Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Strawberry Gateau | A double celebration

I know that I am late in posting the kid's monthly bake. But the week has been pretty hectic and emotional too. Baby munchkins turned another month older which means that he is running 11 now, which means that his head needs to be tonsured as per our family custom. Its a big emotional step for us as this ritual of the first tonsure is celebrated in the family and held close to the heart. The custom as laid by the elders said that the baby's head needs to be tonsured in his 11th month else the ritual needs to be postponed for 3 years. And so we decided to go for the first tonsure this week.

The weekend was spent on shopping and so the monthly bake had to be postponed. Infact I even thought of not baking it. But I just couldn't give it up that easily and so I set to bake as early as Sunday morning juggling between whipping up the breakfast, the cake and keeping an eye on the kid. I mixed the dry ingredients and whisked together the wet. Just as I was set to pre-heat the oven, I gazed at the clock... 45 mins to go to the 2-hours power shutdown.

Damn it... but thank god that I didn't mix the dry and the wet. So I put them aside and went out for another round of shopping. When I was back, I was totally exhausted and nothing could make me pull myself to bake the cake. It was only after dinner that the mood set in and so putting the kid to sleep, I set about to work. Having the whole kitchen to myself with no-one to disturb me gave me happy feet and I just danced about, happily doing one thing that I love in the whole world ~ 'bake'.

This cake is for his 11th month and for the first big celebration of my man kid.
The cake recipe, I adapted from Joy Of Baking with my own changes. I chose this cake because it does not use softened butter 'stead uses melted butter and is egg-free. So no need to fuss over bringing everything to room temperature and comes in handy on days when you missed taking your tub of butter and egg out from the fridge. Also the original recipe suggests this to be done in the same cake pan that you are gonna bake the cake ~ in short 'a no-bowl cake recipe'. How cool is that!!! But I was totally not into that concept (what if the cake stuck to the pan) and I didn't want to ruin my cake as I was not into baking another cake. And so I grabbed two bowls but you could try her way too and if you do, do tell me how it turned out.

P.S: I know that the cake layers are uneven. You know that I am clumsy and you also know that I suck at icing.
P.S.S: I am hoping to improve sometime in the near future, until then this is all I have got ;)

Recipe for cake-here
~*What U Need*~
For the chocolate cake:
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Brown sugar - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1
Granulated white sugar - 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder - 1/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 3/4 tsp
Butter - 1/3 cup, melted
Warm water - 1 cup
Vinegar/lemon juice - 1 tbsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

For the Strawberry preserve:
Strawberry -1 cup, chopped
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Water - 1/4 cup

For the whipped cream:
Cream - 1 cup
Icing sugar - 1/4 cup

How I Made it:
Preheat oven to 175 C. Grease desired cake pan. Whisk flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Mix egg, warm water, butter, vinegar and vanilla extract. Add this to the flour mixture and mix well with a whisk.

Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 mins. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

For the strawberry preserve, toss the strawberries with 2 tbsp sugar and set aside for 30mins. The berries will start shedding water. Add the strawberries, remaining sugar and 2 tbsp water to a saucepan and cook till soft and done. It should come to a jam like consistency. Allow to cool.

Whip the cream with the sugar to get stiff peaks, cool for 15 mins. Slice the cake into two. Spread a dollop of strawberry preserve and even out. Top with the whipped cream and smoothen out. Sandwich with the other cake half. Coat with remaining cream and decorate as desired with slice strawberries.

Slice and serve!!!

** My Notes:
** I used half brown sugar and half normal sugar but you could go with white sugar only. Also I gave it a whiz in the blender to powder it.
** The original recipe is eggless but I used an egg as I had actually taken one to bring it to room temperature and I didn't want to return it back to the fridge. You could make this eggless too.
** I used vinegar.
** I was out of whipped cream and so I made do with the crumb coat.
** You could make this cake with a plain sponge too.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!

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58 comments:

  1. Tasty looking cake, even I take my recipes from Joyofbaking and alter to my needs, nice clicks too.

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  2. Looks like a delicious strawberry gateau! Happy celebrations!

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  3. Cake looks beautiful, Vimitha..
    Best wishes to the little one.. :)

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  4. Wow ! Delicious flavored cake...
    http://recipe-excavator.blogspot.com

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  5. Delicious strawberry cake Vimitha. Enjoy each and every little occasions with your prince.

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  6. awesome i am loving it ...need it so badly..

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  7. wow..that looks yumm Vimi... very well explained.

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  8. I really don't care about your P.S. and P.S.S's Vimitha! :) Its after all a joyous occasion with a yummy cake! Hope you guys had fun! Cake looks delicious!

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  9. it looks really yum vimitha... does not even show that u made it in hurry... gr8 effort!!!

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  10. yummy and delicious:)perfect for celebration:)

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  11. Wonderfully done!! It does feel so delightful when you could spend some time undisturbed in the kitchen.. doesn't it...

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  12. It looks really very inviting and yummy. Perfectly done dear.

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  13. Hi Vimitha, happy celebration. Yous cake sure look very luscious. Love it, look so mouthwatering.

    Have a nice week ahead,regards.

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  14. Beautiful cake Vimitha.have a nice time

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  15. very tempting one dear... n wishes for your lil one...

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  16. looks delicious and tempting..

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  17. very tempting cake with the strawberry gateau....

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  18. All the best for your baby's head tonsure dear!
    I don't see any clumsiness in that cake icing! Love it ;)

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  19. Vimitha, it's a lovely cake! Never mind the uneven layers, a good cake is a good cake :)

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  20. love to have a slice,adorably delicious..

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  21. superb cake and lovely presentation..

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  22. I don't think I would wait for the whole cake to be done first. Would start eating right after the whipped cream layer..enjoy the little events with your little one. They grow very fast!

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  23. Enjoy these precious moments ....And it's neatly done dear...Wanna have a bite

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  24. Looks really delicious and eye appealing. Loved the clicks a lot :)

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  25. TEMPTING CAKE . NICE CLICKS TOO

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  26. So nicely layerd & presented..very tempting!!
    Prathima Rao
    Prats Corner

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  27. 2 hour power shutdown drives me crazy sometimes :( dont know for how long it will continue like this.. cake looks awesome vimitha..

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  28. Gorgeous cake Vimitha, very tempting dear..

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  29. Hmm...for my sister's daughter too they fixed on next month n she also 11 month old...
    GOrgeous cake Vimith, enjoy these precious moments, we missed it for Sanjay & Akshay :(

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    Replies
    1. Hmmm ya she is one week elder to him na. Thanks Sangee.

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  30. You have a nice collection,cake looks wonderful.When u r free visit my space.
    Sai Padma Priya
    www.soundaryasbeautyworld.com

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  31. Precious moments. Beautiful cake vimi, enjoy thoroughly and am sure you are going to have a beautiful time.

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  32. Fantastic cake..enjoy the precious moments...

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  33. Looks wonderul. You did a wonderful job i cant wait to try this.

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  34. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  35. Exotic it looks! Great work!

    Puja

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  36. very tempting cake dear,looks very yumm:)Wishing the little one a very happy birthday month!!

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  37. Looks great!! I love the combo!!

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  38. Cake looks fabulous. You ill do much better with practice:) just keep doing it!

    Best wishes for your baby!

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  39. Cake looks so yummilicious dear... Looks like your son is growing so fast :)

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  40. Vimitha, I love reading about you and your family. Also, thanks for including some customs, although I had to Google "tonsure". This is a lovely cake and we've all gone through times when we just could not get our cakes to look "great". Personally, I think yours looks very appetizing. Sorry if I don't get to comment on each of your blog posts, Vimitha, but I follow quite a few blogs and you do tend to post often. I don't know how you manage it with a baby in the house, LOL! Anyways, I'll get here as much as I can 'cause I really enjoy this.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Kathy for stopping by whenever you find time. Happy to know that my posts interests you. :D

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