Black Forest Cake - 100th Post(The First Milestone)!!!

Hi guys!!!

Yayyyyyyy!!! I have made 100 posts and that is indeed a great feeling!!! I wanted to post this recipe today coz I am travelling to India after 1 long year and will not be on the internet for about a month. I will be back to blogging from the first week of August!!! I was putting off the Black Forest cake's recipe for a while coz I wanted it to be my 100th post :-)

My husband's birthday was in the first week of June and I had planned on 3 surprises for him. One was a surprise birthday lunch with all our friends, which he found out a day before his birthday from the groceries I had bought!!! Second was his gift. I had hidden it for a couple of days in our wardrobe and managed to keep him looking for it everywhere else, but he found it out exactly 5 minutes before midnite and spoilt that one too!!! The last surprise was the Black Forest cake I had baked. He believed when I told him that our friends were picking up the cake just before coming to lunch. And, this was the only surprise that I actually succeeded in maintaining :-)

Now coming to the cake. I had followed the recipe from Joy Of Baking. Black Forest cake has been one of my favorite birthday cakes for a while now. I was skeptical about actually trying a birthday cake at home but for my first attempt, the cake turned pretty great. I failed to take a separate pic of the whole cake. But I managed to click one slice which I will be posting below.

The Black forest cake generally has 2 or 3 layers of chocolate genoise (A very soft sponge cake) with whipped cream and cherry fillings. The cherry filling is usually prepared with soaking cherries in Kirsch. I just used the syrup that it came in and it still turned out amazing.

Now lets see the recipe.

To prepare the Cherries:
Canned cherries with syrup - 700ml jar
Sugar - 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp sugar

For the Chocolate Genoise:
Unsalted Butter - 3 tbsp
All-purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Unsweetened Cocoa powder - 1/3 cup
Eggs - 4
Sugar - 2/3 cup
Corn flour - 2 tbsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

For the Whipped Cream Frosting:
Heavy whipping cream / Double cream - 600 ml
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Sugar - 3 tbsp

Dark chocolate - 200 gms (70% cocoa)

Procedure:

Chocolate Genoise:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a round cake tin with parchment paper and butter the sides.
2. Beat the eggs and sugar on medium speed till soft peaks form. Add the vanilla extract and beat for another minute.
3. Mix all the dry ingredients separately. Transfer the dry ingredients to the wet mixture in 3 additions and mix thoroughly.
4. Transfer this to the prepared pan and bake for about 25-30 minutes. Transfer the cake to the cooling rack when done and cut into 2 or 3 layers.

This is the picture of the Genoise I baked.

Cherry filling:
1. Drain the syrup and place the cherries in a separate bowl along with 1 tbsp of sugar. Toss well so that the sugar coats the cherries well. You can skip this step if using glazed cherries.
2. Now take the syrup in a thick bottomed vessel along with the 1/4 cup sugar and keep stirring on low heat till the sugar dissolves.
3. Switch off heat and keep the syrup ready. Chop the cherries roughly, reserving about 10-12 whole cherries for the top layer.

Whipped cream frosting:
1. Take the double cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl and beat on medium speed till stiff peaks form.

Assembling the cake:
1. Brush the cake layers with the cherry syrup that you have prepared.
2. Place the lowest layer on the serving plate. Spread the entire top area with the whipped cream frosting.
3. Now spread the chopped cherries evenly above the cream frosting and place the next layer of the cake on top.
4. Spread the whipped cream entirely to cover the sides and top. (Repeat the previous step if you have more layers)
5. Shave the dark chocolate into fine strips using a chilled knife. Make sure not to touch the chocolate shavings as they melt in the body heat.
6. Now spread the chocolate shavings thoroughly to cover the top and sides of the cake. Place the whole cherries on the top layer.

The yummy Black Forest cake is ready to serve!!! This recipe makes about 12 servings.

Note:
1. This cake tastes best when chilled. You can prepare the cake the previous day and refrigerate it.
2. The cake stays fresh in the fridge for about a week.

Venetian Carrot Cake!!!

Hi guys!!!

The other day I was watching Nigella Lawson's episode on Food Network and could not help but wonder how glowing she is even past 50. I know there would be a bunch of people who might criticize on her shape. But everybody has got to admit that she does look energetic and young for her age. I love her recipes mainly coz they are easy to prepare and she goes with all shortcuts when preparing the food. Who doesn't love that?!!

Anyways, she prepared this amazing Venetian carrot cake in that episode. Until I watched that episode even I thought Carrot cake was American too!!! This Venetian cake is prepared with ground almonds as the base and has no butter at all. The end result is an amazingly soft and moist cake. This is different from dessert cakes in a way that it is not too sweet but is a great accompaniment for tea or coffee.

Now lets see the recipe.

Ingredients:

Ground almonds / Almond meal - 2 1/2 cups
Olive oil - 1/2 cup
Grated carrots - 2 cups
Golden sultanas - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Eggs - 3
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Ground nutmeg - 1/2 tsp
Pine nuts - 3 tbsp
Lemon - 1/2 (the zest and juice)

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a round cake pan with parchment paper and keep it ready.
2. Toast the pine nuts on low heat on a pan to get it golden coloured.
3. Beat the sugar and olive oil till it turns creamy and airy. Add the eggs one at a time and keep beating. Next add the vanilla extract and beat well.
4. Fold in the ground almonds, grated carrots, sultanas, lemon zest, ground nutmeg and finally the lemon juice.
5. Scrape the mixture to the prepared pan and smooth out the surface. Sprinkle the toasted pine nuts on the surface and place it in the oven.
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes or till the toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Serve warm with tea or coffee!!! This cake when wrapped in plastic wrap can be stored for 3-4 days at room temperature.

Dried Fruits & Nut Cake!!!

Hi guys!!!

I am big fan of the Christmas Fruit cake. This Dried fruits and nut cake that I am talking about is almost like the christmas cake. It is healthy in so many ways. First off, no butter is used. Secondly, very minimal quantity of flour is used. Best of all, it is loaded with dried fruits and nuts!!! Although I munch on nuts to ease my mid-afternoon hunger pangs, I find it really difficult to get my husband to eat dried fruits or nuts as it is. So, this cake was indeed a great solution. He loved the cake and we enjoyed the cake throughout the week. It actually tasted better a couple of days after it was baked!!!

Now lets see the recipe.

Ingredients:

All-purpose flour - 3/4 cup
Firmly packed brown sugar - 3/4 cup
Eggs - 3
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Coarsely chopped nuts - 3 cups
(I used hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, almonds and pistachios)
Diced dried fruits - 3 cups
(Dates - 2 cups + Other dried fruits - 1 cup(I used dried apricots, figs, cherries,cranberries and raisins))

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 150C. Grease a cake pan and keep it ready.
2. In a large mixing bowl add the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, sugar and mix well. Next add the chopped nuts and dried fruits and mix well with using your hands.
3. In a separate bowl beat the eggs and vanilla until they turn light coloured and fluffy.
4. Now add this egg mixture to the fruit and nut mixture and mix well with a rubber spatula till the ingredients are combined well.
5. Scrape down the contents to the prepared pan and bake for about 60-75 minutes.
6. Remove from oven when the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan. Mine was ready at around 65 minutes.

Slice and serve with tea or have it for breakfast. This could be a great power-packed start for the day!!!!

Molten Lava Chocolate Cake!!!

Hi guys!!!

Ever since I had my first molten lava cake in Dominos a few years back, this has always been high in the list of my favorite desserts. Although it took this long for me to try baking one at home. I did not buy ramekins till a few weeks back, so my first attempt was in coffee mugs. I just filled the mug around 1/4 th full with the batter and baked for less than 15 minutes. That turned out great too. But baking these little chocolate babies in the ramekins makes it even more appealing. Trust me, this could be the yummiest baked good that is prepared from start-to-end in less than half an hour!!!!

I wanted to take pics of the gooey center but both of us were going nuts on these cakes as soon as they were done :-) But I hope you can still make out the center in this pic as well. Now lets see the recipe.

Ingredients:
Fills about 4 ramekins.

Baking chocolate (Dark/Milk) - 120 gms
Butter - 100 gms + for greasing ramekins
Eggs - 2
Sugar - 1/3 cup
All-purpose flour / Maida - 1/4 cup

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Melt the chocolate either in a microwave or a double boiler. Add the butter to the melted chocolate and mix well till it melts completely.
3. In a mixing bowl break the eggs and add sugar. Beat them till soft and fluffy.
4. Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and toss in the flour as well. Mix till all the ingredients are well incorporated.
5. Grease the ramekins and pour the mixture till about 3/4th full. Pop it in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes. Stop baking at around 12 minutes for gooey center and continue till 15 minutes for stiff center.

Serve warm with Vanilla ice cream or just dig in as such!!!!

Simple Butter Cake!!!

Hi guys!!!

It has taken me almost half a year to finally try baking cakes. For a while now I have been bookmarking easy cake recipes but never really gave it a serious thought. Finally, I thought I will try the simple butter cake. I wanted to start with this cake 'coz when I was browsing for cake recipes I came across pics of butter cake that reminded me so much of a soft, airy, melt-in-the-mouth vanilla cake my dad used to buy from a local bakery named 'Harini Bakery' back in my hometown. Those cakes were too yummy to resist and I thought I should try and replicate them at home. I was pretty happy with the result 'coz my cake did turn out real soft and tasty. Atleast, a great outcome for a first attempt, I'll say!!!!

Now lets take a look at the recipe.

Ingredients:

Unsalted butter - 250 gms (at room temp)
Granulated sugar - 1 cup
All-purpose flour - 1 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Eggs - 4 large
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Milk - 4 tbsp
Assorted nuts - 1 cup (chopped) (this is optional)

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Butter and flour a 20 cm cake tin and set aside.
2. Take the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat it together in medium speed till it turns pale and creamy. It is in the right consistency when it turns almost whitish pale.
3. Now break in each egg and beat for a minute till the mixture turns real creamy and frothy. The eggs need to be at room temperature.
4. Now add the vanilla extract and mix well.
5. Sieve in the flour, baking powder and salt to the wet mixture and beat it in medium speed. Make sure not to make the mixture very airy.
6. Finally, add the milk and mix it well with a spatula. Now pour the prepared cake mixture into the greased cake tin and even out the surface. Add the nuts if using and pop it in the preheated oven.
7. Bake for around 50-60 minutes. At around 30 minutes, when the cake has risen nicely, u can pull the tin out and make a straight incision half way through the cake to let it bake evenly.
8. The oven heat needs to be consistent and works differently in different ovens. So make sure to keep an eye from 45 mins. Check it with a fork or a tooth pick and pull it out of the oven when down.
9. Let it sit on a cooling rack for 15 mins and invert it out of the pan.

Slice and enjoy!!!

Sending this to the Cakes, Cookies and Desserts event hosted by Anjali.