Vanilla Dream cake

Some cakes are just happy coincidences. I am always on a baking spree. My dining table always has some cake on it.

When at times I am unable to bake due to whatever reason I buy cakes to eat. Though I hate most of the commercial store bought cakes yet it goes to show how important a place it has in my life. And then I love tweaking the recipes. Many a times it has ended in disaster. My fur baby Leo has helped me finish off those disasters of mine. And sometimes those tweakings work like a dream.

I was all set to bake a cake. I knew I wanted something basic and simple. My son always..and like always…wants only chocolate cake. It is fine for him. He is young with a strong metabolism and he can digest anything and everything. But I have to keep in mind that I am not getting any younger. That does not mean that I start baking all those healthy vegan stuff. I love my cakes the old fashioned way. But yeah a little concession here and there. So I decided on a vanilla pound cake. But I quailed at the idea of equal amounts of butter and sugar. I reduced those two a bit. Then the batter got pretty thick. So I added milk. I had trepidations. But then I though milk, butter, sugar, flour and eggs. I mean how much could go wrong?

And nothing went wrong. Everything worked like a charm. The cake was baked very evenly. And the texture..OMG!! It was as if I was eating a cheesecake. The texture was a bit dense but it was soft, warm and melt in your mouth. And the biggest testament was that my chocolate loving son ate chunks of this white cake which he would otherwise have shunned. So I christened this cake the Vanilla Dream Cake.

Ingredients

½  cup butter, softened

¾ cup milk

¾ cup sugar

1 ¾ cup flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.

Sift together the flour and baking powder. Beat the butter and sugar till creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla essence. Fold in the flour gently. Pour into a greased and lined baking tin. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

Mayonnaise Cake

Mayonnaise Cake ( Vegetarian)

Recipe Source : Rose Levy Beranbaum’s book “The Cake Bible”

It is simply amazing how people come up with different recipes. I, in my wildest dreams, would not have imagined incorporating mayonnaise into a cake. Rose Levy Beranbaum’s book “The Cake Bible” is a veritable treasure chest of recipes. It is definitely my go to book in case of “something different”.

As the author explains in her book this recipe was invented by the wife of a mayonnaise salesman who wanted to help her husband expand his work. Simply ingenious!! The cake does not have any butter or oil or egg. Since the original recipe is made with egg mayonnaise the egg and oil requirement is catered for. Mayonnaise is an emulsification of eggs and large amounts of oil and this adds to the moistness in the cake.

 I, however, have used eggless mayonnaise making this a completely vegetarian cake. The cake has turned out so moist that it is impossible to make a clean cut in the cake. It is dark brown in colour, crumbly in texture and has an amazing balance of sweet and salty. The amount of sugar used is less when you compare it to the amount of flour and cocoa powder being used. Moreover the mayonnaise has the tartness of vinegar and additional salt is added to the batter. It is not an extremely sweet cake. It has its own unique flavor that just stays in your mouth tempting you to take one more bite, and then another and another!!!

Ingredients

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 cup boiling water

1 tsp vanilla essence

¾ cup mayonnaise

2 cups cake flour

1 cup castor sugar

2 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

First of all don’t be put off by the mention of cake flour. I, too, don’t have access to cake flour. However it is easy to create a substitute. For every cup of all purpose flour, take out 2 tbsp of the flour and replace with 2 tbsp of cornstarch. So, for this recipe, you will take pout 4 tbsp of all purpose flour and add 4 tbsp of cornstarch.

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius.

Add the boiling water to the cocoa powder. Whisk well to ensure that no lumps remain. Keep aside to bring it to room temperature. Whisk in the mayonnaise and vanilla essence.

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Slowly add the cocoa mixture. Beat for 1 minute till all the ingredients are mixed properly. Pour the batter into a greased cake tin. Bake for 25 minutes. Once done the cake will start shrinking from the sides. 

Cool. Cut. Eat. And then start making another one!!

Custard Cake

Custard cake

Surfing through the net for interesting recipes I have heard the mention of custard cake a number of times. Now that I have finally made the cake I wonder why I didn't do so much before. 

This cake is just divine. While popping it into the oven I was quite sceptical because it was just so runny and liquid. However after about half an hour it plumped up nice and brown. 

This is a delicate cake that is infused with different textures and flavours.

Ingredients

100 gms butter, melted

1 cup flour

1 ¼ cups breakfast/castor sugar

2 cups milk

4 eggs, separated

4 drops white vinegar

2 tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 160 degree Celsius.

Whip the egg whites and white vinegar till stiff peaks form.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add the melted butter and 2 tbsp water and beat well.

Add the flour gently.

Beat in the milk and essence.

Using a spatula fold in the egg whites in three batches. Since you have already added 2 cups of milk the batter will be in a liquid state. When you first add the egg whites they will float like tiny marshmallows. Do not be disheartened and keep mixing gently. 

Pour the batter into a greased cake tin and bake for 50-60 minutes.

 When I first saw the batter I thought that it is better I use a loose bottom tin otherwise I might have problems unmolding the cake. However the cake is not that wobbly and you can safely use a normal cake tin.