Chai Spice Cake with Honey

Office potlucks are great opportunities for experimentation - different groups of people with varied tastes, cultural backgrounds etc. offer preciously good feedback and insights. Plus, it's an excellent way to quickly disperse calories! :). It's the ideal setup for my baking experiments. 

This is a regular sheet cake made with spices that go into a typical Indian tea (chai). I also added honey to sweeten the cake and layer on top of the baked cake. It is a bigger, bolder version of this cake I tried a few years back. 

Overall, the feedback was positive. I was surprised that people wanted more spices, and one person even suggested adding grated ginger instead of the powdered version. So here's the adjusted recipe.

No-Bake Chocolate-Orange Cheesecake

No-bake cheesecakes are the easier version of ice-cream cake, in my opinion. I tried this version as a birthday cake for my husband last year. Despite the lackluster "finish", it was appreciated and relished. I tried to skimp on the "fat", and the consistency of the filling suffered as a result. If you're going for a cheesecake, just go with the full fat versions of cheese/cream, or compromise on how the cake appears :).

New York Cheesecake

The classic New York style cheesecake has a buttery, crumbly crust, and a sweet, creamy (not to mention, rich) body with subtle hints of tartness from the cream cheese and threads of lemon zest. This cake happens to be a friend's favorite, so following the ever-trusty recipe from Joy of Baking,  I tried this out for his birthday!

It is obviously a rich cake, so one small piece goes a long way!

The cake turned out fabulously, thanks to the detailed recipe with key reminders. The crust is a standard graham cracker crust. The cheesecake is topped with a sour cream topping. Although there are several key steps to follow, and it takes overnight for the cheesecake to set, it is all worth it. 

Some reminders for baking a successful cheesecake that doesn't crack:

1. Do not over beat the ingredients - especially sugar, cream cheese, and eggs
2. If possible, wrap the outside of the pan with aluminum foil. 
3. Bake in a hot-water bath (place the pan inside a bigger tray and fill the tray with about 2 inches of hot water). Else just place the pan on top of a tray while baking

Upside Down Cashew-Caramel Chocolate Cake

This is probably one of the most decadent cakes I have ever baked! Chocolate, caramel, and cashews (the mother of all fatty and tasty nuts!). When I came across a similar recipe for an upside down caramel cake, I couldn't resist trying it out with cashews and rich chocolate!

I made it for a small group of friends, and the cake disappeared in no time! No time to reflect on calories or guilt ;)

This is a must try cake! Substitute cashews with nuts of your choice.

Lemon Blackberry Cake

It was only upon finishing the last cake (an orange and blackberry loaf) that I realized that I'd not baked with blackberries as much as the other berries. Since the last experiment demonstrated the success of melding citrus with blackberries, I tried pairing the berries with my favorite lemon cake. 

I adapted the recipe based on my previous berry cake experiments, and here's the result. The lemony flavor goes great with blackberries. This cake is much more tart than the orange-blackberry one.

Apple & Banana Caramel Cake

This could very well be a classic Fall dessert, but I made it during Spring with fresh red apples, bananas, and aromatic cardamom. The caramel drizzle gives the cake an additional layer of warmth.

A nice rewarding treat, for say, someone who just finished running a rea-l--l--y long distance?

Pineapple-Banana Cake

I have a weird love-hate relationship with pineapples. I hate eating the fruit as is - my throat itches, and I get goosebumps of the wrong kind. But when baked or grilled, the fruit mellows into a tasty treat! 

This is a simple, straightforward hearty cake. I like to pair pineapple with banana, because the resulting flavor is yummy, and the extra fruit makes the cake really moist and succulent. The cake can stand alone without any frosting, but, for an extra oomph, serve with pineapple puree or vanilla ice cream.

Grape Cake

I found a recipe for Napa Valley Grape cake that was tempting me to no end. How exotic it sounded! A cake with luscious grapes and sweet wine. I finally concocted an excuse to make this cake - a very silly excuse! My friend asked me what cake I would (hypothetically) bake to tempt/lure a celebrity I would love to meet. J.K Rowling could be lured by a Lemon Cake, so why not adopt a similar strategy for other celebrities? ;)

I slightly adapted the recipe to bring in some orange flavor that I hoped would go well with the grapes. The cake didn't rise much because I added less baking soda, and a little extra baking powder (I didn't want the grapes to sink way down to the bottom; but they did sink nonetheless).

In all, this was an interesting cake! If you like the flavors of grape/wine, this will be to your liking. Mildly sweet, and different from most cake flavors.

Jam Crumb Cake

The last crumb cake I tried was quite successful and people seemed to like the contrasting textures of soft and crunchy. So, I have been trying out different flavors - one of which is this jam based cake. 

I love the flavor of mixed fruit jams - they have a unique flavor that's a medley of all the best fruits - like berries, bananas, and a hint of orange. Having wondered how a cake would taste if it took on the flavor, I finally tried it out. I really liked the cake, but I realized that not everyone is a fan of mixed fruit jam flavor. So, substitute with any jam of your liking! 

Mocha Cake

Coffee and chocolate is a marvelous combination. No amount of desserts that pair chocolate and coffee seem enough to our palates.

As part of my experiment to make an espresso cake, I ended up with this simple mocha cake. The coffee in the cake intensifies and highlights the cocoa flavor, while the coffee itself mutes to a smoky, dark flavor. The simple buttercream frosting on top carries the intense coffee flavor, making this a truly mocha cake.

Almond Crumb Cake

An East-Coast favorite, the simple crumb cake graces almost every coffee house. Mildly sweet, spongy and crunchy at the same time, the crumb cake doesn't overwhelm the palate. In this version, I added almonds and almond extract to make the cake extra crunchy and subtly aromatic.

Berry Cake with Cardamom

I love desserts with the berries, especially crumbles. Since I'd not tried making a mixed berry cake before, I set out to rectify the oversight with this simple berry cake, flavored with cardamom and some crunchy turbinado sugar sprinkled on top.

Almond Mascarpone Pound Cake

When it comes to Italian desserts, there are only two or three that come to mind - tiramisu, gelatos, and biscotti. Of these, I have never tried (nor do I have the right equipment or knowledge) to make a gelato or biscotti. So, I challenged myself to use ingredients commonly used in Italian cuisine to make the kind of dessert I am comfortable with.
So, this is a simple pound cake that is flavored with amaretto and softened with mascarpone. Due to the butter and mascarpone, the resulting cake is buttery soft, but it is not too rich or cloying. Perfect with a cup of espresso!

Fruits & Nuts Bundt Cake

My first bundt cake! All these years, I put off buying a bundt cake-pan because I didn't need one more baking equipment to tempt and taunt me. However, I was recently absolved of all guilt because my husband picked it up because he felt like having a bundt cake.

I found an interesting recipe in Piece of Cake, called an Ambrosia Cake. It had pineapple, canned mandarin oranges, almond extract, cherries, pecans, and sweetened coconut flakes. What a medley of flavors! And what better way to christen the bundt pan!

I adapted the recipe to suit the ingredients I had on hand, and I played around with the measurements and technique accordingly. This is a dense and hardy cake that is sure to be a popular holiday dessert, and it serves a huge gathering!

Orange Cake with Chocolate Glaze

Orange and chocolate seem to be this year's favorite flavor in our household.

Every so often, I get a detailed request from my husband to cook or bake something specific. A couple of months ago, after trying out an orange-chocolate cake at a restaurant out of town, I received a detailed text about how my next express task was to make the afore mentioned dessert. I appreciate such requests - it makes me feel useful, and it gives me a great excuse to bake ;)

However, I was honestly tired of making yet another citrus based treat with chocolate on top. Especially since I had just made a batch of chocolate brownies with orange zest. How many more orange-chocolate treats could the husband hanker for? Why couldn't he ask me for something more exotic?

Anyway, after rifling through my recipes, I realized I had never actually made a bold, stand-alone orange cake. So, I decided to use utilize this excuse to make a cake packed with as much orange flavor as possible. And of course, to appease the husband, I added chocolate on top.

Peanut Butter Cake with Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Crumble

Peanuts and peanut butter are always in my pantry, thanks to my husband's love for all thing peanuts. So, when he asked me why I hadn't baked anything with peanuts/peanut butter yet, I had to rectify my oversight one weekend.

And this cake was born. Peanut butter features both inside the batter and in the crumbly topping. And for an extra notch of decadence, there's chocolate chips as well. My husband wants to marry this cake and live with it forever.

Nutella & Vanilla Marble Cake

This was an experimental cake from a few weeks ago. It came out decently and served as a simple dessert and tea time cake.

I realized that I hadn't utilized Nutella in any cake recently, so I decided to add it to a regular vanilla sponge cake (with butter and sugar levels adjusted). (If you're reading this, sorry J, for the blasphemy of using Nutella ;))