Dark Chocolate Cake with Neon-Pink Whipped Cream Frosting

Special birthdays deserve special homemade cakes!💕 We had a special milestone birthday of our little one and celebrated with this very pink-princess like cake😊

This year her demand was for a chocolate cake and hence baked a dark chocolate cake with neon pink colored whipped cream frosting. I love the stark contrast of dark chocolate with neon pink. The cake looks gorgeous in that combination!

Dark Chocolate Cake (Makes a small 6 inch cake)
1 cup All purpose flour
3/4 cup Sugar
1/3 cup Yogurt (whole milk)
1/3 cup Water
1/3 cup Unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1/4 cup Unsalted butter
1 Egg
1 tsp Bru instant coffee powder
3/4 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 pinch salt

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Layer 6 inch circle cake pan with parchment paper on the bottom. Coat with oil/butter on the pan sides and dust with some flour to avoid the cake sticking.
2) Beat butter, egg, salt and sugar till light and fluffy. Add yogurt, water and rest of the ingredients. Beat till well mixed. Do not over mix!
3) Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 30-40 mins. Check with toothpick. It should come out clean.
4) Let the cake cool completely.
( ** Or you can bake the cake the day before to save time)

Neon-Pink Whipped Cream Frosting
 (I add some cream cheese to stabilize the whipped cream and cut the sweet taste)
2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream (chilled)
1/2 cup softened cream cheese
4 tbsp sugar (Add more for sweeter taste)
2-4 drops Neon Pink gel food color (Depends on desired color)
Pink and White Sugar pearls for decoration
(** This makes little extra frosting than needed. Any leftover frosting can be frozen in freezer safe containers)

1) Beat the cream cheese, sugar and heavy whipping cream in chilled bowl till stiff peaks form.
Keep aside about 1/2 of the white icing in a bowl in the refrigerator
2) Add neon pink gel color to the rest of the icing and beat for few seconds. Fill in piping bag with large rosette piping nozzle and store in refrigerator till ready to use.

Cake Assembly:
1) Place the cake on serving platter/ cake stand that can be refrigerated. Coat the completely cooled cake with thin layer of white whipped cream frosting.This is called 'crumb coating' and helps with the next layer of smooth frosting without any cake crumbs. Keep the cake in the refrigerator to set for 30 mins.

2) Layer the cake with pink frosting on bottom and white of top and side. Smoothen it out with icing knife/ spatula.

3) Pipe rosette pattern with pink frosting on the top

4) Cover the entire top surface with rosettes. Decorate with pink sugar pearls on top and white sugar pearls on the bottom/sides

5) Refrigerate the cake after frosting/ decoration is done. Whipped cream frosting starts to soften at room temperature, so the cake needs to be stored in refrigerator.

Raspberry-Blackberry Chip Ice cream

Summer means lots of Berries and lots of Ice cream! I love the 'Black Raspberry Chip' ice cream from Graeter's and also by the 'Homemade' brand which comes very close to Graeter's in flavor.

I didn't have any Black raspberries, so tried to make my favorite flavor of ice cream with combo of  Red Raspberries and Blackberries and Dark chocolate with almonds. The combination worked well and the ice cream turned out super awesome and Yumm!

This ice cream recipe is super easy to make and the ice cream comes out perfect textured! You can use Heavy whipping cream+ Condensed milk and add pretty much any flavor you want to make your very own delicious homemade ice cream!

Ingredients: (Makes about 2 cups or 4 small scoops)
1/2 cup (heaped) Red raspberries+ Black berries
1/2 Cup Heavy whipping cream (unsweetened), chilled
1/4 cup Sweet condensed milk
2 tbsp milk (cold)
2 tbsp chopped dark chocolate with almonds (I used Hershey's Dark Chocolate with almonds bar)
3 tsp sugar
Edible sugar pearls (optional) for decorating the glass

Method:

1) Add the berries to a pan. Add 3 tsp sugar and cook for 3-4 mins till berries start to cook. Crush the berries with spoon. ( I didn't mind the tiny berry seeds and pulp in the ice cream. You can strain the puree if you don't like pulp/seeds) The berry sauce will reduce to about 1/4 cup. Let the berry puree cool down completely and then refrigerate for 15 mins.

2) Mix the cooled berry puree, condensed milk and normal milk in a bowl.

3) Beat the chilled heavy whipping cream with electric mixer till stiff peaks form. 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream will yield 1 cup whipped cream after whipping is complete.

 Reserve 1 tsp whipped cream for decorating the glass later. Save it in the refrigerator.

4) Gently fold in the whipped cream and chopped dark chocolate into the condensed milk-berry mixture.

5) The mixture will be thicker than smoothie consistency. Pour into freezer safe container. Add extra chopped dark chocolate on top.

6) Freeze for atleast 7 hrs for perfect consistency of the ice cream

7) Serve chilled in ice cream glass with extra berries and sprinkle some chopped dark chocolate 

Optional: Apply the reserved whipped cream as a glue to the rim of the glass. Stick the edible sugar pearls to the rim with whipped cream to decorate the ice cream glass.

Enjoy the delicious treat of homemade ice cream !

Layered Chocolate cake with Whipped Strawberry cream

Family birthdays are super special and we love to celebrate the special day with homemade cakes. Homemade cakes are the most delicious of all cakes, isn't it? You can choose and control which and how much of the ingredients you want to add to make the cake your very own. I love to experiment and play around with different proportions and ratios of the ingredients and observe the effects on the resulting textures (That's the scientist in me talking😁) I also feel, baking and cooking are very therapeutic for my mind and brain that is racing at 100 miles/hour usually 😜. So here is the latest baking therapy from this week. Baked a small chocolate cake in bread load pan and then layered it with fresh strawberry whipped cream. Strawberries and chocolate go so well together and love the stark contrast in the layering pattern of dark brown and pink colors.

• Cake:

1 cup All purpose flour
3/4 cup Sugar
1/3 cup Yogurt (whole milk)
1/3 cup Water
1/3 cup Unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1/4 cup Unsalted butter
1 Egg
1 tsp Bru instant coffee powder
3/4 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 pinch salt

• Strawberry whipped cream:

1. 5 cups heavy whipping cream chilled
1/2 cup Strawberry puree ( Puree cooked with 3-4 sugar and till thick, strained and chilled)
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2-3 drops pink food color (optional)
Whip the cream till soft creams form with electric mixer. Add strawberry puree and powdered sugar and whip till firm peaks form. Keep refrigerated till ready to use.

• Chocolate ganache drizzle: (Prepare at the time when needed)

4-5 Lindt dark chocolate squares, 2tsp heavy cream. Microwave for 20-25 sec till melted and smooth enough to drizzle.

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Layer bread loaf pan with parchment paper on the bottom.
2) Beat butter, egg, salt and sugar till light and fluffy. Add yogurt, water and rest of the ingredients. Beat till well mixed. Do not over mix!
3) Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 45-50 mins. Check with toothpick. It should come out clean.
4) Let the cake cool completely. Slice into 3 layers with large sharp knife.

5) Layer with strawberry whipped cream on the bottom layer. Place the cake layer and repeat for all layers.

6) Top the uppermost layer with whipped cream and drizzle with ganache on the sides

7) Decorate with whipped cream and fresh cut strawberries
8) Keep the cake chilled in refrigerator

9) Enjoy with your loved ones😍

"Rasmalai Cake" - An Indian version of the Mexican 'Tres Leches' cake

The newest trend in the world of cakes are the fusion cakes, where they combine best flavors from two or more cuisines to create one of a kind masterpiece. The one I tasted recently was the 'Gulab Jamun Cheese cake' at an popular Indian restaurant in Nashville,TN at the famous Chefs restaurant- Chauhan Ale and Masala house.Another beautiful cake was baked by a contestant at the cooking competition here for the Ganesh festival.The cake was called 'Gajar Halwa' cake- White moist cake with layers of gajar halwa and whipped cream made it delectable! She won the first prize:)

A friend had send a picture of the new popular cake in Pune- "The Rasmalai cake". Since then, I wanted to try my take on this cake and  we had the perfect occasion on this weekend that deserved a special cake! A 70th birthday party!

Here is my version of the Rasmalai Cake which is a spin on the Mexican 'Tres Leches' cake.

Ingredients:

Step 1: Plain Sponge Cake 

*You can prepare the base Sponge cake from scratch with this recipe. Instead of vanilla, add 1/2 tsp cardamom powder 

https://my-kitchens-aroma.blogspot.com/2009/10/pat-cake-car-vanilla-cake.html?m=1

OR For Easy version- Use Cake Mix 

1 eggless cake baked in a glass tray (I used Pillsbury white cake mix to bake the cake. Prepared the cake as per instructions, but substituted eggs with ¼ cup Greek yogurt)

Step 2: For Malai/ basundi 3 milk soak

1.5 cups evaporated milk

0.5 cups condensed milk

0.5 cup whole milk

0.5 tsp cardamom powder

¼ tsp nutmeg powder

(For more sweeter taste add more sugar/condensed milk. But remember the cake itself will be sweet too!)

Step 3: Saffron whipped cream:

1.5 cups heavy whipping cream

4 tsp powdered sugar

1 tsp saffron

Garnishing

8 Rasagullas (I used store bought)

Few drops of yellow coloring (optional)

Chopped pistachios and almonds for garnish

Saffron for garnish

Method:

1) Prepare cake as per box instructions. Use Greek yogurt to substitute the eggs. Let the cake cool completely.

2) Prepare the malai/basundi by boiling the evaporated milk, condensed milk and whole milk along with cardamom and nutmeg powder. Let it cool completely.

3) Pour the Basundi over the cooled cake.Let it soak overnight in the refrigerator.

4) Whip the cold heavy whipping cream with a electric mixer with the powdered sugar and 4 tsp milk with saffron strands.If the color is not yellow enough, add few drops of yellow food color. Beat till stiff peaks appear

5) Pipe the saffron whipped cream on the milk soaked cake in desired patterns. Garnish with half sliced rasagullas, chopped nuts and saffron.

6) Chill in the refrigerator for few hours. Serve chilled.

Enjoy the delectable moist cake with luscious whipped cream and warm and delicate Indian flavors of cardamon, nutmeg and saffron!

Easy Homemade Blueberry Icecream

Summer means berries!! And lots of lots of them!! Super markets are full of them and plus you go on 'U pick' trips and bring home more than you can eat!!
Apart from freezing them to save them..here is a quick and easy homemade blueberry ice cream recipe.
The ice cream gets a perfect 'blueberry blue' color and is smooth and rich from the whipped cream and condensed milk.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
1.5 Cups fresh blueberries
1 tub Cool Whip
14 oz Sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup whole milk
2 tsp sugar
1 pinch salt

Method:
1) In a pan add 1.5 cups fresh blueberries, 2 tsp sugar and 1 pinch salt. Boil for 5-7 mins till the berries start to break down. Let it cool.Crush roughly with spoon. 
2) Mix it with 1 tub Cool whip,whole milk and 14oz can of sweet condensed milk. Mix well. Pour in molds or freezer safe container and freeze! Done! 
3)Freeze atleast for 6-8 hours

Vanilla and Chocolate "Checkerboard" Cake with Strawberry cream filling

It was 'M's birthday and like every year I do, I was going to bake a special cake for him!! Last year it was "Zebra Cake" (http://my-kitchens-aroma.blogspot.com/2012/04/pat-cake-zebra-cake-with-chocolate.html) and this year, I wanted to try something 'new'...not just 'any' cake...something new...some new technique.This one seemed to be exciting and involved some 'thinking' and planning-which type of cake to bake..soft textured or sturdier/denser cake and a bit of geometry too:)
Here is how you make it-

Basically you need 2 types/ colored cakes.I baked a vanilla and other dark chocolate. If your cake it too moist or spongy, you will have hard time cutting and lifting the cake circles. This cake modified from this recipe (http://www.azcookbook.com/zebra-cake/) is a denser cake and did hold the cutting and lifting pretty well.

Ingredients:
Bakes two -8 or 9 inch cakes
4 extra large eggs, at room temperature
2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 and 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
1 cup canola oil
2tbsp butter at room temperature
1tsp tsp vanilla essence
1 +1/4 tbsp baking powder
1 tablespoons dark cocoa powder  (dark cocoa is necessary to get rich dark brown color for better contrast)
3tbsp grated dark chocolate bars- microwave for few seconds until soft.
1/4tsp salt

Strawberry cream filling
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream(cold)
1/4 cup fresh strawberry puree(chilled for 1 hour)
1tbsp sugar

Whipped cream icing
1 Cup heavy whipping cream(cold)
2tbsp sugar
1/2tsp vanilla essence

Decoration:
Mini chocolate chips
fresh sliced strawberries

Method:
1) Pre heat the oven to 350F. Grease 2 cake pans with shortening/non stick spray and dust with flour.
2) Sieve together all purpose flour, salt, baking powder.
3)Beat the eggs for 3mins with electric whisk. Add the butter and sugar and whisk till it is light color and fluffy.
4) Add the oil and milk and beat for few seconds.Add the vanilla extract.
5) Add the dry ingredients slowing and beat only till well blended.
6) Divide the batter in 2 parts. To one part add the dark cocoa powder and softened dark chocolate bar.Beat for few seconds till well blended.
7) Pour the vanilla and chocolate batters into 2 separate pans. Bake at 350F for 30-35 mins, until golden brown and inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Let the cakes cool completely for few hours before cutting and icing.
The cakes upside down for sturdier cutting.If your cake has a bulge cut and level it out:

Strawberry Whipped cream:
Beat the whipping cream on high speed with a electric mixer, till soft peaks are formed. Add the chilled strawberry puree and sugar and beat till stiff peaks are formed.Store in refrigerator.

Whipped cream icing
Beat on high speed the heavy whipping cream, sugar and vanilla till stiff peaks are formed.Store in refrigerator.

Assembling the cake:
1) With chart paper, make circular stencils or concentric circles, 1.5 to 2 inches thickness. Largest will have the diameter as your cake pan.
2) Place the stencils on the cake one at a time and carefully cut the concentric circles.Gently lift each circle and place on a platter.

3) Inserted a vanilla ring inside the chocolate outer ring.Alternate the rings and fit into each other.

4) Place the cake on the serving platter.On the bottom reassembled cake, spread the strawberry cream filling. Make sure to push it in the concentric gaps. This will help in better sticking of the 'checks'. You can also pipe the icing in between the concentric circles when you are fitting them into each other.

5) Place the other reassembled cake on top. Ice this layer and the entire cake with the whipped cream icing. Spread and smoothen from all sides. Decorate with strawberries and mini chocolate chips.
With icing tip, makes borders withe the whipped cream icing.
Chill in refrigerator till ready to cut!

6) Cut into wedges(like pie) to serve.Enjoy!!