SLC-S24/W2 | Chocolate cake

Hey Everyone, Assalam u Alikum,

This is Aniqa Mashkoor, I hope you people will be in the best of your health. Feeling Chocolaty? 🍫

Chocolate is everywhere. So here we are at the start of week two, and things are already getting delicious! I couldn’t take part in the butter cake challenge last week due to a few reasons, but I had so much fun scrolling through everyone’s entries. They were honestly mouthwatering! I even checked out the original recipe from the post of our beloved instructor @m-fdo, and it looked super simple and beginner-friendly. If I ever get a chance to try it myself, I’ll be sure to share my results.

_{The image has been designed on Canva by me}

---

I’ve made chocolate cakes and brownies quite a few times before, and every time, I love trying out a different recipe. It’s like a little baking experiment, and I always mark the best one to come back to later. Honestly, baking cakes is something I truly enjoy, and let’s be real, who doesn’t love a slice of rich chocolate cake or a fudgy brownie? To make my cakes extra flavorful, I often mix in different chocolaty ingredients like cooking chocolate, milk chocolate, Nutella, choco chips, or even big chunks of chocolate. It always turned out yummy, and a cake with a blast of chocolaty goodness in every bite!

But for now, I’m diving right into the chocolate cake challenge! I just baked mine, I made a few small tweaks to the recipe, and it came out moist, rich, and extra chocolatey. Can’t wait to share the full recipe with you!

_{Image Captured by Motorola}

Let's check out the ingredients first,

INGREDIENTS:

Serial Number	Ingredient	Qty.	Price in steem
1	Eggs	2	1 steem
2	Butter	100g	3 steem
3	Sugar	100g	1 steem
4	Vanilla Essence	Few Drops	0.5 steem
5	Baking Powder	1/2 tsp	0.5 steem
6	All Purpose Flour	85g	1.5 steem
7	Cocoa Powder	15g	1 steem
8	Coffee	1 Tbsp	1.5 steem
9	Olpers Liquid Milk	3 Tbsp	1.5 steem

The prices of the above Ingredients listed here are currently (1 Steem = 43 Pkr). This cake costed me 11 Steem

_{Image is captured with Motorolla}

---

---

RECIPE:

Step 01:

First, I took 100 grams of butter in a bowl and added 100 grams of ground sugar to it. I then beat them with the help of a beater really well until the texture was nice and creamy. After that, I added eggs one by one to the mixture. Once the eggs were in, I gave everything a good mix with the beater to make sure all the ingredients were well combined.

_{The first picture covers the addition of butter and sugar, the second one is when I added eggs into it one after another}

---

Step 02:

Then, when the three ingredients are mixed well, I dissolved coffee into water and added it to the mixture along with vanilla essence. My family loves the aroma and taste of coffee, so I add this to my cakes. This is completely optional. It totally depends on your taste buds. But on my recommendation, do give it a try, it enhances the flavor and makes it rich.

_{The first step shows the coffee mixture that I added to my mixture along with vanilla essence. The last picture is the final color of my mixture, which turned out brown after beating all the ingredients together.}

---

Step 03:

Now, I sift all my dry ingredients. That includes all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Sifting is very important. Cocoa powder is the most dangerous ingredient for your cake. If it is not sifted thoroughly, it creates lumps in your mixture and does not make it smooth.

_{After sifting, I thoroughly mix All-Purpose flour, Cocoa Powder, and baking powder together.}

---

Step 04:

Now add the dry mixtures to your batter in chunks and fold them with the help of a spoon. I had my spatula, so I used it for folding. I personally love silicon spatula because it never keeps anything on it. Now when everything is mix well add the required amount of milk and fold it again.

_{I always add dry mixture in portions, because I personally feel that when you add it whole instantly, some of it spreads out of the bowl due to its thick consistency.}

---

---

TIME FOR PREARING THE MOLD

I did not have butter paper, so I just oiled my mould and spread some flour over it. This is my trick, and I use it every time, and luckily, my cake never gets stuck at the bottom of the mold. After preparing the mold, I transferred my cake mixture into it.

_{This is how my cake looks before baking.}

---

---

POT PREPARATION & BAKING

I do not have an oven, so I always bake on the stove. The tactic is very easy peasy. Just put a big pot over the stove. Place some kind of highted thing in your pot, I use a steamer for making it rise from the bottom. You just have to make sure that your cake mold does not directly contact the pot.

Preheat your pot for 20 minutes on maximum flame before placing your cake batter into it. Then, after placing your cake mold, minimize the flame to low. Let it bake for 30 minutes. After that, check your cake with the help of a needle. If it is clean, that means your cake is done. If it comes out with a cake mixture, that means it's slightly raw from inside and needs more time.

_{I baked it for exactly 30 minutes on low flame.}

---

---

FINALE

First Phase

Final Phase

I used the following ingredients to decorate my cake. I cut it into the shape of brownies and decorate it with the available material.

---

---

---

Now, time to figure out the last query. Why do we use cocoa powder and Aso, and why in a smaller quantity than flour?

To be very honest, I have been baking cake for quite a long time now, but I never thought about this. The first thing is quite simple. As we are baking a chocolate cake so cocoa powder is the main ingredient to add flavor and aroma of chocolate to our cake. It gives a perfect chocolaty brownish color to our cake.

The amount of cocoa powder is always less than the amount of flour due to its absorbent quality. It sucks up the moisture. If we add more or an equal amount of flour, we'll end up having a very hard, dry sponge. Cocoa powder is a powerful flavoring agent. An excess amount of cocoa powder can result in making the cake too bitter. So to achieve the ideal balance of chocolate flavor, moistness, and texture, we use the cocoa powder in a lesser amount in contrast to flour.

I would like to invite my friends @iffatilyas, @roohiasif99, @jannat12 to participate in the Challenge.

Note: All images in this post were captured by my own Motorola device.

This is all from my side. I have tried to sum up all my tricks and knowledge as well as what I had for baking a cake in the pot. See you all with the next sweet adventure. Do let me know how you found my cake.