~Devil's food cake~

        I was looking for a nice chocolate cake recipe to bake on my hubby's birthday and I had bookmarked so many of them and finally shortlisted  two of them- one was this and the other was a chocolate mud cake. Finally I settled on devil's food cake after a lot of confusion as both of them looked just awesome. Anyway,I will make the mud cake next time!!According to wiki, the devil's cake is a moist ,airy rich chocolate layer cake. Usually cocoa powder is used instead of melted chocolate and is always paired with a chocolate frosting. It also generally uses bicarbonate of soda.
        I found the recipe in small cake book I had randomly picked up when I had gone to buy some books for my kid. The cake recipes in it are amazing and so very doable.
       The cake was definitely good. I make so many varieties of cake, but the chocolate ones are always a instant hit especially with my kid. He just loves them so much. I do plan to make many of them, but I do need a excuse for it...right??!!

Recipe source- Classic esssential cakes( Periplus mini cookbooks.)

Ingredients-
Plain flour/maida- 1 cup
Self raising flour- 1 cup
Bicarbonate of soda- 1tsp
Cocoa powder- 2/3 cup
Castor sugar- 1 1/4 cup(I used fine granulated sugar)
Butter- 125g
Milk-1 cup
Sour cream- 1cup(I used buttermilk- see notes)
Eggs- 3 lightly beaten

    Notes - Unfortunately, I did not find sour cream in the super market on that particular day. I then browsed for a substitute and found that buttermilk is the best substitute for this. But the sour cream does not only give a nice texture , but also a certain tang to the cake. So I added a tsp of vinegar to a cup of milk and let it stand for 10 minutes till it curdled and used this as a sour cream substitute.

Method-
  Preheat oven at 180c. Brush a deep 20cm round cake pan with oill or melted butter. Sift flours,soda, and cocoa powder into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar,butter, milk and sour cream(buttermilk here). Beat for 1 minute at medium speed untill combined.
       Add eggs ,increase speed to high and beat for 4 minutes until smooth and creamy. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the center. Remove cake from oven and leave it in the tin till it cools completely. Turn it on a wire rack.

Icing- Chocolate buttercream frosting.
Ingredients-
Semi sweet dark chocolate squares- 3 squares each weighing 1 oz.
Butter- 125 gm( at room temperature.)
Icing sugar- 3 cups

Method-
    Melt the chocolate squares in a microwave. Cut the butter in small squares and add it to the melted chocolate. Keep stirring this to form a uniform suspension. Now add the icing sugar slowly to the above mixture mixing it simultaneously till it forms a thick paste. Add a few drops of milk if the frosting is too thick.
   Store in refrigerator till use. Cut the cake horizontally in the center with a serrated knife. Apply some frosting on the top.Place the other half on the top. Apply the frosting all over the cake. Decorate as you wish.