Tag Archives: frosting

Eggless Checkerboard/ Chequered Cake without the special pan & with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting – Happy Birthday to me :)

30 Sep

I’m the BIRTHDAY GIRL :) So what if the post is 3 days late, even then I can enjoy being the birthday girl for 1 more week :) I baked the cake & cut it on the D-day only but haven’t been able to post it.

Checkerboard cake have been on my to bake list from the beginning. The first time I saw this I knew I had to make it soon & finally the occasion presented itself in the form of my b’day. I gave this cake option to V but he wanted to stick to known entity of a Black Forest Cake. I guess it’s his loss & my gain. :D This cake requires 2 or more colored cakes/ batter to produce the checkerboard effect upon slicing. I initially contemplated going in for girlie colors – pastels for the cake batter, but since the colors here are local versions & not as specific as Wilton, I chose to stick to chocolate & white. The trick for this cake lies not so much in baking as in assembling. If you have a special pan required for this cake then no challenge, but I wanted to make this simply to try my hands at assembling it without the special kit.

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I googled a lot on this cake without the special tin, almost everyone used the method of cutting 3 different size rings from each cake & interchanging them. Then placing one such prepared layer over the other & voila you have a checkerboard pattern when you slice it. :) There was one more method used by only few – which works if you bake the cakes in square pan. For this method, you cut strips of each type of cake & then assemble them alternatively first in 1 layer & then on top of the first layer. I chose to work with ring method for my first attempt.

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I baked Hershey’s Lavish Chocolate Cake & an Eggless Silver White Cake from Bakin’ Without Eggs by Rosemarie Emro. I doubled the Hershey’s recipe, replaced sugar with brown sugar. Also I had to change the timing as I baked the batter in 1 pan instead of 3 pans. I followed white cake recipe as such. A silver white cake is typically made from egg whites & almond extract but here we are with an eggless version with no egg whites :) Go figure! I refrigerated both the cakes for 24 hours & then thawed sliced layers for 4-10 hours before decorating. The purpose of refrigeration is to slicing the layers easily, which is the most of the battle won.

I used Chocolate Buttercream for filling & frosting. The filling should be minimal so that checkerboard pattern can be clearly seen.

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Eggless Checkerboard Cake –

Eggless Chocolate Cake – Hershey’s {Recipe follows} I doubled the recipe & baked the whole batter in one 8″ pan

Eggless Silver White Cake – from Bakin’ Without Eggs (refer book for recipe) For both Heavenly Chocolate Cake & Silver White Cake I had to increase the time by atleast 10-15 mins from the given time in the book.

1/4 Cup – Coke (for soaking)

Chocolate Buttercream – from Joy of Baking {Recipe follows}

Eggless Chocolate Cake -

Recipe Source – adapted from Hershey’s

Ingredients -

  • 2 1/2 Cups – All Purpose Flour
  • 2 tsp – Baking Soda
  • 1 Cup – Butter
  • 2 Cups – Milk
  • 1 tsp – Vanilla Extract
  • 2/3 Cup – Cocoa Powder
  • 1/4 tsp – Salt
  • 2 Cup – Brown Sugar
  • 2 Tbsp – White Vinegar

Method -

  1. Pre-heat oven to 180 C. Line & grease an 8″ round pan.
  2. Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda & salt together.
  3. Melt butter using a microwave. Don’t burn it. Stir in sugar.
  4. Add milk, vinegar & vanilla to butter mixture & stir well.
  5. Add dry ingredients & whisk till well blended.
  6. Pour batter into prepared pan & bake for 60 mins or till inserted toothpick comes out clean.
  7. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack & then transfer to a plate.
  8. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap or cling film & refrigerate till required.

    Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

    Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Chocolate Buttercream -

Recipe Source – minimally adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients -

  • 460 gms – Icing Sugar, sifted
  • 226 gms – Unsalted Butter (226 gms)
  • 1 tsp – Vanilla Extract (I used Almond as I had run out of Vanilla)
  • 4 Tbsp – Milk
  • 120 gms – Melted & Cooled Chocolate (I used Milk Compound which was leftover with me)

Method -

  1. In a large bowl, beat butter till smooth & well blended using hand mixer.
  2. Beat in vanilla extract.
  3. On low speed slowly add sugar & continue beating. Scrape down sides if required.
  4. Add the milk & beat to combine.
  5. Add melted chocolate & beat.
  6. On high speed beat the frosting till light & fluffy, about 5-6 mins.
  7. Cover with plastic wrap when not using.

I felt that frosting was just enough to cover the cake & hardly any left to decorate on top or sides. So I suggest to increase the recipe by 1.5 times.

Assembling the Cake -

I’ve searched the net extensively for assembling this cake, most of them have tried to explain the 3 ring method as best as possible but few days ago I came across this illustration on Joy of Dessert which, she in turn has taken from flickr/avkelly. This is by far the best way to explain the assembling & hence I’m also posting it here along with due credit.

  1. Slice both cakes into horizontal layers such that you have 2 layers of each cake & 4 total.
  2. Cut out 2 rings each from all 4 layers. I placed 6″ dia removable bottom of tart pan & cut a circle around it & then I used a 4″ dia. lid & cut another circle within the 6″ circle.
  3. Carefully remove the middle ring of all layers.
  4. Using a spatula, lightly spread buttercream filling on the insides of the remaining rings. Lightly spread butter cream on outside of middle rings as well. This helps in sticking the rings together & not make a mess while cutting the cake. Then place the middle rings backs in alternating colors – place chocolate color ring in white cake & vice versa. Now you have 4 layers of cake with alternating colored rings.
  5. Now place 1 prepared layer of cake on the base or cake table. Soak in coke. Lightly spread the filling & then place the 2nd layer such that the rings are stacked alternate to each other – chocolate color ring on top of white colored ring, then place the 3rd layer again alternating colors on top of each other & then the last layer similarly.
  6. Keep the cake in freezer for 10 mins. This reduces the amount of crumbs to deal with while frosting.
  7. Quickly do a crumb coat on the whole cake & then decorate as per your whim. :)

    Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

    Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Tips -

  1. Refrigerating the cake 10-15 mins before slicing layers & rings will help in neater finish. It also gives lesser crumbs to mess while frosting.
  2. It may help, if you first place the layer you want as base on the cake table & then exchange rings & place other rings on top & biding together with buttercream instead of making separate layers. The risk of layers falling apart in transfer are reduced then.

No amount of planning & tips helped me in assembling this cake as it is very difficult to maintain the rings & adjust them within each other. Almost all my rings broke into many pieces & had to be glued together with filling. I also felt that adding another smaller 2″ dia ring would have made the cake even more aesthetically appealing.

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

But the overall effect was wonderful as you can see. The cake cutting was full of oohhss & aaahhhsss. V was jealous & told me that why his birthday cake was not this nice. Difficult to please husbands! Sonny dear wanted only edible beads & no cake. Everybody wanted to know the technique of assembling it. I’m glad people liked my effort & effect though the making was quite eventful. Taste wise also the cake was wonderful with both variety of cakes complimenting each other. A great success!!!

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

To top this, I had a pleasant surprise thrown in by V. He gifted me a Recipe Journal by Moleskine in which he suggests that I should put together best of recipes & pass on to my future daughter-in-law & Ved gave me a huge card :) Thank you to the men in my life :D

Birthday Gifts

Birthday Gifts

Sending this cake to Kalyani’s 100 day Global Fest at Sizzling Tastebuds which is a part of My Mother’s Kitchen. Hop on to her blog to get some interesting global dishes :)


Eggless Black Forest Cake with Chocolate Ganache & Cherry Pie Filling – Happy Birthday Dear Hubby

20 Sep

Let me tell you at the onset that this is a loooonngggg post. I’ve tried to keep it as short as possible.

More than festivals, I enjoy planning & creating our family days – birthdays, anniversary etc. Every year for last 5 yrs, I’ve been celebrating V’s b’day and plan a surprise (little or big) for him. Every year he complains about those surprises as he is not very pro to the idea of surprise – he likes them but would want to be forewarned than surprised. So this year I promised him I won’t give a surprise. He tells me that is a surprise in itself! MEN!!! This year V chose Black Forest Cake for his b’day treat. :)

I cajoled V into gifting me many b’day gifts this year – mind you all scattered through the last few months so that he wouldn’t realize how clever I had been ;) One such gift was a book from my wishlist, Bakin’ Without Eggs by Rosemarie Emro. I had read great reviews about this book & wanted to try my hand at the recipes from it. What I also liked about this book was that it wasn’t just catering to Vegan. Most of the books & blogs on egg-free recipes are Vegan oriented & I have harped many a times earlier that I cannot eat Tofu, soy milk etc. :( So this book came as a pleasant surprise – Rosemarie has used mostly White Vinegar as substitute for egg. From whatever recipes I’ve gone through I can assure you that they are good & just waiting to be made. Also the ingredients used are very basic & most baked recipes come with topping recipes as well. I chose Heavenly Chocolate Cake from Bakin’ Without Eggs. I’ve kept the recipe same except substituting buttermilk with curd.

I decided to assemble Black Forest Cake in a non-traditional version, adapting from a video on ehow – simple & beautiful BFC using Ganache, Cherry Pie Filling & Whipped Cream. Last time I tried frosting with Rainbow Cake I was supervised by my sister, this time I was going solo. I’ve been practicing frosting patterns using a mehndi cone for last 20 days on the back of the cake pan, to give me confidence of moving the cone with a flow which is most of the battle won, I guess! I have omitted liqueur from both ganache & soaking syrup as there was a slight chance that out little devil might eat a bite. :)

Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache

Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache

I will go into detail & recipe for all steps, except the cake as it is from a book & V was very particular that I should have permission for it before posting it. I see many bloggers posting recipes from book, so I wasn’t sure but he is RIGHT. So I unwillingly agreed to not post recipe for the cake. I’ve sent a mail seeking permission to the publisher of this book but they haven’t reverted to me yet, so till then I am not posting the cake recipe. Even when I started the blog, I took permission for my first few posts.

I prepared everything in advance & just assembled the cake on the day. Our Little Devil, designed the banner for his Dad! I just helped him a bit where he couldn’t manage – like cutting flags & writing. Enough of jibber-jabber & over to the recipe.

Eggless Black Forest Cake with Chocolate Ganache, Cherry Pie Filling & Low Fat Whipped Cream -

Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache

Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache

Eggless Heavenly Chocolate Cake – minimally adapted from Bakin’ Without Eggs by Rosemarie Emro. I made it 2 days in advance and refrigerated it. I brought it out of refrigerator night before the assembly. {For Recipe refer book}

Cherry Pie Filling – I made it 1 day in advance & stored it in refrigerator in air-tight container & minimum 4 hours prior to assembly I allowed it to come to room temp. {Recipe below}

Cherry Syrup – I used drained cherry syrup from cans & stored it in refrigerator in air-tight container & minimum 4 hours prior to assembly I allowed it to come to room temp.

Chocolate Ganache – I made it the night before the assembly. Kept at room temp overnight to allow it set properly. {Recipe below}

Low Fat Whipped Cream – I made on the morning of assembling, thought kept the beater & bowl in freezer at night only :) {Recipe below}

Cherry Pie Filling – I used cherry liquid (drained) instead of water. I reduced the sugar by half as I was already using sugar filled cherry liquid.

Recipe Source – loosely adapted from Tammy of Tammy’s Recipes

Ingredients -

  • 5 Cups – Pitted Cherries {830 gms (wet weight) can yield 3 cups & 450 gms yield 2 cups pitted cherries, drained. Store cherry juice}
  • 1 1/2 Cups – Sugar (adjust as per the tartness or sweetness of cherries)
  • 1/4 Cup *+ 3 Tbsp – Drained Cherry Juice (adjust as per thickness required)
  • 3 Tbsp – Cornstarch

Method -

  1. Combine sugar & cherries in a thick bottom pan & stir. If cherries are soft & mushy, you won’t need more additional water but if they are firm, add 1/2-3/4 cup water.
  2. Mix cornstarch in 3 Tbsp drained cherry juice separately. Make sure no lumps are formed.
  3. When the cherries are boiling, slowly add cornstarch, stirring all the while. Allow the mixture to become clear & starch to dissolve completely. Do not overcook as the filling will start breaking down.
  4. Remove from flame & allow to cool. When cool, store in an air-tight container in refrigerator.

Notes -I made a mistake & started with 1 cup water, the filling became very watery as sugar also releases water upon being subjected to heat. It took me a lot of time to reach desired consistency & I was scared all the while of over doing the filling.

Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache

Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate Ganache -

Recipe Source – minimally adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients -

  • 227 gms – Semi-sweet/ Bittersweet Chocolate, cut into small pieces (I used Hershey’s)
  • 180 ml – Heavy Whipping Cream (I used Amul)
  • 1 Tbsp – Unsalted Butter

Method -

  1. Put chopped chocolate in a large bowl & keep aside.
  2. In a saucepan, heat cream & butter on medium heat. As soon as it boils, remove from flame & pour over chopped chocolate.
  3. Allow it to stand without mixing for few mins (about 3-4 mins). Do not stir as we do not want to incorporate air in Ganache.
  4. Using a wooden spoon/ rubber spatula or whisk, gently stir by beginning in the center & gently moving out to the edge of the bowl.
  5. When the chocolate is fully melted & mixture is smooth, add any liqueur or liquid flavorings (all should be at room temp.)
  6. Allow it to cool down completely & set properly. Before storing, cover with a piece of plastic wrap pressed on the top of the ganache so a film doesn’t form.It can be stored at room temp in a cool corner for 2 days & freeze upto 3 months.

Whipped Cream from Low Fat Cream – I halved the recipe, reduced the amount of cream & increased butter little so as to achieve higher fat content & get stiffer peaks.

Recipe Source – loosely adapted from Deeba of Passionate About Baking

Ingredients -

  • 300 gms – Low Fat Cream, Chilled (I used Amul -25% Fat)
  • 90 gms – Unsalted Butter
  • 3 Tbsp – Icing Sugar
  • 1/2 tsp – Vanilla Extract

Method -

  1. Refrigerate bowl & beater for 1/2 hour. I kept them overnight. :)
  2. In a small pan, melt the butter & 1/2 cup cream, stirring constantly till the butter melts. Add vanilla extract.
  3. Transfer to heat proof measuring cup & allow to cool to room temp.
  4. In a large bottom vessel (I used a wok), place ice cubes & prepare an ice bath.
  5. Place the chilled bowl over ice bath & beat the remaining cream & sugar on low speed till soft peaks are reached.
  6. Now begin adding the butter-cream mixture in a gradual stream, beating all the while on low speed until stiff peaks are formed.

    Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache

    Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache

Assembling the Cake – technique adapted from ehow

  1. Take a cardboard pieces & cut it out 1 inch bigger than the cake pan. Cover it with the golden paper. Cake base is ready.
  2. Allow your cake assembling ingredients to come to room temperature – cake, cherry pie filling & syrup. In the meanwhile, prepare the whipped cream.
  3. Place the prepared cake base on a flat base or cake table.
  4. Using a serrated knife, carefully slice the cake horizontally into 2 halves. Liberally sprinkle both sides of halves with sugar syrup. Place the top half on the base upside down.
  5. Fill the ganache in a frosting bag & using small star tip, make 2-3 circles of ganache on the base cake to create a sort of dam as we do not want the cream to spill out when we fill it in.
  6. Then using a rubber spatula, fill the dam with whipped cream, spreading till the edge of the dam.
  7. Now place some dollops of cherry pie-filling on the cream. This is just to give that extra flavor of cherry when we bite in. No need to spread a big layer, just some dollops would do.
  8. Place the second layer of cake with bottom up (as this has a smooth & flat top) on top of of first layer. Allow this to set in fridge for few minutes so that ganache is set & doesn’t get disturbed when we start decorating.
  9. Remove from fridge. With the help of frosting spatula, spread ganache on the sides of the cake completely. Smooth the ends & spread any extra ganache towards the top centre. Since we are going to fill the top with cherry pie filling, the top can be little untidy, it won’t show. :)
  10. Take the ganache filled frosting bag & make small scallop design, press & then pull forward, again press & pull forward the tip, at the base of the cake. This gives a clean edge to the cake.
  11. Now fill the remaining whipped cream in a frosting bag & using a bigger star-tip make alternate shells or any other design you want on the edge.
  12. Now fill the centre with the remaining cherry-pie filling & spread towards the edges without spoiling the cream.
  13. Chill the cake covered for atleast 4 hours for best taste. Slice & serve.

    Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache

    Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache

You can’t imagine the amount of butterflies I had in my stomach for last 1 week leading upto the day. I was hoping for atleast the photos to come out great & not let me down. The cake was very tasty, chocolatey, crumbly & soft. I guess use of Chocolate Pudding Filling in the batter gave it the extra chocolatey taste. Every bite was real heaven.

I turned out to be a bit messy looking cake as – I’m a clueless decorator, the cake broke into 2 while slicing into layers, I forgot to soak each layer & just did the top one. The ganache on the sides didn’t spread as neat as I had hoped & the whipped cream despite all my calculation for stiff peak, didn’t hold for even a minute. :( :( :( Nevertheless, the cake was very rich & heavenly!!!

Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache

Eggless Black Forest Cake with Cherry Pie Filling & Chocolate Ganache

Sending this to My Favorite Dish Event by Ammu of Ammaji Recipes. In a pastry shop we are spoiled for choices these days, but time & again I come back to eating the good old Black Forest Cake/ Pastry & that is why it is a favorite dish with me.

Eggless Rainbow Cake with Fresh Cream & Pineapple Cherry Frosting – Chocolate Rasoi – Part 2

17 Jul

I’d never ever baked a cake & decorated with whipped cream. Always believed that this is a task meant for outer world species. ;) I decided to join them when I had support (read – mom & sister to help me in any misadventures). Both my mom & sister have fair amount of experience in baking & frosting in which I sadly never participated earlier. To be just, I did not do a wow job but it wasn’t a bad job either. I strongly believe in practice, practice till you succeed and baking is such an aspect for me where I need tremendous amount of practice.

Whenever I make family recipes or even Italian, I am confident of the product as well as taste, irrespective of what the photo might say. But whenever I bake anything I am so unsure of myself. I literally reach out to all the baking goddesses – Dorie Greenspan, Rose L Beranbaum, please help me. :)

Eggless Rainbow Cake - pattern

Eggless Rainbow Cake - pattern

For this attempt I chose a recipe which was tried and tested. Too many unknown factors.. naaah! During the Chocolate Rasoi workshop, we had done a Blackforest Cake, I doubled the recipe & adapted it to plain Cake. The technique followed to decorate also was taught in the workshop. I’ve followed the same as I was familiar with it, just adding pineapple slices to it.

I gave the cake a twist by making it in a rainbow of colors, 5 color batter & beautiful insides. I wanted to add blue color as well to complete the rainbow but sadly that was not available in the local market.

Eggless Rainbow Cake -

Recipe Source – Loosely adapted from Chocolate Rasoi Workshop

Ingredients -

  • 2 cups – All Purpose Flour
  • 1 tsp – Baking Powder
  • 1 tsp – Baking Soda
  • 400 g – Milkmaid
  • 4 Tbsp – Unsalted Butter
  • 200 ml – Plain Soda (you can use left-over soda which has lost it’s fizz)
  • 1 tsp – Vanilla Essence
  • 1 tsp each – red, yellow, green, orange color

Method -

  1. Pre-heat oven to 180 C. Line* & grease an 8 inch round pan.
  2. Sieve flour, baking powder & soda together 2-3 times.
  3. Beat together butter, milkmaid & essence**.
  4. Mix flour mixture using soda water into wet ingredients. Add soda & dry ingredients alternatively, starting with flour & ending with flour.
  5. Divide the mixture into 5 equal parts. Add 1 color each to a part, so that you have plain, yellow, orange, green & red colored batter. The quantity of color will determine the depth of color in cake, however too much color will leave the smell of burning after baking so avoid a lot of color.

    Eggless Rainbow Cake - Colorful Batter

    Eggless Rainbow Cake - Colorful Batter

  6. Now pour the white batter into the pan. Follow with green, yellow, orange &  red. Ensure to drop all the batters in the center of the pan, as you pour the next batter, the lower layer will be further pushed automatically towards the sides of the pan.
  7. Bake for 30-40 mins or until toothpick comes out clean.
  8. Remove from oven and allow to stand in pan from 10 minutes. Then gently demould.
  9. Allow to completely cool on wire rack.

Assembling the Cake – Technique loosely adapted from Blackforest Cake*** of Chocolate Rasoi.

  • 400 gm- Whipped Cream, stiff peaks
  • 1/2 tin – Sliced Pineapples
  • 1/4 cup – pitted & split cherries
  • 4 Tbsp – Cherry Syrup
  • 10-12 – Sugar Coated Candies (gems)
  1. Using a serrated knife, carefully slice the cake horizontally. Giving you 2 beautiful looking layers in a flowery pattern.

    Eggless Rainbow Cake - Beautiful outside & inside

    Eggless Rainbow Cake - Beautiful outside & inside

  2. Level the cake to get layers with even top.
  3. Now the inside of top layer – spread a very thin layer of any fruit spread or cream & place on a base on which you will decorate. Jam/ spread allows the cake to stay in one place while you frost. When you place the cake on the base, the inside layer of the cake is now the bottom & the leveled top layer is middle of the cake.
  4. Using a toothpick or a fork, gently pierce the cake. Soak the layer in sprite/ fruit juice/ coke. I soaked it in syrup from cherry tin.
  5. Apply a layer of whipped cream all-over the cake. Place chopped pineapple & cherry pieces.

    Eggless Rainbow Cake - soaked & frosted

    Eggless Rainbow Cake - soaked & frosted

  6. Place the second layer of cake such that side which was base of the cake is now the middle & the inside of the cake is now the top.
  7. Apply the whipped cream all over the cake and decorate as you please with pineapple slices, cherries.

    Eggless Rainbow Cake

    Eggless Rainbow Cake

My nephew was active part of the whole assembling process & wanted to give his touch by adding some sweet candies. The cake was good, soft, moist & just enough sweet. I love pineapple pastry & hence liked the crunchy taste of pineapples pieces in between layers a lot. Cutting the cake was a great pleasure, looking at all the beautiful colors peeping from inside made my effort worthwhile.

Eggless Rainbow Cake - Sliced

Eggless Rainbow Cake - Sliced

This cake really looks awesome from inside. My elder sister bullied me into not leveling the layers as she said it was a waste of good cake and they would even out with each others weight eventually. Though there was and is logic to her argument but the brown layer & dome shape peeping from sliced cake slightly takes away from a beautiful looking cake. I learnt a lesson – NOT to be bullied by elder sister. I guess I am total case of being bullied with people around me – first husband and now elder sister. They don’t let me create. :(

Eggless Rainbow Cake - ready to eat

Eggless Rainbow Cake - ready to eat

* I usually line my pans with plain brown paper which was something taught to us in Home Science classes. I have continued to do so, as so far they have worked for me and I get to recycle brown bags which come into house from various shopping trips.

** Tip by Chocolate Rasoi – For uniform & stronger flavor, essence should be added in oil medium rather than in the end.

*** Replace 2 Tbsp Flour with 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder to get Blackforest Cake. You can add 1/2 tsp Chocolate color for darker shade & replace vanilla with chocolate essence.

Perfect Eggless Banana Pound Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting – Sweet Punch for July & Happy Father’s Day

7 Jul

This is my first sweet punch bake. I’m not sure where to start and what to write. I guess I’ll start from scratch! A Sweet Punch is started by Divya of Easycooking, Ria of Ria’s Collection & Maria of Maria’s Menu. I’ve been following Easycooking since December last year and I’m grateful to Divya for starting me on the journey of baking. I had a microwave/ convection oven and not an OTG, so for years I believed I can’t bake in it (I did try a couple of times, but they were such a disaster, let’s not talk about them here!). One fine day, while surfing for some recipes on Chef in You, I came across a post by Divya on Baking in Microwave/ Convection mode. I couldn’t believe it!! There was actually someone out there who does her baking in Convection mode. You gotta be kidding!! Slowly when it all sunk in, I searched for eggless recipes on Divya’s blog and started on my baking life :)

A Sweet Punch is for bakers like me – Home Baking Made Simple. I guess we would like it simple. :) Thank you Divya, Ria & Maria for making it simple.

This month’s Sweet Punch was a Perfect Pound Cake from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Apart from choosing her recipe, they also chose to follow the method of mixing the batter differently, which would ensure a tight crumb just like Sara Lee Pound Cake.

When I first read the recipe on reveal date, I was in a fix as I don’t eat or use eggs. For me it became more than Perfect Pound Cake, it became my first cake wherein I have substituted egg on my own account. I googled for eggless pound cake recipes, there are many but none that follows this proportion or method and I didn’t want to deviate from both. By following available recipes on google I felt I was missing the whole fun of being a Sweet Punch Member.

Eggless Banana Pound Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

Eggless Banana Pound Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

So I decided to simply substitute the eggs in the given recipe with best possible subs. In this endeavor, I ended up making 2 cakes – Eggless Banana Pound Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting & Eggless Chocolate Ricotta Cheese Pound Cake. I substituted egg with banana & ricotta cheese respectively. In the process I learned to make cream cheese, coconut cream cheese frosting at home and that Paneer is a closest alternative to Ricotta Cheese. :) Enough of jibber-jabber, here to recipe -

Eggless Banana Pound Cake – I replaced egg with ripe Banana & Baking Powder in this recipe – (1/4 cup ripe Banana + 1/2 tsp Baking Powder replaces 1 egg) Also my fluted tube pan is smaller than 6 cup, so I reduced the quantity by 1/3rd maintaining the same proportion.

Recipe Source – A Sweet Punch Team

Ingredients -

  • 2 Tbsp – Milk
  • 1/2 cup ripe Banana + 1 tsp Baking Powder (replace 2 eggs)
  • 1 tsp – Vanilla Extract
  • 1 cup – Sifted Cake Flour
  • 1/2 cup – Sugar
  • 1/2 tsp – Leavening Agent (1/4 tsp Baking Powder + 1/4 tsp Baking Soda)
  • a pinch – Salt
  • 123 gms – Unsalted Butter

Method – I simply replaced the egg with banana in the steps. Baking powder is added in dry ingredients along with other leavening agents.

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Grease fluted tube pan. Sift dry ingredients together 2-3 times.
  2. Puree the banana in a processor.
  3. Lightly whisk together milk, banana puree and vanilla in a medium bowl.
  4. Place dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix on low speed for 30 secs, until blended.
  5. Add butter & half of the banana mixture, and mix until dry ingredients are moistened. On medium speed beat for 1 minute. This will aerate and develop cake’s texture. Scrape down sides.

    Banana Mix

    Banana Mix

  6. Add the remaining banana mixture in 2 batches, beating for 20 secs between each addition. Scrape down sides.
  7. Pour batter into prepared pan. Smooth surface with spatula. I baked for 25 – 30 mins.
  8. Let cake cool on a rack in the pan for 10 mins before inverting onto a greased wire rack.

    Eggless Banana Pound Cake

    Eggless Banana Pound Cake

For making Cake flour at home – Take one cup of APF and remove 2 Tbsp from it. Replace the 2 Tbsp flour with cornflour and sift together 2-3 times. Cake flour is ready to use.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting – When the cake was ready, I felt it was incomplete without a frosting, so I promptly used my search engine and came up with a very simple recipe of cream cheese by Khushboo. Thankfully this recipe doesn’t call for fancy ingredients like some others do. She has given 3 recipes I chose the simplest one as the ingredients were available and time used was minimum (with a toddler to manage time is of great importance to me).

Again search engine came in handy for finding a recipe for coconut cream cheese frosting. This one is from Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic.

Recipe Source – minimally adapted from Khushboo of Notecook & Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic

Ingredients -

  • 1 cup – hung Curd (hang 2 cups of curd to get 1 cup of hung curd)
  • 1 cup – full Cream

I used 1 cup cream cheese to make frosting as my cake was small.

  • 1 cup – Cream Cheese
  • 50 gm – unsalted Butter
  • 1/4 cup – fresh grated Coconut
  • 3/4 cup – Icing Sugar
  • 1/4 cup – fresh grated Coconut for sprinkling on top

Method -

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

  1. Mix hung curd & cream together to get 2 cups of cream cheese. Remember this method gives slightly curd smelling cream cheese.
  2. Cream the butter and cheese together for about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides.
  3. Slowly add the sugar. Fold in the coconut. Chill for assembling.

Assembling the Cake -

  1. Spread onto the cooled cake. Sprinkle grated coconut on top of frosting.
  2. Chill and serve. My cake tasted much better once we chilled and cut.

    Coconut Cream Cheese Frosted Cake

    Coconut Cream Cheese Frosted Cake

I especially timed the cake to celebrate Father’s Day. And I had to give in to lot of demands from him – being V is not patient, I can’t wait to eat, who cares for frosting or photos is his motto!! He didn’t let me chill the frosting and didn’t even let me sprinkle the whole cake with coconut. So I had to make do with half sprinkled cake. For every resistance I would get – It is my day and it is baked for me, so what I say will prevail. MEN!!! May be it’s another excuse for a bad photo job :( I’m learning you see…. my learning curve is slow. I learnt not to bake when V is around. Next attempt will definitely be on a weekday. :)

Eggless Perfect Banana Pound Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

Eggless Perfect Banana Pound Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

The cake came out good with a distinct taste of both banana & coconut. Though as I mentioned, it tasted very good after chilling and eating. I felt the cake was slightly on the denser side – which I attribute to lack of eggs, no hand mixer & addition of baking soda.

SO, I made a second attempt as this shot was far from Perfect Pound Cake -

  • I tried paneer as a substitute for egg.
  • I bought a hand mixer :) finally and wanted to use it on this cake. This cake is all about timing and speed of hand mixer so I guess this cake deserved my first mixer use.
  • I added baking soda with presumption that it is just enough to utilize the slight acidity of the bananas to create the desired carbon dioxide bubbles. However, I may be wrong, as addition of soda in absence of proper acidic medium gives a denser cake. So in second attempt I added cocoa powder (acidic medium) to make full use of soda properties.

In short I made Perfect Eggless Chocolate Ricotta Cheese Pound Cake for second attempt. :) :) :) Since this post is already too long, I have decided to put together my workings for next attempt as a separate post. I hate long posts! So see you around in a couple of days.

Chocolate Rasoi Workshop in May 2011

16 Jun

As promised in Eggless Chocolate Brownie, this post is about the workshop I attended in May 2011 in Ghaziabad, UP.

Chocolate Rasoi

Chocolate Rasoi

While I was hunting for some wedding paraphernalia for my younger sis last year, I came across Chocolate Rasoi at a shop in Ghaziabad market and stored it in my list of to do things. Till December last year I had never tried my hand at baking as my experience in college was close to disaster. But I guess the love to give my son home baked goodies finally made me don the baking apron and I started my baking journey. Though I have been baking for 6 months but still attending a workshop gives insight which is always useful. I firmly believe there is always something to learn from others.

When I planned my trip to my in-laws place in Ghaziabad this year, I just had the perfect opportunity to sort through my to-do-things and attend the workshop. Also I had ready-made arrangement to leave my son behind and attend without worrying. :)

Chocolate Rasoi conducts classes in various vegetarian cuisines – from baking (both eggless & with egg), chocolate making (basic & advance), regional (Gujarati, Bengali Sweets), Snacks, Sizzlers, Chinese etc. Please visit their website for more details.

CR is run by Anjli Agarwal, who is a great cook and loves to share her culinary experience.

Anjli Agarwal of Chocolate Rasoi

Anjli Agarwal of Chocolate Rasoi

The workshop was easy to attend with 24 hrs back-up in case of electricity issue. The fees was also reasonable and if you book in advance then you get additional discount as well. Also they had options of taking packages for people who want to attend multi-workshops.

I took Eggless Baking workshop which includes 6 recipes across – cakes, cookies, brownies, muffins & basic decoartion. The recipes for which I will be posting in series.

Eggless Choco-chip Cookies

Choco-chip Cookies

Choco-chip Cookies

Eggless Cherry Almond Cake

Eggless Cherry Almond Cake

Eggless Cherry Almond Cake

Eggless Kaju Mawa Cake

Eggless Kaju Mawa Cake

Eggless Kaju Mawa Cake

Eggless Black Forest Cake

Eggless Blackforest Cake

Eggless Blackforest Cake

Eggless Chocolate Brownie

Eggless Chocolate Brownie

Eggless Chocolate Brownie

Eggless Blueberry Orange Cupcakes

Eggless Orange Blueberry Muffin

Eggless Orange Blueberry Muffin

As promised the experience of the workshop was worth time, money and energy spent. I’m looking forward to attending more workshops with them – Cake Decorating, Eggless Desserts, Sizzlers, etc.

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