Tres Leche Cake With Whipped Cream and Fresh Fruit Topping

After going through a long-list of cake ideas, I decided that Tres Leche Cake is what we will all be sinking our tooth into on hubby's birthday. Since I was baking for a 12+ crowd, I wanted a fail-safe recipe. So I went surfing in Martha's website. I have tried many recipes from her site(Remember Italian Plum Cake? Eggless Pear-Upside Down Cake?) and they have all turned out splendid! So I was 100% sure that this cake would be a sucess too. Base recipe is from here.

A tip about making the Whipped Cream Topping: I read in some site that to make the best whipped cream, "all elements" have to be cold - This means the bowl, whisk besides the heavycream too. I stuck the bowl and whisk in the freezer for 5 minutes before I begun. Overwhipping will cause the heavy cream to seperate into butter and buttermilk. So keep a wary eye while the mixer is whipping away.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 Cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Cup/ 1 Stick Unsalted Butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 5 Eggs, at room temperature
• 1 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1 Tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 Tsp Salt
• 1-1/2 Cup Whole Milk
• 1/2 Can Evaporated Milk
• 1 Small Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

For the Whipped Cream and Fruits Topping:

• 2 Cups Cold Heavy Cream
• 6 Tbsp Confectioner's Sugar
• 1 Red Plum, thinly sliced
• 2 Ripe Kiwi, thinly sliced
• 1 Cup Blackberries
• 8-10 Strawberries, roughly sliced

Tool:

• 12" X 8" Oven-proof Pan

Procedure:

• Sift the flour, baking powder in a wide bowl. Mix in the salt. Using an electric mixer, whip the butter and sugar. Add the room temperature eggs one by one and mix at medium speed until the mixture is pale yellow.Add the sifted flour mixture in batches. Mix to incorporate. Do not overmix. 

•  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the rectangular pan with aluminum foil. Pour the batter and spread evenly. Bake for 30-32 minutes,rotating the dish half way through. 

• Once out of the oven, prick in several places with the tines of the fork.

•  Quickly mix the milk, evaporate milk and condensed milk. 

•  Pour over the still warm cake. Let it sit and soak for 2 hours.

• Meanwhile cut all the fruits.

• Make the Whipped Cream: Stick the electric whisk, stainless steel bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes.

• Add the cold heavy cream and confectioner's sugar. Start to whip at slow and then high. Keep a wary eye and do not over-whip. Once the heavy cream turns foamy and stiff peaks are formed, stop whipping. Over-whipping will cause it to turn to butter + Buttermilk. You get ~4 to 4-1/2 Cups whipped cream.

•  Scoop the whipped cream using a soft silicone spatula and spread it on the cake. 

• Remove the cake from the baking pan at this stage. The cake doesn't absorb all the milk-mixture.

• Decorate the top with fresh fruits. Cute and serve immediately and refrigerate the left-overs rightaway! Truly Scrumptious Scrumptious Scrumptious!

Enjoy! 
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#18

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Eggless Red Velvet Cupcake With CreamCheese Frosting

Red Velvet Cupcakes are a big fat challenge. No matter what I did they always used to turn up in unappealing color of rust brown. Perhaps it was my hesitancy to add so much color to a food even though it was edible coloring and all. This time though I put a plug to my squeamishness and added more coloring to the cupcake batter.They ended up looking almost like how a RVC should look like - Classy, Special and Red! Base recipe is from here. I made a few changes and made  it egg-less.

Ingredients(Makes 6 Cupcakes):

• 3/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1 Tbsp Cocoa Powder (Do not use Dutch Cocoa)
• 1/3 Cup Sugar (Lightly powdered in a blender)
• 1/3 Tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 Tsp Salt
• 1/4 Cup Buttermilk
• 1/2 Tbsp Wilton's Liquid Red Food Coloring 
• 1 Tbsp Milk
• 1/3 Cup Olive Oil
• 1/8 Cup Applesauce
• 1/4 Tsp White Vinegar
• 1/4 Tsp Vanilla Extract

For the Cream-cheese Frosting (For ~8-10 Cupcakes):

• 4 Tbsp/1/2 Stick Unsalted  Butter, softened
• 1/2 Bar(4 oz) Cream-cheese (I used 1/3 Less Fat Philadelphia CC)
• 2 to 2-1/2 Cups Confectioner's Sugar
• 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Procedure:

• In a wide shallow bowl, add the buttermilk.

• Mix the red food coloring along with a tbsp of milk and add it to the bowl. Then add the remaining wet ingredients -- applesauce and vanilla extract to the bowl.

• Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda in another bowl. Add salt and incorporate. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix using a spatula only till combined.  Line a 6-Cup Muffin pan with wrappers.Divide the batter evenly amongst the 6 cups.

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake in the top rack anywhere from 18 to 22 minutes. Mine took only 18 minutes to bake until a tooth pick inserted in the middle came out clean. Cool completely prior to frosting.

• Make the Frosting: Whip the softened butter and cream-cheese for 3-4 minutes.

• Once well combined, add sugar in batches and the Vanilla extract too. The frosting should neither be too thick or too soft. 

• Once it reaches the piping consistency, spoon the frosting into the piping bag that is attached to Wilton's 2D tip.

• Pipe over the cupcakes. Garnish with a few crumbs, entirely optional. Keep it in the refrigerator and remove it 5 minutes prior to serving.

Enjoy! 
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#18

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Eggless Dry Fruit And Nut Cake, for Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all "Mommy" Readers!  How are you?  I am fine, thank you! Enjoy your day!
A lovely Poem honoring all moms --

More Than A Mother 
When God set the world in place,
when He hung the stars up in space,
when He made the land and the sea,
then He made you and me.

He sat back and saw all that was good,
He saw things to be as they should.
Just one more blessing He had in store;
He created a mother, but whatever for?

He knew a mother would have a special place
to shine His reflection on her child's face.
A mother will walk the extra mile
just to see her children smile.
She'll work her fingers to the bone
to make a house into a home.

A mother never pokes or pries
but stands quietly by your side,
giving you the strength you need,
encouraging you to succeed.

A mother is one who listens well,
will keep her word; will never tell.
~ Kari Keshmiry

My Mother's Day kick started on Friday morning with me having food with my kid in his classroom. I got my first gift, a potted chrysanthemum from my darling son who is asking me when it is going to bloom. With my black thumb, the opposite of a green thumb, I couldn't promise him anything. I keep reminding myself that I need to water the plant and that is a start. Anything to see my kid happy.

Today morning, as I was giving him breakfast, I almost told him that I would take a bullet for him. But since he is too young to understand I said, " Baby, I would walk upside down for you". He was like, Mommy you can't..cause your head doesn't have feet. Totally cracked me up! Man, I love listening to his childish wise-cracks. Being Aran's mom totally rocks!

This cake is for my mom, a wonderful lady who gave me the gift of life and more. Being a vegetarian, she loves all my egg-less bakes. Recipe adapted from Divine Taste. I don't have the 8" deep pan that the original recipe calls for but I do have a 7" pan. So taking cue from Gayathri's CookSpot,  I used a 7" deep cake pan and two 7oz fluted ramekins for the remaining batter.This fruit and nut rich cake doesn't have to be restricted to holiday season alone. It is a phenomenal cake and can be made round the year. The last time I made this cake, I had friends over and I didn't get a chance to take clicks of the big cake. 95% of it was gone the same day it was made. So the cross-sectional view is from those teeny heart-shape cakes. Look how moist and densely packed it is.. Umm, delicious! I will update the post with more pictures the next time I make the cake. 

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp Melted butter, for greasing the pan
• 2 Cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 Tsp Baking powder
• 1/4  + 1/4 Tsp Baking soda
• 3-1/2 Cups Mixed Dry Fruit ( 1 Cup Tunisian Dates + 1 Cup Raisin-Craisin + 1 Cup dried California "Mission" figs + 1/2 Cup dried Turkish Apricots)
• 1/2 Cup Mixed Nuts - Almonds, Walnuts, Pistachios, Pecans (your choice. I used walnuts and pistachios)
• 1 Cup Dark Brown Sugar, packed
• 1 Stick Butter (1/2 Cup)
• 1/4 Cup Olive Oil 
• 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup or Date Syrup ( I used Vermont Pure Maple Syrup)
• Finely Grated Zest from a Florida Navel Orange
• 1 Cup Water
• 2 Tbsp Yogurt
• 1-1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 3/4 Tsp Allspice Powder
• 1 Cup Smoothly Mashed Potato ( I used 1 Medium Sweet Potato + 1 Medium Yukon Gold Potato)
• 40 Blanched Almonds, for garnish

Tools:

• 8" Round Deep Cake Pan Or 7" Deep Round Cake Pan + 2 7-0z fluted heart shaped  ramekins

Procedure:

• Gather all the dried fruits. Sift the flour, baking powder and 1/4 Tsp baking soda twice to combine uniformly. 

• Finely chop the dates, figs and apricots. Add them and the raisin-craisin mixture to the sauce pan.

• To the sauce pan, add the brown sugar, butter, olive oil, maple syrup,water and heat slowly on low heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium and allow the mixture to come to a boil, reduce the heat and then simmer for 20 minutes on low heat. Remove the sauce pan from the heat, mix in the  1 tsp baking soda and allow to cool.

• Boil the potato and sweet potato until it is fork tender. Toast the nuts and finely chop it.

• Mash the potato and sweet potato using a ricer.

• Combine mashed potato, yogurt, grated orange zest, vanilla extract and allspice.

• Incorporate the mashed potato mixture to the cooled fruit mixture.

• Stir in the flour mixture in batches. Fold the toasted chopped nuts. The batter will be sticky and dense.

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees C. Spoon the batter into an 8" round cake pan and arrange the blanched almonds decoratively over the top. Cover the top with an aluminum foil and bake the cake anywhere from 1-1/2 hours to 2 hours.Important: Check periodically after 90 minutes.  If using 7" cake pan, the baking time will be slightly less. I used 7" cake pan and 2 7 oz heart shaped ramekins. The ramekin cakes baked much quicker.

• The cake flavor intensifies over time.

Enjoy!

A similar cake with dried fruit: Eggless Tunisian Date Cake

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Farmer John's "Beet And Chocolate Cake"

Last week I had a get together at a friend's place to give a "send off/farewell" lunch party to another friend who is shifting to North Caroline with his family next week.We all decided to make something and have a potluck style party. I decided to bake this cake and it was such a hit amongst the kids and adults.Initially, I was wary of trying a new recipe and that too for a crowd, even though it was from an amazing and very popular book.All the while I was making this cake,my mom's voice ringing in my ears "Don't experiment when entertaining large crowds". I was crossing my fingers and hoping for a great outcome..Thank goodness the cake didn't give me any trouble by caving in or simply collapsing right out of the oven. Believe me, those things happen to my bakes quite frequently. The Beet and Chocolate cake was pure perfection. I couldn't have asked for a better tasting beet-chocolate concoction.

I woke up at a godforsaken hour and started my preparations for making/baking this cake so I could hit the road around 9AM. Right after it came out of the oven, I didn't even give it a proper cooling time. Packed it and hit the road 30 minutes later than the aforesaid time. Somehow the cake reached the destination in one piece. By the time we all had lunch and finally came to the dessert round, the sun was already beginning to sink into the horizon. That is what I hate most about Winter. Other people may grumble about snow and the biting cold. Not me. But I most certainly will complain about shorter days and lack of sunlight for my photo sessions.   Believe it or not, I had to take at-least 50 shots with different backgrounds with eager/impatient kids(and adults) jumping from behind, wanting a slice of this chocolate-y deliciousness. Finally I let them dig in. And they never would have known there was Beet goop in it if I hadn't told them of-course!

Well, if I were you, I wouldn't restrict this cake to get-together parties alone. As you can see, this cake fits the bill for Valentine's Day Treat too. So go ahead and bake it for your loved one(s). Recipe adapted from Farmer John's Cookbook: The real dirt on Vegetables.

So my dear dear readers, I love you all for coming to my little space. And here is my Valentine's treat for you. *XoXo*

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Beet Puree, about 4 medium Beets  + 3 to 4 Tbsp Beet Water
• 4 oz. Ghirardelli Chocolate 100% Cacoa Unsweetened Baking Bar (1 Bar)
• 8 Tbsp/ 1 Stick Unsalted Butter, room temperature
• 1-1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour ( I didn't have it, so I used 1/2 Cup minus 1 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour)
• 1/2 + 1/4 Cup Olive Oil or any Vegetable Oil
• 1-3/4 Cups Granulated Sugar
• 3 Eggs, at room temperature
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 Tsp Baking Soda
• A pinch of Salt

Procedure:

• Peel and dice the beets. Pressure Cook/Cook the beets with 4-5 tbsp water. When they are fork tender, transfer them to a plate to cool. Don't discard the water. When they are at room temperature, puree the beets along with 3-4 Tbsp Beet Water.

• Sift the flour(s) along with the Baking soda in a wide shallow bowl.Sprinkle in the salt and set aside.

• Finely chop the chocolate. Fill a sauce pan halfway with water. Bring it to a boil. Place the chopped chocolate and 1/4 Cup of Oil on top of the sauce pan. The bottom of this pan shouldn't come into contact with water. 

• Now reduce the flame to low and melt the chocolate. Remove the melted chocolate pan and set it aside to cool down.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Combine the eggs, one at a time with butter in an electric mixer.

• Add the Vanilla Extract, Chocolate to the mixing bowl.

• Pour the pureed beet and mix along with the egg-butter mixture.

• Add the flour in batches and mix only till combined.

• Grease a 10-cup Bundt Pan with butter and dust it with flour. Pour the cake batter into the bundt pan.

• Bake for about 45-50 minutes or until the toothpick inserted in the middle comes clean. )I baked in the top rack for 45 minutes.

• Completely cook the cake prior to cutting. Dust with confectioners sugar prior to serving. ( The kids wanted sprinkles on the cake and that is why you are seeing them. :). )

Other Sweet heart-y num-nums that I posted ages ago::

• Jumbo Heart shaped Banana and Walnut Muffins

• Flaky French Palmiers

• Chocolate and Sweet Bread Pudding

Enjoy!

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