Strawberry Gateaux .... LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

Winter brings to us a lot of things, pleasant weather, happiness, celebration, and my favorite of them all Strawberries. A strawberry is not a fruit, its a symbol of love, a mouthful of strawberry and cream and feel like a blissful winter morning fulling your sense. 

Have been making this Gateaux for years now.... and its never failed to bring a smile .. 
A gateaux can be good and with a little care it can become mind blowing. Here is a recipe for a gateaux as light as cotton.. 

For Cake 

100 g sugar

5 eggs 

Red Colour few drops 

Maida 110 g 

• beat eggs and sugar till sugar is dissolved and the eggs become stiff like whipped cram 
• add few  drops red colour 
• fold in the maida with a fork, be very gentle 
• bake in a lined cake tin at 190 degrees for 25 mins.. 

For Icing 

300 g whipped cream 

4 tbsp icing sugar

chopepd strawberries 1 cup 

light sugar syrup with a hint of strawberry essence  1/2 cup 

• mix suagr and cream together 
• cut the cake into three and layer soaking cake with sugar syrup 
• add a layer of cream and strawberry 
• repeat the process with second layer
• top with third layer and cover in cream 
• garnish as desired with chopped strawberries 

Drunken Christmas ... HIC HIC HIC !!!

Cooking is  BAD BAD profession, one does not realise where time flies, cooking transports one to a level where people, money, sorrow, joy, they all just become hazy and one one can thing of is ... aroma, magic, texture, presentation, and to top it all off intoxication.

speaking of intoxication, we are at the time of the year when intoxication is at its all time high, yupp you guessed it right, Chirstmas. with every single cake shop already working on the fruit cake, I too decided to soak my fruits in an ocean full of booze .

what went in .

Almonds
Prunes
Figs
Cranberries
Dates
Walnuts
Cashew
Raisin
Glazed Cherries
tutti-fruity

and then came the spices
Mace
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
All spice

and the Booze

Rum
Whisky
Red wine
Port
Brandy
vodka

well, some people tell me that my cake is a tad bit Boozy, well whats a Christmas without the warmth of spices and the rum filling you up..

The Mixture is soaked.... sealed... and locked away for a month... and will open and get baked ..

Christmas cake baking is addictive, the combined aromas of the spices and even beacon people to come over and just forget the mundane-ity of day to day like, grab a piece... or two.... or maybe three....
and just here soft Christmas carols and slip away into a place call Happiness...