Simple Chocolate Cake!!!

I have started making smaller portions of cakes. For two reasons – much smaller portions get distributed amomgst family members, which are health-wise good & second is I get to try different varieties at shorter intervals. It also gives me a chance to improvise on the dish, next time around.

So, immediately after the coconut cupcakes, decided to make a chocolate cupcake.. Have actually video-shot making the coconut cupcake, but due to some technical errors, can’t seem to edit it… don’t know when that will happen – my first video blog

Ingredients              

Dark chocolate	60 gms	Melted
Butter	60 gms	Cut in smaller pieces
Brown Sugar	1/4th cup
Eggs	1
Cocoa powder	2 tspn	Sifted
All-purpose flour (maida)	1/4th cup	Sifted
Baking powder	1 tspn	Sifted

Method

this is before the melted chocolate

1.    Put the pieces of dark chocolate in a saucepan over low heat and let it melt (keep checking and stirring or else it might start burning. I started this step just before the melted chocolate goes in the blender). Remove 10% of the chocolate bar and make very small pieces of those and keep aside

2.    Preheat oven to 160°C





3.    Cut the butter into small pieces and put them alongwith the brown sugar in a bowl. Blend both with an electric hand mixer (till such times, the mixture becomes even; u will still find the crunchiness of the brown sugar – don’t worry about it. Keep blending for 5 to 6 minutes)

4.    Add egg to the mixture and further blend for 2 minutes

5.    Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder and add all of them to the blender to whisk more



in the greased cupcake; ready to go
in the oven



6.    Now, add the melted chocolate for a good 2 to 3 minutes (the mixture becomes nice and gooey & there should be no roughness of the brown sugar. Try it now to correct it in terms of more chocolate or sugar) (here, u can add those small pieces of chocolate. Do not blend after you add the pieces. We want the pieces to be felt while eating)





7.    Put the mixture in a greased baking tin or cupcakes (I used cupcakes for this dish – could fill in 3 cupcakes). I greased the cupcakes nicely with butter and baked for 30 minutes at 160°C (keep checking with a tooth-pick until it is withdrawn clean)

8.    Let it rest in the outside for 15 – 20 minutes in the tins

9.    Remove and gobble..

It goes well with a chocolate sauce on top.. I avoided it..

An honest and sweet delicacy awaits you.. gather around the table and eat it together.. quickly…

Another Donna Hay Recipe

another sweet - Chocolate Swirl pastry

I had been ignorant of the pleasures of the process of baking a cake, pastry or cookies and have recently started enjoying using my convection microwave to bake delicacies. Hence, once would see more of such recipes.

We were expecting guests at our place for Sunday and there was an elaborate lunch planned. My mum made vegetarian biryani with raita and valachi bhaji* (another words are dalimbi or birda) and wifey cooked fusili primavera (veg), paneer chilly and garlic bread. So, I decided to bake some sweet.

Now, the guests included 2 of my cousins – cousin sister’s family is strictly vegetarian and cousin brother’s wife (who is pregnant) has turned strictly vegetarian for her pregnancy. Hence, I had to bake a dish without eggs.

At Saturday 2:30 pm, after lunch, decided to bake it. The dish was called ‘Chocolate Swirl Cake’. The outcome was nothing compared to the visuals I had in mind before I started making it. This was inspired by Donna Hay’s recipe.

Although, by renaming the cake, it can go very well as a pastry. The outer-covering was hard and crusty, with lots of chocolate flavor in the middle. The picture can elaborate more on the description..

Ingredients              

Self-raising (rising) flour	1 ½ cup
Caster Sugar	¼ cup	Super-fine
Butter	40 gms	In cubes
Milk	½ cup	A little warm
Dark chocolate	50 to 75 gms	Finely chopped

Method

1.    Preheat oven to 180°C

2.    Place the flour and sugar in a bowl and mix to combine

3.    Add the butter and use your fingertips to rub it into the flour mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs

4.    Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk. Use a butter knife to gradually mix the milk into the flour mixture until just combined (it should resemble a flour dough)

5.    Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and gently bring the dough together. Roll out to a 18cm x 24cm rectangle (should look like a paratha, after rolling dough with a rolling-pin)

6.    Sprinkle with the chocolate and roll up to enclose (after sprinkling chocolates, roll like you would do in case of a chapatti roll – it will look like a frankie)

7.    Place in a baking tin lined with baking paper. Brush with extra milk and bake for 25–30 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer

8.    Cool in the tin for 5 minutes and ready to be gorged

Like I said, it turned more like a hard-crusted pastry instead of a cake.. All in all, it was great to eat and was comparatively easy to make