"Tom and Jerry" Birthday cake

This was my first time doing the edible cake image frosting. I had done a lot of research on the frosting to be used on the cake for this as we prefer whipped cream over the buttercream or any other icing and the cake image does not come out good on the whipped frosting. Most of them had the opinion that the colors in the image run out and fade away because of the high water content in the whipped cream. The buttercream was the best to use. I did not want to take any chances with this image as I was doing it for the first time, so I did the combination of both the frostings. I frosted the cake with buttercream just under the image and rest all the cake was done with whipped cream frosting. The image blended well after putting it over the cake in about 10-15 minutes. This was pretty easy to do and I followed each and every instruction on the instruction sheet provided with the cake image.

 The cake was two layered, the bottom layer was chocolate fudge and the top layer was vanilla with strawberry mousse as the filling. I used the star tip on the sides of the cake and tip #195 for the flowers on the borders. As there was not much place for the borders on the top of the cake after putting the image, I just decorated with sprinkles. The birthday boy had a blast cutting into it and his friends loved the cake a lot.

Captain Huggy Face Cake

There were a few "first times" while baking this cake..It was my first dairy free cake (the basic recipe), my first experiment with frozen buttercream transfer, was trying out the roses after a very long time..so I was a bit tensed as to how everything will turn out. I was pretty happy with the outcome..My son wanted the "captain huggy face" cake for his 9th birthday so I made the image of the charachter out of frozen buttercream transfer. This was a vanilla cake with mango cream as the filling and whipped cream frosting. I had searched this recipe on internet and decided to try out. It was a bit oily, so next time may be I will add less oil. Also, I have made changes to the original recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
3 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp vinegar
2 c water
2 c sugar
3/4 c oil
4 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and keep aside. Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl except the oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix well with a whisk. Then add the oil and mix again until smooth batter is formed. Pour this batter into 2 8-inch greased pans. Bake for around 30 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool completely before frosting the cake.

For mango cream filling, add around 2/3 cup mango puree to 1 cup heavy cream and 4 tbsp sugar and beat on medium speed till you get stiff peaks.

For the frozen buttercream transfer, follow this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFx38a7Bjfw .  The design I chose was bit small so it was a bit tough for me to get the exact details..but for larger designs, the technique will be more easy I guess.

Winnie the Pooh cake

This was "Winnie the pooh" cake order for 1st birthday...It was half sheet vanilla cake with fresh banana cream filling and whipped cream frosting. I had ordered the magic balloon set for Winnie the pooh. I had given the cake a garden look and so piped out the green areas with star tip #21 and created a river in between. Also, the yellow flowers are piped out with the same star tip. For the rocks in the river, I melted some chocolate and mixed frosted flakes cereal in it and then dropped spoonful on a dish and kept it in the refrigerator for around 1 hour. Then after they were hard enough I just placed them on the river flow...

Fudge marble cupcakes

INGREDIENTS:

2 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup veg oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
2/3 cup Hershey's chocolate syrup

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Mix the all purpose flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat the eggs on low to medium speed for around 1 minute. Then add the sugar and vanilla. Beat for another minute. Then add the flour mix slowly mixing with spatula. Add the milk and beat well. Add the oil and mix thoroughly with the spatula. Then beat the mixture on medium speed till the batter is smooth. Set aside 2 cups of batter and to this batter add the chocolate syrup and mix well.

With a scoop or spoon, fill the cupcake liners with 1/2 yellow cake batter and 1/2 chocolate batter in each cupcake (each cupcake should be 2/3 full). With a fork gently create swirls in the poured batter, don't mix in too hard. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I made 22 cupcakes from this batter. If you want to frost the cupcakes let them cool for an hour or so. I frosted it with whipped vanilla frosting.

Pinwheel cookies

INGREDIENTS:

6 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1 tbsp of Hershey's chocolate syrup
1 tsp baking powder

DIRECTIONS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c85-4fe8bek 


TIPS:
Tip #1: I have halved the original recipe and also made some changes according to my needs. It made around 22 cookies with the half measure recipe.

Tip #2: I used chocolate syrup instead of the cocoa powder in the original recipe as I had ran out of it and hence the light brown color in the midst of the cookies. If you use the cocoa powder you will get very nice chocolate color.If your dough is too much sticky when you add the chocolate syrup, add flour to get to the firm consistency of the dough.

Tip #3: My roll was slightly elongated unlike the circular one in the video. That is why my cookies look oval shape than perfect round.

Eggless Date Cupcakes

Looking for healthy snack for your kid?? Muffins and cupcakes make a good snack and especially if they are made from dates!! Dates are the delicious treats which have a high amount of dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals. If your child or you for that matter dont prefer eating dates as it is, might as well mix in some flour to make these delicious cupcakes out of it!! A big thank you to http://www.aayisrecipes.com/2006/05/27/date-cake-eggless/ who has shared this recipe on her blog. I have made a very few changes to the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
18 seedless dates
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla essence

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the standard muffin pan with greased cupcake liners. (use nonstick oil spray)

Take the milk and dates in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for around 1 minute and let it stand for another 10 minutes (If your dates are refrigerated, you may need to soak them for 2-3 hours to help them soften). After letting the dates and milk stand for few minutes grind it into a smooth paste. If you like the date chunks you can grind it coarsely too. Pour this mixture in a large bowl and add sugar and oil and mix it with a hand mixer on medium till it is well incorporated. Add the flour and baking soda and mix it till the batter is formed.

Pour this batter with a scoop into the prepared muffin pan. Try to spread the batter evenly in the cups. I made around 10 cupcakes of standard size with this batter. Heat in oven at 350 degrees F for around 25-30 minutes or till the toothpick inserted comes out clean. Take out of the oven and let them cool for about 1/2 hour. If you want to frost them, make sure they are completely cooled down. I frosted mine with whipped cream. They taste divine!!

TIP:
You can add chopped walnuts or cashews if you like to the batter. My son does not like it so I left them plain.

Strawberry Shortcake

INGREDIENTS:

Sponge cake:
3 eggs seperated (yolks and white)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup water
2 tsp vanilla essence

Strawberry mousse
1 pack of instant strawberry mousse ( I used Dr.Oetker's strawberry supreme)

Filling and Garnishing:
2 cups of whipped cream icing ( you will find the recipe in earlier blog posts)
1/2 lb fresh strawberries thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix flour and baking powder in a bowl and keep aside. Beat 3 egg yolks in an electric mixer at high speed for about 1 minute. Add 3/4 cup sugar, beating constantly till the egg yolks are thick. Then add vanilla and 1/4 cup water with it, beating at low speed till it blends well. To this, add flour mixture and blend well at low speed. Keep it aside.

Beat egg whites in a bowl at room temperature at high speed till they are foamy. Slowly add rest of the sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Slowly stir the egg mixture into the cake batter gently folding with a rubber spatula moving in the same direction until the mixture is well blended in the batter. Dont stir too much as it will take out the air out of the cake batter and the cake wont spring up much. To make the sponge cake fluffy, retain the air in the mixture as much as possible. Pour the batter into a greased 10 pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20-25 minutes till cake springs back when touched lightly in the center. Let it cool down.

ASSEMBLING THE CAKE:
Till the cake cools down, prepare the strawberry mousse as per the instructions on the pack and keep it ready. Cut the cake in midway and put the strawberry mousse over the lower half of the cake spreading it with the spatula reaching over to the sides. Arrange half of the cut strawberries over the mousse. Put the upper half of the cake over this layer and frost it with the whipped cream. For the borders I used the star tip (#22) and created some shells diagonally all over. Add the reamaining cut strawberries to the top of the cake. Let the cake chill for around 4-6 hours before serving. Overnight chilling gives the best results.