Easy chocolate layered cake

Though I have been baking cakes for a while now, I have shied away from baking layered cakes and also from icing the cakes. I always thought that icing is not something that is easy to do. I would drool over pictures of fellow bloggers' cakes with perfect, melt-in-your-mouth kind of icing on top. I recently conquered my fear of both - baking layered cakes and of making icing at home, realizing in the process that it is not a very difficult task if you have good quality ingredients on hand.

What you need:
For the chocolate cake: (Recipe source : Adapted from the Hershey's website - www.hersheys.com)
All purpose flour - 3 cups
Dark chocolate cut into small pieces - 1.5 cups (I used Morde)
Water - 2 cups
Baking soda - 2 tsp
Buttermilk - 2 tbsp (Original recipe calls for white vinegar)
Sugar - 1.5 cups
Salt - 1 tsp
Vegetable oil - 2/3 cupshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Vanilla extract - 2 tsp

Preheat oven to 180 degree centigrade. Grease two nine inch round cake pans.
Mix together flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.
Heat chocolate in the microwave (medium power) for two minutes or until it melts when stirred. Cool a little and then add it into the mixing bowl. Add all the other ingredients and mix with a hand blender until well blended.
Pour the mixture into the greased pans and bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Cool completely.

For the whipped chocolate cream frosting : (Recipe source - Divya's Easy cooking)
Dark chocolate - 1/2 cup
Cream - 2 cups (I used Nilgiris cream)
Sugar - 3 tbsp
In a large, thick bottomed sauce pan, boil the cream and sugar. Switch off the heat and then mix in the chopped chocolate. Stir until the chocolate melts completely. Let it cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Whip the cream over an ice bath at medium speed until soft peaks begin to form. Refrigerate until you are ready to use it.
This is the part that made me happiest. I couldn't believe how easy it was to do this and how wonderful the whipped cream tasted.

For the chocolate glaze : (Recipe source - adapted from the Hersheys website)
Grated dark chocolate - 2 tbsp
Butter - 2 tbsp
Water - 2 tbsp
Sugar - 2 tbsp (Original recipe calls for 1 cup, but I felt it would make the cake too sweet)
Melt butter in a pan. Add sugar, chocolate and water. Cook on a low flame, stirring constantly until it forms a smooth, slightly thick paste. Take care to not let it boil. Let it cool to room temperature.

Putting the cake together:
Place on of the cakes on the serving platter Spread 1/3rd of the whipped chocolate cream frosting on it evenly. Place the other cake on top. Now cover the top and sides with the remaining frosting.
Pour the glaze on top of the cake, letting some of it run down the sides.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.



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