Thursday, April 14, 2011

Recipe: Coffee Mocha Cake



Ugadi day also happened to be very important for us this year, as our handsome and charming son's birthday fell on the same day. As I have already said, we celebrate our children's birthdays twice every year, one by the Indian calendar (the star birthday) and the other by the western calendar. The Indian calendar birthday falls on a different date every year and it coincides with the actual date of birth every 19 years.

We had already celebrated the star birthday this year with Rice and dal pradhaman and 4th April was the actual date of birth. I usually bake a cake for my children's birthday and I was wondering what cake to bake. That is when my younger son suggested the Coffee Mocha cake as they had baked the cake for the monthly date of birth of my adorable and perfect grandson.

The original recipe is here. As I was baking an eggless cake and also because some of the ingredients are commercially not available here, I made some changes in the orginal recipe. The result, however, was awesome according to the tasters.

The recipe calls for sour cream and confectioner's sugar, both of which are not available here. Hence instead of confectioners sugar, I used home made powdered sugar and added 1 tsp. of corn flour to it.

I had a problem with sour cream. My son suggested I use buttermilk. However, I was not happy with the option because I thought buttermilk would be too thin. After scouring the web, I decided on making my own sour cream. I beat in 1 tbsp. of butter into 1 cup of fresh curds. I feel it would taste as good without beating in the butter. Just use plain fresh curds.

Let's get into the actual preparation of the cake.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

Maida or refined flour: 2 cups (approximately 250 gms)
Sweetened condensed milk: 300ml.
Butter: 10 tbsp ( approximately 350 gms)+1 tbsp.(for sour cream)
curds : 1 cup
baking powder: 1tsp.
baking soda: ½ tsp
salt: ¼ tsp
vanilla essence: 2 tsp.
Chocolate chips: 2 tbsp.
Instant coffee: 2 tbsp.

For the Glaze:

Instant coffee: 1½ tsp
Strong coffee decoction: 2-3 tbsp.
powdered sugar: 3/4 cup

Method:

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt twice.

Melt the chocolate chips in 2 tbsp. of warm water. Mix the instant coffee with 2 tbsp. of warm water.

Beat 1 tbsp. of butter with the curds until well combine (to make sour cream ).

Beat the remaining butter and condensed milk until well combined. Add vanilla essence and beat well. Add the flour mixture alternating with the sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture and fold in lightly. Divide the mixture into 3 parts.

Add the chocolate mixture to the first part and stir well.

Add the coffee mixture to the second part and stir well.

Keep the third part as such.

Grease and dust an 8" square pan. Pour one half of the first part on to the greased tin followed by one half of the 3rd part and one half of the 2nd part. Repeat.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F. Bake at the centre of the oven until the cake turns golden brown(approximately 50 minutes) or until a skewer inserted comes clean.

Remove and cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Invert onto a wire rack and cool completely.


Glaze:

Stir together the instant coffee and strong coffee decoction until the coffee powder is well dissolved. Add the powdered sugar and stir until well combined. Pour glaze over the cake and allow to settle.

njoy!

10 comments:

Priya Sreeram said...

lovely cake ! wishes to u n family !

Kaveri Venkatesh said...

Cake looks delicious...happy Vishu to you and your family...

Shobha said...

Perfect cake.

Goms said...

hi ... i tried this cake today and it came out very well...thanks for the recipe... my 3 yr old enjoyed it so much ....

Ammupatti said...

Hi Priya, Kaveri,Shoba and Goms

Thanks much. Happy Vishu to you all. Busy preparing Vishukani.

Goms, you are really fast.

Best wishes

Goms said...

thanks so much..i love cooking and i tried blogging sometime but with two kids it is not possible...i still do take a snap of all the dishes i make..someday i will also blog about food and culture ... :) i love how yu write about all brahmin traditions .

Unknown said...

Hi Ammu Paatti iam a very regular reader of ur blog i just have one doubt while preheating the oven itself i should place d cake inside the oven or once it gives beap sound i should keep it

Thanks Shubha

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Ammupatti said...

Hi Shubha

Preheating the oven is preparing the oven to the right temperature for the cake to bake.When the oven is heated to the right temperature,you will get the beep and then you have to place the batter inside the oven.

Happy baking.

crsplace said...

thanks for the recipe... my 4 yr old enjoyed it so much .see my blog crsplace crs-place.blogspot.com thanks.