Swirls and Marbles!!!

I'm sure everyone loves a good marble cake. I honestly dont know why its called that, but it is fantastic cake. You can have it at tea time, or even as dessert with a dollop of cream or icecream. However, its just absolutely scumptious!!

 

The recipie I have is actually Chocolate Marble Bread, as in it has to be baked in a loaf pan. I tried something different and used a square baking dish. It came out good! And the cake was consumed in just a day. No leftovers!! Its quite a popular cake with my family!

Ingredients:

4oz (100 gms) semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup milk (120 ml), divided use

1 1/2 cups (210 gms) cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup sour cream (If you dont have sour cream, regular cream is also fine)

1/2 cup (113gms) butter, room temp

3/4 cup + 2 tbsp (170gms) granulated suger

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Melt the chocolate with 1/4 cup (60ml) of milk on a double boiler. Remove and set aside.
2. Whisk flour and salt and baking powder.
3. In a small bowl, whisk sour cream and the remaining 1/4 cup of milk.
4. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.Beat in eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract.
5. Alternately add the flour and sour cream begining and ending with flour, on low speed.
6. Spoon a little more than half the batter into another bowl.
7. Add the melted chocolate to the remaining half and fold in.
8. Butter and dust a loaf pan. Place spoon fulls of batter in the loaf tin alternating with vanilla and chocolate. The swirl a knife through and bake till done.

# The batter is not of pouring consistency.

Sinful Decadence- Devil's Food Cake

This cake looks and tastes absolutely awesome!!! Its a rich chocolate cake with a creamy chocolate fudge frosting between and coating it. My first attempt was a success!

 

I experiment on my children and an extremely tolerant husband who eat what I make with a minimum of complaints. And children, ofcourse dont lie so i get the most honest opinions from them and from the way they gobble up my cake and come back for seconds... Well let's just say that I am filled with happiness!! Ofcourse my husband is also a brutual in his honest opinions, and his reaction to the Devil's Food Cake With Fudge Frosting was utter bliss!!!

Ingredients:

2 1/3 cups cake flour

1 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

12 tbsp (170gms) butter, room temp.

2 cups light brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs, roon temp.

1 1/2 cups butter milk

 

Frosting

12 oz bitter sweet chocolate, cut into small chunks

1 3/4 cups of heavy cream

Pinch salt

 

Method:

1. Beat butter until smooth
2. Gradually add brown sugar and continue beating untill fluffy.
3. Beat in vanilla and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add flour in 3 additions alternating with buttermilk, starting and ending with flour.
5. Divide batter between 2 pans and spread it out evenly.
6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Frosting:

Bring cream just to a boil. Pour over the chocolate and let it stand fir 5 mins, Stir until smooth. Whisk the frosting briefly until it lightens in colour and is thick enough to spread.

Mishaps

Hello.
Even though I have had a relatively good success rate with most of my baked goods, I'm just as susceptible to failures.I've had some spectacular non-cakes too! Just last week I tried to make a good ol' POUND cake. It was an old tried and tested recipie. 
Well, I certainly got a pound.. A pound of uncooked batter!!!
In my arrogance I thought to forgo the exact measurements, and I think I used too much butter or something and well... the result was disastrous!!
There have been times when I've not been fully satisfied with cakes I've made.And neither have my family.
Like the time I made an Apple Chiffon Cake withYellow Butter Icicng.. Yeah Yeah, Doesn't sound very appetizing. The cake was ok but the icicng was a wrong decision.
Or the time I made the Buttermilk Fruit Cake.I am not a fan of dry friuts and well..the cake used a LOT of rasins and dates and currants. Suffice to say that the cake would be a favourite for those who like dry friuts but not me.

The Latest Offering...

I have always been interested in baking especially cakes and cookies and bread. Fortunately i have been able to pursue that hobby and i am proud to say that I can bake a really good cake. The latest i have attempted is the ever famous BLACK FOREST CAKE.

The baking part is actually very simple, just a few layers of chocolate sponge cake. Its the assembling that takes quite a lot of time. It came out pretty well considering it was my first time attempting it.
I dont think i have an official recipie for this cake but i will write down what i have.

Ingredients:
Icing Sugar 45gms
Whipped Cream 200gms
Cherries 1/2 tin
Grated Chocolate 40 gms
Cherries for decorating

Method:

1. Prepare a chocolate sponge cake.
2. Cut into 2 horizontally. You have to very careful lest the cake breaks.
    Soak with the cherry syrup from the tin.
3. Beat cream with sugar until stiff peaks form.
4. De-seed the cherries and crush them.
5. Sandwich the cream and cherries between the 2 cake halves.
6. Put a thick layer of cream on top. Level it.
7. Finish off with grated chocolate and cherries on top.

Getting Started...

When you haven’t done some creative writing in more than 5 years, except for writing emails and sms’s (which could hardly be called creative), its kind of hard to know where to start.

The afore mentioned 5 years of no creative writing is not due to an inability to write but due to the unavailability of time and creative processes which could be attributed to the trials of motherhood. Raising 2 children below the age of 5 can be a hair-raising experience!
Its not exactly a conducive environment to set some time apart to write or create a blog. But i have come to realize that it’s just not feasible to put on hold all the words that have been clamouring in my head to be written. So, voila!
I also realize that life will always hand me lemons and that it is up to me to either let them rot or make lemonade.


So... Lemonade it is!!!