'Box of Chocolate' Cake - My 100th Post

Finally !! Finally I have reached my 100th post :D I took soo long to reach this milestone. But I am so happy that I am writing my 100th post because I never knew I would come this far. A blog, which I started just to store the recipes that I learned from family and friends, to show my mom that her daughter is learning to cook and to show her the pics of the food I am cooking, now has become my passion. Yes !! Blogging has become my passion and I am addicted to this world of blogging. Blogging has helped me to make new friends, to learn new cuisines and to love cooking.
And for coming this far, all the credit goes to my husband first, for introducing me to this wonderful world of blogging and for patiently waiting for the food( like any other food blogger's husband) till I click and click all the photos :-). And for appreciating and encouraging me to learn new recipe.And to my parents for encouraging me through my learning process. (YES, My husband is lucky, because I had already gone through the experimenting and learning process before getting married) It was my parents, who went through it and encouraged me. I still remember how, I used to make different maps of the world with the chapathi/roti dough and my father used to eat the roti very happily. And when I was making raita for the first time, I had added lots of water with the yogurt and instead of raita for biryani, I had turned it into spicy lassi :-) but still... my family supported me and encouraged me to cook. And also my mother-in law, who introduced me to so many new recipes and for teaching me to cook with confidence.
And the most important people to make this blog successful are my blog friends and readers. I wouldn't have come this far without the encouraging comments they leave on my blog. And those appreciating and encouraging words from my blog friends urges me to do better and better every time. Thank you soooo sooo much for the lovely comments you all write on my blog.
Now, coming to today's recipe, I wanted to celebrate this milestone with something sweet. So, here is the recipe for 'Box of Chocolate Cake'. Though I didn't bake this cake exclusively for my 100th post, I had decided to post this recipe as my 100th post. I baked this cake for our 5th wedding anniversary few weeks back :-)Now coming to this cake...this is a perfect cake for wedding anniversaries, for Mother's Day and for those celebrating Valentine's day. This cake is covered with sugar paste icing. One can make the sugar paste icing on their own or the store bought ready rolled icing can be used. I first tried making the icing at home, but went wrong somewhere and I also didn't like the raw smell of the eggs in it. So, I have used the store bought Icing here, known as ready rolled icing. This cake is adapted from the book 'Cakes and cake decorating step by step' by Sarah Maxwell, Janice Murfitt and Angela Nilsen .
'BOX OF CHOCOLATE' CAKE
Ingredients:
For the chocolate cake:
175g /6oz butter, at room temperature,
175g /6oz self-raising flour,
50g /2oz unsweetened cocoa powder,
3 eggs, at room temperature,200 /6oz caster sugar,
1 tsp baking powder,1/8 tsp of salt and
1 tsp vanilla extract.

Other ingredients:
6 tbsp of apricot jam-warmed and sieved,
275 grams/ 10 oz of yellow marzipan,
900 grams/ 2 lb of sugarpaste icing,
red food colouring,
store bought hand made chocolates.

Materials and equipments:Heart shaped cake tin,
9 inch square piece of stiff card,
9 inch square / round cake board,
small heart shaped cutter.
Method:
For the cake:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C or 350 F. Grease the tin and line the base with greaseproof paper and grease the paper. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt together three times and set aside.
Place the sugar and butter in a large bowl and beat until light pale. Add he eggs and beat with an electric beater , until the mixture doubles in volume and is thick enough to leave a ribbon trial when the beater is lifted, about 10 minutes.Add the vanilla.Sift over the dry ingredients in 3 batches, folding in carefully after each addition.Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.bake in the centre of the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
leave the cake in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire wrack, peel off the lining paper and leave to cool completely.

Place the cake on the square piece of card and draw around it with a sharp pencil. Cut the heart shape out of the card and set aside This is for using as a support for the lid.
Using a sharp knife. cut the cake horizontally just below where the cake starts to dome. carefully lift the top section and place it on the heart shaped card and place the bottom section on the cake board.On a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar, roll out the yellow marzipan into a long sausage shape to place it on the bottom section of the cake.place the marzipan sausage on the cake around the outside edge . Brush both sections of the cake evenly with apricot jam.

Colour the sugarpaste icing with red food colour and divide it into 3 portions - 1 for the bottom, 1 for the lid and a small portion to cut hearts for the lid. Now on a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar, roll the icing to a 14 inch square ans use it to cover the bottom section of the cake.
Stand the lid on a raised surface like a bowl or a glass. roll out the reserves 1/3rd sugarpaste and cover the lid section of the cake. With the remaining portion of the sugarpaste, cut small heart shapes with the cookie cutter and stick them around the cake lid. carefully lift the top section on the the heart shaped card and place the bottom section on the cake board.Arrange the chocolates in the bottom section of the cake and position the lid, placing it slightly off centre, to reveal the chocolates inside. And serve with lots of love :-)


This is off to Meeta's Monthly Mingle and the theme for this month is Special Sweet Treats hosted this month by Erin of The Apartment Kitchen .