Caramel Upside Down Cake

I love reading books. Have I ever mentioned it before? I used to be an avid reader but somehow in the course of time I have reduced my reading drastically. Not intentionally but it just happened. I had a dream yesterday about getting locked up in a library and I spent the rest of the dream- you guessed it right- Reading! Yes, you read it correctly, I DREAMT about reading! So, I'm gonna get back to my reading habit. I have atleast 6 novels in my shelf that I'm yet to even touch. Anyone willing to join me in this marathon, please do :D As I was browsing for more books to buy(!), I realized I never posted the pics for a cake I made 3 weeks back. So here we are.

I have seen so many upside down cakes doing the rounds and it intrigues me every time but somehow never made one myself. So when this cake was chosen for one of the bake-alongs I was convinced to bake it. These are the kinda cakes that need no frosting. The sweetness is provided by caramel, on top of which the fruits are arranged. The batter is scooped up on top of the fruits and baked. Once baked, the pan is turned and the caramel soaked fruits are on top of the cake, hence the name :) Looking at the pics I have taken, Shyma chechi (The Inconsistent Chef) has baptised this cake as Tequila Sunrise! Thank you chechi once again for this quirky name :)

I'm writing a post on Fondbites Bake Along recipe after a long time, though I have made quite a few recipes after my last bake along post, I never blogged them, just shared the pics on my page and in the group. Anyways, in the original recipe, Subhashini has used Oranges. I have used Clementines (a variety of orange) and Apples. You can use any fruit you like, go ahead and experiment!

I baked the recipe in 2 pans- an 8" pie pan and a 6" cake pan with a removable bottom. 

A few points to keep in mind-

*You SHOULD grease your pans and line them with baking paper and grease that also generously. 

*If you are using a pan with a removable bottom, place it on a baking sheet because the caramel tends to seep out of the gap. Though it is not really a problem to use these pans, I suggest not to just so that you don't waste some of that gorgeous caramel.

*While making the caramel, once the butter is added, immediately pour it in the prepared pan(s) and swirl it to coat the entire base because the caramel starts setting very fast.
*Check Subhashini's original recipe for more tips and step by step pics. (link below)

Recipe Adapted from: Fondbites

Ingredients:

For the Caramel

Granulated Sugar- 2/3 Cup + 2 Tblsp

Water - 1/3 Cup

Salt - 1/2 Tsp

Butter - 1 Tblsp

For the Cake

Oranges - 2 Large

Apple - 1 Medium

Unsalted Butter - 1/2 Cup or 115 g

Castor Sugar - 2/3 Cup

Eggs - 2

All Purpose Flour - 1 1/4 Cup

Almond Meal - 1/2 Cup

Baking Powder - 3/4 Tsp

Baking Soda - 3/4 Tsp

Salt - 1/4 Tsp

Milk - 1/2 Cup
Vanilla Extract - 1/2 Tsp

Zest Of 1 Orange

Recipe:

First get your pans ready by greasing the bottoms, lining them and greasing the butter paper.

Then make the caramel-
In a heavy bottom saucepan, take the sugar, water, salt and bring it to a rolling boil.
Bring down the flame to low and keep swirling the pan from time to time, do not stir it.
Watch it closely for change in color. Do not leave it unattended at any time.
After a while the color of the syrup will slowly start changing to amber. Once the color reaches a deep amber, remove the pan from the stove before the first whiff of smoke, else the caramel will be a little bitter. (I like my caramel a bit dark so I did take it a bit further than necessary.)
Add the butter and whisk it in briskly and immediately pour it and swirl it around in the pan to coat the entire bottom. Be quick but careful.
Set the pan(s) aside.

Peel and slice the apple into thin wedges.
Peel the oranges like you would the apple, remove the bitter pith, deseed them as you go and slice them into wedges too
Arrange the fruit wedges to your mind's liking, on top of the caramel in the pan.
Once done, butter the sides of the pan and line the sides with butter paper too. (I couldn't line the sides of the pie pan and I'm guessing that's the reason a portion of the cake got stuck to the pan and did not come out cleanly.)

Now on to the making of the cake:

Whisk together the flour, baking powder & soda, salt and almond flour/meal in a bowl and set aside.
Add the butter and castor sugar in the bowl of your electric mixer and beat in medium-hi speed for about 5 mins until the mixture is pale, creamy and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 min after each addition. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as and when necessary.
Add the orange zest and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.
Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating in between with the milk in 2 parts. Always start and end with the dry ingredients. So it goes, Flour-Milk-Flour-Milk-Flour.
Beat on low speed after each addition, only until its well incorporated. Do not overbeat.
Scoop the batter evenly on top of the fruit wedges in the pan and gently smooth it out using a spatula. Be careful not to move or disturb your fruit arrangement at the bottom while doing so.

Bake in a 180*C preheated oven for 25 minutes (the time may vary according to your pan size, so check accordingly) or until a tooth pick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack for 10-15 mins and while its still warm, carefully invert the cake onto your cake board or serving plate.
Ta-da!! The yummiest upside down cake is ready!!! Look how glorious the caramel looks..

The cake by itself tastes so yumm and the texture is so nutty because of the almond meal. You cannot stop with one slice, I guarantee that! Try this recipe with other fruits like sweet lime, pear, peach, etc. You will not be disappointed..

So while I try to tackle a few of the books I have lined up to read, you try this Tequila Sunrise and let me know how it works out for you.. Until next time.. Keep smiling :)

This has been baked for Fondbites, Bake Along, a group of enthusiastic bakers who bake one recipe every week.

Maritozzi Con La Panna (Roman Cream Buns)

As I might have mentioned in a couple of places, I am not very good at baking stuff that involves yeast. But that doesnt mean that I dont enjoy baking breads or other yeasted delights. I very much wish to be good at it. So in the pursuit of acheiving greatness (ahem!) in bread baking, I had joined Aparna's We Knead To Bake group on FB quite a while back. But being who I am, managed not to get involved or put in efforts into baking the monthly bread to fulfill what i had actually joined the group for and became a silent spectator of all the different breads she would post every month. I did bake a couple of breads but didnt write a post about it. So here is my first blog post for the WKTB group.

So for the month of June, the chosen bread was Maritozzi Con La Panna or Roman Cream Buns. Fancy name huh? Don't you wanna repeat the name over and over? They are originally soft buns speckled with toasted pine nuts, enriched with the addition of Orange zest, peels & juice and they are split and served with whipped cream. Maritozzi are typically had for breakfast in and around Rome. Imagine having whipped cream for breakfast!?! I would love to move to Rome just for this I would never have this in the morning..

Aparna's recipe includes raisins soaked in orange juice, candied orange peel and toasted pine nuts, all of which are used traditionally as mentioned, but I haven't used them. I'm sure they aid in elevating these gorgeous buns to another level. Hopefully I will make them soon with these additions. I did however, replace the orange zest with some lemon zest. But the lemoney freshness didnt come through in the flavor, Maybe I should have added more. Just a point to remember- glaze the buns while they are hot, the moment they are out of the oven. I served these up with some coffee flavoured whipped cream. But unfortunately the whipped cream Gods were not with me that day and I didnt get stiff peaks with my whipping cream, but it tasted good, so what the heck, we had it just like that- it is cream after all :P You can also serve these buns without the cream or with some icing sugar dusted on top.. No matter how you eat it, they are so soft and yumm, you might not stop with one :)

Recipe

Recipe adapted from: Aparna Balasubramanian

Reference Video link (In Italian but helpful) - Youtube

Ingredients:

For the Buns:
Instant Yeast - 1 & 1/2 Tsp
Warm Milk - 1/2 Cup
All Purpose Flour - 1 & 3/4 Cup (Extra for dusting)
Sugar - 1/4 Cup
Egg - 1
Butter - 50g, at room temp
Vanilla Extract - 1/2 Tsp
A Pinch of Salt

For the Glaze:
Water - 3 Tblsp
Sugar - 3 Tblsp

For the Filling:
Whipped Cream

Method:

Mix the yeast, warm milk, 1 Tsp of the sugar and 1/2 Cup of the flour in a large bowl to create a smooth paste (The milk should be warm to touch- neither too hot- it might kill the yeast, nor lukewarm- the yeast might not get activated. So the temperature is very important). This is known as the starter. Set it aside for half an hour.

Starter- Before & After

The starter would have risen a bit and you will notice a lot of bubbles- as shown above in the pic on the right.
Take this starter, 1 cup of flour, salt, the egg, remaining sugar, butter and vanilla extract in the bowl of your stand mixer or processor and knead until the dough is soft, smooth and not sticky.
Add the remaining 1/4 cup of flour (or more liquid) ONLY if required to bring the dough to this consistency.
You can also do this by hand. Knead for about 10 mins, you will feel the dough transform under your hands.
Dust a large bowl with some flour and keep the dough in it. Loosely cover it and let it rise for 1 & 1/2 to 2 hours.

Dough Proofing- Before & After

When the time is up, the dough should have doubled in size. Take it out and lightly knead the dough. Divide it into 6-8 equal portions. (I got 7).

I don't know how else to explain the shaping, so I am quoting from Aparna's recipe here: Roll each into a smooth ball and then flatten it out into a circle with your fingers. Roll up the circle, jelly/ Swiss roll style and seal the seam. Shape into an oval ad pace on a lined baking sheet leaving enough space between the rolls for them to expand when they rise. 

Again, loosely cover them and set aside for 1/2 an hour for the 2nd rise.

I gave the rolls a milk wash before popping them into the oven- just to get a nice color, though the recipe doesn't require it to be done.

Preheat your oven to 180*C and bake the buns for 15-20 mins or until the buns are golden brown on top and bottom.

While they are baking, make the sugar syrup by bringing the sugar & water to a boil in a saucepan, until the sugar dissolves.

Once the buns are out of the oven, immediately brush the syrup on top of each bun. 

Let it cool completely. When you serve, take a knife and slit the buns right at the centre but not all the way thorough and fill them up with some delicious whipped cream. Alternately, sprinkle some icing sugar on top of the buns and have them plain. 

Great with a cup of coffee or tea :)

Hoping to tackle Yeast the Beast as the months go on.. Bye for now :)

Happy Baking..

Rose, Pistachio & Honey Entremet

Hey all!! Hope you all remember this post if mine that I had submitted for Fondbites Bake Along's Bake It Perfect contest. Guess what? I got selected as the First Runner Up in the contest!! Yippeee!! Never expected to win it.. I'm sooo happy. It's a lot of firsts for me- my first entry into a competition, first time I came up with my own flavor combos, first time I won a contest (well, almost :D ) and first attempt making an Entremet :) For the Finals, each participant had to make an Entremet, with flavour combinations of our own. I’m so excited to have been a part of this!! A big thanks to Subhashini for all of this :)

 

So coming to my entry, What exactly is an entremet? According to Wikipedia- an entremet is a multi-layered mousse-based cake with various complementary flavors. I myself became familiar with this French dessert only about an year ago, but this is the first time I’m making one. And I should say, I am very proud of myself to have pulled it off. Whether I win or not, doesn’t matter. I loved the end result of this awesome challenge :)

Ok, so for this Entremet I made 5 elements:

1.      Saffron flavoured Sponge Cake

2.      Pistachio Mousse

3.      Rose (Gulkand) Bavarian Cream

4.      Honey Glaze

5.      Honey Syrup

This entremet is arranged preferably in a cake ring and consists of a sponge cake base soaked in Honey syrup. The pistachio mousse is set separately and placed on it. After which the rose Bavarian cream is poured on top and set in the fridge and topped off with the honey glaze. I made the Pistachio mousse the 1^st day and let it set overnight. On the 2^nd day, I went ahead with the rest of the recipe.  Just a point to remember-The mousse should be set in cake rings that are smaller than the size of your final dessert. I don’t have cake rings, so I have made entremets of various sizes using a few of my cookie cutters and in a small 6inch cake pan with a removable base, lined with acetate sheets. You can also set it in various sizes of cutters if you prefer or don’t own cake rings. Let’s get on with it then..

INGREDIENTS and METHOD

Pistachio Mousse:

Milk – ½ Cup

Egg Yolks – 2

Sugar – 60g

Gelatin- 1 Tblsp

Water- 2 Tblsp

Heavy Cream/Whipping Cream – 1 cup

Pistachio Paste – 60g (Recipe given below)

Pistachio Essence/ Green colour – a few drops (optional)

Method:

{In a mixer/food processor whiz together 30g toasted pistachio along with 15g sugar until they blend together. Keep grinding and one point the nuts will start oozing out oil and will become sticky. Add a Tsp of any flavorless oil and grind until you have a paste- Pic 1}

• Take 2 Tblsp of water in a sauce pan and sprinkle the gelatin and set aside for a few minutes to let it bloom. [Pic 2]
• Add the egg yolks and sugar and whisk it in. Stir in the milk. [Pic 3,4]
• Cook this mixture on the stove in low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. This will take around 5-7 mins. Do not at any cost, leave the saucepan unattended on the stove top. The egg will cook and form lumps in the custard.
• Whisk in the prepared pistachio paste and mix well. Let it cool. [Pic 5,6]
• Once the mixture is lukewarm, whisk in a few drops of Pistachio essence/ green food color, if required. The pistachio paste will give a nice pastel shade to the mix, but I wanted a deeper hue, so I used Pistachio essence which was green in color. [Pic 7,8]
• Take the heavy cream in the bowl of your stand mixer or  alternatively you can use your hand held beater and beat the cream in a steel bowl chilled in the refrigerator. [Pic 9]
• Beat the cream and whip it up to form soft peaks. [Pic 10]
• Gently but steadily, fold the whipped cream into the cooled pistachio custard base until well combined. [Pic 11,12]
• Pour this mixture into small cake rings and set it in the fridge, preferably overnight.

Saffron Sponge Cake:

Recipe adapted from: IronWhisk

Sugar- 180g

All Purpose Flour- 130g

Corn Flour- 20g

Baking Powder- 10g

Eggs (whisked very lightly)- 200g (about 4 eggs)

Flavourless Oil- 70g

Milk- 100g

A pinch of Saffron

Method:

• Heat the milk a bit and sprinkle the Saffron strands and let it soak in it until the milk comes back to room temperature. [Pic 1,2]
• Preheat your oven to 180*C and line a jelly pan or a swiss roll pan with baking paper.
• In a bowl beat the flours, sugar baking powder, oil and eggs on high speed for about 5-6 mins. [Pic 3,4]
• Add the saffron infused milk and beat in medium speed for 2 mins. [Pic 5]
• Pour the batter in the prepared pan and bake for 10-15 mins or until lightly browned. It took 15 mins in my oven. [Pic 6,7]
• Let it cool.

**Prepare the following three components just before using**

Rose Bavarian Cream:

Recipe adapted from: The Sweet Spot

Egg Yolks- 2

Sugar- 20g

Milk- ½ Cup (125ml)

Gulkand (Rose Jam)- 1.5 Tbsp

Heavy Cream/Whipping Cream- 250g

Gelatin- 10g

Rose Essence/Pink Food Color – a few drops (optional)

Method:

• In a saucepan, heat the milk along with the Gulkand. Immediately after it comes to a boil, switch off the stove and let it sit for a while. Strain the milk and heat it again if required, we want the milk warm, neither hot nor lukewarm. Dissolve the sugar in the milk.
• In a bowl whisk the egg yolks lightly. Gradually pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly.
• Transfer this back into the saucepan, and heat the mixture in low heat until thickened and coats the back of a spoon.
• Soak the gelatin in a tablespoon of water and melt it in the microwave. Stir it into the custard and mix well.
• Stir in the rose essence or pink food coloring if required. The gulkand doesn’t really give a pink color, so if you wish you can add coloring. It’s purely optional. Bring it to room temperature in a ice bath.
• Whip up the Heavy cream to soft peaks in a bowl chilled in the refrigerator or in the bowl of your stand mixer.
• Fold whipped cream into the cooled custard or if you are running low on time, you can cool the custard in an ice bath and fold in the cream.

Honey Syrup:

Pure Honey- 2 Tblsp

Water – 2 Tblsp

Method:

Heat the honey and water in a saucepan and bring it to a boil and keep it on heat for 2 mins. Switch the stove off and let it cool to room temp.

Honey Glaze:

Pure Honey – 2 Tblsp

Water – 1+1 Tblsp

Gelatine- 1 Tsp

Method:

Sprinkle the gelatine in 1 Tblsp of water and set aside for a couple of mins. Let it bloom and then melt it in the microwave.

Mix the honey and 1 Tblsp of water. Add the melted gelatine and mix well.

ASSEMBLY:

• With your Cake rings, cut the sponge cakes into the desired size. These cake rings have to be bigger than the ones used for setting the Pistachio mousse. [Pic 1]
• Place the cake rings on a pan lined with baking paper/ acetate sheet/ silicone mat. [Pic 2]
• Place the cut sponge cake inside the ring. Brush generously with the Honey Syrup. [Pic 3]
• Take the pistachio mousse from the fridge, unmould, and place it in the centre of the cake ring. [Pic 4]
• Now, pour the Rose Bavarian Cream around & on top of the mousse and level the cake ring. [Pic 5,6]
• Set this in the freezer for 4 hours or overnight in the fridge. If keeping it in the fridge, make the Honey Glaze only the next day. [Pic 7]
• Once set, make the Honey Glaze and pour it on top and spread quickly as the glaze will set almost immediately since the whole dessert will be cold. [Pic 8]
• Keep it back in the fridge for 15 mins.
• Carefully unmould and serve immediately, chilled. You can garnish it with crushed pistachios for crunchiness.

My verdict- The gulkand gives such a subtle yet lingering rose flavour to the Bavarian cream and combined with the whipped cream, it’s so soft and light! The pistachio mousse just blew my taste buds, I loved it. Maybe the addition of the pistachio essence took it to the next level. The honey syrup soaked sponge cake brought the whole thing together. Though not a unique combination in Indian sweets, I am glad it worked sooo well in a French dessert.

The procedure may seem long but if planned well, it can be executed easily without any hassle. Will I make this again? Yes!!  Hopefully I will get some cake rings to form even sized desserts ;) Here are all my beauties...

Thank you again for this challenge Subhashini. This feels like a Huge achievement for me :D

Hope you guys liked this Entremet and my attempt at a detailed post. Until next time, Happy Baking!! :)

Baileys Cupcakes

Are you on Pinterest? Are you addicted? No? Then go and become a drop in the ocean that is Pinterest. You discover one pin (in my case, it almost always is a recipe that has something to do with food, particularly, cake) and that leads you to another pin which leads you to another- you get my point! Its a vicious cycle. But oh so informative and entertaining. So, what I am getting at is, I have a lot of pinned recipes on my Pinterest boards and I really wanna start giving them a try, atleast a few. Only fair right?

I have always been tempted to try alcohol based cakes/cupcakes and have quite a few recipes pinned as well. But my main cake-testers are mostly kids- my niece and nephews. I cant serve them these!! So, one day when my husband told me he is going to meet a few of his friends for a few drinks, I jumped up and said I am going to bake some cupcakes for them and he said ok but with a tinge of suspicion, but it was a win-win situation so no harm done :D

There is a bottle of Baileys Irish Cream sitting in our fridge for quite a while now and I decided to go with that and ended up making Baileys Chocolate Cupcakes frosted with Baileys Choco Ganache. Coming to the recipe, the cupcakes alone are totally adapted from the wonderful Sprinkle Bakes blog. She has sooo many great recipes and all her pics are soooo drool-worthy!! Go check her blog out, you won't be able to stop ogling. For the ganache, I just looked around at a few recipes and just winged it. It was totally yummy!!

For the cupcakes:

Recipe Courtesy- Sprinkle Bakes

Makes- 10 standard Cupcakes

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour - 95 g

Baking Powder - 1/2 Tsp

Baking Soda - 1/8 Tsp

Salt - 1/4 Tsp

Sugar - 160 g

Cocoa Powder - 50 g

Unsalted Butter - 85 g

Egg - 1

Vanilla Extract - 1/2 Tsp

Baileys Irish Cream- 100 ml

Brewed Coffee - 50 ml

Method:

-Preheat Oven to 170*C and line your Cupcake tins with liners.

-In a bowl, combine Baileys, Egg and Vanilla extract and beat thoroughly with a whisk.

-In another bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.

-Add the butter and Baileys mixture to this and beat on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened.

-Add the brewed coffee/ decoction and beat until well combined. Scrape the sides & bottom of the bowl with a spatula and beat well again.

-Fill the cupcake liners with the batter, about 3/4th full. This recipe yields 10 cupcakes.

-Bake for 22-27 mins (depends on your oven, so start checking from 22 mins) or until a tooth pick inserted in the centre, comes out clean.

-Remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

For the Baileys Choco Ganache:

Ingredients:

Dark Chocolate - 200 g

Heavy Cream    - 100 ml

Baileys              - 85 ml

Unsalted Butter - 15 g

A Pinch of Salt

Method:

-Finely chop the Chocolate and place it in a bowl.

-In a saucepan, combine the cream & salt and bring it just to a boil, stop when you see bubbles on the sides.

-Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and wait for a min.

-Add the butter and stir everything together with a wire whisk.

-Once everything comes together and is smooth and shiny, add the baileys and whisk again until thoroughly combined.

-Cling-wrap the bowl and let it come to room temp, then refrigerate until needed.

Assembley:

-Remove the ganache from the fridge (let it sit out and soften a bit if it has become very hard) and beat the ganache with a beater on med-hi speed for about 3 mins or until the ganache has lightened in color and looks fluffy.

-Frost the cupcakes as you please. I have frosted it with swirls using the Wilton 1M tip.

Enjoy!! The baker deserves one. (wink,wink)

Until next time, Keep Smiling and Happy Baking!! (Hic!) :D

Coconut Cake with Apricot-Citrus Custard Filling and Matcha SMBC

This cake was submitted in April 2015 for Fondbites Bake Along's "Bake It Perfect" contest under the "Flavourful Cakes" categories. And I'm very happy to report that my entry was selected among the 12 finalists. I have submitted my entry for the finals. Will reveal that post soon after the results are announced ...

So far my experience with inventing and doing new flavour combinations has been quite low. I do like to browse and save some unique recipes and unusual flavors especially in pinterest but haven’t really got down to baking all of them. I own quite a lot of books too. So, when I saw the contest post on Fondbites Bake Along group for “Flavorful Cakes” I decided then and there to participate and finally come up with my combination and make use of all those books and sources I have.

After a lot of thinking, going through my books, pins, bookmarks and saved recipes, I realized how wide the selection is!! I wanted to make something simple yet yummy and also something my family would enjoy. Finally zeroed in on 3 components from 3 different sources and put them together. My entry is a Coconut Cake with Apricot & Citrus Custard Filling and a Matcha floavoured Swiss Meringue ButterCream (SMBC) frosting..

The cake in itself is a hearty and wholesome cake with just enough sweetness to satisfy us and the subtle flavour of rum just enhances the whole coconuty taste that is thrown at us like a bomb with the addition of coconut milk as well as toasted coconut. It is not a sponge cake recipe so its not really soft, it is more like a tea time cake(on its own). I have made a few changes to the original recipe but nothing too drastic. The Filling is a tangy one, in contrast with the sweet coconut cake and I was very satisfied with the way it turned out. The frosting could have been anything if you ask me, but the subtle and almost non-existent bitterness of the Matcha was so perfect and made the cake complete!

The whole cake takes a bit of time but with proper planning, it is fairly easy to make. I have tried my best to give proper steps as to how to go about the whole process. Hope it is helpful. So let’s get on with it..

Coconut Cake:

Recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan- Baking- From my Home to Yours

INGREDIENTS:

All Purpose Flour – 2 Cups

Baking Powder – 1 Tsp

Pinch of Salt

Unsweetened Coconut Milk – 1 cup/ 200ml

Unsalted Butter – 4 Tblsp

Eggs – 4

Granulated Sugar – 1 Cup

Light Brown Sugar – 1 Cup (loosely, not tightly packed)

Vanilla Extract – 1 Tsp

Dark Rum – 2 Tsp (Purely optional)

Shredded Fresh Coconut – ¾ cup (Desiccated Coconut can also be used)

METHOD

-Take a small saucepan, pour in the coconut milk and add the butter. Heat it until the butter is fully melted. You don’t have to boil it. (Pic 1& 2) Remove from heat and set aside, but keep it warm. Do not cool it completely.

-Take the scraped fresh coconut in a non-stick pan and toast it on low flame until all the moisture is gone and the coconut turns golden yellow. Be careful not to burn the coconut. (Pic 3 & 4)

-In a clean dry bowl, sift together all purpose flour, baking powder and salt. (Pic 5)

- In another large bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer) combine the eggs and both the sugars and beat on med-hi speed until the mixture is pale, thick and doubled in volume. (Pic 6 &7)

-Add the vanilla extract and dark rum and beat well.

-Add all purpose flour and beat on low speed just until the flour is fully combined. Do not over beat. (Pic 8 &9)

-Add in the toasted coconut and again beat on low only until its mixed thoroughly (Pic 10 & 11)

-Pour in the hot coconut milk-butter mix slowly but steadily and keep beating until it’s all in and the mixture looks smooth. (Pic 12 & 13) Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and stir everything together with a spatula.

-Preheat your oven to 180*C and prepare your pans. I wanted a tall cake, so I used a 6” round pan and since I have only one, I had to bake it twice. (Pic 14)

-Pour the batter in and bake for 50-55 mins, time may vary with pan size. (Pic 15 & 16)

-Cool the cakes on wire racks. And cling wrap them and refrigerate once completely cool. (Pic 17 & 18)

Apricot Citrus Custard Filling

Recipe courtesy- Joy of Cooking

INGREDIENTS:

For the apricot puree:-

Dried Apricots – ½ cup

Water – 1 cup

Sugar – 1 Tblsp

For the custard base:-

Zest of 1 Lemon and ½ an Orange

Fresh Orange Juice – ½ Cup

Fresh Lemon Juice – 3 Tblsp

Water – 3 Tblsp

Sugar – 1/3 Cup

All Purpose Flour – 2 Tblsp

1 Egg + 1 yolk

METHOD:

-In a small saucepan, combine the dried apricots and water. Simmer on low flame for about 20 to 25 mins. (Pic 1)

-Stir in the Sugar and continue to cook in low flame until the remaining liquid has turned into a glaze. This will take around 3-5 min. (Pic 2)

-Cool the mixture and puree it in your blender and set aside (Pic 3)

-In another saucepan, combine all the ingredients listed under “For the Custard Base”. Cook in medium flame, whisking constantly. Be careful as this burns really fast, so don’t take your eyes and hands off this. (Pic 4)

-Cook until the mixture has thickened and starts to bubble. Cook for 1 more minute, don’t stop whisking. Remove from heat. (Pic 5)

-Scrape the whole mixture into a big sieve and strain it into a bowl. You will have to push it through the sieve as it will be quite thick.

-To this add the pureed apricots and mix well. (Pic 6 & 7)

-Cover the surface of the filling with a wax/baking paper, cling wrap it and refrigerate. (Pic 8)

Matcha Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

INGREDIENTS:

Egg Whites – 5

Sugar – 1 ¼ Cups

Unsalted Butter – 340 g (cut into tablespoons)

Matcha Powder – 2 Tblsp (adjust according to taste)

A few drops of Vanilla Extract

METHOD:

-In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine egg whites and sugar (Pic 1)

-Place this over a pan of simmering water and ensure that the bowl is not touching the water (Pic 2)

-Cook, whisking constantly until the sugar has dissolved. The mixture should be warm to touch (160F or abt 70C) and completely smooth when rubbed between your index and thumb finger. Remove from heat. (Pic 3)

-Attach the bowl to the mixer and beat the mixture on high speed with the whisk attachment, until it holds stiff peaks. Continue beating for another 6 minutes. (Pic 4)

-Change to the paddle attachment and start beating in med speed, adding the butter several tablespoons at a time. Beat well after each addition. (Pic 5)

-After the addition of all the butter, the mixture may look curdled and soupy, mine did. (Pic 6) Just beat the mix in high speed for about 3 mins and will come to the correct consistency. Don’t worry. (Pic 7)

-Add the vanilla extract and sift in the matcha powder. Beat until well combined. (Pic 8 & 9)

-Beat the whole mixture in low speed to eliminate any air bubbles (I missed this step and ended up with a lot of air pockets in my frosting bag, so don’t skip this) The buttercream will be like satin.. So smooth and shiny!

-I split the buttercream into 2 batches and coloured one batch with 3-4 drops of green gel color. Just for a variation for the design. I left one batch as it is since the matcha had given a nice pastel shade of green and I wanted to show that.

ASSEMBLY:

-Take the cakes and filling from the refrigerator. Slice the domed tops and torte both the cakes.

-Place one half of the cakes on a cake board or a cake stand.

-Take a piping bag and cut the top of a little. Fill it with a little frosting and pipe a dam around the cake.

-Fill the rest with the filling and place another half of the cakes. Repeat. And repeat again.

-Crumb coat the cake and refrigerate. Decorate the cake as your mind wishes.

Hope you liked my Flavor Combination idea and my first detailed post with steps and pics. I am very glad I did this post. I feel really happy with the way everything turned out. Hope to do many more bakes like this ☺

Here is one last slice for you!!

Happy Baking!!