Sugar Cookies shaped as Gingerbread men

Vaanya, my four and half year old daughter, is at a stage where she is enjoying the world of fairy tales and stories. During the Durga Puja holidays, she got a scrapbook assignment from her Montessori to illustrate her favourite story. Vaanya chose to draw pictures of Goldilocks and the three bears. After the school reopened each story from the scrapbook was read in the class. 

Vaanya's classmate Alvira had chosen The story of Gingerbread Man. Alvira's mother, knowing my passion for baking requested me to bake some Gingerbread cookies for the class. The happy baker in me jumped on the chance to make these cute cookies. We decided not to go the traditional way of adding ginger and spices to the cookies and planned to keep them simple. 

These simple sugar cookies are inspired from Sayantani's blog and I have added a wee bit of cocoa powder to give them a little colour. The cookies are shaped in the Gingerbread man and are decorated with melted white chocolate. 

I was happy to see kids with their gingerbread shaped cookies merrily chomping on it. These cookies are a perfect Christmas treat.

Recipe source : A homemaker's diary

Ingredients : yields about 3 dozen cookies of medium size

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 200 gms butter, room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder

Procedure : 
Preheat oven to 170 degree Celsius.
Take butter and sugar in a bowl and beat till it gets light and fluffy.
Sieve all purpose flour, cocoa powder and baking powder.
Add egg and vanilla essence to the butter-sugar mixture and mix well.
Add the flour mixture in 3-4 additions and keep mixing. 
Knead into a dough and wrap in a plastic or cling wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
Take a little of the dough and roll it to the desired thickness, preferably 1/3rd of an inch.
Cut cookies in desired shape and place them on a butter paper lined baking tray.
Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes.
Allow to cool.
Decorate the cookies with melted white chocolate piping or icing sugar mixed with little water. You may add food colour to make colourful icing.

Happy Cookie enjoying

Amrita

Bûche de Noël/Yule log

Its Christmas and I am with family in Allahabad. For days together, me and Vishal have been shopping for gifts in Kolkata trying to find suitable ones for each and everyone. The run down to Christmas has been so much fun. Very sadly, the only person not with us on Christmas will be Vishal. He will join us for the New Year cheer but we will miss him terribly at Christmas. Distance makes you realize how much we take each other for granted. Vaanya, our daughter, has been missing her Papa and remembers him from time to time. 

My baking run down to Christmas is the traditional Yule log which also happened to be our December month challenge at Baking partner's suggested by Tanushree Khandai of Ma Niche. With a host of recipes to choose from, I decided to put my hands on the easiest sounding one. I have adapted the recipe to suit availability of ingredients and personal taste. This yule log is a basic sponge cake slathered with dark chocolate ganache and frosted with it too. I tried my hands on the meringue mushrooms for the very first time and completely loved the experience. The cake was a hit at home and got over in no time. 

This recipe is also shared in my 'Sweet day' list to celebrate the most beautiful date of our lives -24, the day Vaanya was born and brought unlimited love and joy to our lives. 

Yule log/Bûche de Noël (BOOSH duh noh EHL) is a traditional cake which signifies the celebration of winter solstice by burning a wooden log in the hearth. This cake is made to look like a piece of bark with meringue mushrooms and marzipan leaves thrown around. 

Ingredients: For 6-7 servings

Sponge cake:

• 2 eggs, separated
• 1/4 cup sugar, powdered
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour

Filling and Frosting:

• 145 gm chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup cream (I used Amul)
• 1 tbsp butter

Meringue Mushroom:

• 1 egg white
• 1/4 cup sugar, powdered

Procedure : 

Sponge cake:

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. Grease and line a jelly roll pan. 

Take egg whites in a clean bowl and whip with an electrical beater for 3-5 mins till you get soft peaks. Now add sugar in batches and keep whipping till stiff peaks form(5 mins). 

Take egg yolks in another clean bowl and whip for 5 mins till they are pale coloured. (I used the same electrical beater). Stir in vanilla essence. 

Pour egg yolks over the egg whites and very gently fold them in till just combined. Do not beat vigorously as that will remove all the air bubbles from the eggs.

Fold in flour little by little in the form of rain and gently incorporate in the batter till just combined. 

Pour batter in the prepared pan and bake for 10-15 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the middle come out clean.

Invert the cake on a damp towel and roll the cake immediately(along with the towel). Allow to cool.

  

Filling and frosting:

Take cream in a pan and bring it to a boil. Remove from heat and add chopped chocolate and butter and mix well till the chocolate dissolves. Keep aside.

Meringue Mushroom :

Preheat oven to 100 degree Celsius and line a baking tray with aluminium foil. 

Take egg white in a bowl and beat with an electrical beater. Add a tbsp of sugar at a time and keep beating till soft peaks form when the beater is raised. Beat till all the sugar is added and you get stiff peaks. 

Fill a piping/ziplock/plastic cone with it and snip off the end. Make round shaped as in the mushroom caps with half the quantity and stems with the other half. For the stems, hold piping bag perpendicular to the baking sheet and squeeze 3/4" high cone which is wide at the base and narrow at top.

Bake for 30 mins or till firm and with a sharp knife make a small hole in the underside of each mushroom cap and insert the stem. Place mushrooms caps down and return in the oven for 10 minutes or till dry.

Store in an airtight container.

Assembly : 

Remove the towel from the rolled cake and spread the cake. Spread the filling generously and re-roll the cake. Do not worry if there are any cracks. 

Cut an angled slice of cake from one end and keep on the side of the cake 

Frost the entire cake and allow to set.  

Using a fork draw lines on the frosting to resemble a bark.

Arrange the meringue mushrooms on sides and top and dust with little cocoa powder to resemble dirt. 

Sending this recipe to 'Kolkata Food Blogger's ongoing baking event 'Baking Palooza 2013'

Merry Christmas

Amrita 

Mini Mug Gingerbread house

As a child, I,  like many others was always fascinated with the witches house in Hansel and Gretel. I mean who will not fancy a house made of Gingerbread  and cakes with candies and chocolate all over. Having never tasted a Gingerbread cookie and a long hidden desire to put my hands on a gingerbread house, made me decide to try these adorable mini Gingerbread houses. These can perch on your mugs and look very cute. 

I added my own touch to these cookies by adding Nolen gur in the dough instead of normal jaggery. Not being a big fan of ginger myself, these cookies are not overpowering with the ginger taste (as I always thought). In fact, the spices along with jaggery and honey gives it a very unique flavour. 

Ideally the Gingerbread house calls for the use of Royal icing to join the pieces together. Having my own constraint of not wanting to use raw egg whites, I decide to try a basic icing where icing sugar is diluted to required consistency with some lemon juice and/or milk. The Gingerbread house required heaps of patience as the pieces were so fragile while joining and would fall apart. I had to join them again and again and finally said a short prayer and left them to dry. Thankfully they held themselves together finally. 

I also made some Gingerbread men with the leftover dough and decorated them with the same icing. 

Recipe source : Adapted from Taste.com.au

Ingredients : For 5 Mini gingerbread houses and 15 Gingerbread men

• 50 gm butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup jaggery, grated(I used Nolen gur)
• 1/2 egg(Beat one egg in a bowl and use half quantity) 
• 1 1/2 tbsp honey
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tbsp ginger powder(I used saunth-dry ginger powder)
• 1/4 tbsp cinnamon powder
• 6-7 cloves, dry roasted and powdered
• 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
• 8-10 black pepper, ground
• 1 cardamom, powdered
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt

Icing:

• 5-6 tbsp icing sugar
• few drops of lemon juice
• little milk for diluting

Procedure : 

Gingerbread dough:

Take jaggery and butter in a bowl and beat till pale and creamy. 

Mix in honey and egg.

Sift flour, ginger powder, all spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the bowl.

Knead dough using hands till it comes together smooth and soft. 

Wrap in a plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Roll out dough 1/4 " thick and cut out desired shapes form it.

I used my Gingerbread man cutter and a template for the Gingerbread house.

Place on a butter paper/parchment lined baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes or till they brown well.

Allow to cool.

Icing:

Mix icing sugar with few drops of lemon juice and some milk to get a thick consistency good enough for piping. 

Fill a piping bag/Ziplock/plastic bag with this icing and snip off the end.

Make desired design on all the pieces.

Use some icing to stick colourful sprinkles on the cookies.

Leave to dry.

Use the same icing sugar as a glue to join pieces of the gingerbread house.

Note : 

• Cut out the template on a piece of thick paper/cardboard and use it to cut out shapes from the dough.
• Keep a check on the cookies while baking to prevent overbrowning.
• You can omit the egg and use some milk for kneading the dough. 
• The joining of Gingerbread house pieces require some patience and precision as the house can fall apart. After fixing the pieces let it dry completely before touching.

Sending this recipe to 'Kolkata Food Blogger's ongoing baking event 'Baking Palooza 2013

Happy Mini Gingerbread house enjoying
Amrita

Swedish Cinnamon rolls/Kanel Snegle

I have been out from Kolkata for almost two weeks now and have been enjoying an amazing and relaxing time in Allahabad. Vaanya is enjoying the most having found a friend in Tunnu, our kitten. Its a visual treat to see Vaanya and Tunnu play and enjoy each other's company. Vaanya teases her by pulling a piece of rope and Tunnu tries to catch it which she finally does by jumping on it. Tunnu loves to sneak upto Vaanya and play with her shoe. 

I have been enjoying doing nothing and spending some quality time with Vaanya and enjoying some amazing and yummy food made by Amma. With Christmas nearing I had a tough time gearing myself for some bakes and finally managed to do so by attempting these Swedish Cinnamon rolls which was part of our November 'We Knead to bake' Challenge. It came out exceedingly well with the amazing fragrance and flavour of Cinnamon and the beautiful hint of lemon. I shaped them like a Christmas tree for some fun holiday bake.

Recipe source : Aparna

Ingredients : makes 16-17 rolls

Starter:

• 3/4 cup warm milk
• 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

Dough:

• All starter
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 cardamoms, powdered
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1/2 cup sugar, powdered
• 45 gm butter, at room temperature

Filling:

• 55 gm butter, at room temperature
• 6 tbsp granulated sugar/brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/4 cup almonds, blanched, dried and coarsely powdered

Topping:

• milk for brushing
• granulated sugar for sprinkling

Procedure:

Mix all ingredients under starter into a sticky dough. Place in an large oiled bowl, loosely cover it and refrigerate overnight. 

The next day take it out and leave for 30 mins to come to room temperature. 
Tear the starter to large pieces and place in a bowl.
Sift flour, cardamom and salt and add to the starter.
Mix in lemon zest and sugar.
Now add butter and knead till you get a smooth and elastic dough.
Roll the dough to a rectangle roughly 20x12". 
Make filling by mixing butter, sugar and cinnamon powder.
Spread the filling all over the rolled dough.
Sprinkle the coarsely ground almonds all over.
Tightly roll the dough from the shorter end and cut into 16 equal pieces with a knife. 
Place them on a butter paper/parchment lined baking tray. I placed 11 pieces together in a tree shape and put the others on the sides. 
Let them rise for 10-15 mins.
Preheat oven to 200 degree Celsius.
Brush them with milk and sprinkle sugar on top.
Bake for 15 mins or till they brown well. 

Notes:

• You can use brown sugar for sprinkling on top for a better looking roll.
• The lemon zest adds an amazing flavour to the rolls, so do not consider omitting it. 
• Blanch almonds in boiling water for 2 minutes and remove the skin. Dry roast in a pan on medium heat. Cool and grind to get ground almonds.

Sending this recipe to Kolkata Food Blogger's ongoing baking event 'Baking Palooza 2013'

Happy Cinnamon rolls relishing
Amrita

My Choco-chip and Walnut Panettone for the Daring Baker's!! Yes, I am the new member!!

Yes!! I have finally jumped in the Baker's bandwagon. This one being the biggest of all. I had applied to be their member in October and never received a reply till last month. I thought probably they carefully choose their members, not allowing novice bakers like me. But it all turned out a lag due to their updated website. And here I am very late but finally with my first DB challenge!

The most wonderful thing about these challenges are the regional bakes that we get to learn. I do not even know how to pronounce Panettone lest ever heard of them. As I learnt, Panettone is a traditional Italian Christmas bread. It is a type of sweet bread loaf originally from Milan. Though many variations are available, traditionally it contains raisins, candied orange, citron and lemon zest.

This challenge was given by Marcellina who blogs from Marcellina in Cucina. She allowed us to be innovative and change the filling. My immediate thought was to try a choco-chip and walnut filling. What else could you expect from me!! 

Let me admit that this sure was a challenge as I spent literally the entire day in the preparation. The recipe is pretty easy but requires a lot of time. The dough needs to be rested long to gain the famous Panettone height. And it definitely is worth the wait. My bread rose like a dream and attained such an amazing height that I got in trouble while baking as I have a small oven. The baking tray had to be kept in the lowest rack as otherwise my Panettone wouldn't fit in and because of it I burnt my Panettne bottom. I wanted to try them as muffins so I baked just two and they attained a rich beautiful brown hue.

Ingredients: I halved the recipe

Sponge:

• 1 1/8 tsp Instant yeast
• 1/6 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour

First Dough:

• 1 1/8 tsp Instant yeast
• 1 1/2 tbsp warm water
• 1 egg
• 1 1/8 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup butter

Second Dough:

• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

Filling:

• 1/4 cup choco-chips
• 1/4 cup walnuts

Procedure:

Sponge:

Mix yeast and water in a small bowl and allow to stand for 10 mins until creamy. Mix in the flour and cover with a plastic wrap or with a damp muslin cloth and allow to double in size for about 30 mins.

First Dough:

Mix yeast and warm water in a  large bowl and allow to stand for 10 mins. Mix in the sponge and beat well with a wooden spoon. Stir in the egg, flour and sugar. Mix in the butter well. Cover with a plastic wrap or a damp muslin cloth and allow to double in size for an hour.

Second Dough:

Into the first dough mix in egg, sugar, honey and vanilla extract with a wooden spoon. Mix in the butter and add the flour. Stir until smooth. The dough will be soft at this stage. Turn it out on a well floured surface and knead till it holds shape. Do not knead in too much flour.

First Rise:

Oil a large bowl and plop in your dough. Cover with a plastic wrap or a damp muslin cloth and let it rise in a warm place till triple in size for about 4 hours.

Filling and Final Rise:

Roll the dough in a rough oval shape and sprinkle half of both the choco-chips and chopped walnuts. Roll up the dough in a log. Press out again in an oval shape and sprinkle the remaining choco-chips and walnuts. Roll up in a log shape again and make it into a ball.

Line your baking tray with butter paper. Cut  6  long strips of butter paper and arrange them in a star shape and staple in the center. Plop the dough in the center and fold all the strips on the dough wrapping it.  Now make a collar out of the butter paper and staple it. Slip it over the dough and attach the strips of paper that covered the dough to the collar with staples. 

To see the step by step illustration please visit Gayathri's space here. She has given some beautiful illustrations for an amazing eggless variation.

Cut an 'x' on the top of the dough and let it rise for another 2 hours.

Baking:

Preheat oven to 200 degree Celsius. Cut another 'x' on the top of dough and place a blob of butter.

Place your Panettoni and bake for 10 mins. 

Reduce temperature to 180 degree and bake for another 10 mins.

Reduce the temperature further to 160 degree and bake for 30 mins or till the tops are browned well and a toothpick or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

This recipe is getting Yeastspotted

Happy Traditional baking

Amrita

Rum Balls-Perfect seasonal Indulgence

Indulgence is the act of indulging or gratifying a desire

Indulgence!

Winter is the season of Indulgence. I am sure all of you have been digging into your favorite comfort food this season, promising yourself with each bite that this one will definitely be the last! As much as I am a believer in eat and live healthy, I guess its time of the year to leave behind your whims and worries and enjoy everything. The best way to do that is by limiting your intake, very strictly. And that is the reason I make very little portions, like how I made lesser than 1/4 of the recipe from my favorite site Joy of Baking. 

This recipe is so versatile that there is a substitute given for almost each ingredient and as described by Stephanie Jaworski(Joy of Baking) these rum balls are the perfect adult indulgence!

It took me less than half an hour to make these yummy delights and it took hardly a minute for them to disappear!! Loved by all with the slight hint of rum and chocolate topping, these rum balls were an instant hit. Vaanya, my baby, eyed them and wondered why we were not sharing it with her. So, she got a chunk of the chocolate topping to satisfy her choco-lover genes!!

 Ingredients: For 5-6 rum balls

• 1/4 cup cake crumbs(I used my leftover cupcakes)You may use wafers, digestive biscuits or cookies
• 1/4 cup toasted and ground almonds(you may substitute with hazlenuts, pecans or walnuts)
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar(If you are using digestive biscuits, wafers or cookies with less sugar then increase sugar to 4 tbsp or adjust to your liking)
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder(I did not use as my cupcakes were already very chocolatey)
• 1/2 tbsp liquid glucose(you may substitute with honey)-used to bind the ingredients together
• 2 tbsp rum (You may adjust to your liking)You may replace with orange or apple juice if you do not want alcohol.

For topping:

• Melted dark chocolate (about 3 tbsp)for coating the rum balls
• Melted white chocolate(about 1 tbsp) for drawing lines on the rum balls

Procedure:

To toast nuts - Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius and toast nuts on a baking sheet for 8-10 mins or until lightly browned.Alternatively you may toast nuts in a pan on the gas stove. Cool completely and pulse them finely in your food processor.

Take a bowl and crumble the cupcakes finely.(If using cookies or wafers pulse them finely in the food processor)

Add the toasted and ground almonds.

Add powdered sugar, cocoa powder(I did not use this as said earlier) and mix well.

Now add liquid glucose or honey and rum. Mix very well. 

If you get a sticky mixture(I did not), refrigerate the mixture for half an hour before shaping them.

Shape the mixture into 1" balls. I got 5 such.

Melt dark chocolate on a double boiler or microwave for 1 min (watch every 20 secs) Add 1/2 tbsp of butter and mix well. Dip the rum balls in chocolate, take out and keep aside on a plate to set.

Meanwhile melt white chocolate on a double boiler or microwave for 1 min, watching every 20 secs. Put the chocolate in a ziplock bag or any plastic and snip off the end. Pipe lines on the rum balls.(Mine came out very roughly as you can see). Let it set.

Alternately you may roll the rum balls in icing sugar(or powdered sugar), cocoa powder, sprinkle or even finely chopped nuts.

Can be stored in an air-tight container for several weeks, if made in bulk.

Sending this recipe to Favorite Recipes- Christmas, Lets cook edible gifts for christmas and 16 Christmas treats

Happy Indulgence and a Happy New Year!

Amrita

Twin Treat-Cute Reindeer Cupcakes and Devil's Food Cupcakes

Plans are nothing; planning is everything-Dwight D. Eisenhower

Plans !

At the beginning of this month, I made a plan with the list of recipes to be made and shared on the blog. I planned to make Truffles and Rum balls, Christmas fruit cakes and all sorts of Christmas Bakes!! Another thing on my plan was to participate in the event 'Cook like a star-Martha Stewart' which my dear friend Yen of Eat your heart out is co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy kids and Jocelyn of Riceball Eats for this month. One thing led to the other and the entire month breezed by and here I am barely 3 days left to Christmas, still with the plan!

Well, I made another plan!! To kill two birds with the same stone! I decided to make a Martha Stewart cupcake and do a christmassy icing. I eyed these cute little adorable reindeers on Pinterest and have been wanting to replicate them for the longest time. Every time I see them, my heart strums Vaanya's favorite Christmas carol

Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer 

had a very shiny nose. 

And if you ever saw him, 

you would even say it glows. 

I eyed these chocolicious cupcakes here and wanted to try them badly so I planned(yet again) to make half as the recipe goes and the other half with the reindeers. 

Our Christmas tree is finally put up and all the decorations are out so I made the most of it!! Everyone loved the aptly named Devil's food cupcakes  and adored the cute reindeers. The cupcakes are soft dark chocolatey and very yummy.

Ingredients: I quartered the recipe to yield 7 cupcakes

• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 3 tbsp hot water
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar (powdered)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup sour cream(I used yogurt)
• 1-2 drops vanilla essence

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.
Line standard muffin tins with liners.
Whisk together cocoa and hot water until smooth.
In another bowl sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Melt butter and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring well to combine. Remove from heat and pour in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer till mixture is cooled, 4-5 mins.
Add egg and mix well.
Add vanilla essence and the cocoa mixture and beat till combined well.
Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with yogurt and beat until just combined.
Pour batter in prepared tins filling each till 3/4.
Bake for 20 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Cool them well before icing.

Assembly:
I used my leftover Chocolate honey frosting from Chocolate Almond cake. Spread them well on the cupcakes and sprinkle some chocolate shavings for Devil's Food cupcakes.
For the reindeer cupcakes, I spread the same frosting as base. Made eyes out of blobs of white butter and mouth with some white butter mixed with chocolate sauce to get the brownish tinge. Melt some dark chocolate and put in a ziplock bag or a plastic and snip of the end. Draw pairs of eyes and reindeer antlers on a butter/parchment paper. Draw extra pieces as they are brittle and may break. Let it cool completely and carefully peel off. Put the eyes on the white butter blobs and antlers on the head. For the noses I used Skittles (remember my Skittles experiment) You can use Gems or any other small round candy with brown/dark purple and red colour.

Sending this recipe to Yen for cook like a star, Merry Christmas celebrations, Cook Joy Bake fest#14, Favorite recipes Christmas, lets cook edible gifts for christmas, foodomania's christmas-cook-off-contest, 60 days to christmas, 16 Christmas treats and celebrate christmas

Merry Christmas
Amrita

Chocolate Almond cake for Christmas

Another Baking Partners Challenge and we were given three cake recipes to celebrate the colourful season of Christmas. I loved all three and had a very hard time zeroing on to one of them. Being a complete Choc-o-holic, I had no choice but give in to the chocolate cake recipe!! Interestingly this recipe calls for Brazil nuts, and I (probably like most of you) had no idea about these nuts lest find them here. So it was decided to substitute with almonds though I wanted to try walnuts so badly as chocolate and walnuts have such a unique unseparable combination. Anyways almonds it was decided!

The cake rose like a dream filling my new make shift kitchen with the most inviting aroma. I was literally waiting and drooling for it to get baked soon. The rich chocolate smell was just way too mesmerising. Together with the chocolate honey frosting it was one of the most soft, moist and delicious chocolate cakes. Definitely a keeper recipe.

Thankfully because of this cake, Vishal finally brought out the christmas tree and all the decorations as I wanted some for my pics. Now we all await to put up the tree very soon. Christmas is certainly very near!!

Ingredients:I have halved the original recipe

For the cake:

• 1/2 cup almond meal or almonds soaked overnight and peeled
• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 6 tbsp sugar(powdered)
• 3 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 eggs separated, room temperature
• a pinch of cream of tartar

For the chocolate honey frosting:

• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 3 tbsp butter, softened
• 2 tbsp honey

Procedure:

Cake:

Preheat oven to 175 degree Celsius.

Take almonds and toast them for 5 -10 mins in the oven or till they dry up. Let them cool and grind them with 1 tbsp of sugar to a fine powder. (It is important to see that they dry completely before grinding otherwise you will get a paste of almonds)

Melt chocolate on a double boiler or microwave for 1 min(take care as the chocolate may burn, safest way is to microwave for 30 secs, stir and see how much is it left to be melted)

Grease and line your baking tin. I used a 6x2'' round tin.

In a bowl, sift flour and baking powder and mix the almond meal/powder.

Cream butter with 4 tbsp of sugar till fluffy and smooth. Add one egg yolk at a time and mix till all 3 egg yolks are blended well. Stir in the melted chocolate.

In another clean bowl, whip 3 egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar till it forms soft peaks. Add the remaining 1 tbsp of sugar and beat till egg whites are stiff and shiny.

Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg white mixture in the chocolate flour mixture. Repeat till all of it is blended well.

Pout the batter in prepared baking tin and bake for 35-40 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let it cool and remove from the tin.

Chocolate honey frosting:

Take cream in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Add chopped chocolate and stir well till smooth. Mix the butter and honey. 
Let it cool to room temperature and refrigerate for 30 mins.
Whip the chocolate cream on an ice bath.
Spread frosting evenly on the sides and top of the cake. 
Garnish the cake by sprinkling some almond meal/powder on top of the cake. I chose a star pattern to celebrate the spirit of Christmas!

Sending this recipe to Merry Christmas Celebrations, Cooks Joy Bake Fest#14, Favorite recipes Christmas, Cook.eat.delicious-deserts, Lets cook edible gifts for christmas,  Food-o-mania's Christmas cook off contest, 60 days to christmas, Celebrate Christmas 

Happy Celebrating Christmas
Amrita