Blueberry Coffee Cake

Ingredients:-

1. Blueberries - 1 Cup
2. All Purpose Flour/Maida - 2 Cups + 1 tsp
3. Baking powder - 1 tsp
4. Baking soda - ½tsp
5. Softened Butter - ½ Cup 
6. Pure Vanilla Extract - 1tsp
7. Sugar - 1½ Cup
8. Milk - ½ Cup 
9. Luke Warm Water - ¼ to ½ Cup(if batter is too thick)

How I made It:-

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 Degree F 
• Grease and flour a nine inch round cake pan. Set aside
• Wash blueberries two-three times in water. Pat dry with a paper towel. 
• Toss blueberries and a spoon of flour. Set aside till cake batter is ready. 
• Sift together all purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda or mix all the three very well in a wide bowl using a wire whisk.
• Add butter in another bowl, using a hand/electric mixer beat butter until creamy. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy
• Add eggs one at a time and beat well until it turns lemon yellow color and creamy. 
• Scrape of the edges, add in the vanilla essence and run the mixer in low speed. 
• With mixer in low speed add flour and milk alternatively till everything is combined(or use a spatula to fold in both)  
• If the batter is too thick, pour warm water little by little and fold in again gently.  
• Fold in the blueberries gently. Pour the batter into the greased cake pan. Pat them on the flour to get rid of any air bubbles

• Spread couple of blueberries on top if desired but press them in a bit so that the top berries do not give burn taste.
• Bake them for 40-45 mins or until a tooth pick/sharp knife inserted comes out clean.
• Take out of the oven and let it cool completely.
• Slice them and serve warm or cold with Coffee/Tea

                         

Mango Muffins

Ingredients:-

1. Fresh Mango Pureed or Kesar Mango Pulp - 3 cup
2. All purpose flour/Maida - 3 Cups
3. Baking Soda -¾tsp
4. Baking powder - 1 tsp
5. Eggs -2
6. Butter - ½ cup
7. Sugar - 1½ cup

Preparation Method:-

• Pre-heat the oven in 350 Degree F. Line the muffin tray with liners and set aside.
• Sift together all purpose flour, baking soda and baking powder or add them to a wide bowl and whisk well to combine.
• Cream butter and sugar beating with a hand mixer/electric mixer for two-three minutes in medium speed.
• Add in eggs and beat in medium speed till creamy.
• Add in the flour mixture and mango puree little by little alternatly till everything is combined
• Pour the batter to the muffin liners till 3/4th cup.
• Bake for around 40-45 mins or till a sharp knife/cake tester inserted comes out clean.
• Take out of the oven and let it cool
• Serve with coffee/tea/breakfast/snack or whenever you crave for one :) 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins for Baking Partners # 3 and Halloween

Theme for this month's Baking Partner's Challenge was Muffins or Cupcakes with Pumpkin as star ingredient. Reshmi of Easy Cook, Priya of Cook Like Priya and Julie of Erivum Puliyumm suggested three recipes of muffins and cupcakes. I baked Pumpkin chocolate chips Muffin suggested by Reshmi from Joy of baking. They tasted way too good, very soft, moist and delicious. Kids here loved it. Try out these cupcakes to make the Halloween fun filled and interesting for your kids :-)

Ingredients Used:-

1. 1½ cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
2. 1 teaspoon baking soda
3. 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4. ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
5. ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
6. ¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
7. ½ teaspoon salt
8. ½ cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
9. 1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
10. 2 large eggs
11. 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
12. ¾ cup (180 ml) solid packed, canned pumpkin puree
13. 1 cup (175 grams) semisweet chocolate chips

How I made It:-

• Preheat oven to 350 degree F (177 degrees C).
• Place rack in the middle of the oven. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or spray each cup with a non stick vegetable spray.
• In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, ground spices, and salt.
• In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. 
• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and pumpkin puree, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips.
• Fill the muffin cups evenly with the batter using two spoons or an ice cream scoop. Place in the oven and bake for about 18 - 20 minutes, or until firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the muffins comes out clean. 
• Take out and place on a wire rack to cool.
• Makes 12 regular-sized muffins.

Note: The batter can be baked in a 9-inch (23 cm) loaf pan. Butter or spray the loaf pan with a non stick vegetable spray. Bake the loaf in a 350 degree F (177 degree C) oven for about 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Reine de Saba avec Glaçage au Chocolat: Chocolate Almond Cake ~ Baking Partners # 1

We the Baking Partners along with you all celebrates the 100th birthday of Julia Child with her Wonderful Cake 'Reine de Saba avec Glaçage au Chocolat' or in simple words 'Chocolate Almond Cake' as a tribute to this Culinary legend. I truly believe in her quote's "You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces -- just good food from fresh ingredients". She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef.

I'm really happy and thankful to Swathi for choosing this awesome cake as our first assignment which I absolutely loved making and my family enjoyed every tiny bit of it. To be frank when I saw the recipe header it did scare me but when I went through the recipe thoroughly along with Swathi's Inputs and notes I felt there is nothing that I've to scratch my head. When I started making it I felt it is very simple and straight forward process, as for every bake you just have to pay proper attention. But I must thank all the wonderful ladies in our baking group who poured in with the suggestions and inputs after their bakes which made it more easier for many of us. Thanks a bunch girls, you guys are truly amazing.

Coming back to this cake, I felt its more fugdy kind, dense and moist. Very less flour is used in this cake and the almond meal(powdered/pulverized almond) added give it a rich texture which can be slurped even without any Icing.  The chocolate-butter Icing complimented the cake very well, I was delighted to see such a dense cake baked without using any enhancing agents like Baking Soda/baking powder. But just a word of caution at the end the calorie count in this cake may be high as it uses some generous amount of butter, but its worth every tiny bite. Now moving on to the recipe, though my final decoration is not great, it tasted fabulous!!!!!.

Ingredients Used for an 8" Cake Pan:-

• Semi Sweet Chocolate - 4 ounce or 4 squares or113.4 grams 
• Softened Butter - ¼  lb or 1 stick softened butter or 113g
• Granulated Sugar - 2/3 cup/ 134g (add  ¼ cup mmore if you are on a sweeter side)  
• Eggs - 3(Yolks and White Separated)
• Pinch of salt
• Almond extract  - ½ tsp. 
• Cake flour - ½ cup or 57g(scooped and leveled, turned into a sifter)
• Granulated sugar -  1 tbsp
• 1/3 cup/ 65g pulverized  (ground) almonds(To pulverize almonds grind together Blanched or slivered Almonds with 1 tbsp of sugar)

Pulverized Almonds

Chocolate Icing:-

• Semisweet Baking Chocolate -  2 Oz(2 squares)/ 56.7 g 
• Rum or Coffee - 2 tbsp 
• Unsalted butter - 5 to 6 tbsp

Directions:-

• Preheat oven to 350F/ 180 C. Butter and flour the cake pan nd set aside.
• Set the chocolate and rum or coffee in a small pan, cover and place (off heat-but boiling hot) in a larger pan of almost simmering water; let melt while you proceed with the recipe. 
• Measure out the rest of the ingredients and keep handy.
• Cream the butter and sugar together for several minutes until they form a pale yellow, fluffy mixture. Beat in the egg yolks until well blended.
• Beat the egg whites and salt in a separate bowl until soft peaks are formed (gradually increase the speed of your mixer and for about 5 minutes); sprinkle on the sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed (it should have peaks not deflate ones).

                       

• With a rubber spatula, blend the melted chocolate into the butter and sugar mixture, then stir in the ground almonds, and almond extract. Immediately stir in one-fourth ( ¼) of the beaten egg whites to lighten the batter. 

• Delicately fold in a third  (1/3rd) of the remaining whites and when partially blended, sift on one-third  ( 1/3rd) of the flour and continue folding. Alternate rapidly with more egg whites and more flour until all egg whites and flour are incorporated
• Turn the batter into the cake pan, pushing the batter up to its rim with a rubber spatula. Bake in middle level of preheated oven for 25minutes. Cake is done when it has puffed, and 2 1/2 to 3 inches around the circumference are set so that a needle plunged  into that area comes out clean; the center should move slightly if the pan is shaken, and a needle comes out oily
• Allow cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan, and reverse cake on the rack. Allow it to cool for an hour or two, it must be thoroughly cold if it is to be iced.

• To serve, use the chocolate-butter icing recipe below, and then press a design of almonds over the icing.

How to make Icing:-

• Put a bowl filled with a tray of ice cubes and water to cover them and set aside.
• Place the chocolate and rum or coffee in a small pan, cover, and set in a larger pan of almost simmering water(heat off-but boiled water).  
• Remove pans from heat and let chocolate melt for 5 minutes or so, until perfectly smooth. Lift chocolate pan out of the hot water, and beat in the butter a tablespoon at a time. Then beat over the ice and water until chocolate mixture has cooled to spreading consistency. At once spread it over your cake with spatula or knife.
• Garnish with slivered almonds or according to your choice.

Some important Tips and Notes:-

*   Substitution for cake flour:- Add 1 tablespoon of corn flour/corn starch and then fill the rest of cup with all purpose flour(I did this instead of using cake flour)
** Reserve ¼ cup or more slivered almonds for decoration 
*** The cake is done when a cake tester inserted at the sides comes out clean where as when inserted in the center comes out with few moist crumbs.
*** Check out for the cake from 18 minutes as the baking time can vary according to different oven settings.

Chocolate Picnic Cake

This is a Hershey's recipe which I jotted down sometime back and make it often since this is a simple and ezee to make chocolate cake. I made this on my hubby's birthday three months back as well, with a very simple chocolate frosting but didn't get a chance to click pictures. Made this yummy Dark Chocolate picnic cake again on this Father's day, I know there are many sweets/desserts that can be made on this particular day but whenever I plan to do something on my hubby's birthday or special occasions my son comes up with his idea and say 'Amma, how about a chocolate cake?? Acha will love it ".  So again I baked this cake, dad and son's favorite being chocolate I went again for a chocolate cake.

My husband had already booked tickets for an Air Show held here in Baltimore by US Air Force team Blue Angles, but it was nothing planned or related to Father's day. It was more like a picnic fun, we carried some food and stuffs, laid a blanket under the tree, sat there and watched the Air Show, it was really a different experience, kids - especially our son enjoyed it a lot. We took this 'Picnic Cake' along with us for the Air Show, kids and my husband really loved it. Then I understood why this is called a 'Picnic cake', this is one of the best cakes than can travel with you for picnics, potluck parties and all the fun activities. A very light, moist chocolate cake that can be served as it is, or frost with any choco or whip cream frosting to make it a Birthday cake or serve it as a dessert with a generous gallop of vanilla Ice-Cream. Make this at home today and Enjoy Ezee baking :-)

Ingredients Used :-

1. All purpose Flour/Maida - 2 Cups
2. Baking Soda - 2 tsp
3. Salt a pinch
4. Sugar - 1 Cup
5. Boiling Water - 1 cup
6. Butter - ¼ cup
7. Semi Sweet  Chocolate chips - 1 Cup
8. Sour Cream -  ½ cup
9. Eggs - 2 
10. Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Preparation Method:-

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 Degree F.  Grease a baking pan and set aside.
• Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and set aside.
• Put Chocolate chips and butter in a large wide bowl, pour the boiling water on top little by little stirring continuously with a wire whisk till the chocolate chips and butter is fully melted. Set aside to cool.
• Put the sour cream in another bowl, stir with a spoon or whisk to remove the lumps if any.
• Now add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla extract and sugar to the chocolate mix and use a whisk to mix them thoroughly. You can use a hand mixer or electric mixture to do the process as well.
• Add the sifted flour mix, little by little to the wet mix, stirring them continuously until everything is blended well.
• Pour to the prepared baking pan(batter should be half the pan, don't pour pan-full of batter) and bake for 30 -40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

Linking this to Swathi's Favorite Cake Recipes Event, Sara's Event Cooking with Love Series hosted at Torviewtoronto, Radhika's I Love Baking #5 and Let's Cook #16 ~ Kids Special

Chocolate Mocha Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting - A Wedding Anniversary Cake

Yet another Wedding Anniversary, five years of togetherness - Yes we have been wedded for five years. Seems like it was just yesterday, It is so wonderful when you lay back and think of the days passed by. Life takes new turn every now and then some expected and a lot unexpected. 'Sree' as I call him though a Keralite is a typical 'Mumbain' says my cousin sister because of the way he speaks Malayalam ;-)

Sree- brought up in Mumbai, lived in USA for quite long time is a typical street smart professional and myself  a simple homely girl who do not give up in any challenges of life. I'm a clean freak who likes to see things well arranged neat and tidy, he- like a school boy who just throws his backpack, shoes and stuffs when he is back from work and often vanishes from home for which ever game he is called for. I cannot bear much loud noise but the tele volume for the football games at our home is louder than in a musical concert auditorium. Sounds funny right??? Yes we are total different blend in many perspective buttttt just the same when we wind up our thoughts and suggestions. My MIL says - I cannot support 'one' of you since you both share the same logic in two different ways'. And I feel may be we are not perfect individual on our own but yea we had been perfect for each other :-)

I'm thankful to myself for felling in love with the language 'Hindi' right from my school and preferred taking the same as second language in my 12th and Bachelors. Thanks to all those Hindi soaps and movies as well which helped me talk this language very fluently or else to stand up with him would have been really tough at the initial days of our marriage. When we were newly wed I told him once to make it a habit to speak only Malayalam at home and he had his eyebrows up as he thought why would he need to make it a practice since I was pretty much comfortable speaking Hindi. He burst into laugh when I said 'I think it would be easy for me to teach you Malayalam rather than teaching my granny Hindi now in her 70's '. And yes, he learned talking in Malayalam quite well and insist our son to speak our language at home. As said my grand-moms were really happy on our first India trip since they were able to communicate with him so well, my grandma just love to talk a lot and he was/is the best companion for her.

I know I'm making it quite boring and I know I am not good in write ups so let me come back to this cake recipe. This is a very basic mocha-chocolate cake with simple whipped cream frosting. I used some left over chocolate ganache instead of chocolate/cocoa powder since I wanted to finish them off. I made an 8 inch round cake and a small round cake just to give a wedding cake look (even though it do not reallyyyyy look like one ;-) ) I was planning to make it a fondant cake but then after a lot of reading I felt the best frosting for fondant cake is butter cream frosting and  fondant remains perfect on it(that is just my understanding). Nothing against butter cream frosting but I always feel it very heavy compared to whipped cream or cream cheese frosting and I've seen my kids and husband not really enjoying them when we go to many birthday parties while eating all those theme cakes which normally uses butter cream frosting. So I dropped the plan of making the fondant cake and end up making this lovely mocha cake. So let me put up this recipe for you all, bake it for any festive. Enjoy!!!!!!

Mocha Chocolate Cake:-

Ingredients Used:-

1. All purpose flour - 1 1/4 cups
2. Baking powder - 1 tbsp
3. Sugar - 1 cup
4. Eggs  - 3
5. Left Over Chocolate Ganache - ½ cup(You can use 3 tbsp cocoa powder or melt 1/4 or more chocolate chips or any choc in MW and use it as well).
6. Instant Coffee Powder - 2 tsp(I used Nescafe Sunrise)
7. Softened Butter - ½ cup
8. Water - ½cup 
9. Walnut chopped - ½ cup(optional, I used them to decorate the sides of the cake. u can use slivered almonds or anything of ur choice)

Whipped Cream Frosting

1. Heavy whipping Cream - 1½ cups
2. Icing Sugar - ½ cup
3. Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Preparation Method:-

Whip Cream Frosting:- 

• The bowl in which you are going to whip the cream should be clean and dry. Refrigerate the bowl and whisk for 30 minutes before using if possible.
• Place the whipping cream, vanilla essence in the bowl and beat till the cream start to thicken. Add the sugar little by little and beat till they are thick and stiff peaks form. Cover with a cling wrap and chill till they are ready to use.

Cake Preparation and Assembling:-

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 Degree Fahrenheit. Grease an 8 inch round baking pan and another small round baking pan and set aside(Any size lesser than 6 inch should be fine, I used a smaller one though).
• Microwave water to hot and add the instant coffee powder. Stir well to dissolve the powder fully.Set aside to cool completely.
• Sift together flour and baking powder and set aside.
• In a wide bowl add the sugar and butter and beat them from low to medium speed till they become creamy. 
• Add eggs one by one and beat them in medium speed to creamy. Add the coffee and chocolate ganache(or melted chocolate) and beat just for a while to blend everything well and mix evenly.
• Add the sifted flour little by little and beat in low speed till everything is blended well and mixed without any lumps(Add some milk at room temperature if the batter is too thick).
• Pour the batter to the greased pans and gently pat the pan on the counter top to remove air bubbles formed if any.
• Bake it for 45- 50 minutes or until a cake tester or sharp knife inserted comes out clean.
• Take out and let it cool completely. With a serrated knife cut off the top bulged out part carefully from both cakes to get a perfect flat leveled cake to make frosting easy. 
• Place the big cake on the bottom and spread the frosting on top and sides. Top up with the small cake and spread the frosting on its top and sides as well. 
• Decorate them as you wish, I used the open star #16 tip to make those small decoration and I applied chopped walnuts on the sides ;-)  I'm not into much cake decoration yet :)

Sending this to Chocolate Fest event hosted by Sravani @ Srav's Culinary Concepts, ABC Series: Desserts event hosted by Ramya @ Ramya's Recipe and since I used leftover Ganache in this I'm sending this to Cooking with Leftovers hosted by Veena @ Veg Junction 

Also sending this to Amy's Food Corner for her Decorating Challenge # 3 - Valentine's Day Ideas, Sweet Luv @ Zesty Palette

Christmas Fruit Cake/Kerala Plum Cake

At-last that day came, you meant to ask me which day? That is when I got some Rum....
Hey please don't think it the other way, I don't drink. I wanted to make this Christmas cake by soaking dry fruits in Brandy/Rum/Wine - the traditional way and I have been pleading my hubby to get some from almost two weeks. I do drive and get grocery's but I felt awkward to step into a liquor store even though no body around here 'really care' about it. It is 'Happy Holidays' every where around but my hubby had been very busy with his work. Thankfully he got me some Rum a day before Christmas and I made this Cake on Christmas morning by soaking dry fruits for around 12-16 hours.

                                           

You may avoid soaking them in liquor to make it liquor free, the taste may vary though but I assure you - the cake will not go wrong. I had made the same cake - liquor free version for last Christmas season and it had come out good too. This Christmas I made this fruit cake the traditional way, you can soak the fruits for couple of days more. For me I don't need any particular season to bake it, we enjoy them any time as teatime snack as well but of Course 'Christmas' time is the best to bake them as well. A hot cup of masala Chai and a piece or two(many times it won't stop in 2 pieces ha ha) of this plum cake is perfect for my hubby. I have already got the order to bake some more from him as he says 'Christmas time you should have baked at-least  4' as I baked 2 of them and took one for the X'mas party at our friend's place. So Enjoy baking  'Kerala Plum Cake/Christmas Fruit Cake'.

Ingredients:-

1. All purpose flour - 2 cups + 3 tbsp
2. Powdered sugar - 2 cups
3. Baking powder - 2 tsp
4. Salt a pinch
5. Pumpkin Pie Spice - 1 tsp(It contains Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger, Allspice, you can grind a small piece of cinnamon, 6 cloves, 1 nutmeg and use it as well)
6. Butter at room temperature - 1 cup
7. Egg - 3
8. Vanilla Essence
9. Brandy/Rum/wine- 1/2 cup
10. Dry Fruit s- 1 1/2 to 2 cups(I used chopped dates, tutti fruity, sliced almonds)
11. Black raisins - 1/4 cup
12. Glazed Cherries/Maraschino cherries few chopped(preferably glazed cherries, I used maraschino since I didn't have glazed one's) - 1/4 cup
13. Chopped cashews - 1/4 cup
14. Grated orange peel - 1 tsp(I microwaved it for 1 minute to get a dry peel, ie optional)
15. Freshly squeezed Orange Juice - 1 cup
16. Lemon Juice - 1 tsp
17. Sugar 1/4 cup
18. Water - 3/4 cup

Last two ingredients are for Black Color Sugar Caramel. This add dark color to this cake

Preparation Method:-

• Chop the dry fruits and soak them in Brandy/Wine/Rum along with raisins and cashews for 12 hours or more if possible
• To make the black caramel - Boil the water and keep. Heat up a thick bottom pan and add 1/4 cup sugar to it. Keep stirring on med-high heat. First they start sticking, then they caramelize to brown sauce and then start getting black. When they turn black add boiling water and stir well and switch off the stove. Stir well till the black caramel mix evenly with water and set aside. 
• Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
• Squeeze out orange juice from 2-3 oranges and strain. You need around 1 cup of juice. Set aside.

                         

• In a large bowl, add the butter and powdered sugar till creamy . 
• Separate the egg yolks and whites. Beat the egg yolks well till they turn lemon yellow and creamy.
• Add this to the butter-sugar mix and beat well to blend.

                             

•  Add the sifted flour to the above batter little by little and mix well.
• Beat the egg white till fluffy, do not need to whip the egg whites. Fold in this to the above batter with a spatula or spoon gently.
• Pour in the caramel, orange juice, vanilla extract, orange peel, pumpkin pie spice, chopped cherries and fold in everything very gently with a spatula.

  

• Toss the soaked dry fruits with 3 tbsp all purpose flour so that they do not sink in the bottom of the batter. Add it to the above prepared batter and fold in gently and evenly.

   

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 Degree Farenheit.
• Grease two 8" cake pans with butter or cooking spray. Pour the batter into the pan and pat the pan on the kitchen counter top slightly two three times to remove air bubbles formed if any.
• Bake it for 45-50 minutes or until a sharp knife or cake tester inserted comes out clean. Enjoy!!!

Note: - You can sprinkle little bit of powdered sugar before you serve if desired only. Adjust the sweetness according to the sweetness you need.

Sending this Christmas Delicacy Event hosted by Julie @ Erivum Puliyum.

And Jingle All The Way Event hosted by Kavi @ Edible Entertainment

Also sending this to Sinful Delights hosted by Vardhini @ Zesty Palette

And sending this to ABC Series: Cakes for Christmas Event hosted by Ramya @ Ramya's Recipe

and off this go to Bake Fest #2 hosted by Sangeetha Vijay @ Spicy Treats

Also to Let's Bake and Be Merry hosted by Radhika @ Tickling Palates

and also to Holiday Baking hosted by Sravani @ Srav's Culinary Concepts