Chocolate Therapy

Chocolate Therapy

what happens when life hands Sihan a bunch of odd twists and turns and a bunch of lemons? hmph.. She turns it into a chocolate cake!

well, truth is.. gotta tame the crazy urge to bake after a few stressful days and incidents. and of course find a reason to try out recipes from my newly purchased books as well as those i've borrowed from the library. This time, with a touch of luck, i chanced upon a recipe from the book 'Southern Cakes' tt required no use of the mixer. (fyi, my poor mixer is still stuck in the workshop getting fixed up. *sobz*). well.. easy recipes always appeal to me. quick gratification they would call it...

BUT in the end, the cake's recipe didn't turn out as easy as i hoped it to be. haha. perhaps a little fumbly from the use of so many different containers and pans! rawrs.. thank goodness i dun do the washing. Oops.. hehe.

Chocolate Wet Cake with Speedy Chocolate Frosting as it called in the sweet little book gurantees a 'unique texture, somewhere between fudge, cake and a milk chocolate candy bar. ' hmph.. after reading tt excerpt, i was quick to jump the gun. tt sounded lyke a feast to my tastebuds and ever growing appetite (my gosh.. doesn't sound right at my age now. but oh well...)

glancing quickly thru the recipe.. Dammit. i've got to shop for buttermilk! freaks.. just when i was worrying about fitting in a tiny shopping trip into my packed schedule. i saw a tiny note below the page tt made my heart leap about in joy. a quick alternative to buttermilk, stir 1 1/2 tsp vinegar or lemon juice into 1/2 cup of milk and let stand for 10min! woots.. tt sounded easy enough. now i've got all the ingredients at hand! baking shldn't be such a chore... i could smell freshly baked chocolate cake at the tip of my nose...

Chocolate Wet Cake

with Speedy Chocolate Frosting

ingredients

1/4 cup cocoa

1 cup water

2 sticks butter, cut into chunks

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar (i cut it down to 1 1/2 cup sugar though)

1 tsp ground cinammon

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

  1. preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius
  2. grease a 13-by-9 inch baking pan generously
  3. combine coca, water, butter in saucepan and stir till butter melts to form a chocolate sauce
  4. let the mixture come to a gentle boil and remove from the heat. cool.
  5. combine flour, sugar, cinammon, baking powder and salt together woth fork.
  6. in another bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs and vanilla, stir with fork.
  7. Combine all 3 mixtures and use a wooden spoon to stir everything together to form a smooth chocolate batter
  8. Pour batter into tray and bake for 25mins.
  9. Cool cake in pan.

Speedy chocolate frosting

ingredients

1 stick butter

2 tblspoon cocoa

3 tblspoon milk

2 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

  1. combine butter, cocoa and milk and stir over heat till melted into a smooth chocolate sauce.
  2. remove from heat and add confectioners sugar and vanilla to pan.
  3. Using a wooden spoon, beat mixture till sugar disappears and frosting reaches medium thick, spreadable consistency.

finally... all done! hehe. now now one's complaining about all that work coz the reactions were phenomenal! little bro commented tt its lyke a eating a apple crumble in a chocolate cake (strange as it seems.. i pretty much fancy tt idea!), the boss at work gave it thumbs up (imagine the italian mamma mia sign followed by a face tt melts with ectasy from a chocolate overload..). my gosh.. makes my day! colleagues loved it too.

only scrooge around was wang zhiheng who complained tt it was a tad too sweet and the sugar in the frosting was too granular (hmph. i'll solve tt problem next time yar?). oh well. at least i lyked it as well! *tee hee*


current mood: psyched about baking!

pls stay tuned for more baking escapades and recipes to come!

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