It’s Christmas season or cookie season to be more apt. I wanted to bake some cookies for my son’s teachers. I bought Wilton’s cookie sheet (large one) from Michael’s. The sheet came with 2 festive cookie recipes. One for chocolate chunk cookies and another one for thumbprint cookies. I would rather call the chocolate chunk cookie recipe as oatmeal chocolate chip cookies because it has a good quantity of oatmeal. I decided to try that recipe for the teachers because it made a huge batch and anything with chocolate chips and walnuts has to be definitely tasty.

After trying these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I came to one conclusion that Ener-G egg replacer works best in cookie recipes and especially chocolate chip cookies. So if you have never used Ener-G before but want to use it, start with cookie recipes. Simply substitute EnerG according to the instructions given in the pack, for the eggs mentioned in the recipe and that’s all you have to do and the cookies turn out perfect. My two cents is to use lukewarm water and also use a blender to blend together the powder and water instead of just whisking it with a fork. Using a blender makes the mixture very frothy and in turn gives desired results. So in this recipe too, I didn’t think twice before substituting Ener-G for the 2 eggs in the recipe. The cookies came out perfect as I expected.

Until recently I had not tried my hands on gluten free baking because I thought that gluten free and egg free baking is quite a challenging one. I have a book called Vegetarian, which I got from Barnes and Nobles and there is one recipe for gluten free chocolate chip cookies using cornmeal and rice flour, but of course with egg. Since I’m hosting the Corn event this month, I thought that I should give that cookie recipe a try using an egg substitute.

I have already baked eggless chocolate chip cookies using EnerG egg replacer powder and was floored by the result. So I decided to use EnerG in this recipe too. I also had some brown rice flour along with whole cornmeal and that’s what I have used in this recipe. I was really surprised (this is an understatement) that these gluten free cookies tasted as good as any other chocolate chip cookies. You have to actually try this recipe to believe me.

I would say that blogging has definitely made me more responsible than I ever was. Since so many people are visiting the website, I have to be very careful about the authenticity of the information I post and for that I’m doing quite a bit of research too. When I announced the Corn event, one of my blogger friend had a doubt if the makai ki atta (maize flour) available in India is whole grain. I also had a similar doubt, if Masa di harina I see in the stores here is whole grain. So I set off to find some information on the following:

• What is masa de harina and makai ki atta?
• Are they one and the same?
• Is it the whole grain form of corn?

From the information I have gathered so far I’m pretty sure that masa di harina and makai ki atta are one and the same. To get both, maize (corn) is dried and soaked in a lime solution. The process is called slaking. The hull loosens after soaking, which is removed and then the damp corn is ground into fine flour. Actually this flour is nutritionally superior to cornmeal (I’m thinking that the cornmeal mentioned here is the degerminated cornmeal and not whole cornmeal) because the lime water adds calcium to the corn and makes the niacin in the corn nutritionally available.

Now that we know that masa de harina and makai ki atta are one and the same and they are nutritionally superior too. Are they whole grain forms of corn? I’m guessing the answer is “no” because the hull is removed during the slaking process. That being said I think that it is less refined than all purpose flour and also has the added benefit of calcium. This is my take on this topic. Please feel free to share your views here and correct me if I’m wrong.

Shall we move on to the recipe now? If somebody asks me to pick my most favorite recipe, it would be without a doubt this low fat blueberry coffee cake. I have sung it’s praises in that post and am going to do it again here because it is that good. Before trying that cake, blueberries was not in the list of my favorite fruits, but after baking that coffee cake I stock blueberries so much that one day my husband (and others too) might start calling me “that crazy blueberry lady”. So one day last week, as I was raiding my fridge, what do I find? 3 packs of blueberries and a cup of blueberry soy yogurt. You know what I would have decided to do. Of course bake the blueberry coffee cake, but with few changes. Since I’m hosting the “Corn” event, I wanted to incorporate that too in the recipe and now here we have a very light, not so sweet, vegan blueberry cornmeal coffee cake.

I was looking for a good white cake recipe to bake for my husband’s birthday. I saw a recipe for vegan white cake in The Vegan Family Cookbook by Chef Brian P. McCarthy. Actually that book has a lot of interesting recipes, especially vegan baking recipes and I literally want to try each one of them. Wish I had the time for it. So do look for that book in your local library.

For that week’s class I had to take 8 cupcakes. So I used the recipe to bake one 8-inch cake for my husband’s birthday and the remaining batter was exactly enough for 8 cupcakes. We practiced with tips 3, 12, 21, 67 and 2D in the 3rd class. Check the following links to see what decorations are possible with these tips.

• Apple
• Figure Piped Baby Heads
• Grapes
• Leaves
• Shell
• Star Drop Flower
• Swirl Drop Flowers
• Clown
• Heart
• Rosette

This is the picture of the first cake I decorated in Course 1 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating Courses. You can see that I need a lot of practice, but I’m sure that it will also give you (beginners) the confidence that it’s easy and you can definitely do it. I have been receiving a couple of mails since my earlier post on cake decoration, requesting me to update more information on how-to’s. The hardest part for me now is to give all the necessary information in an organized manner to the followers of this series. I feel that compiling this series is going to be difficult than actually taking the course and decorating the cakes.

I would say that the easiest thing to do is to enroll for the classes if it’s nearby your place and if you have the time for it. It’s a very nice experience. If not, check www.wilton.com. They have a lot of pictures, videos and tips etc. The only drawback is it’s a lot of information to take and without direction it’s difficult to follow. So I’ll provide some links here, following the course’s pattern. So it would be like you are taking an online class.

What happens in the first day of Course 1? A student manual is handed over to all the students. It has the recipe for Buttercream Icing, information about the tools you will be using, the designs you will be working on in the 1st course and a lot of other stuff. This book is available only for those who are attending the class. Then instructor gives general tips about baking a cake, how to level it, torte it, fill it and frost it. She brings a cake and shows you how it is done. I’m going to do a pictorial post on this topic shortly. Until then watch this video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So you will not be requiring any materials for the first class, but you will be needing a whole bunch of stuff from the second class onwards. Now is the time for decision making. What are you going to buy? This purely depends on the level of interest you have. Are you going to bake and decorate just 3 cakes in a year or are you thinking of making it a career. If you fall in the first category or cannot decide which, I would suggest you to buy Wilton’s Course 1 Student Cake Decorating Kit available in Michael’s and other cake decorating supplies stores. It will have the basic tools you would be requiring to use in Course 1. If you are very serious about cake decorating then go for the 101 Piece Tool Caddy Collection. Actually I bought the set thinking that it will be having the materials for course 2 too, but it didn’t. So I had to buy Course 2 kit separately. So I think it’s advisable to get the appropriate course kit as and when you are enrolling. Empty tool caddies are available too. So later you can buy that and fill it up with materials you got with the kits.

The Course 1 kit comes with a flower nail no.7, tip brush, standard couplers (2), decorator brush, featherweight decorating bags (2), disposable decorating bag (1), tips 3, 12, 16, 21, 104, 67 and 2D, a small straight spatula and a practice board set.

Now that you have decided what to buy, you would have to bake a cake, torte it, fill it and frost it and take it to the 2nd class. Recipe for eggless buttercream icing. You would be practicing with tips 16, 3 and 2010. Tip 2010 is not included in the kit, so you would have to buy it. In this rainbow cake I have used only tip 16 for the stars (in the rainbow) as well as the clouds.

Check this video to know how to fill a decorating bag

Click here to view the embedded video.

Watch the following video to see how to work with tip 16 to make stars

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check here to see how to use tip 16 to make clouds.

Check here to see how to transfer the rainbow pattern on the cake.

Medium consistency icing is used for both the stars and clouds. If you decide to get the tips alone, practice on a vegetable cutting board or plastic sheet or an inverted cake pan. Tips 3 and 12 are also used apart from tip 16 in the first class. Check the following links to start using those tips.

Dots
Outline
Print Writing
Script Writing
Rose Base

I have finally completed the Course 1 of Wilton’s Cake Decorating Courses. It was fun and interesting. It covers the basics of cake decorating. One can get the hang of various tools and materials needed for decorating a cake after completing this course. What seems impossible at first looks quite easy after taking the class. I decorated 3 cakes during the 1st course. They were not perfect but at least I’m getting better than simply slathering frosting unevenly on my cakes. Like any other art, cake decorating too requires a lot of passion, patience and practice. So if you are patient enough and can devote some quality time to practice you can master it in no time.

Usually each course has 4 classes, with one class per week. So in a month you will be completing 1 course. Having 1 class per week also gives ample time for you to practice and clear the doubts you have when you go for the next class. Depending on the instructor you can take a cake or a cake dummy to the class. I hear that some instructors are strict and ask you to get the cake. Mine was flexible so quite a few in my class got the cake dummy. I didn’t know that such a thing existed, so I baked a cake. It’s a model cake made with styrofoam available in various shapes (I have seen square and circle) and sizes. So you can practice on it, after you are done wipe the icing with a damp sponge and reuse it. Cake dummy is available in Michaels and other cake decorating supplies stores. If you live in Canada, locate a Bulk Barn near you and forget Michaels. You can get almost all Wilton cake decorating, candy making supplies at cheaper prices than Michael’s. They even rent character cake pan sets.

Another interesting tip which I found here, is using a cake pan upside down instead of buying the cake dummies. That’s really awesome. It’s very easy to use, already in the shape and size of the cake you will be baking, easy to clean and you can reuse it countless number of times.

Assuming that you can bake a decent cake the next step is preparing the icing. The course book has the recipe for the Buttercream Icing used in the class. The recipe calls for meringue powder, which is a combination of egg whites, cream of tartar and other unrecognizable chemicals. Now this was the first hurdle for me. I was in such a dilemma whether to use that powder or not. I have eaten store bought cakes and will also be eating it in the future and I don’t mind the eggs. Bringing eggs home and cooking with it, is my phobia. By getting this powder I was not bringing actual eggs but I did not want to post here even the pictures of the cakes decorated with that icing. When I asked my instructor about a substitute for the meringue powder, she felt sorry that she did not have an answer. I was thinking maybe I should use equal amount of EnerG Egg Replacer powder itself. Then I discovered Wilton’s Buttercream Icing Mix. The instructions read that I just had to add water and butter/margarine to it and beat it with a mixer. When I read the ingredients, I was happy that nothing related to eggs was mentioned. So I happily picked it. After coming home I was scanning the list again and found mono-glycerides. I have read earlier that unless and otherwise it is clearly specified vegetable derived mono-glycerides, all other glycerides are derived from animals. So I couldn’t use that and returned it. Many omnivores and even some vegetarians may be thinking what’s the big deal. In this day and age of packaged and processed food one can’t be really sure about what one is eating and the source. But what to do I’m one among the million quirky vegetarians!

The day for the 2nd class was nearing and I was supposed to take 3 cups of icing and here I was still wondering what to do. I thought maybe I should simply follow the recipe, prepare it, learn the decorating techniques and once I’m sort of good, I can start experimenting with a substitute for the meringue powder. But I need not have worried after all in this era of Google serving information at your finger tips. A couple of recipe sites had Wilton’s Buttercream Icing without the egg powder and the reviews were good too, telling that it had the consistency perfect for decorating. It was the exact same recipe given in the course book but minus the meringue powder. So I too decided to do the same and kept my fingers crossed. To my surprise my instructor while testing each of our icing with some designs told me that mine was perfect for decorating and she couldn’t believe when I told her that I did not add the meringue powder. So girls, one problem solved. (There is another one in the 2nd course too! Yes I enrolled for it and the 1st class is already over. Hope I will be able to find a solution for the Royal Icing too). What a relief!

Now that we have found an egg free buttercream icing recipe, what to do next? We would be requiring icing in 3 consistencies. Stiff, Medium and Thin. Stiff consistency icing is used to make those gorgeous roses and other flowers and objects you see on the cakes. Medium consistency is used to make borders and related designs. Thin consistency is for writing on the cake and frosting the cake. So while preparing the icing, you usually start with stiff, then add some water to get medium consistency and some more water to get thin consistency. One should be careful while adding water, it’s usually 1 or 2 tablespoons to the maximum. Again any mistake done is not irreparable, you can always add some confectioner’s sugar or water to get the desired consistency.

I had a cup of pureed beets in the freezer and wanted to use it up. I had the idea of pairing it up with chocolate because I have seen a couple of such recipes. So I was browsing through one of my favorite books “Deceptively Delicious” and my eyes fell on the Brownies recipe. It used 1/2 cup each carrot puree and spinach puree. I thought why not use the 1 cup of beet puree instead. I’m glad that I did because the brownies turned out very tasty.

Recently I borrowed “The 250 Best Muffin Recipes” by Esther Brod from the local library. I don’t know if they are the best muffin recipes unless I try each recipe but the variety is really very good though. Actually it has bonus 250 recipes, so totally 500 muffin recipes in one book, with a lot of healthy recipes too. I was amazed by the collection of recipes using oatmeal, oat bran, wheat bran, whole wheat flour and wheat germ. It should easily reach at least 100-150 recipes. Especially there are a lot of oatmeal and oat bran muffins recipes. Since this month’s Whole Grain Baking theme is Oats, I decided to proceed with the Apple Walnut Oat Bran Muffins. (Please note that Oat bran alone is not whole grain, but for this event I’m accepting recipes with oat bran also). I had some bland pears in the fridge and nobody was willing to eat it so decided to use it instead of apple (more about this in the Taste and My Notes section). I have also used apple cider vinegar instead of the egg whites mentioned in the original recipe.

I found this recipe for blueberry coffee cake in Taste of Home’s Baking Book. As I have mentioned a couple of times earlier, the recipes which appear in that magazine are perfect and it does not disappoint you at all. So this coffee cake recipe was no exception to it. I’m not a big blueberry fan. I buy these berries to make blueberry milk for my son and other than that we don’t do much with it. Sometimes he asks for blueberry pancakes but this time he didn’t want neither. I was looking for blueberry recipes and found this coffee cake recipe. The first thing which caught my attention was that it used only 2 tablespoons of butter and it was very easy to prepare. These days my son is so keen on helping me while baking so I have to consider the ease of preparation too while choosing a recipe. So this recipe was perfect. The only change I had to do was to use unsweetened applesauce to substitute one egg and add little apple cider vinegar and the cake turned out GREAT.