Welcome 2012- Coffee Chocolate Chequered Cake (eggless)

Wishing all of you a very happy and successful New Year! I hope this year bring loads of love, joy and happiness to your lives.

I welcomed the new year by making this chequered cake. Normally, when I bake a cake for just the 2 of us, I avoid using rich icing, but since this cake was meant not just for us, I took the liberty and used a very (calorie) rich icing.

The cake turned out quite well, in fact, my hubby especially wished for this cake on his birthday. The combination of both the cakes and the espresso-butter icing complemented each other really well. Now that definitely is a good way to start a new year :-)

Ingredients

Coffee Cake

1 cup - whole wheat flour

3/4 tsp - baking powder

1/4 tsp - soda bicarbonate

3 tbsp - sugar

a pinch of salt

100 ml - condensed milk, sweetened

5 tbsp - buttermilk 

5 tbsp - sunflower oil

1 - nespresso chocolate espresso (approx 50 ml), cooled

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease generously a 21 cm / 8 inch round cake pan.
2. In a bowl, mix together the flour, salt, soda bicarbonate, baking powder and sugar.
3. In another bowl, mix well the condensed milk, oil, buttermilk and espresso.
4. Make a hole in the center of the flour mix and tip in the liquid ingredients and mix lightly.
5. Pour the batter in the greased cake pan and place the pan in the center of the preheated oven and bake for approx 25 mins or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
6. Let the cake rest in the pan for a couple of minutes.
7. Invert the cake and let it cool completely on a wire rack.

Chocolate Cake

1 cup - whole wheat flour

3/4 tsp - baking powder

1/4 tsp - soda bicarbonate

3 tbsp - sugar

4 tbsp - cadburys cocoa powder

a pinch of salt

100 ml - condensed milk, sweetened

5 1/2 tbsp - sunflower oil

7 tbsp - buttermilk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease generously a 21 cm / 8 inch round cake pan.
2. In a bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, soda bicarbonate, baking powder and sugar.
3. In another bowl, mix well the condensed milk, oil and buttermilk.
4. Make a hole in the center of the flour mix and tip in the liquid ingredients and mix lightly.
5. Pour the batter in the greased cake pan and place the pan in the center of the preheated oven and bake for appx 25 mins or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
6. Let the cake rest in the pan for a couple of minutes.
7. Invert the cake and let it cool completely on a wire rack.

Espresso Butter Icing

250 grams - unsalted butter at room temperature

1 3/4 cup - sugar

1 tsp - vanilla extract

2 - nespresso chocolate espresso, cooled

Add the butter and vanilla extract to a large bowl. Cream the butter using an electric mixer. Add the sugar and espresso, a little at a time and beat well on medium speed until creamy and light.

Assembling the Cake

1. Cut out two small circles from each cake. I used a 5 inch and a 2 inch cookie cutter to cut out the circles. So now you have, for each cake, an 8 inch ring, a 5 inch ring and a 2 inch circle.
2. Brush the sides of the cut out circles and the insides of the cakes with the espresso-butter icing. 
3. Reassemble the cakes with the cut-out pieces, replacing the middle ring with the piece of the alternate colour - you will now have two cakes with alternate coloured rings. 
4. Apply the icing on the top of one cake and carefully place the other cake on top.
5. Cover the sides and the top of the cake with the rest of the icing.
6. I decorated the cake with some chocolate ganache and dusted the cake with cocoa powder.

Notes

1. If you have just 1 cake tin then let it cool completely after the first cake before baking the second in it.
2. Let the cake cool completely before cutting out the circles.
3. Brushing both the sides and the insides of the circles helps in keeping the pieces together, and more icing is not necessarily bad either.
4. For leveling the icing on the cake: Dip the knife in hot water for a minute, wipe the knife and carefully use the hot- dried knife to level the icing on the cake. This will enable you to give the icing a smooth and even look. Repeat if required, but always use a hot dry knife.
5. Both the cakes are supposed to be less risen than normal.

Enjoy!