It was yummy!

So, I am late in posting again. Anyway, I completed the Buche De Noel and it was yummy. N helped assemble the marzipan mushrooms and I assembled the log and it was beautiful. The cake was really yummy and I am sure to make this again for next Christmas.

Check out the pictures!

Marzipan- Made from scratch...next time, will buy from store! :)

Mocha Buttercream- This was for the frosting of the log. The buttercream was so tasty I could have that with some whipped cream as dessert anytime!

The génoise Sheet- The Cake immediately after removing from the oven. Moist and nice!

The génoise cake with cream cheese filling- This was decadent and yummy! I added a little bit of rum too for a nice flavour

The cake after it is rolled into a log-hmm took me some time to figure it out...but it worked out!

The cake in the log shape with both sides cut and placed! The buttercream acts as a gum for the cake to stick.

After frosting the log!

Marzipan decorations- N helped with the mushroom. I somehow managed the leaves-dont ask me how.:)

After the final assembly!

Yaay! Buche De Noel!

I have some good news on the job front! Post coming soon...Watch this space. :)

My experiments to create a classic French dessert!

So today I was determined to start with my Buche De Noel (Yule Log) project. It was postponed from the 24^th because of my strained back. I am not sure why, but something about this dessert intrigues me. It is a very difficult dessert to tackle. More like a challenging task. Maybe, that's why I am hell bent on getting it right.

Lately, I have been baking a lot. I baked a Christmas cake and gifted it to my family on the 25^th. I made a classic cheesecake, which came out so well that I called it little pieces of heaven. :) My molten lava cake experiment also turned out to be delicious, although I was skeptical about the chocolate oozing out. However, the chocolate did ooze out and it was like seeing a science experiment work!

Cooking is one of my passions and baking is something I can do all day and not get tired of it. Trying out new recipes is one of my favorite pastimes these days. I baked a loaf of French bread and made garlic bread out of it. Talking about bread, I always thought of it as one difficult item to make from scratch. Anyways, the taste of the garlic bread was good and I was happy. The confidence I got made me try rosemary breadsticks too, which also turned out to be tasty.

Back to the Buche De Noel, which is an important part of the French Christmas tradition. I have been reading about this recipe for about a month now. That's another part of my baking process. I like to do a lot of research before actually working on any recipe. This way, I will be prepared for any unforeseen problems and the final product will be edible and tasty. :) So, my Buche de Noel has five main steps to it.

Step 1

Marzipan Mushrooms and decorations

Step 2

Mocha Buttercream

Step 3

Genoise Sheet

Step 4

Cream Filling

Step 5

Assembling the log

The Genoise sheet is the cake, which will be rolled with the cream filling inside and then frosted with mocha butter cream on the outside. The marzipan mushrooms and pinecone decorations will surround the final assembled cake. Today, I completed the first two steps. The mocha butter cream is set and is inside the fridge along with the marzipan. I am making this dessert one step at a time, so I don't injure my back again. Hmm, I can feel a pinch of pain in my neck already. Hope N does not read this. If he does, he is sure to get upset with me for not taking rest.

That reminds me, N Is not well and is down with fever. So, our Christmas feast and dessert is pushed to the 30^th, which gives me more time for assembling the Buche De Noel. Hoping to finish the Genoise Sheet and cream filling tomorrow.

To be continued….

Another birthday passes by

On August 14, I turned 27. I remember last year, I was feeling uncomfortable and jumpy about turning 26. However, this year I am very much enjoying the aging part. As long as I look and feel younger than my age, does anything else matter? :)

I did not have to go to work as I work only from Monday to Thursday. It was a nice day, well spent with family and I enjoyed every bit of it. For lunch we went to Moxie’s. If you ask me one restaurant where we have frequented the most, it would be Moxie’s. It is a nice fine dining place, where you get amazing steaks and service according to N. Whenever we are there, he orders the blackened New York steak and I order the chicken tenders tangi thai style. After I lost my job, we stopped going there. That itself is a big achievement staying away from the one restaurant we both love to go.

The server gave my favorite dessert ‘white chocolate brownie’ complimentary after knowing that it was my birthday. Check out the pictures.

In the evening we went to my dad’s place. He was having a barbecue to celebrate my birthday and that was really fun. Check out the picture.

Now coming to the most important part, which is the cake. I know this might sound a little odd but I baked my own birthday cake. It was a vanilla sponge cake with a butter cream frosting. Actually that cake was for my sister too since her birthday was on August 6. So there you see. :)

The cake came out well. Even the frosting part of it tuned out to be a success. I even decorated the cake. The credit for the sponge cake should actually go to Jenny field. Her emphasis on the creaming method really made a big difference, when it came to getting the moist and tender texture that melts in your mouth. A single slice was so light that I did not even feel conscious of having such a big piece. And the credit for the success of the frosting should go to Ashley. Her upside down frosting technique really made the cake look professional. However, I guess the cake shifted and lost a little bit of the decoration on transit from my place to my dad's. Check out the picture.

I wish I had a better picture to post. After all that work on the cake, I was exhausted and forgot to take any pictures.

It took me long hours to have the cake ready but everyone loved the cake and I was showered with compliments. Well, who does not like compliments? :)

What a weekend it was!

Last weekend was fun. It was thanksgiving long weekend here. And every day was well spent! On Saturday we went to watch the fall colors alongside Lake Simcoe, passing the towns of Barrie, Jacksons Point, Orillia and Sutton. I will add the pictures and more details in the next post.

Sunday, we hosted a party for some of N’s classmates and their wives. Actually his classmates and their wives are the close friends we have in Toronto. We get together once in awhile randomly at someone’s place either on birthdays or any other special occasions. The parties don’t happen very often simply, because they are doing their MBA. The wives earn and manage the family, which of course we are very proud of. :)

Anyway, the point is that this is the first time; we are hosting it at our place since they started school, a little more than a year ago. I would again like to think of the delay as just a coincidence. And most importantly, I had never cooked for more than five people when they were going to be 10 of them. So, my confidence level was somewhat low. However, the menu I had prepared was quite extensive.

Vegetable fried Wantons, Paneer Tikka and Beef fry for Starters. Masala Rice, Daal, Kadai Paneer and Chicken Fry for main dish. White chocolate brownie topped with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream for dessert. Drinks were N’s department. I don’t eat Beef, but wanted to prepare it for the beef lovers.

Most of them are vegetarians, that being the reason for more veggie items. All the items were my recipes except for the brownies, which was taken from Tartelette. The preparations for the party began on Saturday morning. I went to the Indian store and bought lots of Paneer. After shopping, we went for the fall colors trip. In the night, I baked the brownie and cooked the meat so, I just had to fry the meat and prepare the rest of the items the next day. To my surprise, everything turned out well. I wish I had taken pictures of the final served items. The brownies looked exactly like Tartelette’s. Check out the picture here.

Everyone reached an hour and a half later than they promised. That was good in a way since I got to take rest after a full day’s cooking. Ok I got to admit that I started cooking on Sunday morning at 11.30. And it went on till 5.30pm. Oh I almost forgot, I also cleaned the apartment in between. Cooking is one way for me to destress, so I enjoyed the entire effort. To top it all, the compliments I received put me on cloud nine. Come on, who does not enjoy getting compliments? :)

Everyone enjoyed the food and the party was such a big success. We played some games at first. Soon enough people started dancing. That really surprised and made me happy at the same time. Wow I never had seen that before in the other parties we went. So, in essence, maybe, this party gave them all something more than the usual. I was the DJ. The apartment was bustling with both Hindi and English music. We had so much of fun. I am still contemplating on posting the dance videos here in the blog. :)
Wicked me!

By 4am everyone left and Monday was supposedly rest day. Somehow, when you had so much over the weekend, it is hard to sleep for too long. Maybe that is why we went for brunch with my parents and the rest of the family. After all, you should do at least something with your own family on Thanksgiving Day, right?

Have fun and wait for the fall colors pictures. :)