A long pending promise to my friends daughter Saima finally saw the results today.
My first attempt to teach baking to someone, actually resulted in some hiccups but my student passed with flying colours. The ganache was either to runny or too stiff and the piping was giving us lots of trouble. But we did not give up and the pics speak for itself.
We baked an eggless chocolate cake and infused it with orange syrup. Saima has decorated the cake herself with chocolate ganache and a side sprinkle of hazelnuts. The candied orange peel I had made at home.
Ingredients
All purpose flour – 1 ½ cups
Castor Sugar – 1 cup
Cocoa powder – ⅓ cup
Baking soda – 1 teaspoon
Salt – ½ teaspoon
Water – 1 cup
Oil – ½ cup
Pure Vanilla Extract – 1 teaspoon
Apple cider Vinegar – 1 tablespoon
Orange Syrup
Chopped Hazelnuts
Chocolate Ganache:
Dark Chocolate 2 cups (chopped)
Heavy Cream 1 cup
Butter 2 tbsp
Candied Orange Peel
3 oranges
1 cup sugar
Candied Orange Peel
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Using a vegetable peeler, shred long strips of orange peel without the white pith, just the orange part.
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Place strips in a medium saucepan. Cover with cold water, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Drain; repeat two more times with fresh water.
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Place sugar in a clean saucepan with 1 1/2 cups water; stir to combine. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar has dissolved, about 3 minutes. Add the citrus strips to the boiling syrup; reduce heat, and simmer until strips are translucent, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat; let strips cool in syrup, at least 1 hour. Remove from syrup when ready to use.
- Reserve the syrup to moisten the cake.
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees..
- Line and dust a 7″ tin.
- Mix all dry ingredients (All purpose flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt) in a bowl. Pass them through a sieve first
- In another bowl mix all wet ingredients (water, oil, vanilla extract and vinegar). Add wet mixture to flour mixture.
- And mix till it well blended together. Do not over mix.
- Pour the batter in the tin and tap it once to remove the bubbles.
- Bake in pre-heated oven for about 30-35 minutes or till toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Remove it from oven and let it cool completely.
- Using a silicon brush, sprinkle a little syrup over the cake and allow it to soak in. Repeat after 10 minutes.
- Apply a generous coat of ganache, covering each side of the cake. Keep it in the fridge for 20 mins.
- Decorate the sides of the cake with chopped hazelnuts.
- Chop the candied peel and use it to decorate the cake.
- Keep the cake in a refrigerator for 2 hours before serving.
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