Especially for you my friend - Espresso Panna Cotta with Spiced Cherry Compote!

“A friend is, as it were, a second self” (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

I have so many things, stories, incidences running through my mind that I could write pages, but when I sat in front of my computer, fingers on the keyboard, I am thinking, how to begin and what to write. I didn't find any other appropriate quote that could define us and our friendship.

Today might be an ordinary day for the rest of the world but very special to us. It's been so many years since we last met but that hardly changes anything between us. We still manage to be each others support system, even if we sometimes talk just once in a month. We can still understand each other's silences on the phone and start from where we last left off.

I miss our good old days and all the fun, our shopping excursions, the craze for watching the movies first day-first show, trying out every new restaurant in the city and our desperate measures to collect cash to do all this. Thinking of all this is enough to brighten up my day. I hope we will be able to meet up soon and relive all these beautiful moments again. 

Today's recipe is especially for you my friend. I just cant stop laughing now and finding it really funny that we are talking recipes, who once didn't know abc of cooking. I experimented with agar-agar as I promised you, and I think the result is quite satisfying. So now it's your turn :-)

Ingredients

80 ml - sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup - cream, around 40 % fat
1/4 cup - greek yogurt (you may also use thick hung curd)
1 espresso (approx 30 ml), cooled
1/3 cup - milk
1 tsp levelled - agar agar powder

For Cherry Compote
125 grams - cherries, washed and pitted
2 tbsp - muscovado sugar
2 small pieces of cinnamon sticks
2 pieces of star anise
1/4 cup - water

For decoration (optional)
Sorry for not providing the exact sugar measurement for the decoration but I followed this video here to make the sugar nest.

Method

1. Bring the cream to just before a boil and remove from the heat.
2. Mix the agar agar powder and the milk in a pan. Place the pan over a medium heat and stir until agar agar dissolves properly. It should not take more than a minute.
3. Mix the hot cream to the milk-agar agar mixture and mix well to get an uniform mixture. Let it cool.
4. Mix together the cooled espresso, condensed milk and the greek yogurt in a bowl and keep it aside.
5. Add the slightly warm agar agar cream mixture (if you are able to put your finger in the mixture to the count of 10) to the condensed milk-yogurt mixture and mix well. 
6. Sieve the mixture and pour into the moulds and place the moulds in the fridge to set. It will set in an hours time. 
7. For cherry compote- Place all the ingredients in a pan and cook on medium heat until the cherries are slightly soft. Remove from the heat. 
8. To remove the panna cotta from the moulds- dip each mould in hot water for 5 seconds and then carefully turn out on the serving plates. Just before serving carefully place the sugar nest on top of the panna cotta and serve it with hot cherry compote.

The panna cotta was soft, shiny, creamy and good to taste. It had a slightly grainy texture because of the yogurt. You can completely ignore the yogurt and use cream instead, if you mind the grainy texture.

Enjoy!

Vanilla Cake with Cream and Marzipan- Happy Birthday hubby!

The month of december is my favourite time of the year. There is something special in the air, love, togetherness, not to forget delicious food and all the goodies. All this made even more amazing by beautiful white snow. We do not celebrate Christmas but I don't fail on the celebrations front here... December sees my birthday, my hubby's birthday and our wedding anniversary all in one month.

It was my hubby's birthday a few days ago and he requested that I bake this cake for him. When I heard of it, I couldn't help but smile - he wanted a very sweet (too sweet for my taste bud) cake all by himself :-)

My hubby was overwhelmed and loved it. I was happy with a small bite though (this was exactly the opposite of the kind of cake for me) but I made the birthday boy happy and thats what matters :-)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup - all purpose flour

2/3 cup - sugar

2/3 cup - sunflower oil

1/2 cup - vanilla yogurt

1 cup - milk

1 1/2 tsp - vanilla essence

1 tsp - baking powder

a pinch of salt

a generous pinch of soda bicarbonate

soaking syrup

1/4 cup - water

1/8 tsp - vanilla extract powder

1 tsp - castor sugar

Mix everything together. 

For the whipped cream

150 ml - cream, minimum 30 % fat

3 tbsp heaped - castor sugar

1/4 tsp - vanilla extract powder

Beat everything together till thick

For the topping

50 grams - marzipan

1 tbsp - castor sugar 

a few drops of milk

Mix everything together and knead until you get a smooth dough, roll out into a 15 cm diameter circle. You can roll it out within sheets of clingfilm or wax paper to make the rolling easier.

For the rose

25 gram - marzipan

1 tsp - sugar

a few drops of milk

a pinch of edible red colour

Mix together all these ingredients and follow this video here

edible glitter to sprinkle over the cake

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line two 15 cms round baking pans with aluminium foil and grease generously with oil. 
2. In a bowl,mix together the flour, salt, sugar,baking powder and soda bicarbonate.
3. In another bowl, mix well the oil, vanilla yogurt, vanilla essence and milk.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mix and tip in the liquid ingredients and mix lightly.
5. Divide the mixture into the two lined and greased pans, tap the pans against the counter and place both the pans in the centre of the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. 
6. Let the cakes cool in the pans for a couple of minutes before inverting them on the wire rack to cool completely 
7. Once the cakes have cooled down completely, place one cake on the cake board and brush the top and the sides of the cake with the syrup. Place the whipped cream in the centre and spread out evenly over the cake. Place the 2nd cake on the top of the cream, brush the top and the sides with the syrup and carefully spread the cream on the sides of both the cakes. 
8. Place the marzipan circle on the top of the cake. 
9. Brush the bottom of the marzipan roses with the syrup and place on the cake and sprinkle some eddible glitter all over the cake. 

Notes:

1. If you do not have 2 same sized baking pans then halve the ingredients for the cake and make the batter twice. Do not make it all together.

2. You may need a very little of the soaking syrup. Discard the rest of the syrup. Do not brush the cake excessively with the syrup otherwise the cake will turn soggy.

I am going to India for a month. Wishing all my lovely readers a very happy new year :-)

Enjoy!