Chocoholic

You are just a couple of steps away from preparing the most mouthwatering chocolate delights.

When you speak of chocolate only one word can do justice to it: “divine”. The joy of breaking a bar of chocolate and indulging in it bite by bite is unmatched — the silky, velvety texture just lightens up your palate. Here are some recipes to fulfill a chocoholic’s fantasy and brighten up your Valentine’s Day. Let’s start with a basic cake recipe and then tweak it to prepare other chocolaty delights.

Basic chocolate cake

Ingredients:

Eggs - 3

Oil - ¾ cup

Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

Caster Sugar - 1 cup

Flour - 1 cup

Baking Powder - 1 ½ tsp

Cocoa powder - ½ cup

Coffee - 2 tsp  (optional)

 

Method

Beat oil and sugar together, until the sugar starts to dissolve slightly.

Add eggs, one at a time, and beat gently. Start with a low speed and then gradually increase the speed.

Add vanilla essence to the mixture and stir.

In another bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Make sure you sift them to remove all the lumps.

Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and fold in gently.

Grease a pan and pour the batter in it.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree for 40 to 45 minutes.

You can use this batter to bake chocolate muffins as well. In this case, the baking time will be just 15-20 minutes.

Moreover, if you want to make an easy lava muffin, simply fill the muffin cup with half of the mixture and add a chunk of your favourite milk chocolate before pouring in the rest of the mixture over it and baking it.

Do make sure you toss the piece of chocolate in the flour before placing it over the mixture so that it does not sink in.

To make brownies, just omit the oil from the list of ingredients. Beat sugar and eggs together in a bowl. Melt 1 cup of cooking chocolate with ¾ cup butter and follow the above recipe.

To make icing for this cake, melt ½ a cup of chocolate with ½ a cup of cream. Add 1 tsp honey for that smooth texture and pour it over the cake. Remember to allow the brownie to rest first or the icing will never set on it.

Now let’s give you an easy recipe of an egg-less, sugarless chocolate mousse. Just melt ¾ cup chocolate with 4 tbsp water, ½ a packet of marshmallows and ½ a cup of butter in a pan.

Beat 1 packet of cream in another bowl with 1 tsp vanilla essence.

Fold in the two mixtures together and chill in the refrigerator.

Whenever you feel like having something chocolaty, grab ½ a cup of cooking chocolate and melt it with ½ a cup of cream.

Add 1 tsp vanilla essence and 1 tsp of coffee. Grab all the fruits, plain biscuits and slices of plain cake and savour the chocolate fondue.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, February 12^th, 2012.