butter cake

Ingredients:

all purpose flour - 3 cups
baking powder - 4 tsp
salt - 1 tsp
sugar - 2 1/2 cups (white granulated)
butter - (room temp) 1 cup
eggs - 4
vanilla extract - 2 tsp
almond extract - (optional) 1/2 tsp
milk - 1 1/2 cups (whole milk)

method:
1) cream the butter.
2) add sugar & beat till fluffy
3) add egg 1 by 1 till well combined in low speed.
4) now mix the flavours vanilla & almond.
5) combine the sifted flour , salt, baking powder mix alternatively with milk to the batter in low speed.
6) scrap the bottom & sides of the bowl to mix thoroughly.

batter volume: approx 10 cups.

heat oven @ 350 deg F.
bake for 50 mins
cool down 10 mins in pan
shift to wire rack for complete cooling.

pan : two  8" round or square pan with 2" deep. or
max 9 x 13 or 8 x 12 {baker's quarter sheet}.
caution: doesn't fit pans of any larger size than mentioned above.

frosting with butter cream or favorite icing & decorate

decoration: This cake was decorated with the help of Janet Phelps wilton certified cake decorator.

A wilton rose, drop and swirl flowers on top with cute leaves. outlined with shell design on top of cake & bottom on board. The two layer cake gives a good space for side decor as well is detailed with a star flower.

tips:

* fill the pan only half to little more to half. 

* its a dense volumous cake good as a base cake

* keeps moist, soft & fluffy when added more half cup milk.

* but always check cake for doneness. 

* can bake upto 10 mins more.

* measurements can be altered to half or doubled to bake any pan size like 9x13 or 1 layer 8" cake 

* all ingredients measures with direct respect to the flour.

* grease and flour the pan thoroughly. less greased pan ends with a sticking cake not coming out easily.

* Butter cream icing recipe used for this cake is available in other pages. 

* no filling added but only icing to attach the layers. 

* A simple jam or chocolate or any flavor filling can be used to your liking.

pepper powder

Black pepper powder is the side dish for idlies after delivery (when newborn arrives). This is a special diet usually called as "pathiya sapadu" for new moms no matter how many pregnancies they face. This will be the breakfast as well as dinner because steamed food is very good during this time & black pepper heals and cures the stomach, uterus, bladder etc.the recipe follows;

Ingredients:

Black pepper = 150 gm
black urad dhall = 100 gm
black or white sesame seeds = 100-150 gm
garlic = 5-6 pods
jeera = 25-50 gm
curry leaf = 1/2 - 1 cup (optional)
salt to taste

method:
Fry all ingredients seperately and grind them together into a fine powder. Enjoy with ghee for idly, dosa or chapathi etc.

Why the specific ingredients because all of them aid in more lactation for the new mom & also heal the body & tighten the flabby muscles. Same way for few months from delivery ghee is immensely used in food to gain energy and reduce body heat that to with black pepper.

note: check whether black urad dhall is clean or wash & air or sun dry them first before adding with the other ingredients. black urad dhall is a high protein pulse'.

dolls gallery

         

Sriram's [first] birthday cake

  

My son Sriram's 3rd birthday was nearing, as usual i started planning well in advance for a simple party. I had a casual talk with my son what he wanted for his birthday & the chat continued to the cake design he immediately showed interest on baking a Thomas cake rather than buying one from shop. I quickly gasped his inner thoughts, while its a biggest ever challenge as i know my son would expect a perfectly shaped cake though bought fresh from the shop be made at home. Took a day or two to analyse whether i could handle such a big task for making a proper birthday cake, presenting before 20 guests while 7 months pregnant was an alarming job to complete. It did take my breath away but now i feel lot accomplished as it came out well to the satisfaction of my son.

First trial of Thomas: pondering on the websites for designing Thomas took a week almost. We both then decided on the color, flavor etc. Lot of home bakers around the world had published their professional birthday cake photos on their blog gave me an idea of not drawing or using Thomas train decor set but to build one. Accidentally i stumbled on all recipes.com which linked to Betty crocker where they had a video of making a train cake. Thanks a million to both the websites they just nearly saved my life. So Thomas train cake became a success only after the first trail. Bought a loaf cake from walmart to try thomas, collected all icing materials took a while to frame the icing recipe carefully went through the review all done on a thursday evening came out the train up to my expectation to win my husbands confidence. But can you imagine my son pointing out the littlest imperfections on trains face? he said my thomas usually is happy why did you make him sad? nose not perfect etc... Just got dumb folded by the comments dint give hope what happened next was a cake decorating class in progress. Never i had imagined of making (baking ) a cake and ending up with a class on cake decoration. All are positive motivations right? life sometimes seems extra challenging but mom's are willing to face it down right happily when its posed by their lovely little ones. So a million thanks to my son who is molding me in to a professional baker "mommy". 

   "Although the cake was not for a first birthday but one of my first cakes for a proud birthday party".

So now that had a look at how the famous thomas train turned out here is the recipe to my success story.

Cake : I made a 2 layer chocolate cake with a cream cheese chocolate filling, frosted with buttercream icing  toped with m&m's.

For the chocolate cake: Simple i bought the "betty crocker" chocolate butter mix.Baked the cake according to the instructions on the box. It came out well on 11x15 anchor glass pan even though the mix called for 9x13 pan. But needed 2 boxes to make 2 layers seperately.

For the filling: Duncanhines cream cheese frosting mixed with hersheys chocolate syrup for chocolate filling works well and tastes great.

For the frosting: Here is the recipe for buttercream frosting.
1 cup crisco{blue color} vegetable shortening
1 lb icing sugar
1 tbsp meringue powder
1 tsp clear vanilla
3 tbsp water
beat with a hand mixer on medium speed for few mins while the ingredients fully combined & forms a stiff peak. Serving size is approximately 2-3 cups. Now you can add desired colors to the frosting. For the above cake i added wilton orange gel color, green, royal blue, golden yellow & burgundy for lettering.

To build the train: You will get a wonderful idea by visiting the web links below.
http://www.bettycrocker.com/videos/videolibrary/birthday-cakes/how-to-make-a-train-cake

Even though the trial thomas train turned out well than the original party train it did not matter much for my son  he was contended with the train itself, as i promised. For me it was a hectic day to complete a cake in between all other dinner menu. Applause and appreciation where the back up for my enthusiasm to take such a leap,the cake rewarded well with a good taste & flavor for the hardwork.A finishing note, my son always ends up a story with a "The End" suits for a well accomplished task.

crumb coating with syrup

Whatever you do you cannot tame the crumbs on cake. So when there is few solutions available what best suits is important.

Piping gel : Even though a piping gel calls for crumb coating a cake your cake will always have the gel effect & taste a pasty glue.

Icing: almost all professional bakers go for crumb coating with a thin layer of icing or frosting. it works well for professional bakers but for the first time cake love mates? no matter what u do end up with a bits & pieces of cake.

Freezing: Freezing the cake before frosting & keep it frozen until frosting or decorating completed. It works for people who plan well ahead of time & be patient till its completed.

but simple syrup method works well for everybody.

Syrup:  you can make a simple syrup with sugar & water or with any syrup like pancake syrup to maple syrup or fruit syrup. but remember to thin the syrup before coating the cake as you donot want more flavor or change in taste etc. moreover select a syrup based on the cake flavor & recipe. any flavor would do good for a simple white, yellow cake. For all other cakes select ur syrup carefully.

Doing good for your cake is doing good to urself. At any cost we have to eat the cake not decorate & look at it. so be beneficial.