Cakes and Puddings Archives - Page 26 of 46

Eggless Chocolate Cake

27|05|2016

Many times when I go to a gathering, I’m introduced to people who are new to me as the ‘one who makes cakes!’. I am pretty sure, if you are a blogger, you can relate. You’ll probably be the one ‘ with a food blog’ or the ‘great cook’ or one who ‘knows everything about food’. After that there are so many questions. I’ll share the ones I get asked the most. Who eats your creations? Do you sell your cakes? Why don’t you? Do you make gluten free, fat free, sugar free, eggless cakes? Well honestly the first few cannot be answered in a word or two. Sometimes I explain, sometimes I just give them a smile. The last one, I am happy to answer. Gluten free, yes, fat-free, yes, Sugar free, never!, Eggless..?? That gets me thinking. I come from that part of the world where being vegetarian or vegan is not uncommon. Though my immediate family is not, throughout my growing up years I have come across people who don’t eat eggs. Yet, I was always the one to advocate for eggs in cakes. Cakes need eggs, I would tell myself! Then one day I was invited to someone’s house who happened to be a non-egg eater and treated to chocolate cake. ‘Try it’ they said ‘It’s quite nice’. I didn’t want to be rude but I didn’t like it. The hostess sensed my displeasure and said to me’ Why don’t you come up with a good eggless chocolate cake. You are the baker!’ I thought about it and thought of the number of times people have requested me for an eggless cake recipe. It is true! I bake almost everyday, I play with ingredients all the time, If I am not able to crack this, what’s the point in me doing what I do? So I took it upon myself to test out recipes for a good egg-free cake recipe. Not just a recipe that is made without eggs and is edible but a recipe that can measure up to a great chocolate cake. After a few attempts and failures, I found my Eggless Chocolate Cake!

Like most of my recipes, the focus has been to keep it simple and as easy as possible. The cake is moist, dense and fudgy. This is not a sponge cake but it is not rich either. It is actually like a warm hug of chocolate and incredibly delicious. The core ingredient that gives the cake it’s amazing texture is Ricotta Cheese. The cooking time is a bit long as it is cooked slowly over a low temperature. The Eggless Chocolate Cake is great even with a dusting of icing sugar if you want to skip the ganache. The cake tastes best when served warm or at room temperature.

Eggless Chocolate Cake
Makes an 8 inch round cake

200 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
100 g unsalted butter
1 tub (375 g) ricotta cheese
2 cups self-raising flour
1 1/4 cup castor sugar
1 cup hot water

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C (140 degrees C for fan-forced ovens). Grease the base and sides of an 8 inch round cake pan and line the base with baking paper.

In a large saucepan that is placed over a pot of boiling water melt the butter and chocolate together. Alternatively this can be done in short bursts in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl. Mix to blend well, remove from heat and leave aside to cool slightly (about 10 minutes). Add the sugar, ricotta cheese, water and self raising flour and mix well.

Pour the mixture into the prepared baking pan. Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Stand in the pan for 10 minutes. Then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, serve with a dusting of icing sugar or top with chocolate ganache (recipe below).

Drizzle or slowly spoon ganache over the cake. Decorate with shaved chocolate, chocolate chips, berries, edible flowers or nuts.

Chocolate Ganache

150 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1/4 cup heavy/thickened cream

Microwave method : Place chocolate and cream in a glass or ceramic microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on medium (50%) for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds with a metal spoon, or until smooth. Stand at room temperature until thickened.

If cooking on the gas, heat the cream over low heat until it just begins to boil. Remove from heat, add the chopped dark chocolate and leave aside. After 10 minutes, mix to blend. Stand at room temperature until thickened.

White And Gold Cake. Because Mum is Gold!

6|05|2016

Mum is gold! Mum is precious! Mum is love! And Mum is the world! Perhaps there is no greater truth than that. My Mum lives miles away from me and I wont get to meet her anytime soon but I have never felt her presence more than now. The funny thing is that I see so much of her in myself lately. In the way I try to reason, discipline and encourage my little boys. All the things that didn’t matter to me when I was growing up and I would turn a deaf ear to has magically assumed a place of utmost importance in my life. It’s weird and until last year I even hated to admit it. How could I possibly turn into the ‘eat your vegetables’, ‘put your jumper on because you sneezed’ kind of drama Mommy who will stand and watch until her kids have walked themselves all the way into the classroom during school drop-offs! What is wrong with me!!! I promise I always wanted to be a cool Mommy, whatever that means. All that being said, every Mum is special and deserves a day when she is spoilt through and through. I had this glittery, shimmering gold like cake in mind for a very long time and I feel this is just the cake for Mother’s Day.

So my love affair with mud cakes continues. They are just brilliant to turn into layer cakes especially for celebrations. This is a Caramel Mud Cake with an Orange Swiss Meringue buttercream and a chocolate ganache to top off. The cake is very simple to make with even layers so I didn’t even have to slice off and adjust. The golden border are just regular sprinkles (called 100s and 1000s in Australia) painted with a mix of edible glitter and a teeny bit of alcohol. It’s actually quite simple though doesn’t seem like it. Watch this video. The flowers on top are my latest obsession with gum paste. I’ve been having so much fun making flowers in different colours and varieties to go on top of my desserts. The other decorations are Hershey’s kisses and bay leaves with a touch of gold.

Do you celebrate Mother’s day? What are your plans for this special occasion? We celebrated Mother’s Day at the twins school today and I returned home totally spoilt and emotional. I need to do a completely separate post on that one. Wishing you and yours a beautiful Mother’s day.

White And Gold Cake
Makes a 3 layered 6 inch round cake

Caramel Mud Cake (adapted from Taste.com)

200 g butter, cubed
200 g white chocolate (Nestle brand), chopped
200 g (1 cup, firmly packed) dark brown sugar
180ml (3/4 cup) hot water
1 tablespoon golden syrup (or honey)
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 eggs, at room temperature
150 g (1 cup) plain flour
150 g (1 cup) self-raising flour

1 cup sprinkles (lighter colours are better)
edible glitter
fresh, edible or gum paste flowers

Orange Swiss Meringue Buttercream
4 egg whites
1 cup castor sugar
300 g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tbsp finely grated orange zest
2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice or 1 tbsp orange liquor (like Grand Marnier)

Chocolate Ganache
80 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1/4 cup heavy cream

To make the Caramel Mud cake: Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Grease and line the bases of 3 , 6 inch pans with baking paper.

Place butter, chocolate, sugar, water, golden syrup and vanilla essence in a heavy-based saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat with a wooden spoon for 5 mins or until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Set aside for 20 mins to cool.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift combined flours over chocolate mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.

Divide mixture evenly between the prepared pans and bake in preheated oven for 20-30 mins or until a skewer comes out almost clean. Stand cakes for 20 mins before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

To make the Orange Buttercream : Place the egg whites and sugar in a large bowl that is placed over a saucepan of simmering water (over low heat), and whisk continuously, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the bottom of the bowl is warm to touch

Remove the bowl from the heat and whip on high speed until meringue holds stiff peaks and looks glossy. The bowl should have completely cooled by now.
Add the butter, 2 tablespoon at a time, until thick and fluffy. If it begins to look curdled, continue to whip until it comes back together, before adding in remaining butter.

When the buttercream has come together, add the orange juice and orange zest and whip again until blended.

To make the Chocolate Ganache Place chocolate pieces in a small bowl. Heat heavy cream on medium high until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and immediately pour cream over chocolate and stir until completely mixed and glossy. Alternatively, the chocolate and cream can be heated in short bursts together in the microwave. Let cool before glazing the cake

To assemble : Place a layer of caramel mud cake on a plate or cake stand. Dollop 1/2 cup of orange buttercream and spread out with an offset spatula.
Place the second layer and repeat the same process.
Cover with the third layer. Frost the outside (top and sides) with orange buttercream.
Stick the sprinkles around the cake forming a border. I did not use a piping gel as the sprinkles easily stuck to the buttercream. Place the cake into the fridge for 15 minutes.
Make the chocolate ganache 5 minutes before you take the cake out from the fridge. Once the ganche is cool, but still flowing freely when you lift it with a spoon, spoon it onto the cake slowly. Be gentle on the edges to create the drippy effect.
Let the ganache set properly before pinting with gold and decorating with flowers, candies and decorations.

Rosewater And Poppy Seed Cake

2|05|2016

You guys! I never thought you would love my experiments so much. When I make something I picture how much me, my family and friends would love to eat it. There are no other benchmarks for me. I barely look at trends, I don’t care a hoot for what my traffic stats should look like or what makes a post do well. I read about these things everywhere but honestly, I don’t understand much. It’s just me and my craft. And on the other side it is you, my dear readers. I like to do things that make you happy or things that will enable you to make someone else happy. So many of you have asked for the recipe of this rosewater and poppy seed cake. It came as a surprise to me. So I’ll keep it short and sweet and jump straight to the cake.

The cake has a great texture just as you would expect from a poppy seed cake. The rosewater is what you taste. I’ve used a little syrup to moisten the cake and make the cake more fragrant.In between the layers and outside is a lemon infused buttercream. Lastly, on the top is a white chocolate ganache in that shocking pink colour. So much happening in the cake but it tastes beautiful.

It’s meant to be a Mother’s day cake so please go ahead and decorate it with the prettiest roses you can find. Try and use flowers that have not been sprayed with insecticides or fungicides. If you can’t find any, make sure to read this post on decorating with flowers.

Rosewater And Poppy Seed Cake
Makes a 3-layered 6 inch round cake

4 tbsp poppy seed
200 g unsalted butter, melted, plus a little extra for greasing
225 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 large eggs, at room temperature
225 g castor sugar
1 tbsp rosewater

For the rosewater syrup
1/2 cup water
4 tbsp castor sugar
1 tbsp rosewater

For the Lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream
4 egg whites
1 cup castor sugar
300 g unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed
1 tsp lemon zest
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1-2 drops, pink food coloring (optional)

For the white chocolate ganache
100 g white chocolate, roughly chopped
3 tbsp heavy cream
3-4 drops pink food colour

To make the cake layers: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C ( 160 degrees C for fan forced ovens). Roast the poppy seed on a pan over low heat for 2 mins. Grease and line the base of 3 round (6 inch) pans with baking paper.

Mix together the flour and baking powder, then set aside. Put the eggs and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Using electric beaters, whisk until thick, pale and foamy. Pour in the cooled butter and rosewater and briefly whisk again. Sift in the flour mix, add poppy seeds then, using a large metal spoon, carefully fold into the cake mixture until even. Pour the mixture into the tins and bake for 15 mins or until golden and springy to the touch. Cool in the tins for 10 mins, then transfer to a wire rack.

To make the rose syrup : Add sugar to a small saucepan. Pour in water and stir.
With the heat on medium, bring the sugar and water to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. The sugar will dissolve while the water boils.
Turn off the heat and let cool. When sugar syrup has cooled, add the rosewater.

To make the Lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream: Place the egg whites and sugar in a large bowl that is placed over a saucepan of simmering water (over low heat), and whisk continuously, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the bottom of the bowl is warm to touch

To make the pink white chocolate ganache: Heat the white chocolate and heavy cream over low heat in a small saucepan. When cream just reaches boiling point, remove from heat and leave aside. Stir with a spoon to make a smooth mix. Add the food colour and stir to blend.

To assemble: Once the cake layers are slightly cool, brush each layer generously with rosewater syrup.
On a cake plate or stand, spread a little buttercream in the centre and place one layer of the cake (so that the cake does not move about while frosting). Spread about 1/2 a cup of lemon swiss meringue buttercream. Place the second layer. Repeat. Place the last layer upside down (so you get a flat top). Spread buttercream on the top and sides. If you want to make it look like a naked cake, a thin layer of frosting is good enough.
Stick the cake into the refrigerator for 15-20 mins.
Make the white chocolate ganache 5 minutes before you take the cake out from the fridge.Once the ganche is cool, but still flowing freely when you lift it with a spoon, spoon it onto the cake slowly. Be gentle on the edges to create the drippy effect.
Decorate with crushed meringues, silver cashous and flowers.

Layered Chocolate Mud Cake for Mother’s Day

30|04|2016

I started April with a bang but somehow things turned out otherwise. I had many plans for the school holidays mostly being able to balance out family time and blogging and not compromising on either. This is something I have been striving to achieve in the last 3 years and have still not perfected. The first week went great! Pies, picnics and play dates. Come second week and I was nursing a sore tooth that went from bad to worse. It became so painful that I couldn’t sleep at night, my face swelled up on the right side and I couldn’t even open my mouth to eat. I have never felt so frustrated. With two young hyper active kids at home and impending deadlines, the least you want to do is become immobile. Mother’s day is my favourite holiday and I had a list of recipes to test out. This year I haven’t made many layer cakes so I had reserved them for April to post before Mother’s day. To make things worse, my laptop started warning me every now and them of low disc space. I rearranged files with no avail. In my crazy state of mind, I must have done something and the next day I was unable to locate hundreds of files. So much chaos! Though I did manage to get back many of them, the rest had just vanished into thin air. Those of you who follow me on Instagram would have seen the Rosewater and Poppy Seed Cake. I couldn’t find the edited images so I’ll have to work on them again. Meanwhile I thought I’ll share this Chocolate Mud Layer Cake with you.

This is a truely impressive cake! It tastes so amazing because it is a dark chocolate mud cake which is dense and rich (not heavy though) and is one of the simplest layer cakes to make. Why? Because mud cakes rise evenly and don’t crumb a lot, they are easy to frost.I frosted the layers in between with a raspberry butercream and the outside with a milk chocolate fudge frosting. The fudge frosting is a big favourite of mine! It never dissapoints. Because the layers are rich, I put a very thin coating of the milk chocolate buttercream, almost like a naked cake. The drippy ganache is white chocolate tinted pink and I’ve decorated it with home grown edible flowers. Oh yes, these flowers have been Autumn’s best gift to me. I bought 15 pots of them in different shades and sizes and they are such a happy sight when I look outside. I did some research before I bought them and travelled 2 hours to get them. But they are a joy to have. especially when you don’t have to depend on the ready punnets at the farmers’ markets.

Let me warn you right away that you will probably be bombarded with cake posts this week. I have so much to share with you!

Layered Chocolate Mud Cake
Makes a 3 layered 6 inch round cake

200 g dark chocolate, chopped
250g unsalted butter, chopped
1 tbs instant coffee
100ml milk
1 2/3 cups (250g) self-raising flour
40 g Dutch processed cocoa
250 g castor sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
150 g sour cream
Buttercream, to frost
edible flowers, to decorate

For the raspberry buttercream
120 g unsalted butter, softened
3 cups, icing sugar
1/4 cup raspberry jam
milk (optional)
1-2 drops pink food colouring, if desired

For the milk chocolate fudge frosting
120 gms unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup (150 gms) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
11/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the white chocolate ganache
100 g white chocolate, roughly chopped
3 tbsp heavy cream
1-2 drops pink food colour

To make the chocolate Mud Layer cake: Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Grease and line 3, 6 inch pans with baking paper.

Place the chocolate, butter, coffee and milk in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water) and stir until smooth and melted. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely.

Sift flour and cocoa powder into a bowl, then add sugar. Fold into the chocolate mixture with eggs, vanilla extract and sour cream.

Divide the batter in between the cake pan and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes 0r until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with some moist crumbs sticking to it but no raw cake batter. Set aside to cool completely in the pan. Once cooled completely, turn them onto a wire rack.

To make the raspberry buttercream: Place butter and jam in a mixing bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Cream butter and jam until well incorporated, about 2 minutes.
Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time until you reach desired consistency. If frosting gets too thick you can add a little milk to thin it out. Add food colouring if desired.

To make the milk chocolate frosting : Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy(about 1 min). Add the sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy(about 2 min). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the chocolate and beat on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth and glossy (about 2-3 min).

To make the white chocolate ganache : Heat the white chocolate and heavy cream over low heat in a small saucepan. When cream just reaches boiling point, remove from heat and leave aside. Stir with a spoon to make a smooth mix. Add the food colour and stir to blend.

To assemble: Place a layer of chocolate mud cake on a plate or cake stand. Dollop 1/2 cup of raspberry buttercream and spread out with an offset spatula. Try to stay 1/2 inch away from the edges as the buttercream would spread once covered with another layer. We don’t want it to stick out from the sides.
Place the second layer and repeat the same process.
Cover with the third layer. Frost the outside (top and sides) with milk chocolate buttercream. Stick the cake into the fridge for 15 minutes.
Make the white chocolate ganache 5 minutes before you take the cake out from the fridge.Once the ganche is cool, but still flowing freely when you lift it with a spoon, spoon it onto the cake slowly. Be gentle on the edges to create the drippy effect.
Let the ganache set properly before decorating with flowers.