Comfort Food - Chocolate Cake

      

Comfort food is food that has a nostalgic and sentimental appeal.It is food that you are drawn to again and again.Usually something that you have grown up eating with. Something that you know'can never go wrong'. And the moment you put in your mouth ,you instantly know that this is what you wanted.


For me, one of my comfort food is the chocolate cake baked by my mother.The mere mention brings in memories of our home filled with that wonderful aroma of baked cake and how i would impatiently wait for her to take it out from the oven to the table . We never waited for the cake to cool down. It was instantly made,cut and eaten. Just like that !!
This was the only tried and tested recipe in our kitchen for a long time . So naturally for every occasion this was the cake baked at home . When we started celebrating my daughters monthly birthdays, this was the cake on the cards again !! This recipe has been used over and over again as my mother feels why try something 'jiska pata nahi hai ' ,safer to stick with 'OUR' cake !!


When we started with the blog idea , i told my husband that the first post has to be on sweet. After all ''meethe se hi to shubh shuruaat hoti hai''.but my seafood crazy husband tried his hands on this crazy seafood soup(which came out exceedingly well) and so he jumped on the blog wagon before i could start off on a sweet note .Nevertheless, here is my sweet start to our blog with my Comfort Chocolate Cake.


Recipe source : My mother 


Her method : Her measurements of the cake (believe it or not)is with the balance scale which you would have seen with vegetable sellers .( Yes , we have one at home !!)

                  All you need is to weigh refined flour, sugar and butter equal to the weight of the number of eggs you are using .
                   The butter we use is the one she makes at home -white butter. You need to collect the cream that collects on milk for some days and then churn it to get butter.Nowadays, you easily get white butter or unsalted butter in the markets.


Ingredients : 3 eggs
                   150 gms white butter / unsalted butter
                   1 cup sugar
                   1 and a half cup refined flour
                   50 gms chocolate
                   1 tbsp cocoa powder
                   1 and a half tsp baking powder
                   2 tbsp chopped walnuts


Mise en place (pronounced miz on plas) -means to have all your ingredients prepared and ready to go before you start cooking 

·                     Always start with your ingredients at room temperature

·                     Powder the sugar in the mixer after measurement

·                     Melt chocolate on a double boiler or in microwave for 45 secs 

·                     Grease and line your baking tin ( 9 inch round or any other shaped tin)
  

Procedure : Preheat your oven to 220 degree celcius. Mix butter and powdered sugar in a bowl and beat it with a spoon till it becomes creamy. (This step needs some hardwork as you need to beat the mixture for a good 4-5mins to get the beautiful fluffy texture of the cake). Sieve the refined flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Beat the eggs. Mix the flour mixture and beaten eggs to the bowl of butter and sugar mixture. Mix it well so that no lumps are formed. Mix in the melted chocolate and walnuts and put this in the prepared baking tin . Cover with an aluminium foil and put in the preheated oven for 45 mins .Check whether your cake is baked by inserting a toothpick or a thin  knife .If it comes out clean,your cake is ready. Ideally let it cool on a wire rack for 5-10 mins or just jump on it like i do while it is still warm and moist !!


In the past i have baked this cake many times in different shaped tins and tried my hands on some icing too . There is no end to your creativity once you have the basic cake .Here are some of those cakes 

Happy Baking !!
Amrita