Amaretto Tiramisu Cake --- The Ultimate Celebration Cake !!

“ In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two.”-Erich Fromm

When you meet the person you want to spend the rest of your life with…you want the rest of your life to begin soon. Well this is what exactly happened when we met.

Its been two years since our wedding and am still amazed at how fast time flies.
I am madly in love, (more than ever) with the man I married two years back!!





I am the sort who loves both giving and receiving surprises….however small they may be. So had been preparing for the day excitedly…almost feverishly, for the entire month.
(That explains the silence at Zaayeka!)

And since we are out and out foodies….I had to quite literally whip up a storm, first in my head and subsequently in my kitchen.





Why in my head? Well, as you know by now, I love experimenting in my kitchen, pushing my limits and trying things I have never tried before. Barring a few delicacies, I try not to repeat a dish. (I have this personal desire to be able to make to as close to perfection, if not replicate, all the dishes of the world. Yeah I know quite a thought, but trust me I sometimes feel a life time is too short to try all the dishes existing on planet Earth.)

I love my man and as most of you will identify with; we blog-bakers want to show all our love with what we bake/cook in the kitchen. It was ‘our’ anniversary so had to bake a cake nothing short of gorgeous, both in taste and appearance.
Have baked quite a few cakes before (a few still unposted, rest in the archives) mostly using fruits as I love fruits in my cake. Hub however doesn’t care much about fruits in his desserts.

Black Forest Gateau was done last year, Red Velvet cake was for friendship day, Peach torte was for no good reason, Pineapple cheese-cake was just-like-that, Mango pastry went with a courtesy visit to a relative, Citrus cake for an in-law’s birthday……honestly my choices were getting limited in terms of cakes/tortes. Googled a lot and suggested recipes to the hub, each went into the recycle bin with a shake of the head.

(Did I forget to mention quite unlike me he gets picky when it comes to desserts and can gladly skip chocolate. Me on the other hand loves anything with chocolate.)
The cake had to satisfy all the criterions… have chocolate without being too chocolaty, have some sort of nut without being pronounced, no fruits, had to be a layer cake etc etc…S-I-G-H !!

Last week while I was lying wide awake in bed at night, it hit me that I have never made Tiramisu..yet! Then the next thought was can I make a Tiramisu cake?! Told hub excitedly next morning…..he was fine with that but was a little inhibhited about that much coffee in the cake.

Now, we ‘like’ coffee but do not ‘love’ it. An occasional frappe or something is fine, and when I use coffee to give depth to my chocolate cakes is admissible, but that is it. (We don’t take tea or coffee frequently. We are flavoured-milk children.) ;p

Back to square one….thought and thought and thought when luck struck! I was rummaging through the cupboard when I noticed this unopened bottle of Amaretto staring back at me. Tan-ta-ran!! My glee knew no bounds. Headed straight to the kitchen to live the dream I had just seen with wide-open eyes.

This cake was a real delight to make, spread over three days, plus two days to let the flavours set in and mingle before D-day arrived.

Instead of the lady fingers I made a regular genoise (yes with clarified butter/ghee). The crumb/texture of the genoise was light, tender and moist. Sliced it into two. Baked another layer of chocolate sponge, only this time with a little more coffee.

Was still apprehensive about the taste as I have never tasted an Amaretto Tiramisu ever. So to atleast make the cake look appealing decided on making a chocolate rose…yet another first!

** Will add a video-tutorial later,(without the use of corn syrup). In the mean time for those of you who cannot wait here is the link from wherein I got my inspiration.

Made it right after I made the sponges and was pleased with my artistry...more so this successful rose gave me the courage to go ahead with the rest of the recipe I had decided…kinda’ good omen. (fingers crossed!)

Enjoyed making mascarpone. Luxurious and indulgent. Touched up the mascarpone ganache with some semi-sweet chocolate chips and strong brewed coffee. Decided on a plain white amaretto-infused-mascarpone icing.

A day before D-day finished the icing et al, sans the chocolate rose. Wanted to surprise the hub, by placing it at the last minute.

Cut it at midnight and can’t express the feeling of this creamy heaven in the mouth. YUM!

Hub was delighted beyond words and kept admiring the rose while spooning the relish into his mouth…before the congratulatory calls inundate ‘the moment’…..lol.
As for me, I was glad he loved it, though he didn’t say it in words…his eyes said it all.
(My man is of few words….one of the reasons I fell in love with this man-boy, and still so in love with !) *blush*

Amaretto Tiramisu Cake

Ingredients-


For the Mascarpone Frosting-
1 lt. low-fat cream (25% pasteurized)/organic cream
1 1/2 tbsp fresh lime juice

aprrox. 7 tbsp confectioners' sugar

(frosting/icing)
1 tbsp amaretto liquer, plus extra for soaking the sponges

(filling/ganache)
1/2 tsp strong brewed coffee
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips,melted/microwaved on high for 30 secs.


For the Plain Genoise-
3 tbsp clarified butter/ghee
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
2/3 cup fine granulated vanilla sugar/plain sugar


For the Chocolate sponge-
2 eggs
1/3 cup plain flour
3 tbsp unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
1 tbsp instant coffee powder
2 tbsp butter at room temperature
1/3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp corn starch
a pinch of salt
1/3 cup fine granulated sugar

Flaked almonds for decoration

Method-

First prepare the mascarpone.

Bring about 2 inches of water to a boil in a wide skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering.
Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet. A double boiler of sorts. Keep stirring on medium flame. About 15-20 mins of deliacte heating.
Add the lime juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles.
All that the whipping cream will do is become thicker, like a well-done crème anglaise. It will cover the back of your wooden spoon thickly. All you will see would be just a few clear whey streaks when you stir.
(It will not curdle the way milk curdles when you make cottage or ricotta cheeses.)

Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four-five layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface, it will firm up on its own during the refrigeration time. Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.

Add the confec. sugar to this mascarpone cream and whisk by hand till combined.
Set one third of it aside.

To the remaining two-thirds, add the melted choco-chips and coffee brew. Mix together till you get a creamy texture. This is the filling.

To the one-third, add amaretto and hand-whisk till smooth. This is the outer frosting.


Next make the genoise.

Preheat the oven to 180 degress C. Line, grease and flour an 8 inch cake pan.
Sift the flour thrice.
Bring some water to a boil in a large pan/griddle & reduce to simmer. Place eggs & sugar in a large bowl, whisk constantly over the simmering water, heat the eggs to lukewarm.
Remove the bowl from the pan. With an electric mixer, beat the egg mixture at high speed until it has cooled, tripled in volume, and resembles softly whipped cream, about 5 minutes in a heavy-duty mixer or longer with a less powerful mixer.(I used elbow grease and it took me about 10 mins to get the desired result.)

Sift a third of the flour over the whipped egg mixture. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the mixture-quickly but gently-until combined. Fold in the rest of the flour too.
Then add melted ghee/clarified butter in a stream as you keep incorporating it into the batter. Add the vanilla extract at this point.

Pour the batter into the lined pan and bake at 180 degrees C for 35 minutes or so, till the edges of the cake shrink slightly and the top springs back on touch.
Cool and umould onto a wire rack.

Slice the cake into two once completely cooled or you will risk getting crumbly uneven slices. This genoise stays well if cling wrapped, for 3-4 days in the fridge or upto 2 months in the freezer.


Now for the chocolate sponge.

Seive all the dry items together three times.
Cream the butter and sugar together till pale. Add the eggs and beat well till fluffed up to double its volume.
Fold in the dry ingredients into the wet. Pour into a lined 8 inch cake pan.
Bake at 180 degrees C for 35 minutes app.
Cool on wire rack.



For the assembly----

Place one layer of the plain genoise on the cake serving platter.
Sprinkle with amaretto liquer.
Top with some of the filling. Place the chocolate sponge layer next.
Sprinkle this with amaretto liquer too.
Top with the filling. Place the final/top genoise layer.
Sprinkle with amaretto liquer.
Spread the mascarpone-amaretto frosting on top.
Spread the remaining filling on the sides of the cake.

Decorate the borders with almond shavings.
Adorn the cake with the chocolate rose and leaves.

Note: I did not use any simple syrup to soak the sponges as the Amaretto liquer is sweet. If you desire you can add sugar to the soaking syrup, for a sweeter cake.

Also, made....
Mexican Chicken Pizza

and Tandoori Paneer (Barbequed Cottage cheese) Pizza

alongwith some sun-dried tomato pesto layered garlic rolls

....for a truly wonderful brunch.
(Recipes coming-up!)

Glad to be back....with Dates & Almonds Moon(cake) Cookies

“Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!”

So I am back from Malaysia -Truly Asia, my short holiday with my best friend (read my hub). The last few days have been crazy, we’ve seen and done so much, I will try and give you a concise run down!

We reached Kuala Lumpur and drove down to surrounding villages/beach villas and also spent a day at Gentings- the world famous ‘city of entertainment’. As you must have guessed my bones refuse to budge anymore…lol. I am tired yet exhilarated and refreshed …all at the same time.
(No one can understand a woman…not even she herself! ;p)

Please pardon me for not sharing all my personal pictures and other details of our holidays in this post, as I have my apprehensions because of a previous bad experience. And since this is a Food Blog I will restrict my escapades to the culinary world alone.

Talking of food, what was most intriguing were the meal times here. Malaysians have four meals in a day, like most of us—breakfast, lunch, dinner (at 7.30 pm) and supper at around 11-12 pm in a Mamak Stall.
A Mamak Stall was the very first thing we saw in Malaysia (after the international airport that is), when our friends took us there for a midnight snack of Tea Tarek, Chicken satay, Roti Chennai and Nasi Lemak .

My first lunch was delightful here…the waiter travelling around with his trolly complete with dim sums in all varieties ..steamed, deep fried, sticky chicken rice-buns, some other tasty morsels the names of which I don’t remember yet their taste still lingers on my tongue.

Being high on soups I tried the famous Thai Laksa at the Food Republic here with lots of chilli (hot hot!) and Tom Yam at a Resturant. Ha Mee at Chinatown was a winner with prawns and stir fried noodles.
Malaysian food is basically a mix of different cuisines –Indian, Chinese, Islamic, Thai, Korean, Indonesian etc. so it has something for even the most picky eaters.
You can read more about this cuisine here.

Apart from the regular touristy things we also visited places like Chinatown, Little India that had some character and it was a pleasure browsing the streets.
Putrajaya was miraculously quiet and spotlessly clean. Although we could not enter the Putra mosque the domed structure was very overwhelming.
We were lucky as we visited KL during the Thai Possum festival and could see the serpentine queues of devotees piercing their bodies to prove the purity of their soul and get their wishes granted at the Batuk Caves. I was told that if at piercing ur cheeks/or other body parts like toungue etc no blood oozes that is an indication that your soul is pure. (I have no intentions of confirming this theory though.)

The KL tower was good but I was mesmerized by the renowned KLCC Twin Towers. Had read a lot about this engineering marvel and there I was walking on its bridge. The drive from KL to Gentings was picturesque and inundated with wonderful flowers and tress, very scenic and calming. The theme park was 'relatively' not very big but was surely fun. ‘Sky Venture’ was one of my favourite rides. We stopped at the Genting Temple on our return to KL and it was here that I saw the deep connection of Malaysia with India…the 18 immortals of the Malay Buddhism, all hailed from the ‘land of milk and honey’.

As for shopping I shopped more for food items than clothes/accessories as far as I can remember. Infact all my souveniers were also food items. ;p
Goji berries, dried guavas (something I had never seen before), large sunflower seeds, chicken floss, exotic nuts etc. And oh yes I bought some art & craft stuff too like the paper lanterns, paper mache birds and various kind of beautiful beads.(For those who don’t know, my creativity is also vented out in crafts and paintings!)
We returned the second day following the 15th day of the Chinese New Year and have been catching up on sleep since then. (Honestly I can sleep more ….snorezzzzzz!)


Ok I will not take any more of your time, ranting about my fun and frolic Malaysian holiday. Instead I will share with you what I made recently.
Note: I could not take pictures of all the stuff we ate, less people think I am crazy. My apologies to my readers!

I do not know the Chinese name of this cookie, so I call it the Moon Cookie because of the mooncake-mould imprints. The mooncake craziness is the direct result of me buying my first wooden mooncake mould, when we went to China (Shenzhen etc) last year.

This is another one from my ever growing list of culinary adventures. It was inspired by the cookies I bought at the Hong Kong Brands and Products Expo, around the time of CNY and couldn’t wait to duplicate it at home.
The only difference being that I baked them with dates and almonds paste instead of the orthodox lotus seeds’.
It is an unusual take on this traditional pastry that came out more crumbly like a cookie. Never the less a tasty treat and fun to make.



Dates & Almonds Moon(Cake) Cookies
Ingredients-

For Pastry-
½ cup plain flour
½ cup almond meal
1 tbsp corn flour
½ cup fine sugar
1 tbsp rice flour
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
¼ cup margarine
2 tbsp or less buttermilk


For Filling-
¼ cup ground almonds
1 cup pitted dates, finely chopped and ground to a paste and cooked for a minute over low flame.
1 tsp ground cinnamon powder
2 tbsp golden syrup (can be substituted with brown sugar, adjust according to desired sweetness)

**Combine all the ingredients for the filling together in a bowl.


Method-
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
In a large bowl combine the margarine and sugar and microwave them together for 30 seconds on high. Allow to cool.
Beat together the egg and buttermilk and add this to the cooled margarine+ sugar bowl.
Add the remaining dry ingredients to this bowl. Mix until well combined with a wooden spoon. Knead the dough onto a floured surface, adding extra flour until it forms a ball that can be easily handled.

Now for the fun part—
Divide the dough into small parts (according to your mould size); flatten and place a spoonful of the filling in the center. Pinch to close and place in a mooncake mould, which has been dredged with flour. Pat down well to completely cover the mould, then knock the mould to remove the cookie.

Tip: Keep your palms floured at all times while pressing the filled cookie dough into the mould.

Place on a lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool before consumption. Store in an air-tight container.
It tastes best if eaten after two days.

Sorry but I couldn’t help sharing this interesting piece on mooncakes—
Mooncakes were used as a medium by the Ming revolutionaries in their espionage effort to secretly distribute letters in order to overthrow the Mongolian rulers of China in the Yuan dynasty. The idea is said to be conceived by Zhu Yuanzhang and his advisor Liu Bowen, who circulated a rumor that a deadly plague was spreading and the only way to prevent it was to eat the special mooncakes. This prompted the quick distribution of the mooncakes, which were used to hide a secret message coordinating the Han Chinese revolt on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month.
Another method of hiding the message was printed in the surface of mooncakes as a simple puzzle or mosaic. In order to read the encrypted message, each of the 4 mooncakes packaged together must be cut into 4 parts each. The 16 pieces of mooncake, must then be pieced together in such a fashion that the secret messages can be read. The pieces of mooncake are then eaten to destroy the message.




I share this wonderful recipe that I have duplicated, with Copycat Recipes at Palachinka. If you want to drool over more do stop by Jennifer- The Domestic Goddess' blog.

Edited: My in-laws are coming over to visit us tomorrow for a week, its their first visit here so will be busy again. Will try to post something , however if I don't please understand my inability! Love you guys. *hugs*

Sweet Surrender--Nut 'n' Fruit Maalpua

"I prefer to regard a dessert as I would imagine the perfect woman: subtle, a little bittersweet, not blowsy and extrovert. Delicately made up, not highly rouged. Holding back, not exposing everything and, of course, with a flavor that lasts." ~Graham Kerr

Picture this, its 4.15 am here. I wake up just to drink water and end up writing this blog post (which incidentally I had decided would do tomorrow..err...today in the normal waking hours that is). Needless to say I am a blogoholic...but I ain't complaining.


I made this dessert yesterday. It was the result of visiting Jenn's blog sometime back,which had challenged bloggers to create a dish with the following three ingredients- bananas, rice, coconut (or coconut milk). This was for the Royal Foodie Joust, and the ingredients were given by Cynthia (of Tastes Like Home) who also is sponsoring the prize for this Iron Chef competition, her book My Caribbean Cookbook, Tastes Like Home.

How could I keep myself away from this challenge (especially because its my first one) !!








Indian cuisine is known throughout the World as a sweet cuisine because almost half of its dishes are either sweets or desserts. Actually, Indian sweets have made Indian food famous throughout history, and they have been accommodated to European and North American menus.



The 19th century renaissance in Bengal brought about a dramatic change in the lives of Bengalis in Calcutta. It is during this time that Calcuttans witnessed the birth of several sweetmeat shops.


And Calcuttans are notoriously known for their sweet tooth. Yours truly is a live example.

Food has always been a weakness for the Bengalis. Studying their food habits since the yester years you will be appalled to find the time and money they spent on food. They were never hesitant in throwing parties and if, for the sake of it, they had to exhaust all their wealth they never did mind. Not only in marriage ceremonies, any occasion to them was a party time (like almost all Indians) and in these parties lavish expenditure on food reduced many to a pauper.

Bengalis, like their brethrens from all parts of India, have been winners in all the delicacies they have presented to the world. Not just mutton, fish and vegetables but the variety of confections and array of fruit dishes have always overawed the gluttons of the world.

I present to you my version of the famous maalpua (luscious pancakes soaked in syrup).

Nut 'n' Fruit Maalpua

Ingredients-

For pancakes-

4 cups rice flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup dessicated coconut

2 ripe bananas, mashed to pulpy form

10-12 black peppercorns-- ( to add a little heat to the otherwise sweet dish)

3 tbsp golden raisins
5 tbsp chopped blanched almonds
1 tbsp fennel seeds

1 cup broken jaggery pieces, finely chopped/broken/ground-- (can substitute this with sugar )
2 cups lukewarm milk

1/2 cup or less tepid warm water-- (the heat helps in dissolving the jaggery pieces)

oil for deep frying

For syrup-

3 cups sugar

3 cups water

1 tsp cardamom powder

Method-
In a big bowl, mix well with a wooden spoon, all the ingredients for the pancakes (except water).

Then slowly add the water(as per requirement) to form a thick batter of pouring consistency.

Note: The batter should not be too viscous, it should be slightly thinner than a cake batter, but not too thin.

Prepare the syrup by boiling together the sugar and water. Add the cardamom powder. Once the syrup is soft ball consistency (that is ek-taar or single thread consistency). Remove from heat.

In a deep bottomed pan, heat oil to smoking point. Reduce the heat to medium flame.

Now, using a ladle pour the batter carefully, one at a time into the hot oil.

Tip: I suggest use half full ladles to make small pancakes as they are easier to manage and don't take long to cook.

Deep fry. Once cooked/browned take out from the oil and dip straight into the syrup.

Repeat the process, till all the batter is used. Let soak in the syrup for a couple of minutes.

For serving- lift the pancakes out from the syrup carefully and place them on a plate. Garnish with flaked almonds. Serve while still warm for optimum taste.

The maalpua will be soft and spongy in the middle while crsip on the edges, with syrup oozing out each time you dig in with your spoon.

The bananas make it moist while the coconut and dried fruits add the nutty flavour. Ofcourse the peppercorns innundate the sweetness while the fennel enhances the aroma alongwith the cardamom.

A truly royal bengal treat! :p

A Request- If you guys liked this recipe, I would request you to vote for this dish, on the FoodieBlog Forum, once the voting starts for this month's January '09 Joust here.