The Ultimate Death By Chocolate Cake

The ultimate Death by Chocolate Cake

Fluffy and moist chocolate sponge with milk chocolate frosting, dark chocolate ganache drizzle and topped with lots of choco chips, chocolate shavings, wafer rolls. Does this sound interesting?? Yes it was so delicious that we four literally finished the whole 2 kg cake in a day, this must be sounding crazy J Made this gorgeous and so delicious Chocolate Cake for my little ones birthday

Happy Birthday my baby
Arnav, Happy Birthday to you.

Another year went by so soon and Arnav’s birthday is here again. My little champ turned 8 on July 9th, kids are growing up so fast….i want them to remain my little babies J. The birthday boy does not like to celebrate his day by throwing a party for his friends…he loves to go for long drives, stay in a luxurious resort and enjoy his day doing things he likes. Athena on the other hand loves to host a party on her birthday, call her friends over and just have fun. Since his birthday falls during monsoon season so the drive is always beautiful. Cloud covered mountains, beautiful valleys, breathtaking waterfalls everywhere….Maharashtra is just so beautiful during rains. So this year we decided to drive down to Aurangabad and see the beautiful Ellora Caves, UNESCO world heritage site.

The wait for 9^th of July was finally over, Arnav had been waiting for this day for past 10 days. We
booked The Medows Resort and Spa, a 4 star property with lots of open green area for kids to enjoy. We destination was a four hour drive from our place, we started at about 8 am in morning to reach there by noon….it was a rainy morning and it had been raining continuously for past 10 days here in Pune. Our first stop for 30 minutes was for breakfast at Kamath Restaurant (a very famous chain serving South Indian food), we ordered Idli, Vada, Dosa served with some coconut chutney and piping hot sambhar and Filter coffee. We started again to reach our destination by 12:30 pm, settle in our room by 1. The birthday boy was impatient to cut his cake, so we cut his cake and then went for lunch by the pool side @ the Four Seasons Restaurant in the resort serving pretty descent food. The property has so much of open green are to enjoy and relax, sip some coffee, take beautiful pics and just enjoy nature. We finished our lunch by 3 and went up to the room to relax a bit since it was raining cats and dogs…..around 4:30 Athena and Arnav wanted to enjoy the pool in rains, they enjoyed the water for around 30 minutes and started to shiver after that. Spent the rest of the evening enjoying the property, the delicious cake and playing with kids. A well spent day and ended with some good food and lots conversation and laughter.

The next day i.e. 10^th July….we got ready had some good breakfast, then checked out around 10 am to explore the breathtakingly beautiful Ellora Caves. Ellora is known for Hindu, Buddhist and Jain cave temples which were built during 6^th & 9^th centuries during the rule of Chalukya, Rashtrakuta and Kalachuri dynasties. It is an UNESCO world heritage site and a must visit…we reached the caves around 10:30 am and started touring the caves from Cave no 16 which is the main cave also known as
the Kailasa temple. It is the most remarkable cave temple because of its architecture and sculpture. It is dedicated to Lord Shiva. It took us more than an hour to tour this particular cave…then cave 21 which has figures of river Goddess Ganga and Yamuna at the entrance and is quite similar to Elephanta caves near Mumbai. The weather was pretty good since morning, it was overcast but no rains but then around 1 pm it started to rain heavily, we decided to have some good lunch. Around 2:30 we were done with lunch and the rain only increased and refused to slow down forcing us not to go back to the caves. We decided to head towards home, seeing the rain it would take us more than 4 hours. Stopped for coffee break around 6 pm and we reached home around 9 pm. It was raining all throughout with hell amount of traffic. But it was a great day visiting Ellora Caves and spending time with each other. Great weekend break where the birthday boy and everyone enjoyed.

The biggest challenge of the trip was carrying the cake to the destination without the decorations getting spoilt and yes I was successful in that. I had made chocolate sponge before but at times it would turn dry, crumbly maybe I would overbeat the cake batter but this one came out perfect soft, fluffy and super moist with beautiful texture and crumbs. And that dark chocolate ganache and milk chocolate frosting gave a beautiful flavor to the cake. The recipe of chocolate sponge has been adapted from Sallys Baking Addiction.

Now sharing the recipe of the cake with you.

Ingredients for the cake

· 220 grams all purpose flour

· 350 grams granulated sugar

· 2 large eggs at room temperature

· 120 ml canola oil

· 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

· 240 ml buttermilk

· 70 grams unsweetened cocoa powder

· 1 teaspoon baking powder

· 2 teaspoon baking soda

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 1 cup freshly brewed strong coffee

Instructions for the cake

· Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Butter and flour two 9 inch cake pans or alternately line with parchment paper.

· Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt in a medium sized bowl

· Take a large bowl, add buttermilk, oil, vanilla and beat using a handheld mixer, add one egg and beat well for about a minute on high speed then add another egg and beat well till all the mixture is well blended.

· Now slowly add the dry ingredients into wet ingredients, using the handheld mixer whisk on low speed till just combined. Now add the coffee powder and whisk, the mixture will become thin.

· Now pour the batter into the prepared baking tins and bake on middle rack for about 30 minutes. Check with the skewer for the doneness. Once done allow to cool for 10 mintues in the cake tin, remove from tin and cool completely on wire rack.

Ingredients for Milk Chocolate Frosting

· 280 grams unsalted butter at room temperature

· 380 grams icing sugar

· 60 grams cocoa powder

· 45 ml heavy cream

· ½ tsp salt

· 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions for the frosting

· Take a medium sized bowl, using a handheld mixer beat the butter on high till smooth and creamy for about 2 minutes. Turn the speed to low and add half the icing sugar and cocoa powder, beat till well blended.

· Now reduce the speed of the blender and add vanilla extract and cream. Beat on high for about a minute.

· Now add the remaining icing sugar and beat well till the mixture is uniformly well blended.

Ingredients for Dark Chocolate Ganache

· 115 grams bittersweet chocolate

· 2 tablespoon butter at room temperature

· ½ cup heavy cream

Instructions for the Ganache

· Chop the chocolate and place it in a bowl.

· Heat the cream in a heavy bottomed pan until it starts to bubble. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let it sit for around 10 minutes. The chocolate will start to melt.

· Using a whisk stir it in circular motions till the mixture is uniform. Add butter and mix again till uniform.

Ingredients for decoration

· ¼ th cup chocolate chips

· ½ cup chocolate shavings

· 6 chocolate wafer rolls

Assembly of the cake

· Place one layer of the cake on the plate flat side up, using a spatula spread a generous layer of milk chocolate frosting. Now place the second layer on top of the frosting with rounded side up, spread the milk chocolate frosting on the top and sides of the cake. Using a spatula even the sides of the cake. Put it in the refrigerator to set for 45 minutes.

· After 45 minutes take the cake out of fridge and gently pour the ganache onto the centre of the cake, using a spoon spread the ganache on the sides allowing it to drip down the sides of the cake.

· Put it back in the fridge for it to firm up.

· Now pull it out of the refrigerator and decorate using chocolate chips, chocolate shavings (handle them gently as they are very tender) and wafer rolls. Finish with some more crushed wafer rolls.

· Ready to be indulged. It was sinful.

Hope you enjoyed reading.

Yours