Fresh Strawberry Vanilla Cake

Hello friends!!!

Off late I am getting irregular with my posts and I am extremely sorry for that... Couple of family get-together and then my elder daughters results were out this Monday... so I was quite busy during this time. But that could not stop my weekend baking projects - I made few easier projects of cupcakes in last few weekends. Those will appear in my next posting - images are queuing up to be watermarked... so I am back with a bang, you can say!!

So let me pick up from where I was in my previous blog - A Vanilla Sponge Cake. I used a vanilla sponge cake to prepare this fresh strawberry cake. My baking guru - Lynette, shared few tips and after applying those tips it came out quite well. But, I won't say I was super successful in this project. After assembling the cake, I kept it in refrigerator for over-night and the next day I carried it to my brother-in-law's place, which is in 40-45 mins distance from my house. The car a/c was put on High and my hubby tried his best to give the cake a smooth ride - but still the cake got little soggy and the fresh cream icing was almost going to slide from the cake. The cake was immediately put into refrigerator. but it didn't come back to its previous shape. Here is a lesson learnt for me and for all of you - that don't carry a fresh cream cake for long distance, and even if you do, you should have proper logistics.

Here are the items you will need to prepare this cake -

A vanilla sponge cake

Blueberry whipping powder - 2 packs

Fresh strawberries - 1 cup, vertically sliced

Strawberry crush - 1/2 cup

Light sugar syrup - 1/2 cup (add 2 tablespoon of sugar in 1 cup of water, boil and cool down at room temperature)

Step 1:

Slice the cake horizontally in 2 parts and evenly soak the bottom layer with some amount of sugar syrup. This will make the cake moist.

Step 2:

Spread 1/2 part of whipped cream on top of the bottom layer. Sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons of strawberry crush on top of the cream filling. You can also add few strawberry pieces into it.

Step 3:

Place the other half of the cake on top of the filling. Soak the top portion with remaining sugar syrup and then cover the top part with whipped icing.

Step 4:

Place the strawberry pieces on top of the icing in a nice way. If you want you can make designs with it too. Also add few pieces on the sides.

Step 5:

Put little amount of strawberry crush on top of the strawberry pieces to keep the strawberries fresh and moist.

Step 6:

After assembling, refrigerate the cake for over-night, so that everything is nicely set.

A Vanilla Sponge Cake without Oil/Butter

Hi friends!

I am back after 2 weeks of hibernation!!! In this 2 weeks, I went for a short vacation to Goa and enjoyed to the fullest with my family. It is a place of beautiful scenic locations, good food, warm and caring people and unlimited shopping! So, I would recommend this place to all of you.

Anyway, back to my topic! This is not a travel blog - but may be I should soon open one travel blog too, to share my travelling experience with all of you. :)

There are several recipes pending to share with you. Today, I am going to talk about one of my latest bakes - a fresh strawberry cake! This one I baked for my sister's birthday and it came out quite well. But there were few issues, which I experienced while working on this cake. I'll share those too, later on. Let me first begin with the vanilla sponge cake.

This fresh strawberry cake I prepared using a vanilla sponge cake and it was made without oil or butter. When I put a lot of icing on top of the cake, I try to balance the fat-quantity by making the cake fat-free. You have to keep a track of the health quotient too, while preparing the desserts. A sponge cake is also light in weight, so it does not give you that heavy feeling after eating.

It is very easy to prepare this basic cake. You will need only few ingredients.

The dry ingredients are -

Flour or maida - 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon

Powdered sugar - 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon

Baking powder - 1 teaspoon

The wet ingredients are -

Eggs - 4 large

Hot water - 1 1/2 tablespoon

Vanilla essence - 1 1/2 tablespoon

The process is very much similar to the chocolate sponge cake recipe. Please note that you should be very careful in measuring the items.

In a large bowl, sieve in flour and baking powder. Blend well and keep aside.

Break the eggs and separate the white and yellow parts in 2 different bowls. The white part should be kept in a large bowl.

Use the electric beater to beat the egg white until stiff peaks arise. Gradually add sugar by couple of tablespoons at a time and keep on beating. Once all the sugar is used, add the egg yolks and again beat for some time. Next add the vanilla essence and mix well.

Now gradually add boiling water in few drops and beat well. Now the mixture will be light, fluffy and almost 3 times in volume.

This is the time to set your oven in preheat mode (180C). Also prepare your cake pan by greasing and dusting.

Slowly fold in flour into the egg mixture. While doing this, don't add all the flour at a time. Sprinkle in small amount on top of the batter and fold in nicely.

Pour the batter in the pan and place inside oven to bake at 180C for 30-35 minutes.

The cake will leave the side of the pan, when it is done. Also the top will spring back when you touch on top. Insert a knife to check the doneness and if ready, then remove from oven.

Allow it to cool down at room temperature and then bring out the cake from the pan. Wrap the cake with a cling wrap and place inside refrigerator for future use.

In my next blog, I'll share the fresh strawberry cake making procedure using this vanilla cake.

Till then, ciao!

Fun with Fondant - A Weekend Spent Well!!

Today I am not going to describe any cake recipe or baking tips. It's going to be a colorful post, with lots of bright and beautiful images. Yes, you have guessed it right - it's the fondant decoration for the cakes.

As I have mentioned many times, that I am still learning. Many of you are getting inspired from my blog and started baking for the first time - that is really a great achievement for me. When I started this blog, I never knew - it will be popular and more than that, inspirational - for so many of you. I am so, so happy that at least it is serving a purpose!

So, back to my story! I never had any experience of using fondant in decorating cakes, but I have seen many of the expert bakers are using this technique and they are making so exquisite cakes... just unbelievable! Being a member of the Home Bakers Group Pune (in Facebook), I got the opportunity to see this beautiful art pieces - they are not just cake, but something more than that. In fact, I cannot think of cutting these cakes to serve - they should be kept for display, forever in some museum! That's my idea of using fondant.

Anyway, I was planning to join some course to learn some basic technique of using fondant and I got my chance. One of the best and renowned home-bakers of Pune - Lynette Dias, was conducting this class for 2 days over the weekend. Weekend was the best time for me, so I decided to join the course. I was like - no matter whatever the situation is - I am going to do it! And I took the right decision. It was such a great experience to learn so many new things and moreover it was fun to spend a weekend out of the daily chores of work-cook-sleep. It was a real stress buster for me. We were 4 ladies in the group - and all of us felt like we have gone back to our childhood days to play with colorful play-doughs.

Making a Tiger

Yes, the process of creating these beautiful, cute, little figurines using the colored fondants are exactly same as playing with play-doughs. If you have done that in your childhood time, then you are going to be a pro in some time. But obviously you have to rack your brains, to get all these unique themes of decorating cakes.

The Tiger and The Lion

We did few figurines on wild animals and then we moved to our project cakes. Our teacher, Lynette - gave us few options for the project cakes and among that I selected the mermaid cake. Actually the day before, I was thinking that if there is an option then I'll go for a mermaid cake or a family cake  - showing a couple and two daughters. However, the family theme could have been more difficult, because preparing the mermaid was almost a 2 hours job. By the end of the first day, we were ready with most of the figurines.

A Teddy Bear and A Cute Doggy

The Mermaid

The second day was kept for icing the cake with ganache, covering with fondant and placing the figurines. Basically the total assembling of the cake was done in the second day. In second day, I had prepared few more aquatic items like octopus, a big fish and sea weeds. Ultimately the cake was assembled and it was really looking so gorgeous. Everyone's cakes were looking brilliant and gorgeous. Without Lynette's guidance, it was completely impossible. Thank you so much, Lynette!

My Mermaid Cake

Octopus and The Big Fish

I brought my project cake back home and my family-members could not believe that I made that cake. I had to cut that cake, but I made sure to remove these cute-little figurines first. These are still lying in my refrigerator and I don't think, I'll ever be able to throw them up in kitchen garbage-bin... I'll store them as long as I can... :)