Veggies in a cake

I need to make some good vanilla sauce. That’s what I’ve been telling myself for the last few years. I think it’s safe to say that it is impossible to find proper vanilla extract in Oman. All you can find is the not so great vanilla essence. Vanilla pods.. well you can forget about it.

Good news is that I was able to find vanilla in Sri Lanka.. Who knew? That too at a spice garden somewhere along the way to Sigiriya… perfect for this recipe.

Recently I saw a really delicious looking Rhubarb cake on Man Vs Food. It was an upside down Rhubarb cake with this brilliant bright pink caramelized mushiness. I highly doubted Rhubarb would fly well with the family but I had bought a packet of frozen Rhubarb and had to give it a shot.

When it comes to cakes and desserts, I try my best to stick to recipes. My experience with making something up is almost non existent. For this reason I obtained a recipe online…

Rhubarb cake with rich vanilla sauce…mmmmmmm

Firstly the cake … SUCCESS (Note to self definitely make again)

The cake was very light and fluffy, sweet but sour at the same time. My brother (who thought rhubarbs SHOULD NOT be allowed in cakes) seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. In fact he almost sounded upset when it was over. The cake is made of a soft bottom layer and a sugary crumbly top. The sauce hmmm… wasn't really blown away by it, mostly because I found it very sweet. If you are going to give it a try you might want to reduce the amount of sugar you put in.

Have a go ; http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Special-Rhubarb-Cake

Velvety reds

Im back in Oman and this time for good (till the next leg of life) ! Im done with the first part of architecture and I'm back home hoping to do everything I ever wanted to and had to put off because of Architecture.

What I didn't mention in my earlier post is that Lakeland has opened in Oman. Lakeland is a UK based store that sells kitchenware. It opening in Oman is good news to ALOT of people and I am hoping it wont close any time soon. Shops have the bad luck of having to shut down quite often in Oman. Hopefully that shall not be the case this time.

Thanks to Lakeland I was able to buy a whole bunch of things the last time I was here ; pretty cupcake holders, disposable piping bags, nozzles, parchment paper and a cook's torch. I used the cook's torch to make a not so successful creme brule and the pipping bags to make gnocchi. However I shall not talk about what I did or what was. I aim to be much more productive that I generally am so here goes.

My cousin Shameema is in town and she has been baking a lot. I don't usually make cakes and most things pretty but since this is a new year and a new leg of life :P I decided I should try and do things I don't generally do.. (lets see how long this goes).

Red Velvet it was!

Red Velvet is my favourite cake so far and so using bakerella' s recipe we decided to give it a shot.

http://www.bakerella.com/cupids-arrow-cupcakes/

Bakerella's red velvets obviously look a lot cute-r but I thought at the end of the day we did pretty well. My hand held beater decided to give out half way through beating the cream cheese frosting so we ended up with bits of sugar granules in the frosting. Other than that there were no other glitches.

We reduced the about of sugar in the recipe from 6 cups to 4 cups and we still found it insanely sweet and would have preferred a cheesier taste, so next time I'd definitely change some quantities.

Shameema and I plan on tackling this insane looking Raspberry Rose Vanilla Cream Cake day after which should be 'interesting'. The look of the cake on Tartelette's website intimidates me! I foresee bad things happening.

I have a rhubarb cake in the oven.... happy times :D