The Reluctant Cook's Chocolate Cake outing [UBC Post 3]

I have often said that I am a Reluctant Cook. To cut the long story short, I don't enjoy cooking but I know how to cook. I even love doing it sometimes for the two most special people in my life - my husband and my son.

Cake is something which all of us love, and this is my son's birthday month. Though we love cake, I don't make it too often because it is laden with calories. But now since we are nearing the little one's birthday, I want to practice a little before making the Birthday Cake.

I was going to make Smita's Rainbow Cake (since I am planning to make that for my son's birthday), but my nephew (who is visiting) declared he loves chocolate cake. So, I thought, let me try that first. I sent a message to Smita to check on how much coco powder should I add for a 200 gm flour cake. She sent me a few website links to refer. I finally settled for this recipe on Gayathri's blog. Let me add what an awesome blog it is! I drooled for quite a while before setting on to the task at hand. 

I am reproducing her recipe with the minor modifications I did.

Recipe for the Eggless Chocolate Cake (without Milk, so Vegan too)

Ingredients:
Flour (Maida)-1 cup
Baking Powder-3 tsp (I put 2.5 tsp, but it has come out melts-in-your-mouth soft, I thought probably a tiny bit less would have been better)
Baking Soda - 3/4 tsp
Cocoa Powder - 1/3 cup (Next time I would put slightly less quantity of this as it turned out too chocolate for me)
Water -1/2 cup
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Oil - 45 ml
Melted Butter - 45 ml
Castor Sugar (or powdered sugar) - 3/4 cup

[Note: You must refer her conversion chart because cups and spoons can really confuse sometimes]

Procedure:
1. In a bowl add melted butter, oil and sugar.
2. Whisk well until sugar dissolves.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder.
4. Add water to the butter mixture and whisk well. (I usually don't put the entire quantity at one go but eventually that much was needed)
5. Add the flour mixture and mix it gently using a wooden spoon.
6. Pour the batter into silicon moulds or a 7"cake tin.
7. Preheat oven to 160C.
8. Bake the cake for 15minutes if using small moulds and 25-35 minutes for a single tin.
9. Check with a tooth pick. When done transfer to wire rack and allow it to cool completely.
10. Serve and Enjoy.

You can see the end result in the pictures. I would not say it turned out perfectly but that is the thing with making dishes by referring recipes. You learn to perfect it after a few trials. It was strictly OK this time, but a few modifications will do it justice. You may hop on to Gayathri's blog for awesome recipes of cake.