Chocolate Picnic Cake

This is a Hershey's recipe which I jotted down sometime back and make it often since this is a simple and ezee to make chocolate cake. I made this on my hubby's birthday three months back as well, with a very simple chocolate frosting but didn't get a chance to click pictures. Made this yummy Dark Chocolate picnic cake again on this Father's day, I know there are many sweets/desserts that can be made on this particular day but whenever I plan to do something on my hubby's birthday or special occasions my son comes up with his idea and say 'Amma, how about a chocolate cake?? Acha will love it ".  So again I baked this cake, dad and son's favorite being chocolate I went again for a chocolate cake.

My husband had already booked tickets for an Air Show held here in Baltimore by US Air Force team Blue Angles, but it was nothing planned or related to Father's day. It was more like a picnic fun, we carried some food and stuffs, laid a blanket under the tree, sat there and watched the Air Show, it was really a different experience, kids - especially our son enjoyed it a lot. We took this 'Picnic Cake' along with us for the Air Show, kids and my husband really loved it. Then I understood why this is called a 'Picnic cake', this is one of the best cakes than can travel with you for picnics, potluck parties and all the fun activities. A very light, moist chocolate cake that can be served as it is, or frost with any choco or whip cream frosting to make it a Birthday cake or serve it as a dessert with a generous gallop of vanilla Ice-Cream. Make this at home today and Enjoy Ezee baking :-)

Ingredients Used :-

1. All purpose Flour/Maida - 2 Cups
2. Baking Soda - 2 tsp
3. Salt a pinch
4. Sugar - 1 Cup
5. Boiling Water - 1 cup
6. Butter - ¼ cup
7. Semi Sweet  Chocolate chips - 1 Cup
8. Sour Cream -  ½ cup
9. Eggs - 2 
10. Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Preparation Method:-

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 Degree F.  Grease a baking pan and set aside.
• Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and set aside.
• Put Chocolate chips and butter in a large wide bowl, pour the boiling water on top little by little stirring continuously with a wire whisk till the chocolate chips and butter is fully melted. Set aside to cool.
• Put the sour cream in another bowl, stir with a spoon or whisk to remove the lumps if any.
• Now add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla extract and sugar to the chocolate mix and use a whisk to mix them thoroughly. You can use a hand mixer or electric mixture to do the process as well.
• Add the sifted flour mix, little by little to the wet mix, stirring them continuously until everything is blended well.
• Pour to the prepared baking pan(batter should be half the pan, don't pour pan-full of batter) and bake for 30 -40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

Linking this to Swathi's Favorite Cake Recipes Event, Sara's Event Cooking with Love Series hosted at Torviewtoronto, Radhika's I Love Baking #5 and Let's Cook #16 ~ Kids Special

Black Forest cake

Black Forest Cake is a Chocolate layered cake made rich with whipping cream, cherries and chocolate shavings, looks so temping and great yet so simple to make. This cakes needs just few basic cake ingredients, and the process is less complicated. So friends, lets go through the process of this great looking Black forest cake and Enjoyyy!!!



Ingredients:-

• All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
• Dark cocoa powder - 3/4 cup (I used dutch processed dark cocoa powder which I bought from Costco, u can use dark chocolate as well which contains 60% cocoa content and melt it by double boiling method and mix it with the beaten egg yolk)
• Sugar - 3/4 cup + 1/4 cup
• Eggs - 4
• Heavy whipping cream - 2 1/2 cups(Refrigerate the whipping cream and the bowl you are gonna use to whip the cream before you start to whip it) 
• Maraschino cherries - 1 small tin, few chopped + few whole for decorating and finishing(I used normal cherries since I did not get maraschino cherries)
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Oil- 1/2 cup
• Butter - 1/4 cup
• Powdered Sugar -1/4 cup(to whip the cream)
• Vanilla essence -1 tsp + 1tsp
• Water -1/2 cup + 2-3 tbsp sugar(to make sugar syrup or use cherry syrup of maraschino cherry while layering the cake)
• Chocolate bars -4 oz(Make chocolate shavings out of it with a veg peeler) 

Preparation Method:-

Make the chocolate cake:

• Separate the egg yolk and white in two different bowls taking care, no traces of yolk gets into white.

Beat the york well to get a thick creamy texture. Add 3/4 cup sugar and beat again.

Egg york in the process of beating

• Add the butter, cooking oil, 1tsp vanilla essence and beat in low speed till everything mixes evenly.
•  Beat egg whites by adding 1/4 cup of sugar gradually to get a white cream. Make sure the egg whites do not have any traces of yolks and the beater is clean and dry.

• In another bowl sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder.
• Now Incorporate the york mixture and flour mixture. Fold in the beaten egg white and mix everything gently to get a thin batter. If the batter goes thick add a bit low fat milk.
• Pre-heat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.
• Grease a 9 inch round cake pan and use a cooking spray to grease the pan.(since you have to get cake layers either make a big cake and cut horizontally into three or four by running a knife carefully or make cakes in two or three separate pans. I baked two separate cake out of this batter and sliced each cake into two to get four layered cake.)

•  Pour the batter and bake the cake for 25-30 mins or until a knife or toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Set aside to let it cool. Slice the cake horizontally into 3-4 slices and keep aside.
• Boil the water and add 2-3 tbsp of sugar to it, keep stirring it till it become like a syrup not too thick but just reduce a bit.
• Insert the fork slowly all over the sliced cake make o make small holes. Sprinkle the syrup over the sliced cake and set aside

Preparing the whipping cream:

• In a clean and refrigerated bowl add the whipping cream and beat from low to medium speed for 4-5 mins.
• Once the cream starts to thicken add the powdered sugar gradually and whip for a minute or two.
• Add the vanilla essence and low speed just to mix it well with the cream. Set aside. The cream should be firm not runny

Layering the cake:

• Place a sliced cake on  a plate, top with 2-3 scoop of whipped cream, spread it evenly, top with some chopped cherries.
• Top it with another cake slice and repeat the process till you top up with the last slice of cake.
• Spread the top and sides of the cake with whipped cream nicely and evenly.
• Decorate with chocolate shaving on the top and sides of the cake.
• Garnish with  few whole cherries. Your black forest cake is ready to Serve..

Chocolate cake

It was my hubby's birthday on 29th March and I wanted to plan something special for him. It was a weekday and my husband didn't really want to celebrate it. The reason being he is getting older, he don't want our friends to know about it and all was just an excuse. I knew he didn't want to put me to work the whole day with two little one's as he know they trouble me a lot when I'm in the kitchen. So the plan for the day was to go out for dinner once he is back from work and my son was happy to hear that.
Still my mind was wandering to do something for him on his special day as he is the person who tries to make our family everyday a happy one. So I planned to bake a simple chocolate cake for him just as a surprise. I had some red roses in my flower vase and some left over candles. I already had a birthday greetings bought at new year time from a dollar store as I got 2 cards for $1 and I used one to wish my hubby on new year(I believe spending reasonable on good times teaches you spend better on bad times). We were very happy with the result. These simple things at home made our day. So here comes the recipe for a Chocolate layered cake with Chocolate Frosting.

Ingredients:-

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup Dark Cocoa powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• CHOCOLATE FROSTING (recipe follows)

Preparation Method:-

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 8 " Round baking pan.
2. Beat the egg yolk and white once at a time till fluffy. Add milk, oil, vanilla and beat well in med speed.
3. Whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl to remove lumps if any.
4. Add this dry mixture to the above wet one mixing it thoroughly. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pan.
5. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until  a tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely.
6. Run a knife between the cake carefully and cut it into two equal halves. 
7. Spread the chocolate frosting using a spatula, top with remaining cake, frost top and sides well. Refrigerate for half an hour if needed to get the frosting set well.

CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2/3 cup Dark Cocoa powder
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk( u can add additional milk as desired)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa, sugar and mix well. Add milk, beat well. You can add additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. Your chocolate frosting is ready.