Monday, April 25, 2011

Moist Chocolate Bundt Cake


   Its birthdays and birthdays in the family from January to May, April being the month of three birthdays and one wedding anniversary, July the month of 3 wedding anniversaries within 10 days! The kids' birthdays, more often than not, are celebrated at home. We normally keep it to a small group of their 'best-friends' at that point of time. The group was pretty much the same for the past 5 years and has changed only recently with my son's new all boys group. He had wanted all of them invited for his 9th birthday along with the old friends. He loves to have people over and we had to temper his enthusiasm.


He cried loud enough to scare the pediatrician in the hospital when he was born (turned out he was just very hungry!!!). He made me cry when as a 4-year-old, he never asked me to pick him up as Amma had a baby in her tummy. He is my staunch supporter most of the times when he senses me and hubby having a difference of opinion. He is a big foodie and loves to serve even water in style. His bed time reading - my recipe books a good number of times. Loves to draw sketches of cars and has plans to sell them to the Tatas no less - the first model to be sold to him. The little entrepreneur put up a lemonade stall, replete with a board which read "Rowjee's Lemonade Stall'' of front of our house last summer.

He has taken to reading detective stories and the outcome was this on our front door...Notice the logo and Bond.'A' Bond on the right:-)


Father-in-law has a home appliances store. Anirudh often accompanies him to the store. A customer had once asked if there were any 'offers' if he bought a television. Son seriously replied "If you buy a television at our store, you get the remote control free''. The then 6-year-old was kidnapped in his dream. He told the kidnapper that if he let him free, he would sell an air-cooler at a discount of 50% to him!  He had once told me with tears in his eyes that he would keep on collecting my pictures. The moment I die, he would paste them all over his room! Well, I did not know if I had to laugh or cry!!!

Back to the cake - it is a very important part of the birthday and we discuss ahead what cake it should be. I try to make it in line with whatever is his current fad. It was once a  Racing Track Cake , a Helicopter Cake the other year and this year a Beyblade cake (surprise, surprise!!). I tried to make one with a small beyblade drawing on it as. It turned out quite sloppy looking (me artistically challenged) but still the boys thought it was cool to have a beyblade cake and a home-made one at that! Notice (hard!) the 'L' in the middle which stands for a Lightning L Drago. I made this cake a vanilla sponge with almond, chocolate and whipped cream filling. 


I normally bake 2 cakes for the kids' birthdays. A chocolate cake doesn't fail to please most kids, so played safe and baked a Moist Chocolate Bundt Cake too


This cake is from the The Food Librarian's blog from here. This is one very easy and quick to put together cake, stayed quite moist even after almost 40 hours of baking it.. the last tiny slice was still moist and good. The recipe has both oil and butter in it, which adds to to the moist quality. Makes this a good make ahead cake for a party or a picnic. The original recipe has cinnamon in it, I have skipped it and added a dash of coffee. Feel free to tweak it to your taste and preference.



Ingredients:  
1/2 cup butter
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar (nope, the cake was not too sweet)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I skipped this)
1/2 cup buttermilk (Refer note below)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules(optional)
or
1.5 teaspoons cinnamon

Procedure : Preheat the oven to 190 degree C / 375 degrees F. Grease a 12'' bundt pan. I greased mine very very generously with ghee and dusted with flour. Put butter, water, oil, and cocoa in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil.(I added the coffee granules here) Meanwhile, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. Pour the chocolate mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well. Then, add the buttermilk and baking soda. Mix together the eggs (and cinnamon if using) and vanilla in a small bowl, and add to the batter. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake 30-35 minutes or till a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow cake to cool completely in the pan. I left the cake in the pan over night. My bundt cake once broke when I tried to invert it 15 minutes after baking. I don't think I will ever do that again.. safer to cool the cake in the tin for a few hours and then invert.

To make the buttermilk: Add 1 teaspoon of white vinegar to half a cup of room temperature milk. Let it stand for about 10 minutes, it will curdle. I used plain synthetic vinegar and it worked fine for me.

I have frosted the cake with dark chocolate ganache . You will need

For the ganache:
Cream( I have used 25% fat, Amul) - 2 Cups
Dark chocolate chopped - 2 1/2 cups
Unsalted butter - 1 tablespoon

Suspend a large fine meshed strainer over a suitable vessel. Bring the cream to a boil in a heavy and thick bottomed saucepan. Stir in the butter. Add the chopped dark chocolate. Whisk gently till the chocolate dissolves. Strain the ganache using a spatula to push it through the strainer. Straining will help get a smoother ganache with minimal air bubbles which means a smoother finish to the cake. Pour the ganache over the cake when still warm. If the ganache thickens before you use it, heat carefully in a microwave and use.


The cake sliced beautifully, was loved by the kids. I personally am very partial to cakes and brownies made with melted chocolate as compared to those made with cocoa. If you do not have any such strong preferences, please do bake this cake, you will like it for sure!

P.S: Forgive the pics as I just could not get them right a little late during the day. I love chocolate but taking pictures of chocolaty stuff - naaw.. HELP!!!






27 comments:

Zareena said...

mmmmm I love this chocolate bundt cake a lot. Your son looks so cute. The beyblade looks really artistic. You are a super mom Suma..:)

jayasree said...

Both the cakes look gorgeous though I'm partial to the bundt cake. Loved reading about your son. God bless him.

Divya Kudua said...

The bundt looks so pretty,the moist chocolate cake slice seems to be calling me!!I made the cake ages ago and loved it!!Belated birthdays to both your kids..love the bay-blade cake too!!

Saritha Thomas said...

Looks gorgeous!
Wheres d beyblade cake recipe?

Akila said...

what a yummmy cake...

say a hi to the Mr. 007....

DNSW: G Roundup
Event: Dish Name Starts with H

Nitha said...

Yummy chocolate cake..

divya said...

Mouthwatering recipe..... very tempting and soft....fabulous cake!!

Unknown said...

Excellent!!!! Recipe to die for!

Reshmi said...

itz awsomeme...truely divine...muahh..beautifully presented..

Priya Suresh said...

Both cakes looks simply out of the world, belated birthday wishes to ur kiddos..

Sushma said...

thats a lovely tempting cake..also lovely note too :)

Unknown said...

First of all happy birthday to everyone who is celebrating it.

That bond ad is superb and funny, but very smart of him. Love the imagination.

and, now cake, can I have a slice please :)

Sayantani Mahapatra Mudi said...

A very happy birthday to Anirudh. May God bless him with all the happiness of Heaven and Earth. Loved reading this this post and the Kid's sense of humour.the cake looks absolutely gorgeous and I love moist cakes like this.

Smita said...

Cake looks absolutly divine.... love ganache...cake or no cake, I can eat it just like that :)

Healthy Appetizer Event

Mma Chirravoori said...

hi, find the cakes to be very delicious.. but want an eggless version of them.. esp. the Bundt one. Could you help?

krupaj@gmail.com

(plus, agree completely with Smita :D )

Archana said...

Came by your blog for the first time today after Sayantani sent me the link...loved reading the post...A very very happy birthday to your son ! The cakes look super awesome...was checking for recipes using gloripan yeast..am going to try out the buns real soon..they looks so so wonderful..lovely blog, will be back for more :)

Trina said...

The cake looks delicious. Your son has a great imagination with the bond ad. Hope his birthday is wonderful.

Pavithra Elangovan said...

Love reading ur post suma.. the cake looks extraordinary. So moist and crumbs are absolutely fantastic. By the way. Suma Tell Anirudh that I am going to contact him for some project when I am coming to India :)

Nachiketa said...

super nice moist cake.... totally yummy... will have to come to Bangalore to kiss your fingers n eat this super nice looking cake
love your post :)

Cheers,
The Variable, Crazy Over Desserts - Nachiketa
Catch me on facebook @ Crazy Over Desserts

Unknown said...

i made this one and posted it today....loved it..

Madhu said...

Your cake looks very yummy Suma...your son looks very cute too. Will try out the Bundt cake sometime.

Divya Shankar said...

Awesome, Suma :) u should start a bakery chain and some personal baking tutions :)

Saee Koranne-Khandekar said...

What a right little boy you have! I LOVED his logo and banner! Great blog, too--loved the variety you've got up here, especially in baking. :)

Priya said...

Hi Suma,

Have been following your blog for a while now. You have some great recipes and lovely photos.

I want to bake this cake for my son's birthday, but want to know if the dark chocolate used in the ganache was semi sweet? Not sure if my 2 year old will like it if the ganache is bitter. Let me know if I can substitute it with semi sweet chocolate or will it make the cake very sweet?

Thanks,
-Priya

Suma Rowjee said...

Thanks Priya! The dark chocolate is semi-sweet chocolate. Please do make it with the semi-sweet chocolate,it should be perfect!

Shri said...

Hi Suma, I made this lovely cake yesterday for two friends birthdays and I was thrilled to see 3/4 of the cake vanish between 4 ladies and 4 kids !!!! I literally had to steal a huge slice to keep away for my hubby. Loved the moist chocolattyyyyyness. thanks for such a wonderful recipe :)

Unknown said...

I made this amazing cake on valantine day with strawberry decoration and it turned out to be the best cake. It was so moist, beautiful and mouthwatering, got over in a day.
Thanks a lot for this amazing recipe. I am in love with this site.