Weekend shopping list

weekend shopping list:

whipping cream - arife la moulde
morde chocolate - arife la moule
castor sugar there?

rest all in nilgiris

butter
fresh cream
castor sugar
eggs - 6
yoghurt
milk
instant coffee powder

next week's baking

marble cakes for neighbours

Friday - mini cupcakes
Saturday - frost mini cupcakes
Sunday - cashew star cookies for Ani
Monday - Prabhakaran's cake Marble cake
Wednesday - Upstairs cake Eggless Marble cake
Friday - double chocolate cake from veena's art of cakes
Saturday ganache filling and frosting the cakes
Sunday make teddy bear toppers and take photos

Cashew star cookies for Ani

Butter – 200 gms
Caster Sugar – 2/3 cup
Egg – 2 or Milk 80 ml
All-purpose flour – 2 cup
Cornflour – 1 1/2 cup
Baking powder – 1 teaspoon
Salt – 1 teaspoon
Milk powder – 6 tablespoons
Cashews – 120 gms
Granulated sugar – 6 tablespoons
Vanilla extract – 2 teaspoon
Lemon zest – 1 teaspoon ( Optional)

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C. Process cashews and granulated sugar in your small jar food processor in pulse mode for one second at a time, for about 10 times until the cashew gets powdered and does not leak any oil.
2. Beat butter till light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until mixed well
3. Add the caster sugar and beat on medium high speed for about 3 to 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
4. Sift together flour, cornflour, salt, baking powder and milk powder together. Whisk together the cashew powder.
5. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat just until combined. Do not over beat. If dough is too soft, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate until it firms up a bit.
6. Roll out the dough to about 1 cm thick
7. Cut into star shapes with the biscuit cutter
8. These are soft cookies and are not crispy. You could store them in refrigerators if you like to munch them crispy.

Eggless marble cake for Ram's family

Eggless marble cake

Bake in tube pan.

All purpose flour - 1 cups (I used maida)
Baking powder - 1/2 + 1/8 tsps
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Oil - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/4 + 1/8 cup + 3/4 tbsps, superfine or coarsely powdered, divided
Yogurt - 1/4 cup
Milk - 1/2 cup, luke warm
Apple cider vingar - 1/2 tbsp (or white vinegar or lemon juice)
Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp
Cocoa powder - 1/6 cup (dutch processed)
Hot water - 1/8 cup
Instant coffee powder - 1/2 tbsp
Almond extract - 1/8 tsp

Method
Preheat oven to 160 C and position a rack in the center of the oven. Grease the bundt pan thoroughly including the creases and flour it well and tap out the excess flour.
In a small bowl, add the hot water, instant coffee powder, cocoa powder and 2 tbsps sugar and mix till smooth with no lumps. Add almond extract and mix. Set aside to cool.
Add vinegar to luke warm milk and set aside till use. This is called buttermilk which is used for baking.
In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In large bowl, add the oil and superfine sugar and beat till the sugar is well combined. Add the yogurt, prepared buttermilk and vanilla extract and mix till combined.
Gradually add the flour in four additions and mix until just combined and smooth.
Transfer a little less than half of the cake batter to the cocoa mixture and mix with a spoon until smooth.
With the help of a large spoon, alternate scoops of the vanilla and chocolate batters into the pan. Take a chopstick and create a swirl all through the batters taking care not to touch the sides of the pan. Smooth the top lightly.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 55 mts till a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Check from 40 mts onwards. Cool on a wire cake rack for 10 mts and invert the cake onto the rack to cool completely.

Marble cake for Prabhakaran family

For Prabhakaran family:

To be baked in tube pan

Marble loaf

Unsalted butter – 85 gms, at room temperature
Caster sugar – 1/2 cup
Eggs – 2
Vanilla extract – 1/2 teaspoon
All-purpose flour – 1 cups plus 1 tablespoons, loosely packed
Baking powder – 1/2 + 1/8 teaspoons
Salt – 1/4 teaspoon
Milk – 1/4 cup, at room temperature
Dark Chocolate – 60 gms

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C. Butter and flour a 9 inch by 6 inch loaf pan. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. Chop the chocolate and melt in microwave for 40 seconds and stir until chocolate is fully melted. You can also use double boiler to melt the chocolate. Set aside to cool a bit.

3. Add butter into the bowl of your electric beater and beat until light and fluffy.

4. Add sugar to butter and beat on medium high speed for about 5 minutes until the mixture turns pale yellow, creamy and fluffy.

5. Add the eggs one by one and beat for about one minute after each addition of egg. Finally add vanilla extract and beat until it has been incorporated.

6. Add the flour mixture in 3 parts and milk in 2 parts, alternating both, starting and ending with flour mixture. Beat just until combined after each addition of flour and milk. Do not over beat after the addition of flour mixture.

7. Transfer half of the batter to another bowl. Add the melted and cooled dark chocolate into one half of the batter and fold it using rubber spatula until completely blended. Do not over beat.

8. Alternate both batters and spoon them into the prepared loaf pan. Keep adding layers until you finish using both the batters. Tap the pan few times to get rid of air bubbles at the bottom.

9. Use a skewer/toothpick to go zig zag just 4 to 6 times. You will be tempted to do more, but just control and not more than 6 times. Bake in pre-heated oven for about 60 minutes to 70 minutes until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes and invert pan to remove cake from pan and let cake cool completely to room temperature on the wire rack.

Double chocolate cake with strawberry filling!

Recipe references from Veena's art of cakes.



Saturday 4 AM for the cake

Double Chocolate chocolate Cake

Ingredients
225 grams (1 cup)  Butter
270 grams (1 1/3 cup)  Dark Brown Sugar
4 large eggs
240 grams (2 1/2 Cups) cake flour
40 grams (1/3 cup )coco powder
100 grams (3.5 oz) Dark or semi sweet Chocolate.
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda.
150 ml yogurt
2 tbsp of milk
1 to 2 tsp of Coffee dissolved in 2 tbsp of water
1/8 tsp salt.

Method

Have all your Ingredients ready at room temperature and prepare your pans.
Prepare two 6" pans and use cupcake pans for the remaining batter.
Melt the Chocolate and let cool. ( I place in the microwave safe bow and microwave for 1.30 minutes at intervals)
Mix your yogurt and milk until smooth without lumps.
Place your butter and sugar in a mixing bowl.
Mix until light and fluffy.
Add the yogurt mixture to the above butter and sugar mixture.
Next add the flour, vanilla, coffee and chocolate and mix until combined. It will be a fairly dense mixture.
Set this aside.
Place your eggs and a bit of salt in a clean mixing bowl with the whisk attachment.
Whisk until light fluffy and forms ribbons when you lift the whisk out..
Now add 1/4 of  the egg mixture to the cake batter, and mix in thoroughly.
Now add another 1/4 of the mixture but this time fold in gently.
Add the rest of the eggs mixture and fold again gently.

Cool and cling wrap and freeze

Thaw whipping cream overnight in the fridge

Whip cream to soft pinks, add 2 drops of electric pink color.

whip to stiff peaks

Make chocolate ganache 1:1 ratio
125 g dark chocolate
125 ml cream
add a tablespoon of butter and mix together
Cool to room temperature tehn refrigerate
microwave before using
Make sugar syrup
Torte the cake neatly.
Measure one inch height for each layer when you torte
Dam the lower cake layer with fresh cream.
Fill inside with strawberry filling
Top with a little whipped cream
Brush both sides of the cake with sugar syrup
Place top layer on strawberry filling
Brush again with syrup and frost with pink whipping cream.
Try for flat top and straight edges
Make a clean well defined border at the bottom
Allow the cake to refrigerate for 1 hour
Pour over the ganache
Pipe swirls over teh ganache
Top the swirls with mini oreos