Brownies...

Who doesn’t love some chocolate over-loaded brownies? There may be hundreds of reasons for loving brownies and for me it’s the way their packed with chocolate and how easy to make they are. The cracked uneven surface and the rustic look makes it more tempting. Brownies are not a simple piece of chocolate. Brownie can be of different types, fudgey, gooey, cakey, sticky, with addition of fruits or nuts depending on your choice. You can use the same recipe to make muffins, brownie cookies (brookies) And it can be a versatile dessert too, serve a slice of brownie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or bribe your picky eater with a piece of brownie along with his or her glass of milk. So here I'm sharing the recipe for the timeless classic that works as a happiness booster.

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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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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