Easy Chocolate Cake

There are times when you want to have something, there will be a tug of war between our emotional side and our reasoning side. For me, it happens on a daily basis. One such tug of war happened around 3 weeks back. I was really craving for a chocolate cake and I fell for it hands down..

Coming to the cake, I stumbled upon this recipe sometime back, when I was looking for an easy but moist, melt-in-your mouth chocolate cake. And I wanted to make a cake with available ingredients in my pantry. Tried for the first time as the recipe stated, it turned out really good and moist. Then modified the recipe to halve it, basically for my 8 inch pan. Later, I tweaked a little bit, like adding instant coffee powder  to give more depth of flavor. At times I add about 50 gm of milk chocolate chips too. It doesn't hurt to have more chocolate in a chocolate cake.

Easy Chocolate Cake

Recipe adapted from Cooks.com

1. All purpose flour – 1 cup
2. Sugar – 1 cup
3. Baking soda – 1 tsp

4. Baking powder – ½ tsp

5. Cocoa powder – ¾ cup
6. Instant coffee powder – 1 tsp
7. Salt – a pinch
8. Oil – ½ cup
9. Boiling water – ¾ cup
10. Full fat milk – ¾ cup
11. Egg,beaten - 1
12. Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
13. Milk chocolate chips - 50 gm; about a handful(Optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C for 10 min.

2. Grease and flour 8 inch cake pan.

3. Mix cocoa powder and instant coffee powder in a bowl and pour boiling water over the mix. If we are adding milk chocolate chips, add those to the mixture and mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool a bit.

4. Mix together beaten egg, milk, oil and vanilla essence in another bowl and set aside.

5. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt thoroughly.

6. Into this, add the milk mixture and cocoa mixture and mix thoroughly. The batter now will be very runny.

7. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 min or until a knife/toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Once done, remove from oven and allow to cool.

8. Dust with icing sugar or frost as desired.

Easy Chocolate Cake is ready to serve.

Notes to Remember

* Do not open the oven door for first 20 min. After 20 min, if the top of the cake is already browned(depends on ovens), can place a piece of aluminium foil on top of the pan to avoid excessive browning on the top.

* This cake will be super moist. So it wont be suitable for layered cakes.

* It is best to cut & eat the cake from the pan itself. But if we want to transfer the cake onto another plate,be sure that the cake is completely cooled and try inverting it slowly onto the plate. Otherwise the cake will break easily as it really moist. 
* The recipe calls for super fine sugar. If we are using regular sugar, just pulse the required amount in the grinder to get a finer texture.

Now, this recipe has become my GO-TO chocolate cake recipe. I'm sure there are lot of recipes for richer,more decadent chocolate cakes. But this recipe won my heart, since its the easiest chocolate cake I have ever made. 
And since Valentines Day is around the corner, what else could do justice other than a Chocolate cake.. So this one goes to all who will celebrate Valentines Day.. :-)

Badaam Milk

I first tasted badaam milk for a "nombu thurakkal" ceremony(Iftar ceremony) at our neighbour's place probably when I was 10 or 11 years old. It was so tasty that I drank up the entire glass in full gulp. It was a cold, refreshing drink. Even though I wanted a second helping, I was too embarrassed to ask, but our generous hosts gave me a second one. Later, when the recipe of the badaam milk came in Vanitha (our popular women's weekly), I remember memorising it, but never got a chance to actually making it. Years later, when I crave for badaam milk, I just humbly obliged to MTR badaam milk mix, even though the taste doesn't even get close to REAL one.(for me, the real badaam milk is still the neighbour's badaam milk)

But now things have changed. I make this drink every now and then. The REAL one was a cold drink and didn't have much graininess to it. But if I ran out of cheese cloth or if I'm pure lazy to strain it, I have it just like that. And it tastes as good as strained one.

Saffron infused Badaam Milk/Almond Milk

1. Almonds – about 25 no:

2. Full fat milk – 2 cups

4. Sugar – to taste

5. Saffron – a pinch

1. Soak almonds in hot water for about 15 min. Then peel off the skin and set aside.

2. Warm about ¼ cup of milk.

3. Combine almonds and warm milk in a grinder and grind it a very smooth paste.

4. In a heavy bottom saucepan, combine milk, sugar and saffron and bring it to a gentle boil while stirring continuously to prevent burning.

5. Once its about to boil, add the almond paste and stir continuously for about 5-7 min.

6. Take off from heat, strain the milk in a strainer and allow to come cool slightly.

7. Garnish with saffron strands.

Saffron infused Badaam Milk is ready to serve.

Notes to Remember

* Although we grind almonds to a very smooth paste,badaam milk still might have a grainy texture to it. If that suites the tastes buds, no need to strain the badaam milk. If we want to strain the milk,cheese cloth or muslin cloth is best.

* The above mentioned quantity of badaam milk serves 2 people.

So, I made this drink on New years day, marking this as my first post of this year..