Chocolate Cake

It’s an eggless cake, it’s a chocolate cake , it’s a birthday cake and I can’t decide on an appropriate title for this chocolatey indulgence. But mostly it’s delicious and really special because it’s Pranav’s birthday cake.

It happened like a little dream – I baked with all the love I had. Kids were putting in the ideas and were preparing cards for papa’s birthday. Pranav was to arrive in Mumbai on the day of his birthday, so we were in that celebration mode. The day went well, and the cake was rich, decadent and very chocolatey. Happy Birthday my love 🙂

This small cake was made with the same cake batter 🙂 and decorated with all the ideas Nitya and Yati gave me

Making a deep and delicious eggless chocolate cake was on my list since a long time. I choose to use Chocolate ganache as frosting; to make it more of a perfect indulgence just the way Pranav likes it. When you have a moist soft cake with the layer of fudgy ganache and a tempered chocolate wall all around – it should be called overindulgence.

Few points to read before the bake :

1. As usual accurately measuring all the ingredients.

2. I have used dutch processed cocoa powder because I think Dutch cocoa is darker and has more appealing chocolate flavor. But if you don’t find dutch cocoa – no worries; go ahead and bake with the regular cocoa powder. You might will end up with a little lighter shade of cake then mine.

3. I have used oil instead of butter in this recipe, because it keeps the cake more moist and soft even when in the fridge.

4. Using a ganache in the layer and over the top is totally optional. You can also go with the butter cream frosting.

Understanding the chocolate Ganache:

The chocolate ganache is all about the proportion of cream to chocolate. Glazes have thinner ( pouring )consistency so higher percentage of cream is required. A thicker ganache for frosting or for rolling into truffles needs to be stiffer, so the chocolate percentage is higher.

To Make ;

Layer cake filling and thick glaze: 1:1, equal parts chocolate and cream.

Chocolate truffles: 2:1, two parts chocolate to one part cream.

Soft icing and runny glaze: 1:2, one part chocolate to two parts cream.

(1:1 ratio means 4 ounces chocolate to 4 ounces cream)