Chocolate Racing Car Track Cake

I am a complete Chocoholic person!!! Its the only thing I just can never give up, I know many people who actually dislike chocolates and I wonder whats life without chocolates? I always have chocolate bars stuffed in my office cabinet which by the way gives me instant boost during stress :) One bite and I forget all my problems :)....Though i must say that I dont get to make chocolate desserts more often as I am a bit lazy when it comes to preparing anything just for my self. This is a long pending post as i had made this cake almost a month ago but before I post the recipe, some interesting facts about Chocolate (Source Wikipedia).

History

The word "chocolate" comes from the Aztecs of Mexico, and is derived from the Nahuatl word xocolatl which is a combination of the words, xocolli, meaning "bitter", and atl, which is "water".

Types of Chocolate

Several types of chocolate can be distinguished. Pure, unsweetened chocolate contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining chocolate with sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. "White chocolate" contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk but no cocoa solids.

Health Benefits

Recent studies have suggested that cocoa or dark chocolate may possess certain beneficial effects on human health. This is mainly caused by a particular substance present in cocoa called epicatechin. Cocoa possesses a significant antioxidant action, protecting against LDL oxidation, perhaps more than other polyphenol antioxidant-rich foods and beverages. Some studies have also observed a modest reduction in blood pressure and flow-mediated dilation after consuming dark chocolate daily.

More on chocolate you can find here.

Chocolate Cake which i made is adapted from Deeba's blog PassionateAboutBaking, you can find the original recipe here. As the birthday was of a 3yr old boy Rishi, i thought of making a cake which is more appealing to kids. I came to know from my dear friend and also Rishi's mom Jayshree that he is crazy about cars and trucks. So I thought why not lets make a Racing Car Track Cake. I knew from my past experience that it wasnt difficult to assemble the cake, on the contrary its fairly simple to make. I made two 6 inch round cakes. I cut one small semi circle from one of the cake and joined both the circles in a way which resembles number eight. The below ingredients will make 2 6inch round cakes. This cake is going to For the Love Of Chocolate by Poornima.

Ingredients: (my version)

6 eggs at room temperature

160 gms all purpose flour

160 gms powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence

4 tbsp coco powder

2 tsp baking powder

Chocolate Ganache:

400 ml heavy whipping cream

500 gms good quality dark chocolate (I use Lindt)

For Decoration:

MnMs 1 packet

Colorful chocolate sprinkles

Green food color and desicated coconut for grass

1/c cup butter cream icing for racing track

Small cars to put on the track

Procedure for cake:

• Preheat the oven for 15 mins at 190 degree C.
• Sieve all purpose flour, baking powder and coco powder together 3 times and keep it aside.
• Beat together eggs and sugar until it doubles in volume or until soft peaks form. This will take around 10 mins if using an electric beater.
• Add the vanilla essence and again beat for a min.
• Now gently fold in the dry ingredients and mix well, donot over beat.
• Grease 2 6inch round spring form pan and divide the batter equally in both the pans.
• Bake the cakes for around 35 to 40 mins at 190 degree C, until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
• Once done, remove the cakes and cool it completely.

To make Ganache:

• Heat the whipping cream in a pan, when it starts simmering turn off the heat and add the chocolate pieces.
• Stir continuosly until the chocolate melts.
• Once at room temperature the ganache will become thick.

Procedure for Icing the cake:

• Cut one small semi circle from one of the cake, keep aside.
• Slice both the cakes horizontally into 3 layes each.
• Join the bottom most layers of both cake on serving plate such that it resembles number eight, moisten both the layer with sugar syrup (You can prepare sugar syrup by dissolving 2 tbsp of sugar in half cup water, you can also add little vanilla essence for flavouring).
• Spread the ganache over it. You can also add in chocolate shavings in between the layers to give in more chocolate kick.
• Place the 2nd layer over it and repeat the process.
• Frost the sides and top of the cake with the remaining ganache.
• Decorate the sides of the cake with colorful chocolate sprinkles.
• I have used desicated coconut mixed with green food color for grass on the sides of the track as well as in the middle of the track.
• I have used plain buttercream icing to form the tracks. Add little green color to the butter cream icing to make a small tree out of it.
• Use MnMs to give a nice colorful border to the cake.
• Place the cars as shown.

The cake turned out to be a hit and I was too happy with the outcome. It had great chocolate flavor and it looked beautiful. Rishi, the bday boy actually wanted to run his cars on the track...:)