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