I have been off from work since Eid and I don’t know whether I am relaxed. I have been facing this dilemma for quite a long time now. This leave wasn’t very much away from work, since some days I have had to settle up a few things but over the last week, I made it a point not to entertain anything from work, so that I would feel like I am having a break. This time, since we haven’t gone home, we have been trying to go around over here and visit places, like Hatta. It has been mighty hot and extremely humid, but we have been loving the long drives. HD hasn’t been very much a part of it as usual, but sometimes I wonder how much can I drag him in. He is not keen on long drives and I am trying to not get him involved too much, since he doesn’t seem to enojy. Anyway, sometimes I feel it is better not talk too much about him and rather divert my attention elsewhere. Hehe…
I had a lot of plans that I wanted to do, but some things didn’t work out. Even though I did feel a bit bad, I just let it go. Many times, it is just best to let your feelings go. Not everything is meant to happen the way you want it to be. I loved that I slept when I wanted to and almost every day, I woke up no earlier than 10. It did feel nice, though sometimes I would feel the whole morning was wasted. 😉 I tried to get back to working out, though it wasn’t very smooth. Yet, I jsut tell myself I did start and hopefully I can capitalize on that start in the coming weeks, InShaAllah. My focus has been on trying to make in some small changes and tell myself that it is OK if things don’t go my way. I just feel I need a lot of patience, in every way to avoid myself getting disappointed…
While trying to figure out what to post as my new recipe, I thought – why not the cake I baked for our anniversary? In April, we completed 16 years and after trying to figure out what to bake, this cake was done in flat 3 hours from the cakes done individually in the same baking tray to the frosting. There are times when I have planned well in advance, like the Mango Entremet and the Honey Cake, and some years, I have got extremely lazy just baking a Mini Cheesecake! The other cakes I baked during our anniversary was the Eggless Tiramisu Cake, Tres Leches Cake and the Vegan Joan’s Cake. This year, I was totally lost on what to bake. The whole morning, I sat thinking what I should bake and even contemplated ordering a cake. But somehow, I didn’t want to and remembered Febi’s tri-layered cake. Though I didn’t follow her recipe, the idea was definitely hers and I am thankful for it!
This cake basically has three flavors so it is like “eat all when you want” type of cake! 😉 I baked them back to back in the same pan, so when one cake was almost getting done, I would make the batter for the other cake and pour it in after flipping the earlier cake! I literally kept my cakes in the freezer so that they would cool down soon and I could frost and click them in day light. But that just didn’t happen. I was expecting myself not to have my bouts of procrastination. 😉 The frosting I used was a whipped cream + custard frosting. I don’t know how the idea came up. I prepared thick custard and then folded it into stiff whipped cream. The frosting held its shape well and was midly sweet. We all loved how it gelled with the cake. Since I didn’t want it to look too plain, I drizzled up some warm Biscoff spread on it, which is plain optional but still recommended. 😉 If you are looking for a cake to bake with not too much of work, then this one it is. The ingredients are straightforward and even the frosting doesn’t have any funny ingredient. 😉 Do bookmark it and give it a try…
Before I go to the recipe, I would like to reminise the bottle and the bamboo shoots that are no longer in my house. The bottle was a Keventers juice bottle, that was painted by Azza, but it accidentally slipped off Rasha’s hands during Ramadan and broke. I had moved the bamboo shoots into another bottle. But then, Mimmi – our parrot – chewed all the leaves and the tips of the bamboo, and despite me giving it a nip at the tips, it never recovered. 🙁 I haven’t tried buying more bamboo, but did try putting in some pothos, which was also chewed up by Mimmi. 😕 I guess I don’t keep any greens in my house till my pet birds are out of it…
- FOR VANILLA CAKE:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- A pinch of salt
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 50 gm butter
- ½ cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- FOR CARAMEL CAKE:
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- A pinch of salt
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 egg
- 50 gm butter, melted
- ¼ cup milk
- FOR CHOCOLATE CAKE:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 50 gm butter, melted
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup coffee
- FOR FROSTING:
- 2 cup milk
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 tbsp custard powder
- 2 cup whipping cream
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup Biscoff spread, melted
- FOR SUGAR SYRUP:
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup water
- A dash of vanilla
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease an 8 inch pan.
- For making the vanilla cake, sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Add the sugar and whisk. Combine the egg, milk, vanilla and melted butter and whisk well. Pour into the dry ingredients and fold.
- Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes or till skewer comes out clean. Cool on rack completely.
- Whisk the sugar and water into a saucepan. Cook on low flame till the mixture becomes amber color. Cool for using the caramel for the cake.
- Sift together the dry ingredients into a bowl. Whisk the melted butter, milk, egg and caramel sauce and pour into the dry ingredients. Fold in.
- Bake for 30 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean. Cool on rack completely.
- To prepare the chocolate cake, sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Whisk in the sugar. Whisk all the wet ingredients in a mug and pour into the dry ingredients. Fold in till moist.
- Bake for 30 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean. Cool on rack completely.
- Prepare the sugar syrup by boiling all the ingredients till slightly syrupy. Allow to cool completely.
- To make the frosting, whisk the milk, custard powder and sugar in a saucepan. Cook on low flame till thickened. Allow to cool completely.
- Whip the cream and icing sugar till stiff. Add the vanilla and beat.
- Now add in the cold custard and whisk till combined. Refrigerate till use.
- To frost, keep the chocolate cake at the bottom layer. Spray a generous amount of the sugar syrup. Slather a good amount of frosting. Top with the caramel cake, spray some sugar syrup, slather some more frosting and top with the vanila cake. Spray the sugar syrup on the vanilla cake as well.
- Crumb coat the entire cake and allow it to rest for 30 minutes. Take out and use the rest of the frosting to cover the whole cake. Rest the cake for at least an hour in the fridge.
- Before serving, drizzle the Lotus on top of the cake. Slice and serve.
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