Super Summer Lollies

Summer is here finally and nothing can beat the heat than a really nice chilled smoothie or these fancy lollies that you could whip up in minutes. Give it a try with other fruits although I love the Mango and strawberry versions. Mascarpone gives the lollies a smooth & and creamy  ice-cream like texture.

Ingredients (Yields 6 lollies and a glass of smoothie)

Handful of fresh strawberries or 1 Fresh Mango or 1/2 a can Mango Puree

Mascarpone 4-5 tbsp 

Milk 250ml

Vanilla Extract 1tsp

Sugar as per taste

Method:

Blend everything together in a blender and pour into lolly molds and freeze for 4-5 hrs or just chill this and drink it as a yummy smoothie.

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte/Black Forest Cake

Amidst all the craze and hurry to get everything done before I leave for Food Blogger Connect 2010 , I managed to make this gorgeously moist cake for my dear friend Neelu's birthday. When I return I will share the recipe!

As promised here is the recipe for Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte/Black Forest Cake. I have made this twice already. It is simply that good. After hunting for a perfect chocolate sponge to make this cake, I liked the recipe below...it uses oil instead of butter and makes a very moist cake that is perfect for black forest. Do brush the cakes liberally with kirsch. I   got the idea of chocolate trees & leaves from a TV show where the guy also made some chocolate mushrooms & roses...I could just about manage to make trees & leaves.

Ingredients

For the cake (recipe adapted from Annie Bell)

Makes 2 8inch sandwich cakes (I used 11/2 of the cake recipe to make 3 even sandwich layers)

38g Cocoa

less than 1/2 tsp Baking soda

2 Large Eggs

185g Light Muscovado Sugar

90ml Oil

100g Self-Raising Flour

100ml freshly brewed Coffee or Hot Water

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line 2 8inch sandwich tins with parchment paper. Whisk the cocoa with 100ml coffee or boiling water, whisk in the soda and leave to cool. Whisk together the eggs and sugar till light and fluffy and blend in the oil. Sift the flour into this and then the cocoa solution. Gently fold to incorporate everything. Pour into prepared tins and bake for 20-25 min or until skewer inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool and turn into a cooling rack and let it cool completely.

For the Cherry filling:

1 cup cherries in Kirsch chopped

1 cup chilled heavy Cream

1 tbsp Kirsch+ extra to drizzle on cake (You could use the cherry syrup if you want to skip alcohol)

2 tbsp Icing sugar

Method:

Whip the heavy cream along with icing sugar till peaks form and blend in the chopped cherries and kirsch. Keep this chilled until ready to use.

For the Icing

1 cup chilled heavy cream

1 cup grated chocolate or chocolate flakes

1/4 cup Icing sugar (or more if you like it sweet)

Method:

Whip the heavy cream along with sugar until stiff peaks form taking care not to overdo it (you will end up with lumpy butter).

Assembly of Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte/Black Forest Cake

Place the cooled cake on a cake stand or board & place small strips of parchment paper all over the sides. Brush the top with a little kirsch or cherry syrup. Spread the cherry icing on top and place the 2nd cake. Brush the top with a little kirsch or cherry syrup.(I used 11/2 of the cake recipe to make 3 even sandwich layers).Top the 2nd layer with some cherry icing and place the 3rd cake on top. Brush the top with a little kirsch or cherry syrup and press the layers down gently. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the white cream icing evenly. Put some dark chocolate pieces in a food processor and pulse until you get shavings small enough to cover the cake. I tried dusting the cake with the shavings using my hand but it all got messy as the chocolate melted. So instead I used the spatula to pick up the chocolate shavings and pressed it slightly on the icing taking care not to mess the icing. Since the icing was at room temperature this was easy to do and the shavings stuck to the icing. Pour some white icing into a pastry bag and pipe the icing on top of the cake and decorate with some cherries. Gently pull out the parchment paper and you will have a neat cake every time.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry Butter-cream Frosting

Made these for a friend's Birthday party. I used a basic vanilla cupcake recipe and added scrapings of a vanilla bean for added flavor but honestly the cupcakes are just vehicles for delivering the gorgeous buttercream. This Rapberry buttercream recipe is from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book. You get enough buttercream to frost about 20 cupcakes. 

Raspberry Buttercream

Ingredients

1 cup fresh raspberries 

2 tablespoons raspberry liqueur

2/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup water

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

¾ pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Fresh raspberries, for garnish

Method:

In a small bowl, combine the fresh raspberries with the raspberry liqueur.

In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the 2/3 cup of sugar and the water and cook to 240 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whip attachment, beat the egg whites on high speed until they hold soft peaks.  Slowly add the 3 tablespoons sugar and beat until there are medium stiff – but not dry – peaks of meringue.

When the sugar syrup reaches 240 degrees, decrease the speed of the mixer to medium, and immediately but slowly pour the hot liquid sugar in a steady stream down the side of the bowl and into the meringue.  (Or, if the syrup is not yet 240 degrees when the meringue is ready, turn off the mixer until it is.  Then turn on the mixer to medium and add the syrup).  Beat together until stiff glossy peaks form.

With the mixer on medium speed, add the butter in pieces to the meringue.  The mixture will break, but just keep beating and it will come together beautifully.

Pour the raspberries and the raspberry liquid into the buttercream and beat on medium-high speed until combined.

If using the buttercream immediately, set aside at room temperature.  If not, refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.  If the buttercream has been chilled, let it reach room temperature before beating it in the electric mixer.  The buttercream will break, but then it will come together beautifully.

Once the cupcakes have cooled just pipe or spread a liberal amount of buttercream on each cupcake, adorn with a fresh raspberry and serve at room temperature. If you refrigerate the cakes make sure you leave it out at room temperature for 30 min before serving the cakes.

Pain Perdu or French Toast Cake

This cake is inspired by Ina Garten's French toast recipe. I liked the idea of making a cake with real french toast flavors. So I converted a simple Vanilla cake recipe and the result was a really moist cake (I guess because of the yogurt) with beautiful specks of orange from the zest and black from the vanilla bean in vanilla sugar. This cake was surprisingly moist even the next day, but tastes best warm drizzled with raspberry sauce. I had this slice of heaven for breakfast with coffee.

Ingredients

½ cup room temperature Butter  

1/2 cup Vanilla sugar

3 Eggs

180g or (1 +2/3 cup) Self raising flour

125ml of Greek style yogurt or Sour Cream

11/2 teaspoons Vanilla extract

1⁄2 tsp ground Cinnamon

¼ tsp ground  Nutmeg

1 tsp Maple syrup

1 tsp Orange zest

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Sift the dry ingredients. Combine all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse for a minute. Make sure everything is well combined. Pour into an 8" greased round tin. Bake for about 35-45 min or until skewer inserted comes out clean. I like it with a drizzle of Raspberry Sauce.

For the Sauce

Blend handful of fresh or frozen raspberries in a blender along with a tsp of lemon juice, 3 tbsp sugar & 1tsp of raspberry liqueur and strain.

Outrageous Hazelnut-Banana-Chocolate Muffins

The best way to use up over-ripe bananas and also end up with something fabulous to have with a hot cuppa coffee. Baked these earlier today and wanted to share the pictures.