BAREFOOT CONTENSSA'S POUND CAKE's- COME JOIN US IN INA'S GARDEN

Bursting with citrusy notes and with a hint of wonderful Vanilla , this pound cake is fragrant and soft and the best pound cake i ever had......

And it couldn get any easier and quicker , how easy is that.....

Goodness of butter in every bite ,specs of Vanilla peeping thru and moist and soft...

This cake may keep well , but i really dont know , coz this one was gone faster than i knew...
Ad u will see this cake gets smaller , as i shoot it , yeah , thats how good it is , and shoot the pics , when no body is around :-) or maybe u too....

I would have loved to have u see all the pics of the cake , along with step by step pics , but will save that for another time.
I baked this one thrice over , with different variations as given below , and the results were amazing each time...

A CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CAKE

Its noon and as i look outside i see the blazing sun , shining and hot , its cool in , actually cold enough to have a coffee and cookies , which i am after many a days.

Firstly i apologize for not replying to all ur sprinkle fairies on my previous post and i will now and catch up with ur blogs too.
The move is not complete and when its in bits and parts due to some pending work or otherwise , it does bring a lot of change in ur schedules.
Wasnt really complaining but truly enjoying it totally , till something very sad happened mid way and brought life to a stand still , and i m still getting over the nightmare.
There is a lot on my mind and heart right now , sad stuff , and i dont really reach out when am sad.

 Till i begin baking again ( well the oven aint connected yet), had to share with u these cute Chocolate cakes that i baked from the very cute book Chocolate Chocolate , complete with a pink cover.

Baked these ions ago , but still think they are cute , and had these pics staring at me for a long time.
There are different flowers to go and a nice chocolate glaze too.

I dont have the book with me right now , but would love to share the recipe with anyone who wants to bake these.

They have melted chocolate in them, and i did these with milk chocolate , but am sure dark chocolate would be even better.

Which one do u like the best?

I love dolls , as muc i do teddies , so here is one...

I love the glaze , its so good and slices pretty too.
And smeared with some Nutella , they get even better.

Nice yummy cake....love the little adorable specs o Vanilla , dont u?

Oh a little bite.....

So leaving u with some love in a chocolate cake and will catch u soon.

Till am back again , do any of u have any links recipes for cakes or cookies or the like but to be baked in a normal microwave , the one we use for heating food , not with the oven option.

I did find one cake and must try that one soon , but am looking for more recipes , so can bake a bit till the oven is connected (and i pray its soon)

XoXo

Mia.

WHERE DID IT GO WRONG ????- MARCH CHALLENGE

It got preponed and postponed and preponed and postponed again and yet again postpoed today. There was the polishing and that little rod and the chimney and exhaust fan that clashed ....oh dear...

Yeah we the family of Bright Morning Star are moving , to a new home , a new world , and whole new excitement.

It ain't exactly what we were looking for , but am happy , very happy , specially with my ''pink room'', yeah its pink and there are ruffles in satin and pink to keep me happy, plus princess sheets and comforters ...yeah in pink and that little ''princess pink night lite ''everything is cute and i love it.....

And to match i have 2 pink streaks in my hair , yeah that my real hair in pink :-)

The oven seems wonderful too and i cant wait to bake there.

Loved open kitchens and this one has one , and airconed for those warm hot days.....

But there is activity happening in my present kitchen ,lods of it , in between , checking on workers and stuff and packing n running around looking for that perfect lobby table and chest of drawers....

There are goan curries being simmered and rice being steamed , salads being chopped and lods of fruits juices being downed ....the summer is moving towards its peak and its getting warmer ....

Well ,where baking goes , i personally packed up most of my stuff , coz i dont want the packers and movers to handle that :-)

The only baking am doing is cakes , lovely cakes of different kinds ( the best ever ) ,and i do plan to post about them and all the variations i am trying.

Since things dont go as planned , we aren't yet there this weekend , wish we were , cant wait to get all my goodies set in the kitchen.

The first morning there with slices if my fav cake and Vanilla sugar and coffee.....the day spend in getting things in place and cleaning up.

While am at this , i so need help , i baked my first pound cake a bit back and this was the little disaster i had, am sure one of u guys will tell us where and what really happened ....

The excitement to post my Cake slice post does'n seem to be too low , considering i had a mishap , and the first time something like this even happened to me.

Coz i know i am baking along with a very wonderful group , u all , and i know ur inputs will be of great help to me and bring peace to my thoughts of what went wrong where.

I have step by step pics , which was to post for my official post on the blog , and i might jus want to try this again , after reading what u all have to say.

The only change i really made was to halve the recipe , and bake in a small loaf pan and 3 little cupcakes.

I filled the pans 3/4 th and i have filled the pan more than this and never had a spill and defiantely not this kind of a spill, where everything keeps bubbling thru and spilling till the point of time i shut off the oven.

To begin with the hot cream with coco powder , i added hersheys dark coco powder , and a tbh of Valrhona dutch processed powder , so added more of the coco powder and needed a little more cream to get some paste.

And now to cream the butter , with the sugar .

Used Pure ocean salt , so added it with the butter , to ensure it dissolves ,

Added the vanilla with the butter too.

now the  recipe says beat till fluffy , but mine was more kinda sandy :-(

And nows the time to beat in the coco powder , and beat again.

And next the eggs , one at time , since half of 3 eggs is 1.5 eggs , i used one L egg (around 53 grams) ,and one small egg (33 grams) , and beat in.

After mixing in the eggs , on low speed , till smooth , fold in the flour sifted with baking soda.

And pour in a greased baking tin.

In the cupcake i dropped some apricots jam pieces rolled in flour to get some nice apricot pockets , well nothing of that sort really happened.

What happened next never happened to me before and i have gone over the recipe and conversions , maybe i missed something , but all that happened is the mixture bubbled throughout and only spilled , and this is what i got .

The mixture left in the tin though quite good, was sticky , sweet and gooey and nothing close to cake.

It was a tad bit and more chewy too.

Here see....

And the muffins spilled over too and had a crust and dip but again were nothing like cake nor brownie.

And this is what happened to the crust ....

Broke them into cookies , Like chocolate breaks ups (idea borrowed from butter break ups which will post on my blog in a bit)

I have made mistakes in recipes , in even leaving out eggs or adding more but nothing like this happened , ever.

Now i see the i did add  more of coco powder and cream , but would that be a prob really? 

Did anyone have any issues at all ?

March’s Cake: Chocolate Cream Pound Cake

Makes one 9x5 inch loaf cake

March’s Cake: Chocolate Cream Pound Cake

(Recipe from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman)

 MY HALVED INGREDIENTS TO THE RIGHT

Ingredients


3 TBH HERSHEY'S+1TBH VALRHONA -  6tbsp  Dutch cocoapowder

3TBH HEAVY CREAM  - ¼ cup heavy cream

1/2 CUP + 1 TBH  - 1 cup plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour

1/8   tsp  -   ¼ tsp baking soda

1/8tsp pure ocean salt -  ¼ tsp salt

1/4 th cup(1/2 stick ) - ½ cup(1stick)unsalted butter,softened

 3/4 thcup -1½ cups sugar

 1.5 eggs - 3 eggs

  1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Heat the oven to 325F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan and dust with flour.

Sift the cocoa powder into a heatproof bowl. Place the cream in a microwavable bowl and heat for 30-60 seconds until just boiling. Pour the hot cream over the cocoa and stir and mash with a spoon to make a thick paste. Set aside to cool.

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bow once or twice as necessary. Beat in the cocoa powder paste until smooth.

With the mixer on medium-low speed add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.

Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture, ½ cup at a time, scraping down the sides after each addition. Add the last addition, mix for 30 seconds on medium speed.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake the cake until it is firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Invert it onto a wire rack and then turn it right side up on the rack to cool completely. Slice and serve.

Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.