The Pune Farmer's Market and a Semi-Homemade Cake

For the past few months the Pune Farmer's Market has been held at the Westin, where I work. I have been wanting to go for a while, so today we went. There were a lot of cool booths and sellers there, but there were also quite a few restaurants there. For example, my mom and dad had a pizza while Zach had a chicken shwarma wrap. I had some lemon risotto and a spinach croissant. Here are a few pictures...

Green Tokri, a veggie seller

The Good Juicery, some seriously good stuff! 

My family

 

Some cool lights :)

Overall, it was really well done and I would highly recommend visiting. The next one hasn't been announced yet, but they are on facebook, https://www.facebook.com/PuneFarmersMarket, and there is an article on the Westin blog about it, http://www.westinpuneblog.com/2012/12/pune-farmers-market.html.

Now, to the baking.

This is a recipe using a store-bought cake mix that people will ask how you made it. You might call this Italiana Americano because it uses a traditional Sicilian cannoli filling recipe and a plain old chocolate cake mix. Anyhow, it is amazing.

Chocolate Cake with Ricotta Chocolate Chip Filling

1 Chocolate cake mix
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 to 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, based on your love for chocolate

Prepare the cake mix as directed in 8" or 9" pans. Cool completely. For the filling, beat the ricotta and sugar until fluffy and then add the vanilla and lemon juice. Stir in the chocolate chips.

My layers, cooled of course :)

I would recommend making sort of a wall with buttercream so that the filling stays where it should. Of course, if you aren't icing the cake all over, it would be fine as is. 

Just dollop the filling on and smooth it out.

Once the layers are together, you could just sprinkle over some powdered sugar, or go the whole nine yards and ice the whole thing. :)

Here we are! As you can see, a few of pecans and two miniature Hershey bars definitely do the cake justice. 

And one more angle for good measure. :p

Adding a filling to a cake mix really is easy and delicious. For the buttercream I just made plain buttercream (see recent post) and added about 1/3 cup cocoa for chocolately goodness. Also, if you want to substitute some of the ricotta cheese for cream cheese, that would be fine. I wouldn't do more than half and half, or you will lose that ricotta flavor. 

Andy

A Very Sweet Treat

Yesterday was sort of a lazy day so Maggie and I decided to make cookies. We started out thinking about chocolate chip, then we thought maybe sugar cookies with icing, but finally the thought came to me. Why don't we do cookie sandwiches? They are so expensive at the mall (who knows why) and they would be fun to make! We chose Snickerdoodle cookies with a cinnamon buttercream filling. These were a hit with Maggie's and Zach's friends. It took a platter filled with cookie sandwiches outside and came back with three left! I hope the kids who had two didn't go into sugar commas... Anyway, these snickerdoodles are definitely not an everyday thing, but they are a great treat.

Snickerdoodle Sandwich Cookies
Yields: Around 3 dozen cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups castor (granulated) sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 3/4 cups white flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Coating:
3 tablespoons castor (granulated) sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 175 degrees Celsius. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well. Now is when you can stick the dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes. You don't have too, but it will make scooping easier. Scoop the dough into tablespoon-sized portions. (Yes, measure it. They have to be consistent to stack them.) Roll the dough portions into little balls and dip into the sugar cinnamon coating. Make sure the balls are well covered in coating. Bake at 350 F or 175 C for 5 to 8 minutes. When they are done, they will look cracked on top. You want to take them out before you normally would for other cookies. That's just how snickerdoodles are. :) Remove immediately from pan. If you break one because they are hot, BONUS! That is the chef's treat. ;) Allow to cool.

Now for the filling...

Buttercream Filling
Yields: About 2 1/2 cups (enough to fill all of your cookies)

1 cup butter, softened
3 1/2 to 4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk
Cinnamon, to taste (optional)

Beat butter until smooth and add sugar in 1/2 cup additions. Add vanilla, salt, and milk halfway through adding the sugar. Add the cinnamon, if using, at the end. You may need more/less sugar depending on the consistency, and you want the filling to be pretty firm to fill cookies. The cinnamon is optional but it really brings the cookie and filling together. I used a little less than 2 tablespoons of cinnamon.

Take one cookie, turn it upside down, and dollop a glob of filling on the center. Push another cookie down onto the first cookie. Both cookie bottoms should be on the inside. I stuck these into the fridge for a few minutes to sort of "set" the filling. Serve them that day or store in the fridge for up to 4 days. Enjoy your treat!

Andy