Berry Birthday Cake

This was the cake I made for my husband's birthday. Thanks to JoyTheBaker for this wonderful recipe. I really wanted to use fresh berries, but as it is winter here, I couldn't get it , have to be satisfied with the thawed frozen berries.

Vanilla cake batter..

Batter is ready to go in the oven..

Think I put a little bit more batter, cake got burnt at the edges..

Frosting for cake, at this point I was over the moon as it tasted really yumm...

Forgot some shots of layering the cake...

This recipe makes a 2 layer ,8-inch cake and some cupcakes..

Ingredients

• 225gm unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150C. Cream butter and sugar in a hand mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula in between.
2. Add eggs one by one, beating for one minute after each addition.
3. Whisk flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. In another bowl, combine milk with vanilla paste and vanilla extract.
4. Whisk in flour and milk mixture into the butter and sugar mixture in 3 batches.
5. Once it is combined ,stop mixing.
6. Pour into the greased cake tins about less than half of the pan.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the cake is pale golden color or a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
8. Let it cool down in the pan for 5-10 minutes and take it out.
9. Frost the cake only when it is cooled completely.

Vanilla Whipped Buttercream Frosting recipe..

Ingredients

• 225gm unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup All-purpose flour
• 1/2 Tbsp vanilla bean paste

Method

1. Take 1/4 cup of the milk in a saucepan and combine flour and vanilla paste. Whisk until no lumps are there. Add the remaining milk and cook in medium heat, whisking in between.
2. Reduce the heat once it starts boiling. Keep whisking until it thickens.
3. Remove from heat but keep whisking for couple of minutes. Allow the mixture to cool down completely. You can pop it in the freezer for sometime.
4. Cream the butter with hand mixture for one minute. Then add sugar and beat for around 10 minutes until it turns light and fluffy and the sugar is dissolved. Don't forget to scrape the sides of the bowl in between.
5. Add the flour milk mixture into butter and sugar mixture. Increase the speed to medium until the frosting is light and fluffy.

This is a perfect cake for a special occasion. Though it is time consuming, the end result is as sweet as butter cream frosting.

Blueberry Muffin

I didn't think about blogging the cooking experiments until one of my friends suggested to start a blog after seeing pictures of my cooking in my facebook page. So here's me kick starting my blog...

Everybody love muffins and I thought its very hard to make these. But I really wanted to make muffins and I tried several recipes, but it took me sometime to get perfect recipe.

Few things that I learned to make nice muffins are

• right oven temperature
• where to place the rack in the oven
• follow the recipe 

If you follow the recipe, I can guarantee you that the muffins will melt in your mouth.

This recipe makes 20-22 muffins..

Ingredients

• 3 cups All Purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 10 Tbsp butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cup low fat yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 1/2 cup blueberries (frozen or fresh)

Method

1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375F or 150C
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the vanilla essence.
4. Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat. Fold in the berries. If you are using frozen berries, take them from freezer just before mixing. Don't over mix it.
5. Coat each muffin cup lightly with a little butter. Or use one of those convenient vegetable oil sprays. Fill the muffin dough equally among the cups. Make sure to fill not more than half of the muffin cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick to make sure the centers of the muffins are done.

P.S If there is cups empty during baking, pour some water in those so that the heat will be evenly distributed in the muffin tray.

Happy cooking!