The Perfect Chocolate Cake for Hubby Dear

27th July was Hubby dears birthday. Though there wasn't much excitement from his side, I was looking forward and planning for this day with a lot of zest. It was a double treat for the baker in me to attempt yet another sinful delight ! After all occasions like these can't just go away without some yummy choco sin !
The plan was made a week ahead-A handmade card and a homebaked cake! Perfect combination.

The card was made using my newly learnt Quilling technique. Simple rolling of colourful strips of paper  and shaping them results in such intricate and beautiful looking flowers.

The cake recipe was taken from Easycooking (a blog I love to follow) and Hershey's site. A simple recipe with no butter and lots of cocoa powder. The cake came out super duper moist and extremely soft with a beautiful rich dark chocolate colour.  

I tried my hands on the spider web icing for the first time and wasn't very happy with the attempt. Assuring myself to think like they say -There is always a next time !!

Well, the true icing on the cake were the Champagne bottle shaped candles !

Ingredients: For the cake

• 2 cups sugar(powdered)
• 1 3/4 cups refined flour
• 3/4 cups cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 cup boiling water

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. Grease and line a 9" round baking tin.

Take a bowl and mix sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla essence. Mix well so all the ingredients are well incorporated. Stir in boiling water (do not worry about lumps) The batter will be quite thin. 

Pour the batter in the prepared tin.

Bake for 40 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool the cake on a rack.

Cut the cake horizontally in two rounds.

  

                         

                   

Ingredients: For the cream icing

• 150 ml Whipping cream(Refrigerated)
• 1/4 cup chocolate sauce(I used Hersheys) or use 4  tbsp cocoa powder diluted with some water

Procedure: 

Take the whipping cream in a clean bowl. Put this in another bowl with ice cubes making an ice bath. Mix the chocolate sauce or diluted cocoa powder and whip the cream till peaks form. 

Sandwich the two pieces of cake with cream.

Leave some for the spider web icing and use the remaining cream to smoothen it on all sides. Put in the fridge to set.

Make rough vertical and horizontal design with a fork on the cream on side of the cake.

 Ingredients: For the spider web icing

    Ganache

• 4 tbsp dark chocolate
• 2 tbsp cream

Procedure:

Melt the chocolate on a double boiler or microwave for 1 min.

Mix the cream well and pour on top of the cake while the Ganache is still hot.

Take some of the whipping cream in a piping bag or put in a zip lock bag and snip off the ends to use as a piping bag. Make concentric circles on the top and then with a toothpick draw 6 lines from the center to the outer edge and 6 lines from the outer edge to the center.

pic taken from google to show the concentric circles and the spider web design  using a toothpick

                            

Chill the cake till required.

Wishing my true friend, my loving husband and the best father in this whole wide world a very very Happy Birthday. Wishing us many many more years of love and togetherness.


Happy Cake Baking
Amrita