It was a very dear friend/neighbour's wedding anniversary and I got to know about it that very morning when we went to drop our children at the bus stop. Though I had very little time in my hand still thought what is better than baking a cake for such a beautiful couple to share our love and affection. Only challenge was they are vegetarian so obviously I cant use eggs. Normally when I decide to bake an eggless cake I use curd/banana as egg replacer but that day nothing was available in the pantry. So I searched in net and found that in few cake recipes people uses milk as well, so I went the milk way this time :) .. Trust me it came out well with the sponginess, soft, and risen perfectly as well. Next challenge was the icing/frosting part as I did not want to give them a plain chocolate cake. So decided the easy and fool-proof way of using chocolate ganache as icing and sprinkling some grated/finely chopped white chocolate. Arranged the stuff quickly through home delivery option that we have available in every locality in Mumbai. And finally I finished preparing the cake just on time. I am so happy that they liked it very much. What else I could have asked for being a beginner at icing / frosting cakes. Their appreciation was so encouraging for me that now I really want to excel in this.
As I was left with a small portion of the batter so I made two cupcakes with that. I & my kid quite liked the taste.
So here is the recipe of the cake for you all. Do try and send your feedback too.
Ingredients:
For the cake
Flour/Maida: 1 & 1/2 cup
Sugar: 1 cup
Cocoa powder: 1/2 cup
Baking soda: 1 tsp
Vinegar/Lemon: 1/2 tsp/1-2 drops
A pinch of salt
Cold milk: 1 cup
Vegetable oil: 1/4 cup
vanilla essence: 1 tsp
Oil & some flour to grease and dust the cake tin
For the chocolate ganache
Dark Chocolate: 1 cup chopped
Heavy cream: 1/2 cup
Sugar: 2-3 tbsp.
Butter: 2 tbsp.
For decorating the cake:
Grated or chopped white chocolate: 1/2 cup
Black grapes: 5 numbers I used
Method:
Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius.
In a mixing bowl, beat well the oil, sugar, milk, vanilla essence. Now add the vinegar and beat again. Remember the milk used should be really cold so that it wont get curdle as soon as you add the vinegar.
In another bowl, sift flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder and fold this mixture into the wet mixture above. Always follow the cut and fold method to mix the mixture while preparing for cake. Over mixing or over beating would release the air pockets that forms and cake wont rise up and wont get fluffy.
Grease and dust the baking tin with oil & flour. Pour in the mixture and tap the tin a little. Bake this in the preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick or fork inserted comes out clean. Baking time depends on the types of ovens we use. So do keep an eye while its under baking process.
Once done, take it out of the oven and let it cool on a cooling rack.
In the mean time, prepare the chocolate ganache. Take the cream in a sauce pan and put it to boil. In a mixing bowl take the chopped chocolate. Now pour the hot cream onto the chocolate and let it remain like this for about 4-5 minutes. Then beat this so that everything mixes well, add the sugar and butter and beat again so that no lumps remain. Once ready keep it in the refrigerator for about 15-20 minutes before using for frosting.
Assembling the cake:
Take the cake on a cake stand. If you don't have a stand, invert any bigger sized bowl and keep a dish on it & place the cake on the dish for icing/frosting. What I do is I cover the dish with aluminium foil from all sides, then keep four pieces of paper to make a square structure above which I place the cake and remove them by pulling out once the icing/frosting is done. This is to get a clean end product after frosting the cake :). I saw this in a video in youtube. With a flat spatula spread evenly the icing on the top & cover the cake from all its sides. Apply a generous coat of icing. Once it is done keep it in the refrigerator for about 15-20 minutes.
I put 5 numbers of black grapes on the centre of the cake and spread the chopped/grated white chocolate on the border of the cake making a circle as you can see in the picture. Then dust some icing sugar on the whole cake with the help of a strainer. Keep it once again in the refrigerator for about half an hour.
Now slice a real big piece and take it on a dish, grab a fork and prepare to experience this chocolaty heaven & enjoy !!
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