Butter cake

Ingredients:
All purpose flour: 200gm
Butter: 200gm
Eggs: 200gm
Sugar: 200gm
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Vanilla essence: 1 Tsp

Method:
1. Sift Flour and baking powder
2. Beat Butter until soft and and then add sugar and beat again until fluffy
3. Add eggs and beat well
4. Add the dry mix slowly to the wet mix and combine very well
5. Pour the mix to a greased pan and bake in a pre-heated (350F or 180C) oven until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean(35-45 mins)

Angel Food cake recipe - Fat free

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups (125 grams) sifted cake flour

1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated white sugar

1 1/2 cups (360 ml) egg whites, at room temperature (from about 12 large eggs)

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Have ready a 10 inch (25 cm) two piece angel food cake (tube) pan. I used a non-stick tea cake pan.

In a large bowl sift together 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar and the sifted cake flour.

In your electric mixer, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar, lemon juice, and salt and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar, a tablespoon at a time, until glossy stiff peaks form. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract and almond extract.

Sift the flour mixture over the egg whites (about one quarter of the flour mixture at a time) and gently but quickly fold (do not stir) the flour into the egg whites. You can use a large wire whisk or a large rubber spatula. (It is important not to over fold the batter or it will deflate.)

Pour the batter into the pan and run a metal spatula or knife through the batter to get rid of any air pockets. Smooth the top and bake in the preheated oven for about 40 - 45 minutes. The cake is done when a wooden skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean and the cake springs back when gently pressed. The top of the cake will have cracks. Do not over bake.

Immediately upon removing from the oven invert the pan. Suspend the pan by placing the inner tube on the top of a wine bottle or flat topped glass. Allow the cake to cool for about 1 1/2 hours.

When completely cool, run a metal spatula or knife around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake and then remove the cake from the pan. Next, run a metal spatula or knife along the bottom and center core of the pan and remove. Place on your serving plate. It is best to cut this cake with a serrated knife using a back-and-forth sawing motion. Try not to press down on the cake when cutting as this will squash its soft and spongy texture.

The Cake in the pic was baked with 1/2 the quantity of ingredients specified above.

• Make sure you are not greasing the pan - remember its a fat free cake!!

Recipe Courtesy: http://www.joyofbaking.com/AngelFoodCake.html

Basic Vanilla Cake recipe -can also be used for cupcakes

I am posting a very easy and basic cake recipe, on request by many friends

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract/essence
1 1/2 cup cake flour(maida or all purpose flour)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup(60ml) milk

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 180 deg Celsius
• Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat vanilla extract to the mixture at the end( use electric beater for best results)
  
• In a separate bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder and salt(best method id to sieve them together 2-3 times so that they are well mixed).
• Alternatively add flour mix and milk in 3 additions to the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with flour mix
• Grease your baking pan with cooking spray( or butter and flour your baking pan) thoroughly and fill the pan with the batter
• Bake for around 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted to the center of the cake comes out clean
• Wait for the cake to cool completely before you take it out of the pan. Cake decoration and icing should be done only after the cake comes to room temperature.
  

The same recipe can also be used for cupcakes. The cooking time would be 15-20 minutes instead. This recipe makes 25 cupcakes.

Chocolate cake variation - add 3-4 teaspoon of cocoa powder to the dry ingredients and mix well before adding to the wet mix

Nankattai (Indian Cookies)

Ingredients

Cake Flour(maida) - 1 cup
Melted butter/margarine/dalda - 1/2 cup
powdered sugar - 1/2 cup
vanilla essence - few drops ( or any essence of your choice)

Method

Preheat the Oven at 180 Deg
Mix powdered sugar and Butter very well. Once blended nicely, add the flour slowly without lump. Best way to mix is with hand. Roll to small balls and lightly flatten as you roll each ball.

Lay Butter paper on greased pan and place each cookie.



Bake for 15 -20 min., until you see cracks on the top of the cookies.  The cookies may look uncooked. But it will be perfect when cooled. If you are keeping for longer time its going to get burnt at the bottom.




** Adding a pinch of pink color and strawberry essence instead of vanilla is a variation of this.

** Adding little cocoa powder is another variation.

** Leave a bit of the sugar as crystals for a different texture.

How to bake and ice Birthday cake

It was a challenge I took up to cherish my little one's first birthday. I had been searching the internet for something different for my son's birthday and finally I found this particular cake pan from Wilton. Being in Botswana, an African country, i wasn't sure where we could get this pan here. My search took me to ebay where someone was selling this in NJ for 9.99 USD. I convinced my husband to purchase this online(it was my first online shopping as well). The pan reached me safe and earlier than expected - it took just 10 days. So i had the pan ready more than a month before the Birthday, which gave me ample time to try out the cake.


THE CAKE - chocolate cake

I used Moir's chocolate moist cake mix for the cake and followed the recipe on the pack. I had to try out 2 times to make myself confident, especially with the icing. Learning to do the icing was also fun - Videos in youtube were very helpful. Being the first time, i had to borrow an electric beater from a friend of mine(now I have my own). Next was the hunt for icing bags and nozzles which I managed to get from a store here(Pick 'n Pay, Riverwalk, Gaborone). Icing with Whipping cream was a disaster. I never got the whipped cream stiff enough for icing. That took me back to the traditional butter icing which turned out to be really easy and neat.


Marshmallow icing is much easier and tasty with less calories too.. I tried it for fondant icing for another cake i baked which i will be posting soon.


The secrets to a smooth cake without cracks -
** Brush with butter + flour lining and dust out excess
OR
Use a good cooking spray(i like this technique)
** Bake for right amount of time
** Be patient. Let the cake cook before you take it out.
** Patient enough to wait till the cake is really cooled before you do the icing
** Do a layer of icing on the cake and refrigerate to close all the crumps, before you do the actual icing


These are my trials



WHIPPED ICING



Butter icing

Next hunt was for "black" food color for the border, which I figured out was not available in Botswana. Again Google came to my help and i found a solution, which took me back to my school days :)

Black = Red + green + blue (equal quantities)

If you cant measure exactly, you can add equal drops of each and check for the color, adding whichever color is less


I used the Star tip to make stars for the lines(border and eyes first with the black food color. Then filled up the other colors with stars. I made sure that the icing was thick enough to avoid melting down(i prepared it the previous day of the party)



How the icing was done

The base was of 2 sheet cakes - one chocolate and one vanilla. These two cakes were joined with the butter icing. chocolate butter icing was used to do icing on top of the upper layer. Further decoration was done using smarties(something like cadbury's gems that you get in India)
Background border was linned with stars of different colors, with a silver sugar ball at the center of each star.