The White Ramekins

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Chocolate Teacakes With Strawberry Ganache

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Chocolate Teacakes With Strawberry Ganache

Few days back, it was dreary from the intense cold and a couple of showers. Rains in winter makes it worse. And that needed to be fixed. It was the perfect time for a chocolate dessert. Brownies were playing on my mind, but then I had to bake something in my new mini bundt cake pan as well.

Chocolate Teacakes With Strawberry Ganache

So, I chose to bake these tiny beauties over tried and tested brownies. I served these mini chocolate cakes both with a strawberry and white chocolate ganache and a dark chocolate ganache, thinking kids would love white chocolate and strawberry ganache more.

Chocolate Teacakes With Strawberry Ganache

In fact, I myself had been in love with the beautiful pairing of white chocolate with strawberries, after I made this yummy mousse. And kids definitely preferred the white chocolate one.

Chocolate Teacakes With Strawberry Ganache

And adults enjoyed their cakes with dark chocolate ganache and a generous serving of vanilla ice cream. That’s another classic favorite of mine. The cakes were not the regular dense bundt cakes, but rather came out to be light and airy.

Chocolate Teacakes With Strawberry Ganache

Chocolate Teacakes With Strawberry Ganache

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup yogurt
150 gm unsalted butter, plus more for pan
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

200 ml low fat cream
300 gm fresh strawberries, hulled
150 gm white chocolate, chopped
pink color {optional}

Directions

  1. To make the cake, preheat the oven at 160 degree C. Butter two 12 cup mini bundt cake pans and keep aside.
  2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt and keep aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk and yogurt and keep aside.
  3. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar together, until butter is pale and creamy. Beat in eggs one by one, mixing well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract.
  4. Add flour mixture, alternating with milk mixture, ending with flour.
  5. Divide batter into greased pans and bake for about 25 – 30 minutes, or until cakes spring back when touched lightly on top. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes and then invert on to a wire rack, to let cool completely.
  6. To make the ganache, chop the strawberries finely and add to the cream. Let cream stand in fridge overnight.
  7. Heat the cream to bring it to boil. Pass the cream through a fine sieve into a bowl and press the strawberries gently to extract the maximum flavor into the cream, without letting the seeds pass through.
  8. Add the chopped white chocolate into the hot cream and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir well to mix the chocolate thoroughly. Add the color, and mix well if using.
  9. Drizzle the ganache on top of cakes and serve.

Spicy Pumpkin Bundt Cake With White Chocolate Glaze

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These few rainfalls of the season have succeeded in baffling the scorching heat of summers and thus bringing down the temperature from 45 degrees to 35 degrees Celsius. It is still a respite. Thinking of rains, a few common yet quintessential things come to the mind.

The first and the foremost thing about rains is the sudden craving for Pakoras, the great Indian fritter like savory snack, along with a cup of hot and milky tea. It’s taste gets some magical transformation to it especially when it is raining {my mouth is watering, while I am writing this}.

And after your cravings are satisfied, next thing which comes to mind is the long drive. Again the feeling of cool silky breeze caressing you, right after it has rained, is simply divine. It just leaves you wanting more of this natural spa. The weather is so perfect, that you tend to enjoy the every bit of it. And when it comes to doing different things, I get a bit excited about trying out something different.

This time it was a warm spicy and ultra moist pumpkin cake which had smitten me. The aroma of spices infused through out of my house willfully complemented the coolness of weather. I know, it’s a bit early for this kind of warm and spicy recipe. It’s my attempt on baffling and taking advantage of this slight temperature decrease. No no, this isn’t really true.

Actually, my good friend had sent me these golden and sweet sugar pumpkins a month back. And at that time, it was so hot that I couldn’t dare to bake something out of them. And I had been procrastinating them, looking forward for a day when there is a slighter dip in the temperature. This weekend, it rained and I had decided, that I wouldn’t let them age more in my refrigerator.  This great recipe is from Joy Of  Baking. I topped it with a velvety white chocolate glaze which added to it’s moistness.  And I loved the sweet aroma of all those spices which accentuated it’s flavor.

Ingredients

Pumpkin Cake

100 gm unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup fresh pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups sifted cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature

White Chocolate Glaze

50 gm good quality white chocolate
50 ml milk

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven at 180 degree C and grease a 12 cup bundt cake pan.
  2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes).
  3. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
  4. Add the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated.
  5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.
  6. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to the pumpkin batter, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
  7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 25 – 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
  8. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes and then invert and remove the cake from pan.
  9. For the glaze, melt chocolate and milk together in microwave for 10 seconds or on a double boiler.
  10. Drizzle over the cake, when it is still warm.

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.