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 New Year, Stereotypical Hair, and Chocolate Cloud Cake

Happy New Year! It feels like this year has flown by. I remember not doing anything last year but having snacks and playing games with my family on New Year's Eve. And that's pretty much what we did this year too! Because these past few weeks have been insane around here, I didn't even get a chance to think about my goals for this year until the 2nd. Between moving, (just right across from our old house, about 25 feet away!) traveling, and Christmas celebrations, I really have been going on coffee and the occasional full 8 hours of sleep. But now I have gotten back into school and my routine, and this spring is looking much calmer. Although, I say that now, but a few weeks from now someone in my family will probably say, "I'm bored. Hey! We need more to do!" And away we go...

Yes. If you have heard or seen on Facebook that I have red hair, it's true. The reason I said "Stereotypical Hair" is because one of my friends said, "Now you're the perfect stereotypical American teenager!" Although most American teenagers I know don't have colored hair. Oh well, let me start from the beginning... Right after Christmas we went to Bangalore, India to visit some of our friends who are from there, but they live in Pune. We had a fantastic time! We had so much good food and had so much fun. One day I want to do a "mini travel guide" post on here about it. Anyway, a couple days into the trip, our friends took us to a hair salon there that does other stuff like manicures, pedicures, etc. My mom took her Christmas money and Maggie and her had a little "girl time". While they were finishing up, I was looking at the hair services, and I saw coloring.
Now, I didn't just decide out of the blue to get my hair colored. I had been thinking about it for a while, but I wasn't sure what color. So I went downstairs and asked if they had time to do it. She said sure and the stylist brought out this massive book of colors. We decided on the color red based on my hair type and length. I DID NOT get my whole head done, just streaks throughout. I choose permanent color because I thought, "Hey, if I'm gonna use some of my Christmas money for it, I want it to last a long time." So I had to wear this cap that had a bunch of holes in it, and my stylist pulled up strands of hair that were to be colored. I was nervous, I'll admit it. He mixed up the color and applied it. Until then I was under the impression that it would be an on and off sort of thing, you know, pretty quick. Oh, was I wrong! 45 minutes later, I was done, and had my hair sealed with conditioner. I really liked it. By then my mom had come down. She didn't know what color I had decided on until she saw it already done.  She thought I looked great. Whew! (I have such a wonderful mother!) My dad didn't really have any issue either. My mom texted him and said, "Andy's getting his hair colored." And he said, "Okay, cool." So that's pretty much the story. I would totally do it again, and I might. :)

Now, onto the Chocolate Cloud Cake. This is a recipe from one of my cookbooks I got for Christmas. It's basically a flour-less chocolate cake, but is served with whipped cream on top. So this would be great for someone with a gluten or wheat allergy. The original recipe called for the zest of one orange, but all I had some orange juice. I replaced the zest with about 1 1/2 tablespoons juice and it was totally fine. My family absolutely loves this because it's very rich, and the whipped cream compliments it well. There are two options as far as size goes. I separated the batter and did two 9" pie tins and stacked them with whipped cream in the middle as well. This was lighter and looked really nice. The other option is a spring-form pan or large round pan. But this WILL NOT WORK with a bundt or tube pan. It has to be a regular pan. Also, the batter will be really light and fluffy, but don't worry, that's the magic part!

                                                       Layer one...

                                                       Stacking up...

                                                       The finished product!

Chocolate Cloud Cake
Yields: 1 round cake or 1 two-layer cake

 For the cake:
9 oz. (250 grams)  dark chocolate
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), at room temperature
6 eggs: 2 whole and 4 separated, at room temperature
 3/4 cup castor sugar
grated zest of one orange, or 1 1/2 tablespoons orange juice

For the topping:
1 pint (500 ml) double cream (heavy or whipping cream)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 powdered sugar, about 3/4 cup or as needed, sifted
1/2 teaspoon cocoa

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius. Line the bottom of your baking pan(s) with parchment (baking) paper. Grease before and after lining them. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 20 second increments. Add the butter and allow it to melt by itself for a while. Separate 4 of the eggs, saving the yolks and the whites. In a mixing bowl, crack two whole eggs and add the 4 yolks. Add only half of the sugar to the eggs and beat. Slowly add the chocolate and butter to the eggs. Do not worry if the chocolate slightly seizes up, this is fine. In a different bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy and soft peaks will form. Add the rest of the sugar and beat until firm, but not too stiff. Stir a dollop of egg whites into the chocolate mixture and then fold in the rest. The batter will be very fluffy, keep it this way. Do not stir too much. Pour into prepared pan(s) and bake for 35-40 minutes until the top cracks and the middle does not wobble. When cooling the cake will fall. This is desirable. Allow the cake to fall and cool completely. Meanwhile, beat the cream for a few minutes and add vanilla. Then slowly start adding powdered sugar until the cream will hold its shape. You may need more/less sugar.  When the cake is cool, spoon the cream onto the cake. (and spread in the middle if doing 2 layers) Dust with cocoa through a tea strainer to finish.

This recipe has a lot of instructions, but it's really easy. If you guys have questions about anything, (recipes, ingredients, or techniques) please comment and ask. I also need some recipe requests. I want to do recipes for things that you guys want to know how to make or need a new recipe for. Just comment and request that way or inbox me at andyhman@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!

Fifteen and Rockin' It

First of all, thank you to everyone, which is pretty much all of you, who helped make my birthday special. Some of you posted on Facebook, texted me, or met up with me. You guys are so cool! Celebrating my birthday here in India helped me to remember that God has given me so many new friends, which have become just like family. One of my friends, before we left the US, gave our family a wooden plaque that reads "Friends are the family you find along the way." That is so true. Everyone who is a believer is in my family too, which is pretty awesome if you think about it. Even though I wish I could've celebrated with my biological family too, I had a truly wonderful time, and now I am OFFICIALLY 15 years and 1 day old. :)

For my birthday, I made a three layer cake. This was a white cake with a chocolate ganache and Reese cup filling frosted with buttercream icing. I also made homemade chocolate ice cream to go with it, but we ended up eating the ice cream the night before my birthday. My dad couldn't wait. I couldn't wait either. On my birthday, for brunch, I made Quiche Lorraine and Balsamic Vinaigrette dressed salad greens and Raspberry Iced Tea. (The name of the tea is capitalized because that's how good it was.) Then I did a little birthday shopping with my birthday money that was kind of burning a hole in my pocket. BUT I only spent a little, and I saved the rest. Maggie was very proud of me. (She is the queen of saving money!) After desserts and coffee with some of my youngish friends, I went over to our friends-that-have-become-family's house and hung out for a little while before we went to dinner. Now I usually try to be culturally appropriate and not like eat a ton of meat or talk about it that much but that night, I had BBQ ribs. They were amazing. And the potatoes were amazing. And some of Maggie's curly fries were amazing. And the company was amazing. The whole night was wonderful. I went home and went to bed around midnight, after staying up 'till midnight the night before as well. (That cake wasn't gonna frost itself!) I had a blast cooking for my birthday, but now the question of Thanksgiving has come up. And especially the question of the turkey. Do you roast it, fry it, bake it, boil it, steam it, or grill it? That is a question for another day I think.