Kahlua Chocolate Cake

I have great ambitions about baking cakes. I love cakes. I sit for hours on Pinterest looking (and drooling) over the myriad cakes that call out seductively. Some are so beautiful, in fact, that I don't even care that they're fruity cakes - I want to bake each one some day. Baking, like cooking, is something I find incredibly relaxing and today I really needed that therapeutic dance of measuring, mixing, and baking till a magical cake appeared.

Usually I simply throw together the basic sponge or pound cake that I learned when I was just a kid, and the most I do with that recipe is add booze soaked fruit, chocolate chips, nuts, preserved fruits, etc., to make it a little different. Today I needed more than that comfortable, familiar, and nearly mindless recipe. I needed to be involved. I needed to be wholly occupied with baking a cake leaving no room in my head to think about anything else. So went on to Pinterest to look for something that suited my needs and what I had in my pantry.

I found this Kahlua Chocolate Cake recipe and it fit the bill perfectly. A simple enough recipe with no branded ingredients that I would find impossible or expensive to procure, and with enough to do to keep me fully occupied, this chocolate laden cake was destined for me today!

I'm reproducing the recipe here with easier measurements and a slightly more detailed method keeping in mind the hiccups I had while making this beautiful cake. This recipe has several steps so read the entire recipe first and get your ingredients and equipment together before you start.

Kahlua Chocolate Cake

For the Cake

2 1/4 cup Maida
1/4 cup Hintz cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

110 gms chocolate

1 cup Kahlua
1 cup sour cream

125 gms butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar

3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup boiling water
1 cup chocolate chips

For the Glaze

110 gms chocolate
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 or 2 tbsp fine sugar (if required)
Kahlua

Start with the cake -

Preheat the oven at 180C.

Prepare a 12 cup Bundt pan by greasing it with butter. To figure out the capacity of your Bundt pan simply pour in water using your cup measure and count how many cups fit in. If your pan is small you will have left over batter. No worries, make a small cake in a suitable cake tin or make cup cakes with the leftover batter.

Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl. I zapped it in the microwave till it was silky and melted.

In a measuring jug pour a cup of Kahlua. Now add enough sour cream to take it up to the 2 cups mark. I used Amul sour cream and needed one full tub which I beat lightly with a fork before adding to the Kahlua. Mix the two with a fork till they have blended.

In a clean large bowl mix the maida, cocoa, baking soda and salt till all are well combined.

Place the butter in the mixing bowl of your stand mixer or in any mixing bowl and use your hand mixer. Use the paddle attachment if you're using a KitchenAid. Add the brown sugar and cream it well till the sugar and butter are blended, light and fluffy. Now add the eggs one at a time, mixing well with each addition. Pour in the vanilla now along with the melted chocolate and continue to mix.

Get the boiling water ready.

Alternating between the dry flour mix and the Kahlua-sour cream mix add the two to the butter-sugar-eggs mix till everything is incorporated.

Now add the boiling water and mix carefully. Slow down the speed of the electric mixer as the water can splash out. It takes about half a minute to get incorporated so be careful. Add the chocolate chips and mix them in gently.

Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake the cake for 50 to 60 minutes till a skewer poked in comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely in the mould before you remove it. This is a soft moist cake and it might break. So be patient. Cool further on a rack before glazing it.

My cake had risen while baking so I had to trim it to get a flat bottom. It was easy enough, all I did was wait for it to cool and then went at it with a large serrated bread knife. We scarfed the scraps quite happily (there was no way I was letting anyone near the cake before I'd taken photographs, obviously!).

To make the glaze -

In a small pan bring the cream to a boil. Have the chocolate ready in a jug. Pour the just boiled cream over the chocolate and let it stand undisturbed for a couple of minutes. Mix with a spatula till you have a smooth glossy glaze. I added a couple of tablespoons of fine sugar as the chocolate I used was quite bitter. Add a tablespoon or two of Kahlua and incorporate fully till you have a satiny smooth pourable glaze.

Place the cooled cake on the rack over a tray to catch any drips and drizzle the glaze over the cake. I spooned the glaze over and 'helped' it dribble down the sides attractively ;)

Let the glaze set and your Kahlua Chocolate Cake is ready to serve.

Chocolate Fudge Cookies - A Sweet Beginning for a New Year

In the years when I bought cook books like a woman possessed I bought one called The Colossal Cookie Cookbook. It sat among the other books and I always felt a thrill of joy seeing on my shelf anticipating the wonderful cookies I would make from it. I guess we get caught up in the anticipating and forget to actually make time to really use the books and the treasure of recipes within. I did make a recipe or two but then got caught up in other stuff and the book sat on the shelf, though not gathering dust because I am devoted to my books and I like to take good care of them :)

Sometime around November I saw a frenzy across Facebook where everyone seemed to be baking cookies. I wanted to bake cookies too! I surfed the net, like we automatically do these days, and after browsing quite a few sites I suddenly ground to a halt. What was I doing?! I have enough cookbooks to start my own little library - what was I doing searching on the net?

I pulled out The Colossal Cookie Cookbook and, finally made cookies from the book again. I'd shopped over the previous months and had gathered a decent hoard of cookie making ingredients in my pantry. So now there was no excuse left. Chocolate Fudge Cookies were zeroed in upon and what a success they turned out to be!

Chocolate Fudge Cookies

200gms dark cooking chocolate. I used Morde's
1 1/4 cup white flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder. I used Hintz
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
110 gms butter.
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
white chocolate for decoration

Set your oven to 180C and let it preheat.

Melt the cooking chocolate and set aside to cool. You can use a microwave like I did, or a double boiler.

In a clean bowl sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and the salt together.

In a separate bowl cream the sugar with the butter till it's well blended and fluffy. Add the eggs and the vanilla and beat further. You can use an electric hand blender for this. I plan to use my stand mixer the next time and make a double batch.

Pour in the cooled melted chocolate and whisk till it's all mixed in well. Now add the sifted dry ingredients in small quantities and incorporate. The dry ingredients will fly around so do this stage with a spatula or large spoon. You should have a smooth thick batter once everything is mixed in well. Give it a whizz with the electric beater for a minute and you're ready to bake the cookies.

Take two cookie sheets and line with baking parchment. Take a generous scoop of the cookie batter in a tablespoon and drop onto the parchment. Line up the scoops of batter leaving a couple of inches of space between the cookies. They will spread as they bake. You can use a piping bag to make it easier to drop the cookie batter onto the parchment. Use a plain nozzle, the cookies will not hold any fancy shapes.

Bake the cookies in your preheated oven for approximately 18 minutes. Let them cool on the parchment for a minute before you put them on a cooling rack to cool and harden. Don't worry if your cookies seem soft when you remove them from the oven.

Once the cookies have cooled you can decorate them. Melt white chocolate in a bowl and dip a fork into the melted chocolate and drizzle over the cookies. I think melted dark chocolate will also work quite well.

This recipe yielded 16 large cookies. Make a double batch and send some over to your BFF. Spread the love!

Now make a mug of coffee, pick up a few Chocolate Fudge Cookies, grab the book you're reading and settle down in your favourite chair for some delicious me time.

Chocolate Ganache - Easy Primping for Cakes

Chocolate ganache - it's one of those things that every home baker and cake lover knows about and loves. We've all seen so many pictures of luscious ganache topped cakes and cup cakes all over Facebook and Instagram  and drooled at each one of them. I've been drooling too but have never made ganache myself.

The thought of heating cream seemed suspect to me. I know. There's no logical reason for my suspicion but I was suspicious anyway. I am like that. I am wary of trying new things and new techniques and find excuses not to try things instead of just leaping in and just doing it. Yes, silly of me but there you are!

For the last few weeks I haven't been in the mood to cook or bake or paint or do any of the things I really enjoy. Blogging has suffered too. Then this morning the hubby was moaning about sticky cakes and puddings and God knows what else and I thought, let's make something new today. Ganache came to mind and I also had all the ingredients - yes, both of them! So I made the usual pound cake, slashed it in half and then slathered the whole thing inside and out with the ganache.

I was chatting with my friend Garima who bakes and cooks a lot and she assured me that ganache was ridiculously easyto make and of course I could make it, and of course it would turn out very nicely too. She explained every nitty gritty detail and I must have asked her every possible question about ganache making. She answered. Patiently. Aren't I lucky to always have a helpful friend at hand, just when I need them?!

Chocolate Ganache

250 gms cooking chocolate. I used Morde's Dark Chocolate
125 ml cream. I used Amul cream

Grate the chocolate and put it in a clean bowl. In a saucepan heat the cream stirring slowly till it begins to bubble. Take the cream off the heat and pour it on to the grated chocolate. Let it sit for a minute and then stir gently to blend the cream and the melting chocolate into a smooth silky ganache.

That's it.

The next time I make ganache I'm going to add a hefty spoonful of coffee. I think it will be magical.

Make any cake that you like and frost it with this delicious chocolate spread. Add sprinkles to jazz it up if you like. You will have a beautiful cake to perk up your tea time.

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Mousse Daruwala or Chocolate Mousse with Booze

It's been a while since I made chocolate mousse. I used to make it on order when we lived in South Mumbai and in those days I even made a few hundred portions at a time for large orders. I made it so often I could make it in my sleep. Once we moved to Kharghar it wasn't practical especially since mousse is a delicate dessert and needs proper refrigeration at all times or it becomes loose and runny. That happens because I make mousse the classic way, with eggs.

A bunch of friends decided to get together for a dinner at home and I volunteered a big bowl of Mousse Daruwala as my contribution to the dinner table. A simple dessert, if made right, it can be absolutely fabulous. Use the best chocolate you can find and it will be even better. However you can use the regular non gourmet cooking chocolate available at your local supermarket and still have a damn good mousse.

Gather the ingredients.

Make space in your refrigerator before you begin. Make sure your equipment, utensils and mixing bowls are squeaky clean and dry. And then follow this recipe that I added to this blog around six years ago. I have yet to find a recipe that can match it in simplicity and dependability.

Dig out a nice bowl and let the mousse set in it. Decorate with whatever you have at hand - I grated some 85% dark chocolate and lined the sides of the bowl with white chocolate chips, after letting the mousse set for an hour in the fridge. You can also set individual portions in whiskey tumblers or wine glasses if you want to be fancy.

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Chocolate and Cinnamon laced Banana Bread

I am quite addicted to baking and the fact that I have a devoted audience in my hubby makes it even more fun. On his nearly endless "when are you making this" list was Banana Bread. Now I dislike fruit and bananas are particularly revolting for me. But I like to make stuff the man likes so I finally made some.

This one, in fact, is the second attempt, and apart from a couple of mini disasters, it was quite successful. I surfed the Net for a recipe that didn't seem too daunting and I chose this one from the BBC GoodFood website.I tweaked the recipe as I am invariably inclined to do.

My pantry cupboard is full of a variety of ingredients sent by my friends from all over and I am now on a mission using up these ingredients instead of leaving them forgotten in the cupboard or refrigerator. For the banana bread I decided to use up the cinnamon flavoured chocolate chips my brother had got me from Dubai. I also doubled the recipe to make more than one loaf.

Here's my recipe -

Chocolate and Cinnamon Banana Bread

250 gms butter (I used Amul)

150 gms castor sugar

120 gms brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, beaten

7 mashed bananas

Approximately 200 gms Hershey's Cinnamon Chocolate Chips (that's what was left in the bag)

400 gms white flour

2 tsp baking powder (I forgot to add this)

120 ml milk


In a largeish saucepan melt the butter. Keep the flame lowered so the butter doesn't boil quickly and turn into ghee. Add the sugars and the vanilla and stir gently to mix. The butter can splash out of the pan so be careful. Let the sugars and the butter meld together Do this on a low heat - you don't want the sugars to caramelise, you just want it all to mix.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the mashed bananas. Stir to combine. I was nervous about adding eggs to this mixture while it was hot so I let it cool for a couple of minutes and then added the eggs.

Once the eggs are blended in it's time to add the flour and baking powder. You can just sift them in together. Pour in the milk and mix it all well to get a smoothish batter. If the pan is not big enough pour the mixture into a large mixing bowl and then add the flour. That's what I did.

Add the chocolate chips and give it another stir. You can easily add walnuts if you like. Use regular chocolate chips and some powdered cinnamon if you can't get your hands on cinnamon chips.

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf tins and bake at 150C for 45 minutes in the fan mode with both elements on in your oven. If you don't have a fan in your oven bake at 170C. You can sprinkle demerara sugar on top of the loaf if you want a crunchy sweet topping on the loaf, if you like, as the original recipe suggests. I didn't because there's already plenty of sugar in the recipe and in the chocolate chips too.

Cool the loaf and remove from the tin. Slice and serve.

You can also bake individual cup cakes using this batter. Banana Cinnamon cup cakes will be great to add to your kid's tiffin box and even the hubby's lunch box :)

I had a couple of mishaps as I made this batch - I didn't read the original recipe properly so I didn't notice the 'self raising' bit about the flour! Then, once the loaves were in the oven the electricity went off! Thankfully that was for only 10 minutes and since I had left the loaves undisturbed in the oven, the final result was not so bad.

I made three loaves in disposable cases and had enough batter left over to make three little cup cakes.  One loaf was sent with the hubby to be shared at his office, one I took to share with my girlfriends and one was made for a friend who misses good home baked stuff.

This recipe is ridiculously easy. Just gather your ingredients together and then it's a matter of mixing them in one by one. No need to crank up the stand mixer, all you need is a saucepan, a mixing bowl and a spatula. Even though I seriously dislike bananas this is one recipe I'm going to be making often.


Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Chocolate, Coffee and Walnut Fudge

Fudge is one of those things I've been making since my teens. It all started when the Nestle Milkmaid tin labels started carrying recipes to give consumers ideas of what to do with the condensed milk. Create a need to create a market. Smart, indeed.

Among the recipes they had posted was one for chocolate barfi. While their picture on the label showed neat squares with a cashew nut neatly pressed onto the top, I ended up with a gorgeous sticky mass that tasted amazing. My fudge was born!

I have fooled around with different ingredients over the years and this is what I have narrowed it down to. I have no idea what the recipe on the Milkmaid label was, any more.

Chocolate, Coffee and Walnut Fudge

1 tin Milkmaid condensed milk
200 gms good dark chocolate
50gms Amul butter
1 heaped teaspoon Sunrise instant coffee powder
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Take a thick bottomed vessel, preferable a wok as it is easiest to stir in. Heat the wok and pour in the entire tin of condensed milk. Reduce the flame to the absolute minimum.

Zap the chocolate in your microwave for a minute to soften it. Add it to the condensed milk in the wok and stir well. Add the butter and sprinkle in the coffee powder.

Stir the mixture continuously and mix in the butter properly. The butter will give the fudge a beautiful shine and it also prevents the fudge from sticking to the wok too much. Keep stirring till you have a smoothly blended mix.

Add the walnuts and mix properly. Cook this on low heat till it eventually thickens and becomes fudge-y and sticky. Let it cool a little and then decant to a bowl or lidded box.

Do NOT stick your finger into the fudge while it is hot, you can burn yourself quite badly. It takes time to cool and you must be patient! Once cooled just dig in! 

Peanut Butter Brownies with chocolate chips

One of the most fun things about reading a blog is hopping from that blog to another following a recipe or a photograph. I was looking for a recipe for cup cakes and after Googling and not finding anything appealing I decided to check Saee's site My Jhola; I was sure I'd find something there. I did.

I found this most amazing blog with easy to do recipes that had me drooling. And I had soon forgotten about the cup cakes and was checking the pantry cupboard to see if I have everything required to make these. I did!

So I gathered everything together and threw together a batch of what looked like something I'd be making again and again. Peanut Butter brownies, and with chocolate chips too!

Here we are ready to be popped into the oven.

I followed the recipe exactly and here's what the final product looks like.

Now it might not look like brownies, I agree - it doesn't, but it tastes fabulous. Though the original instructions say use an 8x8 tin, she does mention that the brownies tend to remain under cooked in the middle and a larger tin might be a better idea. Silly me, I should have listened. I will, the next time :P

If you're going to try out this recipe, USE A LARGER TIN! That's the only thing I'd tweak in this otherwise perfect recipe.

And for now, I have some awesome peanut butter brownies with chocolate chips to look forward to. Where's my mug of coffee?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares by Nigella

The first Nigella book I bought was How to be a Domestic Goddess and it is one of my most favourite books of all time. Not just among cook books, but among books in general. After drooling over the pictures and sighing over the delicious recipes and enjoying her seductive writing style it was time to get into the kitchen and try out some of the goodies for myself.

The recipe for Peanut Butter Squares called out to me! They were, she said, a homespun version of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Now these are never available here in India and if I had a chance to recreate them in my own kitchen who would dare get in  my way?!

So I did try them out and they were gorgeous..simple, no fuss, straight forward gorgeous. What makes me like them even more is how ridiculously easy it is to make them. No cooking involved, no fancy techniques, no fiddly equipment, nothing. A cake tin, a couple of mixing bowls, a spatula, a fork and a microwave, if you have one. If you don't, a saucepan works just as well.

So here's how you make the Peanut Butter Squares. My recipe is slightly adjusted using ingredients that I had.

50 gms dark demerara sugar
200 gms icing sugar
50 gms butter (unsalted if you can get it, I used regular Amul )
200 gms smooth peanut butter

300 gms chocolate
1 generous tbsp butter

1 8x10 square brownie tin

Take a clean mixing bowl and mix the two sugars. Make sure the icing sugar is not lumpy. If it is just whizz it in your mixer and it will be fine. Add the butter and the peanut butter and mix it all up. Use a fork and work it together till you get it all fairly well mixed. Butter the tin and dust with a bit of icing sugar. Press in the peanut butter/sugar/butter mix to cover the entire base of the tin and press nicely into the corners. Smooth out the top with your spatula or just go in with your hands and flatten it out nicely.

Melt the chocolate in your microwave or in a double boiler. Heat water in a saucepan and place a heat proof bowl on the bubbling water with the chocolate in it. Be careful, don't let water get into the chocolate. Once the chocolate is melted add that tablespoon of butter and blend it in nicely. Your chocolate should glisten beautifully. You can use plain dark chocolate or a combination of dark chocolate with milk chocolate, whatever works for you.

Pour the chocolate onto the Peanut butter base in the brownie tin. Smooth the surface and let it cool in the fridge till it is set absolutely firm. Resist temptation and leave it alone for at least a couple of hours so it sets properly. Cut into squares and enjoy!

As simple as it is to make them, these little babies are sinfully rich. Indulge only occasionally :)

Good Old Chocolate Brownies

"Early to bed
and early to rise
I'll bake just as soon
as I open my eyes!!"

Sometime when I was in college my Mum bought me this little book...The ABC of Cookies from the Peter Pauper Press. It is chockful of easy recipes and little rhymes that all have to do with baking.

I've made Brownies following the instructions here hundreds of times....recipe is simple and absolutely guaranteed :)

2/3 cup Flour, sifted with a pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp baking powder.
1 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup soft buttter
2 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
200 gms Chocolate
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

In a bowl mix the sugar with the butter whisking till light.Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or zap in the microwave. Add to the sugar-egg mix and blend it well. Add the flour gradually mixing as you go and finally stir in the nuts. Mix the batter well.
In a greased baking tin spread the batter and bake at 350 F or 180 C for about 25 minutes.

Cut into squares and serve hot!!

Boozy Chocolate Mousse

I've got to make chocolate mousse for 300 people. That's going to be a hell of a lot of mousse!! It's so simple to make and yet it is so delicious...

Here's how...

Dark cooking chocolate 250 gms
3 tsp sugar, preferably small grains
6 eggs
Your tipple of choice (rum/brandy/liqueur)- 2 tsps

Microwave or double boiler.
Egg beater
2 very clean mixing bowls
Egg separator
Rubber Spatula
Clean large spoon

Melt the chocolate in a microwave or use a double boiler (put a bowl with the chocolate in a saucepan with simmering water. Ensure that no water gets into the chocolate).
In one of the mixing bowls measure out the rum or other liquor and 2 tsp sugar. In the other put 1 tsp sugar.
Separate the eggs putting the yolks with the rum and sugar and the whites in the other bowl. Make sure that the whites have no trace absolutely of any yolk. I usually separate the eggs individually in a small bowl and the add into the large bowls. This ensures that in case a yolk breaks the entire batch of whites is not ruined.
Once the eggs are separated, add the melted chocolate to the egg yolks and beat till smooth.
Clean the beaters thoroughly and wipe clean. Beat the egg whites till firm peaks form.
Fold in the egg whites into the chocolate mixture using vertical circular movements with the large spoon. Don't stir as if you're cooking curry!! Fold in gradually incorporating as much air as you can. Scrape clean using a the spatula.
Pour mousse into a clean glass bowl, cover with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate to set.
The mousse will be set in a couple of hours.
Garnish with chocolate shavings or chips or whipped cream...whatever you like.

This recipe gives you about a litre of mousse...enough for about 8 people.

You can use liqueurs like Schnapps, Kirsch, Pear liqueur, Coffee liqueur, Cointreau...whatever you like :)