TheNoviceBaker

Coconut Brownies

2012-01-20T19:48:00.001-08:00

I had some lovely coconut brownies on Christmas eve last year after which I wanted to make some at home....
I am still not getting the right baking time for brownies after innumerable attempts...sometime they are over baked and turn all brittle or sometimes they are under baked and all gooey in the inside... Still a long way to go to make the perfect chewy brownies... Huh... I keep getting brownies mixes instead of making it from scratch just for this reason.... too much effort to make them from the scratch if I do not bake them right...
So, I opened one more box of brownie mix and got it into the oven.... Saying a little prayer to get it right this time... God throw me some chewy brownies!
After 33 minutes... I got it out, checked and set it aside to cool.... Made my coconut topping and smothered it over the brownie slab.. After a few hours when I was cutting them into pieces, I saw that they needed about 2-3 minutes of more cooking.... But too late now! Desperately need an oven thermometer now... something is definitely wrong with my oven temperature for sure..... They were very much edible, not raw enough to make you sick or anything.... So, we are eating them... Hahaa...
Next time I will right about the perfect chewy brownies, I am not giving up YET.

Coconut Brownies are here.

Pizza toast!

2012-01-20T19:47:00.000-08:00

Pizza is one of the most drooled over items in my long list of comfort food.... Well, I wish I could ,but, I can not eat it when ever I want to, because, I can easily polish off a medium sized pizza without feeling ANY guilt. Hehehee... So, in order to keep my cravings under control for this irresistible pan thingy... I decided to switch to these awesome bread pizza toasts... Simple and fast to make, they give me a fake sense of eating a pizza....

Second class of Wilton course One!

2012-01-20T19:30:00.000-08:00

In my first class I learnt about a lot of new equipments required to bake and decorate a decent cake... Oven thermometer, baking strips, cake leveller, cake carrier etc etc... Gosh!!! The list of things to be bought just keeps getting longer and and longer and longer.... kinda annoying... Anyway I need to get what I need.... I am happy that atleast Michaels gives to 40% coupons... I decided to buy the things in bits... few at a time.... So this week, before my 2nd class, I bought the Wilton cake turntable, cake carrier and the stuff I needed to make the butter cream icing...

Since, I am new to making butter cream icing and I forgot to ask our instructor Theresa some important question about storing the butter cream. I decided not to take a chance and make the butter cream just before I went to my class... I made 2 batches and marched away all prepared with the cake, filling etc for my 2nd class... As soon as Theresa saw my icing she said it was too thin, I had messed up with the recipe... I looked and looked and saw that I had put 1 cup sugar instead of 1 pound... How blind oh me!!! Grrrr.... So, I rushed outside and got a box of ready made icing.... Disaster averted...
Anyway the class was a lot of fun, time flew by.... I had made a store bought yellow cake... I had given the cake mix some thought and I had decided not to put too much energy in making a cake from the scratch for these classes, decorating was of utmost importance at this stage.... My cake was the thinnest cake in the class and I had to be very careful in cutting my already thin cake into half.... Uffff.. too much drama, wish I had a thick, fat cake... I filled it with chocolate pudding and decorated it.... It's a FISH on the cake,in case you have trouble figuring out what the thing is on the cake... I know, i need to improve...
The cake was sitting in my fridge for 2 days, before it went to be eaten by a bunch of students in our apartment... Neither me nor Viky have a sweet tooth, especially for the "butter cream icing'.... Its ironic, but I do want to learn the art of decorating cakes... who eats them is of least importance right now....
Here are some of the pictures..

Philly

2012-01-14T20:15:00.000-08:00

During the winter season, I am just so uninterested in exploring new places that are as chilly and cold as our town... So, when I got to know that we had to got to Philly, which classically falls in the above mentioned category I was sort of disinterested... Who wants to go sight seeing at -ve temperature....Not me!
Anyway, we went and after winding up our work decided to do some touristy things... Thankfully the first one on the list was indoors, it was the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The only art museum I remember visiting is the SALARJUNG museum in Hyderabad and it is one of the largest museum's in India with very impressive collections of art & antiques.
So, back to Philly a city of art, history, Philly cheese steak . It is also the fifth most populous city in US and houses the biggest settlement of the Amish community... Umm, I didn't know that...
The museum's architecture was simple, classic beautiful... It had huge galleries of all types of art... Some of the painting were really intriguing... After the museum, I wanted to go the Reading Terminal market but it was late and it was closed for the day... I was interested in seeing it because it was THE places for foodies like me...
Next day, we went to the market and it was such a pleasure... All kinds of fresh food, bakery items, candies, meat, home made cheese stalls my Amish folks... It was a great place to experience the Philly culture for a short time... Amish folks appearance amused me and I started googling them. And boy was I surprised by everything I read about them.... Here are a few things:

Amish maintain an 18th century lifestyle in a 21st century world.The Amish are averse to any technology which they feel weakens the family structure. The conveniences that the rest of us take for granted such as electricity, television, auto mobiles and telephones.And they dress old age too, long skirts, suits etc. They have big families with a lot of children. I was totally surprised with this community and their way of living. I never thought I would come across something like this in US.. I learn something new everyday....

Some of the pictures from the museum.

These are my favourites.

The FOUR seasons paintings
This painting depicts the Spring season:

This painting depicts Summer season:

This painting depicts Fall season:

This painting depicts Winter season:

Naan

2012-01-12T19:26:00.000-08:00

Trying to make some naan at home had been on my mind for quite some time... So, when I was decided to make some Chole masala for dinner, I thought I could as well make some naan, as it would make a good combination with the curry. Little did I anticipate the long period of time for the dough to ferment... The more the better.. Anyway, since I was running low on patience and was getting hungry... I decided I would just give it enough time for the naan to be decent... 2 hours.... Not 2 to 4 hours as mentioned in the recipe....

Well, I did the whole thing and my naan was not perfect, the naan was a bit thick for my taske and not very crispy.... I didn't think it would be on my first attempt and low patience mood... But it was pretty decent for an amateur naan maker ... And, it was already mentioned in the recipe it takes LOTS of patience and trails to master this bread, without having a tandoor.. So, I was glad it was decent... I made 8 of them and they lasted me for a day... Not bad...
Here are the pictures.

Current Wish List!

2012-01-12T17:38:00.000-08:00

Like most of us, my wish lists keeps changing from time to time depending on the most current interest or needs or wants in my life.
In November, my wish list consisted of only a long list of expensive watches that I wanted.... As I had lost ALL of the few expensive watches that I owned... Currently I am stuck with only a 20$ Timex watch! Guess, Fossils all washed out.... Anyway due to limited resources the wish list has been temporarily forgotten...
After I decided to join the Wilton classes, a new wish list started developing which included cake pans (for baking the cakes), Ultimate kit ( for the classes), Kitchen Aid ( Its a Stand Mixer which is a must in every baker's kitchen here in US, which also around 300$ ) and other baking related items....
Some of the items on this wish list I needed just to get started on the baking, so I went to the Dollar Tree store and bought some 1$ pans.... I bought like 4-5 pans.... Since I could not buy the other good quality ones.... They seemed to work satisfactorily for the moment.... If I really start baking more often I could invest in the better quality pans....

One of things which was really confusing me was the hand mixer... Sometimes too much research leaves you too confused... I would love to own a Kitchen Aid one day if I really start baking wonderful cakes out of my kitchen... But for today, I had to find a hand mixer and I had decided to buy a good Cuisinart 50$ hand mixer... I decided I would buy it after my first class, in case I got any tips from there.... But I did not, the instructor just went on to say how good the Kitchen Aid was and she had one in her class too...
So I came back and got down to ordering my mixer because I needed it before my next class to make the icing...While I was looking again for more options before placing the final order, I came across the

"Sunbeam 5-Speed Hand and Stand Mixer Combo" for the first time, it had 4.5 ratings, it was a 2 in 1 hand & stand mixer and it was also cheaper than my Cuisinart mixer by 10$.. Heheee... So, I just placed the order and got the mixer today...

It looks good, lets hope it lives up to majority of the good reviews in Amazon.Shall soon discover.

Here are its pictures.

First Class of Wilton Course One!

2012-01-12T12:59:00.000-08:00

Here it was! Jan 10th 2012, my first day of learning cake decoration techniques.... I was excited and a little tired after spending the better half of the day making cookies for the class and I was not looking forward to coming back from the class at around 9 pm and cook dinner.... But, I had no choice... So, I just sucked it up and went to my first class as optimistically as possible...
And, so I went to Miacheals and was among the first student to reach there ahead of time... Typical me.... Our instructor Theresa was an elderly lady, she was preparing for the class and her work area looked sort of messy... Within a few minutes all the other students came along, an old lady maybe in her late 50's, a mother and teen age daughter duo, a girl about my age and another best friends duo who were quite talkative...
The class got started, Theresa gave us the Lesson Plan book and spoke to us about a few cake basics... Hmm, lots of extra things that I still need to buy for baking good cakes... Ufff the more $$$ that need to be spent!!!!

She taught us how to make the icing and then we got started with icing our cookies.... I realized looking at the other girls that I was the only one who was actually new to this stuff... Most of them seemed to have done this stuff at some point of their lives, which did not surprise me because in US baking is a big part of their culture. Everyone knows some aspect of baking some way or the other. Every family has at least one baker or more who churns out all the delicious cakes, cookies, brownies, pies etc for all their birthday parties, bridal showers, baby showers and weddings of course! So, I need to buckle up....
I was slower than the others, and as we started icing the cookies my hands started shaking... Bhoooo....
What was wrong with me... I eat a LOT, so no, I was not weak or anything.... The instructor came to my rescue and taught me how to stabilize my icing and she said the reason my hand was shaking is just because I haven't used it like this before... Oh! I just need to get some grip on my fingers by getting some exercise on a squeeze ball... Where do I find one? Dollar tree maybe....
anyway back to the class, we practised with different icing tips and then Theresa took us for a round in Micheals for a Wilton product tour... She told us the different products that we would need to buy for our classes ahead... Man, the list TO-BUY things just keeps getting longer and longer.... Okay, we shall see about it.... I need more of the awesome 50% coupons....
So, the class end with advice to practice more on the icing techniques and things to get to the 2nd class... Yea, a long list...
Here are some pictures from my first class.

Sugar Cookies!

2012-01-12T12:11:00.000-08:00

So, on the day of my class of first Wilton class, I decided it was high time I made the mandatory sugar cookies. I searched for a simple recipe on the internet, it amazes or rather grosses me every time I see the amount of butter used in all these simple recipes... Can't you do it without butter??? Apparently not... Anyway I found a recipe involving less butter and got going with the sugar cookies.... It was an easy recipe.. I had my hitches with baking them, few of them were over baked than the others giving them a brown colour rather than a cream colour.... Normal for a beginner but it all turned out well for a first timer....

Following are the tips which I am copying from another blog just for my reference more than anything else...

The following are sure fire tips for the perfect sugar cookies:

* If you are rolling the dough to use cookie cutters, remember to keep the dough chilled. As it warms it sticks to the rolling pin and the surface you're rolling on.

* The thinner you roll your dough, the crispier the cookie will be. This recipe calls for rolling the dough 1/4 inch thick, which makes them soft with just the right amount of crispness around the outside of the cookie.

* Soften the butter at room temperature for about an hour or two before mixing. Butter that isn't softened won't mix properly and your cookies will be flat. Do not microwave butter to soften, it will soften unevenly.

* The eggs should also be room temperature. Cold eggs can cause the batter to curdle.

* Halfway through the baking process, take a minute to rotate the baking sheets from back to front for even baking. This step is worth it to prevent unevenly baked batches of cookies.

* If you are making more than one batch, do not put the dough on hot cookie sheets. It will spread as you're placing the dough on the sheet, and baking will be uneven.

* The brand of flour makes a difference. Gold Medal or Pillsbury flours are lower-protein. King Arthur flour is higher protein which produces slightly drier, cakier cookies.

* If you want extra dough, this sugar cookie recipe freezes well. You can freeze the dough for about four weeks as long as it is tightly wrapped.

Here are the pictures of the sugar cookies I baked.

Getting Ready for the First Class

2012-01-11T23:01:00.000-08:00

Two days before my class, I decided I needed to make some sugar cookies to take to the class for icing as instructed. Guess what, I haven't baked any cookies ever as I am not really a cookie person...I am more of a walnut brownie and cake person.. I could have just bought some from the grocery store and gone to the class, but I decided I need to learn some baking as well if I really wanted to decorate cakes and cookies in future....
In my opinion it makes no sense to buy a ready-made cookies or cake mixes from the store just to decorate them... I would prefer if the things I made were not just good looking cause of the cake decorating classes but tasted nice as well....

So, having this idea in mind.... I went to the kitchen to make a batch of plain sugar cookies... But while searching for recipes, I came across one of my favourite blogs called the ecurry and found a recipe for onion crackers... Well, with me spiciness always wins over the sweetness... So, I decided to make them instead... There was some pineapple lying in the fridge, so while on the ecurry blog I found a pineapple orange ginger cake that I had been eyeing for sometime and decided to make it too...
Well the onion cracker recipe was easy to make but the cake was altogether a different story... It was a lot more time consuming that a regular cake and I had never baked a fruit cake, so, I wasn't sure how it would turn out... Tiring!
The onions crackers turned out well... They were crunchy and nice the first day.... But I would need them to be crisp even the next day so need to make some changes to it for my needs the next time... Add some rice flour make be??!!?? Here are the onion cracker pictures...

Then, I baked the Pineapple-Oranger-Ginger cake... It looked nice and tasted fine too... At least that's what Viky said... But for me something was not right... The cake was too full of the fruit pupl which made it very dense and moist... This was my first fruit cake ever so I had nothing to compare it to... But I do not think I am not going to make any more multi fruit cakes now.... I am sticking to the classics... Vanilla, pound, yellow, chocolate... I am happy with them.... Well, I make 2 round cakes here, I Viky ate and 1 went to the dustbin... I just wasn't sure why.... Anyway here are its pictures....

Wilton Ultimate Cake Decorating Set!

2012-01-11T22:23:00.000-08:00

The most important stuff needed for the Wilton classes was the kit needed for each course.. There are 3 courses and I was planning to do all the 3 courses... As usual, my best friend Google helped me make the decision of buying the Ultimate set for all the 3 courses over individual kits for each course. But its a 200$ set... Michaels always have a 40% discount off... still a big amount.... I went saw the kits a few times, slept over it to be sure about buying it.... Then vola! I got a 50% off coupon for buying some other stuff from Micheals... Just what I needed... So, I went back in there the next weekend, picked up the kit for a full 50% off!!!
Ya, I love saving money especially when I do not have any money coming in...

Well, so I am all set with the kit and a few other supplies for my first cake decorating class. And, here is a look at the shiny new Wilton ultimate kit!

First Post!

2012-01-11T22:09:00.000-08:00

So, finally this is my first post on my brand new blog... I am late by a week, finalizing the name and background took a lot more time that I thought it would.... I like them both now, so allz well....

The main reason for me to start this blog is to capture my experience with the Wilton Cake Decorating classes that I have started attending... During one of my cake recipe searches on the internet, I came across the word Wilton and the more I searched about it the more interesting it became.... It led me to cake pans, decorating classes, Wilton fans etc etc... and my search finally ended at Michaels! The neighbourhood arts and craft shop, where Wilton conducts cake decorating classes! It seemed like an interesting, colourful and delicious hobby.

Did more research, spoke to a few people and decided this was one of things I would get my hands dirty with, it seemed worth it....

Have enrolled in the class now... Lets see how it goes....