Simple pleasures of baking

Yaah I call it pleasure an immense pleasure when I find my baked goodies turned out well and loved & enjoyed by friends and family. Last week when Rohan’s school slipped a note in his dairy that parents teachers association would like to have a bake sale to raise money for the underprivileged kids. I was thrilled This was going to be a double victory, I could get to bake and some proceeds would go to the poor kids. I flipped through quite a lot of cooking books. There were so many mouthwatering recipes but the one that caught my attention was simple yet desirable for kid’s distinguished tastes. Kids these days are really spoilt for choice, back in my days we had one variety of cake and I had to either eat it or loose it to my brother. The ones that grabbed my attention were shaped like chocolate dominos. Kids love chocolate and there is no denying that chocolate frostings are one of their most sought-after goodies.

I was equally thrilled as much as my little one who was all excited that mum would be getting some surprise goodies for his friends too. I baked a simple chocolate cake and frosted it with a combination of chocolate ganache and store brought frosting.

When I reached his school, he saw a glimpse of me through the window and his excitement grew manifold. It was an open day where parents were permitted to enjoy watching their kid’s activities. Needless to say Rohan kept proudly announcing that “my mum made this” to all his equally excited bunch of friends loading themselves with sugar and chocolate. He got an extra piece for his word of mouth advertising. Bless him my little prince.

Recipe for Chocolate cake
1 1/ 2 cup plain flour
½ cup butter
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method
Shift flour, baking powder, cocoa powder in bowl. Beat sugar and butter till light and fluffy. Add eggs and whisk well. Gradually add the flour and mix till incorporated.

Preheat the oven 180’C. Grease a baking pan of your choice and bake it for 25 minutes or till done.

Remove and let it cool down. (I made it in the night and kept it outside covered with a tea towel).

Frosting
Ganache
¾ cup cream
80 grams dark chocolate.

Stir the above in a sauce pan on low fire. Take care not to boil the cream. Keep stirring till the chocolate has melted and mixed well. Remove and cool it.

Refrigerate it.

I blended few tablespoon of chocolate ganache and few tablespoons of store brought frosting together. Gently Label it with a spatula of the slices and decorate it with Smarties.

I also made these Checker board cookies and the recipe can be found here.

The chocolate dominoes goes Madhavi of http://vegetarianmedley.blogspot.com/ hosting Children's day event.