Super Moist Chocolate Cake

Courtesy: Marias Menu

Maria made 9 inch loaf & 10 standard size cupcakes with the below specified qty

Ingredients

• Milk – 1½ cups
• Butter – 100 gms (1/3 cup + 2 tbsp approx)
• Oil – ¼ cup (I used sunflower oil)
• Coco Powder – ½ cup ( I used Hershey’s)
• Self Raising Flour – 1 cup (Refer notes for substitute)
• Egg – 1 beaten, room temp
• Baking Soda – ½ tsp (refer notes)
• Sugar – 1 cup + 2 tbsp (250 gms)

Method

1. Preheat the oven at 180 C/350-375 F, a few mins before baking. 
2. Heat together milk, butter, oil & coco powder till the butter melts. Let it cool to room temperature.
3. Add flour, baking soda, sugar & beaten egg to the cooled wet ingredients. Beat it well using an electric beater or hand whisk till it is mixed well. You can either use it to make cupcakes or cake. 
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 15- 20 mins for the cupcake & 25- 30 mins for the loaf cake.
5. For cupcakes: Line your cupcake tin with paper liners (I use 2 liners per cupcake) & pour 3 tbsp of batter in each case. I’m referring to the standard size muffins here.
6. For cake: Grease your cake tin well & line with parchment/baking paper. Pour the batter.

For Ganache:

• Whipping cream – ½ cup
• Baking chocolate – ¾ cup (Hershey’s semi sweet chocolate chips work well)

1. Place the baking chocolate/ chocolate chips in a bowl. 
2. Heat the whipping cream on low flame till small bubbles start appearing around the edges. 
3. Pour the heated cream to the bowl with choc chips. 
4. Let it rest for 5 mins. Whisk it using a manual whisk. 
5. This will give you a liquid consistency ganache. 
6. If you want to thicken the ganache for spreading, place the bowl on some ice & whip it. It will start thickening. 
7. Spread the ganache on cooled cupcakes/cake.

Maria says " The original recipe calls for baking powder. But I’ve read somewhere that for chocolate cake, baking soda is good. The explanation for that is Baking soda will react with coco powder and gives a darker colour to the cake. I used castor sugar for the recipe for easy blending of ingredients. However you can use the regular sugar. Substitution for self raising flour – to get 1 cup self-raising flour, add 1½ tsp baking powder+ ¼ tsp salt to 1 cup all purpose flour. (source: http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html)"