For the past few days, ever since India beat Australia in the Quarter Finals World Cup Match cricket has been the talk of the town. From Facebook updates to my college chain mails to newspaper articles- wherever you go – the India Pakistan match is the topic of conversation. I can only imagine the excitement in my hometown Mohali, where the match is being played today. The advertisers, airlines, hotels, all are cashing in on the much anticipated match. Jokes on Afridi and his men are doing the rounds among Indians on social networking sites while the Pakistinis are doing the same on their pages for the team in blue. The mind games have begun on both sides. After long I have been excited about a match- I think there is something about playing Pakistan that triggers every Indian’s blood and the do or die spirit takes over. Defeating Pakistan is for most Indians like winning the world cup. Every Indian today is praying that India wins- I have no more nails left to bite!

Putting the excitement aside for a while, I completed my first Daring Bakers challenge, although a little late! *Victory clasp!*

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

Jamie found this recipe on a piece of yellowed paper in her dad’s collection of clipped out and hand-written recipes from the 1970’s, no source, no date, and she tried the recipe and it was brilliant!

This entry was supposed to be posted on the 27th but since I was busy packing, travelling, shopping, packing again and more travelling, only now I got the time to bake for the challenge. I enjoyed myself thoroughly in this challenge. The recipe yields two cakes and thought I would do one savory version and one sweet.

While the sweet dough kneaded to form a sexy (as Ria and Jamie put it)!, elastic and smooth dough, I had a tough time with the savory dough- I just could not get the elasticity called for in the dough. I used the bread maker’s dough cycle, then used my own muscle strength and boy how I used them! I’m sure tomorrow I’ll have sore muscles- yes I had to knead THAT much!

I also had trouble with the dough rising. It took longer than usual and did not rise as much as I hoped it would. One mistake I did with the sweet dough, which could be a reason for the not rising problem is that when heating the milk with water and butter- the milk almost boiled and it was still quite hot when I poured it in the flour mixture. But, that still does not explain why the savory dough did not rise. Maybe the yeast?! Hmmm…..Anyways the dough eventually did rise.

In the savory version I thought of putting cheddar cheese and have mentioned so in the recipe but when I got to rolling of the dough I realised that I had no grated cheese on hand. Pressed for time as the match had started (the long rising time changed my whole schedule- I was supposed to have been done with baking by the time the match was to start), I put parmesan cheese- but would still recommend the cheddar cheese.

I decorated the savory yeasted cakes by painting on it using a coffee-yolk mixture. (To see how to paint on your bread check this out!) For  painting I did not have a brush. I used an unused lipstick brush from my kit. Of course I washed it thoroughly. The things I do for baking!

The oven still gave me problems while baking- it does not heat evenly. So I had to make sure that I keep shifting the trays. It also took me longer than the stated time to bake the yeasted cakes as they were not getting brown from the top-nor was the hollow sound coming. As a result the sweet yeasted cake got burned from the bottom. I miss my own oven!!:(

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I was reading an article today that talked about how within just 6 days the Japanese repaired a section of the Great Kanto Highway that had been badly damaged by the earthquake. The article further goes on to state that many workers returned to their jobs only a day after the earthquake and subsequent tsunami and some businesses in the worst-hit regions have already reopened.

My prayers go out for the people of Japan who have suffered such grave loss, and hearing such stories of the Japanese determination just strengthens my belief that if any one nation has the power to rise again after such a tragedy- it is Japan. It emerged triumphant from the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and even now they will rise again. No wonder they are called the land of the rising sun!

Its such a simple lesson that one can take from the Japanese tragedy and the fortitude of the Japanese people- one could either resign and sit after such a disaster and accept it as nature’s will or one can stand up and be determined to get back on his/her feet.

Not that my tragedies in the kitchen are even remotely related to what Japan has gone through and is still going through, but the lesson learnt is to never give up and some wrongs can be made into a right if you have the will and determination along with some creativity.

I have joined the Daring Baker’s gang and February would have been my first DB challenge. But I failed in completing it as my first attempt was a failure and I was busy travelling after that to give it another shot. The challenge was to make Panna cotta and florentine cookies. My first attempt at Panna cotta was a big flop. It would not have been such a flop had I not used silicon muffin moulds for setting the Panna cotta. I am assuming so because the ones I left to set in the ramekins turned out fine. But out of the 13 servings I had, I put only four to set in the ramekins. Since I these were to be served for a party of 8 I knew I had to think of another way to serve them or make a completely different dessert. So instead I set out to make a chocolate Zucchini cake. Now, that is another story!

For the Zucchini cake- my parents bought a new oven and it was the first time I was baking a cake in it. I was scared- I had made buns earlier in it and they browned too quickly from the bottom and not from the top. So I knew the oven did not have even heating and I would have to keep a constant watch. If technical issues were not enough, human error on my part made sure that a disaster was on its way. I decided to use an angel cake pan for the batter. I knew that I would need another pan so I greased a small loaf pan too. But, I don’t know why, when I started pouring the batter I thought I should be good with only the bundt pan. I should have known better to not overfill. There was a voice that did tell me to pour the batter in the other pan as well (and it was right there- all greased up), but I was left with only a ladleful (or so I thought) and thought I should be able to manage with one pan. And in spite of my better judgement I filled it to the top. I knew it then and there I made a mistake.

And then it happened. Like lava the cake batter started overflowing from the pan and touching the sheet pan I had put underneath the rack. And my heart sank. It overflew and dropped on the pan and started burning since the sheet pan was on the lower most shelf and the house smelt of burnt cake, even though on the middle rack the cake was still baking. There was smoke all over and once the batter stopped falling from the pan, I removed the sheet pan and removed the burnt cake batter. The cake, once baked, was in no shape to serve as is, though it tasted really good.

The party was the same night and I had two failed desserts, albeit tasty! I did have the crumbs from the cake and a smooth, partially set panna cotta. I decided to make parfait like desserts with the two disasters. And boy, were they a hit. The creaminess from the panna cotta combined with the moist, chocolatey cake made a perfect dessert! (Of course, individually too they make fabulous eats!)

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This picture is from the original post- taken with my beloved iPhone:)

So 19th/20th was our first wedding anniversary. V and I completed one year and would you believe it, we could not celebrate it together! I am in India and he is in the States and though he tried he could not get leave from office.

The reason why I mention two days is because we had our Hindu wedding (V is Hindu) on the 19th of March and our Sikh wedding (I am Sikh) on 20th March. Lot of people are kind of taken aback when I tell them ours is an arranged marriage because generally in Indian culture arranged marriages happen within the same religion and only in cases of love marriages, people of different religions marry. While his family and most of my family consider our anniversary to be on the 19th, my grandparents take 20th as our wedding anniversary. I don’t mind it because it gives me two days to celebrate! It also is a good save for people who forgot or couldn’t wish me on the 19th, and a few did use that as an excuse.

Now, since I am at my in-laws and it was our first anniversary and my first trip to India after marriage, my in-laws wanted to invite V’s relatives so that I could meet all of them. My in-laws always hire a cook when they throw a party at home. So the main course and snacks were all the cook’s responsibility. I was pretty impressed by the speed with which this guy cooked. He came at 12 in the noon on the day of the party and within 5 hours prepared 4 different snacks and 6-7 main course dishes! I wish I could work so fast. I guess that’s how the real professionals work.

Since the food was the cook’s responsibility, I thought of making the dessert. I had been itching to make this triple layer chocolate cake for days, and had luckily saved the recipe. I also wanted to try these chocolate roses I had seen on Cake on the Brain a while back. Unfortunately, I did not save the tutorial for the roses and when I sat down to make the cake I did not have the recipe nor the method to make the roses as there was some problem with the internet. I did remember that the recipe called for dark chocolate and corn syrup but had no idea about the proportions. Nor did I have corn syrup on hand so I used sugar and water instead. As a result, I did end up goofing the roses a bit but nonetheless was able to pull off some passable roses.

I think I did over bake the bottom layer a tad bit even though it was in the oven for less than 14 minutes but since I was using a microwave oven I think it baked faster! So do keep an eye on the bottom layer while baking as different ovens will vary in temperature and baking time. Also, as suggested by some on Annie’s Eat, I did not butter the sides of the spring form pan as mentioned in the recipe. But, I feel because of that and over baking, the cake cracked on top. I would still suggest you to not butter the sides, since by greasing, the bottom layer retracts from the sides giving way for the second layer to fill the gaps, resulting in just two layers to be shown on the outside.

I was double minded to post this recipe since the pictures did not come out too great (*update*: I have updated the pictures and they are definitely much better than the original one I posted) as 1) the cake could have been prettier and 2) I hurriedly took the pictures as I had to rush for a “phoolon ki holi” party (it was my first time at such a party and the concept behind it is that people play Holi- a spring time Hindu festival – by throwing flowers at each other!). But, the cake was such a big hit at our party and everyone just loved it. I have to admit it does taste heavenly- c’mon! three different chocolate layer- how could one go wrong! So, despite not-so tempting pictures I would still insist you should try this cake out- you will surely not be disappointed! Promise!

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