Rum Cake for Super Bowl

Hello Friends,


I am here with a wonderful recipe that I learnt from my Fantastic Friend (Colleague) Frank (3 Fs) :). He made it enough and shared with me that I was forced to give it a try and share with my friends. And, what special occasion than Super Bowl !!!


Without further ado, here it is. The recipe in his own words. Thanks Frank, it was a hit at the party :)


I could not really take pictures of yummy slices, but they were soft and rummy !!!

  Print this recipe

Rum Cake

Ingredients 
For Cake
1/2 cup milk or water
1/2 cup rum
1/2 cup oil
1 box yellow cake mix
1 box vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1 cup chopped walnuts
Icing
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
Preparation

• Preheat Oven to 325 F
• Combine all ingredients for cake, beat 5 to 10 min.
• Pour batter into well greased and floured Bundt pan or tube pan
• Bake as directed on cake mix box. I did for about 45 minutes.
• For Icing, boil Sugar, butter and water for 2-3 min.
• Let cool, add rum, mix well.
• Pour over hot cake.
• Let it soak in. Overnight is best.

Serving
Serve it in slices as you like. Enjoy !!! 

This is my contribution to this week's Bookmarked Recipes - Every Tuesday event.

That's all for now. Take care till next post.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake - Repost

Hello Friends,


A very happy new year to everyone !!!


I just wanted to start this new year with a re-post of Pineapple Upside Down Cake, made in a new pineapple shaped pan that I bought from William Sonoma.


Enjoy !!!

That's all for now. Take care till next post.

Ultra Moist Chocolate Cake from Maria's Menu

Hello Friends,


Here is a wonderful recipe from Maria's Menu. I guess almost everyone from the blog world tried it and now it is my time to post about it. We absolutely loved it and so did my neighbors... lol


One of the best recipes and I am going to keep making it. Thanks Maria :)


So, without further ado, here is the delicious recipe.


Ultra Moist Chocolate Cake

Recipe Source: Maria's Menu
Ingredients

Milk – 1 1/2 cups
Butter – 100 gms (1/3 cup + 2 tbsp approx)
Oil – 1/4 cup (I used olive oil)
Coco Powder – 1/2 cup ( I used Hershey’s)
Self Raising Flour – 1 cup (to get 1 cup self-raising flour, add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder+ 1/4 tsp salt to 1 cup all purpose flour. (source)
Egg – 1 beaten, room temp
Baking Soda – 1/2 tsp
Sugar – 1 cup + 2 tbsp

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree F and grease your cupcake pan (it will make about 12 cupcakes)
2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Heat together butter, milk, oil and coco powder in a pan till butter melts and let it cool down to room temperature.
4. Beat the egg and mix it with wet ingredient and then dry ingredients till everything is well incorporated.
5. Pour it about 3/4 full in cupcake pans (feel free to bake it as a cake) and bake for about 25 min. or till a toothpick inserts comes out clean.
6. Let them cool completely before you take them out as they are very moist and may break apart (it happened with me).

Serving
Feel free to serve them topped with any frosting or ganache you like.

This goes to Bookmarked Recipes - Every Tuesday (Volume 51) event of Aipi and Mine.

That's all for now. Take care till next post.

Soft/Moist Egg-less Banana Cake

Hello Friends,


Today I am here with a soft/moist Eggless Banana Cake that I had bookmarked from Priti's blog which she had posted on 200th post. I have to confess here that I am not a big banana fan. But, I guess I found a way of using banana in daily intake using my baking. I had made a Banana Chocolate Bread and Eggless Banana Pancakes recently and this is an addition to the same saga.


I am going to re-write the recipe as I very slightly modified it. It came out very very soft, almost melt in the mouth kind, but no crumbles, just one great piece. Do you see how I portion controlled (last pic) just to make sure we don't hog ... lol. Thanks Priti for this recipe, it is such a great one as a dessert, snack and even breakfast.


Egg-less Banana Cake

Ingredients
All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
Granular Sugar - 3/4 cup
Ripe Banana - 1 1/4 cup, pureed (1 cup is good enough, I used extra quarter as that was left over and I didn't want to throw it)
Butter - 1/2 cup (You can use regular cooking oil here as well)
Fresh Curd/Yogurt - 1/4 cup
Fresh Milk - 1/4 cup
Walnut - 1/4 cup, chopped (I felt like I could have added more, so be the judge and add as much as you want)
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - a pinchPreparation

• Chop walnut and puree Bananas
• Beat sugar with yogurt until fluffy
• Add banana puree and mix well
• Add milk and beat well
• In a separate bowl mix flour with baking soda & powder
• Now, add flour mixture little by little in the banana mixture and combine everything well
• Add butter/oil and mix well until it blends with the mixture
• At the end just fold in walnuts
• Pour the mixture in a greased tin (I used a square one) and bake at 400 degree F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean.

Serving
We ate almost half of it, just like that, right after it cooled down with nothing else. But, feel free to use anything you like to top it with, some powdered sugar or ice-cream or any other frosting.

This goes to Bookmarked Recipes - Every Tuesday (Volume 49) event of Aipi and Mine.

That's all for now. Take care till next post.

Pound Cake for Sweet Punch

Hello Friends,

I am so happy that after a long time, I am doing Sweet Punch event again this month. I have always wanted to try a Pound Cake. So, when I saw the email from Sweet Punch team (Divya, Ria and Maria), I had to make it and guess what, may be for the first time, I made it way ahead in time.. lol. So, that is how excited I was about this.

I have to tell you here that I totally forgot about the Cake flour that I had to use in the recipe and used regular APF (All Purpose Flour) instead and cake came out pretty well. Now, when I try with cake flour, I may find some difference, but otherwise, it was as if bought from store. So, a wonderful recipe :)

Pound Cake for Sweet Punch

Ingredients

Milk - 3 tbsp
Large Eggs - 3
Vanilla - 1.5 tsp
Sifted Cake Flour - 1.5 cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Baking Powder - 3/4 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Unsalted Butter - 13 tbsp, softened

Preparation

• Preheat your oven to 350 F. Butter an 8 inch by 4 by 2.5 inch loaf pan, or any six cup loaf or fluted tube pan.
• Lightly whisk together milk, eggs and vanilla in a medium bowl.
• Place dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix on low speed for 30 seconds, until blended. Add the butter and half the egg mixture, and mix until dry ingredients are moistened. On medium speed, beat for one minute. This will aerate and develop the cake’s structure. Scrape down sides.
• Add the remaining egg mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds between each addition. Scrape down sides.
• Pour batter into prepared pan. Smooth surface with a spatula. Bake for 55-65 minutes (35-45 minutes if baking in a fluted tube pan), until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cake cool on a rack in the pan for 10 minuets before inverting onto a greased wire rack. If using a loaf pan, flip the cake over so the top is up.

For making Cake flour at home - Take one cup of all purpose flour and remove 2 tbsp from it.Replace the 2 tbsp flour with cornflour and sift together 2-3 times.Cake flour is ready to use.
Serving
Enjoy it warm or at room temperature with your morning or evening tea/coffee or even as a dessert with some ice cream or any sauces you prefer. We enjoyed it with some warm butter as snack :)


That's all for now. Take care till next.

Eggless Gooey Chocolate Pudding Cake

Hello Friends,


I have been lazy last few days in doing proper cooking, too lazy after a blogging marathon... lol :)


I made this superb looking and tasting cake yesterday (Sunday) morning for a friend's house where we were invited for lunch. I absolutely loved the texture, taste and everything about it. There is this something great about gooey chocolate (I know my fellow chocoholics will agree with me). I saw this cake being prepared by Anne Thronton in a Food Network show called "Dessert First". Foe someone like me, it is the best program as I can always have dessert as the first course and of course the last course as well :)


This is a cake which will have a texture of brownie but will have some molten chocolate or the gooey part underneath and thus it is a pudding cake. Check the pictures and see the second pic and that is how the top will be like brownie and the bottom will have gooey stuff. It look me only 10 min. to prepare and about 30 min. to bake and about 15 more min. for cool-down. And, guess what, no eggs needed, isn't that wonderful and it is made from items that one usually has at home (like milk, butter, sugar and cocoa powder at home).


I had to make it after watching that episode and it won't be inappropriate to say that I was dying to try it out :) 


So, without further ado, here is the recipe (it is the same as hers, but felt like re-writing it in my blog).


Eggless Gooey Chocolate Pudding Cake

Recipe Source
Ingredients

Pudding Cake
All-purpose Flour - 3 cups
Granulated Sugar - 1.5 cups
Cocoa Powder - 1/2 cup
Baking Powder - 4 tsps
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Milk - 1 cup (I used whole, but feel free to use any)
Butter - 2/3 cup, melted
Vanilla Extract - 3 tsps
Topping
Granulated Sugar - 1 cup
Brown Sugar - 1 cup
Cocoa Powder - 1/2 cup
Hot Water - 2.5 cups

Preparation

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degree C.
• Mix all dry ingredients for pudding cake in a bowl well. 
• Add all wet ingredients in the dry ingredients and whisk well till all is incorporated. It will be thicker than usual cake batter.
• Spread the cake dough/batter in an un-greased pan (9 inch or bigger).
• Now, whisk all dry ingredients of topping in a separate bowl and add hot water to it and mix it well, till no lumps.
• Pour this liquid on the cake batter (in the pan) and please do not mix it, just let the topping stand there.
• Bake the cake for 45 minutes. You will see the top set and see a brownie like crust.
• Take it out of the oven and do not touch for another 15 minutes, let it cool down.
• This is a pudding cake and not a cake to cut into slices. The top of the cake will be like brownie and the bottom will have pudding consistency (check the pics).

Serving
Scoop out the cake into serving bowls and scoop the bottom liquid as well for that gooey texture. Serve it with your favorite ice-cream, if you like that combo. But, I like my warm gooey cakes without mixing with cold stuff, so I just enjoyed it as it is. Whatever you do, please do serve it warm !!!


Hope you will make and enjoy it. I can personally vouch on the recipe and the results !!!


That's all for now. Take care till next post.

Eggless Microwave Chocolate Cake

Hello Friends,

Another bookmarked recipe which I tried on our Saturday potluck and we couldn't get enough of it. I took Eggless Microwave Chocolate Cake recipe from Aparna and I have to say I was amazed at the results. I did not expect this wonder to come from microwave. I event made the glaze in microwave and made extra of it and enjoyed it till the end. We literally fought for the slices and we had to tell kids to wait (after they had their first round) till all adults have eaten to be able to get more of it, lol. That's how good this was. It was softy, moist. Do try and I can guarantee you will love it :)

I am sending this to Bookmarked Recipes - Every Tuesday (Volume 41) event hosted by Aipi and me.

That's all for now. Take care till next post.

Molten Lava Cake - Sweet Punch for October !!!

Hello friends,

Molten Lava Cakes, ok, I have to admit that I cannot stop eating this one. I baked it last night and wanted to eat all just by myself. For a chocoholic like me, it was a challenge to save it for others too... lol 

If you have never had it, then you are surely missing on something and you have to try it out and if you have had it ever, then you know what I am talking about. 

I cannot thank Divya enough on choosing this sinful and mouth watering and lip smacking (I am running out of adjectives to describe it) recipe. Thanks Sweetheart !!!

Now, without further delay, here is the recipe.

Molten Lava Cake
Recipe source - showmethecurry.com

Ingredients

Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate – 4 oz (113g)
Butter – 4 oz (113g)
Eggs – 2
Sugar – 1/3 cup (75 g)
All-purpose Flour – 1/4 cup (40g)
Butter – for greasing ramekins

Preparation

1. In a double boiler, melt chocolate.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat Eggs and Sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Once chocolate is melted, remove pan from heat and add in butter. Mix until the butter melts fully.
4. Add chocolate/butter mixture into the eggs, add all-purpose flour and mix until well incorporated.
5. Butter bottom and sides of ramekins (small glass/porcelain bowls) and pour in mixture about 3/4 way full.
6. Place ramekins on a baking tray and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 C) for 10 – 15 minutes. Shorter for gooey (molten) inside, longer for stiff inside.
7. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.

P.S - Some people find it gross to have cakes with uncooked centers[not me!!] and feel the lava is nothing but uncooked batter.I have a solution for that too--if you feel so too,just place a chocolate chunk in between--pour half the batter into the ramekin and place a chocolate chunk,and pour the remaining batter and cook for a longer time than mentioned.You could also place cold ganache in between,choices are numerous!!

That's all for now. Take care till next post.

Black Forest Roulade with Cherry Filling - Sweet Punch for August

Hello friends,


It is Sweet Punch time again. This month, it was Maria's turn to select a theme and she chose Black Forest Roulade recipe. This recipe is from Australian Women's Weekly (AWW) Magazine.


As usual, I procrastinated and prepared it only this afternoon. Now, I have to say, a great recipe Maria, I love dark chocolate and this was an amazing dessert for whoever loves dark chocolate. Not so good for my husband as he doesn't like chocolate and on top it was dark chocolate. Anyways, I am glad that it is all mine... yum... yum... yum...


I was really scared by the recipe and the accompanied picture as I have never ever ate roulade in my life. So, it was like reading about it and making, so a bit skeptical. But, then glad I made it, because it was actually simple to make, just 3 things to make (cake, cherry filling and cream) and then assemble them. It took about 30 minutes (including the time of making cake). So, a great one. The only thing is that, the base cake itself was sooooooooooooooo soft and moist that it was a scary task to roll it up and it did break in few places.


Black Forest Roulade with Cherry Filling

Ingredients

Dark chocolate - 200gm, chopped coarsely

Hot water - 1/4 cup (60 ml)
Instant coffee powder - 1 tsp
Eggs - 4, separated (room temp)
Caster sugar - 1/2 cup (110 gms)
Caster sugar - 1 tbsp, extra
Thickened cream - 3/4 - 1 cup
Kirsch - 1 tbsp (Optional, I did not use)
Cherry filling
Seedless black cherries - 425gm can
Cornflour - 3 tsp
Kirsch - 1 tbsp  (Optional, I did not use)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 360 degree F. Grease 25 cm/30 cm swiss roll pan; line base with baking paper. Combine chocolate, water and coffee in large heat proof bowl; sit bowl over saucepan of simmering water. Using wooden spoon, stir until chocolate melts then immediately remove bowl from fire.


Beat egg yolks & sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until thick &; creamy; this will take about 5 minutes. Using large metal spoon, fold egg mixture into warm chocolate mixture. Beat egg whites in small bowl  with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Using metal spoon, gently fold egg whites into chocolate mixture, in two batches. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven about 10 mins.

Meanwhile, place a large sheet of baking paper on board; sprinkle with extra sugar. Turn cake onto sugared baking paper; carefully remove lining paper, cover cake loosely with a tea towel. Cool cake to room temp.

Beat cream & kirsch in small bowl with electric mixer until firm peaks form. Spread cake evenly with cooled cherry filling then spread Kirsch cream over cherry mixture. Roll cake from a long side, using paper to lift and guide the roll; place on serving plate. Dust with cocoa powder. Cover roll; refrigerate 30 minutes before serving. You can also dress up the roulade  with cherries or by piping some cream on top. 
Cherry filling
Drain cherries, reserving 1/4 cup (60ml) of syrup. Using knife, chop cherries coarsely. Using wooden spoon blend cornflour and reserved syrup in a saucepan. Add cherries; stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat, cool to room temp.
Serving

Do I need to tell you how to serve? I know I will keep nibbling on it, till it is all over. But, yes, best time, dessert time :)

Notes:

• If you dont have a swiss roll tin, use a rectangular baking tin.
• I used canned red cherries instead of black cherries and skipped using alcohol completely.
• The roulade is a bit delicate and tends to stick on to the baking paper, be careful while removing the paper and also while rolling. 
• It's a very moist roulade, its very soft even if you serve it straight out of the fridge. 
• This cake is a cross between a mousse and a fallen souffle. It's ideal to make it on the day of serving.
• To successfully make this cake, it is vital that the egg yolk/sugar mixture is beaten until thick and that the egg whites are beaten only until soft peaks form. Overbeating will dry out the egg whites and make it difficult to fold them into the chocolate mixture.
• To test if the cake is cooked, touch it with your fingertips: it should feel slightly firm and springy. 

That's all for now. Take care till next post.

Devil's Food Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Filling - Sweet Punch Time Again !!!

Hello friends,


Another interested and mouth watering sweet punch time again :)


Thanks Divya for this great recipe. I would have never dreamt of making filled cupcakes ever, I mean decorated yes, but never filled ones. This was really a great challenge. I tried using the recipe as it is, mainly as I am not a baker and just started and do not have any tips or any ideas on what to substitute something with.. lol.


They came very very moist, little scarier in the beginning as they were moistier than what I saw in pics. Many of mine broke when I was inverting them, meaning the bottom part just kept stuck to the cupcake pan even though I had greased and dusted and everything. Anyways, so, the cutting that I had to make was more like scooping the flesh out and filling and then taping it back again.  I was not sure, so as you can see, I didn't fill it a lot, but it was still enough.


But, believe, they were the softest yummiest cupcakes. The only thing I did different was that I did not use the Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting but used store bought Betty Crocker's Dark Chocolate frosting instead.


Every time I ate them after few hours, I just nuked for few minutes.


Here is the recipe.

Devil's Food Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream filling
Recipe source - Baking Bites
Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream (low fat or full) -can be substituted with yogurt or cream mixed with a tsp of yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2-oz dark chocolate
1 cup water, boiling
Method

Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease two 12-cup muffin tins.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light.
Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by sour cream and vanilla extract.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
Add half of flour mixture to the butter mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla extract, followed by the addition of the rest of the flour mix.
Stir well between each addition and mix until no streaks of flour remain.
Stir the cocoa powder and the dark chocolate into the boiling water (easiest in a large measuring cup).
Pour chocolate water into the rest of the batter and stir until uniform.
Evenly distribute batter into prepared baking cups. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. (It’s fine if you can’t fit both trays into the oven at the same time, just wait until one batch finishes before putting in the second pan)
Turn cupcakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting and filling.


Vanilla Cream Filling

3 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk (low fat is fine)
1/2 cup butter (or trans fat-free shortening)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 scraped vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk together the flour and milk and cook in a small saucepan over medium heat until thick. This will only take a few minutes.
Stir continuously to prevent the mixture from clumping and do not bring all the way to a boil.
When thickened (consistency will be that of a thin pudding or custard), strain with a mesh strainer into a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let cool completely to room temperature.
When the milk mixture is cool, cream the butter (or shortening) and sugar together in a medium bowl until lightl. Add in the milk/flour mixture and the scraped vanilla bean seeds (or vanilla extract) and beat at high speed with an electrick mixer for 7 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip, or a large ziplock bag with the corner cut off, and set aside until ready to fill your cupcakes.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat, with an electric mixer, until frosting is creamy, 3-5 minutes. Add additional powdered sugar as needed to achieve a thick, but not stiff, frosting that is easy to spread. Add additional milk, if necessary, to thin the frosting if it gets too thick.
Assembly
(A photo how-to of the assembly method can be found here.) Take a cooled cupcake and, using a small pairing knife, cut a cone of cake (1-inch across by 1-inch deep) out of the top. Trim off the pointy end of the cone, leaving a flat circle of cake. Set aside and repeat this process for all the cupcakes.
Take the cream filling and squeeze a tablespoon or so into each cupcake cavity, filling the hole up to the top with filling. Top off with a flat circle of cake to plug the hole and keep the filling in place.
Using a butter knife or a small offset spatula, frost each cupcake with a layer of chocolate buttercream frosting. Place a dollop of icing in the center of the cupcake (on top of the cut out circle of cake) and spread from the center to the sides of the cupcake.
If you have leftover filling, transfer it to a fresh ziploc bag and cut a very small opening in one corner. Pipe a swirly line down the center of each cupcake.
Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.
Makes 2-dozen.

I made half of it as a cupcake and half of the batter as a chocolate cake, both were yummy.

That's all for now. Take care till next post.

Tiramisu Cake - First Sweet Punch Challenge

Hello friends,

You all must be wondering, Priya baking Tiramisu. Is she faking or something. No guys, I dared to take the challenge of not just baking a cake but Tiramisu. And I would like to thanks Divya Kudua, Ria & Maria for such a nice and sweet challenge and not only that but explaining everything so well that even a layman like could dare to take the challenge. This is my very first Sweet Punch Challenge :)

As I used the cake recipe as it is with the exception of adding alochol in it, please check it out below.

Tiramisu Cake

Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

 

For the cake layers:

2 cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup buttermilk

 

For the espresso extract:

2 tablespoons instant espresso powder

2 tablespoons boiling water

 

For the espresso syrup:

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon amaretto, Kahlua, or brandy

 

For the filling and frosting:

1 8-ounce container mascarpone (store-bought or homemade)

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon amaretto, Kahlua, or brandy

1 cup cold heavy cream

2 1/2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, or about 1/2 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Chocolate-covered espresso beans, for decoration (optional)

Cocoa powder, for dusting

 

Getting ready:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9×2 inch round cake pans, dust the insides with flour, tap out the excess, and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

 

To make the cake:

• Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy.
•  Add the sugar and beat for another 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, and then the yolk, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla; don’t be concerned if the mixture looks curdled. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, adding the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients); scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix only until the ingredients disappear into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
• Bake for 28 to 30 minutes, rotating the pans at the midway point. When fully baked, the cakes will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the centers will come out clean. Transfer the cakes to a rack and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them, and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right-side up.

 

To make the extract:

• Stir the espresso powder and boiling water together in a small cup until blended. Set aside.
• To make the syrup:
• Stir the water and sugar together in a small saucepan and bring just to a boil. Pour the syrup into a small heatproof bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon of the espresso extract and the liqueur or brandy; set aside.

 

To make the filling and frosting:

Put the mascarpone, sugar, vanilla, and liqueur in a large bowl and whisk just until blended and smooth.

Working with the stand mixer with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, whip the heavy cream until it holds firm peaks. Switch to a rubber spatula and stir about one quarter of the whipped cream into the mascarpone. Fold in the rest of the whipped cream with a light touch.

 

To assemble the cake:

 

If the tops of the cake layers have crowned, use a long serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion to even them. Place one layer right-side up on a cardboard round or a cake plate protected with strips of wax or parchment paper. Using a pastry brush or a small spoon, soak the layer with about one third of the espresso syrup. Smooth some of the mascarpone cream over the layer – user about 1 1/4 cups – and gently press the chopped chocolate into the filling. Put the second cake layer on the counter and soak the top of it with half the remaining espresso syrup, then turn the layer over and position it, soaked side down, over the filling. Soak the top of the cake with the remaining syrup.

 

For the frosting, whisk 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of the remaining espresso extract into the remaining mascarpone filling. Taste the frosting as you go to decide how much extract you want to add. If the frosting looks as if it might be a little too soft to spread over the cake, press a piece of plastic wrap against its surface and refrigerate it for 15 minutes or so. Refrigerate the cake too.

With a long metal icing spatula, smooth the frosting around the sides of the cake and over the top. If you want to decorate the cake with chocolate-covered espresso beans, press them into the filling, making concentric circles of beans or just putting some beans in the center of the cake.

 

Refrigerate the cake for at least 3 hours (or for up to 1 day) before serving – the elements need time to meld.

Just before serving, dust the top of the cake with cocoa.

My Experience with this baking and some after notes

It was amazing. Wonderful !!! I have to mention that I baked this cake in partnership with my husband. He did actually little over 50% of the tasks as I was trying to supervise and make sure we are not missing anything. This challenge has given me enough guts to try to make a layer cake next time :)

We baked 2 cakes instead of baking one cake and then dividing it in 2, which per me was a good thing to do for a new baker as I heard that dividing the cake in the middle can be a bit tricky sometimes even for a professional. My base cake came out beautifully. The one thing I regret is that I did not make Mascarpone Cheese at home as I was so not sure whether or not I can do, but will surely try it out next time. I also felt that I could have made little more frosting (by upping the measurements by at least 1.5 times), but see that is what is a learning experience, right?

Overall, the pics may not do that much justice to the taste of the cake. As we were kind of laymans, we used our own tricks and so could not take really step by step pics. But, I have tried posting final pics :)

Hope you all like it and may dare to try it as well.

That's all for now. Till next post, take care :)