vanilla extract

Vanilla Cake with Swiss Meringue Blueberry Lavender Frosting

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Vanilla Cake with blueberry lavender frostingHello everyone! After a few weeks, here I am with a new recipe. I might have mentioned this already but I love baking. It is a passion of mine. Trying out different varieties of cakes and whatnot is something I do when I get free time. Today I have posted below one of the recent recipes that I tried out in honor of friends all over the world. Happy Friendship Day!!! It is the recipe for Vanilla cake with Swiss Meringue blueberry lavender buttercream frosting. I know, the name itself sounds exotic and trust me, the taste do justify the name 🙂

Vanilla Cake with blueberry lavender frostingVanilla Cake with blueberry lavender frostingOne of the joys of baking is, for almost all recipes that you try out, there is a definite recipe with set measurements for ingredients. That in itself will give you the confidence to try out new items. Coming back to our Vanilla Cake with Swiss Meringue blueberry lavender buttercream frosting, the recipe is that of a wedding cake i.e., the vanilla cake baked here is most commonly baked for weddings! Meringue in itself is a type of dessert made from egg whites and sugar. And Swiss Meringue is a type of meringue. There are three types of meringues, they are French, Swiss and Italian. The swiss variety is smoother and silkier than the other two and is the popular choice for making buttercream frosting. I have used a concoction of blueberry and lavender to flavor the buttercream in this recipe.

Vanilla Cake with blueberry lavender frostingVanilla Cake with blueberry lavender frostingVanilla cake with Swiss Meringue blueberry lavender buttercream frosting is the perfect recipe for joyous occasions like birthdays and parties but you can also have it on days when you just feel like eating cake :). One thing to remember is you need a little bit of patience to try out this recipe since making the meringue takes some time. However, you will not be disappointed when you taste the soft and smooth cake once baked and frosted 🙂

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Vanilla Cake with Swiss Meringue Blueberry Lavender Frosting
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2 layer 6"round cake
 
Ingredients
For the cake:
  • 1 ½ cup flour
  • 1 ½ tsp baking powder
  • A generous pinch of salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup whole milk
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
For the frosting:
  • 1 ½ cup blueberry
  • 1 tbsp dried lavender flowers
  • 6 egg whites
  • 1 cup + 3tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1 cup + 4 tbsp (2 ½ sticks) butter, room temperature
Instructions
For the cake:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease the two 6” round cake pans with butter (on the sides and bottom), dust the bottoms with flour and line them with parchment paper.
  3. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium mixing bowl.
  4. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg and sugar in medium speed.
  6. Whisk in the butter until the mixture is creamy and smooth.
  8. Add in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix in medium speed until well combined- Do not mix too much.
  10. Finally add in the milk and vanilla extract and mix again.
  12. Divide the batter between cake pans
  14. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the tooth pick when inserted comes out clean.
  15. Remove from oven and let cool completely.
  17. Wrap them tightly in polythene sheet and freeze them for couple of hours before frosting.
For the frosting:
  1. Place blueberry, lavender and half cup of water in a small pan and cook on medium for 5 minutes until juices have released. Let it cool.
  3. Grind them in a blender. Strain out the pulp and extract the juice. Keep it aside.
  5. On a double boiler (or a medium sized bowl suspended over the pan of simmering water) combine the egg whites, sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Heat, stirring gently until the sugar is completely dissolved- check by rubbing a bit of mixture into your fingers. It should feel smooth.
  7. Take the bowl off the heat and whip the egg whites using hand mixer until stiff peaks form. It takes around 15 to 20 minutes.
  9. Now add the butter 2 tbsp. at a time, until each tbsp. butter is well incorporated into the mixture. Once all the butter have been added, the resulting buttercream should be smooth and thick. This is called swiss meringue butter cream. If you think the frosting is runny you could add icing sugar to make it smooth and thick.
  11. Finally add in 1 ½ tbsp. of blueberry lavender concoction and gently mix together until well incorporated.
  12. Level the cake by cutting the top crust and frost them according to your taste.
Notes
1.To pasteurize the egg you could also clip on the liquid thermometer to the mixture to reach a temperature of 160 degree Fahrenheit, gently stirring continuously.
2.Butter that are added to the frosting should not be soft. It should be stable.
3.If the frosting is runny, refrigerate for 20 minutes and take out and mix in medium high speed until it becomes thick.
4. If the frosting have curdled, microwave for 10 seconds and then beat again until the frosting becomes thick.

Vanilla Cake with blueberry lavender frosting

Mango Bread

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Eggless Mango bread Today, I was in the mood for something sweet, something that describes the summer season and something healthy. Yep, it has got something to do with Mango. It is the Mango bread! The recipe for Mango bread that I have given below is truly healthy and is a light fare. It has no eggs, is made of wheat flour and has very little added sugar!
Eggless Mango bread I came across this Mango bread recipe online recently and it immediately picked my curiosity. I have heard about banana bread, zucchini bread, raisin bread etc but Mango bread? It was the first time I have heard about it. But trust me, the bread tastes awesome. Mango bread can be had for breakfast or served as a snack. If you are left with more mangoes than you could possibly eat, I would say Mango bread is the way to go.
Eggless Mango bread
Mango bread is very easy to make and as said earlier, is healthy as well. Kids would love it. Try baking this unique bread variety in your kitchen and let me know how well you liked it  🙂

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Mango Bread
Recipe type: Breakfast
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 1 (9 x 5 x 3 inches) loaf
 
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups wheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • 8 tbsp unsalted butter (1/2 cup or 1 stick), room temperature
  • ¾ cup sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 large mangoes or 1 cup mango puree
  • 3 to 4 tsp sugar or add as required
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Grease a loaf pan (9 x 5 x 3 inches) with butter or oil on the bottom and on all four sides and set aside.
  2. Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda together in a medium bowl.
  4. Peel and cut the mangoes (measuring 1 cup tightly packed) and add it to the blender. Add sugar according to your taste and depending on mangoes' sweetness. Blend together in to a puree.
  5. Preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit or 180 degree Celsius.
  6. In a large oven safe mixing bowl, heat and melt the butter for 35 seconds. Allow it to cool.
  8. Add in condensed milk to the butter and whisk together in to a smooth mixture.
  10. Add in the mango puree and vanilla or mango essence and whisk together until well combined. – I would highly recommend using mango essence to get the complete flavor in the bread.
  12. Add in the flour and gently fold them together using a spatula. – The important thing is not to over mix the batter. You do not want it to be smooth. Over mixing the batter will yield tough, rubbery bread. The batter might look thinner if you are using store bought mango puree.
  14. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Shake the pan and even the batter on top using spatula.
  16. Bake in oven (preferably in the middle rack) for 55 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean – I covered the pan with aluminum foil after 35 minutes when it started to turn brown on top.
  18. Turn out the bread onto a wire rack and allow it to cool. Serve the yummy mango bread as hot or cold for a breakfast or brunch or as an evening snack. Enjoy! 
Notes
1.Recipe also suggests to use cardamom powder or cinnamon powder or mango essence in place of vanilla extract.
2.Use a fiber less mangoes.
3.Wheat flour could also be substituted with all purpose flour.

Eggless Mango bread