“All work and no blog makes a blogger a dull worker.”
A few days ago I had a visitor. She called one day to say that it was high time we met since we lived in the same city, & she was landing up that weekend! Her name is Nachiketa, she blogs from Delhi, & is quite the crazy baker! She is one get up & go girl, with an infectious level of enthusiasm & energy. I think I was like that a decade ago. She’s been following my blog for a while, is passionate about baking, & equally passionate about learning. 
So what did we do? She wanted to learn how to bake bread which didn’t happen because there was no electricity most of the morning. Thankfully I had baked an artisan loaf earlier in the morning, so we sat & looked at it, discussed it, looked at the dough in the fridge etc. Then we immersed ourselves into cookbooks & more cookbooks. I shared with her the little I know about taking pictures, the light box, editing in Picasa, making collages etc.
We had a hurried lunch of grilled chicken, penne in a mushroom sauce, a corn salad in buttermilk ranch dressing, & garlic artisan bread. Dessert was a delicious strawberry yogurt panna cotta which surprisingly set very well. I was unsure because I had eyeballed amounts due to the lack of time, but it was ‘goblet– licking’ good!
Post lunch we hit the kitchen. She really wanted to get a window on decorating cakes & cupcakes. I had made a batch of vanilla cupcakes the previous evening to give us a platform for practice! The good girl had baked her version of a Zebra cake & brought it for my kids, but she wanted to frost it first. Here’s what I taught her to do…like it?
Made a ganache to top the cake with. I eyeball amounts of cream & chocolate for ganache now. Threw in about 200gms of dark chocolate & about 150ml of 25% low fat cream into a saucepan, melted everything over low heat, strained it & then let it cool. We covered the cake with the ganache once cooled & of good spreading consistency. Too thin & it will just flow off, too thick & it’ll be lumpy, & sometimes take crumbs off. We did the sides first & then the top, smoothed it out with an offset spatula & voila … we had a platform to decorate! I thought I’d teach her the easiest & quickest way I know to decorate a cake in literally five minutes. I took a bar of dark chocolate at room temperature & grated some chocolate curls out of the medium slots. Put them in the fridge to harden up. Next put about a tbsp of thick whipped cream in a baggie, snipped off a corner, started off making a spiral from the centre outwards, & them marbled it. (You can see step-by-step pictures in a much earlier post here). 
Next we attacked the cupcakes as the day was rapidly coming to an end. We used the left-over ganache, after softening it in the microwave for 10 seconds, & inaugurated her new decorating set to frost these. Take a look!
I had some batter left over after making a dozen cupcakes, some cream from making the ganache, some ganache, & some strawberry coulis + jam from the panna cotta. I baked the left-over batter in a square baking pan, & made a layered trifle pudding the next day. I cut out flowers with small flower cookie cutters that Nachiketa sweetly had given me, & layered the trifle. 
Will post the trifle & yogurt panna cotta recipe soon … both part of my strawberry overdrive! Oh yes, and there’s some frozen strawberry yogurt coming up too!! Sweet dreams!
I can imagine both of you sitting there and eyeing the bread and also eyeing the dough in the fridge too.
Beautifully decotated agg, i think i like the zebra cake with the decoration than the plain ones and it is a very beautifully decorated.
That’s great! I am so grateful for all the friends I gained through blogging!
oh that was surely nice day spent. Very productive too. The cake looks awesome and the cupcakes so cute. the trifle is yummy, I would lick the glass 🙂
Absolutely wonderful was had w/great food !
Wish I lived in Delhi, I’d invite myself over :)…you guys accomplished a lot in a day…the frosting on the cake is perfect, looks beautiful.
hi Deeba the cake looks delicious and perfect…yummy 🙂
The cake looks divine. I love the decor! The cupcakes are cute too!
How nice you had company for the day Deeba, the cake is beautiful and so are the cuppies!! You two certainly accomplished alot that day!!
I am totally at loss of words.. that cake! I wish i could do this atleast once in my lifetime, & i wish i lived near you, so i could make my agenda & come:-)everything looks gorgeous, & definitley shows the great time u guys had. waiting on the recipes. see why i told that i learn from all of u?
I am so bad at my cake decorating skills. Even my cupcakes are, at times, not so great. I’ve been meaning to sign up for some classes, somewhere. I love the decorated cake the most here.
That’s awesome! You two had a great time for sure and that cake is just gorgeous!
How great that you got together – what a fun day! The cake is stunning!
Ugh, you, Deeba, are no good for my diet !!!
I guess I’ll just have to cut and paste another recipe from you. Can’t help myself.
What fun! I love to meet fellow foodie bloggers, and how brilliant that you did some cooking together!
Lovely cakes!!!
Sounds like you had an eventful day!
Oh what fun. Oh, Im so jealous. I would have loved to have been there and learned all those techniques!! Gorgeous cakes, sounds like an awesome day!
The two of you must have had such a blast together!!!!!!!
I would have enjoyed the day with you as well. Looks like so much fun. And I love everything you made.
so much fun!!! you should probably have workshops or something 🙂
What fun you two cooked up together!!!
All I can say is…lucky Nachiketa..I agree with Nags-you should conduct workshops,so that we “lesser mortals” can gain from it.I simply loved the cake snap on your header and this post is making me drool.Thanks for giving step by step instructions..loved it!!!
Deeba, I justed stared at your gorgeous cake! So, so, beautiful!
I totally want your yogurt panna cotta too, can’t wait for the recipe,and btw that photo is stunning!
Oh my word you all went crazy decorating! Everythng is beautiful, what a fun time you had.
I don’t know what looks better … everything looks so delicious.
I LOVE classic vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting – yours look fantastic! And, your cake is gorgeous – yum!
I don’t like the frosting job… I love it 🙂 Sounds like a fun day, if pesky because of that darn electricity!
You gotta have pretty prehensile tongues to navigate the inside of that goblet! But for something that looks that good, mine just might!
Deeba, I love how you opened your home and your heart to this dear. I can only imagine the laughter and chatter the two of you shared. Such a beautiful story.
🙂
Deeba,
Glad you were able to get together and share the day; what a nice story. Looking forward to your “Yogurt Panna Cotta” recipe.
Best regards,
~Anthony
http://fromadietitiansperspective.blogspot.com
Can’t agree more with what Divya Kudua said… am so lucky…..
I had such a freaky time at her place…..
Check out Zebra Cake for the Rajpals
Lunch at Deeba’s
Cups of Magic ~ Vanilla Cupcakes @ Deeba’s
That sounds like fun. Your friend is lucky to take some lessons from you.
Everything looks so delicious. Those sound like having fun and enjoy baking ! Very great lessons ! I’d like to share with you recipes and tips too !
Cheers,
Miette
Wow, simply beautiful!
How fun!! And this all looks so delicious!
Wow! That was one crazy day of baking and the results look so incredible. The cake is stunning, but honestly all the rest looks so scrumptious. I’m stuffed just looking at it all.
Looks like you two had a lot of fun. I can’t believe you decorated that cake in 5 minutes!
WOW…. those look Yummy!! I would love to come to your house. You are such a good host:)
Sounds like you had a great day. You’ve done a beautiful job on the zebra cake. It looks really professional!
I wish I’d stayed near you! 🙂
the next time I make a choc cake, i am gonna decorate it like this! totally in love with its look 🙂
How i envy you Nachiketa!!! I really wish i lived in Delhi!!
Deeba! U r amazing!!! love you blog! It’s sooo inspiring!! Wish i was half as talented as you! 🙂
Will keep coming back for more!!!
I’m so impressed. You ganache rings are perfect circles! You must have a very, very steady hand.
Gorgeous feathering work on your chocolate cake! I wish I could get mine as picture perfect! 🙂
I really envy your friend dear Deeba I want go to your home and stay days and days baking!!! nice!!
all look beautiful, dear Deeba! xxxxxGloria
wow this is great entry, love the pic
Sounds like a fun day! Everything looks delicious, and the cake is so pretty!
That’s one good looking and neat cake. Hey Deeba, you’ve got to look at holding cake making and decorating classes! Seriously!! 🙂 Angela
You sure had tons of fun. It sure was food all the way! 🙂
Lovely post Deeba. A chocoholic’s dream come true. Decorating a cake is one that have been running away for. A mental block. Tried your ganache the other day, came out well although I think I need a bit more of practice. This looks so professional and your block has been a great inspiration to take up baking and trying to decorate cakes. Tried your zebra cake too the other day, was wonderful. Is the base for this cake the zebra cake recipe?
So fun to meet up with other bloggers. Sounds like you had a good time together in spite of having no electricity. Gorgeous desserts — where do you find the time? Wishing I had a sampling right now…
The cake looks really stunning…i wish i could have had a bite of it…
Nice nice… when can I come over for a lesson… and of course, more importantly… to meet you?
AW, how much fun was that! Loved all the photos. I wanna bake with a fellow blogger! Fantastic job on the zebra cake…very impressive!
~ingrid
With two live wires, this had to b the result! Simply marvelous, Nachi, wish I was in your place..which reader wouldn’t want to be watching Deeba’s skills!! Everything on this post looks mouthwatering!
Pretty insightful post. Never thought that it was this simple after all. I had spent a good deal of my time looking for someone to explain this subject clearly and you’re the only one that ever did that. Kudos to you! Keep it up
I usually don't post in blogs but your blog forced me to, amazing work.. beautiful !
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