Baker Days (review)

Recently an aunt of Ro's based in India, asked if we could get a birthday cake delivered to a cousin here and we went on a frantic search online for bakeries that did home delivery. Either they wouldn't deliver outside London or the rates for delivery was almost as that of the cake which made us wonder if it was ever possible to deliver a cake to someone special if required.

While highly leaning towards the 'not possible' mark, I received a mail asking if I could do a review for Baker Days, who sends personalised cakes for any occasion, anywhere in UK. I decided to give it a go and so went about checking out their website. With waaaay too many options to choose from., I was quite confused- Birthdays, Engagements, New Baby, Bon Voyage, and heck there is one for even passing your driving test. If that's not good enough then you can design your own cake by uploading a picture you like and getting than imprinted on the cake. 

 

So without wasting much time I went about ordering my cake. The website is pretty easy to navigate around and its as straight forward as it can get. You can select either the Letterbox size which would easily serve 2 to 3 people or the Medium party cake which should get you around 8 to 16 portions. Since it was just Ro and me, I opted for the Letterbox version, and also because I sooo badly wanted to see what they meant by this. You then go about selecting the flavour- plain, carrot, lemon or fruit and if you are gluten intolerant, there is an option for that as well. 

The husband being a chocolate addict, I had to order the double chocolate chip cake and since I didn't have a personalised message to put in, I left that, but it was really sweet of them to include those wordings on the cake :)

You then check out, pay for it and wait till it arrives. And when it did arrive, it was perhaps the cutest lil cake I'd ever seen. It comes neatly wrapped and snugly fit in a tin, so no cracks and such possible. Along with it in the box were balloons, candles, a party horn and a card. I thought that was indeed a great addition and quite considerate.

 

Taste wise, the cake was excellent, I mean super duper moist and chocolatey with those nuts in between, and both of us managed to finish the cake in no time. I seriously wonder how they manage to make them so moist in spite of it being packaged and sent. If there was one fault, well not fault really, but something my taste buds didn't quite enjoy was the icing which came across as a tad too sweet. But on my really good days, I'm sure even that sugar high wouldn't bug me. Also a couple more flavours like red velvet and caramel and fudge would have been a great addition.

Cake cost starts at GBP 14.99 and depending on the flavour and preference, rates increase marginally, but not exorbitantly high. There is also no delivery charge, unless of course you need speedy delivery or something to that extent.

I was thoroughly impressed with Baker Days and am pretty sure I'd be a regular. So next time you want to order a cake online and get it delivered to anyone, anywhere in UK, you know where to go right? Well, all my UK friends watch out, you may be the lucky one to taste one of these awesome cakes :)

With thanks to Baker Days for sending me a cake to review

Super moist chocolate cake

Sorry I have been MIA for a while. Work caught on pretty well and the fact that I was  am on a diet made me stay away from fancy cooking. Although I had tonnes of posts in my drafts, I wasn't in the mood to sit and pen down a whole blog post, edit the pics etc etc and it came to a point where I wasn't even signing into blogger and checking in on my fav bloggers. So if I haven't visited you guys in the near future, it is because of random stuff like this. 

I hadn't baked in ages, and somehow wasn't even having any withdrawals this time. But yesterday, we had a lil something to celebrate and I fell prey to the husbands nagging for a chocolate cake. Like I have mentioned loads of times before, I actually don't like chocolate that much. And every time Ro bugs me for a choc cake, I bake my moms easy Beat & bake chocolate cake which takes no time and you get the desired effect.

Was a bit in the experimenting mood yesterday, but not so much as to spend hours googling and grocery shopping, and so decided to head over to Marias Menu and borrow her recipe this time. Of course it was extremely moist like she said and pretty easy to put together as well. I didn't do the ganache or any frosting, since my love for plain cakes still rule. Even though I have restricted my in take to about one slice, the husband has been gorging on it non stop. So while I chew on those salads and fruit, you can go ahead and enjoy this yummilicious chocolate cake.

Recipe adapted from here

Milk- 1 1/2 cups

Butter- 100 gms 

Oil- 1/4 cup

Cocoa powder- 1/2 cup 

All purpose flour- 1 cup

Baking soda- 1/2 tsp

Baking powder- 1/2 tsp

Granulated sugar- 250 gms

Egg- 1 large

Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Pour into a sauce pan the milk, oil, butter and cocoa powder. Mix together on medium low heat till the butter completely melts. Keep aside to cool, stirring in between.

Into a mixing bowl throw in flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. Whisk to combine.

Add the beaten egg and vanilla extract followed by the wet ingredients.

Whisk/ beat well to combine all the ingredients. There shouldn't be any traces of flour visible. The batter would be really loose, but not to worry.

Pour into a 9 inch pan lined with baking paper, and place in the middle shelf of an oven pre heated at 180C for 45 to 55 minutes.

If making cupcakes, then reduce time to about 15 to 20 minutes.

Do the skewer test at around 45 minutes and then continue if required.

Take it out of the oven, let it rest for about 10 minutes and then turn it onto a cooling rack and leave it there till it cools down completely.

Slice and serve with some vanilla ice cream or store in an air tight container.

Notes: I added vanilla extract, because I like the vanilla taste in chocolate cakes.

Add self raising flour if you have it and omit the salt and baking powder from above.

The cake is not really sweet (for my liking at least) so it would pair really well with some ice cream. A ganache frosting would also be sufficient
The cake cracked a whole lot on top and since im used to it now, i didnt panic. I turned it over and sliced it. hence the neat surface :)

Double layer chocolate cake filled and frosted with a Baileys Irish cream ganache

OK, this was definitely not easy and I don't think it would make its way back into my kitchen. Not something ud want to hear from a food blogger, but seriously, it was no cake walk. You might have noticed that chocolate has not really made its presence felt on my blog. Its not because I dislike chocolate, but I don't really like it an awesome lot to actually give it a major importance either, unlike Ro who would worship the chocolate god (if there was one). He will only order a chocolate ice cream at Thorntons, have the Belgian dark choc ice cream from Haagen-Dazs and buy chocolate bars with more than 70 percent cocoa to munch on..all other chocolates are not 'real' chocolates, I believe.

Last week we had taken a Thorntons triple layer chocolate cake to a friends picnic party and Ro had been going on and on about how awesome it was and he wouldn't stop at that...but insist I bake a choc cake for him. My reaction was..if Thorntons tasted so darn good, why pester me..just head to Sainsburys and pick one up. Oh but that wouldn't be fun..he had to get his wife to slog it out and bake a choc cake which, by the way, I had already posted on my blog (My moms beat and bake chocolate cake which was the easiest cake ever). So something new I decided to try and since Thorntons was one of my inspirations or rather as a revenge I decided to go all out and bake a two layer cake and fill it and frost it. Bad idea, oh yes, incredibly screwed up idea, especially for someone whose concentration levels are zero, not to mention patience and laziness.

For starters, I only have one 9 inch cake pan and have to clean it, wash it, butter it and line it once I'm done with the first cake. This is such a waste of time because I have to wait close to 2 hours just to start on my second cake. So by the time I was done baking the cakes and cleaning up and bickering about making Ro happy, I was in no mood to frost and fill. So once the oven cooled down, I left them in there thinking I'd do it the next day. Went for a movie (Inception..awesome movie, its a much watch) which got over at 2.30 am, woke up at 12 the next day and was in a mood to have Saravana Bhavan meals for which we had to travel about an hour. So after all that chakkar, we got back home late and was again in no mood to frost and fill the cake (cake, what cake, by then I had actually forgotten about the cake altogether). When we were about to hit the sack Ro asked me like one lost puppy dog, 'can i have a slice of that cake you made yesterday,' and I suddenly realized I screwed up. Shouted at him for having no patience at all and promised I'd have it ready when he got back from work on Monday..and so I started the frosting and filling on two sad looking dry cakes on Monday. Not a pleasant experience working with ganache, and I really don't want to hear the word chocolate for a long long time. Even the photography session was an effort and it hasn't really come out well..apologies!

For the cakes:

Cooking chocolate- 200 gms, broken into pieces (good quality, preferably more than 60 percent cocoa)

Butter- 200 gms at room temp.

Instant coffee powder- 1 tbsp

Water- 125 ml

Plain flour- 85 gms

Self- raising flour- 85 gms

Soda powder- 1/4 tsp

Dark or light brown sugar- 200gms (I used dark)

Caster sugar- 200 gms

Cocoa powder- 25 gms

Eggs- 3

Buttermilk- 75 ml

Bring a saucepan with water to a boil. Simmer, place another heat-resistant cooking vessel on top of it and melt the butter and chocolate pieces. 

Dissolve the instant coffee in water and add to the chocolate mix. Stir well and keep aside.

Whisk together the plain flour, self raising flower, soda powder, both the sugars and cocoa powder. 

Whisk the eggs and buttermilk in a separate bowl and add to the flour bowl along with the chocolate mix. Stir well until just combined, do not over beat it.

Divide the batter and pour into two greased and lined 9 inch cake pans and bake in a pre heated oven (160C) for 60 to 70 minutes or till a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Once done, keep the cake on the rack for about 10 minutes, loosen the sides and insert on to the racks and wait till its completely cooled.

You can cling wrap it and keep it in the refrigerator a day before I guess (wink! wink!)

Baileys Irish cream ganache

Cooking chocolate- 150 gms, broken into small pieces (again more than 60 percent cocoa)

Baileys flavoured thick pouring cream- 285 ml

Caster sugar- 3 tbsp

Melt the chocolate like how I mentioned above and keep aside for a few minutes for it to lightly cool.

Add the whipping cream bit by bit, mixing well after each addition.

Add the sugar at last and mix well, till its dissolved completely.

Assembling:

Place one cake on a cake stand (ya I didn't have one and so struggled with it on a plate) and generously douse some of the ganache and spread it evenly.

Sandwich the other cake and pour the remaining ganache, making sure it spills to the sides and using a knife, smoothen it out (absolutely messy affair).

If you have left over chocolate, grate some onto the top, or dust some cocoa powder on top and dig in :)

Notes: I bought the Baileys pouring cream from the store, but add a 1./4 cup of Bailey's liqueur to the normal cream and ud be fine. Or you can even choose to avoid the baileys and go just chocolate.

Inspite of the cake being a bit dry, the ganache kinda made it ooey gooey..so no worries there.

If you have a taller cake tin, use that and then slice the cake into two equal halves, which would have made my life so much more easier.

PS: I have created a separate facebook account for my bloggie friends. Do add me if you are on FB. My id is mykitchenantics@gmail.com. You would probably see two Nisha Thomas profiles...do add the one that says Open Book by the side. I didn't want to mix my two accounts.

Beat and bake chocolate cake

Remember my 'sweet' cravings at night that i have mentioned before? Well, Tuesday night was one of those nights where i didn't want to have the Haagen Dazs Dulce de Leche ice cream in my freezer, but wanted an ultra moist cake instead. Ro hates it when i am still in cooking mode after he gets back home, and acts all cute saying its 'together time' and hates it even more if i need to use a blender at 9 in the night. So i gave him a choice...shopping and baking is therapeutic for me..so if it wasn't baking, then it had to be shopping and yes i wanted a Prada bag, nothing less than that :) He said shop, but do it right now...which I obviously couldn't and so I just decided to go ahead and bake. I wanted to bake this walnut upside down cake, but Ro begged and pleaded to bake a chocolate cake instead. He is so chocolate biased, and he tricked me into making this boring chocolate cake. Considering I made it in a matter of 1hr, it was nice and spongy and served the purpose, but i so don't want to make a boring chocolate cake on my 'bake or shop' day again.

This is adapted from my moms, extremely easy, Beat & Bake Chocolate Cake recipe.

(Post updated with new images)

All purpose flour- 110gms

Granulated sugar- 1 cup

Cocoa Powder- 45gms

Baking Powder- 3/4 tsp

Baking Soda- 3/4 tsp

Salt- 1/2 tsp

Oil- 1/4 cup

Egg- 1 large

Milk-1/2 cup

Boiling water- 1/2 cup (add 1/2 a tsp instant coffee powder once it starts boiling)

Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Pre heat oven to 180C

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add all the wet ingredients, except the boiling water.

Beat with a hand mixer or a wire whisk for about 2 to 3 minutes till everything is well combined.
Add the boiling water slowly. Mix it well into the batter. It may be a bit watery, but its ok.

Transfer to a greased 9inch cake pan or cupcake moulds or ramekins like what i did
Cook for about 35 to 40 minutes (depending on the cake pan used) or until a skewer comes out clean.

Cool for 15 minutes before you take the cakes out of the mould.

Notes: You can use a little less than 100gms of butter instead of oil.

My cupcakes were ready in about 32 minutes.

I greased some ramekins and poured the batter into those. I got 6 normal cupcakes and 4 ramekin puds.

The oven temp matters a lot here, so if you feel its not cooked in 40 minutes dont panic, just keep increasing 3 to 4 minutes and keep checking. 

Its a very forgiving recipe. You can easily double it, use as a layer cake, sheet cake, whatever you please.
If too dense, pour some caramel on top and make it a fudge cake :)