Take This Gift And Eat It!

Today I received my first home made edible Diwali gift in many years and I spent  a blissful afternoon polishing off half a dozen lemon tarts. 

I am a great believer in edible gifts. They have a personal touch and don't take up any space in your loft….because let's face it, When was the last time you were gifted some eyesore of a home decor item that you didn't stash away because it was too ugly to even re gift? And psychologically I am quite sure that store bought chocolates and mithai have a tendency to go into storage on my hips much more than lemon tarts. 

Contrary to what you may think, these gifts don't involve hours of kitchen slavery just a little bit of planning ahead of time. 

For Diwali last year We presented slices of Date Cake accompanied with Toffee Sauce, Cheese shortbread, Spiced Walnuts and that empty handmade origami box in the top left corner held Macarons. 

It is probably too late for you to make something for Diwali but why not give it a try this Christmas. Everything doesn't have to be home made….a slice of cake and a cookie with maybe a Christmas ornament and some tea? and tuck in a handmade card somewhere? Sounds good to me.

I have created a picture tutorial for this fun Christmas stained glass cookie. It is easy to make and blows peoples' minds away. These are something you could put in your Christmas box.

You could also bake your favourite cookies and pack them in a resealable plastic bag and top them off with a bag topper like so-

OK so I lied. There is a little bit of kitchen slavery involved. But I can make some things easier for you. Download the printable Christmas gift tags and  bag topper below. Right click and save to your computer.

One last freebie for you to make up for this utterly crappy brain dead blog post. Print this out on an A4 sheet and give it to your child/nephew/niece/favourite non relative child and make Christmas shopping easier for yourself.

By the way did you go to my Facebook page and hit 'like' yet? No? Go now: https://www.facebook.com/newdelhicakecompany

I hit refresh every 2 minutes to see if someone liked it. 

A profusely profound blog post next time. 

Earning My Bread And Butter

It's official! I am open for business. I had 3 cake orders, one order for cupcakes and one order for cake toppers this month. It happened overnight. I have turned out to be one of those people who don't procrastinate. Who would have thought! I think I may have surprised even myself. Till last month I had absolutely no intentions of ever selling cakes but after some friends (you know who you are), all but sat on me, I thought, well what the heck! So here we are. 

I don't have a name and I am not sure I want one. What if I get bored of it in a month? As of now it is more like funding my hobby. I can try new things and not have to eat them.

Speaking of bread and butter, We have been having a lot of that too. Usually at midnight when the late night hunger pangs strike, while watching The Good Wife. Yes, I am the good wife, dutifully eating all that my husband cooks and (now) bakes. Bread is his latest fad and I must add that he has become quite good at it too. 

It all started because our little girl D who is allergic to everything, can't eat store bought bread. She got by without it for the last two years but now suddenly she is desperate to have it and so now like good indulgent  parents who (thank the lord) know how to bake, we give her what she wants.

Since bread is now made in our house like Roti is made in yours....that is every day, we have to keep it simple. A (the husband, in case you forgot) has devised his own recipes and I am sharing the one photographed above, with you and we shall call it Double-Roti (heh!)

DOUBLE ROTI

Ingredients:

750 grams flour

7 grams of instant dry yeast

250 ml lukewarm water

200 ml lukewarm milk

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

30 grams melted butter

Method:

- whisk together flour, salt,sugar, yeast and melted butter.

- Add the warm milk and water and knead for 2-3 minutes

- Put the mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer and knead with a dough hook for 5 minutes at medium speed.  If you don't have a stand mixer knead by hand for 10 minutes.

- Put in a greased bowl, cover the bowl with cling wrap and leave in a warm place for about an hour till the dough has doubled.

- Knock down the dough and knead lightly for 30 seconds or so to take the air out.

- Put in a greased loaf tin

- Cover the loaf tin with a cloth or greased plastic bag and let it rise again for another hour till doubled.

- In the meantime preheat the oven to 230 degrees C

- Once the dough has risen, bake for 30-35 minutes till the crust is the colour you want it to be.

Here are a couple of photographs of the buns we eat with butter every night.

If you have never baked bread before, just try the recipe, even if only to smell the divine smell of a loaf of bread in the oven. 

And the best part is these breads have almost no fat, no preservatives, no junk...except the refined flour of course. I will post recipes of bread made with whole wheat flour soon so stay tuned.

Jhatka Barney

What can I say about A? We have known each other since my mother was about as old as I am now. She knows me better than most people. She knows when I am not paying attention, she even knows what I am preoccupied with, when I am not paying attention. For example one afternoon when we got together to study Macbeth after college, I was nodding my head pretending to be fully engrossed in the toil and trouble of the witches, A was the only one who knew that in reality I was following the goings on in the television serial my mother was watching in the next room. 

We have done some crazy things together, including skipping college to get autographs from the Indian and Pakistani cricket teams, and watching a match at Feroz Shah Kotla and then walking halfway across Delhi to get home instead of taking a bus because we were so busy chattering away. Okay, perhaps that doesn't make any sense to you or you cannot understand why it should be important, but it is. A was also extremely instrumental in bringing my husband and I together. We are so alike that when we applied for our first job (together of course) I had made both our resumes and the interviewer commented that my resume was exactly the same as that of the girl who just left. We both got the job. We have been there for each other in much more trying times, but those details are not necessary for this blog. She knows and I know and that is enough.

A knows me inside and out. In fact she knows so much about me that I might have to kill her. But A, I know as much about you so it all goes to the grave sister, to the grave. 

It is probably because she knows me so well that I was able to give her instructions on how to make a Barney cake via Whatsapp and she was able to follow them as if she were using my hands to bake the cake.

It is her daughter's birthday. And she loves Barney. So A made a Barney cake from scratch. This is the first time she has ever decorated a cake. Since she sent me camera phone photographs of every stage I am going to use them as a tutorial for creating a cake with any character on the top. 

You will need Fondant or Marzipan, food colours, A rolling pin, a cake, Buttercream or Ganache, an icing spatula and Fondant smoothers (if possible)

The first step is to take a printout of the character you want on the cake. This has to be done a few days before the party. Choose an outline (search on google by colouring pages). You can make it as detailed as you like but to start with, pick a simple character. Cut around the outlines and make sure it fits the way you want it to, on your cake tin. increase or reduce the size of the image accordingly.

For Barney here, we need to take two printouts. Cut one around the outer edge of the body and cut out just the belly from the other printout.

Colour you Marzipan or Fondant in the required colour (in this case purple and green) and roll out the fondant, don't roll too thin. Place the cutouts on top of the fondant. 

Now using a very sharp and thin paring knife, gently cut around the edges taking care not to stretch the fondant out of shape

You may mess up, but that is alright! just start over.

It doesn't need to be perfect. you can smooth out the edges later. A has however done a perfect job.

the eyes, mouth, feet and other such details can be made with fondant or with Writing Icing easily available in the market

remember to practise on a plate before attempting to decorate the real thing. A is a fast learner.

After you have added the details, let your finished figure harden slightly overnight.

Now on to the cake. Bake it and cover it in Buttercream or Ganache as smoothly as you can. A did a much better job than I ever manage.

Now roll out enough marzipan to cover the cake. To calculate the diameter of the circle you need to roll out, take the diameter of the cake and add the height of the sides times two. For example to cover an 8 inch round cake that is 2 inches high you need to roll the fondant to a round of at least 12 inches diameter an extra inch for safety so 13 inches. Use lots of icing sugar or cornflour to prevent the fondant from sticking to the surface but try not to get too much of it on the top.  Dab some jam diluted in water over the ganache to give the marzipan something to stick to and cover your cake. Add the fondant cut out figure to the top, write a little message...

...Voila! 

And this my friends is the recipe for one very happy little baby and one very proud best friend. Happy birthday little one! It is not as easy peazy as A makes it look. You should see my first attempt at decorating a cake. No, I don't intend to let that photograph see the light of day, EVER. You should try it however. It may not be as abso-bloomin-lutly fantastic as hers but I am sure it will be superb. So Whatsapp me!

Tree Pose

Yes, I admit it, I happen to be one of those annoying people who can stand in the yogic 'Tree Pose' endlessly. Sometimes I even find it relaxing to stand around on one leg. No, I am not extremely fit, so it must be some center of gravity thing. Keeping a fondant tree standing on a cake however is not relaxing at all. Just the thought makes me break into cold sweat! Nevertheless, I have committed to producing a standing tree on a cake for N's friend's birthday. It is standing tall and firm on the styrofoam block but whether or not it will stand on a soft cake remains to be seen.

I have seen a tree tutorial on the net before, Joylicious cakes has one I think. it involved wires and I have always been one of those people who cannot bear the thought of having wires sticking into cake. I mean for god's sake stop sticking wires with balloons and stars into cake. it's disgusting! I even stopped watching cake shows on television which suggest you put in styrofoam balls, wires, even pieces of wood in your cake. How is that even a cake anymore? Why don't they just make a sculpture out of mud and take a bunch of cupcakes along and say "here this is for show, and this is to eat"!

having said that, I realised all too soon that a tree without wires was going to be too heavy for a cake. I tried Rice Crispies smooshed together with melted marshmallows (too heavy) and a cookie cut into a tree shape (too fragile) and then I decided to go with the wires, with one small exception. The wires will not touch my cake(Thank you Joylicious!). So the tree won't be edible even though it will be covered in edible stuff, but the cake will be.

I have used some specialised cake equipment to make this tree but they are by no means necessary. So here is what you need:

You can get Tylose powder and the 'food safe' wire at CCDS if you are in India. If you don't have leaf cutters you can use a paper template, though that is much more tedious. And if you don't have the silicone veiner you can just score lines on the leaf with the end of a toothpick. You also need floral tape or masking tape 

Colour your gum paste (fondant mixed with tylose powder) green. The shade doesn't matter. Roll it out as thin as you can. Remember to either use a non stick surface or lots of icing sugar to prevent it from sticking. Now use your cutter or your template to cut out leaves. How many leaves you need will depend on the size of your tree and how full you want it to be.

cut the wire with a wire cutter into 4 inch lengths. You need as many pieces as there are leaves.

Gently push the wire into place where the stem of the leaf would be. I find that if you gently rotate the wire while putting it in, it is easier.

Next, you use your veiner to create the leafy texture or if you don't have a veiner, just score leaf like lines with a toothpick.

If you are using a veiner, please remember to brush each side nicely with cornflour otherwise you'll just have a sticky goopy mess which will be hard to take out from the mould. I didn't put the cornflour for this photograph. So the leaf you see here didn't make it.

adding veins to the leaves just makes them look more realistic.

After all the leaves are made stick the free ends of the wires into a styrofoam block and let the leaves dry overnight.

Ah..so pretty! I would have done O'Henry proud methinks if I had been the one painting that last leaf on the tree. 

Once they are dry you can shade them with a little green or brown food colour diluted with lemon juice.

Now take 3-4 really long wooden barbecue skewers that are safe to go into cake, We put them into food all the time after all. Push the skewers about two inches deep into a styrofoam block. Now use masking tape or floral tape which is available at CCDS to bind the part of the skewers that are sticking out, together.

take some long pieces of wire (I am told they are food safe but will still not put them in the cake) and wrap them around the skewers forming branches. Take a look at the photograph below to get an idea of how the tree structure should look.

This is the fun part. wrap the wire stems of the leaves around the branches you have just created. Don't rush this step because the leaves are extremely fragile.

After you are satisfied with how your branches look with the leaves on them, take some brown coloured fondant and gently and carefully wrap in bits and pieces around each branch, making sure all the wire is covered. Leave to dry overnight.

Take a small cake board and make a hole in the center. Remove the tree from the styrofoam block and push the exposed part of the skewers through the hole. 

So now when you put the tree on the real cake, the wooden skewers will go inside the cake and there will be a cake board between the wires and the cake. 

I will be covering the cake board with green fondant so that it blends in with the cake. You have to wait for another post to see it all come together on a cake.

Note: 7th August 2013

The tree stood!

One Fine Day

Have you ever noticed how in American movies the successful female professional walks down the avenue with a paper cup of coffee in one hand and a cellphone to her ear giving directions of utmost importance to some unknown person, presumably a secretary or a junior at work? The woman usually is in sharp focus, her hair bobs up and down, and she is the only one in the crowd of Hollywood corporates behind her who is wearing a brightly coloured suit. Everyone else hazy in the background wears black.

That woman of the movies is my secret idol – the person I have always wanted to be. Not to do the work she does, but to walk down the road with a coffee in my hand while talking business on the phone. In my dream her exact work has no specifics, it is simply something important. It is important and it is all-consuming. There is no time to stop for a coffee – it must be on the go. It’s an exciting roller coaster of a life, where there is something unknown being achieved. The end is of no importance. All that matters is the process of being glamourously busy and exhilaratingly stressed.

The closest I came to being that busy corporate woman of my dreams was when I started reporting on business and economy. But instead of the busy streets of Manhattan, on most days I found myself walking down the paan spit stained corridors of Shastri Bhawan (a government office). I was not talking to my secretary on the phone, instead I was speaking to some press officer of some minister, with the obligatory towel at the back of his chair. Despite all that, sometimes I wish I could get up in the morning and just leave for work. Let's face it, you get to drink more coffee at work and you get to go to the loo whenever you want! Here is a snapshot of my faux 'businessy' look of yore. 

I once went to London on work. We had a free day in between and I decided, what the heck, nobody knows me here. So, I bought a cup of coffee and stomped down the road with a look of intense purpose. I sipped my coffee and spoke to someone on the phone, all the while looking extremely busy. And then I walked into this building. Did I mention that I was walking down the very touristy Regent Street and the building I entered was Hamleys, the toy store? They could have made a movie about me, I looked like this busy working mother (think Michelle Pfeiffer in One Fine Day) who made sure she had time to pick up that all important birthday gift for her baby.

Today's recipe is for a real life Michelle-Pfeiffer-One-Fine-Day type character who is super busy but still wants to bake something to munch on, because, it is super easy and quick.

Chocolate and Nut Bars (adapted from Joy of Baking)

113 grams butter, at room temperature

105 grams firmly packed light brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

130 grams all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping:

180 grams semi sweet chocolate, chopped)

1/2 cup finely chopped toasted almonds or toasted hazelnuts

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C 

Line the bottom and sides of an 8 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil.

In a bowl whisk the flour with the salt.

With a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Beat in the vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then add the flour mixture, mixing only until smooth.

Spread the shortbread evenly on the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until the shortbread is golden brown.

Remove from oven and immediately scatter the chocolate chips over the hot shortbread. Return the shortbread to the oven for a minute or just until the chocolate softens. Remove from oven and spread the chocolate evenly with the back of a spoon.

Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the chocolate. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the chocolate has set, lift the shortbread from the pan using the edges of the foil. Place on a cutting board and, with a sharp knife, cut into 16 squares.

It might not be gourmet, but it hits the right spot especially late at night when you raid your fridge, Nigella style.

A Labour of Love

I know I must come across as a very good wifely wife and a good 'mom' (Oh how I detest that word) Please call me 'mother' if you must? even 'mum' will do, my children call me 'mamma'. Anyway so you probably have this vision of a sunshiny person. You think I wake up smiling in the morning with a skip in my step and I smile a gleaming toothpaste commercial smile at everyone. And then I serve breakfast to the family with a glow on my face. Different things for everyone, whatever they want! I never scold the children, I bake them goodies every day, I don't have even the hint of a frown line on my forehead and then I wave them goodbye with my hair bobbing up and down in slow motion. The kids go to school and the husband with his briefcase goes off to work and then I sit down and read a magazine and bake. 

Well I am not that person. For one my husband does not carry a briefcase to work. Does anyone carry a briefcase to work? secondly, I don't know how to cook. I have never known how to and I couldn't be bothered to try. So yes, I can make tea or coffee or salad at the most, but producing a meal for the family is beyond my capabilities...unless of course cake counts as food. My husband does all the cooking in the house, Or as is the case now, he tells the cook what to make and gives an exact recipe. When I say he cooks, I don't mean he knows how to cook. I mean he cooks better than most people I know. He can make anything from butter chicken and kababs to plated degustation style European food, complete with little sauce dots on the plate. If we eat something outstanding at a restaurant, he can replicate and in fact better it at home.

I think maybe he believes in that old saying about the way to the heart being through the stomach, well good for him because my heart is IN my stomach. He made the most outstanding Vietnamese chicken salad the other night and I thought I must share the recipe. This isn't just a baking blog. It says so right on top

Ingredients

Salad:

1 small head of chinese cabbage shredded

1 carrot julienned 

1 green mango julienned

2 handfuls of bean sprouts

2 red onions finely sliced

2 pan roasted boneless chicken breasts thinly sliced

2 tablespoons roasted sesame seeds

handful of chopped coriander 

handful of chopped mint

Dressing:

1 small knob of ginger

6-7 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

100 ml fish sauce

100 ml water

2 fresh thai red chillies

juice of 2-3 limes

Method:

Toss all the shredded vegetables, sprouts and sliced chicken together. 

Add most of the dressing and toss again.

Serve and sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top

Of course those were not the portion sizes, when we were polishing it off.

On his birthday a food surprise is always a good surprise. He doesn't like anything that can be bought in the market. And the only food I know is cake. Here is what I made. It is a golden cake frosted with Bavarian Cream flavoured Swiss Meringue Buttercream, layered with mixed berry compote and then covered in fondant.

And how do you keep something like this a surprise when you live with the person? It was painstaking to say the least. I would make all the little gum paste details in the morning after he left. Then they would dry on the table and I would pick them all up and put them into a box and hide the box in the cupboard before he got back. Again the next morning, I would take them all out to let them dry.

Lazy that I am, I also invited N’s friends over to help me make the little vegetables. That was a play date that got me lots of brownie points from the kids and the mothers.

It was an extremely enjoyable cake to make, to think of all the different elements I could put on the kitchen counter and see it all come together in the end. The muffin pan on the counter is a little bit of me in the kitchen.

It is no secret that given half a chance, he would leave his current job and be a chef, but unfortunately for him, nobody is giving him that chance. Well he gets to wear a chef's uniform on his cake at least.

My husband is not bald (so far). I just completely forgot to make hair for him. I hope it is not a premonition of some sort...yikes!

So that is how it is with us. When he wants to tell me he loves me he says "here eat food" and when I want to tell him I love him, I say "here, eat cake" So if you come a-visiting and we feed you good food and cake, it is a happy day and all is well.

Let Them Eat Cupcake.

As much as I hate baking cookies, I love baking cupcakes. I know serious cake bakers and cake connoisseurs think cupcakes are for novices and really not high brow enough, nevertheless they rock my world. I can't believe I just wrote "rock my world" so 80s.

I have my favourites when it comes to cupcake recipes. Since this post is not really about the recipe but what we will do with the cupcakes, I won't write them down for you, the one I use the most is the One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes by Martha Stewart.

If like me you bake a lot of cupcakes, you might want to take a look at this nifty gadget I have just bought. It's a Cake Batter Dispenser. I know it is easy enough to just spoon in the batter into the cupcake cases but if like me you are a hoarder and compulsive buyer of gadgets, you'll buy this uni-tasker. 

So you've baked the cupcakes. I baked the Chiffon Cupcakes for this tutorial. While they are cooling make a batch of butter cream. I ALWAYS make Martha Stewart's Swiss Meringue Buttercream for all my cakes and cupcakes, but I hate making it because it takes too much time and energy. If you want to make some buttercream fast and don't care that it is too incredibly sweet here is the recipe for you. Whichever recipe you choose, colour it with food colour or let it be white and put it in the fridge to firm up a wee bit.

Now the fun part. Take your cooled cupcake and a sharp paring knife. Or if you are like me, you will buy the Cupcake Corer. Gently scoop out a small portion of the cupcake from the centre. Don't go all the way down. You just want a small cavity inside the cupcake. keep the gouged out bits aside.

Fill the hole with anything you like! Could be nuts or a glob of Nutella, m&ms or even a candy in it's wrapper! I filled my cupcakes with popping candy and jellybeans.

Now you simply plug the hole with the gouged out bits of cupcake. It is easier if you are neat with the gouging out business.

Just frost the cupcake with the buttercream you made. If you didn't make any just bring out the jar of Nutella and smoosh some over the top. 

I am one of those annoying people who always have some gum paste decorations ready to pop on to cupcakes and cakes. N helps me make them, keeps her gainfully occupied too. I foresee another blogpost in the future with instructions on how to make really easy ones to decorate your cupcakes with.

Here is a photograph of the cupcakes I made, all boxed and ready to go. At this point I should mention M. She is one of my closest friends and has a successful bakery of her own called Smitten (Her Red Velvet Cupcakes are heavenly). I always call M when I need supplies like cake boxes and cake boards, or just a couple of hundred grams of chocolate, because she buys them in bulk. M's driver and I are best friends. and stuff goes to and fro between our houses several times a week. If she needs my gum paste moulds, or I need her big rectangular pan, Sajjan is always happy to oblige. I can name Sajjan (the driver) because I doubt he has an online presence. If you aren't lucky to have a friend like M, just beg your local pastry shop for a box.

You can decorate the top of the box with a pretty doily, because the top of the box can't look plain if you are putting pretty things inside it.

But I understand how maybe you don't have time to find a doily and do all that to it, So if you like just download this label that I created on photoshop. Print and cut it out and stick it to your box and write your name on it.

There are endless flavour combinations possible. I made another batch for a halloween party last year. These were chocolate cupcakes filled with hazelnut praline paste and topped with vanilla butter cream and gum paste decorations. 

P.S. My husband has just read this blog and insisted that I clarify that I always get him to make my buttercream frosting. He does a pretty good job of it too.