Do I need an excuse to bake a cake?! Well, this time I had one! My brother celebrated his birthday yesterday; so the occasion called for a big birthday cake but it had to be an egg-less one since we’re in the middle of the Ganpati festival. With all the cakes I have baked, I had never attempted going egg-less and I had no trusted recipe to go to. So I posted a request on this foodie Facebook group that I’m a member of – Chef at Large, which is an extremely active and supportive group of cooks, both professional & amateur. Within minutes, Deeba Rajpal responded with this lovely recipe and I was sold! Do take a look at Deeba’s blog Passionate about Baking, which is a veritable visual treat. Deeba was also named as one of the top 100 food bloggers to follow, so do (@vindee)!
I had to make a few changes to the filling and
the ganache since I couldn’t find any fresh cream in four stores! So I bought
some whipped cream from a cafe and then improvised with what I had on hand.
Also, the buttercream piping is from my neighbourhood gourmet baker Not Just Desserts, who very sweetly agreed to lend me a piping cone, when I
sent her a late night SOS! So this has been a collaborative cake so to speak
and here’s the recipe.
Instead of making one big cake, I halved the ingredients
and baked two separate cakes, which I then filled with the raspberry filling.
You can make one cake and slice it into 2 or 4 layers. This cake also gave me
the chance to try out the vanilla beans I picked up in Kerala and I’m so glad I
bought so many of them!
This recipe makes one layered 22cm (or 24cm) cake.
You’ll need:
For
the Cake
- 600g All-purpose Flour
- 350g Caster Sugar
- 100g Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 100g Dark Chocolate, chopped
- 260ml Vegetable Oil
- 700ml hot Water
- 30ml White Vinegar
- 2tsp Baking Powder
- One Vanilla Bean, scraped
- A pinch of Salt
- 100ml Fresh Cream, whipped to medium stiff peaks
- 100g fresh Raspberries (or Strawberries)
- 50g Sugar
- 1tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
- ½ a Vanilla Bean, scraped
- 50g Dark Chocolate, chopped
- 50g Raspberry Compote (see recipe posted here earlier)
- Some Milk
How to:
- Begin with the filling as it needs time to cool down. I made this a day in advance and refrigerated it till needed.
- Place the raspberries, sugar, vanilla and balsamic vinegar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and simmer. Stir occasionally and cook till it acquires a jam-like consistency. Allow to cool completely and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 22cm (or 24cm) springform pan and sprinkle some flour in it.
- Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Add the vanilla and set aside.
- Combine water, oil and vinegar in a large cup.
- Melt the chocolate on a double boiler and set aside.
- Add the water and oil mixture to the dry ingredients and incorporate using the cut and fold technique. Add the melted chocolate and mix well.
- Turn the batter into the cake tin and bake for until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. If you’re baking 2 separate cakes, it will take about 35-40 minutes and about 50-60 minutes for one large cake.
- Cool the cake(s) completely and slice into layers.
- While the cakes are cooling, make the icing. Melt chocolate on a double boiler and mix raspberry compote. Add couple of tablespoons of mix till you get a spreading consistency.
- For the filling, combine the raspberry ‘jam’ with whipped cream and slather on one cake layer and pile the layers together.
- Refrigerate for about 30 minutes and then spread the chocolate-raspberry icing on top and on the sides, covering the cake completely.
- Decorate the cake as you wish.
