Sugary Flowers for Mom...

Life events are a bit too overwhelming at times, sometimes you need to take a break and refuel yourself, and yes I took one infact a very long one.., but now craving to be back in action.

Without getting much into details, I would like to talk about my first post.

This post is very special to me, not only because it’s my first one after years of break but because this one is my first guest post for my Moms blog. Ribbonstopastas.blogspot.com

I feel honored to be able to post on her blog, she has been my guide and inspiration in every way in every walk of my life.

I was waiting for the perfect occasion to try my hands on sugar cookies and decorate them, and I found one, My daughter- Kaira’s 5^th birthday. I baked around 90-100 cookies and decorated around 80 of them. It sure is pretty time consuming but a fun activity. As this was my first time I kept it as simple as I could by taking as simple pattern and one color scheme. The End result…. Everyone loved em!! 

So Mom this one’s for you.... 

You can find my Sugary Flowers. @ www.Ribbonstopastas.blogspot.com

DOBOS TORTE

Dobos Torte was first introduced at the National General Exhibition of Budapest in 1885; Franz Joseph I and his Empress Elisabeth were among the first to taste it. The cake soon became popular throughout Europe as it was different from all others. It was simple but elegant, as opposed to the multi-storey, flaming cakes of the age. Its other secret was its use of fine buttercream, which was very little known at the time; cake fillings and frostings were usually made with cooked pastry cream or whipped cream. The chocolate buttercream and the batter of the cake were both invented by Jozsef C. Dobos.

It is a five-layer sponge cake, layered with chocolate buttercream and topped with thin caramel slices. The sides of the cake are sometimes coated with ground hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts or almonds but the original cake is without coat, since it was a slice of a big cake. Dobos's aim was to make a cake that would last longer than other pastries, in an age when cooling techniques were limited. The caramel topping helps keep the cake from drying out. The cake is also often called 'Dobos-torta' or 'Dobostorta'. **Thanks to wiki

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonfulof Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular DobosTorte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: ExquisiteDesserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Yes sure this is one time consuming project, but once you have planned everything it could just fall into place without any issues.
So lets get along with the recipe, you could use any variation you like in terms of flavour and the basic genoise as well, i choose a lemon genoise with lemon butter cream on the inside and chocolate butter cream ganache on the outside.
The Recipe that i used for the genoise is by Vegan YUm YUm
2 1/2 Cups All purpose flour
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
r1/2 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt
1/4 Cup plus 2 Tbs Earth Balance Margarine
2 Tbs Fresh Lemon Juice and Zest of 1 whole Lemon
1 Cup Water
3/4 Milk
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add butter, water, and lemon juice and beat well . Add the remaining ingredients and beat again. Pour the batter into the lined jelly roll pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the top is lightly browned.
Allow to cool in pan until just warm.
Remove the cake from the pan on a heat proof plastic sheet and roll a rolling pin lightly over the whole cake to make it a little more thin.
Once done let it cool and then cut the cake into 5 equal layers. Keep this aside and get your butter cream ready.

Lemon Butter Cream Frosting
2 ½ tablespoons softened butter
½ teaspoon lemon zest
1 ½ cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice Cream the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy, add the lemon juice and lemon zest to it, combine well and keep aside.

Chocolate Butter Cream Ganache
2 cups dark chocolate, 1 cup unsalted butter, 1/2 cup sugar
Melt all the above ingredients in a pan on low flame. Mix well and let it cool.

Caramel topping
1 cup (200g) caster (superfine or ultra fine white) sugar
12 tablespoons (180 ml) water
8 teaspoons (40 ml) lemon juice
1 tablespoon neutral oil (e.g. grape seed, rice bran, sunflower)

Lightly oil a thin, sharp knife and an offset metal spatula.Stir the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn the heat up to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally and washing down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet brush until the syrup has turned into an amber-coloured caramel. Pour this over your layer and let it cool.

Assembling the Cake:
Divide your lemon butter cream into 5 equal parts, take one layer of your sponge and spread lemon butter cream evenly on it, sandwich it with the other layer of the sponge... repeat till all your 4 layers are sandwiched. Cover the cake with your Chocolate Butter Cream and decorate with the caramel layer. Refrigerate until cool. :)

Well never heard about it until this months DB's challenge. This awesome layered cake is heavenly. The rich butter cream makes it apt for calling it a celebration in it self.

Rava(semolina) Coconut Ladoo

Ladoo is a delectable Indian dessert made with variety of flours and nuts. Some time back i visited a friend's place and was complaining about my daughter not eating her meals well, and after some time she offered her Semolina coconut ladoo's, Unbelievably she ate all of it :) the very next thing i did after coming home was made those for my daughter.

I have never made any kind of ladoos before and this is my first attempt at making these.

Rava(semolina) Coconut Ladoo
Rava / Semolina - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 cup

Milk - 1/4th cup

Cardamom powder - a pinch
Raisins - a handful

Grated fresh coconut/Dry coconut - 1/2 cup

Pour ghee in a pan and raisins until till golden brown color and keep aside. Roast the semolina in the remaining ghee, Once u smell the semolina being cooked ( basically the raw smell should go)add the grated coconut also and saute for few minutes. Add sugar and the turn the heat off.

Cool it ( warm enough to mold) and make this mixture into small round balls it by pressing gently with your hand. Use milk spoon by spoon in case u cant form balls.
Keep in airtight dry container.

Milano Cookies

Milano Cookies, yes have seen them a lot in the imported food section but never tasted them as Eggs!! were mandatory. Gave it a shot for the Daring Bakers July challenge.

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Well .......... they are so simple to make and the same goes for the taste, very very delicate crispy,chewy and as you chew u get this awesome chocolate swirling along your mouth which is sandwiched between two crisp layers of cookies....mmm heavenly!! yes that's what i would call it. I could not attempt on the Marshmallow cookies because of the vegetarian factor. Also the vegan mallows have corn syrup which is not easily available.. but will give it a hand once i grab this syrup from some where.

I added a tinge of lemon rind as well as lemon juice just for a little zest. Ive tried chocolate and orange a lot of times now it was Mr lemons turn :) n ya lemons and chocolates go very well for sure. I almost used the recipe for Eggless Milano's from here except for a few changes.

Eggless Milano Cookies.

3/4th cup milk

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon rind

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix all the dry ingredients and gradually add the wet ones while mixing the batter well. It should form a cake like batter. Whisk well for a few minutes and fill in a piping bag.Meanwhile Pre-heat your oven at 180 deg C and also prepare your baking tray with a parchment paper. Squeeze you piping bag to make desired shape's. Well the original shape of milanos is a Elongated Oval kind... but i was all in for hearts :) and small rounds which look like macaroons :)Its fun cause once you start piping shapes you want to do so much it.. so explore your creativity. :)

Bake them for about 20 min or until golden in colour. Baking them less will give them a cakey texture so be careful not to burn them or leave them undone.

While they bake Make your chocolate filling.

Chocolate Filling.

1/2 cup heavy cream

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 orange, zested ( i did not add)

In a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools). Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies

Whole Wheat Eggless Walnut Brownies

My hubby loves sizzling brownies, also had to think of a dessert for a lunch so gave a try to Wheat Brownies, yes they are egg less and awesome. They turned out to be pretty soft and chewy.

Every bite had crunchy walnut bumping in my mouth which made the taste more interesting.

I am slowly trying to adapt some of my recipes to make them healthier by using more of wheat flour, using less butter .. etc

And to motivate me Madhuram always has a ongoing event !! here is another one for you Madhuram for the Whole grain eggless baking event.

Whole Wheat Eggless walnut Brownies

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup water

1/3rd cup butter

21/2 Tbs coco powder

2cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence

2tsp baking pwd

3/4th cup w walnuts

1/4th tsp salt.

Mix water with 1/3rd cup flour and heat in a nonstick n low heat until a smooth paste.

Let the mix cool. Along side mix butter with coco pwd and heat to a smooth paste on low low flame.

Add sugar to the cooled flour-water mix and add rest of the flour, vanilla essence , salt, baking powder,Mix it along with butter and coco mix. Blend all of in a blender until smooth.

Mix in your nuts and pour into a greased tin. Bake at 180deg for about 30 min.

You can make variations by adding almonds, choco-chips etc etc :)Server hot along with cold ice-cream!!

Eggless Wheat-Choco Muffins

Happy Birthday Maaaaaaaa :)Wish u all the love and luck in the world and Thanks a lot for everything! u all mean the word to me :)
This post is dedicated to my Maa :) i got late today to wish her :( sorry for that :) here's a small lil way we enjoyed your day!! With some Low fat Wheat-Choco Muffins!! Hope u had a great day today!!
I am also forwarding this post to Madhuram;s Event for this month!! Shes hosting this wonderful event to use Whole Grains as ur main ingredient! i m absolutely going to try hard and post as many recipes as i can :)
Here is the recipe for

Eggless Wheat Muffins.

1Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Sugar
1/4th cup Coco-pwd
1/4th cup Oil
1/2 cup water
1/4th cup Milk
1/2tbs Baking Pwd
1tbs Vanilla essence
2tbs Honey

Mix all the above ingredients and blend well until smooth. Pour in your muffin moulds and bake at 180 deg for about 30 min.
Garnish with M&Ms :) and loads of love!

Happy Birthday Nani! :) from Kaira and her friend Kishi :)!!!

Malpua/WHole wheat pancakes.

These sweet wheat pancakes are my favourite. I had not made or u can say had them in ages, So yesterday was one occasion i thought was perfect to make them on. It was Guru purnima, and had to make some prasad and the first thing in the morning when i woke up was MALPUA :) so it had to be it ! :)

I made a very instant version of it just mixing the batter and frying them. Its pretty instant so ya u don't have to wait too long to eat this yummy treat :) which u have to otherwise until u make ur sugar syrup. Traditionally they are deep fried and dipped in sugar syrup to sweeten them.

SO here's my instant recipe for :

Malpua's/Whole wheat pancakes.

1 cup whole wheat

½ cup sugar

1 tsp fennel crushed.

¼ cup curd

½ cup milk

Pinch of cardamon pwd.

Ghee

Nuts to garnish

Mix all the ingredients except the nuts and ghee, blend well in a blender or mix well until smooth. Let it stand for 10 min or more, In the mean time heat some ghee in a pan on medium low heat. Pour a tablespoon worth of batter in the pan and let it cook, Flip on the other side to cook evenly until golden brown. Remove on a kitchen paper and plate them, while garnishing with ur choice of nuts :)

Thats the pic of my daughter while her mouth is stuffed with malpua;s 2 at a time :)

The best option is to serve it with chilled RABDI :) (Indian sweet made with milk)