Anjali's Kitchen: 12/31/14

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Black Forest Cake!!

Black Forest Cake

Ingredients:

For Cake:

· All Purpose Flour (Maida) - 1/2 cup (50 gms)

· Cocoa Powder - 1/2 cup (50 gms)

· Powdered Sugar - 1 cup

· Butter - 1 cup (100 gms)

· Eggs - 6

· Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

For Frosting:

· Heavy Whipping Cream

· Sugar - as needed

· Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

· Cherries - 1 can

· Decorative mint sweets

For Syrup:

· Water/ Syrup from cherry can - 1 cup

· Sugar - 1/2 cup

· Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

Method

For the cake

1. Sieve together the all-purpose flour (maida) and cocoa powder into a bowl.

2. Melt the butter in the microwave.

3. Beat the eggs in a bowl using an electric blender until it becomes very creamy and frothy.

4. Mix together all the wet ingredients (melted butter, sugar, vanilla essence) along with the beaten eggs.

5. Finally fold in the dry ingredients (flour + cocoa) with the wet ingredients.

6. Mix everything nicely with a wooden spoon until you get a smooth batter.

7. Grease a cake pan with butter and dust some flour on it and keep it ready.

8. Pour the cake batter into the pan and bake it in an oven preheated for about 40-45 minutes.

9. Check if the cake is done by inserting a toothpick in the middle of the cake. It should come out clean.

10. Switch off the oven and cool the cake before applying the syrup and frosting.

For the Syrup:

1. Pour the cherry syrup/plain water into a small sauce pan.

2. Add the sugar to it and bring it to a boil.

3. Finally add the vanilla essence to the syrup and keep aside.

For the Frosting:

1. Beat the whipping cream with enough sugar and vanilla essence until a nice fluffy frosting is ready. (You could also use frozen whipped cream.)

Final cake assembling:

1. Cut the top to make it flat before applying the frosting.

2. Cut the cake into 2 equal shapes.

3. Take all the 2 pieces and pierce it with a fork at random places. This will help the syrup to penetrate into the cake.

4. Add few spoonful’s of the syrup on each cake piece and let the cake absorb it. This step is very important to make the cake moist and delicious.

5. Take a cake stand or serving dish and place one piece of cake.

6. Apply a generous amount of frosting and top it with chopped cherries, chocolate shavings.

7. Place the second piece of cake on top and apply the frosting and toppings.

8. Sprinkle chocolate shavings (grated chocolate bar) and decorative mint sweets on top and all around the cake.

9. Top the cake with cherries. Yummy black forest cake is ready.

Vanilla Muffins

This moist single-layer vanilla cake with a delicate texture and delectable crumb.

Ingredients:

· 100gm maida or wheat flour

· 100gm Sugar

· 3 eggs

· 1 tsp cake gel

· 1 tsp vanilla extract

· ½ tsp baking powder

Method:

1. Beat sugar, cake gel and eggs using an electric mixer set on low speed.

2. Add vanilla extract to it and beat on medium – high speed until it blends well.

3. Sift the cake flour, baking powder in a large mixing bowl.

4. Mix the above batter in the cake flour bowl. Blend it well.

5. Pre- Heat the oven for 10 minutes.

6. Lightly coat muffin cake pan with butter and dust with all-purpose flour.

7. Pour 1/3 cup measures into muffin liners and smooth over top and bake for 35 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Added Strawberry & Walnut Topping!

8. Allow the cake to kool.

9. Un-mold and cool completely.

Tips:

You can vary this muffin recipe by adding 1 cup of additional ingredients of your choice.
You could use one cup of mashed banana or one cup of chocolate chips or even one cup of diced, cooked apples.
Kids love these, especially when you add chocolate chips to this recipe.
Apple muffins spiced with cinnamon are a delightful variation to try.