THE BAKING SKILLET - Page 5 of 6 -

Baileys ‘Ice-cream’ Sandwiches

July 9, 2016 No Comments

*This “grown-up” version of our favorite childhood dessert – the Ice-cream Sandwich is so quick to make and so satisfying! The Baileys Semifreddo comes together in a heartbeat and really can be sandwiched between whatever cookie you have available, eat it with a spoon directly out of the tin or put a big scoop in cold coffee! I spent days drooling over desserts made with Baileys… Cheesecakes ofcourse seem to be the popular choice… Also parfaits loaded with chocolate or coffee and spiked with the Irish Cream served between layers of whipped cream or cream cheese… Decadence overload! Everything looks good. Everything looks indulgent… I’ll be damned if I didn’t dream about chocolate and Baileys desserts atleast once in the last few days. When I think of Irish Cream, I think of watching movies or late night shows, curled up on the couch in Dubai, with a glass of Baileys on ice, mixed with a splash of milk. Sometimes there would be a chocolate chip cookie to go along (or a couple). So it made sense to finally make something with cookies and chilled Baileys and voila these Chocolate Chip ‘ice-cream’ sandwiches happened. Since I had recently made Semifreddo, I […]

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 […]

Desserts, Indian Inspired

A Canadian Whisky Caramel Sauce and an Indian Carrot Pudding

June 22, 2016 No Comments

carrot pudding with whiskey caramel sauce

We are sweating over summer plans. Did I mention that ever since we moved to Canada in January this year, we have been living a vagabond life between BnBs and service apartments? With most of our belongings from our previous life in Dubai tucked away in a self-storage somewhere in Toronto, we are lugging around a few suitcases and cartons around the city till we buy and move into our own home. I will save the rant about finding a house in Toronto for another day, another post. For the past two months, we have been growing roots at a service apartment downtown, but they are kicking us out next month to accommodate the influx of international summer tourists! I have kind of gotten attached to this place. It is where I started my blog, I have become comfortable with this kitchen and the oven. It is not amazing, but it is functional, clean and spacious. I am dreading moving into another BnB that looks great in pictures and then you find that basic pots and pans are missing or there is way too much clutter from the owner or the bed creaks precariously everytime you move! Since we are […]

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, […]

Cafes and Bakeries

Maman – Bakery Café, Toronto

June 17, 2016 No Comments

Sitting on the sunny patio at a rustic wooden table decorated with dainty white flowers in glass jars, nibbling on a piece of pistachio cake, one can, just for a few moments, easily forget that they are still in the heart of the buzzing Financial District. We got to the café at around 9am, and only a handful of croissants and pain au chocolats were left! But they soon got fresh batches so we got lucky! Name and Location – Maman, First Canadian Place (mezzanine floor) Great for – summer brunches, elegant take-outs, a very French breakfast of Croissant and coffee What has been said – “aspires to be an idyllic escape from the Financial District’s proverbial rat race without ever leaving the PATH” – BlogTo. The group of owners, which also includes a Michelin star chef Armand Arnal, has another branch located in Manhattan. I read that it has the same rustic French appeal. Popular treats – cocktails at twilight, lunch salads and the chocolate chip cookie. I am totally digging the – the rustic wooden tables, the patio and the pistachio cake – going back for more! The ‘Meh’ – The coffee, the service (maybe they were just too […]

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 […]

Cakes, Desserts

Strawberry Swirl Pound Cake (Pound Cakes – Part 3)

May 31, 2016 No Comments

I am a recent strawberry convert. I remember I used to hate them. In the mid-western part of India around Bombay, the region where I am originally from, they are so precious and yet so disappointing. They sell it for an exorbitant price and if you are lucky you may find one sweet little strawberry in your pint. Like a lottery ticket. But you are obliged to say they were so good. You paid a high enough price for them to be good. It was the same in Dubai. They looked prettier but that’s it. I don’t remember ever buying strawberries. Ever! Until I met Steve who told me stories about how he worked on a farm as a child picking strawberries and eating most of them. I am not the biggest fan of fruit but picking strawberries at a farm and stuffing mouthfuls sounds like fun. And now I am here and it is berry season. Toronto markets are flooded. Strawberries everywhere! Plump, pretty, red, ready to eat and oh so delicious! While I was thinking of combining Pound cake series with strawberries I came across this gorgeous concoction by Joy the Baker. I tried the roasted strawberries and […]

Desserts

Matcha Cream Puffs

May 25, 2016 No Comments

2016 will go down for me as ‘the year of firsts’! First time in Canada. First encounter with snow (lots of snow!). My first painful attempt at skiing. My very first, rather ugly, snow-man! And now, my very first Matcha tea! Is that unbelievable to the western world? No, I have not been living under a rock. I have however been living in a beautiful bubble called Dubai. And unlike here, Matcha tea sort of got officially unveiled in the country that boasts of the tallest tower in the world, only in 2015. No, it did not come to Starbucks Middle-east. I believe it was available in select Japanese restaurants. But one thing I must note. Once a trend hits Dubai, it catches like wildfire. My first encounter at an unassuming tea shop was mildly embarrassing. Caught like a deer in headlights, I gave the nice girl blank stares when she asked if I wanted milk in my Matcha tea, or sugar or honey. She was the second person to know my shameful secret. She could not hide her shock very well. It all ended in nervous laughter on my end. I’m sure she rolled her eyes and shook her […]

Cakes, Desserts

Cardamom Pound Cake with Mango Cream (Pound Cakes – Part 2)

May 23, 2016 1 Comment

We are eating mangoes and berries for breakfast almost everyday! That’s supposed to be healthy right? So I should not feel guilty about eating a piece of cake with the bowl of fruits. Good. I wanted to use one of the pound cakes from the previous post and create a flavor that makes me nostalgic. Now this was experimentation territory and things could go wrong. And they did. But hey, this is all about challenging myself! I felt like baking a cardamom cake with mangoes. Why? Because in India summers meant long hot holidays, playing scruffy games on the streets, some boring and lots of fun visits to relatives and eating lots of mangoes. Ripe Alphonso mangoes are pulped by hand, chilled and served with some cardamom sprinkled on top. This was a real treat that one got only a couple of times during the short summer months. We really did look forward to it. Ahhh nostalgia… I wanted to recreate those flavours. The cake is lightly spiced with fragrant cardamom. This is potent stuff that can overpower everything, so I used only a touch for that beautiful aroma. And served it with mango cream reminiscent of the mango pulp […]