Cakes

Brown Butter Persimmon Skillet Cake

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Brown Butter Persimmon Skillet Cake

This simple brown butter persimmon skillet cake served with lots of caramel sauce is cozy and warm and just right for the tough transition from fall to winter! Some cakes are show stoppers and some are quick and simple comfort! This one is the latter that you eat with coffee on a relaxed holiday afternoon while catching up with your family or friends or your sister. Although my sister would have berated me for not serving her a 4-layer chocolate cake with a side of chocolate chip cookies. But that’s her. This brown butter skillet cake topped with persimmons or any fruit really is just a simple, soft spongy cake that makes your home smell wonderful and provides an excuse to bring out that jar of caramel sauce from your fridge and some ice-cream too if you please! Since I started working two weeks back, I haven’t had much time to bake and off days are spent feeling a bit numb and catching up on chores and meal planning. You guys, all I really needed was to bake something that would not require me to start the stand mixer and dirty a 100 pans and yet make my house smell […]

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Cakes, Desserts

Mini Pumpkin Chocolate Cake with Brown Butter Frosting

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Mini Pumpkin Chocolate Cake with Brown Butter Frosting

This mini pumpkin chocolate cake with brown butter frosting is a decadent little mouthful for fun and festive times.  Two little layers of chocolate, two little layers of pumpkin, all covered in brown butter frosting! Why didn’t nursery rhymes go like that? I would have learnt them much more easily. I am so in love with this cake. It is decadent but the fact that it is so tiny, helps in alleviating some guilt – that is if you share. How are your Halloween preparations going?… this is only my second Halloween and I am as confused as ever. Last year we got around 200 kids and for 2 hours I was at the door with only a short a pee break. So I am like, will we have as many kids this year as well?? How much candy do I buy because, last year, our supplies started to dwindle pretty soon and then I had to be the ‘mean-boring lady who wore jeans and sweater and gave out one candy each’ Uggghhh! This year, we stocked up pretty good! What do I dress up as?? I have no ideas you guys.. is it time to hit Pinterest for Halloween […]

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Breakfast Treats, Cakes, Leftovers

Pumpkin Maple Mini Cakes

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Pumpkin Maple Mini Cakes

Got some leftover pumpkin puree or filling after thanksgiving?? Make these light, airy, cute Pumpkin Maple Mini Cakes with Maple Cream Cheese glaze. They are perfect for tea time or breakfast! Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends! And to all my American friends, aren’t you guys just loving the excited thanksgiving feels coming from your neighbours up here? What do you guys love to eat on thanksgiving? Is it the turkey or the trimmings? What is your least fav dish that you are glad you only have to put up with once a year? Do you love thanksgiving or is it just newbies to North America like me, getting all pumped up about it! We had our turkey feast on Saturday and I thought that was very wise because that gives us two days to digest and relax and get back to the work- week. But then we had more guests on Sunday night and we had a second completely fresh feast and then today I ate so many leftovers, it almost feels like another feast. Atleast I didn’t have to cook or clean up. But then I remembered ‘oh no it is Monday and I need to get […]

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Cakes

Marzipan Blondies

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Marzipan Blondies

Almond lovers will delight in these scrumptious marzipan blondies with a crunchy chocolate almond base and a sweet, buttery center. Steve claims that he is not a big dessert person. And yet come post-dinner time, I find myself frequently answering the question “where is my dessert?” He also claims he is not much of a chocolate lover and yet more often than I would like to, I end up having to grudgingly share the last piece of chocolate cake with him! And so, since he makes it point to say that he is not a dessert person I usually make dessert that I fancy without taking his preferences into consideration. However, a few weeks back when out of the blue he asked for a simple nutty baked good, I quickly embarked on a quest for a nutty cake, cookie, blondie, brownie whatever. Led by options available in my kitchen, I decided to go with almond something since I love using almond meal and a newly purchased bar of marzipan sitting in the fridge was saying “use me, use me.” I don’t make blondies often. I find them incredibly, tooth-aching sweet. Perhaps, I could use lesser sugar as I usually do.. […]

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Cakes, Healthier Baking

Mini Spiced Zucchini Spelt Loaves

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Mini Spiced Zucchini Spelt Loaves

Simple, warm, spongy Mini Spiced Zucchini Loaves made with spelt flour, go perfectly with afternoon tea but are even better when slightly toasted with morning coffee! Why do we food bloggers work so hard and put in so much effort to develop recipes? Recipes that already exist in one form or another! I mean why are there so many chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookie recipes out there? And countless brownies and numerous pumpkin pies and myriad banana and zucchini breads? Is it because all those chocolate cakes disappointed you and so you decided you had to alter it to your palate? Or because you are a creator by nature and you simply had to contribute something that was yours to the internet universe? I asked myself these questions not while attempting my third mini spiced zucchini loaf but later while eating what seemed like my 50th piece (it really wasn’t). I couldn’t put my finger on it? Pinterest is full of zucchini bread, cake, muffin recipes and I can easily open any one of them and bake it. After all someone needs to do the testing as well, right? Ok granted that I wanted to use a slightly healthier […]

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Cakes, Desserts

Blackberry Mousse Chocolate Cake

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Blackberry Mousse Chocolate Cake

An intense chocolate cake contrasted by a light, summery, luscious blackberry mousse that is easy to make, low on sugar and can be eaten straight out of the refrigerator! Remember how I went on an on about having a busy summer, like I am the only one busy on this planet! I ended up taking a break from the blog after all so I could give my complete attention to other things such as intensive fishing in the hope of catching a big one for once in my life, finishing the never-ending Grey’s Anatomy and then realizing that the latest episode is out but not on Netflix.ca (are you kidding me!!!), saying a teary goodbye to Game Of Thrones and all the related nerdy podcasts, sending out 50 job applications, and racing through two James Patterson adventures during cottage weekends when I should have been relaxing, soaking up the sun and day-dreaming or atleast reading something more mature. Clearly, I have trouble relaxing. Do you have similar issues? This is part of my research on baker’s personalities that I will write my PHD thesis on because I have had a life long ambition to be Dr. Jenny John one way […]

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Cakes, Desserts

Triple Coconut Cake

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Triple Coconut Cake

A deliciously light and moist coconut cake, lightly covered in coconut swiss meringue buttercream and drizzled with coconut caramel sauce. This Triple Coconut Cake is a delightful tropical party in your mouth. Triple Coconut Cake has been sitting on my list of things to bake for months now. However, I kept procrastinating because I felt that a cake so gloriously delicious (in my head) should be baked for a special occasion to feed many people. This week my sister suddenly decided to visit from New York and she loves cake almost as much as I do and what is a more special occasion to make a Triple Coconut Cake than when you are meeting your sister after 5 whole months! I did think of dedicating this to my dad since Father’s Day is around the corner, but a coconut cake is hardly what a Keralite man will be thrilled about! I mean, coconut is our staple food. The flesh, the milk, the water go into almost every dish we prepare at home. From our breakfasts to our desserts, everything has coconut. So much so that, when I was in school, I would hate being on coconut grating duty especially on […]

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Cakes

Cardamom Coconut Cupcakes

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Soft, fluffy, fragrant Cardamom Cupcakes topped with luscious Coconut Swiss Buttercream and crunchy Coconut bacon.               You know when you haven’t done squats in a million years, then you do 100 at a go only to have stiff legs for a week! And it hurts like hell. But it is also a kind of sweet pain because you know your muscles worked out so hard and your hurting hamstrings are like trophies you can show off while saying that you pulled off a 100 squats!! That’s exactly how I felt the last two weeks after marathon projects and assignments. After a year of vacationing filled with fun things like exploring Toronto, baking, blogging and occasional assignments from my Digital Marketing Course my brain has become slightly lazy I assume. But now my sabbatical is over (sob-sob) and job hunt has begun (which is not easy). So between, job applications, freelance marketing projects with real deliverables and deadlines and school assignments it feels like my brain is doing 100 squats and it aches!! My brain had to remember working out once again and tasks that would have taken 1 hour in my previous life, took […]

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Cakes, Leftovers

Lemon Curd Cupcakes

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Lemon Curd cupcakes

Soft, spongy, buttery, Lemon Curd Cupcakes are a perfect way to use up a bit of leftover lemon curd. What to do with lemon curd? After you have finished making lemon meringue pie, constructed a beautiful layer cake, topped it on your pancakes and oatmeal and sundaes, added to your fruit trifles, and licked it off a spoon. If there is still a tiny bit left and you feel you can’t eat anymore, put the last bit of it in a basic butter cake recipe and eat it as a cupcake. The best part of it is that, in this form it a subdued, subtle version of itself rather that a big, bold hit of tangy, lemony which is the main reason I personally cannot eat it off a spoon. It feels like a punch in my mouth that I don’t care for. But I do enjoy the lemony brightness when complimented with other balancing flavors. This post has started off as a SEO exercise and I promise I did not mean to do that. What to do with a small amount of leftover lemon curd was what I was searching for when I had 3tbsp of lemon curd sitting in […]

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Cakes, Desserts

Chocolate Stout Cake w Brown Butter Frosting

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This decadent chocolate Guinness cake slathered with a speckled, deeply nutty brown butter Swiss buttercream and doused in a whiskey caramel sauce is truly a celebration cake that is sure to make you feel happy! 30 is not the birthday that launches you harshly into your middle age. 30 is the birthday where you celebrate the end of an era - the 20s – where mistakes were made (lots of ugly ones), lessons were learnt (mostly in a bad way), discovering who you are felt impossible and highs of first real job, first serious relationship, first real apartment, first independent foreign travel were only dimmed by the lows of those ‘firsts’ not living upto their expectations. But there is a delicious excitement in goofing up and blaming it on lack of experience and naiveté. There is mystery and intrigue and desperation in finding out how your life will turn out when you are a grown up. When I turned 30, I told everyone that next year I will celebrate 29 and subsequently keep moving the clock backwards. Well, I didn’t do that. Forgot to buy 2 and 9 numbered candles. So here I am 31! Anyhow, who wants to repeat the absurdities of the 20s. Sure it was fun and exciting times. 20s or any fun time is just that only because there is a limited period to it. Just as clearance sales are exciting because, they are on for only a week! So, I celebrated my 31st birthday, trying not to fight it too much, with a grown-up chocolate cake with brown butter frosting – a bit more elegant than chocolate on chocolate (which by the way is always my first choice of cake) If it is my birthday celebration cake, there had to be booze in it. So instead of making my most favorite chocolate cake, I went with a Stout Cake adapted from Epicurious only in the method. I used Nigella’s slightly easier method of adding everything into the same pan. The can of Guinness had been sitting in my pantry forever and I wouldn’t let Steve drink it because I was storing it for ‘baking purposes’. My cake tops cracked, I think because I baked it in 5inch pans and poured a lot of batter into them. So 6 inch would do the trick. Anyway, I simply chopped off the cracked tops, it did not affect the taste. These cakes are lip-smacking delicious. Earthy and intense and a dark chocolate lovers dream. A brown butter buttercream only seemed appropriate because it is my new love and I like to make beurre noisette just for the nutty fragrance it makes in my kitchen. There seems to be Whiskey caramel sitting in a jar in my refrigerator at all times so I was more than happy to add an additional boozy element to this cake. Finally the pile of crushed chocolate cookies on top because as a baking blogger there is always some cookies or cake leftovers in the fridge which you can throw on top of a cake for extra goodness and no one can stop me from eating pure indulgence in this form on my 31st birthday! Celebrate! Chocolate Stout Cake w Brown Butter Frosting Ingredients – Makes one 6 inch 4 layered cake For the Cake 1 cup stout 1 cup, 2 sticks unsalted butter – cut into pieces ¾ cup Dutch cocoa powder 2 cups flour 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar ½ tbsp. baking soda ¾ tsp salt 2 large eggs ½ + 2tbsp sour cream Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and line two 6” round pans with parchment paper. Make sure the parchment paper sticks out to form higher walls. Pour the stout into a large saucepan and place on medium heat. Add butter pieces and heat till melted. As soon as all the butter has melted, add in the sugar and cocoa powder and whisk till fully incorporated and smooth. In a measuring jug or small bowl, beat the eggs and sour cream thoroughly and add to the stout mixture. Mix well. Finally add the flour and baking soda and whisk till completely mixed. Pour into prepared pans and bake in the lower third of the oven for 35 – 40 minutes or till a skewer toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven. Let cool till safe to handle. Turn cakes onto a wire-rack and let cool completely. Stick in the freezer for atleast one hour before frosting. For the Brown Butter Swiss Buttercream 1 ½ cup butter 1 ½ cup fine granulated sugar 4 egg whites 1/4 tsp salt Heat butter in a small saucepan on high heat. Once it starts to bubble, stir intermittently with a rubber spatula and keep a eye. Once you see specks of dark brown and smell deliciousness in the air take it off the heat. As it cools, stir it once in a while so that it solidifies evenly or all the good brown bits will settle at the bottom. It should be completely cooled (slightly chilled) and solidified but still a little soft. Whisk sugar and egg whites together and set it on a double boiler over simmering water. Using a candy thermometer is recommended for accuracy. Whisk occasionally and heat the mixture to 140 – 160F. Test the mixture between your thumb and index finger to make sure the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture feels silky smooth between your fingers. As soon as it reaches this temperature, take it off the heat, transfer to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whisk on medium-high for a good 7 -8 minutes till peaks form and the mixture is cooled. Once this meringue mix is completely cool, replace the whisk attachment with the paddle attachment and run on medium high. Start adding the butter in pieces. Keep whisking till fully incorporated and the buttercream is smooth, glossy and stiff. Whiskey Caramel Sauce – ½ cup Assembly When the cakes are completely cooled, cut of the tops evenly with a serrated knife. Then cut both cakes into halves to make 4 pieces. Here is a great video showing how to cut a cake in layers. Place one layer on a cake stand. Spoon butter cream into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle and pipe a border on the cake layer. Spoon some Whiskey Caramel onto the cake within the piped barrier. With a offset spatula, spread some buttercream on top of the caramel and smooth it. Repeat two more times. Place the topmost layer of the cake. Spread some buttercream on the top and sides with the spatula to frost lightly. Spoon some caramel sauce on top and along the edges. IF you have some leftover chocolate cake or cookies, crush and pile on top for extra indulgence. Best enjoyed at room temperature in shockingly large pieces.

This decadent chocolate Guinness cake slathered with a speckled, deeply nutty brown butter Swiss buttercream and doused in a whiskey caramel sauce is truly a celebration cake that is sure to make you feel happy! 30 is not the birthday that launches you harshly into your middle age. 30 is the birthday where you celebrate the end of an era – the 20s – where mistakes were made (lots of ugly ones), lessons were learnt (mostly in a bad way), discovering who you are felt impossible and highs of first real job, first serious relationship, first real apartment, first independent foreign travel were only dimmed by the lows of those ‘firsts’ not living upto their expectations. But there is a delicious excitement in goofing up and blaming it on lack of experience and naiveté. There is mystery and intrigue and desperation in finding out how your life will turn out when you are a grown up. When I turned 30, I told everyone that next year I will celebrate 29 and subsequently keep moving the clock backwards. Well, I didn’t do that. Forgot to buy 2 and 9 numbered candles. So here I am 31! Anyhow, who wants to repeat […]

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