Kitchen Corner-Try It

 Black Forest Cake/ Black Forest Cherry Torte Black Forest cake is a stunning and decadent chocolate-cherry cake and is surprisingly easy to make. A classic favorite throughout the world, this version is closer to the traditional German Black forest cake. It is a harmonious dessert with spongy chocolate cake layers, sandwiched with cherry filling, and the frosting is fresh,  whipped cream, and cherries. The term tortes come from the German word for elegant layer cakes with fruit, nut, or jam fillings. Black forest cake is one of the first cake that I fell in love with several years back. The best part of this cake is its light, spongy layers with delightful fresh cream frosting.  It is not too- overly sweet chocolate cake. It offered a sharp contrast to the dense and rich butter cakes that were more commonly available in our local bakery. Now those traditional butter cakes have a charm of its own, but and I fell in love with this elegant dessert mainly because o...

Victoria Sandwich- British Afternoon Tea Cake Today's recipe is my first post of 2018. Happy New Year to all my friends and readers. Wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year! Victoria Sandwich or the Victoria sponge is a very traditional British afternoon tea cake .There is a nothing fashionable about recipe,it is a simple sandwich cake.But if you can make this basic sponge cake than you can make hundreds of adaptions and it is perfect for parties or picnics.These sandwiches are popular English teatime treats.Spongecake's are sliced and sandwiched with jam and topped with another layer of butter cream,vanilla cream or whipped cream and sprinkled with sugar .This tea time sandwich is named after Queen Victoria and reminds us of the era of tea parties and the practice of inviting friends to come over for tea in the afternoon. This recipe calls for equal proportion of egg,butter, sugar and flour. The egg and baking powder gives it the light airy texture. The k...

Rigo Jancsi Cake Baking partners challenge for February was the famous pastry cake Rigo Jancsi. This is one of Hungary's most famous dessert, a rich chocolate mousse cake. It has two layers of sponge cake with a thick layer of whipped chocolate cream . Finally the cake is topped with chocolate glaze. This recipe is shared by Swathi . Swathi adapted this recipe from  Joe Pastry . This recipe is also inspired from Greg Patent's book " A Baker's Odyssey ". The cake is named after a violinist Johnny Rigo and his scandalous love affair with the wife of Belgian Duke of Chimay. This cake was a big hit in my house. It is a dessert perfect for special occasions. The filling can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator. This cake is laborious, but it is definitely worth the time. Try this, you will surely love it.   Ingredients  For the sponge cake: Butter- 6 tbs Cocoa powder- 1 tbs Egg- 5 separated Flour- 1/2 cup Salt- a pinch Semi sweet ch...

 Opera Cake Baking partners challenge for July is the yummy and famous  French pasty Opera cake. This months recipe was suggested by Savitha of Savitha's Kitchen . Swathi also shared one recipe with me. You can find the recipe here . If you take a look at the  recipe you will notice that  there are different stages to make this cake before the final assembly. This cake has a rich almond coffee flavor. It consists of almond sponge cake with layers of  French coffee butter cream, chocolate butter cream and chocolate ganache on top. Thanks Savitha and Swathi for this recipe. Ingredients For the almond sponge Cake flour-3 tbs Egg- 2 large  Almond flour - 1 cup Confectionery Sugar- 1/2 cup Egg whites-2 Cream of tartar- 1/8 tsp Salt- 1/8 tsp Granulated sugar- 1tbs Butter unsalted- 2 tbs For the coffee Syrup Espresso powder- 1 tsp Water- 1/2 cup Sugar- 2 tsp Coffee Butter Cream Granulated sugar-  1/2 cup Egg yolk-2 Butter- 1...

Victorian Pound Cake Baking partners challenge for this month is Pound Cake. This cake is known as quatre quarts or four quarters in France meaning four equal portions. The traditional  recipes calls for a pound of flour, sugar, butter and eggs and hence the name pound cake. The most important step in making this cake is the creaming and softening of butter and sugar which results in light even textured crumb. Pound cake are rich butter cake and you can add any flavor of your choice. Victorian pound cake uses rose water as flavoring. I found this in Sherry Yards- The Secret of Baking .Thanks Swathi for suggesting this months pound cake challenge. Ingredients Eggs- 4 Cake flour- 1 3/4 cup Butter- 1/2 pound Sugar- 1 cup+ 2 tbs Rose water- 2 tsp Lemon zest- 1/2 tsp salt- 1/3 tsp Allow butter and eggs to come to room temperature. Sift flour and salt 2-3 times and keep aside. Grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan with butter. Line bottom with a strip of parchment paper an...

Chocolate Heart of Darkness Cakes This is baking partners second challenge recipe for April 2015. It is mini warm molten chocolate cake with a gooey chocolate center. These are highly addictive and can be served warm just like itself or with ice cream. The chocolaty center is attained from frozen truffles with melts as they bake in the oven. Thanks Swathi for giving me the opportunity to suggest recipes for this month's challenge. These cakes was in my to do wish list. I am so happy that I finally got and opportunity to try them. Recipe source:Death By Chocolate Cakes  By  Marcel Desaulniers To make Chocolate truffle 8 ounce semisweet baking chocolate heavy cream- 3/4 cup For the cake Butter- 5 ounce cut into pieces+ 2 tsp melted All propose flour- 2/3 cup Unsweetened cocoa- 1/2 cup Semi sweet baking chocolate- 8 ounce Egg-3 large Egg yolk- 2 granulated sugar- 1/2 vanilla extract- 1 tsp To make the truffles Place 8 ounce semi sweet ch...

Chocolate Chiffon Cake Baking partners challenge recipe for December was two yummy cakes suggested by Julie. I choose the Chocolate Chiffon Cake.Thanks Swathi and Julie to this challenge. Chiffon cakes and moist and tender with a spongy texture. It is a decadent cake and can be served as a tea time cake with boiled chocolate/ whipped cream or decorate it with icing to serve on any special occasion. Try this,you will surely love it. Ingredients Cake flour- 1 1/3 cup Cocoa powder- 2 1/2 tbs Eggs 5  ( separated)  Sugar- 3/4 cup Baking powder 1  tsp Baking soda 1/2 tsp Salt 1/4 tsp Vanilla extract 3/4 tsp Cream of tartar 1/2 tsp Brewed coffee- 1/2 cup Oil- 1/2 cup Vanilla essence- 1/2 tsp For the chocolate glaze Dark chocolate chocolate- 5 oz Butter 2tbs Heavy whipping cream- 3/4 cup Coffee 1tbsp For the frosting Butter- 3/4 stick Powder sugar- 1 1/3 cup Coffee- 1 tbs Separate the egg yolk and egg white .Leave at r...

Chocolate Cheesecake Chocolate cheesecake is time consuming yet decadent dessert. It has a smooth and creamy, literally melt in mouth texture. It has three layers- an easy to make chocolate crust,creamy center and smooth ganache topping. If you like a more delicate taste,use white chocolate instead of semi sweet or bitter chocolate. Ingredients For the crust Chocolate graham crackers crumbs- 1 1/3 cup melted butter- 3 tbs For the filling Full fat cream cheese- 2 packages(16 oz) Sugar- 3/4 cup Semi sweet/ bitter sweet chocolate-  5 oz Unsweetened Cocoa -2 tbs Vanilla extract- 1 tsp Eggs- 2 Sour cream- 3/4 cup Ganache topping Semi sweet chocolate- 3 oz Heavy cream- 1/4 cup   To make the crust process chocolate graham crackers in a food processor into fine crumbs (or put them in plastic bag and crush them very fine with a rolling pin). Add 3 tbs of melted butter and mix well till the mixture resembles wet sand. Grease 8 inch spring form pan wi...

French Chocolate Gateau This cake is for all those passionate chocolate lovers out there. There is a general enthusiasm for chocolates treats and it is an integral part of every happy occasion.Can you imagine any happy occasion without chocolate? I am an ardent chocolate fan and so is my kid. We both share the same passionate fondness for chocolates. Rich and luscious chocolate cake like Gateau, will definitely top the list as the most favored chocolate desserts. What richer and more delicious taste can you think of than a rich and gooey chocolate cake.This French classic is impressive and surprisingly easy to make cake.The moist interior of this chocolaty cake is due to the generous quantity of chocolate and butter. I am so glad I tried this French chocolate gateau/Gateau au chocolat and the texture was wonderful..gooey,moist and tender cake..absolutely divine chocolaty goodness. This cake is flour less, double chocolate cake and is definitely worth a try. It is ideal as...

Bûche de Noël/Yule Log Cake  Baking partners challenge for this month is Christmas Cake.When  Swathi announced Bûche de Noël/Yule Log Cake I was really excited about the challenge.This month’s recipes are suggested by Tanushree of Ma Niche .There are 5 recipes she found out for us. Four of them are Yule cake, and fifth one is Nicaraguan Christmas cake. Every celebration is incomplete without a rich food tradition.Yule log as the name suggest is sweet roulade shaped and frosted to resemble a log. In France it is served during Christmas and Yule festival . The Yule festival is mid winter festival celebrated in Germany and the tradition extended even before the origin of Christianity. Later it become part of Christmas and the Yule log or the log cake become symbolic to ancient traditions and observance. This cake is delicious with a soft sponge roll, mocha flavor filling and a dark fudge frosting. The recipe source is from here Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Colle...

Russian Honey Cake Baking partners challenge for this month is a special cake. It is celebration time for the members of the baking partners group- first anniversary. It has been a wonderful journey so far gaining better insights into the techniques of baking With each challenge we have learned and shared something new. Congrats to Swathi and all the members for making this group a success. For this months challenge there were two cake recipes suggested by two members of the group Humi and Saraswathi. I selected the one suggested by Humi  of Gheza-e-shiriin  Russian Honey cake. Medovnik or honey cake has beautiful impressive thin layer and is more like a cookie cake. The technique of making this cake is not like a regular cake but similar to cookies. The filling is made with with sour cream or condensed milk/Dulce de leche.It is the oldest and most popular cake in Central, North and east Europe.The original recipe was a nine inch cake, but I made a smaller 5 inch ca...