chocolate

Opera Cake – BP Challenge

~ Huma ~ 2 Comments
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1I always wonder if I have patience to prepare elegant desserts.In person you will find me most calm who has the solution for everything.  But there are moments where  my anxiety level booms and the all the patience in me goes haywire. And new irritant me emerges.  But I was tiny bit proud of myself when I made this Opera Cake without loosing my patience. And a little bit of basic sugar craft to decorate this dessert also boosted my confidence. Looks pretty na. lol
IMG_2
Today, it was most hot and humid day in Dubai and worse day to photograph this cake. Every few minutes while capturing this slice of deliciousness , I had to freeze for ten minutes and restart again. I had to get this done today itself as tomorrow is Mr.K’s birthday and I wanted to surprise him with this cake. That’s a different thing my surprised didn’t remain a surprise as he smelled the  sweet aroma of coffee around the house and asked why the house is smelling like coffee, did you baked something using coffee.was caught and well the celebration started a day before with a slice of cake of an opera.
The cake is a bit  heavy but  has melt in mouth texture. I luv this kind of desserts. So a moderate slice is just enough to soothe your sweet craving. I prepared this cake for our monthly  challenge of our Baking Partners group run by Swathi of ZestySouthIndianKitchen. This month Savitha of  SavithasKitchen had challenged us to making this french pastry Opera Cake. I have not followed the recipe provided by her as the measurements were too large for two people. 
Mostly adapted this recipe from masterchef australia series specially the base of this dessert ie jaconde.  Chef Gary  has explained opera cake too well. You can search in youtube for the entire recipe. The other parts of recipe ie. coffee buttercream , chocolate ganache are the mixture of few recipes I have googled through out the web. But can assure you the measurements are accurate, as the end result was perfect to the taste. Plus I was able to reduce the wastage. Only 1/2 cup of ganache was extra which I can use later for other icing & stuff. Maybe a  cake pop.
Makes 5 inches square cake ( 6 rectangular sizes)
Ingredients
I
For Jaconde — 3 sheets ( Recipe source: Masterchef Australia – halved the recipe)
75 gm icing sugar
75 gm almond meal
30 gm flour
23 gm melted butter
2 whole egg
2 egg white
20 gm sugar
II
For the Coffee Syrup
4  tbsp of instant coffee
1 cup water
6 tbsp sugar
III
For coffee Butter cream
 2 egg yolk
85 gm sugar
15 ml water ( or just enough to dampen the sugar)
150 gm butter cut into cubes
3 to 4  tbsp of coffee  syrup
IV
For Chocolate Ganache
175 gm of chocolate chips ( Hershey)
125 gm cream
20 gm butter
Method
 
For preparing the Jaconde: 
  1.  Mix together the dry ingredients icing sugar, almond flour & flour. Pass through a sieve.
  2. Beat two egg to aerate till light pale and almost double in volume.
  3. Add in the dry mix followed by butter.
  4. Mix and keep aside
  5. Now beat egg whites till soft peaks. Its important not to over beat the egg whites.
  6. Fold in the egg whites with egg mixture.
  7. Now take 3 baking sheets acc to your over tray size. Divide into 3 parts the prepare mixture and spread evenly.
  8. Bake  this prepared sheet @ 200 degrees preheated oven for about 5 to 7 minutes
  9. When the sides of this cake starts turning brown remove from the oven. Do the same process with all the sheets prepared
  10. Cut the edges with a sharp knife to form a equal sized Jaconde. (cut when removed from oven immediately  for clean lines)
  11. Cool completely and moving to the second process of the cake
 For  Preparing the coffee syrup ( Can be prepared in advance)
  1. Mix together all the ingredients for coffee syrup and cook for  6 to 7 minutes on a medium flame.
  2. Sugar will make this syrup glossy and a little thick.
  3. Cool & Keep aside.
For Preparing Coffee Butter Cream
  1. Beat egg yolks till pale yellow.
  2. In another bowl add sugar and water. Bring it to boil till 118  degrees. I didn’t have candy thermometer. So in short it was 3 string consistency or soft ball. Remove from flame and let the bubbles subside.
  3. Now in a thin stream add this sugar syrup to the yolks with the beater running on medium speed.
  4. Beat till is warm to touch so the yolks gets cooked
  5. When the sugar and yolk mix is warm to touch then only add butter time to till all is incorporated.
  6. Now add coffee syrup and mix evenly.
  7. Keep aside. and start prepping for chocolate ganache
For Chocolate ganache
  1. Heat the cream on medium flame till a little bubly. Add in butter.
  2. Pour this cream over chocolate chips.
  3. Mix till all chips are melted.
  4. Keep aside and now the assemble of the opera.
Assembly ( You need patience for assembly)
 
3 sheets of jaconde 
1 recipe of coffee syrup
1 recipe of chocolate ganache
1 recipe of coffee butter cream
  1. Take a square plate of around 6 inches/ cake board / parchment  paper  is also fine.
  2. Spread a thin layer of ganache to the size of your jaconde sheet on it.
  3. Place the jaconde sheet on it.
  4. Now brush this sheet with coffee syrup. Refrigerate for 5 minutes.
  5. Remove and spread a layer of chocolate ganache. Freeze for 10 minutes
  6. Remove from freezer and spread the layer of Coffee butter cream. Freeze again for 5 minutes
  7. Top it up with 2nd  sheet of jaconde.
  8. Brush it with coffee syrup and repeat the procedure 5 & 6 till the last sheet of jaconde.
  9. Refrigerate for minimum 2 hours before serving.
  10. Slice into equal rectangular parts and serve.

Chocolate Banana Cake

~ Huma ~ 4 Comments
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Chocolate Banana Cake is a very easy & delicious cake. Banana keeps the cake moist and chocolate adds the deliciousness.
Chocolate Banana Cake
Daily preparing sweets  during ramadan becomes very hectic and I feel short of ideas. During these times this Chocolate Banana Cake  comes to my rescue.You guys must be wondering why I am preparing sweets daily. Now as it is ramadan and a month of giving and blessing, we give away iftar to few people daily. So the menu is quite large. Though I prep myself before ramadan, but sweets I cannot freeze. Now as ramadan is nearly ending, more of my time is spent on ibadat, so keep the menu of these quick cakes and other sweet for the last ten days.

Chocolate Cupcakes

~ Huma ~ 3 Comments
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These Chocolate  Cupcakes are perfection. Loaded with right amount of moistness, sweetness and taste. Easy to make & stock up too.
Chocolate Cupcakes
If you are looking for the perfectly chocolaty cupcakes, then this is your answer to it. Perfectly moist with melt in mouth. And the good thing is you can stock it up in airtight container without frosting for about a week or freeze and microwave for few secs when you are craving for chocolaty yumminess.

Bûche de Noël – Baking Partner Challenge

~ Huma ~ 16 Comments
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December  is always too challenging for me.  Schedules are tight , deadlines are to be met. And every one  wants their work to be completed first. I just see around me a pile of uncompleted work.   And yes I am one of them who is running too much behind schedules.
I have made this log in a real hurry. To be frank , I didn’t want to miss the BP challenge this time. In short, I like this group and if you are one of them who loves to experiment baking stuff than this is one group to join. This time we had 3 recipe  suggested by Tanushree of Ma Niche.
 
 I opted for the simplest one. Remember tight schedules. I have chosen William Sonoma but while discussing on  our FB page , many had faced the difficulty in texture of the cake. So I have gone with my never fail swis roll recipe. Rest of it, I have followed omitting the  Rum but with half measurements.
 

Ingredients

For the Roll:
I
3 eggs separated
90 gm Flour
90 gm Powdered sugar
1 tsp BP
1  tsp vanilla
1 tsp warm water

II
Kitchen towel
4 tbsp of icing sugar or powder sugar

For the Syrup

 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar

For the Frosting

 

5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1  cup heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Method:

Bake the roll:

  1. Line the tray with butter paper
  2.  Sift  baking powder & flour
  3. Beat egg white to form stiff peaks. 
  4. Add yolk & beat. Now add sugar.
  5.  Fold in sifted  baking powder ,flour & essence. 
  6. Now add warm water.
  7.  Pour the batter on the lined try.
  8. Bake at 180 degrees for 15 20 min or till done.
  9. Lay the kitchen towel. Sprinkle sugar on it.
  10. Invert the roll from the oven when done and remove the parchment paper. 
  11. Roll to form a log.
  12. Keep aside to cool.

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar & water.
  2. Heat to make a syrup.
Make the Frosting
  1. Prepare the double boiler. 
  2. Combine the chocolate and cream 
  3. Set the pan over it. Remember it should not touch simmering water in the bottom pan 
  4. Whisk until well blended. 
  5. Keep aside to cool
Assembling 
  1. Unroll the cake & brush liberally with the sugar syrup.
  2. Spread the thin layer of frosting and roll again.
  3. Frost the top and sides of the roll with the remaining frosting, using long, rough strokes.
  4. Garnish with strawberry & njoy.