Sweet Cinnamon Brown

I know good food does not necessarily create good mood. But good colors. And smells? Like the warm, sweet smell of cinnamon. Aren’t you glad God gave you a nose.

When this same sensuous warmth transcends to gooey cinnamon rolls, I also thank God that she gave me a mouth to taste and savor the stickiness Cinnamon Rolls bring with them.
Cinnamon is one of the greatest spices the merchants found in the barks of a tree. The Holiday season is just an excuse for me to become a part of a ritual called cinnamon, and give in to this picker upper spice in any form.

Even incarnating my newly-glazed free flowing bowl in the same color!

Because I am a bad baker, I stick to ready-to-bake indulgence. Today was a box of Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls.

The easy substantiality of an under-30 minute baked delight with my favorite spice, cascading icing and toasted pecans in each more-ish mouthful, reinstates my faith in Nature’s bounty. Cheers to its colors and flavors.

For pictures of my pottery work, click here.

A Black Forest Cake For Taureans

My relationship with baking is getting more and more comfortable. Okay, its another story that I cheated on this one. I used an instant cake mix to get myself ahead of the game for a birthday cake I was baking for all my family and friends who have their birthdays in May!This special occasion cake reminds me of the American childhood I never had! Back then, in the Hindi heartland, my parents had very little choice. It was either to bake a pound cake at home and stick little plastic cake decorations and wafer biscuits on the top, or go to the local cake shop called Cake Palace and get a “heart-shaped” cake. Some birthdays later, the cake shop evolved and they came up with made-to-order cakes in the shape of a ship, guitar, swimming pool and a doll for the birthday parties my sister and I would have.

Yesterday was a good day to work on a Black Forest Cake for my friends and family who like me are May-born. I know we Taureans are known for our sweet tooth. I especially have a pretty relaxed guilt-free approach to desserts. I keep reminding myself of a very relevant Oscar Wilde quote - If you can’t overcome temptation, the best way is to yield to it!

Yield to it I did, by opening a box of instant cake mix and baking two eight inch cakes for my homemade Black Forest Cake… I let them cool off completely before I started on my layering.
Meanwhile, I started on my cherry filling, mixing a pie-filling with some cornstarch and thickening it on low-medium heat.
The cherry filling needs to be cooled off completely too before we spread it on the cake.

The next thing to prepare was to beat the cream with some sugar to make it stiff. I do not have a hand blender, so I used my regular blender to do it for me and the result was satisfying!Putting it all together seemed less daunting than I had anticipated it would be!
Place the second cake layer onto the whipped cream/cherry filling, squishing it down ever so gently. Spoon as much of the cherry filling onto the top of the cake as your whipped-cream wall will hold. I left the sides of the cake un-iced so that the two layers could be seen with the whipped cream in between. Decorate the top with chocolate shavings and of course, maraschino cherries!

Chill for a couple of hours before you serve.
I followed the recipe and the steps from here, though I did make some changes to give myself a decadent homemade treat.
This slice of homemade Black Forest Cake was speaking for itself and it did say some nice things like – Happy Birthday!

Baking Equinox With Fudgy Walnut Chocolate Cake

The highlight of this week has been the Maple Crème Brûlée. I watched P finish off the last of the ramekins yesterday night after he was struck by hunger again because of an early supper. Gluttony never looked so pleasant, especially when you are witness to your calorie-conscious husband licking off a dessert you so cautiously treaded to make.

I’ll admit, I do feel invigorated from that success. But I think I will take some time to have a Crème Brûlée encore. I have learnt from Lalit Modi’s present plight never to abuse success! There is nothing more damaging for a novice like me than a baker’s hara kiri.
I’d say, somewhere there is a lofty feel-good factor for me to see eggs and sugar and syrup and flour turn into luscious desserts. It was on a whim today that I started off with this Cake, the recipe for which I found scribbled behind a phone bill. Yes, in my own handwriting. 

Ingredients for the Fudgy Walnut Chocolate Cake are:

1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon vanilla essence
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup flour
2 eggs

Pour oil (you can even use olive oil) into a mixing bowl and add sugar, stirring frequently until sugar is fully dissolved. Add cocoa powder, baking powder, vanilla, and the pinch of salt. Mix well with a spatula.
Beat in the two eggs, then mix in flour by hand.
Fold in the chopped walnuts to the batter and spoon into a greased  loaf pan. I used a one pound pan.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake until a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. It took my cake about 50 minutes.

Cool in pan for five minutes, then invert and unmold onto a rack. Serve warm with tea or coffee. 
Gooey, chewy and very, very divine, I finished a slice while the kettle took its time to boil water for my tea!

Frenchified With Maple Crème Brûlée

Maybe, just maybe if you ever thought this Bengali could not do any French cuisine, I am going to dispel that stereotype today. Like the French, we Bengalis think, talk and eat a lot of food. Like the French, food is a ritual for us, an art. And when I say food is an establishment for both the Bengalis and the French, I am not in the least bit exaggerating.

My knowledge of the French language starts and ends with oui, and maybe an occasional bonjour and merci since I have moved to Canada. And my initiation to gourmet French cooking is only as recent as last year -- thanks to the double dose of Julie and Julia and French Food At Home hosted by Laura Calder. I love watching her on Food Network every morning. Even more, I love her kitchen and her chic wrap around dresses! Okay, I have a vague feeling I am digressing.  So I will move back to my attempt of making Crème Brûlée (French for “burnt cream”), an easy French dessert I once saw Laura Calder make. Her recipe had sugar, I have substituted it with maple syrup. Which we find here in abundance.
I started by having all the ingredients and measurements for the Maple Crème Brûlée (pronounced krehm broo-lay) right -

2 cups of heavy cream
Half cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons sugar
2 egg yolks
2 eggs 

Start by heating the heavy cream and maple syrup in a saucepan. I stopped just before boiling and removed from the heat. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks, eggs and the vanilla extract. Slowly start adding the cream-syrup mixture, stirring continuously. Adding little by little of the hot cream mixture is the way to go since we do not want to scramble the eggs.
Transfer the mixture onto individual ramekins (or custard cups) – I used all four for this quantity of cream and eggs. Place the ramekins in a baking dish and pour enough water to reach halfway of the ramekins. Water baths are mainly used for baking, as this technique helps to cook evenly and prevents cracking.
Preheat oven to 350°F and bake till the liquid mixture sets around the edges but jiggly at the center. This should take about 40-45 minutes.
I cooled them to a room temperature (in the same water bath), and then chilled them.
Just before serving, I sprinkled them with some sugar (plain white) and put them in the broiler for about two minutes or less to melt all that sugar. But do keep an eye on it, don't leave it in. Else you might just end up getting a crisp, charcoal topping on your crème. The broiler worked for me since I do not have a blowtorch. This way I got the creamy custard base and the top crust of caramel.
Elegant and easy. Looks like I will just go ahead and pat my back when no one is looking!
Bon Appétit. Just the way Julia “Meryl” Child says it!