Bibingka or Rice flour Cake For Sweet Punch December 2011

Bibingka is a Filipino dessert which is baked with glutinous rice, rice flour, cheese and salted eggs.  Actually I was supposed to make this for Daring Baker's last month, which I skipped it since I couldn't find glutinous rice, next I found it quite peculiar using whole salted eggs for dessert.

We use eggs almost for most of our puddings and mousse, which is normally whipped up and get blended but this one is baked with whole salted eggs in the middle.  After skipping the process of using salted eggs and glutinous rice, I found this cake  as a very familiar taste to me, it was very much like a rice flour paniyaram which my mom used to make, except that this is been baked.  Anyways I loved this cake a lot, a best option for gluten free cake, so this recipe is my submission for Sweet Punch.  Oh! Yes, I forget to say, this month Sweet punch team has left to our choice to bake anything of our choice.  Hope you enjoy baking this cake in your home.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time:  30 minutes
Makes 4

Ingredients:
Rice flour-  150 g
Eggs- 2
Sugar- 75 g
Coconut milk- 60 ml
Butter- 3 tbsp ( melted )
Baking powder- 2 tsp
Cardamom powder- 1 tsp
Fresh grated coconut- 2 tbsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.  Mix together rice flour, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl.  Beat in the eggs, cardamom powder and  coconut milk into the rice flour mixture.  Finally add the melted butter into the rice flour mixture.  Grease and line four ramekins.  Pour the mixture equally into the ramekins and  sprinkle the grated coconut on top of it.  Bake it in the preheated oven  for 30 to 40 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.  Take it out from the oven, cool it in the wire rack for about 5 minutes.  Remove it from the ramekins and serve it while they are still warm.
Sending this to Cook, Eat Delicious Dessert- Coconut hosted by Raksha's Kitchen originally started by Raven  , Let's Cook- Baked Goodies, Cooking Concepts- Holiday Baking, A 100 Day Global Food Festival, SYF and HWS Series- Cardamom,  Jingle All The Way,  Christmas Delicacy, Sinful Delights and Bake Fest 

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Beetroot Halwa Tarts for Sweetpunch October 2011

This month for Sweet punch,  we have sweet little Jam tarts from  Ria's Collections.  The first thing which came to my mind was whether I'm going to use store bought jam with loads of sugar or something home made.

Initially I had the idea of making mixed fruit jam which my mom used to make, which is still with lots of sugar.  Not sure whether it'll work with brown sugar or demerara sugar.  Finally made up my mind with beetroots.  After searching through lots of recipes in net, I was afraid that  I'm not going to get jam consistency without jam sugar. 

So I made just the way how we normally make beetroot halwas and replaced white sugar with demerara sugar and of course all purpose flour with whole wheat atta .   If you are wondering why do I have to replace white sugar and all purpose flour, you can read the reasons from here and here.

  Now about the tarts, the pastry was just amazing, it had a perfect texture and the beetroot halwa worked well with it.  My kids loved this and I enjoyed baking this.  If you would like to start baking with us in Sweet punch, click here.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time : 12 to 15 minutes
Makes 12 tarts

Ingredients:
Whole wheat atta / All purpose flour- 200 g
Cold butter from refrigerator- 100 g
Baking powder- 1/2 tsp
Salt- a pinch
Cold water- 4 or 5 tsp
Beetroot halwa- 12 tsp ( recipe follows )

Method:
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  Chop the butter into small pieces and rub with the flour gently until it looks like fine bread crumbs.  Add a splash of cold water and bring the dough together.  Don't add too much water or knead the dough, it'll ruin the pastry completely.

  Preheat the oven to 190 degree Celsius.  Roll the dough in the middle of two baking parchment paper.  Make small rounds using a cookie cutter.  Place the small circles in the tart tin and push it in gently on the sides.  Drop a level teaspoon of beetroot halwa inside the tart cases, if you want you can cut the remaining dough in star shapes and place it in the middle of the tart.  Bake it in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes.  Leave it in the wire rack to cool, then serve immediately or store it in a air tight container.

Beetroot Halwa:
Beetroot- 2 small sized, peeled and grated finely
Demerara sugar- 75 g
Cardamom powder- 1/2 tsp
Ghee- 5 tsp

Add the grated beetroot and  1/2 cup of water in a heavy bottomed kadai and cook until all the water evaporates.  Keep stirring in the middle to avoid burning at the bottom.  Now add the sugar and keep stirring continuously, when it looks like a semi solid.  Finally add the ghee and cardamom powder, stir well until it incorporates into the halwa.  Take it off from heat.  Allow it cool down and use it for the recipe.






 

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Chocolate and Pistachio Biscotti for Sweet Punch September 2011

This time for Sweet Punch it's Italian Biscotti from Joy of Baking.  Biscotti's are a type of Italian biscuits which normally people enjoy it with their  black coffee.  I have attempted these biscotti's a few years back which was a total flop, this time  the recipe from Joy of baking is perfect.
No wonder Joy of Baking has so many fans.  The lesson which I learnt from my last time failure is whenever I try a recipe for the first time just follow the recipe as it is without changing any measurements.  Anyway we enjoyed this biscotti  a lot with our evening tea, instead of pistachios you can also add almonds, apricots or cranberries etc...

Recipe Source: Joy Of Baking
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:
All purpose flour- 225 g
Egg- 2
Sugar- 135 g
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
Pistachios- 75 g
Dark chocolate chips- 100 g
Baking powder- 1 tsp

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.  Beat the sugar, essence and eggs with an electric beater  on high  speed until it is thick, pale and fluffy.  When you slowly raise the beater the batter will fall back slowly in small ribbons.  In a separate bowl sift the flour and baking powder.  Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir to combine.  Finally fold the chocolate and pistachio into the dough.  Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Form the dough into a 30 cm long and 3 cm wide log.  Since the dough is quite sticky you might have to wet your hands before you shape the dough.  Bake the log in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until the top looks firm.  Take it out from the oven and allow it to rest in a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Then slice the log with a sharp knife about 2 inch slices.  Place them in a baking sheet and bake for further 10 minutes, turning it over in the middle.  Take it out from the oven, allow it cool in a wire rack and store them in an air tight container.

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Rose Apple Muffin - Sweet Punch for August 2011

Hello Foodies,

 Okey I'm already a bit late for Sweet Punch this month, so I tried to post it today as early as possible.  This month our Sweet Punch team has chosen Strawberry Banana Muffin from Joy of Baking.  Yes it's Strawberry Banana Muffin, after looking out for strawberries a month, I gave up and thought will use cherries.
Finally I found that cherries season also finished.  I couldn't think of anything and decided to seek help with Sweet Punch.  Divya suggested me to use apple or mango, so finally it's Apple and Banana Muffin.  About these apple petals (hope it looks so ;-) ) on top, couple of days back, I remember one of  our fellow bloggers made these with a different muffin recipe.  Aw!  I have such a poor memory that I couldn't remember the person, sorry dear...

Those elegant shape immediately caught my attention, so I made those apple petals with these muffin.  Coming to the texture of the muffin, this is so great,  I loved it.  Do try it at home and enjoy with a cup of tea or even as dessert with some custard.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 20-25 minutes
Makes 6 Muffins

Ingredients:
All purpose flour- 150 g
Sugar- 50 g
Egg- 1
Banana- 1(mashed)
Apple- 1 1/2
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
Butter- 50 g (melted)
Baking Powder- 1 tsp
Bicarbonate of soda- 1/4 tsp
Lemon juice- a squeeze

Method:
Take half of the apple, peel and chop it.  Add a knob of butter in a pan, add the chop apples and cook it until softened. Let it cool down for a while.  Take the whole apple and slice it finely with skin.  Add a knob of butter to the pan, add the sliced apples and cook until it looks soft, add a squeeze of lemon juice and take it off from heat.
Sift the flour, baking powder and soda in a large bowl, add the sugar to this mixture and mix well. Add the chopped and cooked apples to the flour mixture and mix it well to coat the apples with flour mixture. Beat the eggs, vanilla essence and banana.  Add the melted butter to it and mix it again.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just to combine, do not overmix it, you might result in hard texture muffin.
Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.  Grease the muffin tray with butter.  Spoon the mixture into the tray.  Now comes the fun part, start making the floral shapes on top.  You can either make the floralshapes separately in a plate and then keep it on top of the muffin mixture or start arranging them in the mixture itself.  If you arrange them in the mixture itself, it bind well with the texture , but your hands get messy and bit tough.  When you arrange it on the plate and then if you fix it, it's quite easy job, but it stands out separately.
Right to make it, just take the sliced and cooked apples and start forming it like rose petals by gently folding them.  Place it on top of the mixture.  Bake the muffins in the preheated oven for 20- 25 minutes.  Carefully insert a skewer on the side to check if it's cooked.  Remove it from the oven, let it cool down for 5 minutes in the cooling rack.  Serve it while they are still warm.

Note:
If you find the floral shapes on top are bit tough, you can skip that process and make just the muffin, which is delicious on it's own.

Sending this to Joy from Fasting to Feasting and Iftar Nights

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Multigrain Poundcake for Sweet Punch July 2011

After missing out Sweet punch continuously for 2 months, this month I managed to catch up with them.  This month our Sweet Punch team has chosen The Perfect Pound Cake from 'The Cake Bible'.  
   My first attempt with the pound cake was very memorable, since probably that was my first experience in my baking all together.  The first time I learned to measure the ingredients, first time I learned to mix the batter without any lumps, first time how to use the oven, so it's still memorable.  The result wasn't quite bad for my first time.  These first things happened in UK.

   Now gain after 6 years later in India, this pound cake is the first cake, I baked in my new oven.  These first things are always memorable....
 I think now I can run a contest as how many times I mentioned the word first in this post, just kidding..
Right moving to the recipe , although I try to stick as much as possible with the original recipe, I made a few changes.  I have replaced the All purpose flour with Multigrain Atta and sugar with powdered  jaggery.  Multigrain Atta is nothing but a mix of seven grains like Wheat, Soya, Oats, Ragi, Maize, Chana dhal and Barley.  Jaggery is unrefined cane sugar commonly used in Asian countries.  To know more about jaggery, visit the Wikipedia link from here.

  Well if you ask me why do I have to replace All purpose flour with Multigrain.  As you can see the type of grains included, it's full of goodness. When you get a good texture and flavour with all goodness, why do I have to ignore it.  After all I'm an ordinary mom who likes to include something healthy in her kids diet.  Doesn't mean that I never use All purpose flour, just trying to avoid it as much as possible.  Let's have a look at the recipe for our Multigrain Pound Cake.


Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 30- 40 minutes
Makes 8-10 slices


Ingredients:
Multigrain Atta- 150 g
Unsalted Butter-60 g (softened)
Eggs- 1 whole egg and 1 yolk
Powdered Jaggery- 60 g
Baking Powder- 3/4 tsp
Milk- 2 tbsp
Cardamom powder- 1/4 tsp
Grated nutmeg- 1/4 tsp
Seasame seeds- 1 tsp (optional)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.  Grease and line a small sized loaf tine or a 8 inch sandwich cake tin.  Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  Add the butter to the dry ingredients and beat it with a electric beater until it looks smooth and well combined.  Beat the eggs and milk in separate bowl slightly.  Add the egg mixture little by little and beat well between each additions.  Spoon the batter inside the baking tin and level the surface.  Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top of the batter.
Bake it in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Take it out from the oven and let it cool in the cooling rack for 5 minutes.  Remove the cake from the tin, slice it and enjoy the goodness.

This recipe goes to Only Baked Event hosted by Tamalapaku started by Pari, Let's Cook- Break Time Snacks by Tickling Palates, Healthy Snack by Good Food Recipes and to Signature Recipes by Saras's Kitchen

   

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Almond Cookies for Sweet Punch March 2011

  This month Ria of Ria's Collection has chosenthe recipe form Manjula's Kitchen.  Manjula's Kitchen is a very popular Indian recipe, I'm sure all Indian food lovers must have known her recipes .  Our challenge for this month is to bake Whole wheat eggless almond cookies.  Without any doubt Manjula's recipes always taste the best.

   My cookies didn't spread much but it tasted absolutely delicious.  I made only a few batch and it disappeared in minutes.  I haven't changed anything much in the recipe, except for sugar and along with cardamom, I also added saffron. I love the flavour of saffron and cardamom together, since they go well with each other.  I hope you enjoy baking these aromatic cookies in your home...

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time:  10 minutes
Makes about 30 tiny almond shaped cookies

Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour- 1 cup
Butter- 1/2 cup( softened)
Brown sugar- 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder- 1/2 tsp
Sliced almonds- 1/4 cup
Saffron- about 5 strands soaked in 2 tsp of warm milk
A pinch of salt

Note:
You can replace brown sugar with normal white sugar and also avoid using saffron if you don't want to.

Method:
   Mix the flour, sugar, salt and cardamom powder in a large bowl.  Add the softened butter to the flour mixture and start working with your hand, then add the saffron soaked milk and bring it together like a dough. If it doesn't come together, add some more milk.
    Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.  Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper and cut it using a cookie cutter.  Place it in a greased baking sheet, leaving enough space between each cookies.  Bake it in the preheated oven for 5 to 7 minutes, until the cookies looks lightly brown on top.  Remove it from the oven, leave it in the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack and let it cool down completely.  Store the cookies in an air tight container.
   If you don't want to use cookie cutter.  After making the dough, divide the dough into small balls and place it in a baking sheet.  Press it slightly on top to flatten.  Bake it in the preheated oven for about 12 to 15 minutes, until they look brown on the sides.  Take it out from the oven and let it cool down in the tray for 3 minutes.  Transfer it to a wire rack and cool down completely.  Once cooled down store it in a air tight container.
Enjoy these aromatic cookies with your evening tea.

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Chocolate Meringue Cake: Sweet Punch for January 2011

 
This month for Sweet Punch we were given three options with meringue
Meringue Cake: Joy Of  Baking
Meringue Mushrooms: Joy Of Baking
Chocolate Meringue Cake: Martha Stewart

   I chosed Chocolate Meringue Cake by Martha Stewart.  Seriously this is a killer cake. We always love this flour less mousse cake. Although we were not a big fan of meringue, the cake complemented well with  the meringue layer and it tasted absolutely amazing. Thank you Sweet Punch for this delicious punch as always.

Preparation Time: 25 minutes

Cooking Time: 50 minutes

Serves  6 to 8

Ingredients:

Cake:

Eggs- 6

Plain Chocolate- 200 g

Butter- 100 g

Brown Sugar- 75 g

Meringue:

Egg white- 4

Chocolate- 50 g chopped

Blanched almonds- 50 g chopped

Icing sugar- 60 g

Method:

Cake:

To make the cake, melt the chocolate and let it cool down for a while.  Cream the butter and sugar with a electric beater. Separate the eggs. Add the eggs yolks to the butter mixture and beat well. Slowly add the chocolate mixture and stir well. 

  Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold in 1 tbsp of egg white to the chocolate mixture, and the fold in the remaining little by little at a time.

Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. Grease a 8 inch round cake tine. Pour the batter inside the pan and bake it for 25 minutes.

Prepare the meringue layer:

Beat the 4 whites until soft peaks form, slowly add the icing sugar and beat until it looks stiff.

Fold in the chopped chocolate and chopped almonds into it.

Spread the meringue layer on top of the cooked cake and cook for further 25 minutes.

Take it out from the oven, leave it to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.  Run a knife around the edges and remove from the tin. 

This recipe  goes to Suma's Baking event.

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Pear, Chocolate and Almond Crumble : Sweet Punch for December 2010

This month our challenge is to make Pear and Chocolate crumble. A hot bowl of soup and a warm dessert is something perfect to enjoy for this snowy winter. A very simple and easy to make which makes you feel satisfied. I always like to enjoy these warm dessert with some cold ice cream, you can also have with some custard. Thank you Sweet Punch team for this delicious punch.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients:
Pears- 2
Brown sugar- 2 tbsp
Lemon- juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon
Plain flour- 75 g
Blanched and toasted almonds- 1 tbsp
Butter- 30 g
Milk or plain chocolate- 50 g

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degree celsius.
Peel and chop the pears and mix it along with the juice and zest of lemon. Also add the brown sugar and mix well.
Mix the plain flour and butter with your finger tips until it resembles like a bread crumbs, then add  the sugar and chopped almonds and mix well.
Take two tea cups, add the pears and 2 to 3 pieces of chocolate in each cup. Top it with the crumble topping and add the another 2 to 3 pieces of chopped chocolate on top of it. Bake it in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes until it looks golden brown on top.
Serve warm with ice cream or custard.

Note:
You can also increase the measurement and use a large size bowl to make the crumble, in that case it might take longer time to cook.

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Tomato Souffle: Sweet Punch for November 2010

I drafted this whole post yesterday writing all my stories, today when I made a few changes to post it, everything got deleted. So now I don't have ant patience to type everything again.
  Anyway this month challenge is from Ria of Ria's Collections. This month it was really exciting since we were given three options to choose.
Tomato Souffle
Chocolate Mousse with egg and without egg.
 Since Tomato souffle is something totally new to me and I have never tried or tasted it, I went for tomato souffle, which was lovely. This month Sweet Punch is Savoury.. Even my fuzzy eating little ones enjoyed having it from the warm ramekins, I can't give any more better compliment than this.

Serves 4
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 to 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1. Bread crumbs – 1/2 cup, firmly packed
2. Butter – 15 gm
   Onion – 1 medium, finely chopped
   Plain flour (maida) – 2 tbsp
   Milk – 1 cup
3. Tomato paste – 3 tbsp
   Basil – 1 tbsp, finely chopped (optional)
4. Eggs – 3 egg whites and 2 egg yolks
5. Grated Cheese – a handful ( I used cheddar)
6. Method:

Grease 4 souffle dishes (1/2 cup capacity), sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Melt butter in small saucepan, add finely chopped onion. Stir over low heat for 2 minutes . Cook until onion is soft, it doesn’t have to become brown. Stir in flour and stir over medium heat for a minute. Remove from heat, gradually stir in milk, bring back to heat and stir over high heat until mixture boils & thickens & reaches a thick sauce like consistency. 

Transfer to large bowl, stir in tomato paste & basil leaves. Cover the dish & let it stand for 5 minutes. Beat egg whites in a small bowl until soft peaks from. Add egg yolks to the onion & milk mixture & mix well. Fold the egg whites into the mixture in 2 batches. Pour the mixture evenly into the prepared dishes. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top. Bake in the preheated oven for 20- 25 minutes or until lightly browned. 

Serve warm with bread.

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Molten Lava Cake- Sweet Punch For The Month Of October

This is the third punch for me with Sweet Punch. As always I enjoyed making it and eating it. This month our punch is from Divya of  EasyCooking. The chosen recipe is Molten lava Cake.
When it comes to any chocolate based desserts it will definitely be a winner in a dinner party. Since chocolate is been loved by people of all ages. This particular dessert molten lava cake, which has a chocolate melt down in the middle is simply irresistible.

Hot pudding with cold ice cream is just time to sit and relax or even for a romantic evening ;-)
Thank you Divya for this delicious punch. If you want to join Sweet punch and have all these delicious sweet delicacies click here.

Serve 3 to 4
Preparation Time: 30 to 40 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 to 15 minutes

Ingredients:
Semisweet chocolate- 110 g or 4.5 ounces ( I used a mix of both milk and dark chocolate)
Butter- 110 g or 4.5 ounces
Sugar- 75 g or 3 ounces
Plain flour- 40 g or 1.8 ounces
Eggs- 2
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp( optional)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl sitting on top of simmering water. Once the chocolate is melted, take the bowl from the pan, add the butter and stir until the butter gets melted completely.

In a separate bowl beat the eggs, sugar and extract until pale and fluffy. Slowly add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and stir until it's combined.

Then sift the flour to this mixture and mix it together.
Grease 3 to 4 ramekins with butter, dust it with flour and cocoa powder. Pour the mixture into the ramekins equally. I was able to get only 3, it depends upon the size of your ramekins.

Bake it in the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes. If you want the inner part to be cooked and not gooey, then leave it in the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes.
But believe me the gooey part is simply irresistible.
Serve the pudding while they are still hot with some vanilla ice cream.

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Golden Onion Quiche- Sweet Punch Challenge for September 2010

This is my second challenge with Sweet Punch Team, this time our challenge is savoury by Ria of  Ria's Collections.
 We have to bake a savoury quiche with veg or non veg, as I have all meat eaters in my family I have to make only with chicken. Quiche is something which used to fear to make it , due to the tart base. I never felt comfortable with the blind baking the tart case, and I have gone wrong a few times when I tried it. This time with Ria's recipe, I found that it can be done without blind baking yet delicious and melt in the mouth pastry. Actually I haven't tasted yet, just now I made it and I'm posting it immediately since I'm a bit late with this month challenge.

The buttery pastry, tandoori chicken filling, cheese and the Italian seasoning... Oooooh! I just have to wait a few more hours until Iftar :-(
If you want to start baking with Sweet Punch click here.
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
Plain Flour- 200 g
Butter- 100 g ( frozen)
Baking Powder- 1/4 tsp
Egg- 1 beaten Lightly
Cold water- 1 or 2 tsp
For the filling:
Tandoori chicken shredded- 1/2 cup( I used 2 to 3 thighs of chicken)
Milk- 3/4 cup
Cheese- 1/2 cup( the actual recipe suggested cheddar, I couldn't get that so I have used emmentaler)
Eggs- 3 lightly beaten
Onion- medium sized sliced thinly
Red, Yellow and Green Pepper- 1/4 of each chopped
Italian seasoning- 1/4 tsp( mixture of dried herbs like dried red pepper, garlic, black pepper, oregano)
Salt and Pepper for seasoning as required
Oil- 1/2 tbsp
Method:
For The Filling:
Shred the chicken from the bone completely. Slice the onion thinly and chop the peppers. Heat the oil in a pan, add the chicken and fry for 2 minutes, since it's already cooked it dosen't need much time. Add the onions, keep the heat in medium and stir until the onion reaches golden brown, take care not to burn the onions. Finally add the chopped peppers and take it off from heat.

In a large bowl mix together the eggs, milk, cheese and seasoning. Then add the chicken mixture and mix well.
Keep it separately
For The Pastry:
Preheat the oven to 200 degree celsius. Sift the flour and baking powder in a bowl, add the grated butter, rub between your finger tips to resemble like a fine bread crumbs. Add the beaten egg and bring the dough together, if it didn't come like a dough, add a few drops of cold water and bring the dough together. Roll out the dough to fit your baking tin size, carefully lift the dough and slide it inside the tin and press the edges.

Pour the filling inside the pastry case and bake it for 25 to 30 minutes, until the filling is set and pastry looks slightly brown on sides.
Serve the quiche warm with some side salad.

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Black Forest Roulade

My First Sweet Punch

 Sweet punch is a group started by Ria, Maria and Divya Kuda. The main aim of the group is to make baking as simple as possible, they believe that baking is not just for experts,  when there is a  good recipe and fresh ingredients  nothing can go wrong. This is absolutely right, when i started baking all which i do is just follow the recipe without changing anything, even when you make a slight alternation in the measurement something may go wrong. So if you want to join the Sweet Punch and check the previous roundups please click here.

  Since this is my first challenge with the sweet punch I'm more than happy to have this Black Forest roulade since I live in Germany. This cake is named after the mountain range in South western Germany.

When I first came to Germany, I came across this Black Forest name very often. I used to wonder what's with the black forest, then one of my husband's colleague explained that black forest is nothing but forest with mostly pine trees. When  you view this forest from a distance or from a bird's eye view, it almost looks like black in colour, so it's called as Black forest. This is one of the   main  attraction for tourists who visits Germany.

  When I first saw the recipe for sweet punch, It was like OMG!  Since roulade, swiss roll is always been a nightmare for me.  I left it till the last moment and made the cake just two days before posting the recipe. Everything came out perfect, expect that it started cracking after I rolled the cake. Then I realized that this cake is almost like a mousse cake, since it is very delicate and moist, there are more chances to have a crack. So I was convinced by myself that the cake is ok. You can just serve this cake by itself with some cream or ice cream. You can also repair the minor cracks by piping some cream on top and dusting with a cocoa powder.

This month challenge is by Maria, her recipe is from The Australian Women's Weekly, which is my favourite too. This is one of my earliest collection of recipe book, which I rely on a lot. When you follow the instructions from the book just as it is , the results are amazing. Coming to the recipe.

Ingredients

Dark chocolate - 200gm, chopped coarsely
Hot water - 1/4 cup (60 ml)
Instant coffee powder - 1 tsp
Eggs - 4

separated (room temp)

Caster sugar - 1/2 cup (110 gms)
Caster sugar - 1 tbsp, extra
Thickened cream - 3/4 - 1 cup  

Cherry filling
Seedless black cherries - 425gm can
Cornflour - 3 tsp

Method:

Position oven shelves; preheat oven to 180 C. Grease 25 cm/30 cm swiss roll pan; line base with baking paper. Combine chocolate, water and coffee in large heat proof bowl; sit bowl over saucepan of simmering water. Using wooden spoon, stir until chocolate melts then immediately remove bowl from fire. 

Beat egg yolks & sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until thick & creamy; this will take about 5 minutes. Using large metal spoon, fold egg mixture into warm chocolate mixture. Beat egg whites in small bowl  with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Using metal spoon, gently fold egg whites into chocolate mixture, in two batches. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven about 10 mins.

Meanwhile, place a large sheet of baking paper on board; sprinkle with extra sugar. Turn cake onto sugared baking paper; carefully remove lining paper, cover cake loosely with a tea towel. Cool cake to room temp.
Beat cream  in small bowl with electric mixer until firm peaks form. Spread cake evenly with cooled cherry filling then spread  cream over cherry mixture. Roll cake from a long side, using paper to lift and guide the roll; place on serving plate. Dust with cocoa powder. Cover roll; refrigerate 30 minutes before serving. You can also dress up the roulade  with cherries or by piping some cream on top.

Cherry filling
Drain cherries, reserving 1/4 cup (60ml) of syrup. Using knife, chop cherries coarsely. Using wooden spoon blend cornflour and reserved syrup in a saucepan. Add cherries; stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat, cool to room temp.

Storage:

You can store this cake in a refrigerator for upto week, it taste even better after storing it in the refrigerator.

Note:

The main key step to get the cake right is beating the egg whites and proper measurement.

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