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Thursday 31 January 2013

"Lovebirds Special Celebration Cake"

Its the month of February and I can already sense a lot of Love in the air :)
Valentine's Day is one of the most special day for all the couples and everyone likes to impress their better half on this special day. So I dedicate this month to all you lovebirds and will post some recipes that you can make for the special people in your life. 
Though I am sure we dont need a specific day to portray our love for anyone. You can do that all the year round and make people happy with some yummy dishes :) 
So lets celebrate this lovely month and to start with I am sharing a Hearts celebration cake recipe that I made for my better half on our wedding anniversary. 
Its a simple yet exotic cake. When you look at it, you may feel that there is a complicated process behind making it. But, trust me its quiet simple and can be made with readily available ingredients. I skipped cream based frosting in this cake as it makes the cake more dense and heavy and reduces the lifespan. So this time I opted for some lighter ingredients that adds texture, beauty and taste to the cake. You can always create this beauty in your way and style using diff ingredients and shapes.

Enjoy the recipe and have a lovely "Love" month !!!


" Lovebirds Special Celebration Cake"

Ingredients : 

For the Cake base (Eggless) - 

1/2 tin condensed milk
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cornflour
1/2 tsp soda bi carb
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup soda water ( bottle of soda)
1 tsp vanilla essence

For Marzipan Hearts and flowers - 

25 almonds - blanched, peeled and dried
3 tbsp icing sugar
2-3 drops of almond/ vanilla essence
red or pink colour

For Frosting or Decoration - 

1 cup chocolate cookie powder ( grind half packet chocolate cookies)
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 bar chocolate melted
One tray or cake board wrapped in silver or golden paper
Pink or Red ribbons to decorate the sides
Sugar pearls - coloured
2-3 tbsp Jam or Honey ( any flavour)
Baking tins - one medium sized heart shaped tin and another small heart shaped tin. Grease both and line with butter paper.

Preparation :

For Cake Base  :-
  •  Sift flour, cornflour,soda bi carb and baking powder in a wide bowl. Keep aside
  • Mix sugar and condensed milk together till light and smooth. Add oil and beat well
  • Add this liquid mixture to the flour.Add milk slowly and keep whisking to form a smooth batter and avoid any lumps. Add essence and mix well. 
  • Pour soda water and mix quickly till the batter is fully smooth and light.
  • Immediately pour the batter in both the tins. 
  • Bake in preheated oven at 150*C for 40 mins. Check with a skewer if it comes out clean then cake is cooked.
  • Once cool, unmould and keep aside.
For Making Marzipan hearts and flowers - 
  •   Grind almonds. Add icing sugar and essence and knead it to make a dough. If it looks rough then add 2 drops of water to make is smooth and pliable. Knead well with your palms on a smooth surface for about 7-8 minutes till its smooth and the surface and clean and shiny.
  • Rest the dough in the fridge for about 5 minutes. Remove and again knead for a minute and add 2-3 drops of your favourite colour. Knead well to spread the colour uniformly.
  • Now make small balls of the dough . Dust some icing sugar on the surface and roll these balls a little to flatten them. Using a cookie cutter cut the dough in heart or desired shapes and keep aside. You can make hearts, flowers, stars,etc. 
  • You can also stick two hearts together and fix a toothpick in the centre to fix in the cake as props ( as shown in the picture)
  • Once all the shapes are created store them in the fridge till use.

For Chocolate Shards - 
  • Chop chocolate and melt it in the microwave or double boiler till soft. 
  • Using a rubber spatula quicly spread melted chocolate on a butter paper in thin layers of any shapes. Keep in fridge to set
  • For names and sticks fill the remaining melted chocolate in a paper cone and pipe the desired alphabets and shapes on a butter paper. Keep in fridge to cool and set.
  • Once set after 1-2 hours, remove them slowly from the paper and decorate on and around the cake.

For Decorating the Cake - 
  • Tie ribbons around both the cakes to give a satin bow effect ( as given in the pic)
  • Place the bigger base on the cake board. Put a layer or jam/ honey on top of the base. Dust it with cookie powder to cover the top completely. ( The jam will act as a glue here ) 
  • Place the small base on top of the bigger one. Layer it with jam/honey. 
  • Dust it with dessicated coconut to form a even white layer.
  • Decorate the marzipan props on top of the small cake and around the big cake ( refer the pic)
  • Place your alphabets on top of the small cake. ( optional)
  • Decorate the cake board with Chocolate shards and dust it with some coconut powder. 
  • Throw some sugar pearls and Marzipan balls all over to give a colourful effect. 
  • Tie ribbon around the cake knife and place on the side
  • Your beautiful Hearts cake is ready. 

Note : You can skip or add any of these steps as desired. If you want to go for butter or cream frosting then use a coloured frosting on both the cakes and decorate with chocolate shards and sugar pearls.