Chocolate cake

Time taken: 1 – 1 ¼ hrs

Serves 20 to 25

Ingredients:

• Condensed milk – 1 cup
• Water – ½ cup
• Vegetable oil margarine – 1 cup (250g) + ¼ cup (for icing)
• Sugar – 1 cup +  ½ cup (for icing)
• Multi-purpose flour – 2 cups
• Semolina – ½ cup
• Cocoa powder – ¼ cup + 2 tbsp (for icing)
• Vanilla essence – ½ tsp + few drops (for icing)
• Baking powder – 2 tsp
• Baking soda – ¼ tsp

Method:

1. Whisk the sugar and margarine in a bowl until creamy. Then, add the milk and continue whisking.
2. Add the water and whisk till it is smooth and creamy.
3. Sieve together the flour, semolina and cocoa powder. Add the baking powder and soda and mix.
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients, mixing until there is a smooth batter.
5. Transfer to cake tray and bake for about 45 mins – 1 hr at 170⁰C/340⁰F. Make sure you do not forget to check in around the 40 min mark (as my mother did this time) and take the cake out, without letting it over-bake else it will turn out too dry.
6. Let the chocolate cake cool while preparing the chocolate icing.
7. Mix 2 tbsp of cocoa powder with ½ cup of icing sugar in a bowl. The sugar can be reduced based on your tolerance level for sweets.
8. Add the margarine little by little and whisk till the icing is creamy and smooth. Add the vanilla essence and mix well.
9. Spread the chocolate icing evenly over the chocolate cake.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.