Meghas Chocolate Cake

 Megha's Chocolate Cake... :) what an odd  name for a cake....but i always refer to the cake made by this recipe, as megha's chocolate cake instead of just a chocolate cake. This was the first cake, I learnt to bake without burning. As it is named, it was taught to me by my friend Megha who learnt it from some Japanese cook book from the library. It is not very difficult, if it is followed exactly. I had a "written recipe", which was missing  and luckily which I found in one of my old suitcases. I was so happy to get it and it makes a perfect "1st dessert recipe post".   Let me begin this post with a picture of the cake, which I clicked just before my kids attacked it. They were patient for 10-15 minutes, while I plated it..and clicked a few pics...!! It's light, fluffy and rich.

Ingredients:

• 125 gm dark chocolate (use good flavored dark chocolate with 70 percent of cacao) -- I used milk chocolate, as that was what I had.
• 125 gm butter (unsalted)
• 125 gm sugar
• 4 eggs (separated and at room temperature)
• 55 gm self rising flour ( or all purpose flour with 1/2 tsp baking powder)
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar (or u can use pinch of salt)

Recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 170 degrees centigrade and grease a circular cake pan. Line with parchment paper. ( I din't have the paper, so i used a spring form pan with a removable bottom.)
• Sift the flour.
• Separate the egg yellows and whites. Here is a good video which shows how to do it.

• Take egg whites in a large bowl, add cream of tartar to it and beat with an electric cake whisk till they are foamy. 
• Then dump the sugar in the foamy egg white mixture and continue to beat till they get stiff peaks which would be about 3-5 minutes at the highest speed of the whisk.
• As you can see the picture, I turned the big bowl upside down and clicked a picture. The egg whites are so stiff that they will remain in the bowl even if it is over turned :) 

• Now melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler. The water of the pan below shouldn't touch the bowl which has the butter and chocolate. 
• I kept this on the stove, while I did the egg whites. 

• Once the chocolate and butter is melted, mix them well with a rubber spatula and add egg yellows to them. Make sure that the egg/butter mixture is cool otherwise the eggs will be cooked.
•  Mix the butter, chocolate and egg yellows well.
• Add flour to the above mixture and mix well. It shouldn't have any lumps. 

• Now, take a bit(about half a cup) of egg white mix and put it in the yellow-chocolate mix, so as to lighten the mixture.

• Now pour this into the egg whites and fold in the egg whites slowly with the denser chocolate. 
• Move the spatula in one direction only so as not to deflate the egg whites.
• Pour this in the greased cake pan and even it out with a spatula.

• Bake at 170 degrees for 25 minutes. (This is what was written on my paper and I think in Japan, my oven could bake it exactly in 23-25 minutes)
• However, here it was not done after 25 minutes, the tooth pick test showed that the cake was still moist in the center, so baked it for another 10 minutes.
• Take it out and let it cool for about 10-15 minutes before you un-mold and serve it on a platter. 
• If you want to frost it, let it completely cool, then you can decorate it with your favorite frosting. 
• I just dusted it with cocoa powder and chocolate shavings.

Quantity:

• I would say it is 6-8 servings if you serve as is.. or 8-10 if you frost the cake. 
• I am sure this quantity is for you to measure... Me and my kids finished half of it already.... :), forcing ourselves to leave some for our friends who want to try it.... !! :) 

Notes:

• Use good flavored chocolate and butter to get good results.
• Eggs and all other ingredients must be at room temperature.