Trending Top Forward Cake

Red Velvet Cake with a Rustic Concrete finish Cream Cheese Frosting decorated with Sugar Flowers on one side and a touch of Stencilling on the other side.
My first try on the #caketopforward trend by @delaneydesserts

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The Baby Giraffe Bust Cake

I made this adorable baby giraffe using vanilla cake, modelling chocolate and fondant for my son’s 17^th birthday, and hand painted it with cocoa butter to create realistic features and texture. This is my first structural cake as well as my first-time painting with cocoa butter. Really enjoyed creating this masterpiece.

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Mango Tres Leches / Mango Three Milk Cake

 

Many years ago I posted a Vanilla Tres Leches Cake recipe which was loved by many of my readers. Recently, I tried a mango flavoured version with an eggless sponge. It was a huge hit in our home. This time I assembled the cake in individual serving glasses and by now you all know how I love preparing desserts as individual servings. Assembling in individual glasses is more tedious and time consuming, but you can easily assemble this in the same dish which you used to bake the cake for a more effortless job. Do try this and let me know how you liked it. 

 

Mango Tres Leches / Mango Three Milk Cake

(6 servings)

Eggless Sponge Cake:
Ingredients:

All-purpose flour - 1⅔ cup (180gm)

Baking Soda – ½ tsp 

Baking Powder – ¾ tsp

Salt – ¼ tsp

Butter Milk - 1 cup

Vegetable oil - ¼ cup

Sugar - ⅔ cup

Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp

Apple Cider Vinegar – 1 tsp

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180C. Lightly grease one 9” round or square pan or two  5” round pans.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, sugar and vanilla extract well. Add the apple cider vinegar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk again. Leave to stand for 5 minutes until bubbly.
• Now sift over the plain flour and whisk in to mix.
• Divide the batter between the prepared baking dishes,
• Tap the dishes gently on the counter, then bake for 25-30 minutes until light golden brown and the tester comes out clean.
• Remove to rack, demould after 10-15 minutes, then cool completely.
• Once the cake has completely cooled cut out rounds to fit your serving glasses / bowl. 
• Poke holes all over the cake using a fork to better absorb the Mango Tres Leches syrup.

For Mango Tres Leches Syrup

1 cup thick mango puree or 2 ripe mangoes

½ can (200 gm) sweetened condensed milk

¾ cup evaporated milk

¾ cup heavy cream or whipping cream

• Puree mango pieces in a blender without adding any water. Then add condensed milk, evaporated milk and whipping cream and blend again. Mango Tres Leches syrup is ready.
• Reserve ¼ cup of the syrup to add to the topping mix. Then divide the milk mixture and pour over each cake.
• Leave for a couple of hours to soak the  milk.

Cream Topping

1 cup (250ml) whipping cream

3 tbsp icing sugar

¼ cup of reserved mango Tres Leches syrup

Diced mangoes, fresh cherries and mint leaves to decorate

• Whip the cream, when soft peaks form add the sugar and the reserved ¼ cup of the mango Tres Leches syrup little by little, continue whipping until stiff peaks form about 2 mints.
• Layer the whipped cream mix over the soaked cake, Garnish with diced mango pieces, cherries and mint leaves. Best to rest the cake in the fridge overnight to complete the soaking process and serve.   

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Flourless Chocolate Cake with Coffee Mousse

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, I thought my new post should be a chocolate dessert. Now a days short cooking videos are very popular in social media and people tend to share a lot of those videos. Although I love to watch such videos, I am not at all comfortable making video recipes :) :) …. Today’s recipe is one such shared recipe on Facebook. I immediately loved the recipe as it has my favourite chocolate and coffee in it. The chocolate cake is flourless and it is great for those who have gluten intolerance. The rich and fudgy chocolate base is topped with aromatic, soft and silky coffee mousse. It is absolutely heavenly and decadent dessert to make for your loved one!

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Coffee Mousse

(Recipe from here)

Makes about 8-10 servings

Ingredients:

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Butter - ½ cup (110g)

Semisweet chocolate - 150g (5 oz )

Eggs - 3, separated

Sugar - ½ (100g)

Unsweetened cocoa powder - 1 tbsp 

Salt - a pinch

Coffee Mousse

Egg yolks - 2

Sugar - ½ cup (100g)

Corn flour / corn starch - 1 ½ tbsp 

Warm milk - 2/3 cup (160ml)

Vanilla essence - ½ tsp 

Instant coffee - 1 tbsp 

Gelatine powder - ½  tbsp 

Cold water - 2 tbsp 

Whipping cream - 1 cup (240g), chilled

Method:

Flourless Chocolate Cake

• Grease and line a 8-inch (20 cm) spring form pan (with a removable base) with parchment paper. Separate egg yolks from whites. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
• Melt chocolate and butter over a bain-marie (double boil) until smooth. Let it cool slightly. Add yolks one at a time and stir well. Stir in cocoa powder and salt. 
• Whip egg whites until foamy using a mixer. Gradually add sugar and whip until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold the whipped whites into chocolate mixture.
• Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes. Let it cool completely in the pan over a cooling rack.

Prepare the coffee mousse:

• Stir egg yolks with sugar until creamy and pale yellow coloured. Stir in corn starch. Gradually whisk in the warm milk until completely combined.
• Place the yolks mixture into a small saucepan and cook over low heat while stirring until boils and thickens.
• Remove from heat and stir in vanilla essence and instant coffee. Let it cool.
• Dissolve gelatine in 2 tbsp cold water and let it swell for about 5 to 10 minutes. Place over low heat just until the gelatine dissolves and then pour it over coffee mixture.
• Whip the cold whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Gradually incorporate into coffee mixture.
• Spread the coffee mousse over the chocolate cake in the pan, using an offset spatula.
• Cover and refrigerate for about 4 hrs or overnight to set before serving.
• Run a warm knife around the edges of the cake to remove the sides of the pan.
• Dust the top of the cake with cocoa powder.
• Using a warm knife cut the cake into slices and serve.

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Wine Barrel Cake

I made this cake a couple of months back for my husband’s birthday and somehow forgot to post it over here....

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BMW Theme Cake

Hi everybody, It’s been a long time since I updated this space. I am finding it hard to resume blogging regularly after my summer vacation solely due to laziness ;) ;) ....  Trying my level best to restart blogging with this BMW themed cake I made for my son on his birthday.... Promise to be back with a new recipe post soon....

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Christmas Pudding

Hi everybody, How was your Christmas celebrations? Hope you all had a lovely Christmas with family and friends! We had a cosy Christmas just three of us. This time my son asked me to grill a full chicken for Christmas lunch! He really enjoyed the food of his choice and for dessert I made the British Christmas Pudding. I always wanted to try the Christmas Pudding but never desired to buy it from the shop, especially the non-alcoholic version we get here. Every year I kept postponing due to the non-availability of suet here, until recently I read somewhere that I can use butter instead. The butter should be cold enough to grate it. I made half the amount of pudding with the left over soaked fruits after making the ChristmasCake. The pudding is a dark, sticky and dense sponge. The pudding tastes better if you make it ahead of time and allow to mature and then reheat on Christmas Day. Traditionally the Christmas pudding has to steam for a total 6 to 7 hours in a steamer and you guessed it, I made it the traditional way! You can also make it in a pressure cooker in around 2 hours, without weight and if you are brave enough, you can make it with weight in just half an hour. Flambé or flame the pudding was really fun and all of us really enjoyed seeing and photographing the flaming pudding!! 

Christmas Pudding Recipe

(Recipe Adapted from here) Serves 8 – 10

Ingredients:
450g dried mixed fruit
1 small cooking apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped

Grated zest and juice of ½ large orange and ½ lemon
4 tbsp brandy, plus a little extra for soaking at the end
2 oz / 55 g self-raising flour, sifted
1 tsp ground mixed spice
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
4 oz / 110 g shredded cold butter (If you get suet, go for it instead of butter) 

4oz / 110g soft, dark brown sugar
4 oz / 110 g white fresh bread crumbs
1 oz / 25 g whole shelled almonds, roughly chopped
2 large, eggs
Lightly butter a 2½ pint/1.4 litre pudding basin/17cm
125 ml Brandy, rum or vodka (to flame the pudding)

Method:

• Place the dried fruits, apple, orange and lemon juice into a large mixing bowl. Add the brandy and stir well. Cover the bowl with a lid and leave to marinate for a couple of hours, preferably overnight.
• Stir together the flour, mixed spice and cinnamon in a very large mixing bowl. Add the cold shredded butter, sugar, lemon and orange zest, bread crumbs, nuts and stir again until all the ingredients are well mixed. Finally add the marinated dried fruits and stir again.
• Beat the eggs lightly in a small bowl then stir quickly into the dry ingredients. The mixture should have a soft consistency.
• Spoon the mixture in to the greased pudding basin, gently pressing the mixture down with the back of a spoon. Cover with a double layer of greaseproof paper or baking parchment, then a layer of aluminium foil and tie securely with string.
• Place the pudding in a steamer and steam the pudding for 5 hours. Make sure you check the water level frequently so it never boils dry.
• Remove the pudding from the steamer, cool completely. Remove the paper, prick the pudding with a skewer and pour in a little extra brandy. Cover with fresh greaseproof paper and retie with string. Store in a cool dry place until Christmas day. 
• On Christmas day reheat the pudding by steaming again for about an hour. 
• To unmould the pudding, take off the parchment paper, put a plate on top and turn it upside down.
• To Flambé / flame the pudding, heat the brandy/ rum/ vodka in a small pan till it is hot, but turn off the heat before it boils, light the pan of brandy using a gas lighter or matchstick, then pour the flaming brandy over the pudding and enjoy the pudding with Brandy Sauce or Custard. 
• Left over Christmas pudding can be reheated and served.

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White Chocolate and Passionfruit Celebration Cake

I had an eye on this White Chocolate and Passionfruit Cake for a long time and was waiting for an occasion to try it. Finally on our 20th Wedding Anniversary last week I decided to make this cake to celebrate.  This is a time consuming, very rich and dense cake and just as its name suggests "a true celebration cake". The whole cake is huge for a small family like ours, so I halved the recipe and baked two 8 inch round cakes which gave me a two layer cake. If you are making half the amount you can also bake it in three 5 inch round pans to get 3 layers. Finally, I decorated the cake with sugar paste roses.  

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