My Cake journey in 2014

I wanted to make sure I do a last post for the year, so though I couldn't manage writing up a recipe I'll share a lot of sweet treats with you that I created over the year and Wish you all a very fruitful, healthy, prosperous and Happy New Year 2015! May all your dreams come true...

I might have mentioned this a zillion times before but I will say it again, I love Cakes. My mom was the first person who baked cakes in our entire family and though she made simple cakes, they were a family favorite and I used to be fantasized each time she used to bake. I still remember a Chocolate cake that she baked which kinda overflowed while baking due to too much batter in the pan but that formed a pudding like topping over the cake...it was the bestest Chocolate Cake I have ever eaten till now ;-)
Although I was certain I might bake some day when I grew older I never thought I would actually make so many varieties of themed cakes and 3D structured cakes or try my hand at so many flavors, techniques and tiers of cakes!! 

I never knew that Baking, Designing and Decorating Cakes would be my passion. I can just dream of cakes, all day long. 
This year if there's anything I'm most proud about then it would be the type of cakes I got to make and I'm proud of them all :-)  I'm even more thankful to my family and friends who give me all kinds of opportunities to pursue my passion and who trusts me with baking cakes for their special occasions.

A Celebration is never complete without Cake, so in that sense I've celebrated a lot this year...Lol! So I thought I would share them all with you...yes, all the cakes I baked this year. Most of them have been shared on the blog except for a few, which I will share shortly.

The Celebration Cakes I baked this year:

Patterned Swiss Roll Cake for Valentine's Day
Flavor: Vanilla Sponge Cake with Whipped cream filling and fresh Pineapple chunks

Surprise B'day cake for a dear friend
Flavor: Chocolate Cake with Orange Marmalade cream
Decorated with Chocolate cigarettes and a fun Chantilly design using chocolate ganache

B'day Cake for none other than my hubs, Manish. 
Flavor: Tres Leches Cake with a Lychee Mousse filling topped with Whipped Cream. 
Decorated with Chocolate Lace collar, Maraschino cherries, chocolate cutouts and chocolate shards

A get-together with friends demanded a sweet treat and that too when all of them were pregnant at the same time!! So I baked these mini cakes and decorated them all in different styles. Each got one and they were all so amused.
Flavor: Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

The year cannot end without me baking my favorite cake: Christmas Fruit Cake
The dry fruits n nuts used in this cake had been soaking in Rum for past 2 yrs ;-) Boooozy!!

The Theme based Cakes baked over the year:

My first ever 3D cake....the cake my little 3 year old loves the most even now, his Dinosaur Cake for his roaaring Dino theme b'day party! 
Flavor: Rich Chocolate Cake (with a mild mocha flavor) with Chocolate chips and Vanilla Buttercream

A Spiderman themed party calls for a Spiderman themed cake for sweet lil'Avyay who turned 3, Avyay is Appu's best bud from 6months old!
Flavor: Black and white:  alternating flavors of Vanilla and Chocolate Cake
I had later added a number 3 cutout in the centre.

A gorgeous Frozen themed Cake baked for our sweet lil'Gia's 1st birthday. We know the little munchkin since she was just few months old and it's been a pleasure to see her grow. 
Flavor: Butter Vanilla with cake slices in alternating shades of blue and white.
Decorated with Blue Ombre rosettes on bottom tier to match the white rosette backdrop and top tier in a Quilt pattern with Blue beads over fondant.

A Construction themed cake with the b'day boys favorite construction toys in a busy construction site!
Flavor: Rich Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese filling, covered in Chocolate Ganache
The decorations included fondant cutouts, crushed brownie bites, graham crackers, buttercream grass and lots of chocolates. The Construction Cone shaped candles were a fun addition to the cake. 


Aditi loves strawberry cakes and is a die-hard fan of the cartoon Callilou. So that was the theme for her 4th b'day cake
Flavor: Strawberry cake with fresh strawberries with creamy Vanilla Buttercream frosting.
The sides of the cake had a Train cutout and also an aeroplane, some alphabets and numbers, making it a very fun cake.

A Bollywood themed birthday cake for a milestone birthday. As Rajeev turned 40, his cake shined with the bling from the dico ball.
Flavor: Top Tier: Butter Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Buttercream
                  Bottom Tier: Rich Chocolate Ckae with Chocolate buttercream
The cake was coated with Dark Chocolate Ganache and covered with my homemade Marshmallow fondant and each gold bead was stuck by hand, even the Paisleys are hand cut.

A fun and bright cake for a fun little boy, Sanav. My son Appu and Sanav are best buds too and he can never go by any weekend without meeting his favorite Sanav bhaiyya.  Sanav is crazy about Thomas the Train and that was the theme for his cake as he turned 4 this year.
Flavor: Rich Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

Our good friends tied the knot this year. The wedding called for an elegant tiered wedding cake. This was the first time I made Red fondant, used Gold lustre dust and even worked with Royal icing and I loved the entire experience. It was also my first 3 tiered cake.
Flavor: Bottom Tier: Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream
                   Middle Tier: Red Velvet Cake with Vanilla Buttecream
                   Top Tier: White Wedding Cake with fresh Mango Buttercream

I realized I had some drawing skills after I made this cake for a program being conducted by our local regional association. The deco on the cake was based on the winning logo that was drawn by a little girl for the logo competition at the program :)
A full Sheet cake all baked at home and decorated with colored gel icing.
Flavor: Rich Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttecream

Cupcakes: Themed and Celebration cupcakes

My first try at 2D royal Icing transfers started with my son's Dino themed Cupcakes. I made 4 different shaped dinos in green and yellow shades and placed them on top of the mini cupcakes I baked apart from the Dino bday cake for his 3rd b'day this year. It was a superb experience and an easy option of making cupcake toppers that both suits the theme and are sweet and edible :)
Cupcake Flavor: Rich Chocolate with Vanilla buttercream (colored orange) and royal Icing Dino topper

Another set of 2 D royal icing cupcake toppers went on these Frozen Themed cupcakes in Blue and Pink shade for a pretty Ruhi celebrating her 8th b'day. The kids were more crazy for the Olaf topped cupcakes. The olaf and snowflakes are made of Royal Icing.
Cupcake Flavor: Rich Chocolate with Vanilla Buttercream

 


I've always wanted to try making sugar flowers, so when the blog turned 3yrs I decided to give it a try. They came out perfect for my first try and my friends who got them were too amused to eat them :-) Pretty Chocolate Cupcakes with dual toned Buttecream roses!
Cupcake Flavor: Rich Chocolate with Vanilla Buttercream

Wanting to give a try at making filled Cupcakes, I made these simple Vanilla Cupcakes and filled them with a sweet and tart mixed berry compote. A small border of vanilla buttecream was all it needed to make these cupcakes pop!

Cupcake Flavor: Vanilla with Mixed Berry compote filling and Vanilla Buttercream

I missed out on a couple of occasions to make cakes, like my own B'day and our Wedding Anniversary etc, but I'm still happy with what I've accomplished this year. I have tons more to learn and want to try my hand at lot more techniques next year and if I master them then maybe do a few tutorials to help out more of you who's yearning to learn :-) 

So with these sweet treats I sign off this year.....Hope you all have a fun time filled with new hope, aspirations and dreams for the coming year. I sure do :-)

Once again here's my family wishing you all a Very Happy New Year 2015!!

-Manju

Chocolate cupcakes with Buttercream Roses to celebrate 3 years of blogging!

Hello to all. It's been since we all met hasn't it? :-) We went for a much needed, month long vacation to Kerala and let me say....we had enormous fun. Our vacation started with a lovely Onam celebration with our whole family. A House boat trip in the back waters of Allepy and a dream visit to Delhi were some of the other highlights of our trip and yes, we saw the Taj Mahal. It's quite an experience I tell you, you have to see the Taj to know its glory. Another major event was a big pooja that my Dad was sponsoring for our home temple - Sarpa Kaavu. An ancient folk dance event called Padayani was performed throughout the night and the entire village came to see it. The program was a huge success and was aired on several TV channels. And best of all our lil'Appu had the best time of all, playing care-free along with his niece lil'Akku to share all the fun, play and kid fights with. In all it was a superb vacation and we are still in hangover mode ;-)

Anyways, it's time to get off my blog-slumber. Today is a special day and the reason why I'm still here. It's our little blog's 3rd b'day. Now that I think of it, my blog and my baby boy are of the same age now ;-) I'm not going to say too much about how much I love blogging and what it means to me....the fact that I'm still here after 3 years says it all.  
If I have you all with me I'll be here sharing more recipes and all kinds of baking joys from my kitchen to yours and your feedback and comments are what keeps me going. 

So Happy 3rd Birthday dear MED :-) 

I love Chocolate Cake and I wanted to try out a really rich and moist chocolate cake. This recipe is perfect in all ways. It's rich, moist and very chocolaty and there's a secret ingredient.....Coffee! Yes, a little coffee adds a huge burst of flavor in this cake. Along with cocoa powder, it also uses fresh bittersweet chocolate, which again adds to it's richness! Yumm! 

It bakes up perfectly and literally perfumes your house with the most amazing chocolaty aroma :-) 

After baking up these beauties I was very much intrigued to try making some buttercream roses, which I've wanted to try for a long time now. So I made a batch of my favorite Vanilla buttercream and tinted them pink and yellow and little bit green for the leaves.

I also tried a dual color tone for the petals which also came out pretty decently. Initially my petals weren't forming properly, but as I continued they started forming and getting in shape. Some of the petals even got a ruffled edge, making it look like a slightly weathered petal. I loved that look. 

I did not get a chance to take any video or step-wise pics while making the roses, mayb next time...but you can find several videos on youtube for this technique.

I'm only sharing the recipe for the Chocolate cupackes here. Both Chocolate and Vanilla buttecream goes very well with these cupcakes. You can find the buttercream recipes here . 

Rich Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

This recipe makes:

24 standard-size cupcakes or

50 mini cupcakes or

Two 8" cakes

You'll need:

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

⅓ cup Cocoa powder

¾ cup hot Coffee

¾ cup All-purpose flour

¾ cup granulated Sugar

½ teaspoon Baking Soda

6 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons White Vinegar

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard-size cupcake pan/ mini cupcake pan with liners. Place the chopped chocolate and cocoa powder in a medium bowl. Pour the hot coffee over the mixture and whisk until smooth. Refrigerate mixture for 20 minutes.

2. Whisk together the flour, sugar and baking soda in a medium bowl and set aside.

3. Whisk the vegetable oil, eggs, vinegar and vanilla extract into the cooled chocolate mixture until smooth. Add the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

4. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake pan cups.

If making cupcakes, bake for 9mins and turn over the pan halfway and bake for another 9 mins (total of 18-20mins)

If making mini cupcakes , bake for 5 mins one side and turn pan halfway for another 5 mins (total of 10-12 mins)

5. Cool the cupcakes in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan and place on the wire rack to cool completely for about 1 hour.

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Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Makes 3 cups

You’ll need

Unsalted Butter , at room temp – 1 cup (that’s  2sticks or ½ pound)

Powdered sugar or Confectioners’ sugar (sifted) – 3 or 4 cups

Pure Vanilla Extract – 1 tblsp

Milk or heavy cream – 4 tblsp or as needed

Salt – a pinch (optional)

Directions

1.Beat butter until smooth and creamy using a paddle attachment on medium speed if using KitchenAid mixer or using electric hand blender.

2. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar , little at a time on low speed, until it mixes well with the butter.

3. Increase the speed to medium and add Vanilla extract, salt (if using) and 4 tblsp of milk/heavy cream. Combine well for few minutes until smooth and creamy. 

(If you want a thicker frosting add remaining 1 cup sugar. If you want a thinner consistency add more milk 1 tblsp at a time )

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For the Buttercream Roses:

Prepare Vanilla Buttercream and divide them to color into desired colors using food grade gel colors. Make sure the buttercream is of a smooth yet stiff consistency to hold it's shape. 

Add the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with Wilton's Rose Piping tip # 125 and make the swirls.  For a final touch add some leaves using a leaf tip.

(You can make the roses on a nail ring or directly pipe the buttercream roses onto the cupcakes)

Refrigerate each cupcake after the roses are placed on top to help them stay in shape.

Recipe Source: adapted from Cooks Illustrated

I shared these with some friends and colleagues and they all loved it.  But best of all my lil'Appu loved them the most. He wanted all the roses and the mini cupcakes were just the right size for him to enjoy! It's so much fun baking for family and friends :-)

-Manju