TRIPLE CHOCOLATE BIRTHDAY CAKE

 I baked this Cake recently for a colleague at work, isn't it surprising that you can just close your eyes and bake a chocolate cake and be rest assured that it will be a roaring success!That's the power of chocolate on mere mortals :)

Though the recipe may seem lengthy it is really an extremely simple cake to make and put together, give it a try!!

Ingredients-

 For the cake-

• All purpose Flour-1 & 1/2 cups
• Cornflour-1/4 cup
• Castor Sugar-3/4 cup
• Cocoa powder-4 tbsp
• Butter- 1/4 cup, melted
• Baking powder- 3 tsp
• Egg-1
• Vanilla extract-1 tsp
• Milk-3/4 cup
• Curd-2 tbsp
• Salt-1/4 tsp

For the chocolate syrup-

• Sugar-2 tbsp
• Cocoa powder- 2 tsp
• Vanilla essence-1/2 tsp

 For the chocolate topping-

• Semisweet chocolate- 30 gms
• Butter- 50 gms
• Plain Flour- 2 tsp
• Silver balls, Chocolate leaves &  a tbsp of melted chocolate for drizzling over.

For the Cake-

Preheat oven at 180 C, grease and flour medium cake tin.Combine sugar , flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder & Cornflour and sieve together.Combine egg, melted butter,curd, Vanilla and Milk and whisk.Gently mix the dry ingredients into wet and mix well with a rubber spatula.Pour the thick mixture into pan and bake for 30-40 minutes. Let cool

For the syrup-

Combine sugar, cocoa , vanilla and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan, and boil on medium heat for 5 minutes till thick and syrupy, poke holes in cake and pour over the syrup, let soak for 15-20 minutes.

For the topping/icing-

Melt butter in a heavy bottom saucepan, add flour and let cook on very gently heat till pale, about a minute, next add water and let it come to a boil, add chopped chocolate and stir continuously, it will begin to thicken like custard, tip in the sugar, let boil, remove from heat and let cool, use while still warm.

To assemble-

Carefully invert the soaked cake over serving dish, and pour warm icing on it, it will drizzle down into a glossy cascade.Let it sit in the fridge for 15-20 minutes, place chocolate leaves in the middle, sprinkle silver balls and drizzle some more melted chocolate on top, you can add cherries or jam too.Chill overnight.