Ombre Cake for 1st Blog Anniversary and 3 Giveaways!!

 'Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life.'
Wayne Dyer

Celebrations!!

We turn 1.

20 March 2012, Vishal came back home and told me that he has created the blog we have been thinking and talking about. Our first post was up, an introduction to our passion. After much discussion and thinking, we decided to name our blog Sweet'n'Savoury...a journey of my sweet trials and Vishal's savoury experiments. The blog soon became  a stage to share our love of cooking/baking, inventing and experimenting. 

Though I always wanted to start our blog on a sweet note, Vishal jumped on the blog bandwagon with his post on a Seafood soup experiment where he made the very flavourful broth at home. I gave a sweet start with a cake that I have grown up smelling like heaven in the kitchen, and I named it Comfort food-Chocolate cake.

There was no stopping since then. Me and Vishal shared all kinds of dishes that we love to cook and serve. Blogging has become our way of life and we enjoy every bit of it, learning new techniques, new flavors and new joy. 
We want to thank all our readers for the tremendous support and love. All of you who have tried our recipes and loved it, we want to thank you for believing us(esp my friend Minu Agarwal Bhargava). Since a Celebration is all about sharing, we very happily announce a  3 Giveaways!! Me and Vishal have personally bought these 3 amazing books for all you lovely people. Read the end of the post for more details.

Celebrate what you want to see more of.

Tom Peters

Ingredients: For a 4 layered 5" round cake. Recipe source : Passionate about Baking

•  80 gms all purpose flour
•  25 gms almond meal
•  110 gms sugar, powdered
•  4 eggs
•  1 tsp baking powder
•  1 tsp vanilla extract
•  2 tsp olive oil
•  Pink food colour

Note:

• This recipe is for all the 4 layers. 
• I used half of this recipe to make 2 cake layers at one time and used the other half to make the last 2 layers.
• Make almond meal by simply putting almonds in boiling water for 5 mins. Drain and peel the skin. Dry completely on a kitchen towel or toss them on a heated saucepan to remove all the moisture. Grind with little sugar to get your homemade almond meal.

  
Filling and Frosting:

•  250 gms unsalted butter, at room temperature
•  250 gms icing/powdered sugar
•  1 tbsp milk
•  1 tsp vanilla extract
•  pink food colour

Procedure:

Cake: (I used half of the recipe to make 2 layers at one go)
Grease and line 2 5" round cake tins.
Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.
Sift flour, almond meal, baking powder and keep aside.
Take a pot and add water. Let it simmer. 
Add eggs and sugar in a bowl and put this on the pot of simmering water. Beat this mixture for 5-10 mins till it becomes thick and triples in volume. 
Take off the water and add vanilla extract. Beat for 3-4 mins till the mixture cools down a bit. 
Gently fold in the flour mixture in 2-3 batches. Fold in the olive oil.
Divide batter in 2 parts. Pour the plain batter in 1 cake tin. Add few drops of red food colour in the rest of the batter and pour in the other tin.
Bake for 25-30 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool and slice off the tops to get cleaner edges.

Repeat the same process for the other 2 layers. Remember to add a bit more of the food colour to get darker shades for the next layers.    

Filling and Frosting:
Whip butter till pale and creamy. Add sugar, milk and vanilla extract and beat well. 
Spread on each layer of cake and sandwich them. Refrigerate to set.
Divide the remaining frosting in 4 parts.  
Put the white part in a plastic cone. Add red food colour to the other parts to get the desired shades. Fill them in different cones. You will have 4 cones of frosting. 
Starting from the bottom layer of the cake, pipe little balls and spread them with the cone or use a small spoon. Use different shades in layers to frost the sides and top of the cake.

Pic from 'Butter hearts sugar' blog

The cake was super scrumptious and was an excellent way to celebrate a journey that me and Vishal have nurtured and enjoyed. 

Giveaway:

Since these books are bought with a lot of love and joy, we have kept some simple rules for eligibility. 

1. Like us on Facebook
2. Become our follower on Google friend connect (find it on our sidebar)
3. Tell us one dish from our recipe list that you love the most and would want to try and (most importantly) why. Leave a comment on that recipe post. 

The wonderful giveaway books are

Three winners will be chosen on the best creative answers by me and Vishal. 
The Giveaway is valid for anyone with an Indian address. For people who do not have an Indian address, have a Big heart, participate and win the book for a friend of yours who has an Indian address!!
Giveaway is valid till midnight of 20 April, 2013, IST(Indian Standard time)

Sending this bake to Bake Fest#17 brainchild of Vardhini

Happy Celebrating 1 year
Amrita and Vishal