Chocolate Fudge Cake

An ardent fan of all things chocolate, I somehow managed to stay away from chocolate fudge cake until now. Though late to join this particular bandwagon, I am glad that I didn't put it off any longer.

The interesting part with fudge cake is, the amount of wet ingredients is a bit more as compared to other cakes, but that is exactly what achieves the perfect balance of brownie style density and the fluffy delicate structure of a cake. The taste and flavours of this cake also go across a range of undertones, courtesy addition of coffee, salt, vanilla and the melting butter technique. So, do not panic if the liquids seem a bit too much, be patient with the baking time and wait for the oven to do its magic.

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cup flour - I used whole wheat flour

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder

• 1/4th cup or approx 60 grams butter

• 1/2 cup veg oil

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• 1 egg

• 3/4th cup milk, at room temperature

• 2 teaspoons instant coffee powder

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup boiling water

Method:

1. Butter and line an 8 inch cake tin, preheat the oven to 180 degrees

2. In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder

3. Boil 1 cup of water and add butter and coffee to it. Keep aside

4. In a mixing bowl, add oil and sugar and mix in

5. Add some of the dry ingredients to the sugar mix, followed by half of the water-coffee mix.

6. Once the coffee mix is finished, add some flour and crack the egg. Gently fold in.

7. Top off with remaining flour.

8. Add vanilla extract, fold gently to ensure no lumps remain

9. The batter is very runny as compared to usual cake batters

10. Pour the batter in the cake pan and tap twice to remove any air bubbles

11. Bake for 35-40 minutes

12. Let the cake cool down for 5 min before demolding and cool down completely before icing

For the chocolate cream icing:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup full fat cream

• 1/2 cup chocolate chunks

• 1 tablespoon icing sugar

Method:

1. Gently whip cream for 3-4 minutes

2. Add 1 tablespoon sugar and fold in

3. Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and let it cool slightly

4. Delicately fold in the chocolate into the cream

5. Chill the cream before icing on the cake