The above cake we made was for giving a surprise birthday celebration to Liesel. Riya, Liesel and Narin were coming to our place to have a small reunion after almost a decade. Liesel's bday was coming on the following week so we had this surprise bday celebration for her. We even called Diya and Lakshmi on skype to complete the group :) And it is Diya on the phone screen in the below photos. We were all roommates during our college time. And we used to have this surprise b'day celebration in our room for all birthdays.Those hostel days were some of the most beautiful fun days in my life. And to meet Riya, Liesel and Narin after so long was so much fun!
In the above picture I have filled and frosted the cake with Raspberry mousse and chocolate ganache
The same cake recipe was used to make Anjan's Birthday cake last year. Chocolate ganache was used for cake filling and frosting.
Ingredients:
- Sugar - 2 cups
- Cake Flour - 1+2/3 cup
- Cocoa powder - 1 cup
- Baking soda - 2 tsp
- Baking powder - 1 tsp
- Salt - 1/4 tsp
- Instant coffee powder - 1/2 tsp
- Buttermilk/ Yogurt - 1 cup
- Water - 1 cup
- Eggs - 3 large
- Vanilla extract - 2 tsp
- Melted butter - 1 stick
Note:
- All ingredients must be in room temperature
Method:
- Preheat oven to 350F heat
- Line 2 9inch round cake pans with parchment paper and butter the paper and sides
- Sift sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and coffee powder into a large mixing bowl
- Whisk buttermilk, water, eggs and vanilla extract until just combined
- Whisk the egg mixture with the dry mixture till the batter is smooth, scraping the sides with a rubber spatula.
- Add the melted butter now and stir with the whisk until well combined. The batter will be somewhat thin
- Divide the batter evenly among the 2 pans and bake it for 16-18 minutes until the cake tester comes out clean when inserted
- Let the cake cool on a wire rack in the pan for 10 minutes and then invert them on to the rack to remove parchment paper.
- Invert it again and cool till the cakes reach room temperature
- The cakes can be filled and frosted now or can be wrapped tightly in a cling wrap and frozen for upto a month.