Mascarpone Mousse Cake with Roasted Strawberries

I was thinking to make a cake for my sisters birthday. I thought of a chocolate layer cake, then a strawberry short cake. While searching for the perfect recipe, I came accross an absolutely perfect baking blog. Hers are the most beautiful cakes I have ever seen. 

The real recipe calls for quark cheese & Balsamic strawberries. I went for simple roasted strawberries & Mascarpone cheese mousse - reason: both of them were in the refrigerator :D.

I made roasted strawberries & the Sponge cake a day before. Both were easy & quick.

Roasted Strawberries in Vinegar

450-500gms strawberries, quartered
1/2 cup vanilla sugar
1/8 cup aged vinegar
Method:
Place the strawberries in a glass baking dish.
Sprinkle over the vanilla sugar, followed by the aged vinegar. Mix gently.
Bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes. Allow to cool.
Drain strawberries. Put the liquid into a sauce pan, and reduce to a thick concentrate. It will thicken a bit as it cools. Chill before use.

             

Idea: Draw the design on a butter paper and put it arund the cake.

                                    
                                    
                                    
                                    

Mascarpone Mousse Cake with Roasted Strawberries
Sponge Cake {Make 2 sponges. Recipe is for 1 7.5″ cake}
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 a vanilla bean scraped {or 1 tsp vanilla extract}
1/2 cup plain flour
Method:
Line 2 X 7.5″ round tins with baking parchment.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla bean until thick and mousse like {about 7-10 minutes}
Gently fold the flour in, making sure you don’t lose volume. {I just dump the whole flour in in one go since I have made this cake so often. You can add it gradually, 2 tbsp at a time, to make sure it mixes through}
Turn the batter gently into the prepared tin, and bake until done for about 20-25 minutes, or till the tester comes out clean.
Cool on racks for 5 minutes, turn out from tins gently, and allow to cool completely.

Mascarpone Mousse Filling
Inspired by BBC Good Food
200gms Mascarpone cheese
200ml low fat cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean, scraped
1 cup roasted strawberries  {Reserve 1/4 cup for topping}
Method:
Beat the Mascarpone cheese with powdered sugar and scraped vanilla bean until smooth. Taste and adjust sugar if required.
Whip the cream to soft peaks, and fold into the whipped Mascarpone cheese.
Add the balsamic strawberries {reserving 1/4 cup for topping}, and gently fold in to mix through.

Topping
100ml low fat cream
2-3 tbsps powdered sugar
Method:
Whip cream with sugar to medium peaks.
Add 1/8 tsp gelatin to reserved 1/4 cup strawberries, and gently simmer, stirring all the while till thick and jam like. Leave to cool completely.
1/4 cup strawberries and 1/8 tsp gelatin. Mix through, and then simmer on low heat till it becomes thick and jam like.
Lime-Sugar Syrup
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
Juice of 1 lime
Method:
Boil for 5 minutes till sugar melts. Add the lime juice. Allow to cool.

Assemble Cake:
Slice the sponges horizontally into two. Brush each layer with lime-sugar syrup as you work. Sandwich the layers with the Mascarpone mousse, and cover the sides with it too.
Add a lace border if you like. Cover the top with whipped cream, and top with some jellied roasted strawberries.
Finish the top and edges off with chocolate shavings etc.

Chill well before serving so that the flavours mature.

 
                         

Strawberry Mousse with Home-made Yougurt

“So many ideas, so much I want to do, so little time…

But I love the feeling of being inspired…”

Canelle Vanille on Twitter

When Foodilicious Cooks announced the *farangi meetha* dessert contest, the first thing came up on my mind was mousse & strawberries. The contest calls for a sweet with milk and 1 fruit. So, I went on making a home-made yogurt and strawberry puree a day before.

This a very refereshing, low-calorie dessert with no preservatives used(other than gelatine;))

First, I made a biscuit base.Pressed it down firmly to make a base. Next step was the dark strawberry layer following the light strawberry layer. Covering it with home-made strawberry puree. I kept the moulds in the refrigerator for 3 hours. 3 hours were too long to spend:P Was fun making it as i was getting very impatient to see the layers:D. and how it would come out. 


Perfect for summers - Light and ever-so-satisfying dessert!

Recipe:
Biscuit base Ingredients:
100gms digestive biscuits; ground
4 tbsp melted butter
Method:
Mix the crumbs in with the melted butter to form the crumb mixture for the base.
 
Strawberry Mousse
Ingredients:
100gms Yogurt 
50 gms Cream Cheese
100gms Whipped Cream
1tbsps gelatin
200gms Strawberries; pureed 
4-5 tbsps powdered sugar
Method:
Blend the yogurt, strawberries & powdered sugar together until smooth. Add the clear gelatin & whisk. This makes the dark strawberry mousse. Once you use a portion of this in the first mousse layer, add the whipped cream to the rest to make the light strawberry layer. Pour the remaining strawberry puree on the top. And put it in the refrigerator for 3 hours.

Serve it with strawberries.

Fettuccine alfredo

Todays lunch - Fettuccine Alfredo. 

When you are running out of time. Or you arnt in mood. This is it!! Just 10 min. Haha!!

Fettuccine alfredo is a pasta dish made from fettuccine pasta tossed with Parmesan cheese and butter. Its simple, its rich & very classic!!

Here is the most reliable recipe: 

               Ingredients

• 1 pound  Fettuccine Noodles

• 1 stick  Butter

• 1 cup  Heavy Cream

• Salt and Pepper, to taste

• 2 cups  Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese

                     Preparation Instructions

• Cook pasta according to package directions.
• In a saucepan or skillet, warm butter and cream. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• Grate Parmesan cheese and place half of it into a large serving bowl. Pour warm butter/cream mixture over the top.
• Drain pasta and immediately pour it into the bowl.
• Toss a couple of times, then sprinkle in the other half of the Parmesan.
• Toss to combine, thinning with pasta water if necessary.
• Serve immediately.