WE TURNED ONE...It's time to celebrate! :)

It was our 1st wedding anniversary on the 15th, yes, time sure flies! If you have been thinking that's the reason for my absence here, no,it was because our laptop battery and charger decided to die almost on the same day so we had to get it replaced.Now getting back to blogging is quite tough...I was slowly comfortably getting used to not typing a hundred words in one minute :)

I still remember the confusion and stress I went through on the same day last year when I iced our wedding cake! Ah, I think I should tell you all that story! I think I drove everyone around me crazy...I think sometimes I'm the 'Monica' (FRIENDS) types in my family. I can be really rude at times and give orders without even thinking what the other person might think or feel. When I look back at it, it was fun, for me :) It was Amma's dream that I bake/decorate my own wedding cake which later got into me and became my dream as well :) Amma and I baked the cake the previous day and kept the icing part for the big day. It's not that we didn't know it would drive us nuts but it was just a prevention from driving us nuttier! You see, I have a HUGE family of no less than 100 people (counting immediate family only ;)We had our engagement and wedding back to back (14th Feb and 15th Feb) so we had a houseFULL of people ALL the time. It included infants to 80 year olds. We didn't worry about anybody elder than 12 years, but it was the younger ones that we were scared of. Imagine your nephews and nieces licking off bits and pieces of the buttercream roses that you painstakingly piped out one by one ? :) Whatever it was, no matter how many told us...we (Amma & I) knew that I am going to do it, all by myself. People around me thought we were crazy, but we know the fun we had! I wouldn't have missed it for anything!! Given a chance, I would still do it :)

If you were thinking what cake it was...it was Amma's Honey Soaked Date & Nut Cake.I decorated it with buttercream and piped roses in different shades of pink (I told ya I love pink!! ;) It did suffer some injuries while transportation but it was still in one piece :-D

Coming to the present scenario, I was throughly confused as to what to bake for the BIG day! Whenever I logged into FB, I had 100's of questions to answer to about the same thing and I had absolutely no idea as to what it would be :-D It's because I can do things only in the last minute.I'd start planning maybe a month back but I know myself very well...in the end when the time approches I would do something very different from what I though I would do before! This time it was no different. I knew one thing for sure...I'd be baking a cake, a layered cake. That's it. I had no further idea as to what to do with that piece of cake or what flavour it would be.This thought haunted me since January. I think of it day and night. I breathe it day and night . I dream about it so much that I wake up feeling tensed! Anyhow,on the day I was supposed to be baking, I wrote down a recipe and started with it. But I couldn't go on...I wanted to do something of my own and I did. That's what you just saw above :-)
Do you feel like reading more about my wedding prep? Click here!

Haven't I told you all that I love trying out different techniques? I actually search for them...I find that challenging.This is probably the only challenge that I go forward with without any hesitation, baking/cooking. Somehow I've always been able to produce a decent thing out of it.The anxiety that I go through when I cut through it is something I cannot explain using words...you should feel it for yourself :) It's FUN and I love it, totally!

CHECKERBOARD GATEAU
Recipe source for the sponge- Amma



Ingredients:
For the vanilla sponge:
3eggs
1/2c sugar
1/2 c flour minus 1 tbsp
1tbsp cornstarch/cornflour
1tsp vanilla extract

For the chocolate sponge:
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 c flour minus 3 tbsp
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1tbsp cornstarch/cornflour
1tsp vanilla extract

1 portion soaking syrup
11/2 heavy cream,whipped (If you wish,you can whip it up with some sugar to taste, too)

Method:
For the sponge (Vanilla & Chocolate)
Preheat the oven to 350F/180C
Butter and flour/line a 8' round cake tin with parchment paper.

Sift the dry ingredients together.Reserve.
Beat the eggs and sugar together till mousse like and almost tripled in volume. This will take about 10-12 mins of beating on high using an electric beater. DO NOT skimp on this as we are not using any leavening agents (baking powder/baking soda). Otherwise the cake WILL NOT rise.
Fold  the dry ingredients into the egg mixtures, carefully. The mixture will deflate a little,don't worry.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 28-30 mins or till the top is springy to touch and the skewer inserted comes out clean.
Cool in the tin for 10 mins and then invert it onto a rack and cool completely. 

To make the checkerboard pattern:


First of all, you need 2 round cakes, one dark and one light.
Instead of cutting it horizontally, this time you need to cut it vertically.

Imagine a cake having 2 more concentric circles in it .Cut accordingly. I used a round cookie cutter for the innermost circle and my saucepan lid for the middle circle as the template. So now, you have 3 rings out of one cake. Similarly do the same with the second cake.

Now, interchange the middle ring. While you do so, be careful and try to spread some whipped cream/jam/ganache so that the rings sticks together.Now you will be left with two black and white cakes.
Place one cake (with the interchanged rings) on the serving plate and soak it using half the soaking syrup.
Spread some whipped cream over it and place the second cake over it.
Spoon over the remaining soaking syrup over it.
Cover the top and sides with whipped cream and decorate as you desire.

This whole process is made so much easier if you happen to own a 'checkerboard pan' which I don't. I don't think I would want to because this method is really simple and with another tin, I will have to throw away some stuff to find a place for it in my cupboard!

Verdict: A very soft and spongy cake with perfect sweetness. We really loved it. I served it chilled which I feel is always better when it comes to gateaux.
We were away for the weekend so basically we gorged on all possible food,both junk and healthy.That way when I look at this cake I'm happy, it's butterless and  you wouldn't even miss it!