Nutella Chocolate Cake

                        Happy New Year to you... he he....Happy New Year to you...ho ho...Happy New Year Dear All....Happy New Year to you.... Aah, these lines take me back to the old Hindi numbers with jazzy music, sensible lyrics, and dancing rhythm as we had in the famous Indian Hindi song.... 'Baar baar din ye aaye, baar baar dil ye gaye, tum jiyo hazaaron saal, ye meri hai aarzoon...Happy Birthday to you...he he....Happy birthday to you...ho ho.....'. Now here, it's just about the birthday of 2012, so my heart is pouring smiles  and welcoming it with a warm feel.

When I talk of 2012, a party, a celebration, then 'cake' is a must. And if you remember from my last post, I told you that I would be flooding the next few days with Nutella recipes ( till my Nutella bottle gives up... ;)) and I'm just so madly sticking to my words and taking you to this page. :D

NUTELLA CHOCOLATE CAKE:

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Baking Time: 30-40 minutes

Serves: There's going to be a fight over each piece, so no serving suggestions!!

Ingredients:

1. Maida/ All Purpose Flour: 1 cup

2. Butter: 50 gms/ half a stick

3. Cocoa Powder: 2 tbs

4. Nutella Spread: 3 tbs

5. Powdered Sugar: 1 cup

6. Eggs: 2

7. Baking Powder: 1 tsp

8. Baking Soda/ Eno: 1/2 tsp

9. Milk (if required)

10. Butter/ oil/ ghee for greasing or cooking spray

For Icing:

1. Nutella Spread: 3 tbs

2. Dairy Milk: 1 big bar

3. Butter: 1/4 cup

4. Cocoa/ Choco Balls

5. Colored Marshmallows

6. Jelly

Method:

1. Sift the maida/all purpose flour with the Cocoa Powder, Baking Powder and Baking Soda/Eno.
2. Grease and dust the baking tin and keep it aside.
3. Pre-heat the oven on 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.
4. Take the butter, Nutella 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. If you find the batter thick, adjust it with addition of milk.
8. Now transfer this mixture into the greased pan and bake it on 180 degrees for 25-30 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. On the other hand, melt dairy milk bar, butter and Nutella by double-boiling in which we boil water in a pan and keep the chocolates in a small bowl floating in the pan. 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. 
12. Layer the upper part of the cake generously with the molten Nutella Chocolate and embellish the remaining cake with your creativity, using choco balls, marshmallow and jelly. 

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.
4. Do not over-bake else the chocolate will burn, and the cake will become hard, too.
5. Nutella is nothing but a Chocolate Hazelnut Spread, so in case you don't have it, add any chocolate.

 The recipe flies off to:
Cooking Made Easy With Chocolates/Cocoa  by me
Bake Fest  at The Pumpkin Farm
ABC Series - Desserts  by Ramya
Chocolate Lover  by Daily Cuppa

Yummy Dessert from Pranati's Kitchen
World Nutella Day  by Ms Adventures in Italy, Bleeding Espresso