One - Bowl Dark Chocolate Cake with Butter Cream Frosting

I made this for my son as he was requesting me to make his favorite chocolate cake with butter cream frosting. After several days of nagging I finally decided to make this as I wanted to try out a frosting idea I saw recently on Amanda’s blog… For the decoration she suggests # 32 tip and you can see her detailed tutorial here…I didn't have # 32 tip so I tried with my star nozzle. .. It didn’t come out perfect and I ran out of butter cream frosting at the last row … But somehow I liked the overall look of the cake, so I thought of blogging it… Was intended as a blog anniversary post last week but due to time constraints I could not manage it last week...  It’s been 6 years of blogging and thank you so much for the love and support you have given me :)...

This chocolate cake I have already posted a long time ago... I used to make this cake regularly and the best part is that it is a one bowl cake and uses oil no butter…  it’s a very  soft cake and you can frost it with Butter cream or with Whipped cream ....

One - Bowl Dark Chocolate Cake with Butter Cream Frosting

(Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens "Cooking for Today Cakes")

Ingredients:

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 ¾cups granulated sugar

⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 ½cups water

¾ cup cooking oil

2 eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla essence

Method:

• Grease and lightly flour two 9 inch baking pans. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add water, oil, eggs and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixture on low to medium speed till combined. Beat for 2 minutes on medium to high speed. Pour batter into prepared pans.
• Bake in a 350°F /180°C oven for 30-35 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks. Arrange the cake in to desired shape and frost the cake with butter icing or fill and frost the cake with whipped cream. 

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or 1/2 pound), Softened (but not melted)

3-4 cups confectioners' (powdered) sugar, sifted

A small pinch of salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

up to 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

Method:

• Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. 
• Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. 
• Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of milk / cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time.

Assembly~ 

• Divide frosting into 2 bowls with the white frosting a little more than the other to frost the top of the cake. Add the desired colour to the other bowl.
• Layer the cakes with a very thin layer of buttercream between each layer. 
• Frost the outside of the cake with a thin layer of frosting. 
•  Prepare a piping bag with Wilton #32 or 1M tip to pipe shells.
•  Fill piping bag with the icing and pipe along the bottom of the cake. 
• Repeat next one or two rows also with same colour and then change it to white buttercream and frost the remaining rows and top of the cake too.