Saturday, April 16, 2011

Decadent Chocolate Cake



Decadent Chocolate Cake

Chocolate cakes are our all time favourite dessert. I love trying out various recipes of the same, be it with or without eggs. What fascinates me is that each recipe has its own unique result. Recently came across a recipe of a gorgeous looking chocolate cake in Good House Keeping Magazine. I fell for the photographs of the cake that accompanied the recipe, so baked it yesterday. Though it didnt turn out as good as I expected it to be, it was good. mmmm... may be because I was a little too anxious to be done with it and also the power was off twice while the baking was in process :(

For the cake:

2 cups flour

1 cup cocoa

1&1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup sugar, (I omitted brown sugar)

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence

1 &1/2 cup buttermilk

For Frosting:

1/3 cup cocoa

1/2 cup boiling water

1 cup butter, softened

2 tbsp icing sugar

350 gms dark chocolate, melted and cooled

To Garnish:

1/2 cup crushed almonds, cashewnuts, almonds


Method:

1. For the cake ; preheat the oven to 170*C. Grease 2 round cake pans. line the bottom of the pan with butter paper;grease and lightly dust the pans with flour.

2. Sieve the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Keep aside.

3. In a large bowl, with a hand beater at low speed, beat the butter and both sugars until well blended.

4. Increase the speed to high; beat for 5 minutes or until pale and fluffy, scraping the bowl with spatula occasionally.

5. Reduce the speed to medium-low;add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

6. Add vanilla essence and beat well until well blended.

7. Add a little flourmixture alternately with a little buttermilk, begining and ending with flour. Beat until the batter is smooth, occasionally, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Spoon the batterevenly among the two prepared pans. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

8. Cool the cakes in their pans atleast for 10 minutes.

9. With a small knife loosen the cakes from the sides of the pans, invert it and remove it on a wire rack, peel off the butter paper and cool the cakes for about 45 minutes.

To Prepare the Frosting:

1. In a bowl, combine the cocoa and boiling water, stirring until smooth. Keep aside.

2. In a bowl, with a mixer at medium-high speed, beat the butter and icing sugar for five minutes or until fluffy.

3. Reduce the speed to medium-low add the melted chocolate. Mix well.

4. Then add the cocoa mixture ,beat until the batter is smooth, ocassionally scraping the bowl with a spatula.


To assemble the cake:

1. Place one cake layer, bottom side up, on a cake plate and spread some of the frosting over evenly.

2. Sprinkle some of the crushed nuts over the icing.

3. Top with the second cake, bottom side up. Spread the remaining frosting over the sides and the top of the cake. Carefully cover the sides of the cake with the remaining nuts.

14 comments:

Arundhuti said...

I too love chocolate cakes. Nice recipe.

Suji said...

wow super moist cake, yummo

Madhura Manoj said...

Looks perfect & yummy.Love it.
http://www.easycookingforamateurs.com/

Prathima Rao said...

Hey Suparna!!!! Thx a ton for dropping by n ur lovely comments & now i got to know of ur lovely space...The cake looks delectable...too tempting!!! And ive been looking all over for the perfect BBB powder for a long time...And my search ends here :) We use MTR too but nothing like fresh homemade powder..Bookmarked it :)And keep rocking Suparna..!!!

Saritha said...

Drolling by looking at the pic and sure it would have been tasty....

Jayanthy Kumaran said...

tempting cake with gorgeous click..
visiting your space for the first time...sure you have a lovely space...great photography..
happy to follow u..:)
do stop by mine sometime...
Tasty Appetite

aipi said...

Very decadent indeed- a classic n my all time fav cake!

US Masala

Unknown said...

Tempting and softy cake. Looks perfect........

Suman Singh said...

Cake looks decadent indeed..simply irresistible..feel like having a slice now...mm..YUM!

Cham said...

Very delicious and moist looking slice of cake!

Anonymous said...

Yummy! Loved the frosted look Suparna :)

Suja Manoj said...

Delicious and yummy cake, classic pic
First time here..u have a beautiful blog,happy following u
Pls visit mine when ever time permits:)

Unknown said...

Delicious looking cake!

Sreelu said...

Yum, can eat this cake for breakfast,lunch or dinner.Thanks for stopping by my blog