In the past one week I had made around 5-6 layer cakes. I didn’t eat them all, I really didn’t.

The last one I made, the Thank you cake, was for Bebo’s school. Yesterday was his last day there . He is starting in a new school from the next academic year. He is really going to miss his current school!

And I am going to miss sleeping late in the mornings :( – the new school’s timings are too early for me.

The toughest thing about summer is not the heat, but the summer vacation. Managing an active four-year old at home is not an easy feat. It will be too hot to take him out and anyway, there are no parks or play areas near our place, where it is safe to let him play.

In my childhood days (god! I am old!), summer vacation meant pure joy. You come home from school, throw your bags aside and play as much as you want. Vacation was truly a break from studies.

Now a days, vacation translates into vacation classes. Violin class,  dance class, keyboard class, painting class, karate class, swimming class, drawing class etc etc. For the academically inclined, they can send their kids to hindi class, sloka class, french class or similar. But this one takes the cake – Cursive writing class for KG students!

And coming back to cakes, the one I made for Bebo’s nursery was an easy one. It uses oil, so you can do it without taking out your hand/stand mixer if you want to. Even the icing called for melted butter, though I went for the softened version.

Recipe for chocolate cake

Ingredients:

All purpose flour(Maida) : 1 3/4 cups

Sugar : 2 cups

Cocoa Powder : 3/4 cup

Baking Powder : 1 1/2 tsp

Baking Soda : 1 1/2 tsp

Salt : 1 tsp

Milk : 1 cup

Vegetable Oil : 1/2 cup

Vanilla Extract : 2 tsp

Eggs : 2

Boiling Water : 1 cup

Method:

1. Pre heat the oven to 350 Degree F/ 180 degree C.
2. Grease and flour two 9″ round baking pans.
3. Mix together the dry ingredients (sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt) in a large bowl.
4. Add the liquid ingredients (eggs, milk, oil and vanilla) to it.
5. Beat on medium speed in a mixer for 2 minutes or beat well with a whisk for 5-8 minutes.
6. Stir in the boiling water. The batter will be very thin. Pour it evenly into the prepared pans.
7. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes.
8. Test with a wooden skewer. If the skewer comes out clean, the cake is done.

Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients:

Butter : 1/2 cup (113 gms or 1 stick)

Cocoa Powder : 2/3 cup

Powdered Sugar : 3 cups

Milk : 1/3 cup

Vanilla : 1 tsp

Method:

1. Melt butter, stir in the cocoa.
2. Add powdered sugar and milk alternatively, beating to a spreading consistency.
3. Stir in vanilla. Add more milk ,in teaspoonfuls, if needed.

Note:

I didn’t melt the butter. I chose to soften it and beat it with sugar, using a hand mixer.

I had some left over Icing from last time. So I mixed a bit of the chocolate icing with it to get a lighter shade and used it for the borders, flowers and writing.

*Found out that this is the Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake.

By the way, if you are wondering which vacation class I am sending Bebo to, let me tell you that my parents are here to happily share the ‘vacation burden’ (they don’t look at it as burden). And once my parents leave, Harry’s parents will be coming to spend some quality time with their grandson. So thanks to both set of grand parents, my vacation time is going to be nice and smooth and Bebo’s vacation is going to be vacation class free :).

Linking this to the Chocolate Recipes hosted by My Culinary Creations.