Number cake

My son had his birthday this week. He had a decently big party a few days earlier. But there was no way I was not having a cake cutting for him on the actual day of his birthday. I therefore decided to make a 3-D number cake for him. My neighbor's son's birthday was a day after my son's birthday. He turned six. I decided to make a surprise number cake for him too. So there I was wanting to make two cakes. But was I about to bake two cakes??? No way!! I was going to bake one cake and make 2 cakes out of it! I always wanted to try out the zebra cake! I decided to make a zebra cake in a 13x 9 pan with the flavors of vanilla and chocolate. I then carved out the numbers out of it.The cakes were going to be small. I did a number 3 for my son and a number 6 for my neighbor.I got the ideas for the 3-D number cakes from here.

 I used a 8-inch cake board for each one of them. I even managed to get a few slices for us to eat! I like mine without the icing.

Being that it was a week-day, I did not have too much time on my hands. I decided to use store-bought frosting. Being that the store-bought frosting is thin, and I didn't have too much time to harden the frosting in the fridge, it was a slightly messy affair. How do I fix it?? I decided to decorate the cake with M& Ms to take away the attention from the messy frosting job! Well it was a success. I iced my son's cake with vanilla frosting and since my neighbor's was the next day, I mixed the rest of the frosting with some cocoa powder and iced his # 6, left it in the freezer and next day decorated it with M& Ms! That's why his cake was not melting!!

Overall, my son was happy and my neighbor's son was pleasantly surprised! All that ends well!

Servings: 4-6 per cake

Ingredients:

Flour: 1 1/2 cups
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Sugar: 1 cup
Butter: 1 cup
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Eggs: 3 large
Milk :1/4 cup
Cocoa powder: 2 tbsp
Vanilla frosting: 1 1/2 cup
Chocolate frosting: 1 1/2 cup 
M & Ms: 1 big packet

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F.

Grease the bottom only of a 13x 9 pan and keep aside.

Mix together flour, baking powder and salt and keep aside.

Add 2 tbsp cocoa powder to 1/4 cup milk at room temperature. Mix well and keep aside.

Using an electric beater, cream sugar and butter until smooth. Add eggs one by one and beat well.Add vanilla and mix well. Now add in the dry ingredients little at a time, mixing well in between. Be careful not to overmix!

Divide the batter equally into two bowls. To one bowl add the cocoa powder and milk mixture. Mix well.

Now in the center of the pan pour 2 tbsp of chocolate mixed batter. On the center of this one pour 2 tbsp of vanilla cake mix .

Now do the same with the chocolate mixture again. Keep repeating this process until all the batter has been used up!

Place the pan on the center rack of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick tester comes out clean.

Take the cake out of the oven and let it sit in the pan for 30 mins before taking it out.

I placed a wooden cutting board on top of it and inverted the pan. Let the cake cool down completely before attempting to carve out the numbers.

Since I had to make both the number three and the number six, I needed 3 circles. I used the lid of the Pillsbury frosting to  carve out 3 round pieces of the cake.

I then used a small bottle cap to carve out the center of the round cake to make a donut.

For the number three, I cut out 1/4 the of the circle from one donut and 1/3 rd from the other. I now put the two pieces together on the cake board to make number 3.

For number six, I cut 1.5 inch wide and 6 inch long rectangle from the leftover cake. I attached it to the side of the donut to make number 6.

I then frosted the number 3 with vanilla buttercream frosting and number 6 with chocolate frosting.

I put them in the fridge for 2-3 hours to firm up.

My kids then helped me decorate it with lots of M & Ms!!

The number cakes were ready!

Do try it. It is lots of fun! I am bringing this to  Simple Supper Tuesday at hun whats for dinner.

Cooking made easy:

You could use store-bought plain round cake and carve out the numbers from that.

You could use store-bought frosting to do a crumb coating and then stick the M & Ms to make it pretty!

Tip for healthy living:

Serve and eat desserts in very small portion. That ways you would have satisfied your sweet tooth without abusing your body.

Food for thought:

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. Edith Wharton

Train Cake; Shawn the train

This week was special as it was my baby's birthday! He turned 3!! He is no longer a baby!:( Since he now understands the concept of the birthday song, I wanted to make it special for him. He actually had 3 celebrations at three different times!I made three different types of cakes for each one of them. He had a party a few days earlier for which I made this train cake. He had a celebration at school for which I made mini-cupcakes without icing on them as the school won't allow anything sugary!! That's good, right?? I am all for promoting healthy eating and healthy living.He also had cake cutting at home on the evening of his birthday, for which I made a small number cake for him. He had a ball at all three celebrations!!

Coming back to this train cake, I have never made a 3-D object cake apart from the  Princess cake and the Tinkerbell cake that is! I felt a little more adventurous and decided to make a cake of something that he likes. It was only fair that I go to as much trouble for him as I did with the Princess cake for his sister! Now I could not decide whether to make a car cake, a fire truck or a train???Those are all his favorite toys! I decided to ask him. His prompt response was "Shawn"! Shawn is an educational train created by coilbook. My son just loves watching Shawn!! He could watch Shawn all day long! While most children would want Thomas, my son wanted Shawn! This was reiterated by his sister. I looked up online for ideas. There were plenty of Thomas cakes out there, but no Shawn!!:( I then looked up general train cake ideas, and improvised from there. The one that helped me the most is the Betty Crocker site that had this train cake.

Courtesy: Coilbook

For convenience, I used boxed cake mixes instead of making the cake batter from scratch. I didn't want to figure out everything for fear that something may go wrong! Since I had no idea how big the cake was going to be, i didn't have any cake board ready before hand. In my mind, I knew how the cake was going to look. I knew there would be a train track, there would be an engine car and a few cars. I didn't know how many cars I would be making as I didn't know how much of the cake loaf would be needed for the engine! I made the face of the engine using a tomato paste can. That was an adventure by itself! Once I had the engine figured out,I had enough of the loaf left to make 4 cars. But I needed the cake board first! Since the cake was long and heavy, the board too had to be big and sturdy!  I made the base for the cake by wrapping up a wire rack with aluminum foil! As per the size of my cake board, I decided to make only 3 train cars as that was all that would fit on the cake board. The end result was good. My baby identifying the train by crying out "Shawn" , "Shawn" when I placed the train on the table and him ( the naughty one) not touching it or messing it up  was testimony for my work!! He wouldn't even let me cut it to serve the guests!!!

I am going to share this cake with my wonderful friends at Fiesta Friday!This week there are two new co-hosts: Michelle@Giraffes Can Bake, whose easy recipes are an inspiration for even a novice baker like me to bake; and MB @ Bourbon and Brown Sugar, whose recipes I love.

Servings: 12-16 people

Ingredients:

Chocolate cake mix: 1 box
Yellow cake mix: 1 box
Eggs: 6 large 
Oil:1/2 cup+ 1/2 cup
Water: 1 cup + 1 cup
Vanilla Buttercream frosting: 3 cups.
Chocolate buttercream frosting: 3-4 cups.
Ready-to-roll fondant: 2 colors ( I used red and green).
Oreo cookies: 13 nos
Pretzel sticks: 1 cup
M & Ms: 2 small packets
Chocolate animal crackers: 1 cup
Mott's fruit bites: 2 packets
Reese's peanut butter cups: 2 nos
Malt balls: 2 nos

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease two 9x5 loaf pans and a 6 oz tomato paste can with its outer paper covering removed and the can greased.

Prepare the chocolate cake batter as per the instructions on the box. Pour a little batter into the prepared can until 2/3 rds full and the rest into one of the loaf pans.

Prepare the yellow cake batter a per the instructions on the box. Pour the batter into the other loaf pan.

Place the loaf pans on the center rack of the oven and bake or 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.

Place the tomato cake also on the center rack towards the last 10 mins of the loaf cake time. It takes around  10 mins to bake the cake in it.Again, test for doneness using the toothpick .I kept checking several times to make sure that it does not get burnt as I was not sure how much time it would take.

When done, take the cakes out of the oven and let them cool down in the pan for 10 mins before taking the cake out.

Then, take the cake out and let it cool down on the cooling rack until completely cooled.

With a serrated knife or a cake leveler, take the domes off the cakes and level the cakes. Make sure to take the dome off the cylinder cake too that was baked in the can.

Making the engine car:

Cut 2/3 rds the length of the chocolate loaf cake half way through it's thickness. Keep that piece aside.
Place the cylindrical cake on the cut portion of the loaf cake as shown in the picture. Use some icing to keep them together like glue. Take a piece of the dome and glue it to the back of the loaf cake to make the roof of the engine car.

Frost the engine cake using chocolate butter cream frosting. Keep it in the fridge for 2-3 hours.

The other train cars:

Cut the yellow loaf cake into three equal parts.

Frost it with vanilla buttercream. I did one with chocolate buttercream.

Now place the cars in the fridge too for 2-3 hours.

Assembling the train and the track:

In the mean time get the cake board ready. You could either cover a piece of wood or sturdy cardboard with foil. I didn't have either so I used my cooling rack! I covered it with foil and kept ready.

I then added red and blue gel colors to my remaining chocolate frosting and changed it to blackish grey color. I filled a piping bag and attached Wilton Tip# 5 and piped out the train track over the cake board.

I then rolled out red fondant and covered both the engine and one car with it.

I rolled out the green fondant and covered the other two cars with it.

I attached open face Oreo cookie to the front of the engine to make the face. Using Witon Tip # 3 I piped out the face of Shawn, made the roof and windows of the engine car and the sidings of the other cars.

Everything on the cake was edible. I attached all the parts to the train using icing as glue.

I placed Oreo cookies for the wheels of the train, Reese's peanut butter cups for the smoke stack, malt balls for the headlights.

I used pretzel sticks to make the car sidings.

I made one car animal car using chocolate animal crackers, one car colorful rock car using peanut M & Ms and the last  car was the fruit car filled with Mott's fruit bites. Using fondant, I made number 3 and stuck it to the back of the last car.

I rolled out some fondant to make the lawn and royal icing flowers to provide some accent. I piped "Happy 3rd Birthday Amogh" with the remaining greyish black icing.

 Voila! Shawn was ready to chug down the track!

I am truly happy that I did it! I think I came pretty close to the original Shawn!

It was not as hard as I thought it would be. Of course, it would have been nicer if I could have had more time to make it in a leisurely fashion!! I could also have done a neater job!

Do try it if you get a chance!

Enjoy!

Cooking make easy:

In a pinch, you could use store bought frosting for crumb coating the cake like I did. I used a combination of store-bought and home-made. I had home-made buttercream frosting while I used the store-bought chocolate frosting as I didn't have enough time to make it.

If you are using it to frost the cake entirely make sure you whip it well adding a teaspoon of cornstarch and icing sugar alternately until you get the required medium consistency. This can be checked by inserting the spatula into the middle of the frosting. If the spatula stays upright, then the frosting is of the right consistency. If it falls to one side, then the frosting is too thin! 

The best cake for shaping is the pound cake as it is more sturdy.You could also just bring a store-bought pound cake and then shape it! 

Tip for healthy living:

Being that it is for kids, I have made everything on the cake edible and tried to make it as healthy as possible . That is why I didn't layer the cars and fill it with icing. I also filled the cars with healthy fare like animal crackers an fruit bites! Avoid giving little children too much sugar. It apparently makes them hyperactive.

Food for thought:

Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king. Mark Van Doren

Chocolate Orange Marble Bundt Cake

My husband's birthday was last week. It was mid-week and since it was a weekday, I was not sure what I was going to make. Of course, one can say that I should have made the cake well ahead of time... But time is a precious commodity for me!! I wish I had 48 hours in a day than just 24! Then I would be able to do everything that I want to do!! Oh yes, with the extra-hours, I need extra energy too.. Of late I have been finding myself less energetic!! Am I growing old??? Work is busy, life is busy.. but that is no reason for me to be tired right?? The reason I am bringing up the topic of my fatigue is because that is the reason why I didn't get a chance to make a cake ahead of time! Of course, in my head I have made several cakes for the past couple of weeks, but when it came to actually making them, I kept putting off for the next day, until his birthday just dawned on me! But, you see I had already bought a cheesecake over the weekend and decorated it as a back-up, just in case I didn't get a chance to bake a cake! Why a cheesecake?? Because my husband loves cheesecake and in case he didn't like my healthy cake!

Well, you see in my mind, I kind of had an idea as to what I want to make: something healthy( read not too sweet) and  something easy to make that doesn't take too much time. I have had this nice Stained glass Bundt cake pan since the Spring!

A close friend of mine had presented it to me for my birthday! It is such a beauty! I have been meaning to bake a cake in it since the Spring!

Isn't she pretty??
I also have been dying to try the new fad that is going around: the naked cake! After thinking about it, I remembered a recipe posted by Sumod Tom a long time ago about a chocolate Bundt cake on a food group called CAL and a recipe for spiced honey orange cake by my dear blogger friend Selma Jeevanji at Fiesta Friday! I did not want to use that much honey! My final product was a combination of  both recipes.

The cake was not only gorgeous to look at, but tasted delicious too! It is pretty simple and quite easy to make!

Servings: 10-12

Ingredients:

All purpose flour: 2 cups
Baking powder: 3/4 tsp
Baking soda: 3/4 tsp
Salt: pinch
Cocoa powder: 1/4 cup
Milk: 1/4 cup
Brown sugar: 1 cup
Butter: 1 cup ( 2 sticks)
Eggs: 5 large
Orange juice: 1/4 cup
Orange zest: 2 tbsp ( from 1 medium orange)
Raisins: 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp

To decorate:
Powdered  sugar: 2 tbsp
Raspberries: 2 cups
Royal icing flowers: 6-8( you could use fresh flowers).

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.

Grease the Bundt cake pan and keep ready.

Seive together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and keep aside. You could also just whisk it using a whisk. Whisk thoroughly.

Mix the cocoa powder in milk and keep aside.

In a bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, brown sugar and vanilla essence. Add eggs one by one, beating after the addition of each egg until fluffy.

Now fold in the flour mixture little by little until it is all incorporated. Do not overmix!

Divide the batter into two equal portions.

To the first half add the milk and cocoa mixture and mix well. Again, do not overmix! If the batter is too thick, add a tbsp of milk.

To the other bowl,  add the orange juice, orange zest and raisins. Mix gently but thoroughly. Do not over mix!

Now pour the batter into the Bundt  pan little at a time alternating between the chocolate and the orange flavored ones.

 Start and end with the chocolate batter.

Tap the Bundt pan against the kitchen countertop to get rid of any air bubbles.

Place it in the center rack of the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes it until a skewer comes out clean.
My oven took 40 minutes. Keep checking after 35 minutes and adjust the time accordingly.

When done, take the pan out and let it cool down for atleast 30 minutes before taking it out of the pan and place it on the wire-rack.

Let it cool completely before decorating it.

To decorate the cake, sprinkle powdered sugar on the cake using a sieve. Decorate with flowers ( fresh or edible ) and berries of your choice. I used raspberries and royal icing flowers.

It was a superhit! I was happy with the end product and so was my husband and  the kids!

Enjoy a slice with a cup of tea or coffee! 

I am bringing this cake to my friends at Fiesta Friday! If you did not get a chance to visit the awesome Hyderabadi Dum Chicken Biryani  posted earlier during the week, it is worth visiting!

Cooking made easy:

While making a cake, make sure that you have all your ingredients in front of you and preferably they are all at room temperature. This will get you good results.

Sieving or whisking the dry ingredients thoroughly helps the ingredients mix well and also makes the cake fluffier.

Tip for healthy living:

Eating small frequent meals is better than eating large infrequent meals. This not only  keeps the blood sugar levels steady, also helps us feel more energetic, and prevents us from binge eating! Ideal recommendation is 3 medium-sized meals with 2 snacks. Snack on fruits.

Food for thought:

Beware the barrenness of a busy life. Socrates