The White Ramekins

food & photography

Zebra Bundt Cake

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How would you make up for not completing the promise you make to your little ones. This time it is my two little nieces who were here last week. Girls had been waiting all day long at home, to go to mall, fun rides in the evening, when I return from work. I had promised them that I’ll be at home an hour before my normal weekday timings.

But damn, I got struck up in office; some critical stuff creep up at work to be wrapped up before the weekend. And when I reached home, those chirpy little kids weren’t as lively as I last saw them in the morning before leaving. I felt sad to break their tiny hearts. So to make up for that, I took them for the fun rides, bought them toys and dresses and I could see that innocence getting revived at their faces.

By the time we reached home, they were half asleep, so I directly took them to bed and I myself was in the kitchen finding for the ingredients to bake this zebra bundt cake. I actually had thought of baking this cake before for the kids, but every time it just kept slipping off my mind. I was sure that kids will love it by the shear name and sight of it’s animal print. Because of the bundt pan, they shaped up like little pug marks of an animal. Next day, when kids got up, they were really excited to see that their uncle had something more to please them. They were actually  playing with the cake loaves. And I was happy to see that chirpiness back on their faces.

Ingredients

3 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
6 tbsp water
1 cup melted butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk

Instructions

  1. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt in a bowl and keep aside.
  2. In a separate bowl, add 1/2 cup sugar, cocoa powder and water and mix well.
  3. In another bowl, mix melted butter with sugar and beat with an electric mixer until blended.
  4. Add vanilla extract and mix well. Beat in eggs one at a time, until it becomes light and fluffy.
  5. Add flour in three additions alternating with milk, until well blended.
  6. Take two cups of above batter and add it to the cocoa mix and blend well.
  7. Butter the bundt pan and dust with flour. Remove the extra flour off the pan.
  8. Pour two spoonfuls of plain vanilla batter in the pan, then two spoonfuls of chocolate batter over the plain batter in pan. Keep repeating with both mixes until both the batters are finished.
  9. Bake in a 180 degree celcius preheated oven for about 50-60 minutes until the cake tester comes out clean.
  10. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes and then invert it on a wire rack and let cool completely.
  11. Cut thin slices with a sharp knife.

Cherry Cake…loaded with the stone fruit of season

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Fresh Cherry Cake

This week ended faster than it began. It started with a day off from work, followed by a midweek party at office, and summed up by a pizza night at a friend’s. I hardly got the chance to think about this week’s bake off. And then I resorted to my to-do list .

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Yes, I have a big back log of a number of recipes to try, which is ever increasing. One of those items, was this fresh cherry cake from BBC Good Food. It serves good for both as tea time snack and as a dessert topped with a dollop of whipped cream. This cake’s texture is somewhere between a custard and a pound cake, which it gets probably from the tender and juicy cherries. It is actually loaded with fruit.

Fresh Cherry Cake

From last two weeks, I had been looking at this wonderful seasonal stone fruit at my local fruits seller and finally it baited me to bake a recipe out of it. And I am glad not because one more recipe got off my to-do list, but it actually is a wonderful recipe.

Fresh Cherry Cake

I took this to my parent’s and it was very well enjoyed with afternoon tea. I also baked one Chocolate Buttermilk loaf, on a special request from my niece. Friday night she called me up to bake one chocolate cake for her. She drools over chocolate cake more than anything else. Recipe for that will follow sometime soon.

Fresh Cherry Cake

Ingredients

140 gm plain flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
50 gm powdered sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp milk
3 tbsp whipped cream
85 gm butter
350 gm ripe juicy cherries

For the topping

25 gm plain flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
25 gm powdered sugar
25 gm butter

Instructions

  1. Remove stalks and pit from cherries and keep them aside.
  2. For the topping, mix all ingredients in a bowl with your fingertips, so that it resembles bread crumb and keep aside.
  3. In a bowl, sift and mix all the dry ingredients for cake. Make a well in the center.
  4. Add melted butter, milk and egg and combine with a wooden spoon.
  5. Pour the batter into a 20 cm spring form round cake pan, greased and lined with paper. Level the batter using a spatula.
  6. Spread all the cherry halves onto batter and press them gently. Cover evenly with the topping and bake in a 180 degree Celsius preheated oven for about 40 minutes {original recipe says 35 minutes, but mine took longer}.
  7. Once done, let cake cool into the pan for around 10 minutes and then completely over a wire rack.

Tiramisu Verrines

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Zipping past through a very busy last week, between working late hours in office, friends visiting from US over the weekend and then rushing back home on Sunday afternoon, I somehow managed to take sometime for baking and feeding this constantly growing hunger of mine to write up this food journal. All I had to do was to timeline and prioritize the tasks. Tiramisu had been on my mind, ever since I made the luscious mascarpone at home. But I was waiting for some special moment, and what else it could be, while dear friends meeting up after almost two years. And the excitement was to meet their four months old lad. This was another reason to do this stuff well in advance, so that I could save on time to spend with the little one {did I mention that I love kids}.

I baked my ladyfingers and made Mascarpone two days in advance. And on Friday morning, before leaving for work, I whipped up the ingredients and layered them up in wide mouth water glasses and piled them up in refrigerator to set. I decided to make Tiramisu in verrines rather than a big round cake, all because the ladyfingers didn’t shape up like the ones you get from store {they were flatened a bit, as I didn’t have proper molds}. But trust me, they tasted nonetheless delicious. I was hesitating a bit in adding raw eggs to Mascarpone, so I used the store brought vanilla custard powder instead.

Lady Fingers/Savoiardi/Biscuit a la cuillere

Ingredients

3 eggs, separated
6 tbsp cornstarch
6 tbsp plain flour
80 gm superfine sugar

Instructions

  1. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with 3/4th of the sugar until firm peaks form.
  2. In separate bowl, beat egg yolks with remaining sugar until it resembles a pale yellow light mix.
  3. Mix the egg yolks to egg whites, very gently.
  4. Sift over the flour and cornstarch and fold in gently with a wooden spatula, without losing the airiness of the mix.
  5. Pour the mix in a piping bag with 2″ circular nozzle and pipe on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  6. Let stand for 2 minutes and bake for 15 minutes in a 180 degree C/350 degree F preheated oven.
  7. Remove them from the oven and let them cool a little before placing them on a cooling rack.

Tiramisu

Ingredients

200 gm mascarpone, at room temperature {homemade recipe here}
1 1/2 cup cold milk
4 tsp vanilla custard powder
80 gm powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup prepared strong dark coffee, at room temperature
3 tbsp whipped cream
unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting
10-15 ladyfingers {recipe above}

Instructions

  1. Mix the custard powder with milk and 1/3 of the sugar and simmer it for 2/3 minutes {follow package directions}, let cool and come to room temperature.
  2. In a separate bowl, beat the mascarpone with remaining sugar, vanilla essence and  custard till it becomes light and airy, almost doubles up in volume.
  3. Fold in whipped cream gently.
  4. Take one ladyfinger, quickly dip it in coffee and cover the bottom of glass with it. Add more cookies to glass, if desired.
  5. Spoon the mascarpone mix into the glass, dust over cocoa powder.
  6. Repeat the layers of ladyfingers soaked in coffee, mascarpone.
  7. Cover the glasses with cling wrap and let them sit in refrigerator for atleast 5 hours {preferably overnight}.
  8. Dust with more cocoa powder while serving.