If it had been something like a Tiramisu I would have had to skip this months challenge too...

As always I will present the original recipe first.

Recipe Source: Technicolor Kitchen

Jam swirled muffins

Adapted from Dorie's lemon poppy seed muffins

Ingredients:
2/3 cup (133g) caster sugar
2 cups (280g) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup plain yogurt or sour cream
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
/3 cup jam of your choice – if too thick, thin it with a little lemon juice

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F; butter or spray 12 regular size muffin pans.

In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add sugar and mix. In a large glass measuring cup or small bowl whisk together the yogurt, eggs, vanilla and melted butter until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and whisk lightly with a fork – do not overmix the batter, otherwise you’ll end up with tough muffins.

Add the jam and whisk lightly, to keep the marbled effect. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack, cool 5 minutes, then carefully unmold. Let cool completely on the wire rack.

Now for the eggless version:

Ingredients:
2/3 cup (133g) caster sugar
2 cups (280g) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup plain yogurt (originally 3/4 cup of yogurt, add 1/2 cup to substitute two eggs, I added 1/4 cup more for the consistency)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup Nutella

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F; butter or spray 12 - 16 regular size muffin molds.

In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add sugar and mix. In a large glass measuring cup or small bowl whisk together the yogurt, vanilla and melted butter until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and whisk lightly with a fork – do not overmix the batter, otherwise you’ll end up with tough muffins. 

Whisk the nutella vigorously with a fork to loosen it up. Add the nutella to the muffin batter and whisk lightly, to keep the marbled effect.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans. Bake for 20-26 minutes or until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack, cool 5 minutes, then carefully unmold. Let cool completely on the wire rack.

Verdict: If you are wondering about the empty silicone mold in the above picture, here is the answer. The muffins had barely cooled down, and the little girl was munching away at one.

Eggless Tiramisu - Baking Eggless challenge for the month of April

Life throws a lot of challenges at us. People in our lives throw a good share of those challenges. We sometimes deal with the people who throw challenges or deal with the challenge itself. When folks belonging to a baking group throw challenges at us, we need to deal with the challenge; there is no option to deal with the challengers ;) just kidding. A few kitchen disasters would not hurt us at all... Infact, it is a great learning experience. I am never worried about stuff that does turn out well. Of course a failed attempt in the kitchen would defeat the purpose of making a blog-post. But I can always give it a second shot and post it when the attempt is successful and document the mistakes in the first attempt and mitigation measures taken in the second attempt. Life is infact a learning process, sometimes the learning curve is a little bit longer, but it is perfectly alright for it to be so... since, the journey is more enjoyable definitely.

So I was mentally prepared to face a disaster with eggless tiramisu. Let me confess, I have not made the version with eggs. I have only tasted a slice of tiramisu long back and I assumed there were two layers of biscuit with crunchy nuts alternating with smooth, stiff cream. So I was very nervous with this challenge. I even thought of cheating, by making and eggless sponge cake and layering with mascarpone cheese. But no fun in winning a challenge having cheated, right? So I decided to make the eggless Savoiardi biscuits. If they turned out fine, I would make the mascarpone cheese. If the cheese turned out fine, I would assemble the tiramisu. As you can see, it did turn out fine :).

Without making this a philosophical post, let me get to the recipe. As always, the version with eggs first. The sources of each of these are linked in the title.

Home-made Svoiardi: Recipe source Home Cooking In Montanna

Ingredients:
3 eggs, room temp
6 tbsp - sugar
1 tsp - vanilla essence
3/4 - cup cake flour, sifted*
2 tbsp - powdered sugar a couple of drops orange oil(optional)** (Omitted this)
*You can use all purpose flour and replace 2 TBS of it with 2 TBS corn starch...then sift it together. **Especially good for fruit based desserts, otherwise omit
Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat. Sift flour...maybe a couple of times.
2. Separate eggs in 2 bowls.
3. To the egg yolks, add 2 TBS sugar and vanilla extract( or drops of orange oil or other extract, if using).
4. Whip until pale in color and thick...4-5 minutes. Set aside.
5. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually, add 4 TBS sugar. Beat until the egg whites form firm peaks that are glossy and smooth.
6. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold about a third of the whipped whites into the yolks to lighten them up. 7. Add half of the remaining whites over the yolk mixture and then sift about half of the flour over the egg whites. Gently fold until the ingredients are barely combined.
8. Add the rest of the whites over the yolk mixture and then sift the rest of the flour over the whole mixture. Fold gently until combined.Try not overdo the folding, otherwise the batter will deflate and lose volume... and then the ladyfingers will be flat and not spongy.
9. Fill a pastry bag (with a plain tip about ½-inch wide...or a plastic bag with end snipped off) with the batter.
10. Pipe the batter into 3-4 inch long strips.
11. Sprinkle some confectioner’s sugar over the surface of the savoiardi biscuits... and wait for 5 minutes. The batter will absorb a bit of the sugar.
12. After 5 minutes, sprinkle yet a bit more powdered sugar. This will give the biscuits that crispy shell.
13. Bake the ladyfingers 7 to 8 minutes or until lightly golden brown and have puffed up.

Home-made Mascarpone Cheese: Recipe source Baking Obsession

Ingredients:
500 ml - thick cream
1 tbsp - lemon juice
Method:
Bring 1 inch of water to boil in a large skillet. Reduce heat to medium low, so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet.
Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. Do not expect the same action as you see during ricotta cheese making. All that the whipping cream will do is become thicker, like a well-done crème anglaise. It will cover a back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. 
Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). 
Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.

Assembling the Tiramisu: Recipe source Taste

Ingredients:
2 cups strong black coffee
1/2 cup marsala, see note
3 eggs, separated
1/3 cup caster sugar
250g mascarpone cheese
300 ml thickened cream, lightly whipped
1 large packet of sponge fingers (Savoiardi biscuits)
Cocoa, chocolate shavings for dusting

Method:
1. Pour coffee and marsala into a shallow dish. Set aside.
2. Beat egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl with electric beaters until pale and thick. Add the mascarpone and whipped cream, mixing gently until just combined.
3. Beat egg whites in a medium bowl with electric beaters until soft peaks form. Using a large metal spoon, gently fold eggwhites into the mascarpone mixture.
4. Dip enough biscuits into the coffee mixture to cover the base of a 19cm square ceramic dish. Cover the biscuits with one-third of the mascarpone mixture. Repeat layers 2 times, ending with the cream. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Dust generously with cocoa and serve.

Note:  Variation: Marsala can be replaced with orange juice if preferred.

Eggless version

I made the savoiardi biscuits a week before making the mascarpone. Someone at home downed half the savoiardi biscuits over the week and I did not have enough biscuits for the proportions of cream given above.

So I had to scale down the cream mixture to assemble in 2/3 rd of a loaf tin. Please see the assembling section for the proportions.

Savoiardi Biscuits (Eggless)

Ingredients:

6 tbsp - sugar 1 tsp - vanilla essence 3/4 - cup cake flour, sifted* 2 tbsp - powdered sugar a couple of drops orange oil(optional)** (Omitted this)
Replace the 3 eggs with the following:
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup almonds, coarsely powdered

*You can use all purpose flour and replace 2 TBS of it with 2 TBS corn starch...then sift it together. **Especially good for fruit based desserts, otherwise omit

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat. Sift flour...maybe a couple of times.< 2. Whip the butter and 6 tbsp of sugar until pale, fluffy and light.
3. Add the coarsely powdered almonds to the butter mixture and mix until just combined.
4. Add the vanilla essence and orange oil.
5. Slowly fold the cake flour into the almond-butter mix.
6. Do not overdo the folding, else the biscuits will be chewy and not crisp
7. If the mix is too hard, add a tablespoon of milk at a time.
8. The consistency of the dough should be such that you can pipe out fingers and it will retain shape.
9. Fill a pastry bag (with a plain tip about ½-inch wide...or a plastic bag with end snipped off) with the batter. 10. Pipe the batter into 3-4 inch long strips. 11. Sprinkle some confectioner’s sugar over the surface of the savoiardi biscuits. This will not be absorbed as the batter is not the spongy one with eggs. 12. Bake the ladyfingers 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly golden brown and have puffed up. These need to be baked longer than the one with eggs since the almond butter mix takes longer to bake.

Mascarpone cheese

Followed the same recipe as above.

Assembling the Tiramisu

Ingredients:
3/4 cup strong black coffee
1/4 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed
Half the mascarpone cheese made with the above recipe
1/3 cup caster sugar
200 ml thickened cream, lightly whipped
1/2 packet of sponge fingers (Savoiardi biscuits)
Cocoa, chocolate shavings for dusting

Method:
1. Line a loaf tin with cling wrap. Use a 10 inch square aluminium foil and fold it four ways. Place the stiff aluminium foil diving the loaf tin into 1/3 and 2/3 portions.
2. Place the savoiardi biscuits in the tin and then determine where you need to place the divider.
3. Pour coffee and orange juice into a shallow dish. Set aside.
4. Whip the cream until soft peaks form.
5. Add the mascarpone cheese and sugar and mix until just combined with the cream.

6. Dip enough biscuits into the coffee mixture to cover the base of a loaf pan. Cover the biscuits with one-third of the mascarpone mixture. Repeat layers 2 times, ending with the cream.

5. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Dust generously with cocoa and chocolate shavings and serve.

Verdict: It does get disappointing when some  attempts fail, but do not give up. There is always a learning or two one can carry and it is very rewarding and fulfilling when you are successful. So being afraid of trying is not the right approach. I am sure all you home bakers out there agree with me on this one. The tiramisu tasted close to the one I had so many years back. It brought back fond memories of college days when one would eat without a care for the calorific value of foods.

Eggless Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake - Eggless-baking February Challenge

My tryst with frosting cakes is not much to boast about. I have had the icing bags and nozzles for two years now and I have hardly used them. Firstly, baking the cake in the limited time I have on weekends is challenging enough, with a little pair of hands bungling the recipe unknowingly in her zest to help her mommy bake the goodies. Secondly, waiting for the cakes to cool down hardly happens. She wants a bite of the stuff immediately as soon as the cake is out of the oven. Thirdly, she might want to help me with the frosting too and thus I might finally snap at her after the prolonged attempts at bungling, sigh! I guess, I am the world's worst mom. She shows so much zeal and care to help me out and I call it bungling :(. 

Anyways, I have frosted cupcakes with buttercream a couple of times, and a bundt, pound cake with buttercream. I have used ganache once for an eggless chocolate cake. I have never used whipped cream to frost cakes. So why am I delving into statistics? To apologize in advance for any offensive attempts at frosting in this post!

This recipe seriously gave me jitters. I did not want to frost with buttercream. I certainly did not want to make 2 cups of buttercream and use it on a large cake. 

I decided to make the batter without adjusting the original recipe except for the eggless variation; I then decided to make two small 6 inch cakes and a host of cupcakes. I made just 1 cup of buttercream, and frosting 4 cupcakes and one 6 inch cake. 

As always, the original recipe from Hershey's goes first. I shall present the cake recipe only in both the original and eggless form. The frosting is normal chocolate buttercream and the recipe is from Hershey's verbatim.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
2  eggs
1 cup milk
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups sugar

Method
1 Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2 Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. 
Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. 

Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3 Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. 
Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. 
Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

Variations
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. 
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. 
Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. 
Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. 
Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. 
Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

Now for the eggless version.

Eggless Variation

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup milk powder  + 1/2 cup milk (See Note)
1 cup milk
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar

Method
Heat oven to 180 degress C. Grease and flour two 6-inch pans and some cupcake moulds.
Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
Dissolve 1/2 cup of milk powder in 1/2 cup milk and keep it aside. Add milk, milk powder paste, oil and vanilla to the dry flour mix; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. 

Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. I used 2 small round cake moulds (5-6 inches) and 6 cupcake moulds.
Bake the small cake moulds for 40-45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. 
Bake the cupcakes for 22-25 minutes. 
Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. 
Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

Note I used Nestle's sweetened milk powder and so I reduced the quantity of sugar by 1/2 cup. Since adding 1/2 cup milk to the milk powder made the batter even thinner, I wonder if I should have just used the milk powder without the additional 1/2 cup milk. 

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING


1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.
Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

I halved the recipe for the frosting and made 1 cup of buttercream. I used it to pipe some roses and stars on one 6-inch cake and 4 cupcakes. I still had about 1/4 cup buttercream. I plan to use it as a spread on bread within the next couple of days.

Verdict: The batter was too thin and I felt, I could have just used milk powder instead of dissolving it in another 1/2 cup milk. The texture was fine and the cake tasted good, except that one cake sunk in the middle.

Low Fat Eggless Orange Oats Muffins

Eggless bakes are welcome at home. And quick recipes not requiring me to pull out the hand mixer are welcome with me ;). So here goes a simple eggless recipe for orange-oats muffins. This is a recipe I put together from various recipes I have come across in the baking world. It is low fat and eggless! What more are you waiting for, please read through and then dig into your kitchen cabinets to make these delicious muffins.

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 4 tbsp
Curd - 1/4 cup
Oats - 1/2 cup
Freshly squeezed orange juice - 3/4 cup
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Orange zest -  1 tbsp

Method:
Soak the oats in the orange juice for 5 minutes. Sift the flour with the baking powder. Add the sugar and the orange zest to the flour mixture. Add the curd and oil to the oats-orange mixture and add them into the flour-sugar mixture. Do not mix the batter hard, it is enough if the ingredients are moistened.

Prepare mini muffin pans with liners. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Spoon the batter into the moulds and bake for 10-12 minute. The muffins will be slightly bouncy to the touch.

Verdict: The orange hue is due to the fresh orange juice and the light brown tinge of the wheat flour. The sugar is less and we use just 4 tbsp of oil. The oats contributes to the softness and chewiness of the texture. This is a simple healthy muffin recipe.