Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Icing

A year back,if someone told me that my parents would keep a pet[that too a dog] inside our house,I would have looked at them as though they were insane.Appa had real hardcore reasons for Why NOT to keep a pet at home.Amma ran miles away at the mere mention of pets.Me,well I could very well do without one.My brothers and hubby were all for it and they tried every trick in the book to make us see sense in their ideas.

Today,we are celebrating Pluto’s first birthday.Appa gives him* his daily dose of sweet,amma sings Happy Birthday and I am baking a birthday cake for him.

What brought about so much of a change in our attitude?I guess you will know it only if you live with it.The unconditional love of a pet dog will make the most hardest of hard rocks melt.My brother brought him home less than a year back,when he was a month old.He instantly became everyone’s darling.When amma called me up and said,he would be waiting for me next time I go there,I went eeesshh.But I too was spellbound at the way the love he shared with all of us.

Today,he’s the darling of the house.We call him our brother.A dear part of all of us.The little I could do is to bake a cake for him.He loves sweets and I am sure he’ll lick my hands off if I were to serve it to him. We couldn't keep our hands off it ourselves:)

Love you Pluto…Happy Birthday to you!!!

*We refuse to call him IT:)

Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

Maida – ½ cup
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Powdered sugar – ½ cup
Eggs – 2
Cocoa powder – 2 tsp
Granulated sugar – 2 tsp
Milk – ¼ cup
Oil – ½ cup
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp

Method

Preheat oven to 170*C.
Grease and line a square cake tin.
Sift together maida and baking powder.
Beat the eggs well - you can either use an electric beater or a hand mixer.
Add the powdered sugar and mix well to form a creamy mixture.
Add the cocoa powder and sugar to it and mix.
Now add the oil and milk and beat well.
Add the flour little by little.Make sure there are no lumps-the batter will be quite liquidy.
Pour into the greased pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the tin for a while and then transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the icing

Softened butter – ½ cup
Icing sugar – 1 ½ cups
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
Cocoa powder – 1 tsp

Cream together butter and icing sugar till soft and creamy.

Add cocoa powder and vanilla essence to the butter-sugar mix and beat well.

Keep aside in the refrigerator or a few minutes.

Spread on the cool cake and serve!!

Recipe source - Vanitha Magazine