Chocolate Ring Cake with ice-cream and watermelon

"All the world's a birthday cake, so take a piece but not too much." George Harrison.

My grand-daughter, Molly, loves to play Housie –house in her fairly large toy kitchen. She cooks up muffins, sunny –side up eggs, steak and her favourite peanut butter sandwiches with lettuce.  To be a part of her world, I bought a cake mould in the shape of a ring and involved her in the entire process. What fun we both had! The child in me got the upper hand and we became messy together. She picked up culinary terms which would baffle many of her friends I’m sure. But the end product was a delight!!  

So here we go:

Ingredients

100 grams sugar                                                      to decorate: 

100 grams flour                                                       1 brick Ice-cream

100 grams butter                                                      1 cup watermelon balls

4 eggs                                                                       1/3 cup cooking chocolate

30 grams cocoa powder                                           ½ cup cream

1 level tsp. baking powder

Pinch of soda-bicarbonate

Pinch of salt

A few drops of Vanilla essence

Method

1.Grease an 8”ring- cake tin. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and soda bi-carbonate together twice.

2.Beat the sugar and butter. Add the egg yolks and beat into the butter mixture.  Keep it aside.

3.Beat the egg whites till fluffy.  Fold the egg whites into the sugar-butter mixture till smooth.

4.Fold in the flour with the rest of the ingredients raising the ladle high to let in air.

5.Stir in the vanilla essence.

6.Pour into the greased tin and bake for 30 minutes in a pre-heated oven of 180 degrees.

7.Remove and let it cool.

Decorations:

1.Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Add cream. Stir till smooth and shiny. (Chocolate ganache) 

2.Pour over cake evenly.

3.Fill the centre of the ring with ice-cream and melon balls.Sprinkle coloured sugar balls all around       to give the final touch.

4. Serves 6 to 8 people.


Note: I love traveling but I enjoy making desserts too.

Recipe : Walnut Brownies

Walnut brownies are the best kind of comfort food. It's easy to make, ingredients are available readily, and no one ever says no to them. I love mine a bit gooey but, just by adding or subtracting some ingredients, it's easy to make them crunchy. 

My baking god is Rachael Allen, and I usually play around with her recipes. This one has also been derived from one of hers, though some modifications have been made.

Main Ingredients:

75  grams flour

100 grams sugar

100 unsalted butter

25 grams coaco powder

100 grams cooking chocolate

3 eggs

1/2 tsp baking soda

Salt to taste

First and foremost, line the baking tin with parchment paper and butter the sides. If you don't have any lying around, then just use the paper which wraps our good old Amul butter. That's a neat trick which my Ma taught me. :) 

And preheat the oven at 200 centigrade. Even though you will be cooking at 180 later, it's always wise to preheat at a higher temperature, coz once you open the oven to put the tin in, a lot of heat escapes.

  

So we start the baking processby melting the cooking chocolate and butter. This can be done in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Many like to swing it old style by using a double boiler to melt the chocolate. Well if you have the patience, go for it.

Tip in the sugar, and mix it well.

After the sugar, butter and the chocolate combine, it's time for the eggs. Now here you need to be careful. Eggs always should be room temperature and beaten beforehand. Otherwise there is chance that, when you add them to the mix, it will curdle. 

I know it's very tempting to just crack open an egg right out of the fridge into the batter. That's what Nigella Lawson does, so why shouldn't you. Well like Nigella Lawson, we don't get retakes and secondly, a good brownie recipe does not have baking powder. So its left to the eggs to let it rise. So do not mess up the eggs.

So beat the eggs, and you can add a few drops of vanilla here. My husband,a vegetarian who had an egg for the first time only in college, somehow sniffs out the egg in everything. So to mask its smell, I add vanilla to everything egg-y.

Keep the flour ready. Sieve it with the cocoa, baking soda and salt (if butter used is unsalted). Do not skip the baking soda. That's what give the brownies the sexy rich brown color.

While mixing the eggs, if you feel as if it is curdling then just add a tablespoon of the flour to counter it. Keeping adding the flour spoonful at a time, while mixing the batter.

                 

You are almost nearing the end. So just check the consistency. If you want them a bit gooey then it should easily drop from a spoon when held up. If it doesn't, just add a spoonful of milk (room temperature, again).

At the end add the walnuts, and mix it gently.

Pour the batter into the lined tin and pop it into the oven. Do not forget to reduce the temperature to 180 centigrade. 

It should take about 25 minutes. But do check after 25 mins are up. If it passes the skewer test, then take it out and let them cool. Once cooled, cut into squares pieces.

Et Voila, Walnut Brownies are ready! :)