Mango Mousse

  

Ingredients:

1 Cup mango puree 

1 Cup fresh cream

1 packet Mango jelly powder

1/3 Cup Hot water

To decorate:

Whipped cream (I used store brought one; if you are using freshly whipped ones dont forget to add powdered sugar to the fresh cream while whipping)

Chopped mangoes 

Method:

Open the mango jelly powder into a bowl and add 1/3 cup hot water to this. Mix it well.

Then, add in the mango puree and mix until well-incorporated. Keep this aside.

Pour the fresh cream into a mixing bowl. Whip the cream with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes or until you get medium stiff peaks. 

Now, gradually fold your whipped cream into the mango mixture with a rubber spatula, working in three batches.

Then divide the mango mousse into the serving glasses and let them chill in the refrigerator for about 3 hours.

Once they're chilled, take them out and top with some fresh chopped mango and whipped cream. Enjoy!

Coconut Pannacotta with Caramelised Pineapple

 

Ingredients:

Coconut milk : 400 ml Can

Fresh cream : 300 ml Can

Caster sugar : 3/4 Cup

Cold water : 1/3 Cup

Gelatin : 1 Tbsp

Vanilla essence : 1 Tsp

Pineapple essence / Coconut essence : 1-2 drops (optional)

Pineapple - 1 Can

Caster Sugar - 2-3 Tbsp

chocolate shavings (optional)

Method:

Place cold water into a small bowl. Sprinkle over gelatin and keep it aside.

Place coconut milk, cream and 3/4 cup of sugar into a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes or until sugar dissolves (do not boil). Remove from heat. Add the vanilla essence and pineapple essence (if using). 

Add Gelatin mixed with water to coconut milk mixture. Whisk well to combine.

Pour in coconut mixture to 12 x 1/4-cup capacity dishes or molds. Cover and refrigerate for 5 hours, or overnight if time permits, until set. 

Chop the pineapple to small pieces. Place these pieces to a non stick pan along with the juice in the can and cook till it becomes soft (Adjust the sugar depending on the sweetness of pineapple). Cook till the juice evaporates and the color changes slightly brownish. 

Turn pannacotta onto plate.  Serve along with pineapple. Can add chocolate curls or sauce or chopped berries. 

Lemon and Dates pickle

Ingredients:

Lemon : 15 medium size (around 1200gms)

Dates : 300 gm (pitted dates- chopped)

Oil : 2-3 tbsp (ideally sesame oil, but I used Rice bran oil)

Mustard seeds -1 tbsp

Ginger - 1 big piece (chopped)

Garlic - 2 bulb (chopped)

Kashmiri chilli powder- 5 tbsp

Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp

Fenugreek powder- 1 tsp

Asafoetida- 1 tsp

Jaggery powder -2.5 tbsp

Sugar -1 tbsp

White vinegar- 1/4 cup

Hot Water - 1.5 -2  cup (depending on the gravy you like)

Method:

 Squeeze the lemons and keep the juice aside. In this recipe we are using the peels only. Make sure you don’t squeeze the lemons too much, its good to have little bit a juice in that peel, but remove the seeds from the peel. 😊

(You can keep the juice in the fridge or can freeze it in ice cube tray and use it later). 

Cut each half into 4 parts and to this add enough salt and pressure cook it for 1 whistle. Once pressure subsided drain the water completely from the lemon. Once water drained out add 1/4 cup vinegar and 1 tbsp sugar and give it a good mix. Keep this aside overnight.  

In a deep pan, add oil and splutter mustard seeds. Then add chopped ginger and garlic and sauté well. Once it start to change the color reduce the heat and add chilli powder, turmeric powder, asafoetida and fenugreek powder. Mix well and cook till the raw smell goes. Add hot water to this. increase the heat to medium and let the water starts to boil. Now add jaggery powder and dates. Cover it for 2-5 mins until the dates soaked in water. Now add the cooked lemon and stir it so that lemon coated with the gravy very well. Again reduce the heat to low and cover the pot with a lid. Let the pickle simmer for 10 mins or so. 

Giraffe Cake- cake for a 1st birthday

2 Chocolate cake baked in a rectangular sheet pan. Sandwich the cakes with chocolate buttercream. Cut the '1' shape out of this after placing the final top layer. (The cake which we cut out for getting the shape can be used to make cake pops). Add a crumb coating to this and keep it in fridge for 1 hour. decorate the cake with yellow and chocolate fondant to get the shape of giraffe 

Toad stool cake for my little ones 4th birthday

 

I made 3 round cakes, 8 inch each, and another one in a not so deep 8 inch bowl (coffee flavored cake). Sandwiched the round cakes with caramel buttercream and carved the shape of toad stool base. Crumb-coat this with same butter cream and then covered it with white fondant. 

Cover the cake stand with green fondant and place the cake layer on top of this. 

Crumb-coat the one baked in a oven safe bowl and cover it with red fondant. Place this on top of the base carefully. 

Now the shape of the toad-stool is almost there. 

Now the decoration part - 

Using wood print stencil, the door details are done. 
For windows, cut 2 square piece from the grey fondant, and using the piping nozzles cut out 4 round from each window. 
With fondant made small flowers, creepers and pebbles. These parts added on the cake.

 

Barrel cake for a 40th birthday

A post after a long time. Baked many birthday cakes in between for my kids and friends’ kids. But never got a chance to upload any of it in my blog. I know I am not treating this space the way I wanted when I started the blog. Don’t know when I will be able to restart my pace. ☹

So coming to the post details, this birthday was something we friends were waiting for so long. Cake was my responsibility and I decided to go with the Barrel cake. Along with this cake, the table was filled with so many other attractive and delicious things like cupcakes (40 cupcakes-20 vanila and 20 chocolate),  pineapple table decor with Ferrero Rocher

For this barrel cake, I used coffee cake (made 2 9-inch cake) with caramel frosting and for the barrel look, in brown fondant (white fondant + homemade chocolate fondant) with stencil added the wood look. Ordered personalised cake topper from eBay. Forgot about the wordings on top of the cake while ordering the cake topper. So here is the alternative solution for that; considering the size of the cake, make a thick rectangular piece using white fondant and on top of that kept a printout with the desired pattern and wordings. (We took it out during the cake cutting 😊). And added some sugar candy cubes on top of the cake next to the Jack daniels bottle to look like ice cubes  and the bottle. 

Coffee cake:

Strong Coffee- ½ Cup (chilled)

Instant coffee powder (optional but I strongly recommend adding this)- 2 tsp

Brown Sugar – 1 ½ Cup

Butter – ½ Cup (Room Temperature)

Oil – ½ Cup

Vanilla Extract – 2 Tsp

Egg – 6

All-purpose Flour - 3 Cups

Baking Powder- 3 Tsp

Salt- a good pinch

 Method:

Mix softened butter and granulated sugar, make sure they are thoroughly combined.

Add oil to this and mix well

Next add eggs one at a time

Now add Vanilla extract, mix thoroughly.

Sift together flour, baking powder, instant coffee powder and salt.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and ½ of the chilled coffee to the liquid mixture.

Mix well and continue alternating adding in the flour and the coffee until everything is mixed well.

Add the batter to two 9-inch round cake pan.

Place in the oven and bake at 170-180 Degrees C.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick/skewer inserted comes out clean.

 

Caramel Frosting: 

Brown Sugar – 2 Cup

 Butter – 1 Cup, cubed

 Milk – ½ Cup

Icing Sugar – 3 to 3 ½ Cup 

Method:

In heavy saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter and milk.

Cook and stir over a low heat until the brown sugar is dissolved.

Increase the heat to medium. Do not stir.

Cook for 3-6 minutes until either bubbles form in the center of the pan or the mixture turns amber.

Remove from the heat and transfer the caramel mixture to a small bowl.

Cool to room temperature.

Add caramel mixture to a mixer.

Gradually mix in powdered sugar until combined, creamy and the correct consistency. 

Chocolate fondant:

White marshmallow – 200gm

Icing sugar- 320 gm

Cocoa powder – 80 gm

Butter – a little

Water – 15 ml

 

Method:

To melt the marshmallows properly, take a bowl and grease it with a little butter. Add the 15 ml of water and the marshmallows and heat them for 2 to 3 minutes, depending on the power of your microwave. Watch them closely to prevent burning!

When the marshmallows are ready, stir it with a spoon or spatula, making sure it doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl. Then, add the cocoa powder and mix it with the marshmallows.

Once you've thoroughly mixed the cocoa powder with the marshmallows, you can gradually add the icing sugar. (You may not need the entire icing sugar)

Now, mix the icing sugar with a spoon or spatula. When the chocolate fondant acquires the proper consistency, remove it from the bowl and begin to knead with your hands.

Don't forget to sprinkle icing sugar on the surface where you knead the dough to prevent it from sticking and put a little on your hands as well.

You'll know the chocolate fondant has acquired the proper texture and consistency when it stops sticking to your hands. Then, make it into a ball and cover it with plastic wrap in the bowl you previously greased with butter, adding a little icing sugar to prevent the fondant from sticking. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, remove the chocolate fondant from the refrigerator and knead it again. If you notice that the dough has hardened too much, don't worry, just put it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it.

Add white fondant and chocolate fondant together until you get the desired brown colour for you barrel.

 

Assembling the cake:

cut the cakes horizontally into 2 parts. Sandwich these slices with the prepared caramel frosting. once 4 pieces are stacked together crumb-coat with remaining caramel frosting.  keep the cake in the fridge for 1-2 hours. 

cut a 9-inch round fondant and keep it in the top of the cake.

Measure the height of the cake. with this measurement (may be little more to the actual height) cut a rectangular piece. With the wood stencil print the wooden pattern to the fondant. cut 1.5inch strips and attach it to cake. Complete the cake round like this. 

Once strips are added to the cake, add a small band in top and bottom of the cake to get the barrel look as seen in the picture.

  

Rainbow birthday party

This is my elder ones birthday party when she turns 6. She is turning 8 in 2 months and till now I couldn’t post this in my blog. I wanted to post it at least before she turns 8.

My girl ask me to prepare the rainbow cake for her 6th birthday and she gave the specification like ‘I want a rainbow cake and when I cut the cake I need M & M’s to come out from the cake’. I told her I’ll make rainbow cake for you and it’s so hard to do the other thing, so please spare me this time. I just want to give surprise for her. Luckily while making the cake she was busy with her friend and I managed to keep it as a surprise for her. After cutting the cake when she see the M&M’s her eyes was glowing and that made my day . 

Rainbow Piñata Cake

4 packet of vanilla cake mix

Rainbow food colours

M&M : Multi colours

Filling and crumb-coat:

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Chocolate Ganache frosting:

250g dark cooking chocolate chips

1/3 cup cream

Method:

Using the 4 packet of vanilla cake mix I made 6 8inch cakes. Make the batter as per the instructions given in the box(While making the cake batter I replaced the butter with oil (canola, vegetable or rice bran oil). This will make the cake moist and soft. ). Divide the batter into 6 equal parts and add food colour to this batter to make it rainbow layers( Violet, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red colours). Bake these cake as per the box instruction. Once the cakes are cooled, level the cakes. Cut the edges of the cake so that it gives the bright colour when we cut the cake. (Save these crumbs to make cake pops)

Except the Violet and Red cakes(the first and last layer ), cut a circle out of the centre using a round cookie cutter(2.5-3inch) 

I made Swiss meringue butter cream as the filling and for crumb coating the cake.

In the cake board centre put a spoon of butter cream and place the Violet cake layer in that. It will help the cake to be in place. Add the buttercream on to of this layer and level it evenly. Place Blue layer cake on top of it. Layer it with buttercream and place the Green layer cake on top of this. (NB: the hole in the cake layers should be aligned). Repeat the same for Yellow and Orange layer too. On top of Orange layer add buttercream icing and the pour rainbow colour M&M’s into the hole till the hole fills. Place the last cake layer, Red cake, on top of this. Cover the cake with buttercream and keep it in fridge till the ganache is ready. 

Combine chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir with a metal spoon until smooth. Remove bowl from heat. Set aside at room temperature to cool, stirring occasionally, until ganache is thick and spreadable.(this can be done in microwave too by heating the fresh cream and add this hot cream over the chocolate chips. Let it sit for a minute. Stir it well. If chocolate lumps are there, microwave the mixture for 30 sec. Make sure the chocolate won’t get burnt while  heating.)When the ganache is cooled, pour the chocolate ganache over the cake. Once the ganache is a bit set decorate the cake with M&M’s. 

Rainbow cake pops

Gather all the cake crumbs and mix it very well. Add 3-5 Tbsp buttercream to this mix so that it will be easy to hold the crumbs together. Make small balls of this mix. Melt white chocolate chips in microwave. Dip the ice-cream cone in this mixture and place the cake balls in this ice-cream cone. Dip the cake pops in the melted chocolate mix and roll it in the rainbow sprinkles. Keep this straight until the chocolate set. 

Rainbow jelly

Jelly mix- 6 packet (of different colours)

Condensed milk- 1 can

Gelatine – 2 Tbsp

Mould to set the jelly(I use a plastic container which is deep enough)

Lightly spray the mould with cooking oil. Prepare the purple jelly mix by adding the jelly mix and 1 cup of boiling water in a heatproof bowl. Stir until the jelly dissolves and no lumps should be there. Pour this mixture to the prepared container. Chill this for an hour or until this layer sets completely. 

Prepare the white layer: Sprinkle gelatine over 1/3 cup water and leave it aside for 5 minutes. Add 1 Cup boiling water to this gelatine mix and stir well until gelatine melts. Add 1 can condensed milk and this gelatine mixture in a heatproof(microwavable) bowl. Once this mixture cools to room temperature pour 1/5th of this over the chilled purple layer. Keep it in fridge till this white layer sets completely.

Repeat the same for blue, green, yellow, orange and red jelly mixture. Add white layer alternatively. If the condensed milk mixture sets in between, microwave this for 30 secs. Give a good stir.(do not boil this mixture and make sure this comes to room temperature before adding to the chilled jelly layer)

Once the red layer also done, chilled the mixture overnight . Before inverting the mould, place this container in hot water for 1 min and invert the mould carefully into the serving plate. Cut in any shape and serve. I can guarantee, along with kids, adults will also enjoy this.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the whole jelly. I was busy setting up the party table and I cut the jelly into bit size pieces so that it will be easy for the kids to eat. 

Fairy Bread

White bread slices, with sides trimmed

Spreadable butter

100's and 1000's sprinkles

Spread butter in the bread slices.

Sprinkle 100’s and 1000’s over that.

Cut into triangles-or any fun shape- to serve.