It's not everyday you get to bake and indulge in decadent chocolate cake. I had been craving to make some cake but the lack of time or the temptation of just lying in bed when I did have idle time, prevented me from taking to the whisk. Day before yesterday, however, the cake craving hit me hard. All that headache from the glaring day's sun exposure left me exhausted but I finally took out the ingredients and got out the cocoa at 9PM post dinner. The usual source to any and all recipes was mum or Google. But this time I thought why not try out what might be the most full-proof recipe; the one plastered on the label of Cadbury Cocoa box! Not ingenious, I know, I know...
So for the benefit of my readers, let me list out the recipe below:
5 tablespoons of Cadbury Cocoa
100 gms of butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups of white flour
3 eggs or 1 can of condensed milk
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 drops of vanilla essence/extract
Method:
Whisk the butter and sugar till it becomes creamy. Then crack in the eggs. Whisk again. Bit by bit, add in all the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder). Add the vanilla essence. Add a little milk if the batter becomes dry. Finally, bake the cake in the oven.
Only, there were a "few" complications when I started working up the batter. For one, I had white butter. Made at the local dairy, would this render a very 'Indian' taste to my cake? Not sure, but that's all the butter I had. So I added what seemed to me 100 gms of white butter. The next complication came in the form of sugar. I had it, the type was right, but umm...it was just under the 1 cup measurement mark. Dilemna. Now what! No one likes a not-perfectly-sweet cake. Then I remembered! I had some sugar sachets I packed from previous hotel stays (DO NOT JUDGE ME!). Thus that challenge too was conquered! When it came to adding the eggs, 3 seemed a bit too much compared to the amount of creamy butter and sugar mixture. My idea to avoid an egg-y situation by using condensed milk was vehemently opposed by the sisters. "How do you know if our can size matched their intended 1 can size on the recipe?", they said. So eggs it was. Would 3 eggs deem my cake to be 'too egg-y'? "Stick to the recipe, Hanisha!", yelled my sisters who were seriously begin to doubt the outcome of all that whisking and lack of precise measurements. So 3 eggs I added and whisked away. But here's where the worst happened. When I added the 2nd cup of white flour to the batter, it became tougher for me to whisk. The batter appeared dry and my immediate thought was my 100gm white butter was not really 100 gms. Oh well, mix in milk if the batter turns dry said the recipe. Only, I kept having to add milk, and more milk, and more milk, and not "little milk" as per the recipe. Oops. But then, when the batter's consistency seemed fairly right and not as dry, I popped it into a greased baking tray and into the oven. Pacing up and down my kitchen, I waited in anticipation and resisted the urge of opening the oven door and checking on the progress of the cake. But then, that moment when you prick the cake with the knife to check if it's baked and it comes out clean, THAT moment! My cake looked great! Natural cracks formed on the surface of the cake giving it a rustic look. Plus, the cake had risen. Seemed perfectly fine to me going by physical appearance. Now for the taste test!
My sisters and me seated on the dining table, silently watched the cake with much curiosity as we allowed it to cool under the fan. Hurry up and cool we thought. I had the privilege of cutting the cake and the sound of the knife halving the cake was music to my ears. We took a bite and the texture of the cake seemed just about right and the taste, chocolate-y.
A mental pat on my back, I breathed a sigh of relief upon receiving approving looks from the sisters while they munched on cake. Only, it amazes me that two days hence and I have only eaten one small piece. Dang!
5 tablespoons of Cadbury Cocoa
100 gms of butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups of white flour
3 eggs or 1 can of condensed milk
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 drops of vanilla essence/extract
Method:
Whisk the butter and sugar till it becomes creamy. Then crack in the eggs. Whisk again. Bit by bit, add in all the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder). Add the vanilla essence. Add a little milk if the batter becomes dry. Finally, bake the cake in the oven.
Only, there were a "few" complications when I started working up the batter. For one, I had white butter. Made at the local dairy, would this render a very 'Indian' taste to my cake? Not sure, but that's all the butter I had. So I added what seemed to me 100 gms of white butter. The next complication came in the form of sugar. I had it, the type was right, but umm...it was just under the 1 cup measurement mark. Dilemna. Now what! No one likes a not-perfectly-sweet cake. Then I remembered! I had some sugar sachets I packed from previous hotel stays (DO NOT JUDGE ME!). Thus that challenge too was conquered! When it came to adding the eggs, 3 seemed a bit too much compared to the amount of creamy butter and sugar mixture. My idea to avoid an egg-y situation by using condensed milk was vehemently opposed by the sisters. "How do you know if our can size matched their intended 1 can size on the recipe?", they said. So eggs it was. Would 3 eggs deem my cake to be 'too egg-y'? "Stick to the recipe, Hanisha!", yelled my sisters who were seriously begin to doubt the outcome of all that whisking and lack of precise measurements. So 3 eggs I added and whisked away. But here's where the worst happened. When I added the 2nd cup of white flour to the batter, it became tougher for me to whisk. The batter appeared dry and my immediate thought was my 100gm white butter was not really 100 gms. Oh well, mix in milk if the batter turns dry said the recipe. Only, I kept having to add milk, and more milk, and more milk, and not "little milk" as per the recipe. Oops. But then, when the batter's consistency seemed fairly right and not as dry, I popped it into a greased baking tray and into the oven. Pacing up and down my kitchen, I waited in anticipation and resisted the urge of opening the oven door and checking on the progress of the cake. But then, that moment when you prick the cake with the knife to check if it's baked and it comes out clean, THAT moment! My cake looked great! Natural cracks formed on the surface of the cake giving it a rustic look. Plus, the cake had risen. Seemed perfectly fine to me going by physical appearance. Now for the taste test!
A mental pat on my back, I breathed a sigh of relief upon receiving approving looks from the sisters while they munched on cake. Only, it amazes me that two days hence and I have only eaten one small piece. Dang!
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