A Dark Chocolate Ganache Cake with Chocolate caraque and a little bit of French desire
Sunday was a great day. We started
the day with lovely parsi breakfast, akuri with bread followed by fried chicken
sausage, English breakfast tea and finally scones and cream. That does not end
there. We had dal paratha with yoghurt and coriander chutney for lunch. All
thanks to J. And then the icing on the cake-watching English Vinglish. Well no,
not the movie but it is the French man (actor Mehdi Nebbou) I am talking about.
Suddenly that good-looking man (ohhhhhhhhhhhJ) ,
his attraction towards the main protagonist, a married Indian woman and her
trying best not to get attracted brought back a lively discussion that we used
to have so often: women’s boundary and pressure of being sati savitris. The movie is handled
very well until this love angle comes in and then suddenly, I do not know why
the director feels the need to restrain the flow- fall little in love but never
cross the boundary, give dialogue like “I do not need love I need respect” and
of course the perennial funda on importance of family. Well maybe I should not
blame her. The film needed to be mass accepted without stirring too much commotion.
Would the film be
differently accepted had the married women left the house or had a sexual relationship
with the French man, crossed her boundary? Although lot of people say that we
have matured as audience, I am not sure whom are they talking about: the urban multiplex
viewer, or the intellectuals who only goes for film festivals or rest of janta?
Why do I say so? I work with women who have experienced violence (domestic or
other form) and most form of violence revolves around women’ role and expected
boundary. 90% women I work with fails to come out of the relationship breaking
the boundary and end up reconciling, most of them does not recognize violence until
they have been almost killed, emotional and psychological violence are yet to
be even established as violence ( in the movie sridevi is cleary violated emotionally by husband and children).
And these women I work with come from families who are multiplex viewer, or the
intellectuals who only goes for film festivals or rest of janta.
Was the protagonist’s not
knowing English the only reason for her to be belittled all the time? What about
other hidden method: laddo making not as important as office going husband’s
job, not knowing English equal to not having confidence, little importance of
women’s household work, father vs mother ( men vs women). The typical conformation
that we all accept every day- leave your tea and serve other, who gets the
newspaper first thing in the morning and
all this which should have changed with English learning does not really
change. So what was the point of learning English? So learn English or not, our
fate is really sealed- be in the boundary! Either you do it yourself or we will
make you do it. And if nothing works we will bring in children and family value
in good measure. Can we think about a movie where the man is ridiculed for not
knowing English? Well there are serials which shows unsuccessful husband but
then there the wife is a bitch who is working and villainous. At the end, we do
not like women beyond the boundary after all.
Well my mind is very convoluted
now. Best I get back to it at a later time. For now, let us bake the cake!
I baked it for R to
celebrate his homecoming. I usually like being alone and take the time as an occasion
to celebrate myself. However, this time, it was difficult without R. with a
horrible work and house hunting got the best of me. I could not wait for R to
get back home. Hence the cake: he loves dark chocolate cake and is an easy substitute
for black forest.
I hope one of you would bake
it and share the photo at my Facebook account www.facebook.com/petpujoandadda
Ingredients
for the Cake
2-Eggs170gm-Flour
100gm- Light muscovado Sugar (or brown sugar or plain sugar)
100gm- Light vegetable spread (I used flora pro cholesterol)
100 gm- dark Coco Powder
1-teaspoon baking powder
1-teaspoon granulated coffee
75ml buttermilk
¼-teaspoon salt
Ingredients
for the Ganache
200gm-dark
chocolate200ml double cream
2-teaspoon castor sugar (optional)
Ingredients for whipped cream filling
600ml-Fresh
double cream
Method for the cake:
2. Lightly butter loose bottom (spring form cake tin) and dust it with little flour. Line the tin with baking paper
3. Shift flour, baking powder,coco powder and salt together and keep aside
4. Place the vegetable spread (or the butter or oil), sugar in a bowl and beat with a electric mixture until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg one at a time
5. Fold in the flour, baking powder coco powder and salt mixture in the egg, butter and sugar mixture.
6. Add butter milk
7. Fold carefully not to disturb the air bubble in the cake mixture
8. Shift the mixture in the prepared cake tin
9. Bake for 40-50 mins until firm and springy. Insert a screwier in the middle of the cake. It comes out clean, that means cake is done. The timing might vary depending on oven used
10. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for five minutes before turning out onto a wire rack
11. Once cold, cut the cake horizontally into two separate rounds and spread them on two different places
Method
for whipping cream:
12. Whipping
Cream: Pour the cream in to bowl, add bit of powdered white sugar (optional
but very little sweetness in cream tastes wonderful) and whip either by hand
using a balloon whisk or hand mixture.
Whisk them until they form a soft peak (Lift the mixer and if the little peaks gently curves
that is soft peaks) 
13. Place the last layer of the cake on a cake base or wherever you want to have the cake on. Spread the cake discs with whipped cream.
14. Top the first layer of cake with another layer of the cake.
15. Keep it in refrigerator to cool it for while. Put the cream in fridge as well in the fridge
16. Mean while prepare to make chocolate caraque for decoration and Ganache for covering the cake
Method for chocolate caraque:
3. Push a clean scrapper or a thick knife across the surface of the chocolate holding it about 30 degree so that chocolate starts to roll in loose curls. Transfers the caraque to a baking sheet and chill in the fridge before you use it
Method
for Chocolate Ganache
1. Put the
chocolate in a bowl. Heat the cream and sugar in a saucepan until beginning to
bubble around the edges ( but not boiling) 
2. Pour over the chocolate
3. Leave to stand, stirring frequently until the chocolate has melted and the Ganache is smooth and glossy.
4. It can be used as soon it is cool enough to hold its shape
6. Decorate with chocolate caraque
7. Add some pink rose petals or eatable rose petal on the cake
About the Author
2 comments
Very well described recipe. But, before that, I liked ur review on English Vinglish. I felt the director treated the love angle well. The gap in Sridevi's life was about respect and not of love (or even sexual need), which she gracefully achieved without creating any undue scene or doing histrionics.
ReplyDeleteComing back to the cake, i think u forgot to mention about mixing the coco powder in flour-baking powder-salt mix.
Will try to bake this some day and post it in ur FB page. - Santanu
Thank you so much Santunu! I corrected the mistake and added the coco powder bit.. thanks for mentioning it.
ReplyDeleteregarding the movie, my issue is always with the difference between love and respect.. is there any? can we love someone without respect? or the other way around? ofcourse to mention that love should not be restricted to only in Peyar. was sridevi loved in the household? sometime our love to someone is so cruel but we fail to recongnise it.her husband find it difficult to talk to her but do not mind having sex with her.. what kind of love is that? i wish srivedi would accept that she has fallen in love with the good looking french man and yet decided to do what was expected of her to do.. be a sati savitri.. that would have made the plot more interesting... but she does not even accept the love...
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