Tag: Chilled Cakes

Butterscotch Ice cream ‘n’ Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel | Happy Birthday My Precious One !!


It’s that time of the year yet again….. 🙂
KJ’s Birthday…..special to me in more than one ways…..Not only that it’s my best friend, my husband, my partner in love-n-life’s birthday but also because his birthday means a new cake I bake !!
KJ loves to push my boundaries; always getting me out of my comfort zone and throwing in a challenge. He knows I’ll never say never for his birthday cake !!


It was a quiet weekend with a modern version of a shakespearean play, followed by dinner. I spent the morning baking the cake for him and we spent a lot of time together watching movies at home. For company we had some thunder and rain !! A perfect setting for a weekend birthday.


So coming back to the cake, this was a first for me….an ice cream cake. A couple of years back KJ baked an ice cream cake for my birthday and now it was my turn !!
Yes he did a cake which I had still not dared to. In the humidity of July, I must confess it is not the easiest thing to handle. After every 5 minutes of work and handling the cake had to be sent back to the freezer or else the ice cream would start melting. And equally difficult was the whipped cream frosting with salted caramel sauce for flavour; but nevertheless I loved every bit of it !! It’s always fun to experiment. Here I was not only experimenting with the technique but also combining new flavours.


Butterscotch Ice Cream and Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Sauce



Ingredients

1 l tub / brick of Butterscotch 
Ice cream

1 packet of Oreo Cookies

2 tbsps Butter

Salted Caramel Sauce (Recipe at the end of the post)
300 ml of Whipping Cream


For the Chocolate Cake:

1 cup Flour

1 cup Powdered Sugar

1/2 cup Cocoa Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

A pinch of Soda Bicarbonate

3/4 cup Oil

4 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Essence



Directions

1. Grease and dust a 8-9″ diameter round cake mould. Preferably a springform or a loose bottom mould. (I used a springform) 

2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder together.

3. Separate the eggs.

4. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt till stiff peaks are formed. 

5. Now add the powdered sugar in batches and keep whisking the eggs till they get a sheen to them. (Do not add the sugar in one go, we do not want the aeration to go flat) 

6. Add the essence to the egg yolks, mix and gradually add them to the egg whites. Whisk well.

7. Now add the oil to the eggs and whisk for 30 seconds.

8. Fold in the flour mix gently (do not use the hand mixer)

9. Transfer to the mould and bake for 35 minutes at 180 degree C.

10. Remove from the mould and transfer on the wire rack and let it cool completely.

11. Once the cake cools down completely, slice it horizontally to get two parts. These are your two layers of the cake.

Assembly of the cake:

1. Crush the Oreo Cookies coarsely. Mix in the butter and layer the cake mould with it. Press it in and set in the freezer for 45 minutes. (Use the same cake mould, you used to bake the cake in).

2. Once the base has set completely, brush a layer of Salted Caramel Sauce. Put it back in the freezer for 20 minutes.

3. Now take half of the ice cream and spread it on top of the caramel sauce. Place one half of the cake. Press it down. Now add the remaining ice cream on top of the cake layer. Smoothen it with a palette knife. Place the second half of the cake. Press it down and put it in the freezer for atleast 3 hours or overnight. I left it in the freezer overnight.

4. Whip the cream well. Till soft peaks are formed. Add 2 tablespoons of the Salted Caramel sauce and whip some more. If you are using Amul cream for the frosting, remove the water content from the cream. If using non dairy cream whip it well. For amul cream or any other dairy cream please add 1/2 cup of icing sugar as well. Whip it on an ice bath. Whipping up Amul Cream is difficult in humid summer months.

5. Once the cake has set completely, remove from the freezer. Cover with whipping cream. Place it back in the freezer.

6. After 30 minutes, again neaten the frosting and place it back in the freezer.

7. For decoration dribble some salted caramel sauce.

8. Chill it again. Serve chilled. Store in the freezer.



Recipe for the Salted Caramel Sauce


Ingredients

2 cups of Sugar
200 ml of Cream
10 tbsps of Unsalted Butter
1 tsp Sea Salt

Directions

1. Place the sugar in a pan. Put it on high flame. Once the sugar starts melting, keep an eye on your caramel. 
2. As soon as the caramel turns amber, add the butter. The caramel could bubble at this stage. Be careful. 
3. Once the butter melts in completely, remove from the flame and add the cream. Mix well. Now again the caramel would bubble, so be careful.
4. Add the sea salt.
5. Once it cools down completely, store in an airtight jar. It stays happy in the fridge for about a month.


Yes this is indeed a tad tedious, but trust me it’s worth all the effort !! Nothing like a chilled frozen dessert on a summer afternoon !!



Happy Baking !!


Chocolate Orange Mousse` Cake


Chocolate-n-Orange – a marriage made in heaven and Mousse`-n-Cake is the second !!!


The combination of orange and chocolate was first introduced to me by Baskin-n-Robbins….their Chocolate Orange Ice Cream was to die for !!! The flavour duos have never looked back in our lives ever since !!
It was dad’s birthday, and I, as usual wanted to try something new….something I’ve never done before, but with his favourite flavours so it had to be chocolate-n-orange and nothing else.


Birthdays are occasions when I invariably end up pushing my threshold by trying something new….a new technique…a new recipe or a new ingredient. (Though the rule says go with the tried and tested to avoid goof ups 😛 )


For me this cake was all about technique. I loved the very concept of treating the cake like a bow for the mousse` rather than layering the mousse` in the traditional way. 
Recently I had come across Donna Hay’s Chocolate Lemon Meringue Pie and I have adapted the same technique for this recipe.
It was a lot of fun scooping the cake out from the centre  – a very satisfying feeling for some strange reason….probably because I was vary and anxious of scooping it a little too much; and KJ had a field day gobbling up all the scooped out cake crumb !!


Hope you enjoy reading this and baking it as much as I did !!

Ingredients For the Chocolate Cake:

100 g Flour
4 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
A Pinch of Soda-bi-carb
40 g Unsweetend Cocoa Powder
120 g Powdered Sugar
150 ml Oil
100 ml or 1/2 cup of Orange Squash

Directions
1. Grease and dust an 8inch round baking dish2. Sieve together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda-bi-carb and reserve.
3. Separate the eggs. Add vanilla essence to the yolks.
4.Pre-heat the oven at 180 degree C for 10 minutes.
5. Whisk the egg whites till stiff peaks form. Add the powdered sugar in batches and whisk till resembles a meringue (glossy mixture).
6. Now gradually add the oil and mix for 1 minute.
7. Fold in the flour mixture in the egg mixture gently but quickly till well incorporated.
8. Lastly add the orange squash to the batter and mix well.
9. Pour the cake batter in the baking dish and bake for 35 minutes at 180C.
10. Remove the cake from the oven. Transfer on the rack and let it cool a bit.
11. While it is still warm, place an inverted plate (I used a saucer) on the cake, making sure it is centred and cut around with the knife.
12. once there is a clear demarkation, remove the inside of the cake…scoop it out gently, with a spoon.
13. the thickness of the walls should be about 1-1.5 cm and the base should be about 1inch thick for the mousse` to hold in.
 If you are doing this for the first time, it will be a good idea to use a ruler, especially to know the depth of this cake bowl.
14. Keep aside and let it cool down completely.

Ingredients for the Chocolate Mousse`

2 Eggs
3 tsp Gelatin dissolved in 1/4 Orange Squash
300ml Milk
7 tbsp Sugar
3 tbsp Cocoa Powder
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
200g Cream 
1/4 cup Orange Squash

Directions
1. Mix gelatin in orange squash in a heavy bottomed pan. Leave aside for 5-7 minutes. Heat on very low flame to dissolve it. Do not let it boil. Keep aside.
2. Separate the eggs.
3. Mix milk, sugar, cocoa and egg yolks in another heavy bottomed pan on medium to low heat. Keep stirring continuously so that the cocoa doesn’t burn over. Once the custard coats the back of the spoon remove from fire and let it cool down to room temperature.

4. Add gelatin and mix well. Make sure gelatin is completely blended in the custard. Add the orange squash. Mix well again, using a hand beater/ blender.
5. Chill in the freezer till only thick. Make sure it doesn’t start setting.
6. Once the custard is chilled and thick add the cream and beat well. (Preferably use a hand blender).
7. Chill again till thick.
8. While you set the cream-custard mix to chill again, whisk the egg whites till stiff peaks form. Be careful not to over whisk.
9. Now add these egg whites to the thick cream-custard and whisk for incorporate properly.

Assembling the Mousse`- Cake:

Once the mouse is ready (step 9) pour the mousse` in the cake bowl (hollowed cake)and let it set in the fridge for atleast 4 hours, though I prefer overnight or 8 hours.
Once properly set, decorate as you like and serve chilled.


Note: 
Do not put it in the freezer for setting. Always set mousse` in the fridge. The freezer can form crystals on the mousse` which will spoil the dessert.
You could do the same thing with just chocolate: chocolate cake and chocolate mousse` or try to contrast flavours if you like.

Happy Baking !!