Wednesday 13 March 2013

Walnut Cake with Milk Chocolate Icing for 5th Blog Anniversary


It’s spring, the trees started showcasing their new sprouts, the daffodils in my backyard is in full bloom and we are so looking forward to some sunshine, some warmth and comfort when it started snowing heavy again throughout this week!! And it is bitter cold with wintry winds. Is winter not yet over?? It was quite warm with lots of sunshine couple of weeks back and I thought the winter gloom is over. But with the snow this week, it feels like winter is forever!


It’s again another year again, and Shab’s cuisine is an year older than last year. The blog turned 5 on March 11. March is the busiest of months for me as both the husbands and kid’s birthday falls on the same month, just a week apart. Lot of thoughts goes into planning each day to make it special and memorable, and lot of arrangements to be made. The blog was started between the two birthdays, so posting something or even planning something on that day is just of question, atleast for me. I am planning to do a giveaway soon, something edible, some thing that you will definitely be looking forward to, but I will have to plan it for another date, later in April or May after the hectic schedule. Can you guess what that is going to be? Stay tuned for that.


Have I mentioned about my new year resolution on cutting down on my baking? I have been doing good so far with minimal baking unlike usual.  But I will have to break all my rules when it comes to March. It is a celebratory month where my oven sees lot of baked goodies. Everything was working down a treat until I borrowed this amazing chocolate recipe book from the local library. I have been flipping that book ever since I borrowed it. Pages over pages of chocolaty goodness made me full, but this simple recipe had caught my attention enough to try. I had to bake it, it is just the occasion that I had to wait for.


That was when the neighbour called us girls over for a coffee morning. I then bought all the stuffs and baked it just before it hit the midnight, so that I could try and taste it before I took it over to her house the very next morning. Icing was done in a hurry in the middle of the morning rush, and getting the son ready to school and then shooting had to be done soon after dropping son off to school. I was so pressed for time, as I had to get ready before the ladies met together over the coffee table that morning.



The cake was well received by the ladies and went down well. It is a basic butter based recipe, it is a breeze to make and has lovely texture with a lot of crunch from the nuts. The walnuts impart lots of flavour to the cake and the simple chocolate icing works well with the cake. I think apart from chocolate icing, cream cheese frosting or coffee icing would work well with the cake as well. I am sure making this cake again, but I would try tweaking it by adding coffee to the batter and doing a different icing, but  I have to await another chance to bake again.



Walnut Cake with Milk Chocolate Icing
Preparation time: 30 mins
Serves 8-10
Ingredients:
180g soft unsalted butter
½ cup, 100g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup, 150g plain flour
2 ½ tbsp, 25 g corn flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
60g walnut finely chopped
¼ cup, 60 ml milk

Icing:
125g milk chocolate
20g butter
40g walnut to garnish

Preparation:
1. Grease and flour an 7 ½ - 8 inch deep pan or line with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180 ˚C/ 170 ˚C fan oven. In a bowl, sift together the plain flour, corn flour, baking powder and salt.

2. In another bowl cream butter and sugar using an electric whisk until creamy and pale.

3. Add eggs, one by one until well incorporated.

4. Add in the flour mix in 2-3 parts, and fold it gently mixing milk in between.

5. Gradually add in the chopped walnuts and fold again.

6. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake until golden for about 35 minutes or a tooth pick poked in the centre comes out clean. Let it cool completely before turning out.

Make the icing when the cake is completely cooled.

1.Melt the butter with coarsely chopped chocolate over simmering water or in the microwave and continue stirring, off the heat, until lukewarm.

2. Place the cake on the rack and pour the warm chocolate mixture over it and spread it using a palette knife. I just iced the top, but you can ice the sides too and decorate with chopped walnuts.

30 comments:

divya deversetty said...

Wow that looks so delicious, luvly clicks.

Priya R said...

Beautiful cake Shabs and sure looking forward to all things sweet this month. Congrats on your 5'th blog anniversary, you stun be everytime with your macs, bakes and the lovely presentation. Kudos to more wonderful years

Reshmi Mahesh said...

Congrats on 5th blog anniversary and wishing you many more years of happy blogging..:) Cake looks delicious and appreciate the beautiful clicks even when you are pressed for time..

Chitz said...

Congrats :) May many more years of blogging give you happiness :) Superb clicks !!

Rafeeda A. Raheem said...

Congrats Shabs... wishing u many many more of beautiful recipes and pics to come.... the walnut cake looks beautiful...

Hasna said...

Congrats Shabee! Wishing u many more anniwersaries like this..

Rajashree Nair said...

That's a beautiful cake ! Bookmarking this .

Veena Theagarajan said...

congrats good milestone to celebrate.. Cake is soo tempting

Fajeeda Ashik said...

congrats on ur 5th blog anniversary....adipoli da...keep rocking!!

Carol Thomas said...

Gorgeous cake.. esp the icing looks so luscious

Apu said...

Congrats on the blog anniversary. Love that cake!!

jehanne@thecookingdoctor said...

Congrats on wonderful anniversary! Hey that frosting looks really nice, I
usually just make with chocolates, next time I will put knob of butter as
well as yours look glossy and nice.

Maria Jose said...

Congrats Shabs dear! The cake looks fabulous! Keep blogging and have fun :)

Rose Magpie said...

gorgeousness Shabs! That frosting looks simply dreamy! I am off baking too but having a MAJOR craving seeing your cake :) Happy blog anniversary Shabs and here's to many, many many more!

shabs said...

Thank you very much Rose:)

shabs said...

Thank you Maria dear.

shabs said...

Thanks Jehanne, knob of butter gives teh sheen I guess.:)

shabs said...

Thank you.

shabs said...

Thank you carol..:)

shabs said...

Thanks fajee.

shabs said...

Thank you Veena..

shabs said...

Thank you Rajshree.

shabs said...

Thank you Rafeeda..:)

shabs said...

Thank you Reshmi..:)

shabs said...

Thank you very much.

shabs said...

Thanks.

Kla Kla Klu said...

We are looking forward for your malabar recipes dear shabs .I don't think there are lot many malabar muslim over here in the blogosphere who know the traditional recipes.But your blog is loaded with lots and lots of baking recipes...baking recipes kittan orupad source undu..traditional recipes kittana paadu..Also calorie loaded baking isn't good for you and your family..I know..I know..I don't have the right to tell you all these things.Please don't feel offended..Consider it as a suggestion from your follower,reader and a fan.

Hubert Hynowski said...

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Please check us out and drop me a line at hubert@glipho.com for any questions.
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Febina Ku said...

really lovely clicks.....

sheena said...

Recipe in the oven now.. fingers crossed! :)

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