Wilton Cake Decorating Class- Roses- End of the Course 1

Hurray Course 1 completed. No way I can do these beautiful roses without this class. Thank you Daisy.

Here is the cake which I decorated in today's class

Closure look of the roses...


Cakes from the whole class.

Took these pictures using iPhone.

Lemon Flavored Cheesecake

Cheesecake, This is my daughter's favorite dessert. All her friends say she is obsessed with Cheesecake. Almost every alternate week I make cheesecake with different flavors. One of my close friend was asking me to open a Cheesecake bakery looking at the frequency of cheesecake making at my place . Solves both the problems daughter's obsession and selling the delicious cheesecake :). May be I can think of that when I retire :)

Y'day made lemon flavored cheesecake. Thanks to Ina garten for this recipe. I did few variations. Here is my version.



Ingredients:

Filling:

1 lb Cream cheese
3 large eggs ( I use organic brown eggs)
3/4 cup sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp lemon zest
2tbsp sour cream

Crust

20 graham crackers
6tbsp melted butter
1tbsp sugar

Procedure:

Preheat the oven at 350 degree F

Crust:

Grease the springform pan with butter.

Crush graham crackers and sugar in a mixer . (You can crush the crackers even with hand. ) I use mixer since it is easy and makes fine crust. Now add melted butter to the cracker mixture and mix well with a spoon/spatula. Now pour the mixture into 9 inch springform pan. With your hands press the mixture into the bottom of the pan and 1 inch up to the side.
Bake for 8 mts and cool to room temperature.


Filling:

In a bowl add cream cheese, sugar and beat with hand mixer or stand mixer until light and fluffy. (I used 3 speed in my hand mixer). Reduce the speed and add eggs one at a time. Add sour cream, vanilla extract and lemon zest while beating on low speed. Scrape the mixture using spatula as necessary.
Mix thoroughly and pour into the crust.

Bake for 15mts at 350 degree F . Reduce the oven temperature to 225 degree F and bake for 1 hour. Turn off the oven and open the doors wide .( When you look at the cake it will not be completely set in the center. Don't worry, that is how it is supposed to look like. )

Let the cake sit in the oven for 30 mts doors wide opened. Take the cake out of the oven and let it sit for 2 to 3 hrs until it is cooled completely. Cover it and refrigerate overnight.

Remove the cake from the pan:

This is the tricky part. Remove the cake from refrigerate keep it aside for 10 mts. Take a knife and dip in the warm water and wipe it with a clean cloth. Use the knife trace around the inside of the pan and the edge of the cheesecake to loosen it. While doing this make sure your knife perpendicular to the bottom. Open the springform ring as wide as you can and remove without breaking the sides of the cheesecake.

Delicious cheesecake is ready to be served. You can drizzle chocolate syrup or garnish with fruits or just serve as it is. Whichever way it will melt in your mouth.

Tip:. Turn off the heat when the center's still loose and let cool in the oven. This will avoid the cracks in the cheesecake.

Wilton Cake Decorating Class- Flowers,flowers more flowers.......

Today's class is all about flowers. I learned how to decorate different types of flowers.

Here is the cake from the class. I am glad that I was able to finish decorating the cake in 10 mts with flowers and shells except rose.

Believe me roses are the most difficult ones. I am still not able to do a perfect rose. I reached till 4th layer. 5th layer is a disaster. The rose on my cake is by Dayse(my teacher). Hopefully next week I can make a perfect rose with all 5 layers.

My daughter's wood work

This year my kid choose 3 extra curricular activities during the school year. 1st trimester Art, 2nd trimester cooking, 3rd trimester wood workshop. I am so impressed with her projects. Even though she had so many accidents during the workshop she didn't quit. She is trying to finish all the items that are assigned. I am looking forward for her next item "Dinosaur wood puzzle".

All these wood work projects will start from scratch. Tasks include stencil the shape, cut the wood as per the stencil, sanding the wood, writing on the wood , and varnish the wood . Lot of work, but kids love these projects.

Today I am sharing my kid's 1st wood work project oven hook shaped Dolphin. Will share remaining projects once she finishes completely.

Wilton Cake Decorating Class- Course 1 (Lesson 2)

Finally after few years of waiting I am able to take wilton cake decorating class. (Luckily the timing was matching with my schedule.) I am so happy that I signed up for this class. If anyone is interested to learn cake decorating I highly recommend this class. But be prepare to do lot of homework.

Today in our lesson 2 we learned letter writing, few patterns and designing stars. I made sponge cake from scratch, filled with chocolate filling(filling is recipe from teacher.) Icing based on the course.

Here are the pics for the same

Closeup shot of pattern:

Painted Pooja Mandir

Past few months, I was looking for a nice stand/table to make it like a pooja mandir. Finally found one nice table which fulfills my requirement. With my artistic skills drew and painted over the weekend. Took more than 6 hours over a period of 3 days to complete.

Here are the pics..

Banana Papaya Smoothie

Today, first time I ever tried making smoothie at home. Planning to make more smoothies this summer. Here is the recipe for today's smoothie.

simple, healthy and delicious.

Recipe source : Bobby Flay recipes

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Greek Style yogurt

1 cup milk

1 riped banana sliced

1 cup riped chopped papaya

1tbsp honey (As per your sweet level)

Preparation:

Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Pour into a glass and serve.