My cake-pop experience!

Hi guys, 

So the first time I heard about cake pops was through Bakerella; I tell you that woman is an absolute creative genius! Her ideas and creations are simply phenomenal! 

So I decided I wanted to try making cake pops of my own, smiley face ones. I like smileys. Remember the sugar cookies? But as you can see in the picture, there's only one smiley. That's because everyone ate the others before I got a chance to take pictures! ^_^

I used a simple Betty Crocker Super Moist Cake Mix for this (Yes, I know. I'm a huge Betty Crocker fan. But mixes really simplify everything! :) ) Once the cake had cooled down, I crumbled half of it into a bowl and mixed in about 3 heaped tablespoons of icing. Then I started the oh-so-messy task of rolling out the balls. I rolled out about 10 and put them in the fridge for 15 minutes while I started on the tempered chocolate. 

This was my first attempt at tempering chocolate, and I did so without a candy thermometer. Just melted  some white chocolate over a double boiler until the pieces were almost melted. I took the chocolate off the boiler and added some more pieces of chocolate. I mixed vigorously until they were all melted. I had read that the perfect test to see if the chocolate has tempered is to put some on a knife which is then put in the fridge. If it is nice and glossy after two minutes and comes off easily, the chocolate is done. Happily, the chocolate I put on the knife ended up looking nice and glossy! Yay!

I mixed in the yellow food colouring and then began coating the chocolate balls. However, I couldn't manage to coat them evenly, as you can see from the picture. I coated the rest of the cake balls using tempered chocolate and inserted the skewers. This was the final result!

And I'm pleased to say that everyone really enjoyed these! Next time though I shall buy some candy melts for the coating. The problem with candy melts is that they aren't easily available here in Islamabad so I shall have to order them online. But, as long as the cake pops turn out cuter and better I guess it will be worth it! 

Till next timee :) 

A Limousine Cake

 Hey guys,

Wow, first themed cake that I have ever made! Never realized how difficult it iss.

So my cousin asked me a week ago to make him a limousine cake for his birthday and in a moment of weakness, I agreed. A moment of weakness indeed.. He has been perstering me this entire week to make the cake so yesterday, when I was off from uni I decided to put all that free time to good use. I had found this cake recipe for a moist cake which I have been longing to try out and this was the perfect opportunity! Plus this recipe required mayo. And I've always wanted to use mayo in a cake. The entire concept is so funny..mayo in a cake. Lol. Be careful when adding the mayo btw, I almost added Garlic Mayo accidentally. Thank goodness I re-read the label :p

So, I followed to the recipe to a t, well as much as I possibly could. I've already mentioned I'm not very good at following recipes. I made some minor alterations along the way: using almond extract instead of vanilla extract because that's all there was available to home. I used less flour too and added more cocoa powder because the batter didn't look..well chocolatey enough. Made two batches and baked them in loaf pans for an hour each. So far so good.

The problems started when I took the cakes out of the pan. They were a bit too moist, kinda oily and very crumbly. Not holding the shape properly at all. So I put them in the fridge hoping that they'd cool down and be easier to handle. I left them in the fridge for another two hours and made a simple buttercream frosting in the meanwhile. After about two hours I took out the cakes to arrange them. And boy! It was very difficult getting the shape right, pieces of cake were falling everywhere. If anyone has any tips about what I did wrong, feel freee to let me know!

Doesn't look too good right now, I know :( 

 So once I got the shape right, I put cling foil on the cake and popped it back in the fridge. Took it out after a while to start frosting it and used up all the frosting to crumb coat the cake! At that point I had to take my little brother to the mall for a party so I had to leave the cake in the fridge. And that was all for the night, I really couldn't handle dealing with this cake anymore.

This morning, I made fresh icing for the cake and frosted it. Took me a while doing it, but I think I managed alright. I got Oreos for the wheels and Candi biscuits (which I frosted with a bit of black icing) for windows. And then, on my cousin's insistence (and this is my favourite part) I cut up a piece of an Oreo to make a little number plate for the cake!! It reads IBS 5 (His nickname is Ibs and he is 5 :p)


So now for the most important question: How did it taste? In one word, AMAZING. This is, without a doubt, the most deliciously moist cake I have ever baked in my entire life. Everyone has loved it, not a word of criticism. Well okay maybe there was one- the sugar hadn't been ground (for lack of a better word) properly. But I enjoy that bit of crunch so I'm not complaining :D Plus the cake turned out quite cute so I'm super happy about that! This cake is so incredible, definitely one of my new favourite recipes! Generally I'm never happy with the cakes that I bake, but I adore this one. So much so that I'm having some right now. With some nice hot tea. Heaven.

I know its not the neatest cake, but its pretty good for a first attempt I think :p

                                      Deliciously Moist Chocolate Cake
(Adapted from the recipe by: Bake Happy)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 ½ cup sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 ½ cup water
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tsp almond extract

Method:

In a bowl combine the mayo and the sugar until smooth. 

In another bowl, combine all the dry ingredients: the cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and flour. 

Add the water and dry ingredients mix to the mayo-mix, alternatively- start and end with the dry ingredients. Mix in the almond extract.

Pour the mixture into the well-greased and lined pans and bake for approx. 40 mins at 350F.

                                Buttercream Icing 

Ingredients: 

125 g unsalted butter (softened not melted)

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1/2 tsp almond extract 

2 tbsp whipped cream

Method:

Beat softened butter until fluffy. This should take about 5-7 minutes. The more you beat it, the paler it will become. Start incorporating the sugar, one spoon at a time. Keep testing to see whether or not the icing is too sweet or not sweet enough. Add the almond extract and cream. (Adding cream is not important, I just put it in to see what would happen :p) Beat until the icing is light and fluffy. 

Happy Baking!

Sugar Cookies!

Hii!

Sugar cookies. Some of the most fun and delicious things in the baking world. And I've only ever made them once! Or twice if you count my pre-school experience. Lol.

Star shaped cookies, even though it
is a bit hard to tell in this pic lol

 So I didn't make these from scratch. After all it was my first time! I used the Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix and ohmygosh! These were so goood! Absolutely delicious. Scrumptious. Mouthwatering. All that sugarey goodness.

But they seemed a little incomplete. So I decided this was the perfect opportunity to use royal icing. For these cookies, I used the Wilton recipe for Royal Icing. But I have to say, I was not impressed. The dry ingredients: wet ingredients ratio was wayy off and the result was a messy kitchen. I kept adding more water (despite having read that water can cause major problems with royal icing- what a rebel I am B) ) Finally, I got a consistency that seemed about right and I was able to fill all these cookies. However, with the yellow-orange icing the consistency was too thin so making these smileys was a lot tougher than I imagined. But I managed and they turned out quite cute so whose complaining?!

Smiley faces!

That was a week ago. Today, I realized that there was some leftover dough from the rainbow cookies dough which my cousin had used two days back. (She used a Betty Crocker mix too, but in her defence she's just 9!) So I decided to make some for my hungry and greedy friend who is always complaining that I don't bake stuff for her. Fortunately for her, I was in the mood to bake today. Unfortunately for her, tomorrow has been declared a holiday because of all the unrest in the city. Oh well, I suppose I shall just have to freeze the cookies for a day.

Anyhow, I used a different royal icing recipe today. And I have to say I was happier with this one- it is a lot easier. But the consistency did not turn out right today again. I suspect I may be doing something wrong, because I didn't read or follow the recipe properly. Teehee.

 The cookies themselves turned out a lot darker than they are supposed to and I am not entirely sure why. Oh and I tried making coloured sugar too- by mixing some sugar and some red food colouring. It did turn out quite nicely actually, I was quite happy with it!

Royal Icing Recipe (The one I used today)

 Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup icing sugar

1 egg white

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Method:

Lightly whisk eggwhite and lemon juice together in a bowl. Gradually add icing sugar, whisking until smooth and combined.

Courtesy of: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/27676/royal+icing

Birthday Cake

Hey!

My first blog post ever! I have to say I'm rather nervous..and very excited too. My interest in blogging, food-blogging in particular is rather recent. It actually started after I made this birthday cake for a friend- this cake inspired me to start decorating everything I bake and make it look pretty! After all who doesn't love pretty cakes ^_^

Anyhow, that's how I stumbled across the wonderful world of baking bloggers!

So when I made this cake, I did not have a go-to cake recipe. But I had a go-to brownie recipe, which is what I used here. So that's what this cake is. Two layers of brownies with lots of chocolate sauce. Maybe I shouldn't call it a cake then :p Either way, it is so super simple, takes about 10 minutes in prep time and then 40 minutes for baking! Not to mention yummy!

I made two batches of these brownies for this cake. Brownie. Chocolate sauce. Brownie. Chocolate sauce. That is pretty much how it went. I baked these the night before so they were in the fridge the entire night and then for most of the day too. I took them out for a bit to put more chocolate sauce and to decorate it when the MNM's.

Go-To Brownies

Ingredients:

200 g Butter
8 tbsp Cadbury Cocoa Powder
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder

Method:

Preheat oven at 325°F. Line a 9x9 pan with baking paper. Or butter and lightly flour it.
Melt the butter and cocoa powder until properly mixed. In a large bowl beat the sugar, the eggs and the chocolate mixture until combined. Add the flour and the baking powder and beat at low speed.

Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 30-40 minutes. You could test the cake by inserting a toothpick in the centre and seeing if it comes out absolutely clean or not.

World's Easiest Chocolate Sauce

Ingredients:

Half a bar of Baker's Choice Dark Chocolate
Half a packet cream

Method:

Melt the chocolate and the cream in a saucepan over a light heat. Keep stirring until the chocolate is completely melted and then turn off the heat.

PS: You could use a water-bath to prevent the chocolate from burning, but as long as you keep stirring it and make sure the heat is low that should not be necessary.