Grinch Cake

Not having a single new recipe to extol about, yet expounding on past glory is like a movie you play on rewind. You know, those that kind of trap you in a loop. The DVR cant catch up, and you, like a fool, bingewatch Christmas romance on nefarious seasonal channels that appear just about this time of year, have you reeled in(yes, pun intended) for most of your two week break. I now work, so I realize the profundity of a "little free time".

I grew up reading "The Grinch Stole Christmas!". It was a sort of self imposed ritual for me, every year in school. Up through high school. I was wholesome. Like that. Even afterwards,  The Two I gave birth to, lived this in repeat; reading watching, reciting, often times with force and against free will. These days, 25 days of Christmas and Netflix combined ensures we embrace this miserly Dr. Suess antihero, one so endearing, that he has us believe, in second chances, restoration, hope, redemption. Cue the tissues, please.

Yes, people, this is my ode. To a gloriously green villain who makes an ultimate Hero's journey, and to me, is one of the best Christmas stories told.

"You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch." And I become Cindy Lou. 

Now before I lose all train of thought and existence of what the subject matter for this blog should be, I will introduce you to the day's theme. A loaf cake, pound-ish in nature, ridiculous fluffy like it could totally aspire to be any other tiered frosted pastry counterpart.

We've dealt with surprise embedded stories before. It's almost like a double feature. A piece within a piece. Here, themed green and red, plush with a teeny heart, revealed only upon slicing will have you facing a volley of questions...

How did you get that heart in there?
And...
How does the heart stay in?
And...
Can you make this without a heart?

I could answer these touching a hundred or so poignant thoughts, paralleling how any heart could impress/melt the socks off anyone, as I believe it should. But do we really have time to take on a vague-ish life lesson at this point or just get with our discussion? I knew you'd agree.

Moreover, I bet you've painted cake batters before. Also tried endless ways to make them differently decorative. Though, really when your citrus poundcake dreams come true in less than half the calories, don't you think the excitement exponentially rises and has you believe nothing in this world could ever trump it (no political ideology/insinuation intended ;-))?

So then how did I do it without the aid of magic or supernatural feat ( I'm good, but not that good. Yet).

Simple. I color, twice. The hearts are red cake, sliced and punched out with mini cutters, baked, prior to the green batter. Arranging these grinch hearts, and fully surrounding them with newly whipped green batter, ending with a final bake ensures what you see in the pictures flooding this page. 

It's actually a canvas on which you can paint or just about fulfill any flavored cake aspiration. And  set in motion several options on how to do the simple 9x5 loaf.

"Grinch's heart grew three sizes that day". Well mine just rose to the top.

I must also mention how cooking oil becomes your chief fat component, with not an ounce of The Superior Fat I so often wax glorious about. And you won't even miss the latter.

Herein, is where I may repudiate all my mandates of using that pound of butter. But maybe just leave it at this particular assignment,  for we have a reputation to keep.

The magnificently moist-tender crumb is an unbelievable result of the leavening, emulsion properties of many good ingredients being beaten, to an aerated form, almost, too unbelievable that it actually does give us an awesome mouthfeel. And mouthfeel matters. Because we should have more soft cakes. Because we haven't had many loaf cakes inexpressibly rank. Because green cakes just rule. 

When you have friends telling you to keep on doing what you're doing. Despite the fact that you have taken on a full part time job (word contradiction?), and come up with something where they may still be wowed, and  you possess a brighter, motivated culinary mojo. So be it when the acquaintance circles/hostesses /hard-to-please-dinner crowd and in most probability family suddenly realize, they also can very much achieve all that..and that..and that.

Further, I'd like to say I hate the overuse of phraseology such as"crowd pleaser". What does that mean even? You're in a way-eager crowd and too busy to notice what could be fantastically crummy food ? Or maybe  a bit too part of a drunk guestlist to decipher whether anything served is really good or bad? The label just isn't right. And much to my dismay, it's that season where it becomes common to dining vernacular.

This, however will not, should not, cannot be the pleaser of mere masses, my friends. It's the you-at-the-end-of-tiredday pleaser, the family -which -doubts your-skill pleaser. And most of all, the mouth-that-so-desperately-needsasmile pleaser.

Here goes, me to you. During the wee bit sanity that exists right before the busiest baking season alights... and by the time I hit publish, has commenced, in my earnestness, a hundred days ago.

This could be somewhat reminiscent of our cranberry orange bread which I see keeping up top views for the month, so that I don't sink Thank you.

"Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!” ― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Inspiration from: Grinch cake for Christmas, The Bearfoot Baker

Cake recipe Adapted from Ina Garten's lemon yogurt cake, Barefoot Contessa
(Homophones in my inspirations. Cool, don't you think?:-)))

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ cup nonsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 cup lowfat plain yogurt
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 extra large eggs
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup vegetable oil

Directions/assembly:

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
• In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, coconut.
• In another bowl, whisk together yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla.
• Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Evenly blend. Slowly whisk in vegetable oil, until batter is thoroughly mixed and no flour can be seen.
• It is at this time you add in the food coloring. (For two cakes: red for first, green for second)
• Pour the batter in prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
• Take out of oven. Leave in pan for ten minutes. Then flip loaf over, carefully onto wire rack to cook.
• For red cake, slice into 1/2  inch pieces,  hearts should be intact. (sounds awry, but no broken hearts, please;)) Use small heart cookie cutter to cut out a hundred hearts (kidding, more like twenty). Stand them upright on bottom right of a clean, greased loaf pan stacked one beside another, leaving room on both ends for green batter to cover. 
• For green cake, repeat with same ingredients and tint batter green. 
• Pour over the hearts assembled in loaf pan. Red should not show through.
• Bake this for 50-60 minutes until tester inserted comes out clean.
• Once out of oven, leave in pan for ten minutes. Flip carefully onto wire rack.
• Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Decorate with fondant heart, buttercream.
• Slice  and be surprised.

Notes~

I use Wilton's No Taste Red to color the red loaf which is baked first. For the green I used leaf green.

You could try another cake recipe for either cake, or separate ones for each.  Though I can't vouch for the efficacy of how the whole thing plays out.

I placed the hearts side by side, lengthwise of pan, from end to end towards the bottom right.

Since my batter was light, the hearts floated to the top..which I think is a perfect accident. Don't you? :-)

Cakes with similar attributes or maybe just as good~

lemon coconut loaf

citrus chiffon cake

lemon coconut battenburg cake ( stats show this has been a hit with lots of you :-)

Christmas is coming and I am getting endowed with much more of me than I need to see( sizing up  on wardrobe  may be in my near future;-)

Want in on some of the love? To make it all merry and bright~

cranberry orange loaf

stocking cake pops

plum cake (the 1st prize winner )

gingerbread loaf

Christmas tree cake pops

shortbread cookies, snowcaps

gingersnaps

lollipops

Craving savory?

Asian pork and peppers

Egg salad

******
"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be." James 3:9-10

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Sweet potato casserole with hot pineapple, ginger relish

And it finally is... the day before the next several hours of prepping and manufacturing ten hot dishes, fillings for a host of midget pies and a huge bird that is nightmarishly not perched too even on the hinge of my refrigerator shelf.

How does one restore any sanity(let's say I have some) in all of this? And find the small pocket of time to become ridiculously generous, since really I've not been excessively so in Thanksgivings past ?

It's a recipe I've used for the amount of thankful Novembers numbering years more than my firstborn has been alive.

And it's as beloved. Perhaps even more so.

Take it and run.

Because I may not always be this lavish.

Therein, as I get to my composing / cleaning/ cooking/ cleaning/ baking/ (final) cleaning before the day's end, allow me type you some gratitude...

Thank you for the patience in wait of my oft lagging dialogue. We're hoping things come faster and more furiously with the coming 2017:-)

Thank you for tolerating the silence that echoes terribly through these blogger doors.

Thank you for humoring me with your comments and the quaint number of FB likes.

Thank you for your gracious audience.

Have a joy filled, crazy fun, memorable Day of Giving Thanks. 

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter
• 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced 1/8 inch thick, either in food processor with slicer attachment or using a mandolin 
• salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2-3 thai red peppers
• 1 tsp thinly sliced ginger
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup canned crushed pineapple, drained
• salt
• pepper

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375°F
• Smear generously with butter a square 9x9 casserole dish and arrange the potatoes in even layers (even horizontal, freeform or a tucked flower form- look at the pictures for ideas)
• Add small pats of butter on top, season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil.
• Bake for 45 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
• In the meantime, melt two tablespoons butter in saucepan, add red thai peppers, ginger. Cook for a minute until soft.
• Add brown sugar. Stir until melted.
• Add pineapple and cook on medium-low flame, until soft and mixture is reduced slightly, about 7-10 minutes. 
• Add, salt, pepper to taste.
• Take potatoes out of oven.
• Pour pineapple relish over them.
• Return to oven and bake, uncovered for an additional 20-25 minutes.
• Serve warm.

Notes~ Not so adventurous? Jalapeños seeded are magnificent in lieu of the red chillies.
These pictures were taken before the casserole was fully cooked. Your end product for this should be bubbling deep brown caramelized dish.

Saltbrining is the lifesaving answer to the dilemma of Moist vs. Dry. I will take it any day over having a pot and fridge and floor full of mess plus the headache that lasts several days after.

A collage peek at what my Thanksgiving was like.

And if you can't quite decide on a fitting dessert, why not build the four layered MONUMENT I created a few years ago? 

******

"When you come to Me with a thankful heart, it opens up windows of heaven. Spiritual blessings fall freely through those windows and down into your life. A thankful heart opens you up to these blessings, and then you have even more reasons to be grateful... Being thankful doesn’t mean you close your eyes to the many problems in this world. It means you find Joy in Me—your Savior—in the midst of a messed-up world. I am your hiding place and your strength. And I’m always ready to help you!" —Jesus Calling for Kids by Sarah Young

"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crops fail and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God, My Savior." Habakkuk 3:17-18

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Cashew chicken curry

I bet we can all agree on how rushed-quick the past 10 months of 2016 flashed through, much like the incredible hero scenes from Barry Allen's secret  life.  Right? Right. And if you can't, let's not take this to word. Just nod along and pretend you do.

We  are at second to last holiday of the year, one which reminds us to live in thanks, is opener to THE most extensive meal our plates have seen in 364 days and official  kickoff to the yuletide season. Not to mention the joyride of weeklong leftovers that everyone looks forward to all year long. This, in less than four days, and here I am between bouts of panic and absolute procrastination swims. What do I do? Probably as I type this, keeping my mind at ease in the knowledge of saving precious refrigerator space for the few days working up to The Great Feast. 

And so we go on to more pressing things in life.

The time you visit the neighborhood Indian restaurant and order a meal, possibly(?) better than some things you've ever made, and you begin to question your existence. I know. I try shamelessly to plug my stellar cooking mastery here, (thank you for putting up with the ego parade) and it is hard to admit great food might exist outside the confines of my kitchen. Ahh, did I just say THAT?! You know, we don't need to repeat everything I say. Please.

Things happen when people who live under your roof, whom you feed, clothe, care for and rightfully demand loyalty from, claim that a menu produced the most excellent thing they have ever tasted. It gets personal. And offensive. You forget the 14 pound turkey you were supposed to buy yesterday and get to work on restoring your reputation.

Not that comparable results haven't passed through this kitchen, with some chronicled into plating here. But it is hard to be outmatched by an item on an order list of 20 things that people make at least 50 times a day. 

To recreate/remaster/reclassify a masterful carte du jour, and similar renditions that I've probably eaten my way through countless times than recalled, became my mission, right after my midday nap/yoga/run or whatever initiative my mind had been preset to.

I've gone into the variables of what can make a masala medley magnificent (sounds nice, right?). As is it's without doubt, totally one's own jurisdiction to whether onions, garlic, ginger merely coalesce, mildly mingle or strongly stampede, decisions to turn your own Indian cuisine borderline meh or an arrant outrageous.

Chicken is good. Curry is good. Chicken curry is very very good. And innumerable kinds and types should be, always are needed, welcomed, and greatly applauded.

Cashew chicken curry as I would like to call it, possesses an old world grand. Almost like a throwback to how glorious Central Asian cuisine could actually be. It bears a stamp from medieval India, of those regal Mughals and their spiced loaded, crazy aromatic gastronomics . Other recipes that c. chicken curry can be pen named under: Chicken Korma, Rezala, or Mughlai chicken. I really am no pundit in ranking curry, though I believe I am the best you would probably come to know(😀).  I do, however, know that this can ideally be that meal fit for kings.

It is quite indisputably a feast. For the eyes. For the belly. And though it may sound cliche, for the very depths of your soul.

There is comfort in the velvet cream of cashews and spices pasted. Quick heat renders meat pieces a true envied char. The steeping in topnotch ingredients, somewhere, somehow brings us to beauteous curry making reality A distinctive, air-scenting finish becomes the thick, luxe end-all we so clearly associate as the accompaniment to rice/ naan dishes in formal or less formal settings. It is magnificence that should be lauded in the courts of any layman's dining room.

Don't let the expansive ingredient list scare you. It might be shocking to see how a mere (no smirking) 27 ingredients come together, in perfect harmony, while still pulling off what's arrogantly impressive. Which definitely works in any favor, as your home cook status gives way to chef magnifique, and those many revisits hereafter will make you master of a cultish curry cuisine.

An assembly of The Superior, ready to coalesce on to the perfect destination.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ pounds skinned, bone-in chicken, cut into 1- 1/2 inch pieces
• 2-4 tbsp red chili powder or cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp turmeric
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt
• ½ inch piece peeled ginger, roughly chopped
• 6 whole cloves garlic
• 4-5 sprigs cilantro
• 1 sprig mint
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 tbsp coriander powder
• ¼ cup cashews soaked in ½ cup water
• 1/4 cup tbsp cooking oil(I use canola)
• 1 whole star anise
• pinch fennel seeds
• 1 small stick cinnamon
• 2 cardamom pods
• 1 large red onion finely chopped
• water(upto 1- 1/2 cups)
• salt
• ¼ cup plain nonfat yoghurt
• ½ tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp sugar
• ¼ cup half and half
• chopped cilantro(2-3 sprigs) for garnish

Directions:

• Marinade chicken with red chili powder, black pepper, turmeric, lemon juice and salt. Keep aside for 15- 30 minutes to half an hour.
• Meanwhile, process the ginger, garlic, cilantro,  mint, cumin, coriander, cashews with water in a food processor or mini prep until a smooth paste forms.
• Heat oil in dutch oven/large deep set skillet. Add chicken and deep brown on all sides of pieces for about 7-10 minutes. Pieces do not have to cook through.
• Take out chicken from oil and set aside.
• Crush star anise, fennel seeds, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom in mortar and pestle. Add to the oil used for chicken, in the pan.
• Stir in onions on medium heat. Cook until soft.
• Pour in the ground paste. Add a small amount of water into the blender vessel to shake clean any leftover paste. Pour this into pan.
• Saute ingredients until moisture evaporates,  mixture is fragrant and color changes to a pale green/brown, about 5-7 minutes. 
• Add chicken. 
• Add remaining water.
• Add salt to taste.
• Bring ingredients to boil on high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and allow to cook for an additional 25 minutes.
• Stir in yoghurt until blended with curry.
• Add garam masala, sugar. Stir.
• Pour in half and half.  Mix once and turn off heat.
• Sprinkle with cilantro.
• Serve warm with green rice, white rice, naan, maybe even K parotta Anything that spins your orbit.

Notes:

If you desire to inhale higher levels of heat, upto inferno, by all means marinade with more red chili powder(cayenne).

Past Novembers~

2015: Stuffed acorn squash

2014: Chili roasted cauliflower

2013: PB Oreo blondies

2012: North Kerala stuffed chicken

 The star that perks the overall scene.

A few decades ago( it surprises me how long I've lived) I'd visit a restaurant that served a similar, if not better cashew creamed curry. My friend took me there to perk me up after a particularly hard day. Yes, people, it had already begun, where food was solution to all my world problems. For a year or so, it became a routine for us. So also, memories that would last a lifetime. A friend that would too. Love you Ranikutty❤️

We love moon watching. And the super one that came up November 13,14 had me taking over 1000 pictures. Because people. I really have nothing to do. I played with different shutter speeds, apertures. I don't know if any of this constitutes as good photography, but it made for some very enjoyable bonding time with my tribe.
******
John 1:3

Yes. All pictures taken by me. Tisa Jacob. Do not borrow without asking. Not nice. Thanks:-)

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Indian cashew fudge (caju apples)

This post comes in wake of a monumentous holiday that people in India celebrate. Known as the festival of lights, it is one I could never fully comprehend, but honestly loved when everything in the city I first lived in post-adult (and I still don't think I've grown up) was illuminated with colorful bulbs, dancing people, loudspeaker music and of course, honeyed confections. It can be likened to a Christmas/New Year/July Fourth party, all in same room. Where the sweetmakers/confection artists across the streets of the Indian subcontinent work overtime so people could merrymake a bit more tastily. And really, would you pass by a day that mandated boxes of neatly arranged dessert be parcel to good fortune? That too, people, from a nation unashamed to bust out copious amounts of sweetmeat in salute to public celebrations/personal birthdays/anniversaries/inlaw-coworker-stranger-on-road appeasement, even births of  your neighbor's four children.

Caju, translated cashew, for those of you illiterate in the Indian national language, myself included,  is our Iron chef ingredient today. These snacking nuts are ground to a form, just shy of butter. A powder-soft sift that your Ninja processor helps you achieve, combined with only one other necessary element, turns pliant in your own hands, or if you're like me, again with aid of machine. The results: a thick soft candy made impressively with Just Two Ingredients and can beyond doubt make the world a better place.

Within minutes(no kidding) we see mini-spheres of a super popular package filler, likes of which people spend time and money, to just get in on the spirit.

For the many of whom in no way can fathom how this could taste, I feel for you, but not too long. Think it to be the peanut butter ball, swapping the creamed peanut with an elevated substitute, that of creamed/cooked cashew. Trust you can see this is insane. Taken beyond levels that truly have you envision sugared possibilities transcending all reason.

There are recipes claiming that sugar syrup is absolute prerequisite to mold our dough treats into apple rounds. I may commit heresy now, by proposing that you really don't need that addition of labor. A base, where sugar is mere dissolved, with the powdered nut stirred and combined works in unison to lean forward for equally, maybe more mindboggling worthiness.

Moreover, if you can bring yourself to overlook the the cup and throw of sugar, even replacing white for raw, you may be keen to see the gluten-free/paleo prospect in the making. Health purists, do you hear?  It's gold at the end of a righteous rainbow.

There it is. All done within a few hours. For you to create your own Diwali. Holiday. Memory.

Thus, it may surely light up nightly dessert rotations, outlooks, even lives.

Apple painting. It's therapeutic.

In the name of tastetesting:  I consumed about 10 "apples" in one sitting. No need to mention the Two that share roof with me were not at all pleased.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cashews (I used roasted, salted)
• 1-2 strands saffron
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup water
• 1 tsp ghee
• red food grade gel color
• handful whole cloves

Directions:

• In a food processor, pulse the cashews to a dry fine powder, making sure of it not becoming and oily greasy, butter form. Add saffron stands and pulse 2-3 more times.
• In a deep set pan add sugar, water. Have it it come to a boil, with sugar fully dissolved, approximately one- two  minutes.
• Mix in the  powdered cashew. 
• Stir mixture until it pulls off from sides and becomes thick and glossy. Like fudge.
• Add ghee. Stir to incorporate.
• Transfer this dough to a greased sheet pan or parchment and once able to touch(should still be warm) knead a few minutes until dough becomes pliable and smooth. If it stays sticky add drops of ghee, slightly,  one at time and turn dough out until smooth and shiny.
• Shape into one inch balls. Remember you are food artist. We are thinking baby apples here. So work it to your best.
• Take the paint brush and dip into red paint to your heart's desire. You can have it resemble your favorite  Braeburn/Jonagold/Honeycrisp. All good.
• Top with a clove for the stem. Other than looks, you need it. It scents/flavors so very well.

Notes~

The "kneading" can be in the food processor, after it is combined/ reduced with the syrup. Just pulse until a smooth dough forms.

I have used roasted, salted cashews, not plain raw, which is what more traditional recipes call for. Because. I like it better:-)

Ghee is totally optional. The nuts have natural oils that come through after the processing/kneading.

Showing me some love in ways that extend beyond our dialogue here would be greatly beneficial, especially since I belted out three posts in The Month Of October. I don't have a load of  happening social media, but we can change that ;- ) If you like it here, do like it there, Instagram, FB, even rev up the almost defunct twitter feed.  So, follow on. Like up.
Without getting too creepy in the process:-)

Exotic holiday mood? Try this~

Vermicelli pudding
Jackfruit kheer

******

Jesus. True Light. Never disappoints. Never leaves. He "keeps my lamp burning"(Ps 18:28), enlivening, illuminating, guiding, enlightening.

(source:http://denisejackson)

"In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men." (John 1:4 KJV)

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Fanta cake

It is not uncharacteristic of myself to have on estimate 12 browsers open (ranging from how-to-food I need so badly, varieties of face packs, DIY bathroom tiling-in-24 hrs, to who is liking my posts(?)) this together with skimming 400 mail/texts/foodstagrams, all during the dedicated time I commit to  recipeblogging. 

This, should be where I mention sheer obliviousness to those persistent pleas of that pesky duo, The Afterschoolers, who've really not been granted much blessing from my kitchen for long stretches of hungerpanged moments. It's an irony that haunts me every single day, that where my children are begging for a snack as I lyricise on the magnificence of food swank. 

It was one such incident where Child One, her who is actually two years shy of being Adult, petitioned for cake, the moment-like several, where she could simply not live without one (ahh, a mother's work..never done..) It could be a subject BFMK archives  have no dearth of.  But. Fast? Now? Where? How? Que in to when Google liberates. And generously gifts me with what I have on display this very moment.

To meticulously go through all the confection announcements, lengthy articles where I've shown up cake/baked goods in a certain way, certain order, with reliable elements is one which negates today's monologue; easiest ever schemes to cake. And have it become epic than most. 

Is then your attention with me, please?

Should so be, because not only is it a ridiculous easy baking experiment, it belongs to those upper ranks of Delicious, where simple things reach levels we can't quite comprehend. 

Fanta cake, otherwise known as German Fantakuchen, could also alias under Orange Crush Cake is the greatest delight I have experienced, after the birth of my children(?). And truthfully, on most days,  this could also be reconsidered.

That it may surprise you the orange-ish-not tasting soft drink, that we see in soda aisles across the world, yields results so astounding is now not so surprising to me. Each fizz of gas renders that poundcakeish moist texture, without peaking towards a terrifying amount of sweet. The pale crumb, soft, with right amount of give, exponentially raises the creamsicle flavor bar, while having you regret nothing in the process.

Much after I took these pictures of Fanta cake, I thumbed through a feature that Food52 did on cakes comprising stranger ingredients than our flush-colored Sunkist. While I am still to fully wrap my head around things like tomato soup cake, for real people, I think it's no shock that flour, fat and egg dialogues can be elemented with several anomalous options.

And not bragging but if you desire to glance at the stupendous pastry art I am performing with one hand, be not intimidated! That also can be done. In rhythm, concentrically to the left one circle and then to the right one circle. Alternating to end in  and show off a much desired ruffled chic look.

What say you? Am I hearing shrieks in unison? 

So, are we ready, then, to CAKE IT LIKE A BOSS?

Orange fizz on its way to a brighter future.

Seven ingredients. So very simple. There really is no excuse not to make it famous in your own kitchen.

Took me less than a couple hours to get this presentable and click worthy. Of course it always helps to listen to some native tongue melody and rhythm it on.

That project where you will not have to undergo a single fail as you tread way to victorious destiny.

 You spin me right round💫

Who would have thought pastry with a soft drink as it's chief leavening ingredient could be brought in from them who gifted the world bratwurst, sauerkraut and more than a gazillion pages on the internet to laud it all? 

(Cake recipe adapted from Food.com)
For the flower tutorial I found Rachel Dyer's buttercream ruffle rose the best)

Ingredients:

For the cake~

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 3 cups flour
• 1 ½ cups Fanta orange soda
• 1½ tsp baking soda

For the cream cheese frosting~

• 16 ounces cream cheese(softened at room temp)
• 10 tbsp salted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3- 4 cups confectioner's sugar
• 3-4 tbsp milk

For the vanilla buttercream rose~

• 1 stick salted butter, softened
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioner's powdered sugar (should be more stiff to hold rose shape)
• 2-3 tbsp milk
• orange gel coloring

Directions:

For the cake~

• Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter and flour two 9inch round cake pans.
• In a large stand mixer bowl, beat, on medium-high, eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil until pale yellow and fluffy.
• Add in flour and Fanta to the batter. Mix for another minute. Stir in baking soda, beat until incorporated.
• Bake at 375°F for 10 minutes.
• Reduce oven heat to 350°F and bake for a remaining 18-25 minutes.

For the cream cheese frosting~

• Beat the cream cheese and butter until light, fluffy.
• Beat in vanilla
• Gradually add the confectioner's sugar by cupfuls, beating well after each addition
• Add milk by enough spoonfuls and continue beating for desired consistency and flavor.

For frosting the cake~

After cakes are thoroughly cooled, place one layer flat side up on a flat cake pan or stand. Spread 2/3 cup of the frosting evenly over the top.  Place second layer on this and use remaining frosting for top and sides.

Note~If you desire to crumb coat (i.e.. adding a thin layer first before fully covering), double the amount of frosting.

For buttercream flower~

• Do the same as for the cream cheese frosting, omitting the ingredient of cream cheese, beating up to 4 cups sugar in. 
• Add gel color to desired amount and shade.Using Wilton tip 125, work from the middle in opposite circular motions. Or just look here.

Sidenote~ For moistness and more flavor, evenly drizzle the cakes with a few spoons of Fanta before icing. 

Flowing in some Fall.

**Can you see what I see? The header has changed! And for it I thank my very creative friend, Brittany Alloway, graphic designer extraordinaire, who did one spectacular job on ornamenting the peak of BFMK with a much desired, way prettier title banner. With ease and amazing creativity, she delivered things superquick even after my gazillion mind changes/ onerous reworkings in between. And look how she cartoon-glammed me up?  You like? I certainly do :-)**

If you want to see more of her inspiring work, check out Brittany's website, and portfolio over at Tough and Tender or on Etsy.

October~

2015~Chicken curry 

2014~ Besan laddoo

2012~Mille Feuille

******

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