Valentines 2013

This post comes way too late, I know I know but alas I am here.

What is Valentine without Roses, Hearts and Chocolates. Roses from hubby dear came in a day early not one but two bouquets and it was indeed a warm surprise since I had not expected them at all. Me had plans to make/bake something very rich like you know Nigellas Chocolate Fudge but that experiment just did not come out straight and support me, so as a quick fix I decided to bake something chocolaty and heart healthy and that's how this cake recipe came handy. Ah! can we actually call it healthy now that it has some butter cream frosting..(Grrrrrrrr)

And this attempt made me look back into my childhood when my mother used to make us sponge cakes at home. She did them so well without OTG's or ovens or even a cooking range. Her equipment was an aluminium stove top steamer with some sand filled plate used as the base below the steamer. I really cant find a picture online so next time I visit home, I will post the pictures up here in my blog.

So lets get going with the recipe.

I chose to make this cake on the stove top with the moulds that came with my Idli steamer. Again thanks to my mother, she used to make cup cakes for us from the moulds that came in her aluminium steamer. Mom's are truly inspirational for us daughters when it comes to kitchen isn't it! Plus the cake was made in shorter time than usual baking that takes something like 30 to 45 minutes.

Ingredients
1.5 cups all purpose flour (well little less than 1.5 as we got to have some for greasing the moulds)
1 cup of plain curd (non chilled)
3/4 cup of powdered sugar (normal crystal sugar will do but I prefer powdered sugar)
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1 and 1/4 tsp of baking powder
1/2 cup of olive oil ( you can use any vegetable oil too)
1 tsp of vanilla essence
3 tbsp of cocoa powder
Aluminium foil

My way of making

1. Beat curd without any lumps. Add the sugar and mix well. Just whisk it up for few minutes.

2. To this add the baking soda and baking powder. Mix well and set aside until the mix starts bubbling up.

3. Add the vanilla and oil to the mix and combine them well.

4. Whisk the flour and coco powder together separately and then add them to the wet ingredients.

5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients well until we get a thick chocolate coloured mix with no white seen.

6. Fill the moulds 3/4 and cover them with aluminium foil to avoid them get soggy. 

7. Place the moulds in the steamer for about 20 minutes. If you are impatient like me you can have some awesome chocolate lava cakes between 10 to 15 minutes.

8. Check for the readiness when the top of the cake is soft enough to spring back or a knife inserted comes out with crumbs.

9. Cool and serve them as they are or with some vanilla butter cream frosting.

Note

1. I chilled them before serving you may serve them up as and when they are at room temperature.

2. The cake tends to be heavier and way different from the baked ones. Once a while this would do justice.

3. Steamer timing would vary based on the size of the steamer and the intensity of the flame. Do keep the flame from sim to low. I could place 6 moulds in my steamer at one go. 

4. The batter here would give you around 12 cup cakes. I made 6 cup cakes and a classic round shaped one with the help of a plate that would get into the steamer. (Tactics, what say)