Cakes Archives - Page 2 of 3 - THE BAKING SKILLET

Golden Milk Cake

January 5, 2017 2 Comments

Golden Milk Cake is the ‘cake’ version of golden milk or turmeric spice milk. It is warming and cozy and light and fluffy and full of aromatic spices. The cardamom glaze is sweet and sticky with a heady fragrance. To be honest, I am feeling like I am going back to office after two weeks of fun, awesome, indulgent holidays. You know, like it is my very first day at my first job and I know nothing, I am clueless about what to do, how to do and so I switch on my assigned computer, grab a mouse and rotate it on the screen or click random folders frantically to look busy. I feel the pressure of 2017 on me! Especially for the blog, like I need to give it more validation by investing more time and energy into it. And often, with stress comes, turmoil, indecisiveness, nail biting, day-dreaming and total blanket blankness. I planned to work on my new calendar – nothing, I planned to do a couple of recipes in advance – blank, I planned to study and experiment with Pinterest – nada. From time to time I find myself in this state of blank immobility. I […]

Cakes

Brown Butter Skillet Cake

December 15, 2016 5 Comments

Brown butter gives this cake a nutty aroma and a buttery crumb. Baked in a cast iron skillet, it has wonderfully chewy, caramelized edges. OMG, can you believe all the amazing things popping up on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest in prep for Christmas?? Since I am only a few months into blogging – following a thousand food bloggers and watching all the social media platforms – I am mostly filled with awe at the effort that all the awesome bloggers take, the abundance of creativity, the hard work that shines through. I spend most of the time with my mouth open in amazement and pools of saliva forming over the awesome creations. I want to be invited over to everyone’s house to share their meals and be on all the cookie-exchange lists so I can sample everything! Does everyone feel the same way? Even the seasoned bloggers? What I have here is not a Christmas-sy cookie, a festive cake, a spiced libation, a rich fancy dessert to feed a crowd or a cute house made of cookie! It is a ‘slow-down’ cake – a simple, quick to make cake, ideal for all those who work so hard to make Christmas […]

Cakes, Desserts

Chocolate Cupcakes with Spiced Chocolate German Buttercream

November 20, 2016 No Comments

The spiced chocolate German buttercream inspired by cozy fall evenings and Mexican hot chocolate, takes these moist and decadent chocolate cupcakes to new level of indulgence. Did I mention there will be some spicing up going on here? Here comes another one – for cozy, rainy, chilly or somber days when you feel like cuddling up with a spiced warm chocolate-y beverage but the craving does not stop there and you also need a decadent frosting-y cake but then you are terrified of your uptight self who will judge you for your weakness. Well it happens to the best of us! I am in one of those moods, not because of the weather – luckily we have been having gorgeous, sunshiny, crisp days here in Toronto, but because I have been thinking about concepts of happiness and reaching for more or reaching within yourself to find more, and transformation and courage and beauty and basically giving life a big hug! No, I am not having a mid-life crisis. And no, I usually don’t sit around with these thoughts for fun. I read this beautiful article on experiencing happiness by my very good friend and sister-in-law and it makes me smile […]

Cakes, Desserts

Spices in Desserts – a revelation

November 11, 2016 1 Comment

I think there will be a lot of spicing up going on here. A bit of heat is called for in the chilly months. Right? It is so strange my relationship with spices in desserts. When I was a kid, I hated it when I found whole cardamom pods or little pieces of nutmeg in Gajar Halwa or Rice Puddings or Mango pulp (Aamras) or Gulab Jamuns. It would put me off completely. I suppose that is how my love for chocolate and cakes began. There was no threat of hidden spice ‘landmines’ waiting to explode with every other bite! It was safe. Chocolate, vanilla and black-forest pastries along-with jam rolls fashioned after lamingtons was my idea of what comprised of western desserts. And that was good. They were all safe. Ofcourse as I grew older and especially once I moved out of India, the scope of ‘western desserts’ started to broaden and to my utter dismay I found out that spices (read Cinnamon) are extensively used. There were pies, and crumbles and fruit crisps, muffins, carrot cake (!)and what not and I ran away from them as soon as the scent of cinnamon hit my nostrils. I remember in my […]

Cakes

Vanilla Cake with Apple Pie Filling and Vanilla Italian Buttercream

October 13, 2016 No Comments

Vanilla Cake with Apple Pie filling and Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream

A fall cake because there are apples everywhere and you’ve got to buy bags of apples and put them in everything. So I sandwiched a classic apple pie filling in between layers of simple vanilla cake and covered it up with a rich silky vanilla Italian meringue buttercream. If I have not sufficiently expressed my love for fall on Instagram with ‘lovingfall’ hashtags, I will say it again here! I am totally #lovingfall. It is now officially my most favorite season and I can’t get over how pretty the trees look and how many shades between yellow and red can be seen. Are there North Americans who have grown up with all the fall colours and still find it breathtaking? Toronto trees have been slow on the colour update and seeing how excited it made me to see an occasional fashion forward tree in its full blazing glory, Steve took me to Gatineau Park for a hike during our stay in Ottawa for the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. And it was stunning! Although fall seems to be late everywhere and the leaves were still turning, the park offered some beautiful views and some very red leaves. And while I was taking […]

Cakes

Spiced Carrot Cupcakes

September 27, 2016 No Comments

These super easy to make carrot cupcakes are moist and pack a punch from the candied ginger and spices. I am back to blogging! Yayy. Now the hard part is – I have a backlog of recipes but I have forgotten the stories around it because I have goldfish memory. Maybe I should not say that anymore because it has been proven that fish can remember things for upto 5 months! Its more than I can say for myself. I made these carrot cupcakes a couple of months back when we were still living out of suitcases in airBnbs and I actually had access to a decent oven and I was carrying around my plastic laundry box full of ingredients and kitchen equipment! We must have visited a farmer’s market and picked up a big bunch of grubby carrots because they looked pretty and were cheap. Yes, that story sounds about right. I remember it was still summer and sweltering hot! And yet, I chose to spice up these Carrot cupcakes. This is a mystery to me. I guess, I knew I will only get around to posting it in fall. Lets credit that to my excellent judgement. The spices […]

Cakes, Desserts

Pavlova with Summer Berries and Cream

July 6, 2016 2 Comments

Is it weird that I made a Pavlova which is a typical Australian/New Zealand dessert for Canada day? Well in my defense, firstly, I did not know that (I just looked it up on Wikipedia). Its only a few months since I arrived in Canada, so I am still allowed to make such silly goofs. Finally, I only wanted to highlight the delicious summer fruits of this country and I innocently picked the Pavlova to be the white canvas on which to do so. I hope those are good enough explanations to redeem myself! That being said, I truly enjoyed my first Canada day weekend. We did not go to Ottawa for the fireworks, but in true Canadian fashion went away from the city for a chilled long weekend at the family cottage by the lake to spend our days lazily floating in the water, barbecuing on the sun-soaked deck, listening to hummingbirds flap their little wings and gazing at stars at midnight. For a city girl like me, it is hard to pick between the stillness of nature and the buzz of the city that I am used to. I truly enjoy the slow paced rhythm in the woods and […]

Cakes, Desserts

Hot Milk Sponge Cake with Orange Italian Meringue Buttercream

June 29, 2016 2 Comments

This is a classic hot milk sponge cake that yields a light, deliciously tender crumb is complemented by a fragrant orange Italian meringue buttercream made with fresh orange juice and Grand Marnier. Last few days have been stressful and busy and lost in paperwork. There have been visa issues, lawyer meetings, laptop troubles, digital marketing class assignments and ongoing summer travel plans. We have been all over the place. I have missed blog deadlines, had awful baking disasters, yucky kitchen mess to clean up and missed a few posts. Basically, when my head is not in the game, best to avoid baking because I screw up and then I sulk for hours over whatever rubbish came out of the oven. Bad vibes everywhere! Not good at all. But then this hot milk sponge cake which was on my calendar for this week, came out of the oven smelling scrumptious, looking golden and moist and the crumbs tasted so good! I found myself, nibbling at the crumbs mindlessly while the cakes were cooling. It is a rich, buttery tasting hot milk sponge. I adapted the recipe from Baking Bites I don’t know how my brain came up with the Orange Italian […]

Cakes

Chocolate Chiffon Cake w Coconut Swiss Meringue Buttercream

June 20, 2016 No Comments

A light and airy chocolate chiffon cake smothered in rich and luscious coconut swiss meringue buttercream I am lost in the world of sponge cakes. It entailed quite a bit of reading. What is a sponge? What is a foam cake? Sponge vs foam cakes? Oh are they the same? Ahhh sponge is a subset of foam…Wait, is it the other way round? Is there fat or no fat? What so many eggs!! I asked myself that while making the Angel Food Cake. You don’t have to know your butter cakes from your foam cakes. It is often just pleasurable to bake and eat a lovely cake. But I can’t let it go. I have to know! I have to read all those baking 101 articles, baking science, cake math. This is the part where my Mom will be both surprised and pleased. She really did have a hard time helping me with my math when I was in school. Yes I can do fractions now! Well if the schools had any sense, they would teach us mathematics by way of food. If you are obsessing over baking like me, here are some quick reads about types of cakes, […]

Cakes

Angel Food Cake – Sponge Cake – The Classics

June 13, 2016 No Comments

A terrible thing happened this weekend in Orlando. From news channels and social media to café small talk, all of it revolved around the shock, the grief, the anger, the speculation, the analysis. There is a sense of déjà vu. Whether it is Orlando, California, Oregon or Charleston, the talks are the same, the reactions are the same. The common people talk about gun control, the erudite talk about deeper issues in society and the families and friends mourn. The actions taken may seem feeble, even complacent, the discussions may feel repetitive, there maybe some hostility in the air but the talks are important. The momentum generated through the thousands of tweets shows that for every lost individual who resorts to guns, there are millions out there who condemn violence and stand up for peace and assimilation. These are the days I want to be grateful for love and beauty and small things that make me happy. Another classic – it gives the impression of something pure and simple and innocent with the pillowy cloud like structure and melts in your mouth lightness. Angel food cakes might seem a bit intimidating to make. How will I achieve that lightness? How […]