May the tribe increase

Its taken a really long time for me to join the cacophony on the net!

Its been a crazy month. Especially in my head which is where all the action lies.
In fact, in the black and white TV era, my brother once complained "you are so lucky, you get dreams in colour!"
So the riot in my head started way back then and that too in technicolour!!!

The problem though, is that I can't seem to hold on to a thought for long enough, for it to crystallize into something substantial. It just seems to flit between " I need to work out" to " May be I should take a small bite of the chocolate cake in the fridge." The bigger problem of course is that the small bite is never small.

Speaking of which, my obsession in this past month has been chocolate cake with strawberries and chocolate ganache....And the obsession for once took on a different aspect.
Now, as it happened, we had planned a surprise baby shower for a friend and though I offered to bake a quiche..a couple of people who had tasted my Tiramisu ( and survived!) told me I HAD to bake the cake, only proviso being that I had to decorate it with some baby thingie ! Now that was the thing that had me obsessing!

Now I can bake cakes but decorating them is a whole new ball game.

So, started a whole period of research ...And my discoveries are:
- Institute of Baking and Cake Art, Mission road, Wilson garden, Bangalore.: these guys print edible cake art for about 150 bucks.Basically you select any image and they will print it for you.
I didn't exercise this option
1) it seemed like too much hard work, going till there etc.
2) anyway seemed a little like cheating..since I wouldn't be decorating at all.

-Next, was a whole new research on fondants and apparently the best commercially available one is Wilton's fondant, which is not available in Bangalore (though I haven't yet checked Spar)

 -Third, was to figure out how to make it at home: most recipes called for edible glycerin. Not knowing where to get that either, I abandoned that as well....did find a blog which gives detailed instructions on how to do it with ingredients that I was able to source though
http://swapnascuisine.blogspot.com/2010/01/sugarpaste-icing-fondant-icing.html

I know the next question is going to be where do I get liquid glucose, which the Sugar paste icing calls for...fear not , didn't I already say I have done a fair bit of research....it is available at a nondescript store on Seshadripuram first main road. The store is called General food Additives...(The fact that it is a couple of buildings from my clinic makes it a lot easier for me. Had you fooled didn't I about the  extensive research I supposedly undertook- but that is happenstance.The place has most items required by budding bakers.)
It lies at the junction of Link road and Seshadripuram first main road.

Anyways, I didn't make the sugar paste icing either...truth to tell, all this research,kind of tired me out....I did manage some decoration. But more of that later....

What I did set out to do was share the recipe of the yummiest cake I have yet baked .
The chocolate cake was slightly tangy because of the strawberry plus the strawberry seeds added a little something to the texture of the cake.  

Double Chocolate Layer Cake
Adapted from deb's smitten kitchen

The recipe below is for 2 10-inch layers filled and coated in chocolate ganache. My adaptations were to use a strawberry filling instead of chocolate. To do the same, use half the frosting and all of the strawberry filling, recipe at the end and to add some sugar syrup with a spoon on the  layers of the cake before putting the strawberry filling. It gave it the moistness required for a cake to be truly phenomenal.
For cake layers
3 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
For ganache frosting and filling (If you want to just use it for frosting, halve the recipe.
1 pound fine-quality semisweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
(1/4 cup) unsalted butter
Special equipment: two 10- by 2-inch round cake pans
Make cake layers: Preheat oven to 300°F. and grease pans. Line bottoms with rounds of wax paper and grease paper.
Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well.

Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove wax paper and cool layers completely. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.

Make frosting: Finely chop chocolate. In a 1 1/2- to 2-quart saucepan bring cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth.
Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable (depending on chocolate used, it may be necessary to chill frosting to spreadable consistency). I found that stirring this over a bowl of ice water did a great job of cooling it off quickly and evenly.I also added one tsp of kahlua but you can skip this.
Spread frosting between cake layers and over top and sides. Cake keeps, covered and chilled, 3 days. Bring cake to room temperature before serving.

Strawberry Filling:

200 gm strawberry
3-4 tsp sugar
a drop of vanilla essence

Wash and halve the strawberries and let it stand for about twenty minutes.
cook on medium flame till strawberries start oozing out water
mash with fork
cook till thick and spreadable.

Sugar syrup:
half cup water and about 1 1/2 tbsp of sugar, bring to a boil.
brush or spoon some on the layers before putting the strawberry filling and the chocolate ganache.

After all this was done , the hard task of decorating it began
I first took 2 pieces of almond and roasted them. then covered them in left over chocolate ganache (with a little more chocolate grated in, to make it harder and therefore easier to handle.)
These 2 mounds were placed to resemble the head and body of a tiny baby.
Then topped the head with the green top of one of the strawberries
and kind of stuck on a sliver of strawberry on the torso portion to make it look like a skirt.
Finished by piping hands and feet( basically like sticks) again in chocolate..
quite a scary looking baby actually:)
Decorated all around with icing and fresh strawberries.

Post script: my two friends (for whom I managed to salvage some leftovers), claimed that it was much tastier than the chocolate lava cake at Shiro's and that my dear friends was quite a compliment!!