7 layer rainbow cake with mascarpone-whipped cream frosting

We completed 7 years of marital bliss (if you can call it that anymore) last Saturday. I was, as usual, in a foul mood and then the husband surprises me with a gift, making me feel bad for not getting him anything in return. So to show my gratitude, I baked him a 7 layer rainbow cake to celebrate 7 colourful years of our lives. Actually I'm bull shitting, I baked the cake because I had to submit it to a magazine, and I just timed it right :)

However, it was a good idea since Ro had no clue what was underneath the white exterior. I'd made the cake and frosted it all on Friday (more so because sat was supposedly a sunny day and I could take pics) but no I dint tell Ro that and made him believe it was an anniv cake. All the while he kept asking me if it was a 3 layer cake and how we were gonna cut it and I went with the flow. Came 26th and I cut into it (after saying a prayer because you have no clue what its gonna look like) and voila...a beautiful 7 layer cake with all the colours of the rainbow (well, almost). Showed it to Ro and the first thing that came out of his mouth was something I cant mention here, but if you are on my friends list on FB, some of you'd know what I'm talking about :) :) I have cousins and friends who cant keep their mouths shut!!!!

Anyhoo, the cake tasted fab and although it was all pretty and such, I shall not be doing something like this again (well, unless I'm being paid to do it). I did it all in a day and it was a bit too much. If I'd split it over 2 or even 3 days, it would have made matters easier but of course I suck at planning and organizing, which is why I had to hurry and do this all one day before the big day. I also got disposable aluminium foil flan containers which made it sooo much more easier since I could do all the 7 cakes at one go in my oven. But obviously, the photographer in me didn't agree, and so while the first 3 were in the oven I set about taking pics of the remaining 4. You really don't need disposable containers, I'm just lazy to clean and reuse cake pans, and hence chose this method.

Talking about the cake, you can pretty much adapt it to whichever cake you want  (no not chocolate) and I stuck to a basic vanilla cake to not complicate matters. A lemon, coconut or orange flavoured one would work just fine. I did some major research before the expedition and all the recipes I came across had omitted the indigo shade and had only 6 layers. That meant, the cake batter measurement had to be reworked and recalculated to accommodate 7 layers. It was all too much work and so what I did was, took a normal vanilla cake recipe and made it into a 7 layer- 6 inch size cake. The trick to get even layers is to weigh the batter. I did some crazy calculations and decided my batter would be 215 odd grams per pan. I went wrong somewhere and ended up with more batter for the red layer (as you may have noticed). But by then, all you want to do is get the damn cakes baked and left aside to cool. So don't fret too much about the cake size..if you can manage to get an approximate weight into each, that's good enough.

I also wanted to keep the frosting fuss free and most importantly, butter free. I hate how much butter the butter cream and meringue frosting's take and my heart belongs to the cream frostings (not any better, I know!). So I stuck to a whipped cream frosting with some mascarpone thrown in and it was a great decision. I even got a lighter mascarpone version to justify the amount of stuff that went into the cake. Anyways, we loved the cake- its moist and does its job of being a vanilla flavoured cake beautifully. I would definitely be using this cake recipe in future experiments.

Without further rambling, here's the recipe for the gigantic rainbow cake

Moist vanilla cake (Recipe adapted from here- makes a 7 layer, 6 inch cake or 3 layer, 8 inch cake)

Butter- 1 cup, at room temperature

Granulated sugar- 2 cups

Eggs- 4 medium, at room temperature

Self-raising flour- 3 cups (*refer notes)

Whole milk- 1 cup

Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Gel colours- all the 7 colours (I used a brand called Sugar Flair)

Cream the butter till nice and fluffy, using the paddle attachment of your mixer or using a hand mixer.

Add sugar and continue to cream for about 4 minutes, till the mix is light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Throw in the flour, alternating between the milk, starting and ending with flour. Beat on low till the mix is well combined and no traces of flour is obvious.

Finally, add the vanilla extract and give one final mix

Get 7 bowls ready. Weigh the batter and transfer them into the bowls. (should be approximately of same weight)

Also preheat the oven to 175C.

Add the colours to the individual bowls. A little goes a long way when it comes to gel colours, so add bit by bit, mix and see if its the colour you are looking for. What you see is what you get as the final product.

Transfer the batter into cake pans (greased and lined if not using aluminium foil containers) and gently tap them on the counter a couple of times to pop the air bubbles.

If your oven cant take more than 2 at a time, that's perfectly fine. Just keep the other pans ready and you can bake them in batches.

Bake for about 15 to 17 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. The cake should slightly spring back when touched.

Transfer to a cooling rack and after about 10 minutes remove from container and leave aside to cool completely, after which you can wrap them in cling film and store in the refrigerator for a day or two till ready to frost.

Notes: *I didn't have self raising flour so I made my own by mixing 11/4 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt for every one cup of plain flour. So for the recipe, I sifted together 3 cups of plain flour with 3 3/4 tsps of baking powder and 3/4th tsp salt.

Butter flavouring was called for in the recipe. I have no clue what that is, so didn't use.

If the cakes have domed, slice off the dome using a serrated knife, only after they have cooled completely.

Mascarpone-whipped cream frosting

 

Mascarpone cheese- 250 gms, chilled (I used a lighter version)

Double cream- 2 cups, chilled (whipping cream as it is known elsewhere)

Powdered sugar- 3 tbsp (increase or reduce as preferred. I kept it at 3 tbsp since the cake was sweet enough)

Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Using the paddle attachment of your free standing mixer (or hand mixer if that's what you have), beat the mascarpone cheese till smooth and fluffy, for about a minute.

Add the vanilla extract and sugar and continue mixing for another minute.

Change to the whisk attachment and start whipping, while gradually adding the double cream.

Keep whipping till you get stiff peaks and is of pipable consistency. Do this on high speed but keep a close watch as you don't want to over whip and cause the cream to separate.

Add more cream if you think its too loose. 

You can also replace the mascarpone cheese with cream cheese and you'd get an even better frosting.

Assembling

Place the first layer on a serving plate- the violet layer in this case- and spread about 3 to 4 tbsp of frosting over it, using an off-set spatula. I chose to keep the frosting thin because I didn't want too much white separating the colours. 

Top with indigo layer and repeat the process till you reach orange. 

Once you have spread the frosting on the orange layer, turn the red cake upside down (top facing down) and place it on top of the orange cake. That way you have a smooth top to finish off.

Do a crumb coat by covering the cake with a thin coat of frosting, just to seal in all the crumbs, then do a generous coat of frosting and smoothen it out as much as possible.

Refrigerate till ready to use, and about 15 to 20 minutes before serving bring it to room temperature.

Notes: As you can see I did a rubbish job of frosting it. By the time the crumb coat was over, I was beyond exhaustion. I just wanted to finish it and go sleep or something. So like I mentioned before spread the entire process over a couple of days and you wont have a cake frosted like that

The whipped cream frosting does not hold well when its warm. Its starts melting, so keep in the refrigerator till ready to use.

That also means, the cake holds good only for about 4 to 5 days max. Store in the refrigerator at any cost

The frosting also starts to crack, I think because of temperature variations. I panicked, but don't worry, just whip up some more double cream and fill the cracks.

Double chocolate layer cake filled and frosted with chocolate ganache

(Super long whiny post alert...proceed at your own risk, and please I'm sooo over the hate-comments-by anonymous-lurkers' stage, so spare them)
Is everyone over and done with the whole Valentines day drama? After an overdose of mushy stuff on FB, posts on blogs and movies on telly, I for one am done with it. You can also say its sour grapes because my husband didn't even wish me on V day. The fact that we are not really in talking terms worked for both of us because he doesn't believe in birthdays, V days and anniversaries and I believe in them too much that I am annoyed if I'm not made to feel special on all these days. But strangely enough he remembers the day we met, the day we got engaged etc. etc. which I think is cute, but who cares about dates...show some love instead (or a Tiffany's ring would make me a happy (but shallow) woman)

Today is my birthday and it went on like just another day in my boring life. The husband wished me for the heck of it and even bought me something, not because he wanted to but because I'd eat his head about it for the rest of his life, if he didn't show any gesture like that. I blame my parents and friends (and maybe my ex-boyfriends) for this. My mom threw me beautiful birthday parties when I was small and in my teenage years it was treats at restaurants and slumber parties at home. In college it was nights out with the friends and parties at clubs and gifts and flowers. And then, I got married- to someone who thinks all this is overrated-  and it abruptly stopped. Forget V day and anniversaries, (its just another damn day to prove you are stuck with the same guy..oh how I envy you single women), but birthdays are very special to me and I somehow expect something from the ONE person who fills my world. And because that one person doesn't care about the day enough, I end up brooding over my life so far and how I miss home and friends so so so much. I have cried on every birthday of mine for the past 6 years and I don't see that changing. So yesterday, I went and watched a romantic drama that made me cry from beginning to end (DON'T watch The Vow, its a waste of money), and today, I watched a horror movie (like being alone in the house wasn't enough) and made through the 95 minutes with my eyes closed, trying hard to not snap at the frikkin giggling girls sitting behind me. I then came back home, curled up on my sofa and did some more brooding (and fantasised about having a whirlwind of an affair with Mc steamy).

So since I'm not gonna be getting any cake today, I decided to post a chocolate cake recipe here. It's a cake I baked for Ro (yes I still go out of my way to make his birthday fun..call me nuts) a week back , when I'd invited some friends over. As you already know, I hate chocolate and anything to do with it. Chocolate cake tops the list of things I don't like and the fact that I've had a couple of disastrous results doesn't make it any better. Since Ro doesn't care what the end result of anything with chocolate is, I started off making this cake thinking its just going to be average. Boy was I wrong. I must admit that I've never wanted to taste a cake this much in my life. The moment it came out of the oven, I knew I'd like it. Unfortunately, I had to wait for one more day to cut it and taste it which was just too much to handle. But living with a husband who spends an hour (minimum) in the bathroom kinda takes your patience level a notch higher, so pat on the back for me. 

Its a super simple cake to put together and you can make a magnificent 2-layer (9 inch) cake with the said amount. If I'd tried to do the baking and filling and frosting all on the same day, I probably would have gone mad, which is why I decided to bake the cakes a day earlier and fill and frost the next day. It all worked out perfect and I was super proud of my organising skills :). I was a bit apprehensive as to how it would be when sliced into and held my breath when Ro cut into it, but everyone liked it and I didn't mind a piece myself. Ro, however, doused it with some whiskey and said it tasted even better. I don't like whiskey too much, but a bit of brandy would have probably been good. Just warning you, its not one of those super sweet cakes :)

Recipe for the cake adapted from here

Plain flour- 1 3/4 cups

Granulated sugar- 2 cups

Unsweetened cocoa powder- 3/4 cups (I used Dutch processed Green & Blacks)

Baking powder- 1 tsp

Baking soda- 2 tsp

Salt- 1 tsp (kosher, table or sea salt)

Buttermilk- 1 cup

Flavourless vegetable oil- 1/2 cup

Eggs- 2, large

Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Freshly brewed espresso coffee- 1 cup

For the ganache 

Plain chocolate- 200 gms + enough for grating

Double cream- 200 ml

Caster sugar- 2 tbsp (optional)

Whisk together the first 6 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. You can either do this using your wire whisk or if you have a free standing mixer, use the paddle attachment and on low speed combine all the dry ingredients together.

In another bowl mix together the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla extract till they all come together.

Add this to the dry ingredients and beat on low till well incorporated. 

With the beater still on low, slowly feed in the coffee and then bring up the speed to medium and beat until fully incorporated

Butter and line 2 9" pans and pour the batter into each. The best way to get more or less even size cakes are to weigh the batter in each tin. I usually do this, but this time I measured approx. 3 cups of batter for each  tin and got cakes of the same size.

Place the tins in the centre rack of an oven preheated at 176C and bake for 35 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean.

Take them out of the oven and leave aside to cool for about 15-20 minutes, after which you can turn it onto a wire rack and wait for it to cool completely.

While that's taken care of, make the ganache.
Chop the chocolate as finely as possible and place in a  heat proof bowl.
Bring the double cream to a boil in a sauce pan, over medium heat.
Take it off the flame and immediately pour over the chocolate.
Let it stand for a couple of minutes after which you can gently start stirring using a whisk or wooden spoon (without incorporating any air into the ganache) till you get a smooth glossy chocolate mix.
Add the caster sugar and gently stir until melted. Keep aside for 15 to 20 minutes for it to slightly harden. Not too much though.

Assembling
OK so you can basically use the ganache in three different ways- Fill the cake with whichever icing you prefer, put on the other layer, place the cake on a cooling rack and just pour the ganache on top, enabling it to drop off the sides as evenly as possible. Messy, but good shiny, glazed topping would be the end result.
Second would be to whip it up like how you do a normal whipped cream frosting. Bring the ganache to room temperature and whip on high for 2 minutes or so. This could work for cupcakes.
Third, would be to let the ganache harden a wee bit and then use it like how you would do for a butter cream icing, for more thicker frosting and piping designs...which is what I did.
Place the cake on a stand/plate in which you are going to serve.
Generously douse a layer of ganache on top, evening it out with a palette knife, as much as possible.
Place the second cake on top and do a crumb coating by doing up the entire cake in a thin layer of ganache. Try and smooth it out as much as possible. If you ask me, this is the hardest part of frosting a cake.
Keep aside to set for a while and then do the final coating...go ballistic with the remaining ganache and coat the entire cake..again, try and smoothen it out as much as possible.
Decorate with chocolate balls, wafers, chocolate shavings or just grate some chocolate on top and place it in the fridge.
Two hours before serving, bring it back to room temperature and slice using a knife dipped in hot water so you get a neat slice.
Enjoy with some vanilla ice cream or on its own.

Notes: Please use the best possible cocoa available. Dutch processed would be ideal.
One cake had a dome, so I had to slice a bit of the top using a serrated knife.
As I mentioned before, I'd baked the cakes the previous night and once they had cooled down completely, I wrapped them in cling film and stored in the oven at room temperature. They didn't dry out and was as moist as it should be.
Plain chocolate is different from dark chocolate and milk chocolate. Dark choc. would make this more bitter, but if you prefer that, go ahead with the option.
The espresso coffee can be replaced with instant fresh coffee. I put 2 tbsp of instant espresso powder into a cup of boiling water and used that.
I didn't bake both the cakes together because I only have one pan. I also have ready made cake liners (like massive cupcake liners) which I use religiously. So once cake 1 was done, I waited for 5 minutes, and moved it on to a cooling rack (with the cake liner). Placed cake liner 2 into the same cake pan, filled with batter and baked for the exact same time. Took it out and cooled as usual. This is probably not the best way to go about baking 2 cakes, but they both turned out gorgeous.


Linking this to the chocolatelove bloghop event over at Junia's 

Tender Lemon Cake...B'day bake for my babeeee

It was Ro's birthday last week and i decided to surprise him with a 4-layer cake with decorations and all that jazz. Did numerous searches online for cake decorating and went and bought everything only to realize i picked up the wrong baking flour..yeah i picked up wholemeal self-raising flour for cakes and bakes. Since i didn't want to waste the 1 kg flour, I decided to continue with it. It wasn't bad at all..although its like a mental block that AP flour should be used for cakes and bakes and i cant wait for it to get over asap, so i can buy some AP flour.

After I started, i realised it was going to be quite tedious and so cut down the four layer to two and the decorating bit...went for a toss. I learnt two lessons...not to shop in a hurry, no matter what and 2, cake decorating and icing is not my cuppa tea..i don't have the hand nor the patience for it. Next time, i should just stick to a general cake or maybe even buy one instead of slogging it out in the kitchen.

Lemon Cake (adapted from www.marthastewart.com)

AP Flour- 2 1/4 cups

Butter- 12 tbsp

Baking powder- 2 1/4 tsp

Sugar- 1 1/2 cups

Eggs- 3

Buttermilk- 3/4 cups

Lemon zest- from one medium lemon

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Heat the oven to 172 C, butter an 8 inch square or round tin.

Mix the flour, baking pwd and salt together in a mixing bowl.

In another bowl, with an electric beater on medium-high, beat the butter till light and fluffy. Add the sugar continue to beat. Reduce speed and add the eggs one by one, mixing well after each. Reduce speed to low and add the flour mix and buttermilk, alternatively...starting and ending with flour. Stir in the zest.

Pour the batter into the baking tray and cook till a toothpick comes out clean (I took a little over an hr). Remove and cool on a rack.

Basic butter frosting

Butter- 2 tbsp

Confectioners sugar- 1 cup

Milk- 2 tbsp

Colouring- 1/2 tsp (optional)

Vanilla extract-1 tsp

Cream butter and sugar well and add the extract, colouring and milk until mixture is smooth or consistent as per your requirement.

Once the cake has completely cooled, slice it in half and spread a thick layer of icing in between and sandwich the cakes. If you want icing on top, you can do so as well. Decorate with sugar shavings, figures etc.

Notes: For the cake, i thought the lemon zest was a bit too strong, so i would def. reduce it the next time. I used a red colour and mixed it well so i got a pinkish tint

My consistency was all wrong and i suffered while spreading the icing.

PS: Ro said the only thing missing was a 'My little Pony.' He was a bit taken aback with the pinks and purples and stars... So im naming this the 'My Little Pony' Cake.

Also, a Happy Valentines day you guys. Join in the stereotype and be all mushy and swishy and pink!