Ingredients
Plain Flour I cup
Cocoa powder 1/2 cup . I prefer Nilgiris Cocoa powder.
Powdered Sugar 1 1/4 cup
Oil 3/4 cup
Eggs 4 large(Use 5 eggs if they are very small)
Baking powder 2 tsp
Vanilla Essence 1 tsp
A pinch of cooking soda
Pre heat oven to 180 degrees C
Sift flour, baking powder, cocoa and the cooking soda twice. Beat eggs till almost 3 times in volume. Add essence and sugar and beat again till mixture is frothy . Pour in the oil slowly beating all the while. Fold the flour mixture gently into the egg mixture. Pour into a greased tin lined with butter paper. Rap the tin against the kitchen counter a couple of times. This will help the air bubbles settle down and give a flatter cake surface.
Bake at 180 degrees for about 25-30 minutes. The cake will shrink away from the sides of the pan when ready. It will also be springy to the touch. A skewer or knife inserted in the middle should come out clean. If some batter sticks to the skewer, return the tin to the oven and bake for 5 minutes more. Remove from oven when done.
Keep it aside for at least 15 minutes to cool. Do not try to remove the cake from the pan when its hot as the cake will stick to the pan. When cool, run a knife around the edges of the cake, invert on a wire rack, give a sharp tap on the back of the pan and ease the cake out. Peel the butter paper carefully. Leave aside to cool for some more time.
Please Note:
1.Over beating the eggs will result in a heavy dense cake.
2. Always mix in the flour into the egg mixture very lightly, but quickly. This is to retain the air in the beaten eggs, which will result in a light, fluffy cake. Always mix with a metal spoon in one direction.
3. Once the batter is ready immediately put it into the cake tin and put in the pre heated oven. If not, the texture of the cake will get affected.
4. Always fill a cake tin 2/3 of the volume of the same. This will give the cake ample space to rise. More than this amount of batter will result in the batter overflowing form the tin or will result in a dense cake.
