Love that transcends all distances - eggless chocolate marble cake

It was Sonam's ( a dear friend) youngest brother's birthday, her lil brother who she loves dearly and cares deeply for! It was his first b'day when she was not not there with him, giving him her lil surprises, kisses n love. She was missing it all badly and wondering what to do!

So, she baked his favorite chocolate marble cake to mark the celebration, to enjoy it with her family at her place...

And....there comes her older brother's call with a news that they just made plans to go to their home town to meet the family.

Can this be true! Yes, it was - the universe had heard her!

She rushed to her kitchen to pour in some more love. 

She quickly decorated the chocolate marble cake with whipped cream and chocolate icing and embellished it with roast almonds and walnuts stuck on the side!

Her brother is a cricketer and what else makes more sense! She topped the cake with a bat and a ball (made with cake scrapings) !

He deserves it, doesn't he, a cricketer after all!!

The moment he sets his eyes on it, a smile pervaded his face and tears moistened his eyes! He was missing her the same and she had sent all her love and wishes from miles away! 

The cake was yummy and looked just lovely, but lovelier was the love laden bond which transcends all distances!

So, here's for you Sonam's recipe for Chocolate Marble cake with whipped cream and chocolate icing! 

She vouches by the Tarla Dalal's recipe for chocolate marble cake and adapted and tweaked it here or there it to give it her own personal touch.  

Cheers, the vegetarians, this is an eggless recipe!






Ingredients: 

cake:

3/4 cup condensed milk 
1/4 cup powdered sugar 
4 tbsp melted butter
11/4 cup all purpose refined flour
11/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda 
2 tsp heaped cocoa
 1 tsp vanila essence
2tbsp coarsely chopped walnuts
1/4 cup milk/ water

Icing:

For the icing:

Icing sugar(1 cup)
Cocoa(2 Tbsp)
Butter(40 gm, softened)
Milk(1 Tbsp)

Method: 

Cake:

1. Sieve the plain flour, baking powder and baking soda in a deep bowl and keep aside.
2. Combine the condensed milk, sugar, melted butter and vanilla essence in a deep bowl and mix well using a spatula.
3. Add the sieved plain flour mixture and milk/ water and mix gently with the help of a spatula to make the vanilla sponge batter of a dropping consistency. Keep aside. 
 4. Take ½ cup of vanilla sponge batter and mix cocoa very well in to it to form a chocolate sponge batter.
 5. Divide the remaining vanilla sponge batter into 2 equal portions.
 6. Grease a 150 mm. (6”) cake tin with melted butter, dust it with plain flour and sift to ensure uniform distribution of the flour. Shake and remove the excess flour. 
 7.  Pour one portion of the batter into the greased and dusted cake tin and spread it evenly.
 8. Pour the chocolate sponge batter in the center. Add walnuts and fold gently in the batter
 9. Pour the remaining vanilla sponge batter on top of the chocolate sponge layer and spread it evenly.
10. Take a fork, pass it through the batter till the bottom and create circular swirls throughout without lifting the fork
11. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°c (360°f) for 25 minutes till the cake leaves the sides of the tin. pass through a knife to check if the cake is done, it should come out clean
12. Keep aside to cool for 15 to 20 minutes. Once cooled, invert the tin over a rack and tap sharply to unmould the cake.

Icing 

1. Sift icing sugar and cocoa together into a medium bowl. Add butter and milk. Gently mix until ingredients are combined, beat for a further 2 minutes.
2. Spread the mix evenly on the cake.

3. Dry roast unsalted almonds, walnuts and peanuts and roughly crush them(I put them in a poly bag and crush using rolling pin). Stick these crushed nuts on the sides of the cake.

Tara-ra-ra your chocolate marble cake is ready - send it across or just sit and dig in!