EGGLESS CHOCOLATE PRALINE CAKE

This is the recipe I follow for any and all kinds of eggless cake including eggless carrot cake. It is important to use a carbonated drink that is very fizzy and not flat as this will render the cake sticky and dense.

Serves: 8

Cake tin: 10″ diameter tin

Oven Setting: 180°C

Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature.

Ingredients:

• Flour – 250 grams
• Custard powder – 1 tablespoon
• Cocoa powder – 2 tablespoons
• Baking powder – 1 teaspoon
• Baking soda – 2 teaspoons
• Sugar – 3 – 4 tablespoons (mildly sweet to sweet)
• Instant Coffee powder – 2 teaspoons
• Thums Up/Pepsi/Coke – 200 millilitres
• Condensed milk – 200 grams
• Soft room temperature Butter – 125 grams
• Vanilla – 1 teaspoon

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
• Line the base and sides of a 10″ cake tin with baking paper. Set aside.
• Sift together the flour, custard powder, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda into a bowl. Add the coffee powder and mix well. Set aside.
• Warm the butter in a large saucepan over low heat until just melted.
• Take the saucepan off the heat. Using a hand whisk, whisk in the sugar and cool down the mixture to room temperature.
• Whisk in the condensed milk until you have a smooth mixture.
• Add 200 millilitres of Thumsup/ Coke/ Pepsi and immediately fold in the sifted flour mix. Don’t overdo the folding but make sure you haven’t any flour streaks left. At this point, along with the flour mix, you can also fold in chocolate chips/ nuts/ crushed praline etc.
• Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 60 -75 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
• Place the cake, while still in the tin, on a wire rack to cool for about 15 minutes after which you can turn it out of the tin, leaving it to cool down to room temperature.
• Once completely cool, slice the cake across the diameter and brush the top of the lower half of the cake with a simple syrup flavoured with a couple of tablespoons of dark rum or any equivalent. Set aside while you make the ganache.

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Ingredients for the Ganache and putting the cake together:

• Dark chocolate – 100 grams, chopped into tiny bits
• Amul Fresh cream – 160 grams
• Coarsely crushed Almond Praline – ½ cup
• 1″ Almond praline bits for the top

Method:

• Put the chopped chocolate in a big bowl.
• Heat the cream until almost simmering (do not boil).
• Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate. Using a spatula mix well so as to attain a smooth shiny ganache.
• Pour some ganache on to the lower half of the sliced cake and sprinkle on some of the crushed almond pralines. Cover with the top half of the cake.
• Brush the top of the cake with simple syrup, as you did on the lower half of the cake and then pour the remaining ganache over the top of the cake allowing it to drip down the sides of the cake.

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• Decorate the top of the cake with the rest of the praline.

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To make the Rum flavoured simple syrup: In a saucepan heat together ½ cup of water and ½ cup of sugar, bring to a boil and simmer for a couple of minutes. Cool the syrup and add in 2 tablespoons of rum.

To make the Almond Praline: Butter a tray or a baking sheet to pour and set the praline. Slice 1 cup of whole toasted, cooled almonds and set aside. To a non-stick saucepan add one cup of sugar and a quarter cup of water and heat it on medium flame. The sugar will first dissolve (shake the saucepan to mix the sugar and water around a bit but do not stir it) and then turn a deep amber (takes about 10 minutes). Take the saucepan off the heat and drop in all the sliced almond and 1½ teaspoon of butter. Mixing well, immediately pour the still slightly runny praline on to the greased tray spreading it evenly and as thin as you can. Break the praline into bits once it has completely cooled down and hardened. Leftover praline can be stored in an airtight container and saved for later use. Broken praline can also be crushed coarsely in a mixer and used to top the cake.

Notes:

• An easier way than slicing an entire cake in half along the diameter would be to divide the cake batter between two separate cake tins of 7″ diameter. Place one of the cakes, domed side down (if it is unstable slice off a little of the dome to get a flatter more stable surface) on to your plate. Brush the top with syrup, top up with ganache and crushed praline. Then place the second cake dome side up onto the lower cake and continue with the rest of the process.