Chocolate cake

Hello everyone.. It has been a while since I wrote something here. I was busy with work and now too busy being a working mom. Luckily I am out of my kitchen nowadays as I have my mom here with me. I know it is not tuff and I am not the first person to be so. Its just the matter of getting used to and getting into a routine. Till then, I would like to describe myself as “BUSY”… he he ..  It has been few days that I thought of writing something here, to open up my mind. I know all of us, genuine bloggers, are against plagiarism. Some see their recipe stolen, few lovely pics and even the whole blog is stolen at times.

But have you ever thought of the thought being misunderstood as a thief when you did not even think about that? Yeah someone pointed at me thinking I stole something from their blog without giving them due credit.  I was so sad and disappointed when I came to know that. I did speak to that person and I tried to explain my innocence. But not sure if they believed me or not.  I never got a convincing reply. May be they still believe that I am the culprit….

Believe me, I am now scared to even look into another blog – May be I get inspired reading those and might use similar words in describing my recipe, especially when I try to translate Malayalam into English. Friends.. Let me know what you would  have done in such a situation.

Okay… Now coming to the cake. I made this for my dad’s bday. I have never seen him celebrate his bday. He doesn’t believe in celebrations during bdays.  He never wished us ‘Happy Bday’ on our bdays. But we used to gave small get togethers for our bdays when we were kids. I ve even tried asking him to wish me. His answer is “veruthe enantham kalikkathe po” – Let me try to translate it. Something like “Just go away without kidding” . Eventhough I made the cake, I did not expect he would cut it. But he happily did that .. may be to make us happy or may be he was also happy doing it or may be he is getting into these celebrations. Anyways…. love you Acha and wishing you a very Happy Birthday once again…..

I wanted to post this on that day(13th) itself. But as mentioned above, getting used to the new roles and trying to fit everything into schedule, this was something I could push apart.  

Ingredients for the base cake:

All-purpose flour, sifted  --   2/3 cup
Dutch-processed cocoa powder --   2/3 cup
Vanilla extract  --   1½ tsp
Hot clarified unsalted butter --   4½ tbsp
Eggs --   6 large
Sugar --   1 cup

Ingredients for the Filling:

Confectioners' sugar --   1 lb
Unsweetened cocoa powder --  ½ cup
Butter        --   1 stick or ½ cup, at room temperature
Vanilla extract --   1 tsp
Boiling water  --   1/3 cup
Heavy cream --   2 cups
Simple syrup --   1/3 cup, (equal amounts sugar and water, simmered until sugar dissolves)

Ingredients for the Decoration:

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted

Preparation of the base cake:

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Fit the bottom of a 9-inch round cake pan, with parchment paper and set aside.

Sift together the flour and cocoa three more times and set it aside. This helps the cake to be airy.

Whisk eggs and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Set the bowl over simmering water and heat the eggs, whisking constantly, until they are slightly warm. Remove it from the water and beat the eggs at high speed until they have tripled in volume. They should form a ribbon when the whisk is lifted. It took around 25 - 30 minutes with my hand mixer.

Sift the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and gently fold in. This should be done in 3 - 4 batches.

Mix hot clarified butter and vanilla extract in a bowl. Add about 1 cup of the batter into the mixture and fold together until well blended. Add this over the batter and gently fold it in. This helps the butter to combine well into the batter without too much of mixing.

Pour into the cake pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the top of the cake springs back when pressed gently. Let it cool completely and then get prepared for the decoration and fillings.

Preparation of the filling:

I made using half of the above quantity. With an electric mixer beat the butter until light and fluffy. Sift the confectioners' sugar and cocoa powder into and mix until completely combined. It will be in a powdered state and not creamy at this stage. I couldnt get any pictures at this point.

Add the vanilla and boiling water and mix until smooth.

In another bowl, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks. It is better to chill the bowl and the whisk before whipping. Add this into the chocolate mix and fold in until completely combined

Preparation of the decorative pieces:

Get ready with the parchment paper spread on a flat surface. Keep a ziplock cover open and ready to use.

Grate the chocolate onto a parchment paper. Take 2/3 of this in a bowl and microwave for 10 secs. Take it out and mix well. It wouldnt have completely melted at this stage. Do not heat it at a single strech. Because atleast a part of the chocolate get over heated and hence will loosen the molecules and the chocolate will not hold its shape.

Repeat for 2 - 3 times until the chocolate is completely melted. Add the remaining chocolate into it and mix well. If it is too hard, keep in the microwave for another 5 - 10 secs. Pour this into the ziplock cover and draw the patterns as per your ideas. Let it cool completely before you remove it from the parchment paper. Decorate.

    

For a better idea of tempering and decorating visit the videos at howtocookthat.

Assemble the cake:

Cut the cake into 3 horizontal layers. Place the base layer on a 10 inch cake board. Generously brush the top with the simple syrup. Add 1/3 of the filling and level it. Repeat this with the next layer and top it with the final layer. Cover the whole cake with the remaining filling and decorate according to your ideas.

Recipe Courtesy:
Base Cake: CafeFernando
Decoration: Howtocookthat
Filling: Started with food network ended in my own recipe as the other one was too sweet for us.