Recipe : Chocolate Cake

Since its the first thing, that I am putting up, I want to start it on a sweet note, thus have picked up the chocolate cake.

In summers, you drink lots of liquids and sort of ignore the food. So here's little something, that will cool your insides, get something solid in you and sweeten your taste-buds - a recipe that has been passed on to me by my mother. I used to bake this cake with mom when I was a kid, but it was only after wedding that I did this cake on my own. And the first time that I baked it, we were going to visit the husband's grandparents. And since we were visiting them during the festival, there were many other relatives too. Oh, what joy it brought me, to bake it well and knowing that everyone enjoyed eating the cake too. But the rendered version with the cake was something that I did for my husband. So here's the recipe.

Difficulty Level : ☆

Time Required : 

          Preparation - 20 minutes

          Cooking - 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

For The Cake

All Purpose Flour 1 cup

Baking Powder 1 tsp

Powdered Sugar 1 cup

Refined Oil 3/4 cup

Medium Sized Eggs 3 nos

Chocolate Essence 1 tbsp

Cocoa Powder 1.5 tbsp

Milk 4-5 tbsp

To Serve the Cake With

Ice Cream 2 Scoops

Chocolate Sauce

PROCEDURE

1. Pass the all purpose flour and baking powder through a sieve twice so that they are properly mixed.

2. Break the eggs, add chocolate essence to it and blend it thoroughly till its nice and frothy.

3. In a mixing bowl, put the powdered sugar and add oil to it. Stir the mixture in one direction (yeah that was one thing my mom used to be very particular about - you have to stir the mixture in one direction only) till all the lumps vanish.

4. Add the blended eggs to this mixture and continue stirring in one direction till all lumps disappear.

5. Now add the flour in small quantities and keep stirring till all the flour has been added to the mixture and the lumps disappear. 

6. Now take cocoa powder in a bowl and add milk to it. Keep adding milk till the powder dissolves properly. 

7. Add this cocoa milk mixture to the cake mixture and stir again. Keep the mixture aside.

8. Take a baking dish, grease all the sides and base with oil and then line it with butter paper.

9. Pour the cake mixture in baking dish and put it in the microwave. Set the convection model on microwave and set it at 180 or 200. Bake the cake for 8 minutes.

10. At the end of eight minutes, use a knife to pierce the top in some places so that the air has some place to come out of and the cake doesn't fall apart. And then put the cake back in for another 6 minutes.

11. And your cake is ready!

Additional Noteworthy Points:

1. If your cake mixture is stiff, you can add milk to soften it.

2. If you want a vanilla cake, chuck the cocoa powder and use vanilla essence instead of chocolate essence.

3. You can add other flavoring or tootie-fruity to the cake mix instead of chocolate as per your liking.

4. Its always advisable to do the clean knife test to make sure the cake is fully cooked.

SERVING:

1. Once the cake has cooled down, slice it and arrange in a serving dish. 

2. Place a couple of scoops of ice-cream of your choice to the side. I have used vanilla ice-cream here since my cake was chocolate.

3. Pour the chocolate sauce - little amount or ample - as you like it and serve before the ice-cream melts or dig right in if its for you...

Cook With Love!