Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Cadbury Chocolate Cake on Hubby's Birthday


Awww...I just can't tell how is the feel of sitting on the blog-seat after 2 months; the blood rush is high, fingers almost cracking the lappy, and the writing excitement almost killing me; just couldn't wait in the while to catch up with all you lovely friends and mentors. I was on a long tour to my mommy's place coz of Rakhi and then coz of my hubby darling who was on a Kenyan Excursion for 7 weeks. (He is a Wild-life Safari lover and got three of his pics selected in Nat Geo recently, though he happens to be a Business Consultant and IT entrapped person on the other hand! :) )
The day we three ( My hubby, I and our little fairy) landed together in Bangalore after a lambi judai was especially special coz of his birthday. He was waiting anxiously at the airport after a desperate wait of 2 hours to see the two gals, and same was the adrenaline rush in me too. I had been thinking all the way long about his birthday gifts, surprises and the cake most importantly. I could not manage to get anything from the bakers as he was there in the cab with me, so I thought of making it by myself ( a big risk though!).
I could not find heavy cream or whipped cream any where nearby, so icing on the cake was a thought provoker, but as it is very well said, 'Necessity is the mother of invention', so I eventually thought of using all the Cadbury chocolates I had in my refrigerator and come out with something. From Dairy Milk to Milky Bar, and from Gems to Choco Balls, everything appeared so useful and believe it, melting those yummilicious, sinfully tempting bars was fun. I also realized that the cake was so insanely chocolaty and dairy-milky that grabbing just a piece was impossible. The base cake I used was a simply baked chocolate cake in heart shape (afterall it was for him! :))

Here's the melting recipe of the Cadbury Chocolate Cake:

CADBURY CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients:
1. All Purpose Flour/ Maida: 1 cup
2. Cocoa Powder: 5 tbs
3. Butter: 1/2 cup or half a brick
4. Sugar (powdered): 1 cup
5. Eno: 1 tsp
6. Eggs: 2

For Icing:
1. Dairy Milk Chocolate: 1 big bar of INR 50
2. Milky Bar Chocolate: 1 regular bar
3. Gems: 1 packet
4. Choco balls: 10
5. Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

Method:
  1. Sift the maida/all purpose flour with the Cocoa Powder and Eno.
  2. Grease and dust the baking tin and keep it aside.
  3. Pre-heat the oven on 200 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.
  4. Take the butter and beat sugar with it till it goes light and fluffy. Do not melt the butter, rather keep it at room temperature.
  5. Add the flour mix to the butter slowly.
  6. Beat the egg separately and fold in the flour, applying the cut and fold method.
  7. Make sure you get a ribbon consistency while folding it.
  8. Now transfer this mixture into the greased pan and bake it on 200 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
  9. Check the cake after 22-25 minutes by seeing if the cake edges have left the corners; if so, then insert a tooth-pick and see if it comes out clean. When this happens, your cake is ready.
  10. Take the tin out and let it cool for 10-15 minutes. Once it has cooled down, invert the cake on a plate, making sure it doesn't break.
  11. Now cut the cake horizontally into two halves.
  12. On the other hand, melt dairy milk bar and milky bar separately in two bowls by double-boiling or microwaving. I prefer the double-boil method in which we boil water in a pan and keep the chocolates in a small bowl floating in the pan. Microwaving for more than 30 seconds can lead to charring of the chocolates sometimes, so be careful while doing so. The chocolate might not melt in a completely creamy form, but when you touch it with a spatula, it will spread easily. This is the correct consistency. Also, grate a small portion of the dairy milk for decoration.
  13. Now take the lower half of the cake and spread the molten chocolate over it evenly with the help of a knife. You could also pour some chocolate syrup along with.
  14. Now join it with the upper half and layer the top with dairy milk chocolate. Form a small white heart in the centre with the molten milky bar. Embellish the remaining cake with your creativity, using gems, choco balls, chocolate syrup and grated chocolate/ choco curls.  

Suggestions:
  1. Always cut and fold the mixture in a single direction. Cutting and Folding is nothing but mixing the cake in a circular fashion (like how you make a circle) and then cutting this circle into half and again circling.
  2. In some cases, the cake shrinks in the middle and doesn't come out puffy; this happens either when the mixture is too loose or when you keep pricking the cake too often to check if it's done, out of anxiety. So, please be careful with this.
  3. Do not invert the cake before it cools down else it would break (I know you just can't wait to taste it, but take a deep breath and hold on for some time. ;))
  4. The more chocolates you use, more chocolaty it goes, so add liberally and lavishly.
  5. I had thought of making a cone with the molten milky bar and write 'Happy Birthday' with that, but my daughter woke up from sleep and I could not proceed further. You could actually try this out. :)