Cake Archives - Dees Platter

Chocolate cake lifts up my mood if I am depressed. And if I am happy, then also chocolate cake is there to celebrate. It is favourite for kid’s birthday party, best for dessert option and the best companion while you are alone in the house and lazing around, reading a book or just watching tv.

Basically, chocolate cake can be baked for any occasion! Yes, you add on a few extra calories but then do some jogging, walking, or if there is no time for exercise in your busy schedule, then just don’t use lift while getting down from the office building, and if possible while climbing too.

So, now I guess you are all set to bake chocolate cake and give yourself a delectable treat 😋😋😋😋.

This recipe will give you a very moist chocolate cake. It is so good that you might not wait for any frosting. Just let it cool down and keep your plate ready!!

But if you are interested in a tall cake from this recipe, I would suggest you not to use this recipe. For tall cakes, we need butter as butter makes the cake sturdy.

The reason I am more in favour of oil cakes is that after keeping the cake in the fridge, it does not become hard. It remains soft and moist for 3 to 4 days.

Initially, for trial, I had baked this cake with only half of the recipe. My daughter isn’t fond of any icing on the cake (teenagers are difficult to please). She loved this cake a lot and shared it with her friends. I got wonderful feedback from her friends too!!

So I decided to go ahead with complete recipe. But now I chose to bake in two 6 inches tin, as my husband and I love frosting with chocolate cake a lot!! Ganache frosting – Dark Chocolate Ganache – compliments chocolate cake a lot. But you can go ahead with your choice of frosting of whipping cream, chocolate mousse etc….

So this recipe is kind of one bowl cake recipe where we just take out the cake from the tin, smear it with frosting and give ourselves a delicious treat 😋.

This cake can be baked in one 9 inches tin or two 7 inches tin. The cup I use for measurement is 250 ml.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour (Maida) 1+3/4 cup
Granulated sugar 1 cup (after measuring powder it)
Baking soda 1 tsp
Cocoa powder 1/4 cup
Instant coffee powder 1 tsp
Salt 1/8 tsp
Oil 1/2 cup
Milk 1/2 cup
Hot water 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence 1 tsp
Vinegar 1 tbsp

Tips:

All ingredients should be on room temperature, except hot water.
Check expiry date before using your ingredients.
Use good quality cocoa powder.
Sieve dry ingredients 4-5 times for eggless cakes. It helps in keeping the flour light and airy.
Do not open oven door until your cake has completely risen, otherwise cake might sink due to variation in room temperature.
Don’t do over-mixing of the batter.
After baking if the top of the cake has slight crust, don’t worry. It will become soft after cooling.
Don’t transfer the cake on a plate while taking it out from the tin. Top layer might stick to the plate as cake will be still hot. Always transfer on a wire rack.

Process:

Grease and dust baking pans. If interested, you can use parchment paper also at the bottom of the pan.

I have used two 7 inch baking pans.

Heat 1/2 cup water and add Instant coffee powder, mix it and keep it separate. Preheat oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes.

Spread newspaper on kitchen counter and sieve all dry ingredients. Using newspaper is not compulsory, but I find it very convenient if I have to sieve 4-5 times.

Transfer this sieved flour to a big bowl.

Collect all wet ingredients in another bowl. Just remember to add vinegar in the end and mix everything.

Pour this wet mix over dry ingredients slowly and simultaneously keep mixing with wire whisk. Don’t do over-mixing.

Pour this batter in ready tins, tap the tins 3-4 few times and keep them in preheated oven and bake for 35-40 minutes.

As each oven is different baking time might vary. (check tip no 5) Check the cake by inserting toothpick – if it comes out clean, cake is done.

Take out the tins from the oven and let them cool down on cooling rack. Clean the edges of the tin with the help of a knife and transfer cakes to a wire rack. Remove parchment paper and let the cakes cool down completely.

You can enjoy this delicious moist chocolate cake just like that….

Or frost it with dark chocolate ganache..

and relish your slice!!

I never thought that one day I will be posting my 100th recipe here when I started DeesPlatter blog. I was sure that after posting a few, I will not be able to continue, as writing was never my forte. I always loved reading and for that I will forever be grateful to my father for imbibing this habit.

This became possible due to the inspiration that I got once I started blogging and came across many excellent bloggers who are writers, foodies, philosophers, story tellers, wonderful photographers, nature lovers, pet lovers, travellers etc… By reading their posts, I just couldn’t hold myself from expressing my views in the comments section. I was surprised that actually I was writing and was looking for words to express my views!

In between, due to personal reasons a few brakes came, but I still continued blogging and today I feel so proud to post my 100th post – that too of my favourite cake – Eggless Vanilla Sponge Cake, loved by all.

Around 10 years back, my husband and I bought 31 litres microwave. That was the biggest size available in the showroom and we thought of using it for baking (till then I had no idea about OTG). But for 4-5 years we used it only as a heating compartment for preparing curd, reheating food, roasting papad, cooking rice and boiling potatoes. I guess I was just not confident enough to try baking.

Just surfing around the Internet one day I came across a recipe of carrot cake and suddenly I was interested to give it a try. Cake came out with flat top (as I had read somewhere that flat top of the cake indicates your baking skill) and I was very happy to see that as it was my first attempt. Cake was dense, and I realised that only flat top is not enough. But now I started baking in my microwave with full energy and enthusiasm. I was adamant not to join any baking classes as I felt Google gives us enough tutorials to learn. But in the process of learning from my own mistakes, my microwave was used rigorously day and night. I remember one day I baked 3 wheat flour bread loaves and none was satisfactory.

A few neighbours liked my wheat flour buns, cookies, cupcakes and I started getting orders. But by now my dear microwave was giving up after letting me do enough trials and errors and giving me enough courage to take orders. I bought OTG, but I am still using my dear microwave as a heating compartment to prepare curd and keeping bread dough for proofing.

After baking my first carrot cake, I tried a few more different recipes of cake and tried to understand the science of baking and difference of ingredients in each recipe. The result of a cake with eggs will be different from eggless cake. With my experience I found that thick hung curd or flaxseed powder are the best replacement of eggs if we want to change a recipe of cake with eggs into eggless cake.

This particular recipe of eggless vanilla sponge cake has thick curd and oil including other ingredients. This cake comes out so well with smooth brown crust that it is difficult to wait till it cools down.

Nice moisture with wonderful sponge and balanced sweetness will definitely urge you to bake this cake again and again!

Recipe courtesy: Nita Mehta’s Cookbook

Ingredients

All purpose flour (Maida) 1+1/2 cup

Sugar 3/4 cup

Baking soda 1/2 tsp

Baking powder 1+1/4 tsp

Thick curd 1 cup

Oil 1/2 cup

Vanilla essence 1+1/2 tsp

Points to remember:

All ingredients should be on room temperature.
If you don’t have thick curd, sieve the normal curd in muslin cloth and use it.
Check expiry date of baking soda and baking powder before using.
Don’t open the door of the oven for the first 20-25 minutes of baking. Uneven temperature might result in collapsing the cake.
All ovens have different settings, so the complete baking time might vary as per your temperature settings.
Don’t let the cake stay in the tin for a long time. Heat of the cake will turn the bottom of the cake soggy.
This cake can be baked in microwave also on convection mode using the same settings as given in this recipe.
After greasing the tin you can spread parchment paper at the bottom of the tin. It helps cake to come out the tin easily.
The beauty of this cake is its brown top. After completing the baking time also if top is not brown, just switch on top rod only and bake for a few more minutes, but keep an sharp eye. If done for a longer period, cake might burn with excess heat or it will be dry.

Process:

Grease baking tin with oil/butter, sprinkle maida all over the tin nicely and tap it in the opposite direction to remove excess flour.

Sieve maida 2-3 times so that it becomes light and keep it separately.

In a separate bowl add curd and sugar and mix them till sugar dissolves completely.

Now add baking soda and baking in curd sugar mix, mix it gently and keep it separate for 3-4 minutes till bubbles come up.

Preheat oven at 175/180 degree for 10 minutes.

Add oil and vanilla essence and mix them gently once bubbles are visible.

Now in three batches mix maida in wet mixture with a wire whisk. . Don’t do rigorous mixing.

Shift this mixture in ready cake tin. With the help of spatula spread it evenly, tap the tin three four times and bake it at 175 degree for 30 – 40 minutes. Check the cake by inserting toothpick in the center. Cake is done if toothpick comes out clean.