NO-BAKE 10 LAYER CAKE for our 10th!

I knew one thing for sure this year... I wanted to make a 10 layered cake for our 10th wedding anniversary. I somehow didn't want to stand by the oven baking layers after layers this year since we were all going through a round of fever,cold and cough and cake baking,even if it was for our anniversary was the last thing on my mind at that time. Even though I tried to push the thought of making a 10 layer cake away as much as I could, it came back to me with double the force! So I knew, I would be disappointing myself big time if I didn't put my plan into action!

This cake is a no-bake layered cake which you can customize to the number of layers you want it to be! I needed 10 and this particular measurement gives you 10 with enough frosting to cover it up. So if you need to build a bigger or a smaller cake, please scale the recipe accordingly. There's absolutely nothing to go wrong here,even a child can make it! It's super simple and extremely delicious!

So you basically need graham crackers and a good frosting. I chose the chocolate graham cracker because our kids love chocolate cakes and I was pretty sure it would do down well with them as well. You can choose to use regular graham crackers or even honey flavoured. This recipe is inspired by the Russian Honey cake where you make a batter first and then make several layers of cake by baking them separately.I've made the original version quite a few times before when we had friend's over and it was a massive success!

Given a choice, I would have gone for the longer route but with all what was going on at home, I just wanted to do the quick version and literally be done with it and have a cake for ourselves to enjoy the next day! So this cake barely needs 15 minutes of your time to be put together but it needs some good amount of chilling time so that the crackers get the the time to soften up and become cake like! It absorbs the moisture from the frosting and becomes really soft and a bit plump. No one can ever tell they were made using graham crackers!

NO-BAKE 10 LAYER CAKE
Serves 12-15

Ingredients:
4 sleeves of chocolate graham crackers (1 box + 1 sleeve from another box)
Frosting:
16 ounce / 2 cups heavy cream, chilled
One 8 ounce packet cream cheese, room temperature
4 ounce unsalted butter, room temperature
One 14 ounce can condensed milk
Topping:
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup heavy cream
Crumb:
4 extra crackers

Method:
Frosting: In a large bowl, whip the heavy cream to stiff peaks and set aside.
In another large bowl, beat the butter along with softened cream cheese till it's smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the condensed milk and beat until it's well incorporated, about 1 minute.
Fold the whipped cream into the butter mixture carefully in 2-3 batches. Your frosting is ready!
Topping: Gently melt the chocolate and cream together in a microwave oven for about 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Set it aside.
Crumb: Crush the crackers into a fine powder using a rolling pin
Assembly : Take a large platter and dab a small amount of frosting in a rectangular shape. Place three chocolate crackers over it. Cover it with some frosting and repeat till all 10 layers are done. You will need 30 crackers in total for a 10 layered cake. Cover the top and sides with the frosting. Pour the ganache carefully just to cover the top. Gently press the crumb mixture to the sides of the cake. Let it chill for a minimum of 6 hours before serving.

This cake tastes absolutely delicious! Just look at that list of ingredients...how can it go wrong! :-)
It is a heavy, rich cake mostly because of the frosting, so serve them in small slices. Ian kept saying this is the best cake I've ever made and then he corrected himself saying...'Well, it's always like that!'

9 LAYERED SMITH ISLAND CAKE

Hello everyone! I am back and I have lots to tell you! January was a busy month for us since we were travelling back and forth. We came back from Atlanta and then in less than two weeks, we flew to Los Angeles and then embarked on a cruise ship to Ensenada, Mexico. It was a fun filled trip and we came back home with lots of good memories to last a lifetime! Then the mighty winter storm hit us along with Polar Vortex and all I wanted to do was to hibernate until June. Jobin left for India on work for two weeks just hours before the storm began. This year, we've seen a huge amount of snow.

 Today, we complete 9 years of married life. I cannot believe how fast the time has flown by. It feels just yesterday that I was talking to you about our wedding preparations. Now times have changed. We both don't seem to be that enthusiastic about it but Ian on the other hand was just too excited about our wedding anniversary. He has made three cards for us and even decorated the house in whatever way he could. When I was planning on what cake to bake, he insisted that I should sit back and relax while he bakes it for us. He even wrote down a recipe that he found in a cookbook in his own words. It was too cute to see how much our little offspring has grown. Zarakutty just repeats whatever her Cheta has to say and follows him around the house. She is turning out to be a non-stop talker.

I found this recipe in a cookbook called Perfect Cakes that I borrowed from our library. It has some very special recipes for simple and elegant cakes...just the kind I like to bake for us on our special occasions. Nothing over the top fancy for us please. This recipe may seems daunting to you but trust me, it's a very simple one. It's funny how so many people have a feeling that I make complicated things where as in reality, it's really simple. Just read through the recipe and you will know what I am talking about.

9 LAYERED SMITH ISLAND CAKE
Makes one 9 inch 9 layered cake

Ingredients:
Frosting:
10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

Cake:
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 large eggs,separated plus 3 large yolks, room temperature
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch cream of tartar

Method:
Frosting: Place chocolate in a large bowl. Heat cream, sugar and salt on medium heat stirring occasionally until sugar melts and the mixture begins to bubble around the edges. Take off the heat and pour over chocolate. Whisk to combine. Add vanilla and butter and whisk well to combine. Cover and chill for 1 hour until the icing is firm but still spreadable.

Cake: Preheat oven to 350 F and generously grease two 9 inch round cake tins, line with parchment paper, grease parchment paper. I used four 9 inch round tins, so it was much easier.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1 1/2 cup sugar. In another bowl, mix together melted and cooled butter, buttermilk, eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla.
Pour the butter mix into the flour mix and beat on low speed for 1 minute. Scrape and beat on medium speed until well combined, 15 seconds. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until glossy stiff peaks form. Fold the whites into the flour mixture in two batches.
Pour 2/3 cup batter into the cake tin and bake for 11-12 mins until golden around the edges and firm to touch. Let it cool in the tin for 5 mins and then remove cakes from the pan. Let it cool completely. Continue baking the remaining layers the same way. I got 9 layers.

Sandwich the cake layers with 1/4 cup of frosting and spread the remaining frosting on top and sides of the cake. Decorate as you please.

The response I got when we cut into the cake was phenomenal. Imagine, you slice into a cake and when you gently pull it out, 9 super thin slices sandwiched using a sleek chocolate frosting comes out? It's so exciting and I must say, this cake is mighty delicious. I will really consider making it again. It's simple to make yet so fantastic to look at. The four of us couldn't stop with one slice. Nothing fancy yet incredible!

SPECULOOS CHOCOLATE FUDGE MERINGUE CAKE as we turn 3!

Valentine's Day is usually a quiet day here because we are eagerly waiting for February 15,our Wedding Anniversary. Even though we got engaged on February 14,we still prefer keeping the excitement all inside for the Big Day! Nevertheless,I made some lacy heart pancakes and  Kalakand for him yesterday,the latter being a pending request from him for almost a year now :-)

I cannot come in terms with the fact that it's been 3 years now,since we got married. And yes, we are blessed with a little boy who is sharing the happiness this year with us. Shhh...I think he has a humongous sweet tooth...he may have taken after his Amma.

Have you ever tasted Biscoff / Speculoos? If you haven't, you are missing out on some yummy things in life. I  have been hooked onto it ever since I tasted Biscoff cookies they serve on Delta,a few years ago. It changed my life. I am hooked onto those mildly spiced cookies. So imagine a spread which tastes exactly like that? Move over, Nutella!

This cake was like a jigsaw puzzle,to me. I pulled in and matched up a lot of flavours and finally built our Meringue Cake. I love how delicate it looks. It had super light Meringue layers ( recipe from here) with  Speculoos -Cream Cheese frosting ( recipe from here )& Chocolate Fudge Sauce (recipe from my friend Kamran's food blog) in between each  layer. Finally ,it was garnished with some extra meringue bits on top which were dusted with cocoa just before serving. It was seriously YUM!

SPECULOOS CHOCOLATE FUDGE MERINGUE CAKE

Ingredients:
Chocolate Meringue Cake
6 large egg whites
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 1/4 c granulated sugar
3 tablespoon cocoa powder

Method:Pre-heat the oven to 200F and line a baking sheet.
Beat together egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy.Stream in the sugar beat till peak starts to form.Then add in cocoa powder and beat till stiff. Spread the meringue on the baking sheet in four 6 inch circles and bake for 3 hours. Switch off the oven and let it cool inside the oven for 1 hour.Remove and cool completely on the pan.

Speculoos- Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 c heaped Speculoos/ Biscoff spread
1 8oz pack Cream cheese
1/2 c confectioners sugar
1 tbsp milk

Method: Beat the cream cheese on high speed until soft and fluffy. Add the spread and beat on high for another minute. Add the powdered sugar and milk and beat for 2 mins until fluffy and light.

Chocolate Fudge Sauce
100 g dark chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 c corn syrup
1/3 c heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
a pinch of salt

Method: In a medium size bowl, melt the chocolate and cocoa powder together in a microwave for 1 minute or until the chocolate melts and becomes smooth when stirred. Remove and add the corn syrup followed by cream,vanilla and salt. Refrigerate until thick.

Assembly: Place a meringue cake on a cake platter,spread some speculoos frosting over it followed by chocolate fudge sauce. Repeat until the last meringue cake is used. Decorate the top as you wish. Chill the cake for a minimum of 8 hours,before serving.

Those little eyes had lots to watch and capture yesterday. From the loud noisy Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer making the meringue to checking the oven every now and then just to see if anything is happening (even though nothing will happen ,unlike other cakes). He just couldn't resist when I set up the cake on the platter to photograph it. He was scanning me and my movements in pin drop silence because I was handling many things that he has never seen in his past 6 months of life :-)

My tiny pea was super excited to hold the knife along with us as we cut into our cake this morning.I really don't know how he knew it but he brought his other little hand as well to hold the knife better! And of course, he stared at us as we ate our cake,with his mouth wide open. When he got his share, the slice was really big for his tiny mouth so he did have some chocolate stains all around his mouth...also on his pristine white clothes!

MOCHA BAVARIAN CHARLOTTE for a Wedding Anniversary!

May 30th 2012 marks the 30th year since my Appan & Amma got married and the least that I can do from here is to wish them many many many more together! :-)

This cake is a blend of many that I've posted on the blog. It has a lining of  Ladyfingers & layers of Simple Vanilla Sponge soaked with Simple Syrup which was filled with Mocha Bavarian Cream and later frosted with a Chocolate Ganache.