Moist Rich Chocolate Cake

A Moist Chocolate Birthday Cake with Rich Buttercream icing.

It was my neighbour’s birthday a fortnight ago. The first friend I have made in this new country. And I thought of giving her the best gift I could – A homemade birthday cake. I love making a birthday cakes complete with icing and the deco; it’s just so much fun. I decided on a simple chocolate cake. I had made this cake before for my niece’s birthday and it had turned out to be a success. The effort that went into baking and icing the cake was rewarded when I saw my friend’s face light up with joy. For me, that’s the best thing about cooking and makes me forget the hours laboured in the kitchen.

The secret to making a moist and delicious chocolate cake is using oil instead of butter as I have done. For the filling and the frosting I used buttercream. Filled with dark chocolate buttercream and iced on top with light chocolate buttercream. This was my first time covering a cake completely with buttercream. Piping is really not my cup of tea and so I usually stick to Fondant, Ganache or Whipped Cream to cover my cakes. But it didn’t turn out so bad after all. I made the little rose in the centre with fondant and dusted some edible food glitter on it for that lovely sparkle. Click here for my Chocolate Frosting recipe.
 

My husband had seen me make this cake for my friend and wanted some too. So the coming weekend I made the same cake again for him. Two chocolate cakes in a week, that was a bit too much, even for me. But both the cakes were delicious and well worth the effort.

For the second cake I baked for dear hubby, I kept it simple with no fancy piping work. For the filling I used chocolate buttercream and toasted walnuts (Yes I know, my walnut fascination never ends). But trust me, the nuts give the cake an oomph. I frosted the top with chocolate buttercream and added a sprinkling of grated milk chocolate.

This is for a single 6“cake. You can safely double the ingredients for a bigger cake.

What we need:

Sugar – 1 cup
All Purpose Flour – 1 cup
Cocoa Powder – ½ cup
Baking Soda – 1 tsp
Baking Powder – ½ tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Egg – 1 no
Buttermilk – ½ cup
Hot Water – ½ cup
Vegetable Oil – ¼ cup
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp

You can substitute the hot water with Strong black coffee for a richer colour and flavour.

How we do it:

Heat oven to 180^oC. Line a 6” round baking pan with parchment paper. Grease and flour it.

Sift the dry ingredients (Sugar, Flour, Cocoa, Baking Soda, Baking Powder) into a big mixing bowl and mix well until combined.
 

 

 Now add the egg, buttermilk, water/coffee, oil and extract. Beat on medium speed for two minutes.

 

The batter will be thin and runny. Pour it into the prepared baking pan.

 

Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick or knife inserted in centre comes out clean. Let it cool before taking it out of the pan. Cool completely before you frost the cake.
 

I have cut my cake into two layers using a serrated (bread) knife and filled it with a thick layer of frosting. Give the cake enough time to cool and set after layering, before you start with icing the top. 

 

This an absolutely delicious cake and a must-try for chocolate lovers.
 

 

Try out my Chocolate Frosting recipe.

Love to hear what you think!

[Facebook Comment For Blogger]

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting – A buttery and chocolaty icing that can be used for filling or frosting cakes, cupcakes, brownies or cookies

 

 

Butter – 1 cup softened

Icing/Powdered Sugar – 3 – 3 ½ cups
Cocoa Powder – ½ cup
Salt – a pinch
Vanilla Extract – 1 tbsp
Milk – 4-5 Tbsp

How We do it:

The butter should not be melted just softened. It is advisable to use unsalted butter for the icing otherwise the icing can become too salty.

 

Cream the butter until very smooth. Sift the sugar, salt and cocoa and add  in batches into the butter mixing until it is well combined.

 

Now add the vanilla extract and the milk and beat again for a few minutes. If you want the icing to be more stiff you can add more powdered sugar.

 

For a thinner or creamier consistency, you can add more milk – a tablespoon at a time.

This frosting can easily be piped any way you want.

Love to hear what you think!

[Facebook Comment For Blogger]

Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Simple & Delicious Crunchy Choc-Chip Cookies

Choco-chip cookies have to be the most popular type of cookies in the world. After all, who doesn’t love biting into bits of chocolate in a delicious butter cookie.  Would you believe that the chocolate chip cookie was discovered by accident when a few pieces of chocolate added to a regular cookie did not melt.

This is a very simple and basic chocolate chip cookie recipe. You need to add both brown and white sugar in this cookie for the right colour and taste; however I had ran out of brown sugar and used only the white which got me crispy cookie (See Tips below). Also instead of store-bought chocolate chips, I just cut up some cooking chocolate to create chunks. I simply love Walnuts and I add it everywhere I get a chance. I have added Roasted Walnuts to this mix for a nice crunch. You can skip it for a traditional chocolate chip cookie.

Makes around 26 medium sized cookies

What you need:

Butter - ½  cup
Brown Sugar – ½ cup
White Sugar – ¼ cup
Eggs – 1
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp (You can also use Caramel or Almond Extract)
All Purpose Flour – 1 ¼ cups
Baking Soda – ½ tsp
Salt – a pinch
Semi-Sweet or Dark Chocolate Chips or chunks – 1 cup
Roasted Walnuts (Optional) – 1 cup chopped

How we do it:

Preheat oven to 190^o C. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or aluminium foil.

Melt the butter in a big bowl. Add the sugar and blend together. Now add the eggs and extract and mix together.

In a separate bowl sift the flour and baking soda. Add to the wet mixture in batches stirring gently until well combined.

 

Finally stir in the chocolate chips and chopped walnuts.

 

Drop small balls of dough on the cookie sheet. Leave enough space in between for the dough to spread  and evenly cook. Do not cook too many cookies at the same time; do small batches.

 Bake for 11-13 minutes until the sides of the cookies turn lightly brown. The cookies will still be soft when you take them out of the oven. Do not push the panic button. Just let it cool on a wire rack while you work on the next batch.

 

Enjoy slightly warm with a glass of cold milk.

Yummm!!!!

Tips:

• Always bake on parchment paper or foil, this way you can slide off the cookies as soon as they are out of the oven, this way they won’t continue cooking on the hot cookie sheet.
• Just adding a pinch of salt will balance out the sweetness. You can increase it to a teaspoon if you like to have a sugar-salt combo.
• To get a caramel flavour, you can brown the butter on a pan before you add the sugar.
• The sugar used can determine the texture of your cookie. Complete or higher white sugar will make your cookie crunchy and crisp. A higher brown sugar ratio will make the cookie more soft and chewy. I like to use equal amounts of brown and white sugar to get a cookie that is crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.
• For a fully chocolate cookie, add 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder to the flour.
• You can also eliminate the Vanilla extract and add ¼ tsp of Cinnamon for a unique flavour.
• Use an ice cream scoop to drop the balls of dough. This will ensure equal sized cookies.

 

Love to hear what you think!

[Facebook Comment For Blogger]