Baby Shower Cake

This  is an Espresso cake with Mocha buttercream made for a preggo girl's sendoff. The sugar baby is made of fondant. Really loved the way the baby turned out, considering its my first attempt with fondant baby figurine. I heard that she loved the cake. Hope the baby did too! :) Made more cupcakes personalized with everyone's name on it.

Here is the upclose shot of my sugar baby cake topper

Baking Ingredient substitutes

After coming back to India, I am mostly looking out for substitutes in baking since we don't get all the baking supplies and sometimes have to order from distant places. Here are some of the substitutes I used in my baking and got successful results! Its not my own substitutions. These are something that I gathered all over the net and thought would be helpful to other bakers too!  


Self-raising flour
         I had the biggest trouble with my sponge cakes, since I got used to baking all mine with the self raising flour when I was in US. I searched and ended in vain. I was happy when ibcablr told me they had the self raising when it was actually just maida and i ended with brick like cakes for my son's birthday. Somehow I realized that something is wrong with the flour and added some baking powder(something flashed at that time) and it went better.
So, here is the substitute

• ½ tsp baking soda 
• 1 tsp cream of tartar 
• 8 oz plain all-purpose flour  
• 1/2 tsp salt

Mix well just before adding the liquid




Espresso powder substitute
If you are unable to get instant espresso powder and a recipe you are contemplating calls for this ingredient, it is worth noting that you can substitute espresso powder with 1 to 1 ½ teaspoons of regular instant coffee, preferably dark roasted. The regular instant coffee that is used as a substitute for espresso powder will give the same cooking results as the espresso powder and the only difference that you will find is that the coffee won't give off the deep roasted flavor that the espresso does.


When using instant coffee as a substitute for espresso powder you should try to use coffee powder. This is mainly due to the fact that many instant espresso powders are quite fine and mix very easily whereas many of the instant brands of coffee are quite chunky and granular and a much harder to mix. One way to avoid this is to mix the coffee with boiling water first


Sour cream substitute
The sour cream is used not only for texture, but for the tang it has. It's used in a lot of chocolate cake recipes. Sour milk can be a replacement, which is also a buttermilk replacement in baking recipes - milk with vinegar, or lemon juice. To make 1 cup use 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar with enough milk to make 1 cup. Otherwise sour cream and plain yogurt are interchangeable in a recipe. So how ever much sour cream, use that same amount of plain yogurt. To do the sour milk trick, or even buttermilk, you'll be effecting the texture and crumb of the cake, and will also need to cut out some liquid from the recipe.


Cake Flour substitute


To make 1 cup of cake flour, add 2 tbsp of corn starch to the bottom of the measuring cup and fill the rest with all-purpose flour. Or, remove 2 tbsp of all-purpose flour in every 1 cup specified in the recipe.


Pastry Flour Substitute


To make 1 cup pastry flour from regular all-purpose flour , remove 1 tbsp all-purpose flour for every 1 cup.

Dutch Processed Cocoa powder
To make 3 tbsp of the Dutch processed cocoa poweder, use

• 3 tablespoons (20 grams) natural unsweetened cocoa powder plus 1/8 teaspoon baking soda, or
  
• 1 ounce (30 grams) unsweetened chocolate plus 1/8 teaspoon baking soda (reduce fat in recipe by 1 tablespoon)

Strong brewed coffee
1/4 cup (60 ml) equals 2 tablespoons (10 grams) instant espresso powder dissolved in 3 tablespoons hot water  

Corn Syrup 
Liquid Glucose can be used in place of corn syrup. Its more like a condensed form of corn syrup. Take a one cup measurement container and add 2 teaspoons of water into the cup, then fill the cup up with glucose. Heat it a bit in the microwave to melt it down, glucose is so thick. Blend and proceed with the normal instructions. Or, in some recipes you can just replace the corn syrup with equal measurement of liquid glucose.

Cream of Tartar 

1 tsp of cream of tartar can be replaced with 1 tsp of lemon juice or white vinegar 

Crème fraiche 

Some of the substitutions that can be followed to make a cup of creme fraiche are

• 1 cup (225 grams) sour cream 
• 1 cup (240 ml) whipping cream plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk or yogurt 
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) whipping cream plus 1/2 cup (112 grams) sour cream 
• 1 cup (225 grams) mascarpone cheese 

Sour cream 

• 1 cup (225 grams) plain yogurt 
• 3/4 cup (180 ml) sour milk, buttermilk or plain yogurt + 1/3 cup (75 grams) melted butter 
• 1 cup (225 grams) creme fraiche 
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar plus enough whole milk to fill 1 cup (240 ml) (let stand 5-10 minutes) 

This is a note that I refer to when I don't have the right ingredient and I think would benefit others too! Have fun baking! :)

Fondant cake

Its been busy for the past few days and so couldn't post much. The Bangalore weather makes me even more lazy! I will try to post the pics and go blah blah later on. :) Here is my fondant cake that i made for my hubby's friends.(Not really!) Will write the story later on!