Valentines Day - Travels for Taste

Yum Chaa – Fitzrovia – Review

July 13, 2014 by manjirichitnis 7 Comments

Absolutely bored and craving a afternoon out ,a close friend and me decided to check out Yum chaa sometime early february. As soon as we walked my eyes fell on this beautiful and welcoming armchair – its the kind of chair that you can sink into and loose yourself in!

Lucky for us it was in a quite little corner where we could pour our hearts out to each other!

The counter had a beautiful display and she decided to have the Chilli Chilli Hot Chocolate. I was having a very difficult time trying to decide which tea to have from the amazing range available of Black and Red teas.

I finally settled for a red tea and a little something to bite into….in the quite pauses between our excited chatter I gazed into my tea cup…wishing I could tell what the future has to hold simply by gazing at how the bright red tea sediments lay there… if only …

Loved their quirky note asking for ‘Valentines Day Funds’ now who can refuse a tip when coaxed like that? (espp when it will be used to buy an Adele album!)

The quirky christmas tree kept the corner with the shelves a bit festive and the white washed walls seemed to have a sublimia soothing effect. The general atmosphere of the place is the sort where you can settle into a huge armchair , armed with a tea of your choice and spend hours sipping it alone or not. Its the kind of place you would take a good book to and settle in with a warm pot of tea, allow the tea to percolate and loose yourself in the pages of your fav storyteller.

We lost track of time and almost over two hours later when Yum Chaa got really busy we decided to let someone else take over our cushy chairs…reluctantly almost, promising ourselves that we would be back soon , very soon…

The shabby chic,relaxed atmosphere , mis-matched furniture, white washed walls and their amazing range of teas on offer will stay with you long after you walk out of the place and of course their catchy crazy name Yum Chaa is something you won’t forget easily!

Disclaimer: I’ve written this review of my own accord and was this visit was paid for by me. I was not required to write a positive review and was not compensated monetarily for this post.Like all my previous posts about events and reviews, ALL opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

French Glace Cherries – Baking Masterclass

March 14, 2014 by manjirichitnis 37 Comments

When someone says cherries all I can think of is one tempting cherry sitting majestically atop a very fancy portion of Black Forest gâteau for dessert and its only the dexterity of your hands that will guarantee you get to pop the tasty little treat, of course, cherries have very many applications in baking as I was to find out at the baking day for bloggers organised by French Glacé Cherries(FGC).

We baked delicious Valentine’s treats developed and demonstrated by French baker and blogger Cindy Robert from Petit Gâteau and Food for thoughts.

To get us settled in we had some rather innovative sweet and savoury nibbles – FGC chutney with blue cheese, FGC oatcakes, FGC & chocolate brownies, mini smoothies, mini cheesecakes and my new favorite party nibble idea – crispy bacon rolled around a cherry – it’s so so good!

Images above Courtesy French Glace Cherries

A few interesting facts about French Glacé cherries They retain their flavour, shape and texture throughout the baking process. As such, they offer unbeatable quality, and reliable results every time. Good To know that they are not just apt in a traditional fruit cake, but equally at home in savoury recipes.

A Slice of History

The love affair between French confectioners and the UK goes back as far as 1868.It was then that business man Mathieu Wood, who was travelling in Provence at the time, discovered candied fruits from the Apt region and decided to import and sell them in his shops. It didn’t take long for the quality reputation of Provence glacé fruits to spread to the UK and beyond.

Images Courtesy French Glace Cherries

Around the same time, the British love of the outdoors and the development of the picnic and camping trends encouraged a preference for food that was easy to carry around. The fruit cake became very popular as it was easier to carry than the traditional pudding and offered something a bit more original. Candied fruits and French glacé cherries in particular are fun, novel and allow for a great http://phentermine-med.com amount of creativity in recipes. No surprise they quickly became a perfect addition to the fruit cake, and thus an integral part of British baking culture.

We were to bake along with Cindy, who had created two exclusive treats: French Glacé Cherry (FGC) Jelly cakes (a cherry twist on the traditional Jaffa cake) and FGC and Pistachios financiers (also known over here as friands).

I must say baking in a group is really fun vis-a vis’ my usual solitary experiments and that too at the venue which was Central Street Cookery School, at St Luke’s Community Centre was an utterly enjoyable experience.The cookery school is exceptionally well equipped and is a perfect place for all sorts of lovely kitchen experiments ! That is a very happy me melting some chocolate chips -ummm

An attentive audience we were …

My French Glacé Cherry (FGC) Jelly cakes progressed quite well and we got to carry back our bakes home, such fun I say , I had a lovely tea session with my neighbour H and her 5 year old daughter she thoroughly enjoyed the taste of these Jaffa cakes !

But my heart was in the FGC and Pistachios financiers, their eggy aroma and perfect for valentines day shape ummm ,lucky us we got the cute moulds to take home in our rather generously stuffed goody bags with the most cheerful apron I’ve got so far in bright cherry red 🙂

1-French Glace Cherries Goody Bag Deconstructed on 8th Feb'14

Did you know that it takes about 10 days for a tray of fresh cherries to become glacé cherries

Image Credit: French Glace Cherries

Disclaimer: I was invited by French Glace Cherries to attend the event and bake with Cindy using recipes developed by her. I was not required to write a positive review and was not compensated monetarily for this post. Like all my previous posts about events and reviews, ALL opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Chocolate Coconut Cake with Coconut flavoured Icing

February 14, 2014 by manjirichitnis 38 Comments

Decadent Chocolate cake with a delicious coconut flavoured icing

Dreaming of a chocolate cake, baking it, and devouring it, is a common obsession of mine. Also, I had many excuses to bake chocolatey treats, what with Valentine’s just around the corner. Not to mention many other reasons to eat cake following in quick succession after Valentines – my dad and husband’s birthday and our wedding anniversary, woohoo!

With so many occasions all lined up one after the other, a mega celebration was in order. And as we all know any celebration, big or small is incomplete without, yes you guessed right a proper cake.

So my plan was to bake an indulgent and rich chocolate cake and how better than Nigella to look to for a good recipe! Unable to pick a recipe on my own, I asked my neighbour’s adorable 5-year daughter to flip through Nigella Lawson’s book ”Feast” – Food That Celebrates Life. Lucky for me she stopped flipping pages at Nigella’s Old Fashioned Chocolate cake recipe. Better still it is made using only the food processor – so very perfect.

Besides, no better way to bring in Valentine’s week than by baking a decadent chocolate cake with hints of coconut flavour and adding some coconut flavoured icing on the top. I love Nigella’s original recipe which I have (dared to!) modify as I had been thinking of ways to use the lovely samples sent to me by Sugar and Crumbs.

I have modified the original recipe by using three medium-sized regular eggs, thick yogurt instead of sour cream, and have reduced the quantity of ingredients for the icing because I am not a big fan of slathering a very thick layer of sugary icing in between the layers nor am I very fond of a huge layer of icing on the top but I guess even after reducing the quantities of ingredients for the icing I still managed to get lots to smother the cake with. I have used Sugar and Crumbs flavoured cocoa powder in Chocolate Coconut and Sugar and Crumbs flavored natural icing sugar in coconut flavour, result – a perfectly balanced taste of coconut without being overpowering. So am calling my cake – ”Chocolate Coconut Cake with Coconut flavoured Icing”.For the remaining part, the original recipe is perfect, basic, simple, and therefore beautiful as it is foolproof and even a novice can get an excellent delicious, fluffy, and intensely chocolatey cake – very satisfying indeed! Thank You, Nigella!

Chocolate Coconut Cake

Easy and delicious Chocolate cake recipe

Print Recipe

Prep Time 25 mins

Cook Time 25 mins

Course Dessert

Servings 8 portions

Equipment

Two 8 inch Round cake tins
Food Processor or stand-mixer
Spatula
Measuring spoons
Cake tester or thin skewer

Ingredients

200 grams plain flour
200 grams caster sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
40 grams Sugar and Crumbs flavoured cocoa powder in Chocolate Coconut
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
175 grams soft unsalted butter
3 medium-sized eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
150 ml thick-set yogurt

Instructions

Sift the plain flour through a sieve into a large mixing bowl
Add the caster sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and bicarbonate of soda
Mix well with a spatula and transfer it into the food processor
Crack the eggs into the mixture, add the vanilla essence and the yogurt and mix roughly with a spatula before running the food processor to ensure that the loose flour doesn’t fly all over the place. For the first 30 seconds, I lightly covered the chute of the processor with my palm to prevent the flour from flying out in a mist. Now, this is the reason I want a Kitchen Aid 😉
After an initial spin, use the blunt edge of the knife to scoop out what stuck to the walls of the processor and mix well with the cake batter.
Don’t worry if you think the batter is very thick, another spin for about a minute should give you the required consistency to ”pour” into the cake tins
Grease two removable base 8-inch tins with butter and equally divide the cake batter into each tin
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF
Bake for 25 minutes and then test the center of the cake with a cake tester or thin skewer
My cakes were done in 25 minutes but you may need up to 30 minutes depending on the type of oven. The cakes rose beautifully but the top had cracks. The icing was there to save the day and make the cake look pretty
Remove cakes from the baking tray and leave to cool down on a wire rack

Coconut flavoured Icing

Print Recipe

Ingredients

50 grams unsalted butter
125 grams best quality dark chocolate broken into small pieces
225 grams icing sugar
100 ml sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

While the cakes are in the oven prepare the icing by mixing together all the ingredients of the icing
The original recipe calls for adding golden syrup but I totally gave that a miss
Why? Because I had already borrowed some butter, some yogurt, baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda from my very patient neighbour H 😉 – yes, yes she did get a large portion of this cake 🙂
Now to ice the cakes place the slightly domed part of one cake face down and slather icing on the flat part and place the other cake flat side down on the icing and then slather icing all over the cake
I had some pretty pink and white sugar stars which I used to decorate my cake.

I have also been sent Sugar and Crumbs Coffee Flavoured icing sugar and a pack of salted caramel powder, maybe cupcakes need to be baked next ?:)

Need more recipe inspiration to get baking?

Why not check out my other recipes here:

Linking this post to the We should Cocoa event hosted by Choclette who blogs at Choc Log Blog where the challenge is to use an ingredient and that ingredient is chocolate – how apt for Valentines, and with all that gorgeous dark chocolate this cake certainly qualifies!

My blog post is being linked to Dom’s Random Recipes event hosted by Dom who blogs at Belleau Kitchen, where for February the challenge is to select any chocolate-themed recipe book and to make a randomly selected recipe from that book. The idea of this recipe challenge is to make us home chefs step outside our comfort zones and make something that we would otherwise hesitate to and totally avoid. Humm okay, I got off easy this time 🙂

Also for the first time. I’m joining in with Jibber Jabber’s Love Cake first ever event where the theme for the month of love BAKING WITH PASSION and is a cake-baking challenge.

Disclaimer: With many thanks to Sugar and Crumbs for the generous amount of samples to test and review.I was not required to write a positive review and was not compensated monetarily for this post. Like all my previous posts about events and reviews, ALL opinions expressed here are entirely my own.