My Birthday Cake in different shades of pink

It was my birthday last week and I had  planned to treat myself by making this pink layered cake. Even though it meant a lot of effort as I have a small oven and I had to bake each layer one at a time, I was super excited.  Now, buying a birthday cake has become a passe at my home, and my husband who hasn't ever baked  a cake before wanted to bake one for me. Little did he know how long I had been wanting to make this cake. He wanted me to have a relaxed birthday but I was so excited that I had forbade him to bake a cake for me. 

The recipe I have used is for a 6" cake for each of the 4 layers. On hindsight,I feel I should I have reduced the amount  or baked it in an 8" pan. I have used 2,4,8,12 units of rose pink liquid food color for the gradient layers. I first started with 4 and 12 units, and decided that depending on the outcome after baking, I would increase or decrease the amount of colour for the next layer. The cake design is inspired by Call me Cupcake, though the recipe did not work for me as I had to prepare the batter separately for each layer as my oven is small. Though,for my first layer I tried that recipe by reducing it proportionately, but the quantity was so less for one layer, that the outcome was bad. I had to discard it and start afresh with a different recipe of a vanilla cake from here.

For Frosting I used the whipped cream frosting recipe which I had earlier used for Tuxedo Cake. I used 1/3rd of the quantity  for frosting the 4 layer cake.

Pink Gradient Cake

Ingredients

For one layer of a 6" cake 

1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup oil (vegetable, canola or extra light olive oil)
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
2. Grease and flour the cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. 
3.  In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir together with whisk, and set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds.  Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds.  Add vanilla and oil, beat.
5. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture.  Add half of the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour and the rest of the buttermilk.  Add the food colour and Beat until just combined.  Scrape down the side of the bowl.  
6. Pour batter into the cake pan
7.  Bake for 30-40 minutes till the skewer comes clean.
8. Let the cake cool completely. 

For making cake flour at home - Take one cup of all purpose flour and remove 2 tbsp from it. Replace the 2 tbsp flour with cornflour and sift together 2-3 times. Cake flour is ready to use.

Assembling

1. Once you have all the layers ready and cooled,  keep the darkest layer at bottom and apply the frosting and place the next layer.
2. Cover the entire cake with crumb coating and let it refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. 
3. Apply the final coating of frosting with a design of your choice.

Swedish Visiting cake

This one is the last one from  the baking bonanza I had while my sister was here. My other sister complains that all I send her are cookies, so this time I decided to parcel this simple tea cake for her. I can't say much about the taste , as I just tasted the crumbs :)) , but my sister called up to say that she loved it.  The recipe is simple and easy. The only issue was getting slivered almonds, which is not available here . Maybe it is available in some speciality store, but I haven't seen them yet. So, I did a bit of hard work in making these slivers from whole almonds.I don't have a pie pan or a 9"inch pan, so I divided the batter into a 6" pan and a tart pan. On hindsight, I should have reduced the baking time by few minutes since I divided the batter into smaller pans. The cake is supposed to be moist and it did lose some of it because of that. But , it didn't affect much.

Ingredients
1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
About 1/4 cup sliced almonds (blanched or not)

Preparation

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter a seasoned 9-inch cast-iron skillet or other heavy ovenproof skillet, a 9-inch cake pan or even a pie pan.
2. Pour the sugar into a medium bowl.  Add the zest and blend the zest and sugar together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and aromatic.  \
3. Whisk in the eggs one at a time until well blended. 
4. Whisk in the salt and the extracts. 
5. Switch to a rubber spatula and stir in the flour.  Finally, fold in the melted butter.
6. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.  Scatter the sliced almonds over the top and sprinkle with a little sugar.  If you're using a cake or pie pan, place the pan on a baking sheet.
7. Bake the cake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it is golden and a little crisp on the outside; the inside will remain moist.  Remove the pan from the oven and let the cake cool for 5 minutes, t
8. Then run a thin knife around the sides and bottom of the cake to loosen it. 

You can serve the cake warm or at room temperature, directly from the skillet or turned out onto a serving plate.

Recipe Source : Dorie Greenspan site

Dimpled Apple Cake

Apple cake is one of my favourite cakes, especially when flavoured generously with cinnamon. I had been craving for it for some time and would drag my husband to cafes just to have a piece of the apple cake. But as my luck would have it none of the cafes which earlier used to keep it, had it. So, finally I gave in to my temptation and baked this cake. I have baked apple cupcakes during my pre-blogging days and this time I wanted to try a recipe for moist cake .
The recipe I tried did have some problems, it took too long to bake and the people who had tried this recipe had listed those problems under the original blogger. But I reached the original blog only when I was almost done with the baking ,so I missed those tips.
In spite of the increased baking time, the cake turned out very delicious. It was a moody cake, tasted different every time I had it.  I liked it best when it was just out of oven, though it was difficult to cleanly slice it . I like my apple cake warm, but when I reheated it after storing it overnight, it didn't taste as good. Without heating, and just out of the refrigerator it again was very delicious and my sister and husband liked it more when it was cold. It also got cleanly sliced after being refrigerated overnight.
The best part of the cake was the crunchy cinnamon brown sugar streusel which also gave the cake sweet little dimples and hence the name.

Ingredients

For the Cake
1-1/2 cups Greek- yogurt, well-stirred [ I used homemade curd]
2/3 cup olive oil [ I used vegetable oil]
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 small tart apples, such as Granny Smith, [ I used regular red apples]
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon

For the Cinnamon Streusel
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 350 F/176 C. Generously grease a 9x13-inch baking pan with baking spray or olive oil.
2. Whisk together yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl.
3. Peel and core apples, and chop into chunks about 1/2-inch across. You should end up with 3-1/2 to 4 cups of apples. Stir chopped apple into the liquid ingredients.
4. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon right into the liquids and stir just until no lumps remain.
5. For the cinnamon streusel : In a small separate bowl, mix remaining 2 teaspoons cinnamon with the brown sugar and butter.
6. Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Cover with half of cinnamon-brown sugar mixture, dropping it on batter in small lumps. Cover with remaining cake batter, then top with last half of cinnamon-brown sugar mixture.
7.  Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, covering with foil if top gets too brown. When a tester comes out clean, transfer pan to a cooling rack and let it sit for at least  15 minutes before cutting.

Now the problems that were encountered by others and me.

• Baking time: In my case It took 30 minutes more for tester to come clean. The original blogger attributes that this could be if the yogurt was liquidy and she suggest draining. My curd was liquidy and as I said before I reached the original blog only after I finished baking. Since I had to increase the baking time, I covered it with foil to avoid too much browning. The browning was perfect once I did so.
• Slicing Difficulty: I still had the difficulty in slicing after having left it for more than hour. It sliced clean  only after refrigerating. 
• The photo is of the next day , so you can see that I didn't face the issue of cake turning like a bread pudding  which some other users faced.
• Some users suggested cutting olive oil  I didn't face any issues with vegetable oil.

Recipe Source: One Perfect Bite and the Original recipe at the Kitchn

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Collar

I had been wanting to try my hand at the chocolate collar after recently noticing several birthday cakes in the cake shops having them. Chocolate decorations was the other thing I had been postponing trying.  So, when my sister came visiting from Delhi just few days after her birthday, it gave me a perfect opportunity to bake a belated birthday cake for her and at the same time try my hand at chocolate decorations. For the cake, I again used the same recipe as the  Tuxedo Cake which is currently my favorite chocolate cake base.I kept it simple this time with just 2 layers of cake with the sides and the insides filled with chocolate coffee ganache.

It was unfortunately a very hot Sunday in Mumbai when I made this chocolate collar, so the chocolate took a lot of time setting up. I tried to hasten the process by keeping it in the refrigerator for 30 secs which was a bad idea as the chocolate hardened in that short time. I had to apply a thin layer of melted chocolate to make it stick around the cake. Thankfully, it was not that hard that it couldn't take the round shape of the cake.

I am just sharing the recipe of how to make the collar, for the cake recipe, you can refer to Tuxedo Cake.

Ingredients

Cake, frosted and assembled.
White chocolate [ For making patterns, decorations]
Dark/milk chocolate
Parchment paper.

Method
Measure the Cake :
Determine the height and circumference of the cake. This needs to be done after the cake has been frosted , as frosting will increase both of them and we don't want our chocolate collar to fall short.

1. The height can be measured with a ruler/scale . You can either keep the height of the cake same as that of cake or add some more centimeters if you want to cover your cake with fruit toppings. 
2. The circumference can be measured using a thread/yarn.Wrap the thread loosely around the base of the cake and add an additional inch to ensure that there are no gaps when you wrap it around. 

Cut the Parchment Paper: 
As per the measurement , cut the parchment paper.

Make Chocolate Collar and Wrap around the cake

1. Melt both the chocolates separately. 
2. Fill the melted white chocolate in a piping bag and cut a small tip. 
3. Place the parchment paper on your work surface. Make a pattern with the white chocolate. Since this was my first time at chocolate decoration too, I used the simplest zigzag pattern.
4. Once the white chocolate is set completely, apply the dark chocolate over the entire parchment paper using an offset spatula.Spread evenly.
5. Leave the chocolate collar to set, so that it is sticky/pliant and is  not fully hard/brittle. This is the step where the Mumbai weather played a spoilsport.
6. Pick up the band and carefully put one end on the cake and press it to the frosting, wrapping it around the cake.
7. Transfer it to the refrigerator for  30 mins to get it completely set. Once it is set, peel the parchment paper. It comes off easily :)

A Special Cake for the Special Man - Tuxedo Cake

I  drool every time I look at this gorgeous cake  which I made last week, a special cake for the special man's birthday !! I get very few occasions to bake a celebration cake and usually I spend a lot of time searching and finalizing the cake to bake. I don't know how I came across this one, but one look and it was decided. With so little experience in baking cakes, I was not sure If I could replicate it exactly, But I am really proud the way it has turned out. Quite Close !!  I was working with the whipped cream too for the first time, so the fear was manifold. The whipping did give me lot of troubles, muscle aches, and the quantity went wrong and I had plenty of whipped cream left, but no complains after the way it looked and tasted :-)  Since the birthday was falling on a week day, I planned to make it over two days. The first day I made the cake, and the 2nd day I did the whipping and assembling.

By the way hidden besides all this whiteness is 4 layers of moist dark chocolate cake. And is called a Tuxedo Cake.

I am sharing the original recipe here though I made it by halving it. That gave me two 6" cakes, which I sliced into four , making it a 4 layered cake. As I mentioned above the quantity of whipped cream didn't work for me. I had halved the recipe for it too, but plenty was left, so I think 1/4th would have been enough . I also didn't have the corn syrup, so I made the ganache which I have earlier used in Bundt Cake.
I am also sharing the chocolate dipped strawberries recipe.

Ingredients:


For the cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups water
1 cup canola oil
4 cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

For the frosting:
4 cups chilled heavy whipping cream
1¼ cups confectioners' sugar, sifted


For the Chocolate Strawberries:
10 even sized strawberries, washed and pat dried
3 oz. dark chocolate, finely chopped
some white chocolate


For the chocolate glaze:
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup heavy whipping cream
¼ cup light corn syrup
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preparation


For the Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line three 9-inch round cake pans (or two 10-inch round cake pans) with parchment paper.  Butter and flour the inside edges of the pan, shaking out the excess flour.  
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, water and canola oil; heat until the butter is melted
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, cocoa powder, and flour; whisk to blend.
4. Pour the melted butter mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth.
5. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, then whisk in the buttermilk.  Add the baking soda, salt and vanilla to the bowl and whisk just until incorporated.
6.  Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Let cool in the pans for 15 minutes.  Run a knife around the edge of each cake layer and invert onto a wire cooling rack.  Allow the cake layers to cool completely before frosting, at least 2 hours.

For the frosting

1.  Ensure that the bowl and the whisk of the electric mixer are chilled. This is for ensure the cream whips well.
2. Add the heavy cream to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.  Whip on medium-high speed until soft peaks form.  Add the powdered sugar and continue to whip until thoroughly combined and stiff peaks form.  Be careful not to over-beat!

Assembling the cake

1. Place one cake layer on a cake platter and spread a layer of the whipped cream frosting over the top.  Top with a second cake layer, more frosting (and the third cake layer, if using).  Frost the top and sides of the assembled cake.  Refrigerate until the frosting has stabilized, at least 1 hour.

For the Chocolate Strawberries:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
2. Melt the dark chocolate and stir it smooth. 
3. Hold the strawberries by stem and twist and swirl it in the melted chocolate.Take it out ,swirl and let excess chocolate drip. Place it on the parchment paper and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes for the chocolate to set
4. When the chocolate strawberries is set, melt white chocolate in a bowl. Put it in a piping bag. Cut the tip and make patterns over the strawberries

For the chocolate glaze:

1. Place the chocolate in a medium bowl.
2. Heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until simmering.  Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let sit 1-2 minutes.
3. Whisk until the mixture is smooth and homogeneous.  Blend in the corn syrup and vanilla.  Pour the glaze into a pitcher or measuring cup and let cool for 10 minutes.  (Do not let the glaze cool longer or it may become difficult to pour over the cake.)  
4. Slowly pour the glaze over the cake, ensuring that the top is covered and the glaze drips over the sides.
5. Place the chocolate dipped strawberries on the glaze immediately
6. Refrigerate the cake until the glaze is set and the whipped cream frosting is firm, at least 1 hour.  
7. For Serving Slice with a long, sharp knife, wiping the blade clean between slices.  

The Recipe is from Pastry Queen and Annie Eats. The chocolate strawberries is from numerous resources available on the web.

Perfect Pound Cake

My husband who is not a big fan of sweets as I am, loves pound cakes. In fact, when I had started baking frequently few months back, it was the only thing he requested me to make. It was a big surprise as in matters of cakes, he only eats to taste it. So when the Sweet Punch for July was announced to make Perfect Pound Cakes, I was excited . It is my first bake as a Sweet Punch participant.
The term Pound cake was coined as it was traditionally made of one pound each of the 4 ingredients, flour,eggs,butter and sugar . However the recipe that the Sweet Punch chose was a different method. The recipe is from Cake Bible.  It is called Perfect Pound Cake and indeed it is perfect and addictive.  

 I have done a slight modification to the recipe. I added some lemon zest and "tried" to make a white chocolate and lemon glaze. "Tried" as I burnt half of whatever little white chocolate I had. 

Ingredients:
3 tbsp Milk
3 large Eggs
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 cups cake flour (150gm) 
3/4cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
 zest of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt
13 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (184 gms)

Preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F/175C. 
2. Butter an 8 inch by 4 by 2.5 inch loaf pan, or any six cup loaf or fluted tube pan.  
3. Lightly whisk together milk, eggs and vanilla in a medium bowl.
4. Place dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix on low speed for 30 seconds, until blended. 
5. Add the butter , lemon zest and half the egg mixture, and mix until dry ingredients are moistened. On medium speed, beat for one minute. This will aerate and develop the cake’s structure. Scrape down sides.
6. Add the remaining egg mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds between each addition. Scrape down sides.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan. Smooth surface with a spatula. 
8. Bake for 55-65 minutes (35-45 minutes if baking in a fluted tube pan), until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cake cool on a rack in the pan for 10 minuets before inverting onto a greased wire rack. If using a loaf pan, flip the cake over so the top is up.

For making cake flour at home - Take one cup of all purpose flour and remove 2 tbsp from it.Replace the 2 tbsp flour with cornflour and sift together 2-3 times. Cake flour is ready to use.

A Birthday that came and went

White Cake with cream cheese frosting and fondant

Sometimes you plan a day months in advance and all plan fails on the D-day. My Birthday was one such day. I had been planning the day, the things to cook, a lavish cake  and what not. But as it happened , the week long whitewash was scheduled the same week as my birthday. So all plans were put on hold.  I had forbidden my husband not to buy a cake for me as I wanted to bake my cake myself.  My sister had got fondant and other baking equipments during her last visit, and I had saved it for using them on a special occasion. Earlier, I had planned to make it on the birthday eve, but didn't get any time that day. Finally when I could make it , it was already 9:30 night on the d-day. I put the cake in oven,  and had the delicious Biryani made by  Mr. Sinfoodie and saved the decoration for post dinner. We were both so tired and it was already too late, that I let go of all the intricate design I had thought of. It was my first time dealing with fondant. Mr. Sinfoodie helped rolling out  and cutting the fondant. The cake was finally made, though by the time it was made, it was already midnight. Anyway,it doesn't matter :) I didn't mind celebrating it a day late as long as it was made by me. :-D

The cake was a white cake with 2 layers filled with creamcheese and white chocolate frosting and covered with fondant. The recipe has been adapted from joy of baking

Ingredients

For cake

2 large eggs separated

1 3/4 cups cake flour [ i used all purpose]

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar [I substituted it with white vinegar]

For Cream Chees and white Chocolate Frosting

Recipe is here on my blog -> Cream cheese and White chocolate Frosting

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350F/177C and place rack in center of oven.
2. Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper and grease and dust the parchment paper with little flour. 
3. Separate the eggs while they are still cool. It is easier to separate cold eggs.
4. Placing the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another bowl.  Cover the two bowls with plastic wrap and let them come to room temperature, for atleast 30 minutes. 
5. In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. 
6. In a separate bowl, beat butter until soft with your electric mixture (about 1-2 minutes).
7. Add 3/4 cup of the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). 
8. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined. 
9. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.   
10. In a clean grease free bowl , beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar[ I substituted with vinegar] and continue beating until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.
11.  With a rubber spatula gently fold a little of the whites into the batter to lighten it, and fold in the remaining whites until combined. Do not over mix the batter or it will deflate. 
12. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth the tops with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon. 
13. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 20 - 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Place a wire rack on top of the cake pan and invert, lifting off the pan. Once the cakes have completely cooled, wrap in plastic and place the cake layers in the freezer for at least an hour. (This makes filling and frosting the cakes easier.)

Assembling the Cake.

1.  Place one of the cake layers, top of the cake facing down, onto your serving platter. Spread the cake layer with cream cheese frosting.  
2.  Place the next cake layer, top of the cake facing down, onto the filling. Spread the remaining frosting over the top Cover and refrigerate for some time.
3. Color,knead and roll the fondant. Cover the cake with fondant and decorate it as per your choice.
4. In case you are refrigerating the cake before serving, keep it at room temperature for some time after taking it out from refrigerator

Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake

 Ingredients
Cooking Spray/Butter
1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch processed cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp refined oil
2 eggs
2 egg whites
1 1/2 cups yogurt
1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp espresso powder, dissolved in 1 tablespoon of hot water
2 ounces good-quality dark chocolate
1 tbsp powdered sugar, optional

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Spray a bundt pan with cooking spray/butter and set aside.
2. Sift together flours, cocoa, salt, baking soda and baking powder in a medium bowl..
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter and oil.
4. Add eggs and egg whites and whisk to incorporate. 
5. Fold in yogurt, vanilla, sugar and dissolved espresso powder.
6. Melt the chocolate in the microwave for 60 to 90 seconds; at  30 second intervals, stir each time till smooth and melted
7. Fold chocolate into batter.
8. Add sifted dry ingredients and stir until just incorporated.
9. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until cake has risen nicely and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
10. Cool 10 minutes on a wire rack.

The recipe for the cake has been inspired from the TheKitchenSinkRecipes

Butter Ganache

Ingredients:
250 g. dark chocolate
250 g. unsalted butter OR  300mL cream

Microwave Method

• Chop chocolate into small pieces. Place in a microwave-safe bowl with the cream or butter.
• On medium power, microwave for one-minute bursts, stirring in between, until melted and combined. Mix well.

Stove Method

• Chop chocolate into small pieces. Place in a heatproof bowl with the butter OR cream.
•   Sit the bowl in a small saucepan half-full of simmering water, taking care the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir until the mixture is melted and combined.

Assembling the Cake
.

1. Sit the cake on a cooling rack, with a plate or sheet of baking paper underneath to catch the drips.
2.  Pour the ganache from a jug evenly over the cake. It will soak in and provide an excellent flavour.

Devilish Chocolate Cake

Had baked this cake for my husband's birthday and it was my first experience with frosting a cake. Though,it was alot of hard work but the result was a wonderfully beautiful looking birthday cake and the caffeinated frosting just added to the taste. The best compliment came from my husband, he just couldn't wait for the clock to strike 12 and the cake was cut more than an hour before 12 :)

I had made a two layer cake, but whenevr I am going to make it next I will make it a 4 layer cake.

For that 2 cakes would be needed and frosting too will need to be increased.

The Cake and the frosting recipe follows.

Cake Ingredients

• 1-1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 tbsp soft unsalted butter
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
• 3/4 cup and 3 tbsp buttermilk [Instructions given below for substituting buttermilk]

Preparation of the Cake

1.  Butter the bottom and sides of the baking pan
2. Line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper and butter the paper.
3. Melt the unsweetened chocolate in microwave. At 40 seconds interval take it out and stir. Keep repeating till it is melted and smooth. Set the chocolate aside to cool slightly while you mix the batter.
4.  Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.
5. Increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees
6. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt together and set aside.
7. Put the butter in the large bowl of an electric mixer and mix on low speed for 15 seconds. Add the sugar and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, or until the mixture is fluffy and lightens from yellow to cream color.
8. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl during this mixing. Beat for 2 more minutes.
9. Decrease the speed to low and mix in the vanilla extract and melted chocolate. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl during this mixing.
10. Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (3 flour, 2 buttermilk). Let the mixture absorb the flour before adding more buttermilk. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl after the last addition of flour. The batter is ready when the final addition of flour is mixed completely into the batter. If any flour is clinging to the sides of the bowl, stir it into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan or pans and smooth the top of the batter.
11. Bake for about 40 minutes for 9-inch round.
12. To test for doneness, gently press your fingers on the middle of the cake. It should feel firm. If it does, insert a toothpick into the center of the cake. When the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done.
13. Cool the cake in the baking pan on a wire rack.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

Ingredients

• 1/4 oz unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup half-and-half [Instructions given below for substituting Half and half]
• 4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 2 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
• 2 tsp instant decaffeinated coffee dissolved in 1 tbsp water
• Chocolate Sprinklers

Preparation of the  the Fudge Frosting

1. Put the butter, granulated sugar, and half-and-half in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally.
2. Increase the heat to medium-high and simmer the mixture for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Small bubbles will form around the edge of the pan. Remove the saucepan from the heat.
3. Add the semisweet and unsweetened chocolate and stir the mixture until it is smooth and all of the chocolate is melted.
4. Return the saucepan to low heat for 1 minute, if necessary, to melt the chocolate completely.
5. Pour the chocolate mixture into the large bowl of an electric mixer.
6. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and dissolved coffee and mix on low speed just to incorporate the powdered sugar.
7. Press plastic wrap onto the surface of the mixture and refrigerate until it is cool to the touch, about 35 minutes. Stir occasionally to ensure the mixture cools throughout. Makes about 2-1/2 cups.
8. Beat the cooled chocolate mixture on medium-high for 1 minute, or until the frosting is creamy and lightens slightly in color.

 This recipe has been inspired from Globalgourmet.com

 Assembling the Cake

1. When the cake has cooled, Cut it into 2 horizontal layers. Use a see-saw manner to cut it evenly.
2. Taking the bottom part, with cut side up, apply the frosting using a metal spatula.
3. Put the 2^nd layer on the frosted first layer with cut side down.
4. Apply the frosting to the sides and the top of the cake.
5. Fill some of the frosting in the icing bag  and make star shaped designs on the edge of the top of the cake
6. Sprinkle Chocolate sprinkles
7. Enjoy !!

 Substitutes

Buttermilk [1 Cup]

1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar plus enough milk to make 1 cup (240 ml) (let stand 5-10 minutes)

OR 1 cup (225 grams) plain yogurt

OR 1 cup (225 grams) sour cream

OR 1 cup (240 ml) milk plus 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 teaspoons cream of tartar

Half and Half [1 Cup]

1 tablespoon butter /margarine plus enough milk to make 1 cup (240 ml) (let stand 2 minutes)