Talking about 'good' fat

Come summer the market is loaded with summer seasonal fruits. Avocado is one such fruit, commonly known as butter-fruit in southern India owing to it's creamy-buttery-soft pulp. It is a pear shaped dark green fruit with parrot green pulp and a large seed. It has almost no taste, almost. Mash it a little and you might notice a subtle flavour.

So 'What's with the good fat?' you may ask. Fats and good-fats are a common running topic of discussion in our household. Arguments range from 'no fat is good' to 'some fats are good' to 'little amounts are essential'.
Apart from being loaded with potassium vitamin K and folic acid, avocado contains large amounts of good fat. So why not use it to substitute butter in a cake?!

I recalled coming across a vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake. Joy, the author of the blog, mentions it to be a moist and chocolatey cake. Bang on target on both accounts.
You wouldn't miss the egg or the butter. And definitely won't be able to make out presence of a fruit. You might smell the oil though. It was fun to see the expressions on faces when the ingredients of the cake were disclosed.

The original recipe includes a avocado based frosting. For me it had to be Ganache. Just two ingredients, chocolate and cream, some stirring and you get one of the simplest and quickest of frostings/fillings. You'll love to make and eat it if you are a chocolate lover. Check here for more info on how to make it.

I made sourcream ganache with coffee flavour. I added some icing sugar to reduce the tang lent by sourcream. I used it as a filling and for frosting the top of cake. I left the sides bare.

What was intended to be an experiment turned out to be a great party cake! Here's the recipe:

Eggless Chocolate Avocado Cake with Sourcream Ganache

 

Ingredients:

Cake

1 1/2 Cups All-purpose flour
3-4 Tbsps cocoa powder
2 pinches of salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 Cups granulated sugar
2 Tbsps vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
1/4 Cup soft avocado, well mashed, about 1/4 medium avocado
1 Cup water
1 Tbsps white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Ganache

200 ml sourcream
150 gm chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
2 tsp instant coffee powder
1 tsp hot water
4 Tbsp icing sugar, sifted
*For making ganache, among Indian chocolate brands, I suggest using Cadbury Bournville.

Steps:

Preheat oven to 180° C. Grease and dust an 8" round pan.

Sift together all of the dry ingredients except the sugar.  Set aside.

Mash the avocado. Mix it with remaining wet ingredients in a bowl.

Add sugar into the wet mix and stir.

Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ones all at once. Stir until smooth.

Pour batter into a the prepared pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool the cake in cake pan for 10 minutes. Turn it out onto a wire rack. Let cool completely.

Preparing Ganache:
Dissolve the coffee in the hot water, set aside.

Heat the sourcream in a heavy bottom pan. Once small bubbles appear around the edges of the cream, remove from heat and add the chocolate chips.
Stir every 2 minutes, to ensure all the chocolate is melted. If you find unmelted chocolate chips, reheat cream-chocolate mixture on double boiler for about 10-15 seconds.

Once the chocolate is completely melted, add sifted icing sugar and mix. Ensure that no lumps remain.
Add the coffee once the ganache is warm to touch.

You can use the ganache right away by pouring it as a glaze on the cake. It thickens as it cools. Once thickened, you can spread it on the cake with a spatula. I kept the ganache in refrigerator for about 2 hours and whipped it to get a lighter fluffier texture. On whipping, it lightens in color too, this gave a good contrast to the dark rich chocolate cake.

Assembly:
Slice the cake horizontally in two layers. Spread about half the ganache on bottom layer, leaving about 1/4 inch around the border. The filling gets pushed towards the edges once you place the top layer.
Lightly lay the top cake layer on the ganache filling. Dump remaining ganache on the top layer and spread evenly. You can make swirls using the spatula.

Try baking this cake while the avocado season lasts. As Rose says 'You won't regret it'.

Happy Baking!
Shwe

Citrus Burst

I like citrus fruits in cakes. Have I mentioned that earlier? I made this Orange Sourcream cake to make use of the last of desi oranges of this season. This is a simple looking cake, till you take a bite....mmm and then you are lost in the flavour.

Talking of simple, there is this small, humble shop I visited few years back in Pune, Aadinath Stainless Steel Center. It is located in Narayan Peth, near Kanya Shala. It stores racks n racks of cake pans, cookie sheets, pudding moulds etc. And if you bug the shopkeeper a little he just might show you hidden treasures like cream-roll moulds, icing tips and bags, rose pins, scrapers; just the kind of shop a baker would be interested in. 

And about half a kilometer ahead is the 'Pune Bakery', famous for its patties or puffs. We chose to try these 'naans', they were yum.

While in Pune, I also came across an innovative concept called 'Toy-brary'. It is a library of toys, games, CDs and children books where kids can go and borrow toys etc and return it in a week. Sounds fun doesn't it, to be able to play with new toys, read new books every week!

But, I digress. The cake recipe is adapted from here. This cake is tender and moist and the glaze adds to the moisture. Since I ran out of orange juice for the glaze, I went for a simple syrup and added some cardamom for flavour. You can skip the glaze and instead sprinkle powdered sugar on the top. I baked the cake in an 8" round pan, the cake was taller than shown in the original recipe.

A fine, sharp grater is the best tool to get the zest of any citrus fruit. If neither is available, you can, with a very sharp knife, take out the outermost skin of the peel. Carefully avoid the white pith beneath, it is bitter. To get the best flavour out of the zest rub it in some sugar with your finger tips. If you get zest using a knife, pulse it with sugar in a mixer/food processor.

While I was preparing the ingredients, my mother suggested to use the entire pulp of orange instead of just the juice. So I removed the skin and seeds of the orange slices and ran them in a mixer. It increased the fiber content and made the cake more moist, more flavourful. Here's the recipe:

Orange Sour Cream Cake

Ingredients:

Cake
3/4 Cups + 2 Tbsps All purpose flour
1/2 Cups whole wheat flour
2 Tbsps cornflour or custard powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup ghee, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp orange zest
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup orange juice + pulp

Glaze/Syrup
3 Tbsps sugar
3 Tbsps water
1 pod cardamom, powdered

Steps:

Preheat oven to 180° C. Grease and dust an 8" round pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, cornflour, baking powder and salt.

Pulse the sugar and zest in mixer/food processor. In a large bowl, beat together ghee, sugar-zest mixture for 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, and beat mixture until smooth and well-combined.  Add vanilla extract and mix.

Mix in one third of the flour mixture, followed by the sour cream. Mix in another third of the flour mixture, followed by the orange juice. Stir in all remaining flour, mixing until no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.Cool the cake in cake pan for 10 minutes. Turn it out onto a wire rack.

To prepare the syrup, mix sugar and water in a pan. Put the pan on medium heat and keep stirring till sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in the cardamom powder. Let the syrup cool.

While the cake is slightly warm, drizzle the syrup evenly over the cake. Allow syrup to soak in while the cake cools. Allow cake to cool completely before slicing.

Happy Baking!
Shwe

In chocolate heaven

That's where a bite into this cake will take you. Bitter-sweet, intense, scrumptious - all that a chocoholic wants. Plus added nuttiness of almonds. Need I say more?

I baked this cake on a recent trip to Mumbai. My cousin there told me she wanted to learn to bake a cake. "Easy or complicated?" I asked, "Tasty" she replied. I chose to bake this chocolate cake by Donna Hay that she shared in her 50th Issue magazine. I have tried this recipe thrice before, each time with some twist, each time devoured by happy content faces.

Early morning visit to Juhu Beach

Since baking is not a very common hobby in India, it is difficult to find shops which sell the tools and raw materials. Bakers, especially home-bakers, are always on a hunt for these. Arrife at Bandra West is one such store. It is a familiar name among the baking community and it was on my agenda while I was in Mumbai. A tiny shop selling pans, moulds, liners, fondant-plungers, exotic ingredients for far-away lands… and I almost started dreaming there!

I baked this cake in a microwave oven in convection mode and the cake turned out just fine. This blog post by Suma Rowjee of Cakes and More was very helpful. In the post she has given loads of gyaan and useful tips for microwave convection-mode baking.

I haven't tried baking in microwave mode. You can try, only that the cake will be cooked instead of being baked and you'll not get the trademark crust that a regular oven gives.

The cake has an intense chocolate flavour. I suggest using the best cocoa powder you can find. I used Nilgiri's cocoa powder. I find it better than Cadbury's cocoa powder. Nilgiri's is a bakery-grocery-dairy superstore chain located in southern India. 
The original recipe includes glaze which I omitted, the intended audience wasn't ready to wait. I increased the sugar in the cake batter by 2 tablespoons instead. Since butter wasn't available I used ghee and increased the sour cream. The original recipe uses 2/3 cup butter and 3/4 cup sour cream. The granularity of the almonds can also be changed from fine meal to coarsely chopped, the cake would still be yum. Also sour cream can be replaced with yogurt, not very sour one. My cake top developed some thin cracks all around, maybe a sign of overshooting bake time by 2-3 minutes, but the taste was awesome.  Here’s the recipe:

Chocolate Almond Sourcream cake

Ingredients:

1/3 Cup ghee, thick n grainy

2/3 Cup + 2 Tbsps demerara/brown sugar

1 Cup sour cream

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 Cup almond meal

1 Cup All-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Steps:

Preheat oven to 180° C. Grease and dust an 8” round pan.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder. Add almond meal and mix using a wire whisk. Set aside.

Beat the ghee and damerera sugar for 2 minutes.

In a different medium-sized bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream and vanilla.

Add egg mixture to the ghee mixture. Mix slightly. Add dry ingredients and mix till combined (do not over mix). Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pan. 

Bake for 35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Cool in cake pan for 10 minutes.  Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Cut a big slice, take a bite, close your eyes n savour the intense chocolate flavour. The cake just melts in your mouth. And before you know it disappears in a poof!

Happy Baking!

Shwe

When life gives you lemons...

But if you happen to have blueberries too, I suggest you take out your whisk n bowls and bake a lemon blueberry buttermilk cake. For those who haven't tasted lemon in bakes it is a tangy, sweet and refreshing experience. Berries and citrus fruits are a very classic combination; a must try.

I love fruits and I prefer fresh fruits over tinned. But tinned is the only way blueberries are available in India. I had saved a small batch of these from one of my previous bakes. This time I wanted a more pronounced lemon flavour.

The recipe is adapted from here and it sure is a moist cake as the author mentions in her post. I made some changes based on the ingredients I had on hand and the comments to the original recipe. I reduced the fat and the sugar. I added some scraped vanilla beans. I loved the tiny specks of vanilla scattered in the slice. I would have been happier if I had more berries to add.

Every cake requires some form of fat, usually butter. But here, we use oil which makes the cake moist. From my past experience, oil based cakes tastes like... well oil, which is not a very pleasant experience. But this cake changed my opinion.

I baked this cake in two mini loaf pans and about 10 cupcake moulds. I soaked in lemon juice one loaf and a couple of cupcakes while left the other loaf as-is. The soaked loaf was devoured as light pre-lunch dessert while my sister-in-law prepared this yummy brinjal/eggplant curry for lunch. The non-soaked loaf was a tea/snack time bite. Though you can reduce the sugar in the cake, I suggest not to skimp on the lemon syrup. The syrup gives the cake its tang.

This cake batter is prepared using the muffin method. In that you measure your dry and wet ingredients in two separate bowls and combine the two by stirring them together very briefly. Here's the recipe:

Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups All-purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
2 pinches of salt
1 Cup buttermilk
3/4 Cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsps grated lemon zest
1 vanilla bean, scrapped or 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 Cup vegetable oil
1/3 Cup blueberries, washed and dried

Lemon Syrup
2 Tbsps freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 Tbsps powdered sugar

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease-line-dust the mini-loaf pans.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. 

Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Mix the blueberries with a tablespoon of flour and sprinkle them on top of the batter. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the lemon juice and powdered sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before flipping out onto a cooling rack. Place the cooling rack above a plate to contain the dripping syrup. While the cake is still warm make tiny holes in the loaf and pour the lemon-sugar syrup over the cake and allow it to soak in. Let cool.

Happy Baking!
Shwe

It's about time...

It's about time I log what I bake and what better way to do that than a blog. A little bit of history is called for here. I used to bake, learnt basics from mom, internet and books. My creations were savoured and appreciated by friends and family. They would encourage or suggest me to do 'something' with my 'talent'. So here I am taking a small step, putting into words and pictures the recipe, the final output and what goes behind the scenes in baking.

Here I present a banana almond raisin bundt cake. It is eggless, whole-wheat and yummy. This is an any-time-of-the-day cake, breakfast, snack or munch time.

I have tried banana in cakes earlier but this was my first try without eggs. The inspiration for the recipe is here. It includes cardamom (ilaichi / veldoda). I like cardamom but was a bit skeptical as to how it will work with vanilla and chocolate.  Since I was going to use cardamom, I decided to give it a desi twist. So out went the chocolate chips and the vanilla, and instead entered raisins and almonds. And while I was at it, I replaced some of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. I threw in some wheat bran as well. The bran adds to the fiber content and gives the crumb an interesting look as tiny golden specks. The original recipe calls for brown sugar. Since I didn't have any at hand, I used part white sugar and part jaggery.

The combination of banana, jaggery and cardamom was a winner I think. The fruit I used was the small yellakki you get here in southern India. It has a slight tang to it which gave the cake a nice flavour. Plump raisins added moistness.

I baked the cake in a bundt as it is camera, eyes and slicing friendly. And more importantly it was easily reachable in the rack. A warning for the first time bundt users though, a bundt pan needs proper greasing and dusting. Here's the recipe:

Banana almond raisin bundt cake

Ingredients:

1 Cup minus 2 Tbsps All purpose flour

1/2 Cup whole wheat flour / atta

2 Tbsps wheat bran*

1/2 Cup sugar, powdered

1/4 Cup firmly packed jaggery/gud

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 pinch salt

75 gm butter, softened at room temperature

3 yellakki bananas, mashed (about 1/2 cup) or 1 large banana

3 to 4 Tbsps milk

2 cardamom pods, powdered

2 Tbsps soaked raisins

2 Tbsps chopped almonds

*wheat bran is optional. You can use full 1 Cup all-purpose flour instead.

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Sift the flours, bran, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Mix the ingredients again using a whisk to ensure that all ingredients are distributed evenly.

Put the softened butter, sugar and jaggery in a bowl and beat till the mixture is fluffy and creamy. Then add the mashed banana and beat till smooth.

Add the flour mixture in 3 batches alternating with milk, starting and ending with flour, and mix till combined. You can add a tablespoon or two of milk, adding just a teaspoon at a time, if the batter seems too dry.
Fold in the raisins and almonds.

Scrape the batter out into a greased and floured 6-cup bundt pan and bake at 165°C for 30 minutes. That would be 180°C for 30 mins for a regular square or round pan.

Test using a toothpick or a skewer. Remove pan from oven when done. Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then unmould the cake. Cool completely on a rack and serve yourself a thick yummy slice!

All in all the experiment was success. My kid, lets call him T (16 months old), loved it too. He seems to have a very developed sense of taste. Just the other day I tried something with blueberries, was my first attempt with the berries, and he didn't eat a second bite. hmm-mph.

I would suggest you try the original recipe too, banana and chocolate-chips is a great pairing.

Happy Baking!
Shwe