Valentine Day Special Eggless Chocolate Gateau and Some Awards!

February has been a very lucky month for my blog. I have been showered with lovely awards from my fellow bloggers. I am very glad and thank ful to them. Thanks a ton for remembering me and encouraging me through these awards. It means a lot to me.

Priya on acheiving the milestone of 200th post passed an award to her fellow bloggers. Thanks a lot Priya for making my  day.                                 

     

Nithu also shared this award and another award with me.

                                                                            

Thanks Nithu for these lovely awards.

Renuka has shared a bunch of awards with me. Thanks a lot for your kind gesture.

                                            

                         

                                                                        

I would like to share these with all my blogger friends! Please accept them.

Coming back to the recipe I am sharing here. It is the cake I made this Valentine's day!

'Chocolate' is a word that brings a plethora of feelings, tastes and pleasures. A peice of chocolate that lands on our tongues, melts slowly into a rich and creamy taste and soothes and tantalize our tastebuds. Me and my husband, both are chocolate lovers. A peice of chocolate is a must after every meal. It is a stuff of mood lifting happiness. But when it comes to cake he always wishes to have a plain vanilla cake with cream icing and cherries. After having made it for several occassions now and most recently on new year, I wanted to make a chocolate cake. Gladly, my husband agreed and I made this cake.

 

Eggless Chocolate Gateau:

Ingredients:

2/3 cup AP flour.
½ cup condensed milk.
¼ cup margarine.
1 tbsp chocolate powder.
2 tbsp cocoa powder.
½ tsp baking powder.
½ tsp baking soda.
¼ cup milk.
¼ cup aerated drink.
½ tsp vanilla essence.

This measurement is for one sandwich cake.We need two sandwich cakes for this gateau so just twice this measurement.

A little extra margarine and flour for greasing and dusting the pan.

Icing:

250 ml fresh cream.
1 tbsp cocoa powder.
½ cup icing sugar.
10-12 glazed cherries cut in halves.

Sugar syrup:

1 tbsp sugar.
2-3 tbsp water.

Process:

Preheat the oven at 180 C for 15 minutes. Grease a sandwich tin and dust it with flour. In a mixing bowl, add all the dry ingredients together and mix. Sieve it so that the mixture in uniform and there are no lumps in it.

In another bowl add the melted margarine and beat in the condensed milk. Stir well for two minutes. Add the vanilla essence and milk and beat nicely for 2 minutes till everything is evenly mixed. Now add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture, slowly and keep rotating to form a batter. Add the aerated drink and mix for another couple of minutes. Pour it in a pre greased tin and bake it in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes at 180 C till nicely raised and a skewer pricked in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

                                                   Fresh from oven

We will need 2 sandwich cakes. Make the other sandwich cake in the same way.

Whip 125 ml of fresh cream with ¼ cup of sugar. Keep it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. In a small bowl make sugar syrup by mixing the sugar and water. The sugar should dissolve completely in the water.

Heat a pan and add fresh cream. Keep the heat on low and let the cream melt. Add the cocoa powder and mix well. Remove it from heat and let it cool down a bit. Now add ¼ cup of sugar and beat well. Sugar will help it to thicken. Keep aside and cool it completely. Refrigerate it for 30 minutes before using.

The cake must be completely cooled down before using it or else the icing will melt and start running.

Place one sandwich cake on a flat plate. Brush it nicely with the sugar syrup. It will help the cake to remain moist. Spread the whipped cream over it evenly. Place the other sandwich cake over the cream layer. Spread the cocoa icing over it evenly. Decorate with glazed cherries.

I used ready to use tubes to write over the cake. It was very thick and I could only manage to write a few words.

                                                  But this lack of decoration this year was covered by the lovely taste. My husband loved it. I also served it later hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

                                                                             

[ Microwave a slice of cake for 30 secs and top it with a scoop of vanilla icecream, chocolate sauce and glazed cherries].

Hope all of you guys had a wonderful Valentine Day! Enjoy!!