Simple Chocolate Cake

Photo Courtesy: Dr. Debarshi Chatterji

A few days before Christmas, Debarshi started craving for some Chocolate cake and I thought, it will be so great if he comes home from office, opens the fridge and finds a yummy chocolaty cake waiting for him. I decided to surprise him by baking my special Chocolate Raspberry Cake. The only problem in my plan was, I had no buttermilk and raspberry jam. So I put my thinking cap on and started looking online for a simple chocolate cake recipe with different ingredients. 

Since I was planning to bake a candied fruitcake for Christmas, I decided to bake a single layer chocolate cake with ganache. I tried a new recipe and it worked great. The cake was soft, moist and delicious.  I baked the cake in a round foil baking pan which as you know does not brings that perfect round shape so I decided to apply a layer of Ganache on it. The Ganache added an additional creamy taste to the cake and also helped hide the imperfections in shape. I then decorated the cake with some chocolate chips. This is a simple recipe and yet has an exquisite taste. In fact, it tastes even better the next day. Try it.

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

Dry Products:

• All Purpose Flour - ¾ cup and 2 tablespoons 
• Sugar - ¾ cup
• Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – ¼ cup and 2 tablespoons 
• Baking Soda - ¾ teaspoon
• Baking Powder - ¾ teaspoon
• Salt – ½ teaspoon

Wet Products:

• Water - ½ cup 
• Milk – ½ cup
• Vegetable Oil – ¼ cup 
• Egg - 1 Large 
• Vanilla Extract - 1 teaspoon

For the Chocolate Ganache and decorations:

• Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (60% Cacao) – 1 cup
• Heavy Whipping Cream – 1 cup
• Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips – 1 cup

Others:

• Cake Pan – 9 inches
• Vegetable Oil Spray – 1
• Parchment Paper – 1
• Wisk – 1
• Spatula – 1
• Cake Stand or a Heavy Big Plate
• Piece of cardboard or a thick paper plate

Let’s do some prep:

• First we should do some preparations. So, half an hour prior baking the cake, take out the egg from the fridge and keep it on your kitchen counter. We are doing this to bring the egg to the room temperature. This helps it to mix evenly with the other ingredients and also prevents any over mixing of the batter. 
• For this cake you can use either a Springform cake pan or a round aluminum cake pan. I always place a metal cookie sheet below the aluminum pan. This helps me to have a better grip while taking the hot cake out of the oven.
• Let’s cut the Parchment Paper. Place the Pan on the Parchment paper and draw a circle on the outer edge of the pan.
• Coat the cake pan with the nonstick spray. 
• Line the bottom with the Parchment paper round and spray it again. 
• Take a little flour and sprinkle it all over the greased pan.

Let’s bake the Cake:

• Take a large bowl and sift all the dry products (All Purpose Flour, Sugar, Cocoa Powder, Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt).
• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• If using a stand mixer, attach the beater, add all the dry products in the bowl and start the mixer on the lowest speed.
• Now we will start adding the wet products one by one. Add the Egg, Milk, Vegetable Oil and the Vanilla Extract. Mix for about two minutes on medium speed. 
• Lower the speed and heat the half cup of water in the microwave on high for one minute. It should be boiling.
• Add the boiling water into the prepared batter, make sure the speed is at its lowest.
• The resultant batter will be thin, pour it into the prepared pan.
• Place the pan on the bottom rack of the oven.
• Bake the cake for about 35-40 minutes. I use a tooth pick to check if the center has been cooked. Very carefully insert the toothpick into the center and pull it out. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is ready, otherwise, cook for a couple more minutes and don’t forget to use the timer every time.
• Now whenever the toothpick comes out clean, its time to take out the cakes from the oven. I recommend slightly pulling the rack outside the oven so that we can get a better grip while holding the hot pan/ baking sheet. Place it on a cooling rack.
• I usually wait for about 5-10 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan (I run a short knife around the edges to release the cake) and invert it on the cooling rack. This ensures the cake does not have a soggy bottom.
• Peel the parchment paper.

Let’s make the Chocolate Ganache:

• Take a microwave safe medium bowl.
• Add the Bittersweet Chocolate Chips in it along with the Heavy Cream and place it inside the microwave.
• Bring the cream to a boil (about 2 minutes). 
• Take the bowl out from the microwave (careful its hot!)
• Let it stand for a minute
• Now let’s start the stirring and remember this is important. We need to stir it slowly, gently and continuously so that the chocolate mixes well with the cream. Believe me this makes a shiny and smooth ganache. Keep stirring until the chips are all melted and the ganache looks smooth.
• Cover and refrigerate for at least 15-20 minutes, this makes the Ganache thick enough to spread. If the Ganache gets too firm in the fridge, heat it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. It should be thick enough to easily spread on the cake with a spatula.

Time to assemble the yummy Cake:

• All right, do you have a cake stand? If no, then use a heavy big plate. If yes! Awesome!
• Take a piece of cardboard and cut it in a round shape (of cake’s size). I didn’t have a cardboard so I used a thick paper plate. Cut it to fit the bottom of the cake. Place it on the cake stand or the plate.
• Take a spoonful of Ganache and apply it on the paper plate then very carefully slide the cake on the plate. The Ganache will stick with the cake thus ensuring that the paper does not slide off while decorating or cutting the cake.
• If you want to trim the cake this is the perfect time to do it. I didn’t do anything special for this cake. I wanted it to look homemade.
• Now pour about 3 tablespoons of chilled Ganache over the cake and pay special attention to those areas where you want to have an even shape. 
• Place the Cake inside the fridge for at least 15 minutes so that the ganache layer sets. 
• Pour half of the remaining ganache on it allowing to drip down sides. Spread it evenly with the spatula over top and sides for an even coverage and to smooth the edges. 
• Place the cake back in the fridge for about 15 minutes.
• Now let’s spread the remaining ganache on the cake and make sure you are covering the entire cake. If it is too thick to spread, melt it a bit in the microwave (15-30 seconds). Spread it over the sides to cover.
• Arrange the Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips in circles on top of the cake. 
• Place the cake back in the fridge till you are ready to serve. 

Tips:

• While baking the cake, do not forget to start a timer and keep an eye on it.
• One of the best things I like about this cake is the time. Chocolate cake tastes even better the next day. So, you can easily bake this in advance.
• Its important to keep a space all cleared out for transferring the hot pan from the oven. I usually transfer them on a cooling rack on the kitchen counter.
• Do not skip the cooling rack step otherwise the cake bottom will become soggy.
• If you are using an aluminum pan, you may want to cut the sides of the cake for an even round shape.
• Kids love to bake or help you in small things. You can ask them to help you mix or spread the Ganache. Afterwards they can have the spatula with the bowl to lick and enjoy.
• Cover the cake with the cake dome whenever you are keeping it the fridge. The dome prevents any mishaps and also blocks any unwanted smells.
• Remember that the baking time will change if you are changing the pan size. So keep an eye on it.
• Its important to use slightly lukewarm Ganache otherwise you will have difficulty spreading it. It melts quickly so do not set any long microwave timers.
• The thick paper plate on the bottom of the plate comes very handy. It prevents any scratches on the serving platter and the cake holds beautifully on it.
• A new baker may feel tempted to apply the second layer of Ganache too soon. Have patience and let the ganache chill properly.
• If the room temperature is too warm the ganache will start to melt so keep it a bit cool and as soon as you have finished spreading the Ganache, transfer the cake to the fridge without any delay.
• If you want to sift some powdered sugar over the cake, use a salt shaker or a tea strainer.
• I substituted the sugar with a zero calorie sweetener (Truvia) to cut down let’s say a few hundred calories.
• This recipe makes a single layered cake. To make two layers double the amounts in a rough draft first to prevent any miscalculations.
• It’s always better to break the egg in another bowl before adding it to the batter. Egg shells don’t taste very good in a yummy cake.
• Keep paper towels handy for an easier clean up.
• I find chocolate stains hard to remove so I always wear something old and comfortable while baking chocolate cakes.
• This cake asks for quite a few ¾ measurements. So how much is ¾? To put it simply, ¾ means ¼ * 3 or three times of ¼. Now this ¼ can be a measurement of cup or teaspoon and you got to measure it three times to get ¾ of the amount.
• I recently got two 6 inches round baking pans, Yay! Debarshi gave them to me as an early birthday present. This recipe works perfectly for those cute small baking pans. You can use them to bake a small cake for a date night or for a small gathering. Just divide the batter equally between the two cake pans and bake for 28-30 minutes at the same temperature. Everything else remains the same. Decorate the cake layers with ganache as well.
• If you have some nuts or dried fruits, then you can can use them to decorate the cake. I chopped a handful of walnuts and dried apricots then I melted a little ganache and spread it on the top of the cake and sprinkled the nuts and fruits all over it, pressing down just a bit so that they stick on the ganache. Looked beautiful and tasted amazing.
• You can also use brown sugar to bake this cake, just make sure to mix it properly with the dry products so that there are no sugary lumps in the batter.
• This time I forgot to add boiling water in the batter and added normal tap water instead, surprisingly it didn’t make any difference.

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