Simple Chocolate Cake

With my home bakery slowly getting its pace and my fitness regime in full mode, I hardly have any energy left to do any blogging these days. While I am still cooking for my family and friends, I do not always have the time to post the recipe. This week I did not have any orders to complete nor much cooking to do as husband was busy with a conference. With a special house guest coming to stay with us for a night during the week, I thought it was a great idea to do some simple baking for myself for a change. So here it is, my super simple chocolate cake. Frost it or eat it as is, it is a great tea time companion!

                                       

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour/maida

3/4 cup brown sugar (can be substituted with regular sugar)

1/3 cup oil (I used extra light olive oil or you can use any unflavored neutral oil)

3 eggs (can be substituted with 3/4 cup whipped yogurt)

1 tsp vanila essence 

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

150 ml fresh cream ( I used some leftover whipping cream; can also be substituted with full cream milk)

55 gms chopped plain chocolate (you can either use semi sweet baking chocolate or any leftover plain chocolate like I did)

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup semi sweet choco chips (optional)

Direction

Pre-heat the oven at 175 degree celsius. Grease a 9" round pan and line it with parchment paper. Lightly grease the paper on top for easy removal later on. 

In a microwave safe bowl, heat the cream and chocolate for 30 seconds. Take it out, mix and put it back in the microwave for another 30 seconds. Take it out again and mix well till the chocolate dissolves. Now sift the cocoa powder and mix into the chocolate cream mixture. Mix it well till incorporated. Keep aside and mix at regular intervals so that a film does not form on top and the mixture comes to room temperature. 

Meanwhile, beat the sugar and oil till smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add vanila essence and mix. 

Now, sift the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the chocolate cream mixture and mix well into the batter. Now add the flour in three additions, folding it in after each addition. Now add the choco chips if using and fold it in. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Remove from oven and let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then unmould and let it cool on a wire rack. Slice and store in air tight containers. 

Note for eggless cake:

Beat the yogurt till smooth and add the baking powder (with an additional 1/4 tsp) and baking soda and let it stand for 10 minutes. It will start frothing. You need not add any baking powder and baking soda  to the flour in this case. Beat the sugar and oil together and then add the chocolate cream followed by the vanila essence. Now add the flour alternating with the yogurt mixture. Take care not to overmix in this case as we do not want to let the air bubbles escape.