Baby shower cake, a Chocolate Mocha cake with Mocha buttercream

With only few weeks for my India trip, blogging and cooking has taken a back seat these days. Lots of things to organise, lots of shopping and moreoever lots of dusting and cleaning to be  done at home too. Usually before going on a vacation  first thing I do is cleaning up  nooks and crannies of home just because I like to come back to a clean house ! Only when I started cleaning I realised that it s a never ending process ! And on top of all this,  summer is not making things easier either. Lil A likes to play out longer and bringing him back home from playgrounds is not that easy :) So after a long day I just curl up in the couch watching Tele with no energy to type a blog post. 

Coming to todays topic, I did this baby shower cake few weeks before. I did try to make a small video for this but unfortunately director didnt do a good job and neither did I ! Many  of my friends and readers have requested me to make tutorials about fondant cakes but as a self tought person  I am still in learning process and each cake is an experiment to me and the uncertainity in the outcome when I start the work is the only problem which stops me from making a tutorial, but inspite of all that I did try to make a video but it wasnt succesfull. So I promise you all that one day when I am confident enough about my work  I will post a video for you all :) 

Flaten out a  ball of fondant.

With the modelling tool shown press the edges for the pattern.

With a flesh coloured fondant roll out an oval face.

Place the face on the pillow and press gently in the place of  eyes.

Make a dummy  and place near the mouth.

This was a chocolate Mocha cake with mocha buttercream. I made two 9 inch cakes  and sadwiched it with Mocha buttercream and covered it with fondant. Placed the  pillow and baby's head on the cake. Roughly  made a small body  and covered it with a fondant blanket. Cut out some polka dots with piping(icing ) tips back side and sticked them with water. Made a small feeding bottle and placed near the sleeping baby. Tada a baby shower cake is ready for u :)

INGREDIENTS ( yields two small  8 inch cakes  for serving 8- 10 )

Plain flour - 1 1/4 cup

Cocoa powder - 1/4 cup

Coffee powder/ granules - 1 tbs

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Baking soda - 1/4 tsp

Salt - 1/8 tsp

Sugar - 1 cup

Eggs - 2 large

Oil - 3/4 cup

Milk - 1/4 cup

Boiling water - 1/4 cup

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Method

• Sift flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda and keep it aside.
• In a bowl beat eggs and sugar for few minutes .
• Add oil, vanilla extract and mix.
• Mix coffee powder in 1/4 cup of boiling water and keep it aside.
• Add 1/3 rd   of the dry ingredients and fold in.
• Add the milk and fold in.
• Add the next 1/3 rd of dry ingredients and fold in.
• Add boiling coffee and fold in.
• Finally add the rest of the  flour and fold in.
• Pour the batter into two 8 inch  greased cake tins and bake it  in a preheated oven at 180 degree celcius for 20- 30 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

For Mocha buttercream icing 

Unsalted butter - 200 gm (apporximately 1 cup )

Icing sugar - 400 gm ( nearly 3 cups )

Meringue powder - 2 tsp

Double cream - 100 ml

Salt - pinch

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Dark chocolate - 80 gm (melted )

Coffee powder -  1 tsp

Warm water - 2- 3 tbs

Method

• In a mixing bowl add 1 cup of sugar, salt, meringue powder and mix.
• Add cream to it and beat it in a electric beater at medium speed with paddle attachment for 5 minutes.
• Add remaining sugar and beat for 3 minutes.
• Add softened butter little by little and beat for 5-7 minutes at medium high speed.
• Dissolve coffee powder in warm water and  keep it aside. Melt chocolate in a heatproof  bowl placed above a simmering pot of water. Let the coffee and chocolate cool.
• Add vanilla extract, coffee and chocolate to the buttercream and beat at a very low speed for few seconds until mixed.