This is my first icing/frosting cake, technically (I’ve made a french chocolate pecan torte before). Though I bake cake often, its usually plain cakes and the reason…of the two of us, hubby & me, I love cakes. Hence the major chunk is consumed by me. Though the beautiful pictures of Icing cake on other blogs tempts me a lot, I refrain from the idea thinking about the additional calories :((
This time I’ve got a reason to make icing cake & don’t feel guilty :) . It was my dear hubby’s b’day a few days back. The special dish for the occasion varies according to his mood, he generally doesn’t ask for cakes, but this time he said he wanted an icing cake. I was feeling so enthusiastic and started going through all my baking books and even bookmarked some, especially simpler ones, since I don’t have much icing experience and didn’t want the b’day cake to be a disaster :) . I became crazy with all the icing cake recipes flashing one after another in my mind (ya it happens at times, when I wanted to do something for a long time and finally when the time comes all the ideas will start dancing in my head ;) ). Around the same time one of our family friend’s gave me two kutti (small) baking books ( chocolate cakes & cafe cakes) for reference and she said all the recipes in those two books were tried by their daughter and it came out very well. This helped me in taking one decision, that I will make a cake from one of those two books. Since it was a b’day cake I decided to go for chocolate.
Finally I found out the cake, hurrayyyyyyy :) The picture of this cake in that book looks awesome, it looks very moist and the recipe was a simple one, basic stuff, but looks extraordinary. And am happy that I selected that one, b’day boy enjoyed the cake so much and also the guests, that I packed some pieces for them too :)
Now, this cake is not only for my hubby dear, a number of people who are very dear to me are celebrating b’day this month. The list starts here: my dearest amma, my dearest sis in law, some of my close friends (if i say their name, the list will go on so..) my blogging friends Emi , Mona & Divya. Also my dearest cousin sis is celebrating her first wedding anniversary this month. If it’s your b’day or any other special day in this month, this is for you too :). May god bless you all !!
Also, one of my readers, Sindhu asked for Icing cakes recipe sometime back. Sindhu, hope you find this interesting.
As the name suggests, its definitely a family cake, am sure that everyone in the family will love this cake.
Update: I am sending this cake for Sweet Celebrations event at Aparna’s My Diverse Kitchen. Her blog is celebrating its first b’day and am sending this b’day cake for the event. Aparna, I wish you many more happy years of blogging.
Am so happy to take part in an event like this, I usually dont particiapte because, generally my cooking is not at all planned, it mainly depends on my mood. I visited her blog today and saw her reminder about the event and since I already have the cake post here, I thought I should participate :)
So here is the recipe:
- Water – 2 cups, 500ml
Caster sugar – 3 cups, 660gm
Butter – 250gm, chopped - Cocoa powder – 1/3 cup, 35gm
Soda bicarbonate – 1 tsp - Self-raising flour – 3 cups, 450gm
- Eggs – 4, beaten lightly
Fudge frosting
- Butter – 90 gm
Water – 1/3 cup (80 ml)
Caster sugar – 1/2 cup (110 gm) - Icing sugar- 1 1/2 cups (240gm)
Cocoa powder – 1/3 cup (35 gm)
Cake preparation
Preheat oven to 180 degree 10 minutes before baking. Grease deep 26.5cm*33cm (14cup/3.5ltr) baking dish; line base with baking paper.
Combine the water,sugar,butter and combined sifted cocoa powder and soda bicarbonate in medium saucepan; stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil then reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to large bowl; cool to room temperature.
Add flour and egg to bowl; beat with electric mixer until mixture is smooth and changed to a paler colour. Pour mixture into prepared dish. Bake cake in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes. Stand cake in baking dish 10 mins, before turning onto wire rack; turn cake top-side up to cool. Spread cold cake with fudge frosting.
Fudge frosting preparation
Combine butter, the water and caster sugar in small saucepan; stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Sift icing sugar and cocoa powder into small bowl then gradually stir in hot butter mixture. Cover; refrigerate about 20 mins or until frosting thickens. Beat with wooden spoon until spreadable.
Tips given in the recipe book:
Choose a perfectly level-bottomed baking dish; one made from cast aluminum is the best choice, but almost any type will work. If the cake appears to be cooking too quickly in the corners of the pan, reduce oven temperature to 170 degree; this will increase cooking time by upto 15 mins. The above quantity serves 20.
Notes: I made half of the quantity mentioned above. I used an 8 inch square tin and 4 inch round tin. The baking time was around 40 mins for the square tin and around 30 mins for the round tin. I baked at 180 degree. I did icing only on the square cake. The plain cake can be stored at room temperature for 4-5 days and the icing cake can be refrigerated for 4-5 days. Before serving the refrigerated icing cake, microwave it for 15- 20 seconds. The cake was very moist just like the pic in the book :), though my picture doesn’t come anywhere close to that :(
Recipe source: The Australian Women’s Weekly, Chocolate Cakes
