Eggless Dark Chocolate Layered Cake with chocolate buttercream and ganache frosting

This has been a long hiatus from blogging. Longer than I intended to or expected. But a lot of cooking has been done meanwhile. Every other time I was tempted to bring out my camera. This blog has always been on my mind. I am so glad to be finally posting a new recipe here. And on mothers day..this dark chocolate cake seems apt.  





Nothings exictes me like an eggless bake. Especially a cake. It is a rewarding experience. An eggless cake recipe is something I always want to give a try like this one previously posted. This one uses vinegar which does sound strange, but the results are great. I found the texture much lighter.
Just for fun, I ve used 2 kinds of frostings. Ganache and buttercream. I used the buttercream as the layer and ganache for the final topping on the cake. The cake and the ganache can easily be veganised by using soy milk or water instead of milk.

Eggless Dark Chocolate layered cake with butter cream frosting and chocolate ganache.

Things you need -

Cake

175 gms plain flour/ all purpose flour

125 gms sugar
75 ml neutral vegetable oil + extra to grease
25 gms unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp vinegar/cider vinegar
200 ml milk or soy/almond milk or water


Chocolate butter cream
100 gms Butter at room temperature
75 gms gms icing sugar
About 5 tbsp cocoa powder
pinch of salt
milk as needed
a drop or pinch of vanilla extract


Chocolate Ganache
200gms semiweet chocolate
100 ml cream
1-2 tbsp of honey or corn syrup, optional for a super shiny glaze

Method -

For the cake-
Preheat oven to 180 deg Celsius. Grease a 7 inch round cake pan with oil and keep aside.
Sift the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda and baking powder together.
In a separate bowl whisk oil, vinegar, milk and vanilla extract.
Quickly pour into the dry ingredients and mix. Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for about 30-40 mins until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Take cake out of the oven and allow to cool completely before unmoulding.
Using a serrated long time, carefully cut the cake horizontally into 2. To achieve a smooth cut, dip the knife into hot water, wipe with dry cloth and cut in one sided motion.


For the chocolate butter cream
Whisk all ingredients except milk together with a whisk. As the frosting comes together, add drops of milk as required to attain the right consistency for frosting. The mixture should be easily spreadable. 
Frost a tin layer of butter cream icing on one of the layers of the cake and cool in refrigerator for 15 minutes. Now frost another coating on to it. This ensures a smooth coating. Top with the second cake layer.


For the Chocolate ganache
Melt the chocolate on a double boiler or in microwave at 360w in bursts of 1 minute.
Allow to cool slightly.
Pour the cream and honey/corn syrup into the chocolate and whisk well.
Pour onto the cake and spread lightly with a spatula until it is coated as desired.

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