Whipped cream miseries

Definition of Whipped cream : thick cream that has had air incorporated into it by rapid beating

Sounds reasonable, so what is the big deal ???

The big deal is that once you keep whipping the cream, it turns thicker and thicker. There is a certain thickness level, which once when crossed WILL CAUSE RAPID CONVERSION OF CREAM TO BUTTER !!! So instead of having nice whipped cream to decorate my pineapple cake, I had BUTTER .

&^%$#*@

Needless to say, the icing had a slightly odd taste, completely masking the excellent pineapple cake underneath.

Icing and decoration continue to be development needs for me.

Sighhhhh, when will I learn all this ????

Black forest cake and a Teetotaler

I was getting bored of my cake variations. “Change” was the cry from within and indeed from my guinea pigs in office !!

Black forest cake appealed to me greatly. Now, I am not a big fan of black forest, but the technical challenges were daunting. You have to make multiple layers of cake, create the icing and the ingredients are different. What is a Master Chef’s life without a few challenges ?

The initial challenge was the recipe. After 30 mins of intense googling, I found a couple of recipes that seemed manageable. However an obstacle of gigantic proportion loomed. All recipes required the use of Rum. I am strict non-alcoholic - a statement that is quite often met with stares and shouts of disbelief. “What ? YOU don’t drink ????”. As James Herriot might say, its a rum ’un :-) I must add I am not averse to an occasional glass of wine [ occasional = once or twice per year ], but that is where I stop.

Now how and where do I buy Rum from? Again some research showed me that there a liquor chain called Madhuloka which has presence in almost all the malls across Bangalore. The nearest one I could find was in Cosmos mall. So off I went in search of Rum.

The shop itself looked impressive and there was a decent crowd inside. Of course, I did not want to ask for Rum and have the salesman laugh at me. Because I don’t even know if it can be found in shops like these. Or else if Rum is colloquial term and if the liquor buffs call it something else. I don’t even know its color for God’s sake !!

So I did what I hoped a confident alcoholic would do. I walked around the aisles, inspecting a few bottles, looking as if I have been around a million times. Alas, no sigh of Rum. I found Vodka, Wine, Whiskey and Beer but no Rum. A second round of inspection followed. This time much slower, as if I am intensely debating what to buy. And success !! I found the light green colored Bacardi bottles in one corner. I picked the smallest one, I think it was around 250 ml

Smoothly proceeded to checkout counter, with mild beads of perspiration on my fore-head. My first ever purchase of alcohol !! And I am over thirty !! Is that good or bad ? Who knows :-)

“Just the one bottle , sir ? “ The man behind the counter asks. Oh boy, I must be looking like a raging alcoholic after all :-((
“New year resolution, buddy”, I am tempted to answer back. Instead, I take my bottle of Rum and quietly slip away. [PS : Quarter liter is not enough ?? how much do normal people drink ? One liter ? I am totally stumped ]

The cake itself was a rather painful affair, with a lot of work, the end result is shown below

Now the critics may say it looks as if some one ate cherries with milk and threw up on top of my cake. But with no icing tools at my disposal, this is the best I could do :-)

Stay tuned for more experimentations, this time hopefully with no alcohol involved !!

Bake a cake: V4 - Further improvements

After the mind blowing success of version-3 , I have been contemplating some tweaks to the recipe . This is mainly due to some copyright issues that were raised by some overzealous cooks :-)

Finally baked the tweaked version of the recipe ( US patent application being filed ) . It came out better than V3, but being the baker that is what I will always say. Taking V4 it to office on Tuesday, one my intended "bakra" fasts on Monday. And in case you were wondering, yes our office has an in house medical center :-)

Met a friend after a long while today, nice to be back in touch with old friends. Especially to see their children, swap some stories, laugh at some of the incidents from the past. Feels really good.

Another thing I need to fix is my eating habits. Has become way too eccentric for my own liking. The only meal I recall having this weekend was on Saturday afternoon. In a way I am like a beggar you would find on the streets. He does not know where his next meal is coming from, neither do I :-( I have to say that the meal that I had on Saturday was top class !! Do check out the Woody's @ commercial street for some awesome south Indian vegetarian food.

Writing this has made me awfully hungry. Unfortunately the only edible item in the house is my V4 cake :-(

I am seeing several fruits, vegetables and other items staring at me with green whiskers & beards from inside my fridge. I need to clean it out badly. That is a project for tomorrow, I will try and sleep now. I am not sure if my protesting stomach will let me.

Bake a cake : V3 and success !!

Success !! Finally something that I made turned out to be edible. And to give credit where it's due, I dedicate this success to my consultant in AZ, USA :-)

Cut the proportions in the recipe by half and the cake turned out perfect. Beautifully browned on outside, soft on inside and tastes good too. What more do you want from a cake ? Unfortunately I don't have my digital camera with me, so I cannot upload a photo . It's a thing of beauty, trust me !!

And the modified recipe , reproduced with NO permission taken from the original author whatsoever ;-)

1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1.5 cup maida
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
4-5 drops of vanilla essence
Some cashew nuts

• Mix the maida with baking powder and pass through a sieve 2-3 times.
• Separate the egg-white and yolk. Beat the egg whites thoroughly first.
• Mix the sugar and butter and churn till they mix well
• Add the beaten egg yolks to it and stir further.
• Add the egg whites and mix thoroughly
• Add the vanilla essence drops and cashew nuts and mix it
• Add the maida in small quantities and keep mixing till a lump free thick batter is obtained.
• Pour into the cake tin and bake for around 30 -35 mins with oven temperature at 180 deg C ( convection only )

And presto, the masterpiece is ready for consumption !!

I am so happy, after so much of wasted material, finally something that tastes really good !!

Bake a cake : version 2

After my miserable previous attempt , I made another go at baking a cake yesterday. This time armed with a professional recipe from a "self proclaimed" professional cook.

One of the key improvements noticed with the new recipe was that this cake had a nice smell while baking, my earlier attempt almost stank up my kitchen while in oven.

Well apart from that the miseries continued. The cake rose up and was almost sticking out of my cake tin by a good inch and a half. Even after 50 minutes of baking, the insides were undercooked. I could not put in the oven any longer as the top surface was almost black in color by then. Took me couple of hours to set everything up. And of course, the pathetic end result had my in-famous temper on the boil again.

My professional cook has suggested to me that probably I had too small a cake tin. My question is , why is the cake tin size not mentioned as part of the recipe ? :)

Whatever was not burnt or undercooked did taste good though. I am an optimist when it comes to cooking , as you can make out from my never ending series of past attempts.

They say "You can't have your cake and eat it too" . If the cake is made by me, probably there is no way you want to eat it anyway :-((