Rum raisin cake..

 

Are you feeling the festive vibe? I was really not in the mood for Christmas. For me Christmas is more than a religious festival, it's about having fun with your family and friends, cherishing the beautiful winter days and enjoying the decked up City of Joy. It's also about decorating the house, arranging parties, going out, buying gifts, planning to surprise my daughter and baking loads of delicious cakes and breads for my friends and family. Unfortunately with all these restrictions due to Covid19 the usual excitement is missing and I was feeling less enthusiastic. But when I saw all those images of Christmas cakes and cookies on my Instagram feed, I felt the happy festive vibe and decided to bake a cake, a boozy flavourful Rum Raisin cake with orange glaze.

Christmas fruit cake..

Every festivity brings a wonderful feeling of merriment, joy and happiness and above all a feeling of togetherness which is beyond any religious faith and belief. Christmas is no exception. Everything feels so special during this time.  The little one writing a list for Santa without showing it to me and I'm trying my best to sneak around to know what's in the list. Decorating the Christmas tree, buying new decorations are so much fun.

Coffee cake with coffee glaze..

Christmas and the holiday season brings joy and happiness. The crisp chill in the air adds to the feeling. Shops are now stocked with cakes & Christmas decorations. Streets are getting decked up with lights. It's great to see how we all overcome the barrier of religion to celebrate every single occasion in Kolkata. The parks, zoo, museum and gardens in and around the city gets the highest foot fall during this time. The most common sight during this season is of course the picnickers enjoying the winter sun and food with friends and family.  As we celebrate Christmas, we also celebrate winter in Kolkata. People of Kolkata enjoy relief from the hot and humid weather during this brief period of 2 months.

Everyday Bread...

Baking bread at home is easy and simple. Flour, water, salt and a leavening agent are the ingredients needed to make a bread and are easily available, The most commonly used leavening agent is yeast. I use active dry yeast, that's the easiest option for any home baker.

I love freshly baked bread and hence I bake often at home. I thoroughly enjoy the process of bread making, from mixing, kneading, rising to baking and serving it to my family. Previously I used to knead the dough by hand, which is of course time consuming and laborious. Last year I got a gift from my husband, a KitchenAid stand mixer, and my bread making ventures are thus more frequent and with ease.

How to make a simple vanilla cake...

Today I'm going to share a simple basic recipe for making a vanilla cake. A recipe that can be followed by anyone. For a long time I have been requested to post this but haven't done it till date. Though I bake this cake at least thrice a month as a snack for my kid. It is so easy and simple that my nine year old knows how to do it. 

This is the recipe I have seen my mother and aunts use while baking cakes in winter. It was like a ritual in our house to bake at least one cake during our winter break. I remember it was such a exciting day for us. It was more of an event. We used to announce with pride to our friends "today Ma's going to bake a cake, so we can't join you to play badminton this morning". Badminton, oranges and cake were such integral part of our winter days.

Coming back to the cake, there was an electric oven to bake the cake, a small round shaped aluminium  oven with flat top and bottom with a glass top from where you can see the cake rising. It was my father's duty to take out the oven from its box. Yes, it used to be kept in its original box throughout the year waiting to be used during winter for our family celebration of Christmas and new year.

Chocolate cake with ganache..

Everyday is a happy day. The white clouds on a bright blue sky shaped like a big fat bear, the first rain after a hot summer day, the smell of new books, smile on your baby's face, or listening to your favorite singer and sipping a cup of tea after a hard day from work.... these are tiny little jewels around us, brightening up every single moment of our life. But unfortunately most of the time we are too busy complaining about lack of happiness than look around us and feel it. We fail to notice the happiness within us, the simple joy celebrating the spirit of life. Look at yourself in the mirror, smile at yourself and say 'I'm happy'. You don't need anything special to be happy, as you yourself is so special.

Yes I'm happy, rather very happy. Why? Looking outside to the bright sunny day and spending great spring break time with my little one and there are many more reasons, with a cherry on top, a home baked moist yummy chocolate cake...what else do you need to be happy?

Good food and happiness are such a great pair, they always come together, at least to me. Today it's a simple chocolate cake, with some finger licking ganache.

There is nothing new about a chocolate cake recipe. Here I'm sharing a recipe I follow, after all these years of cake baking, I found this method very easy and suitable for a beginner. So if it's your first chocolate cake don't worry this is going to be a perfect one.

I used an electric hand mixer to make the batter. You can use a stand mixer too. Use measuring cups, and spoons to get a perfect result. Most of the beginners get confused with salted and unsalted butter. You can use either of them, if you are using salted butter then do not add extra salt to the batter, where as if you are using unsalted variety then you need to add salt to the cake batter. Start with preparing the cake pan, to ensure the cake comes out smoothly after baking. To prepare a pan, use a clean dry cake pan. Grease the pan with oil or butter and dust the pan with flour. You can also line the pan with parchment paper. Always pre-heat the oven to the temperature mentioned in the recipe. Creaming the butter and sugar is very important. In this recipe I have used brown sugar to bring dark rich color to my cake, if you don't find brown sugar then replace it with white sugar. I used both cocoa and coffee to my chocolate cake and used hot water (not boiling) to enhance the flavor of cocoa and coffee. If you don't like the flavor of coffee then you can skip it. Use electric hand mixer or stand mixer for adding the liquid ingredients, while it comes to flour and other dry ingredient, use a spatula and gently fold in to the rest of the batter. Do not over bake, check with a skewer or knife. A fully done cake will start to release from the sides, and if you press the cake on the top it will spring back and of course your kitchen will be filled with the aroma of freshly baked cake.

I added ganache to glaze the cake. Ganache is a glaze or icing or filling for cake, made using only two ingredients, cream and chocolate. Heat the cream, add chopped chocolate, mix and you are ready with ganache.

Depending on how thick or thin you need the ganache to be the ratio of cream and chocolate changes. If you need to use the ganache as filling of the cake, then you need a thicker ganache, in that case the amount of chocolate increases. To glaze or to ice a cake you need thinner ganache, so add more cream. I used semi sweet chocolate chips to make the ganache. The ganache I made this time, I used equal amount of chocolate and cream. You can use any kind of chocolate of your choice, make sure you have chopped the chocolate into small pieces before adding it to the cream. And do not boil the cream, just heat the cream over low heat and add the chocolate pieces and stir, the chocolate will melt in it. You can flavor the ganache with coffee, or wine or other liquor of your choice. To glaze the cake with ganache, place the cake on wire rack and place a cookie sheet under it, and pour the ganache and give time to set.

Things needed to make chocolate cake:

• Flour: 1 and 1/3 cup
• Cocoa powder: 1/3 cup
• Baking powder: 1 tsp
• Baking soda: 1 tsp
• Salt: 1 tsp*
• Brown Sugar: 1 and 1/3 cup
• Unsalted butter: 1/2 cup (113 gm)
• Eggs: 3
• Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
• Hot water: 1/2 cup
• Coffee: 2 tsp

(*If you are using salted butter do not need to add extra salt)

Things needed to make the ganache:

• Fresh cream: 1 cup
• Semi sweet chocolate or chopped chocolate: 1 cup

Steps of making The chocolate cake:

1. Prepare a 9 inch bundt pan or a 9 inch circular or square pan, whichever you like. To prepare the pan grease the pan with butter or oil, sprinkle flour, shake the pan to evenly distribute the flour on the pan. You can grease the pan and line the pan with parchment paper.

2. Pre heat oven to 375 F. Place the rack in the middle of the oven. 

3. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, gently mix with a wire whisk and keep aside.

4. Cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs one at time, beat well. Scrape the sides as needed.

5. Add vanilla extract, mix well.

6. Mix coffee with hot water. 

7. Add 1/3 of the flour mix and gently fold in with a spatula. Add half of the coffee, mix gently. Keep adding flour and coffee alternating with each other, and mix gently.

8. Pour the batter on the prepared pan and bake for 30 min in the pre-heated oven. To know whether the cake is done, insert a bamboo skewer at the center, it will come clean. If you press the top of the cake it will spring back and the cake will start to leave the sides of the pan. Take out the cake from the pan and let it cool down on a wire rack.

Steps of making the ganache:

1. Heat the cream on a heavy bottom pan, over medium heat. Do not boil the cream. Switch off heat. Add chocolate, mix with a wire whisk. You can add liquor of our choice or coffee to the ganache.

2. Let the cake cool down on a wire rack. Place a cookie sheet under the wire rack, pour ganache on the cake. Give time to set the ganache. Garnish the cake as you like. I kept it simple, added grated white chocolate.

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Quick n easy cake for Christmas...

What I love about any festival is the festive mood, the preparation for it, the feeling of something very special is going to happen. I always found the days  of waiting for a festival the most exciting part. Christmas is not an exception. Making the wish list, buying gifts for my little one, expecting a surprise, discussing about food with friends, decorating the tree and above all baking cakes and cookies.

I bake several different cakes during this time, but a special Christmas cake is a must. Though I do not like the long elaborate process of soaking dry fruits with alcohol, then baking the cake and again brushing it with alcohol. I found it easier to bake a cake that taste exactly like a Christmas cake but can be baked just the day before Christmas.

This quick and easy Christmas cake has a dense, moist texture, with loads of candied cherries and orange peels. I used store bought tutti frutti, you can always make your own. I did not use any alcohol in this cake, but you can add rum or brandy to flavor the cake, or else add imitation rum flavor to bring the boozy essence. You can add nuts, raisins of your choice. It is a versatile recipe, you can customize as per your choice. 

Things needed to make the Christmas cake:

• All purpose flour: 1 and 3/4 cup
• Eggs: 4
• Brown sugar: 1 cup
• White sugar: 3/4 cup
• Salt: 1 tsp*
• Baking powder: 1 tsp
• Unsalted butter: 1 stick (113 gm)
• Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
• Orange extract: 1/2 tsp
• Tutti frutti mix: 1 cup
• Cinnamon powder: 1/4 tsp
• Nutmeg powder: 1/8 tsp
• Extra butter and flour to prepare the pan
• Rum or brandy to brush the cake (optional)

*If you are using salted butter, no need to add salt.

Steps of making the Christmas cake:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375F.

2. Grease a 9 inch loaf pan or 9 inch round pan with butter and dust with flour, keep aside

1. Sieve together all purpose flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon powder and nutmeg powder. Keep aside.

2. Cream the butter for 3-4 min. Add brown sugar and white sugar and cream it with the butter for 5-6 min, scrape the side of the bowl as needed.

3. Add eggs one by one and beat well.

4. Add vanilla extract and orange extract, beat well. You can add the alcohol (if using) at this stage.

5. Add the dry ingredients and fold in gently. Add the tutti frutti and fold.

6. Pour the batter in the prepared pan, bake in the middle rack of the oven for 45 min or till a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.

7. Carefully take out the cake from the pan. Let the cake cool down on a wire rack for 4-5 hrs. You can slice and serve it. To give it the flavor of alcohol, Bake the cake at least 2-3 days prior the party, after the cake cools down, brush the cake from all sides with brandy or rum, cover with a plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator. Brush the cake with alcohol in between 2-3 times.

Wish you all a Merry Christmas, enjoy with your friends and family.

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Walnut and choco-chip cupcake

It's almost over. I have only two more weekends left before my little first grader goes back to school. Time flies, otherwise how did these 90 days of summer vacation went by? And surprisingly enough I spent these 90 days quite peacefully. Whatever presupposed anxiety I had, my little one proved them all wrong. We had loads of fun together, learning new things, crafts, baking, movies and loads of reading.

Now it's time check the school supply list, prepare to go back to the regular routine for bedtimes. Yeah, no more relaxed bedtime (I will miss that so much.....lazy me), the alarm will be set again, the kid will be back to school and Mommy dear will be back to routine.

When it involves my kid, the most challenging part I face is food. What to prepare for breakfast, what to pack in the lunchbox, then what to make for after school meal or snack. I know all parents face the same problem, especially if your kid is a picky eater. 

Other than the usual meals, for snacks I prefer to make something that can be packed if needed. Cupcakes are one of those thing that me and my kid both like. They are quick and easy to make, and if you keep the frosting part aside, it can be stored for 4-5 days. Moreover you can have different variations, just add some fruits or nuts or chocolate or keep it plain.

On this back to school note, I made some walnut and chocolate chip cupcakes. I bake the cupcakes, cool them down and store in an air tight container for future consumption. You can add frosting just before serving, some whipped cream or drizzle some chocolate sauce on the cupcakes or add a scoop of ice cream on top, the kid will be delighted. 

Things needed to make Walnut and Choco-chip Cupcake:

• All purpose flour: 1 cup
• Baking powder: 1 tsp
• Salt: 3/4 tsp
• Unsalted butter: 1/2 cup
• Granulated sugar: 3/4 cup
• Eggs: 2
• Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
• Milk: 3 tbsp
• Semi sweet choco chips: 1/2 cup
• Walnut: 1/4 cup

Steps of making Walnut and Choco-chip Cupcake:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Line a muffin tray with cupcake liner, keep aside.

2. Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature. Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and keep aside. 

3. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar. I used unsalted butter, you can use salted butter, in that case do not add salt to the flour as mentioned in step 1. As you beat the butter and sugar, scrap the sides with a spatula and mix.

4. Add the eggs and beat well, scraping the sides as needed. Add vanilla extract and mix well.

5. Sieve in the the dry ingredients to the wet mix and gently fold in. Add milk and mix with a spatula. Fold in the chocolate chips and broken walnut pieces.

6. Fill the cupcake liner with the cake batter upto 3/4th. Bake at 375 F for 20 min, or till a tooth pick inserted at center comes out clean. Let the cupcake cool down on a wire rack.

You can do frosting on the cupcake, of your choice. But I usually skip the frosting part. Either I drizzle some chocolate sauce just before serving or top the cupcake with some peanut butter or sometimes as a special reward for the kid I serve the cupcake topped with a scoop of ice cream. This I drizzle chocolate sauce and sprinkle some broken walnuts on the cupcake.

Walnut and Choco-chip Cupcake

(Yield: 6)

Ingredients:

All purpose flour: 1 cup
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Salt: 3/4 tsp
Unsalted butter: 1/2 cup
Granulated sugar: 3/4 cup
Eggs: 2
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Milk: 3 tbsp
Semi sweet choco chips: 1/2 cup
Walnut: 1/4 cup

Procedure:

1. Pre-heat oven at 375 F.

2. Cream butter and sugar.

3. Add eggs and vanilla extract, beat well.

4. Sieve in the dry ingredients, add milk, gently fold in with a spatula.

5. Fol in the walnut and choco-chips.

6. Line a muffin tray with cupcake liner, fill in each upto 3/4 th, bake at 375 F for 20 min.

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Blueberry cake...

It's surprising how life changes lane, taking a new turn,  sometimes showing you a different perspective altogether. You do things that you never thought of, you love  things that you  may have hated till now...life changes or we change, I feel we grow as we go on. Like I never knew I would love baking so much. For me baking was just a cake during Christmas. And now it has expanded to various breads, cakes, cupcakes etc. I now love every single step of baking. Measuring, mixing, working to get the perfect texture and so on. Baking is such an addiction.

Usually I bake a simple vanilla cake as a snack for my family. This time the kid bought a box of blueberry. She enjoyed baking last time, and we had  baked a fruit and nut bundt cake together. Yeah summer break!!! fun for the kid, not always same for the parents though. :) So it is the story of a box full of blueberries and a heart shaped cake.

This above picture of blueberries is my entry to "The Color Me Photography Challenge Series". The series is organised and hosted by Priya of The Humpty Dumpty Kitchen. The month of July is for "Colour Me Purple (And Blue and Violet!)". 

Back to the cake. It is a simple vanilla cake, I added the blueberries as the kid wanted it that way. I used the heart shaped pan just for fun.

Things needed to make blueberry cake:

(This will make a 10 inch round cake, or two 6 inch heart shape cake)

• Unsalted butter: 1/2 cup
• Sugar: 1 and 1/4 cup
• Eggs: 4
• Flour: 1 and 1/2 cup
• Salt: 1 tsp
• Baking powder: 1 tsp
• Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
• Milk: 1/4 cup
• Blueberries: 1 cup
• Extra butter to grease
• Extra flour to dust

Steps of making blueberry cake:

1. Bring all the ingredients to room temperature. Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Grease the pan with butter or oil, sprinkle four or you can line the pan with parchment paper.

2. Wash the blueberries well, pat them dry.

3. Cream the unsalted butter and granulated sugar. I used a hand blender for this. Add eggs one by one, mix well after adding each one. Scrape the sides with a spatula as you are mixing. Add vanilla essence, mix well.

4. Sieve flour, salt and baking powder. If you are using salted butter, then don't add salt. Mix one third of the flour mix and gently fold it in. Add half of the milk, mix with spatula. Repeat till all the flour and milk are used.

5. Pour cake batter in the prepared pan. Drop some blueberries.

6. Bake at 375 F for 30 min, on the middle rack. Check with a toothpick or skewer whether the cake is done or not. Remove from oven, cool on a wire rack. You can decorate cake as you like, I sprinkled confectionery sugar on the cake.

And dusting the cake with sugar left such a beautiful design on my table. I couldn't help but take a picture of that.

Pretty, isn't it? I call it a sugar heart. And again this little things that may not be very important to others, but I love them, tiny, insignificant but enough to make me happy.

Print Recipe

Blueberry cake
(for one 10 inch round cake)

Ingredients:
Unsalted butter: 1/2 cup
Sugar: 1 and 1/4 cup
Eggs: 4
Flour: 1 and 1/2 cup
Milk: 1/4 cup
Salt: 1 tsp
Baking powde: 1 tsp
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Blueberries: 1 cup
Butter to grease pan
Flour to dust pan

Procedure:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Grease and dust pan.
2. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one by one, mix well.
3. Add vanilla extract.
4. Sieve flour, salt and baking powder.
5. Add 1/3 of flour mix, fold in with a spatula. Add half of the milk. Repeat till all the flour and milk are used.
6. Pour cake batter on prepared pan, drop few blueberries, bake for 30 min at 375 F.
7. Cool down on a wire rack.

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Fruit n nut bundt cake...

Summer break and kids.....are quite alarming to most of the parents. One can suggest about summer camp, science camp etc, but everything has a price tag attached to it. Moreover I do want my kid to enjoy the fun of the break, than the regular routine life. Just like we used to do as kids. So a long 90 days of break and your active agile kid, not a very easy task. But to be very frank I enjoy it, being with my kid all the time, playing with her, doing some crafts, making some jewelry are like revisiting my own childhood. Yes, I think that's the key to enjoy with your kid, be a kid yourself.

Kids grow up fast, so treasure every single moment you are with him or her. There will be a time soon when they will grow up and will be busy in their own world. All these ever-demanding undivided attention will be gone. That's part of our life, so enjoy this moment, enjoy it now.

So when my daughter wanted to bake a cake I didn't say no. Though I was not very keen switching on the oven in this hot sweltering summer, but again did not want to miss the fun of baking a cake with my kiddo. And I must admit, she was great at folding the cake batter, gentle and with all the care she did it.

It was a simple fruit and nut cake as she wanted it to be. I added chopped dried fruits, cherries and cranberries to the cake batter along with some chopped pistachio, walnuts and almonds.

To bring a different flavor I added rum flavor to it. As I was making it for my kid, I did not use any alcohol, but added imitation rum flavor. You can use either the imitation flavor or 2-3 tbsp dark rum to flavor your cake. I used the bundt cake pan to make the fun ring shape cake, you can use the regular round cake pan as well. A cake is always a great snack, both for the kids and the grown ups, so gear up and bake a cake with your little one and have fun.

Things needed to make the cake:

(this will make a 9n3/4 inch bundt cake)

• Flour: 1 and 3/4 cup
• Eggs: 4
• Sugar: 1 and 1/2 cup
• Unsalted butter: 1 stick
• Milk: 1/4 cup
• Vanilla essence: 1/2 tsp
• Imitation rum flavor: 1 tsp
• Dry fruits and nuts of your choice
• Baking powder: 1 tsp
• Salt: 1 tsp
• Extra butter to grease
• Extra flour to dust

Steps of making the cake:

1. Pre-heat oven at 350 F. Grease the cake pan, dust with flour, keep aside.

2. Cream the butter and sugar with a hand blender. I used unsalted butter. If you are using the salted variety, then do not add extra salt.

3. Add eggs one by one to the creamed butter-sugar mix. After adding each egg, mix with hand blender. Add vanilla essence and imitation rum flavor, mix.

4. Sift flour, salt and baking powder.

5. Add 1/3 of the flour-mix and gently fold in to the batter. Add half of the milk, mix with a spatula. Repeat till you are done with all the flour and milk.

6. Chop the nuts and dry fruits. I added almond, pistachio, walnut, cherry and cranberry. Fold the chopped dry fruits and nuts to the batter.

7. Pour batter into the prepared pan, bake on the middle rack for 35 min. Check with a toothpick, cool down and enjoy with your family and friends.

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