Marshmallow fondant

This simple fondant recipe uses ingredients which are probably already in your pantry. It's softer than our standard fondant recipe with a very sweet taste that kids love. MMF is better than most store bought stuff so you would definitely get a satisfaction of doing a quality icing which is edible and looks attractive. It is also much cheaper in cost when doing a larger quantity or small. It need not be a messy tiring work when used a blender also time saving. 

Ingredients:

• 1 package (16 ounces) white mini marshmallows (use a good quality brand)
• 2-5 tablespoons water
• 2 pounds (about 8 cups) sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening

Makes: About 2 pounds marshmallow fondant.

Method:  To make marshmallow fondant, place marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave 30 seconds on high; stir until mixed well. Continue microwaving 30 seconds more; stir again. Continue until melted (about 2 1/2 minutes).

Place 3/4 of the confectioners' sugar on top of the melted marshmallow mixture. Fold sugar into marshmallow mixture. Flavoring can be added at this point if desired. Place solid vegetable shortening in easily accessed bowl so you can reach into it with fingers as you are working. Grease hands and counter GENEROUSLY; turn marshmallow mixture onto counter. Start kneading like you would dough. Continue kneading, adding additional confectioners' sugar and re-greasing hands and counter so the fondant doesn't stick. If the marshmallow fondant is tearing easily, it is too dry; add water (about 1/2 tablespoon at a time) kneading until fondant forms a firm, smooth elastic ball that will stretch without tearing, about 8 minutes.

It's best to allow Marshmallow Fondant to sit, double-wrapped, overnight. Prepare the fondant for storing by coating with a thin layer of solid vegetable shortening, wrap in plastic wrap and then place in resealable bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible. Marshmallow Fondant will keep well in refrigerator for several weeks.

When not working with fondant, make sure to keep it covered with plastic wrap or in a bag to prevent it from drying out. When ready to use, knead fondant until smooth. Roll out fondant 1/8 in. thick.

To color fondant: If you need to tint the entire batch of fondant, add a little icing color to the melted marshmallow mixture before adding confectioners' sugar. For smaller amounts of tinted fondant, add icing color to portions of fondant as needed.Alternatively you can also use colored marshmallows itself which gives a well blended color and a fine quality texture. 

Marshmallow fondant can be used to make figurines like animals, birds, toy shapes etc. It comes out super soft and pliable like a playdoh so easy to work with.

Tips: 1) Apply a nice even coating of vegetable shortening or butter or ghee to the microwaveable bowl.

2) To knead the paste in to a fine fondant you can use your kitchen aid or any blender that avoids messy process, tiring hands and also time saving.

3) But you might have to coat the blender bowl with the shortening fully well then cleaning is easier & quick.

4) There is a fun activity involved while using a colored marshmallows that keeps the kids helping you and busy as well.

simple sponge cake

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 
  
• 1/2 - 2/3 cup white sugar
• 
  
• 2/3 cup self-rising flour
•  or alternate with

2/3 cup all purpose flour & 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 oz milk

1/2 tsp vanilla flavor

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease an 8 or 9 inch round cake pan.
2. Beat the eggs for 4 mins till fluffy.
3. Add sugar to eggs little by little, beat over for 3 mins.
4. Now add vanilla mix in low speed.
5. In a separate bowl sieve flour & baking powder together and fold them in to the beaten mix.
6. Let them combine well for 2 mins, add milk to mix well for 2 mins.
7. Bake for 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in the pan for 10 mins & turn over a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Frost the cake with your favorite frosting or decorate with icing or just enjoy like a tea cake nice and warm.

Servings

Can serve to 4 or 5.

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Mixing the cake batter

Butter Cakes and Pound Cakes

These classic cakes have a fine crumb, a tender, moist texture and a rich, buttery taste. Best of all, they're easy to make!

Know Your Ingredients

"Shortened" cakes have just four main ingredients: fat, sugar, eggs, and flour. Some recipes also call for baking powder or baking soda, milk, buttermilk or sour cream, flavoring extracts, and a pinch of salt to heighten the flavors.

These cakes are characterized by their high proportion of fat and sugar to flour, which makes them tender, moist, and dense.

Since there are so few ingredients, to achieve the best results use high-quality butter and pure flavoring extracts, measure carefully, and follow the recipe directions.

Butter or a combination of butter and shortening are usually the fats of choice. Shortening is easier to work with, because it is already partially aerated and remains at the same texture over a wide temperature range, but butter gives incomparable flavor and mouth-feel.

Before You Begin

Make sure that all of your ingredients are at room temperature, particularly the fat, eggs and any liquid you may be using. It's essential that all these items be at room temperature:

• If the butter is too cold, it won't beat evenly; it won't incorporate air and increase in volume.
• When eggs and liquid are cold, the batter will curdle. Instead of a smooth, homogenous batter, it will separate into liquid and fat, and the cake's texture may be denser than you like.
• If any of the ingredients are warm, the fat will melt and you won't be able to whip air into the mixture.

The second thing to do before mixing the batter is to thoroughly sift together all the dry ingredients. Cake flour and cocoa powder are especially fine, and form small lumps that won't get broken up during the mixing process. Unevenly mixed ingredients can create big holes and tunnels through the middle of the cake, alongside lumps of raw flour. Use a sifter or a wire whisk to make sure all lumps are broken up and those ingredients are well-mixed.

Mixing the Ingredients

You don't have to have a stand mixer to make a butter cake or pound cake, but it sure helps. Begin by beating the softened butter at medium speed until fluffy and light in color, about three minutes. Add the sugar and continue to beat for about four minutes longer. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs one at a time and beat for several seconds between each addition. If the batter does curdle, just continue whipping it; it should smooth out once it warms up.

After you've beaten in the eggs, you must mix in the remaining ingredients as gently and quickly as possible to avoid deflating the air you've so carefully beaten into the mixture.

• Slow the mixer down to low speed and sprinkle in about 1/3 of the dry ingredients.
• Mix the batter while pouring in about 1/3 of the liquid (this includes milk, buttermilk, sour cream, juice, or coffee).
• Continue in this fashion until all of the ingredients are incorporated into a smooth batter.
• Any garnishes--nuts, fruit, chocolate chips or other additions--should be very gently folded in by hand after the batter is mixed.

The Creaming Method

Bakers use the "creaming method"--beating the fat and sugar together to hold air bubbles--and chemical leaveners like baking powder, rather than beaten eggs (like sponge cakes and angel food cakes) to create their fine texture.

The "creaming method" is the same mixing technique you use for a batch of chocolate chip cookies. For cakes, however, you keep beating air into the mix.

Beat room-temperature butter with granulated sugar (superfine, castor, or "bakers' sugar" is best) until the butter is very fluffy and noticeably lighter in color. Don't worry about over-mixing at this point; it's hard to do when creaming butter and sugar for a cake.

Add room temperature eggs one by one, beating after each addition. Adding all of the eggs or too much cold liquid at once will cause the batter to look curdled. Add any extracts or flavorings after incorporating the eggs.

Once you start adding dry ingredients, be careful not to over-beat the batter. The gentle handling is critical to creating a fine, not tough, texture in a cake. Many recipes alternate adding dry ingredients and any additional liquid; mix well after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Stop mixing when each addition is well incorporated.

Baking Cakes

Pour the batter immediately into a prepared baking pan--either greased and floured, or greased and lined with parchment paper--and bake in the preheated oven. As the cake bakes, it will rise high in the middle and turn a dark golden brown on the outside. Depending upon your oven, you may need to rotate the cake pans on their racks to ensure even baking.

Don't wait until the cake has pulled away from the sides of the pan to test for doneness: test it by pressing gently with a fingertip near the center. The cake should slowly spring back. (You can also insert a toothpick or cake tester near the center of the cake; it should come out clean, with no batter sticking to it.) Once you remove the cake from the oven, let it cool on a wire rack. Run a knife around the edges of the cake pan to loosen the cake, and invert the pan onto another rack or plate. Cool completely before slicing or frosting.

cortesy: allrecipes.com

Flower Design Cake project

This is the second course in Wilton classes for cake decoration. While there is a wide variety of icing to select from royal icing is one that stands out among bakers to make flower designs & wedding cakes. It actually cuts down the time taken for decoration as the flowers are pre-made to air dry which can be used for years if stored properly. Royal icing also allows for bakers imagination.

A 8" round double layer chocolate cake with yummy vanilla filling. Basket weave design on the sides of the cake to hold flowers on top to obtain a 3-D effect of flower basket. This chocolate basket holds flowers like 1. large fuchsia colored petunia
2. large white Easter Lillie's
3. medium yellow daffodils
4. medium orange daisies
5. small icy blue primroses
6. small vivid African violets
7. cute little baby pink apple blossoms
8. buttery yellow rosebuds on the vines over the basket.

The flowers tastes like sugar candy which the kids love while the color appeals to the adults with the elegance of nature which is the specialty of baking flower cakes using royal icing.

First Successful Party order

All the firsts in life stands out in memory. So is the first successful accomplishment. On a late summer afternoon when my son & I where lazily surfing in our apartment cafe was a turning point in my cake career. A new career which i had never thought about in my entire life just picked up. I left my son in the kids room to play while i took some print outs & checked few cake designs, a little girl came to me asking "did u leave ur son in the playroom? he's not there" This statement almost panicked me, i started running around the entire clubhouse while my boy coolly came out from the gym saying i just went there to see. That little girl then wanted to babysit my son while i surfed. There started a new friendship & a blooming career. Her mom casually spoke a few words to me & asked if i could make her daughter's birthday cake? It was an excitement at first followed with a hesitation whether i can finish that pretty big job? we exchanged contact numbers planning in mind to take a few days to decide over. Eventually i took the order and baked the birthday cake with a jump start from my instructor who was gladly willing to help me & encouragement from my spouse who did a one day babysitting for my son & taking over household chores. Its a wonderful experience and happiness when the birthday girl shouted its my cake while i placed it on the party table.

Its a simple polka dot design on a vanilla cake with butter cream frosting. I made the decorations with royal icing that i learnt in Janet's classes that previous week. I just decided to make cake decorating as my career in future which is a creative job and work at home option so i can spend the time close to my kids always.This is  just a first step but when i get a big win it only means the real teacher who's selfless training is the backbone. I am happy to dedicate this to you Janet Phelps - my cake decorating instructor.

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.

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.

Strawberry cake

I started baking cakes while i was spinster but now & then. When there is an appreciation for what you do encourages but when your loved ones relishes that same makes one feel heavenly.Now a days when i take out the baking materials my toddler simply understands he gets a fresh cake to munch on & would just give hugs & kisses before i start to bake. Thats an advance thanks from his side for what hes going to get after an hour. This is heavenly isnt it?

And one more thanks to Mrs Ambika srinivasan one among the couple of best friends who kindled the idea of baking cakes once again. That was a surprising instant may be its her personal but i believe she will not mistake me if i click it down here. She baked a lovely fruit cake for her husbands birthday in my house as to make it very surprise for him. within 10 days from then i baked one chocolate cake & then started my cake journey with a fierce when my toddler enjoyed what i baked for him.Not only cakes she gave a couple of best ideas for other pastries too which i would put on these pages in near future.

Ingredients

To bake:

Cake flour - 3 cups

Baking powder -1 1/2 spn

Baking soda -1/4 spn

Salt -1/2 spn

Unsalted butter -2/3 cup softened

Sugar -11/2 cups

Eggs - 4

strawberry syrup - as needed 3 spoons full (for strong flavour N taste)

To frost:

Sour cream - 1 box

Strawberry jam - 1 bottle (small smuckers)

Sugar -2 cups

Red food colour - as desired. 1/4 spn

To decorate:

Fresh strawberrries - 10 nos

Slivered Almonds - 1 cup .

any other according to your imagination.

Bake: Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Mix the cake flour, baking powder , soda & salt in a mixing bowl. Another mixing bowl with a handmixer mix butter & sugar on high till frothing up. Add eggs & strawberry syrup & blend in medium speed. Pour the dry ingredients & blend them in for 2 mins more. In a cake pan 2 8" square pan or 9" round pan pour the mix & bake for 20 mins approximately or a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool the cake in a wire rack before frosting.

Frost: Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting with sour cream. mix the color, flavour if any, sugar with sour cream on high speed to froth up. cut the cake in to layer of 11/2 inch size.

frost the middle layer with strawberry jam. place the other layer on top. if there are only 2 layers of cake then frost the full cake with sour cream mix. if more layers you have cut then all middle layers should be put jam & cover up fully with sour cream.

Decorate: sour cream frosting has one disadvantage its not very thick like cream cheese or butter frost. so while decorating add some almonds or fried cashews on the edges to stop the sour cream from flowing down.