Moist Chocolate Cake

Last weekend we celebrated my nephew Pranav's 13th birthday. It was on a Friday and a school day for him, so we could do the celebrations only on the next day at my home. I asked him what flavor he wanted and like any other kid he said chocolate. My bro Sumeet was on his way to order a cake from the shop saying, "We will have yours too."

Everyone including you know that I have never ever decorated a cake. Neither are my cakes rich.  Yeah but this time since it was for the kid and my family was almost brushing me off as a non decorator, I decided to do it. It was a challenge. The cakes I bake are always liked by the family. But I never make ones like store bought, which meant not rich and decorated. So I took this head on.

It was heartening to watch Master chef last weekend to see Jules Pike win in the ravioli challenge and the cconcluding comments of the judges, "Taste always wins in this kitchen."

That is true in my home too, and any home for that matter. Pushing the limits is about learning and growing. So it was time I began decorating cakes with a cream injection, piping out pretty designs, even if it means at past 40 yrs, so what?

I started my hunt for a moist cake that will make my family swoon and believe me they swooned or what! Joy of Life by Ingrid is a blog so beautiful that I will keep going to it for more, especially the bakes. Thanks Ingrid!

This is an excellent recipe in the original itself but I adapted it to what I had on hand and to my family's preferences

• I had to make it eggless so I used flax seed powder.
• Ghee to make it more flavorful. 
• Instead of the brewed coffee I used instant coffee. 
• I omitted the baking soda and instead increased the baking powder to 2.5 teaspoons.
• I did not have vanilla extract so omitted it. It did not really make a difference as the chocolate and coffee taste rules in this cake.
• She uses store bought dressing and sprinkles, I made my own ghee cream chocolate frosting.
• Added the kiwi for the color and freshness as this is a cake with chocolate dressing on a chocolate cake. You can use frozen cherries too like she did.

Ingredients:

For the Cake

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup Cadbury's cocoa powder
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup ghee, molten but at room temperature
2 tablespoons of flax seed powder soaked in 6 tablespoons water.

I used instant coffee, 3 teaspoons in a cup of water

1. Use two mixing bowls. 
2. In one measure out the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Sieve together to aerate it.
3. In the other add sugar, salt and ghee and beat it till frothy.
4. Add the butter milk slowly and keep frothing.
   
5. Now fold into it the flour mix. 
6. Add the instant coffee, should be at room temperature.
7. Finally add the soaked flax seed powder and fold in.
8. Now take a 7 inch round tin,  grease it a bit and dust with flour. Tap off the excess over the basin.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
10. Preheat oven at 180 deg C for 10 mins.
11. Place the filled tin into the oven. Bake further for 35-40 mins till an inserted knife comes out clean.
12. Cool the tin for 10 mins, then turn it over a plate and place on the rack and let it cool completely. I baked in the morning and kept it to cool thru the day.
13. In the evening. I made the frosting.

For the Frosting 

200 gms of icing sugar
80 gms of molten ghee
80 gms of cocoa powder
2 tablespoons of  instant coffee powder

1. Froth the ghee with a beater. 
2. Fold in the icing sugar little at a time. 
3. Mix in the cocoa and coffee powders. 
4. Keep frothing it till light.
5. Slather 3/4 of the cream on the cooled cake on top and sides.
6. Fill the piping injection and make a design on the cake. I just made some basic swirls on the border.
7. Slice up a Kiwi into rounds to show the pretty cross sections
8. Inside the swirls border. I created a circle of overlapping Kiwi slices.

 

A fresh fruit always lifts up deserts a notch higher in its beauty and flavors I believe. My family literally fell for this cake and I got a new respect for making a cake at home that is better than store bought.