Chocolate mud cake with SMBC frosting

It was time of the year to bake a cake again and I jumped on the opportunity to try my hands on some techniques I have never tried before. It was my dear Husband's birthday on the 27th of this month and more than us, our daughter Vaanya was super excited about the celebration. The cake was attempted keeping Vaanya and her fetish with pink in mind. And boy, how elated she was to look at it. 

I had seen a similar image of a cake on Pinterest one day and had decided to attempt it. With the D day nearing, I pushed myself out of a lazy slumber and bought the necessary equipments and ingredients. The cakes were baked a night before and while they got baked in batches, I made the icing. The cakes were cooled, stacked with the icing in between and given a crumb coat. Next morning, I gave all the finishing touches to the cake while my daughter was away at school. The cake was dressed up in a pink drip and adorned with buttercream flowers. I knew Vaanya was going to love all the pinkness.  

The day was spent in a long drive to the highway and once we came back home in the evening, Vaanya was eager to have the cake cut. The day came to an end with the cake cutting, eating cheer and laughter. May God bless us with such beautiful moments forever.

Chocolate Mud cake 

Recipe source : Cocawind

My notes : 

• I halved the recipe and then pour the batter in two 6" round pans.
• Baked them at 180 degree Celsius for 20-25 mins. 
• Made other half of the recipe and repeated to yield four 6" round cakes.
• Trim tops so that all are equal.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream icing (SMBC) 

Recipe source : Here

My notes : 

• I followed the recipe to the T
• Separated 3/4 of the icing and kept separate for frosting the cake.
• Added pink food colour till I achieved the desired colour and frosted each cake layer with it. 
• Once all the layers were stacked, I frosted the outside and refrigerated to set. I kept mine overnight. You may keep for 3-4 hrs.
• With a glass of hot water and an offset spatula, give the cake a final frosting finish. Every time dip in the hot water, wipe your spatula and try and give a neat finish to the frosting. 
• Refrigerate

Pink Drip : 

Take equal quantity of white chocolate and cream. Heat cream and add chopped white chocolate to it. Stir it well. Add little milk to make it a little runny. Add pink food colour. 

Take spoonfuls of the drip and pour on the edge of the frosted cake, all around. Now fill the top of the cake with the drip too. Refrigerate.

Buttercream flowers : 

To the rest of the SMBC icing, divide into 4. Colour pink to one part, purple to another, green to the third and leave the 4th as it is. 

Pipe pink icing to a piping bag with a Rose petal nozzle and pipe flowers over a piece of butter paper and over a flower nail. Once done, transfer the piece of butter paper to a flat plate and refrigerate.

Repeat same with purple flower.

Watch here 

Pipe some of the icing(not coloured) over the top of the cake, half an inch behind from the outer diameter. 

Peel the flowers from the butter paper and put on the cake. Arrange it the way you want.

Pipe the leaves with a leaf nozzle.

Refrigerate.

Happy Cake decorating
Amrita

Little cake hearts

'The town is getting painted red', literally, with Valentine's day just around the corner. Everywhere across the city you see heart shapes of all sizes and the colour red in everything. The flower shops are getting geared up with red flowers and the card shops have stacked themselves with cards that express love. 

I have never understood the importance of one particular day to express love. But a Valentine's day is of utmost importance to me as it is the day I got married to the love of my life, my husband Vishal. We have never been flower and card crazy, but yes I love to make something special for this memorable day. 

This year, I took the cheats way and made these little cake hearts out of leftover cake and chocolate ganache. It requires a bit of patience to shape them in perfection and the rest is a breeze. Just dip them in your favourite melted chocolate, milk or dark and let it set. For the more experimental lot, try binding the cake crumbs with some rum or vodka instead of the ganache and you have some boozy little chocolate hearts. 

Ingredients : No fixed measurements. I made these with some leftover brownie and leftover ganache. You may use any cake recipe. Try one of these : Comfort chocolate cake, Perfect chocolate cake, Everyday yoghurt cake, brownies. 

• 1/2 cake crumbs (crumble the cake you are using with a fork or with your fingers)
• 1 tbsp chocolate ganache ( made with equal quantity of chopped dark chocolate stirred in hot cream(Amul cream) ) 
• melted Milk chocolate or dark chocolate compound for the coating on top
• melted white chocolate for drizzling on top

Procedure : 

Take cake crumbs in a bowl and mix with the ganache. If not using ganache, use a little bit of butter or cream to bind the cake crumbs. If you want to be more experimental, try binding the cake crumbs with some alcohol like rum or vodka. 

When squeezed between your fingers the cake should bind together. 

Make little heart shapes with the cake dough.

Refrigerate for 5-10 minutes.

Dip these little cake hearts in the melted chocolate. Keep on a sheet of parchment paper/butter paper and allow to set completely. If in a hurry refrigerate them. 

Take melted white chocolate in a piping bag and snip off the end. Drizzle the white chocolate on top of the cake hearts and allow to set. 

It can't get easier than these bite sized little delights. For the lazy bakers, these can even be made with store bought cake. All you need is a little bit of patience, some melted chocolate and loads of love to make them. 

My little valentine, my daughter Vaanya enjoying her cake hearts. After much cajoling (and more cake hearts) she agreed to pose for some pictures. 

Happy little cake hearts relishing

Amrita

Chocolate Salami

Raksha Bandhan or Rakhi has been a fairly simple festival in my house while I was growing. Being Sikhs, we have adapted a lot of our customs from Hinduism and therefore we celebrate a simplified version of it which means no tilak and Pooja. I remember seeing my Aunt perform the morning fast before tying the sacred thread on my Father and Uncle's wrist but as children we never had to do that. As children, I would tease my younger brother that being a girl is so lucky as you get 2 gifts in a year, one on birthday and another on Rakhi. At home, Mom would make some bread rolls for breakfast and thus our Rakhi would be over with some sweets. 

This year, Vaanya, my daughter will get to tie a Rakhi on my nephew. I see a part of my childhood in her and am looking forward to see her enjoy the day with her little brother. She is naturally too small to understand the importance of Rakhi but I am sure with time she will cherish these moments just like me. 

This year I wanted to try a rather very simple sweet. Something which does not require much work and is done in a jiffy. Therefore I decided to play with these Chocolate Salami where there is no definite recipe and you can add just about anything that you want. 

Chocolate Salami or Salame di cioccolata or Salame de chocolate is a traditional Italian and Portuguese dessert which is made from dark chocolate, broken bits of biscuits or cookies, butter, eggs and alcohol like rum or port wine.

A misleading name, Chocolate Salami is named because of its appearance where the dessert is shaped like a log and is cut in roundels while serving.

I skipped the eggs and got an intensely rich, rum laden chocolatey goodness in this dessert. For a children's version I used milk chocolate and skipped the nuts and fruits. Instead I added some cake pieces, biscuits of my daughter's choice and some almond powder. 

This dessert has endless variations. Go ahead and enjoy making and relishing it this festive season.

Ingredients : Makes around 7-8 slices of the chocolate salami

• 200 gms dark chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 cup cream(I used Amul)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 3-4 pieces of Marie biscuits or any digestive biscuits
• 1/2 cup of assorted nuts and dried fruits(I used almonds, walnuts, cashews, pista and cranberries)
• 2-3 tbsp rum (optional, may be substituted with orange juice)

Procedure : 

Dry roast the nuts and chop them fine. Mix with the chopped cranberries and keep aside.

Roughly break the biscuits in medium sized chunks and keep aside.

Heat cream in a pan. Be careful not to burn it.

Remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate to it. Mix it well so that the chocolate melts.

Now add the butter and mix. 

Throw in the nuts and biscuits and give it a stir. 

Allow this mixture to cool and thicken for around 4-5 minutes, or more if required.

Put this, now thickened mixture, onto a cling wrap and give it a log shape. Twist both the ends to secure it.

Pop it in the refrigerator for 3-4 hrs. 

In between take it out and roll it to maintain the shape.

Slice it and serve.

Note : For a children's version I used milk chocolate instead of dark one and added digestive biscuits, chocolate biscuits, cake pieces. I also added 1 tbsp of almond powder instead of the chopped nuts. And yes, the rum has been omitted there. 

Happy Raksha Bandhan

Amrita