MEET BABY IAN !

Meet our new love, Baby Ian! Born on 22 July 2012.

DOUBLE ORANGE CAKE with MARBLED ICING...for me from him!

There is a small tradition we had started between the two of us. Some of you might already know about it. It's a simple one,we bake each other's birthday cakes. Last year it was Real Tiramisu and the year before that it was Finnegan's Chocolate Cream Cake.This year was no different and I LOVE the fact that it's no different when it comes to our little tradition :-) A week before May 31 he starts asking me what I want him to bake as my birthday cake and it's not that I haven't been thinking about it since May 4 but still, I tell him,'I'll think and tell you!'. I love the entire one week when he asks me again and again if I have decided what I wanted :-) I feel like a child all over again!

This time, I was a bit confused because I wanted something very simple, very home-y, very soft and something with fruits in it. So when he got back from work yesterday, I told him I wanted an orange cake with a simple icing. I used to call a frosting an icing before my blogging days began and never noticed that it changed along the way. Whenever I say icing, it has a very warm feeling...that's the word Amma uses whenever she iced a cake :-)

Last evening, I was sitting on the couch browsing through my favourite navy blue recipe diary and wondered if I ever had a storemade/bakery made cake for my birthday at home. I really couldn't recollect even a single birthday which had nothing but Amma baked cakes!

When I was small, she baked me all sorts of good looking cakes like Hickory Dickory Clock Cake, Castle Cake etc. Seriously, she had the patience to hunt for things in Kannur and bake it that many years ago! Even now, Kannur is not a place where you can find everything that you want, even if your wants and wishes are as simple as marshmallows!

DOUBLE ORANGE CAKE with MARBLED ICING
My own recipe

Ingredients:
Cake
100g flour
100g butter, softened
100g sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp orange zest
3 tbsp orange juice

Method: Pre-heat the oven to 350 F and line a 6 inch cake tin.
In a medium bowl, beat together flour,butter, sugar, eggs, baking powder & baking soda on high for 2 mins.Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the zest and orange juice. Beat on high for another minute. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 mins. Let it cool in the tin for 10 mins . Unmould and cool completely over a cooling rack.

Marble Frosting
60g butter
1 1/4 c icing sugar
1 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp orange zest
1 tbsp cocoa powder

Method: In a small bowl, beat butter and orange zest together until light and fluffy. Add orange juice and icing sugar little by little and beat till smooth. Divide the batter into 2 and whisk in cocoa powder to one half. Spoon out the icing alternately over the cake and marble it using a toothpick.

Our birthday routine is the same, always. We wake up early and go to church for mass . Once we are home I  make the breakfast and when we are done with it, we get ready to cut the cake :-) I couldn't help poking into this cake every now and then because it was so so soft and moist that I kept telling Jobin,'This cake is so soft!' and he always answered back,'Who baked it!' :-)

Trust me people, this is one really good cake! The icing is a perfect combination of chocolate and orange. This is not the kind of cakes you get in patisseries, it's the kind you get to eat only at home! It has such a comfort factor attached to it!I really don't know what's with me and citrus cakes! I LOVE them and maybe that's why I end up making my own proportions for them. The last time, it was my Lemon Yogurt Cake and this time it's a Double Orange Cake with Marble Frosting! :-)

30 LAYERED NUTELLA CREPE CAKE, for my birthday boy!

Yes, you read it right! This little cake has 30 layers in it. 30 layers of soft melt-in-the-mouth French Crepes layered & coated with a nutella ganache. I came up with this idea after our trip to Vegas. We both kind of really really like Crepes, so why not make something with it for his Birthday! The number of layers has another implication to it, he just turned the big number!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOBIN!

I've never made a French crepe before but I've had a lot of good experience with Indian crepes/ Dosa's especially the finicky Neer Dosa. Therefore, I didn't have much doubts of me pulling these off.Alton Brown recipes are easy to follow and give exceptionally good results! Having tried his Homemade Chocolate & Boston Creme Doughnuts in the past and loving it, I didn't have to think twice before I went ahead with this one.



When I say that, I really mean it...they were so easy to make. Easy batter, easy flipping and tastes great on the palatte ! These crepes can be made ahead of time, which I usually never do but this time, I did try. It worked...like a charm! I doubled the quantity and it gave me 32 crepes, so the remaining 2 went straight into my belly while assembling the cake.

If you want to make a cake which is taller, you may need atleast 60-80 layers because crepes are really thin and even after stacking them up with the frosting in between, they don't grow much taller. It has it's own advantages, like seeing the jaws around you drop as everyone would be expecting a 2 or 3 layers inside it. Don't overdo the frosting as it would only make you feel heavy after eating it. Imagine 30 layers with thick frosting...no, you wouldn't want to imagine that!

30 LAYERED NUTELLA CREPE CAKE
Recipe for the crepes (with video) : Alton Brown
Recipe for the nutella ganace: My own

Ingredients:
For the crepes
2 large eggs
1 c flour
3/4 c milk
1/2 c water
3 tbsp butter, melted
2 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Method: Dump all the ingredients into a blender and whizz it for just 7-10 secs. Refrigerate the batter for 1 hour or upto 48 hours. Heat a small non stick skillet on medium high and butter the botton and sides. Pour 1/4 c of the batter into the centre of the pan and swirl to spread the batter evenly. Cook for 30 seconds and flip carefully. Cook for another 10 seconds. Remove the crepes and leave them to cool on a  chopping board. Once cooled, you can stack them up, cover with a clingfilm and store it the fridge for several days.

For the Nutella Ganache:
200g nutella
200g semi sweet chocolate
200g cream

Method: Combine all the ingredients together in a saucepan and cook over medium heat till the chocolate and nutella melts. Use it in between the crepes for stacking and also for cover the sides of the crepe cake.
Let the cake chill till needed and dust with cocoa just before serving.

When he got back home from work, I think he forgot about the 2nd cake. So when I told him,'There's something for you', his face lit up because he knew it was the other cake. The table was set out and the cake was cut while I sang for him.The minute he cut into it and pulled out a slice he said, 'WOW!'. Of course, the next question had to be,'Guess the no. of layers!'. Knowing me,he guess it right and after the first bite, I made him count all the layers just to tell myself that I'm not so predictable! :-)

THE REAL TIRAMISU...for me from him!

This time, it's me who is doing all the talking about the cake as opposed to last year when he did it all.So it was my birthday yesterday and as usual (the 2nd time) he asked me what I wanted him to bake for my birthday. He gave me about a month's time to decide because I need time to think always( because my mind wanders and I dream too much!). No prices for guessing, I changed my mind the last minute and chose my favourite dessert, Tiramisu. I have made a Tiramisu Cake before, but this time I wanted the real deal...The Real Tiramisu :-)

Whenever we dine out, if there's a Tiramisu on the dessert menu, I always always eat that. We once drove about 6-7 miles just to buy a small piece of Tiramisu just because I felt like eating it...from that particular restaurant!  :-D I'm not sure how many of you have eaten at Bucca Di Beppo, they have one of the best Tiramisu's I've ever eaten so I end up comparing the one I'm eating to the one I ate at Bucaa ...always! :-)

We were away for the weekend and got back home just in time for my birthday. We knew this early (duh!) so Jobin and I made sure all the things we needed for making my Tiramisu were in place before we left home. As soon as we got back, we unpacked our suitcases, opened a bottle of wine and chose a  'Suresh Gopi's' 'edi padam' to play as he took breaks from the Tiramisu-making. Then we spent the rest of the day (oh it's bright outside till almost 9.15 pm) watching the movie and slurping on some homemade Bisi Bele Bath.

That was my birthday gift sent to me by my reader and a good friend Elvina . Those tiny cakes are actually fridge magnets .Don't they look cute?? I really liked it, El. The minute I opened the packet, I was walking towards my fridge to place them on it :-) How on earth did you know that I have a fetish for fridge magnets?

Also, I have Rose (btw, the chocolate buttons you see on top of the Tiramisu was sent to me by Rose, sometime ago) baking a cake to celebrate my birthday (She lives 1000's of miles away from me) and Dhanya cooking up my Chatti Pathiri to give me a surprise on my birthday! Gosh, you guys are just fantabulous!! Another reason for me to love food blogging!!

THE REAL TIRAMISU
Recipe source : Recipe behind the Alessi Savoiardi Cookie packet.

Ingredients:
For 1 portion Zabaglione
5 egg yolks
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c marsala (you can sub it with rum)

For the cheese layer:
1c whipping cream, chilled
4 tbsp sugar
450g Homemade Mascarpone cheese,at room temp.

2c freshly brewed strong coffee
1/2 c Rum or Marsala
1 tbsp Vanilla
24 nos. Savoiardi Cookies/Lady Fingers or as needed
3 tbsp Cocoa Powder

Extra Cocoa powder & Chocolate Curls for garnishing.
Method:
For the Zabaglione: In a small heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks &sugar. Now, you need to set up a double boiler and let the water come to a full boil. Then reduce the flame to a simmer, place the bowl with the egg over it and whisk constantly and pour the marsala/rum into it. Keep whisking it till it forms into soft mounds. It won't take long. Transfer it to another bowl, wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.

For the Cheese layer: Meanwhile, whip the cream with 2 tbsp sugar to soft peaks.Fold in the mascarpone and Zabaglione and mix carefully till well blended.Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

In a separate bowl, mix coffee,2 tbsp sugar,Marsala & Vanilla.

Arrange one layer of cookies to fit the pan that you are using and pour 1 tbsp of coffee mixture over each cookie so that they are well saturated but not falling apart.Spoon 1/3 rd cheese mixture over cookies and sprinkle with 1tbsp cocoa powder. Repeat two more time ending with cocoa. (We didn't follow this method of layering as I wanted it in a cake form)

Cover and refrigerate overnight so that the flavours mature well plus the cookies gets to soak up all that liquid.

Dust with some more cocoa and decorate with chocolate curls. Serve chilled.

Verdict: I couldn't stop licking the cream as and when he was making it because I just wanted to make sure it's up to the Bucca standards ;-) The next day (on my birthday) which was yesterday (confusing??) as I cut the cake and had a slice, the first thing  I said was,'Oh my goodness, this is so yummy! It tastes just like Bucca's! :-D

It is a very good one and is very very simple to make! Do try it at home. I'm sure you can substitute the  lady's finger with a good pound cake and proceed with the recipe if you live no where close to a supermarket which sells those fingers ;-) After all once they are soaked in the syrup, their texture is similar to a cake!

So make sure you try this for your next party!

CHOCOLATE & VANILLA BAVARIAN CREAM GATEAU

Ihave no idea what took me so long to update this little space of mine after his birthday. Anyways it's better late than never : D The weather here is changing everyday. Finally we got to see some greenery on  the otherwise skeletons of trees. But this morning I woke up to see a gloomy sky giving way to heavy lightning and thunder and I was as happy as a peacock! Every time the sky gets gloomy, I see myself longing for heavy thunderstorms and rain.I'm just like a peacock, who does a rain dance with it's beautiful feathers (not that I have any) every time it's about to rain :)

This was Jobin's 2nd cake for his birthday. I thought of mixing up 4 of my favourite components while making a gateau : Simple Sponge, Soaking Syrup, Bavarian Cream & Ganache. You can never go wrong with this combo. The cake & filling was very light and the soaking syrup moistened the cake beautifully. I set the cake in a loaf tin as I didn't want the same old rectangular/square/round birthday cake this time. I'm sure I'll return to my favourite round very soon :-)

'A Sweet Punch' is completing a year  this month, so we thought of asking our members to bake whatever they like. So this is what I am sending in as my entry for this month! I still cannot believe that our little group has turned one! :-)

CHOCOLATE & VANILLA BAVARIAN CREAM GATEAU

You will need:
Simple Chocolate Sponge (Recipe given below)
Vanilla Bavarian Cream ( I made only half the quantity and omitted coffee powder from the recipe)
Soaking syrup
Chocolate Ganache

Recipe & Method for the sponge:
Beat 1/2 c granulate sugar and 3 large eggs together for 10-12 mins on high speed. I used my hand held beater. Fold in 1/4c all purpose flour,1/4 c cocoa powder & 1 tbsp cornflour. Pour into a loaf tin and bake at 350F/180C for 25 mins or till it is springy to touch. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, demould and cool completely. Slice it horizontally into 3.

Assembly:
Line your loaf tin with plastic wrap and put one layer of sponge, moisten it with the syrup and pour half the bavarian cream over it. Repeat. The last layer should be a layer of sponge.
Let it set in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours.

De-mould it and drizzle ganache over the sides and top. I didn't level the top completely as I wanted a bit of an 'old fashioned' look for the cake.Decorate with slivered almonds.Chill till needed.

Verdict: I took this cake to my relative's house that evening as we were having a get together there. Everybody was intrigued by the texture of the cake as you can see that the bavarian cream was pushed out of the cake layers that it coated the sides too. It was very moist and equally delicious! Bavarian cream is one of the easiest and tastiest filling you can make for your layered cake. I'm so hooked onto it now!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

I made his childhood favourite, Lamingtons as his 1st cake for the day. The 2nd cake for the day will follow :)

For the recipe,click here