Hi all,
I've been mulling attempting a mendhi cake for some time and I think today's the day. I have no reason to make it, other than I want to try doing some mendhi designs.
That said, with no specific reason for the cake I have no requests for flavors from the lucky people who will get another free cake. Are there any unique flavor combinations that might 'fit' a mendhi theme?
I'll probably use chocolate (ganache or other??) for the actual mendhi design, but could be open to other ideas for that also.
Please share your thoughts or requests...I'll post a picture when it's all finished.
Thanks for your ideas.
-allison
Hmmm...I'm thinking a citrusy theme? Mehndii is "native" to India and the Hindu culture right? Ah...googled "fruit of India"...mangoes are their "official" fruit looks like.
A mango curd filling with tart citrus BC? WASC cake or a vanilla pound cake? Hmmmm. Sounds yummy!
Indian Kulfi comes in flavors like pistachio and mango so maybe cake flavors like that or find a way to incorporate saffron or cardomam(sp)
Pistachio is a favorite of mine...I think that'll be the flavor of the day. Of course I got busy with other things today and now that it's late on Saturday, I may need to wait until later in the week to find the time to bake and decorate. The decorating will take a lot of time.
thanks for the ideas. I'll keep the citrus in mind for another cake in the near future.
-allison
Have you baked it yet? There is a pistachio cake on Epicurious that I made today, it was OUTRAGEOUSLY amazing. It has pistachio, orange zest and cardamom, three flavors I never, ever expected to want to eat together, especially not in a cake. I used a tweaked recipe, let me know if you would like the info.
Ceshell, I'd like the recipe even if the OP doesn't! 
I want to make a cake like this for my best friend's birthday.
Here ya go http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pistachio-Cake-105003
(to see more comments you can also look up the Gourmet 2001 version which uses more butter...everyone said it was "too much butter" so they altered the recipe to this new 2007 version)
My modifications:
1-In addition to the 3/4c finely ground pistachios, I also added 1/4c coarsely ground pistachios to give a little crunch.
2-I added an additional 1/4 tsp cardamom as suggested by lots of Epicurious reviewers
3-I reduced the orange zest to 1 tbsp. It was plenty orangey for me that way, I think 2 would be overkill. The original (Gourmet 2001) recipe had no orange in it.
4-I baked this in two 6-inch pans for approx 37 min. If you want a 2-layer 9" cake you'll need to double the recipe.
It's suggested to pair it with whipped cream, crème fraîche or other such "icing" but I needed something nonperishable so I used plain old vanilla buttercream. But I filled it with caramel buttercream. *drools*
Ahhh!!! School is so busy right now. Our school addition is just about finished and I'm spending all my time packing my whole classroom to move from a portable into one of the new classrooms.
The cake and icing are both made and I hope to have time to work on the decorating today. Thanks for keeping up. I'll let you know when I finish!
-allison
It is my cat. She had jumped up to 'attack' someone as they were walking by and I snapped this on the way down. She loves to play and has a vertical jump that I'd do anything for.
Here's the cake. I really wish I would have had more time, but so goes the life of a teacher.
I definitely need a tilting turntable. Notice I'm not showing you the side view of the cake. I don't like the border so I gave up and didn't finish adding the detail.
I used the pistachio cake recipe from here: http://nicholsfarms.com/pistachios/desserts/pistachio-cake and decided to use plain BC so I tried indydebi's recipe for the first time. The henna is done with dark chocolate icing. I can't wait to try this one!
Thanks to all who offered suggestions and support. I will definitely do another henna cake, but it will have to be during spring break or in the summer...
-allison
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1303554&done=1
It's gorgeous! I just commented on it .
The recipe is the same as the one on Epicurious I mentioned!! Actually it's the original (Gourmet 2001) version with more butter and no orange peel. So I'll bet it was deeeelicious. If you ever bake it again I highly recommend the alterations that I used from the 2007 version of the recipe.
Plain BC was totally the way to go IMHO; there is so much flavor in the cake that it's the perfect complement.
Bravo! 
Thanks for the notes...I ended up taking the cake to school and it was a hit.
Chai spice sounds great, too.
pistachio cake sounds amazing, i'm going to have to try that one!
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