Eggless Cauldron Cake

Wishing You All A Healthy And Prosperous New Year
For this month's Baking Eggless Group Challenge, Archana of The Mad Scientist's Kitchen suggested Cauldron Cakes. I haven't heard of these cute cakes until the day Archana mentioned about it in a mail. She also gave me a link to the post. I was stunned at the snaps in the blog. So we at baking eggless group tried recreating these cakes this month. This is the cake which features in Harry Potter series. Those who are fans of Harry Potter must be familiar with these cakes. Though I have watched all Harry Potter's movies, I haven't read a single book in the series and so I was clueless. I tried these cakes two times. The first time I tried wit with Dairy Milk chocolate as I didn't have stock of bitter sweet chocolate. I also used banana as the egg substitute. The cake came out soft but it had a lot of banana flavour. But when I gave the chocolate coating and whipped cream filling, it tasted awesome. But I couldn't get the handles properly. So my first attempt of the cake was with out handles and I was not satisfied with the end result. Though it tasted great, it was not so good to look at. My daughter loved these cup cakes and didn't allow us to have a bite. For the next batch I bought home bitter sweet chocolate and tried it once more with some changes. I used apple puree instead of eggs and these cakes were softer than the first attempt. I was also able to make handles. Though some broke, I made extra ones so that I could attach handles to all the cakes I made. I shared this batch with guys and girls working in our office. They liked it very much. As my daughter was out of town she didn't taste it. As I am typing this post she saw the snaps and was shocked that mom didn't give her any of these. And she is begging me to do it tomorrow. SO I think this is the success of my bakes. Am I right??



Recipe Adapted From Pastry Affair
Makes 12 Cauldron Cakes:
Ingredients:
Makes 24 cupcakes
Devil’s Food Cup Cake:
Cocoa Powder-1/2 cup
Hot Water-1/2 cup
All Purpose Flour/ Maida-1 ¾ cup
Baking Powder-1/2 tsp
Baking Soda-1/2 tsp
Salt- ½ tsp
Butter-3/4 cup
Caster Sugar-1 cup
Homemade Apple Puree- ½ cup
Sour Cream- 1 cup
Vanilla Essence-1/2 tbs

For The Glaze:
Bitter Sweet Chocolate-250 gm

For The Filling:
Butter-1/8 cup
Icing Sugar-1/2 cup
Milk-a few Drops
Vanilla Essence-1/4 tsp

Procedure:
  1. Boil water and add the cocoa powder.
  2. Remove from flame and stir it fast to get a smooth paste.
  3. Allow it to cool.
  4. Beat sugar and butter until soft and fluffy.
  5. Add the apple puree and 1/3 cup of sour cream*.
  6. Beat well. The mixture may look curdled but it is fine.
  7. Add the prepared cocoa mixture and vanilla and beat until incorporated.
  8. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
  9. Add flour and the remaining sour cream alternately and mix with a wooden spoon gently.
  10. Grease a muffin tray and fill the moulds with batter.
  11. Preheat oven to 175C.
  12. Bake the cakes for 10-15 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
  13. Invert the tray onto a wire rack and allow the cakes to cool completely.
  14. Finish off with the remaining batter.
  15. Divide the cakes into two. One batch is used for the bottom layer while the other forms the top layer.
  16. Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Stir until smooth.
  17. Remove from heat and place it on a cloth.
  18. Inver one batch of cupcakes top side down on a wire rack and coat them completely with the molten chocolate. It will harden with in minutes.
  19. Take some melted chocolate in a paper cone and draw out 12-15 handles on a butter paper. Draw another line over the first one (once the first line is hard) to make the handles a bit firmer.
  20. Allow it to harden.
  21. In the second batch of cupcakes, remove a portion from the bottom using a sharp pointed knife. Insert the knife at an angle to the centre and make a round incision keeping the centre same. You will be able to remove a conical piece of the cake from the bottom.
  22. Mix butter, sugar, vanilla essence and a few drops of milk to make a creamy butter cream.
  23. Make a paper cone and transfer the butter cream to the cone.
  24. Snip off the end of the cone and pipe the butter cream into the cup cake to fill the cut out portion.
  25. Now melt the chocolate again and apply it on the top of the chocoale coated cupcakes.
  26. Place the butter cream filled cup cakes on top.
  27. Pipe a chocolate line around the butter cream.
  28. Gently peel the handle from the butter paper and place it on the chocolate line.
  29. Hold it until the chocolate hardens.
  30. Arrange on a plate and serve.
  31. You can also refrigerate it and serve it later.
* As I don't get sour cream in Madurai, I make sour cream as explained below. Collect the cream formed on top of milk after it boils and cools. And then add a teaspoon of curd to it and allow it to sit over night. It would set like curd. Now keep on adding cream every day and refrigerate. When a bowl full of cream is collected, remove the bowl from fridge and place it on counter and leave it overnight. The next day you will end up with sour cream. You can also buy a pack of fresh cream and add a teaspoon of curd to it. Let it set overnight. The next day you can use it in place of sour cream.

Cream butter and sugar.

Mix hot water and cocoa and stir until smooth. Allow it to cool.

Add apple puree and sour cream.

Add the cocoa paste.

Add maida and sour cream.

Mix with a wooden spoon.

Pour batter into greased moulds and bake.

After cooling remove a portion of the cake as shown in one batch.

Fill it with butter cream.

Coat the other portion with melted chocolate.

When cool, invert it and apply a layer of melted chocolate.

Place the other layer on top.

Pipe a round of chocolate around the butter cream.

Pipe out handles on a butter paper with melted chocolate.

When cool, place it on the chocolate round and wait until it dries.

Serve.

This is the visual treat for the New Year for you!!!

My First Attempt at Cauldron Cakes which were not so pretty.



The handles started melting when I touched them



Handle less cauldron cakes.

But it was a delicious treat with sweetened whipped cream filling.


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