Baking is an absolute passion for me. The husband, Terradaze, is convinced I suffer from withdrawl symptoms if I let a week go by without baking.

So when there was a Christmas party for kids in our condo last week, there was no question about what I was going to take.


Here's how I made this cake....


Chocolate butter cake (The recipe below is for a 8" round pan, for this particular stocking cake, I used a 10" pan and therefore, adjusted the quantities accordingly)

Ingredients:

150 gms unsalted butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 and 3/4 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence, or 1 tsp coffee powder dissolved in the milk

Method:

1. Sift the flour and the cocoa together. Sprinkle the salt and mix.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, one by one, beating after each addition.
4. Add the sifted flour and cocoa powder alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour. Also add the vanilla essence.
5. Bake 45 mins in a preheated oven at 180 deg C , or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
(The baking time is as indicated in the recipe, my oven takes just 30 mins to bake this cake).

Buttercream:

Ingredients:

227 gm unsalted butter
454 gm icing sugar
25 ml water/milk
1.5 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

Beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffly. Add sifted icing sugar and beat for a further 4 -5 mins. Add the water/milk and the essence and beat for another 2 mins.

for chocolate icing, add 1/3 cup sifted cocoa powder.
for coffee icing, mix a tbsp of coffee powder in the water/milk.



Making the Christmas Stocking cake:

I made two batches of the buttercream. Dividing the cake into two, I used one batch of the (chocolate) buttercream to sandwich the 2 layers.
I then cut the cake into the shape of a stocking and iced it red. I also cut out a few squares from the remaining cake and covered those in fondant, to ressemble gift boxes.
Using white fondant, I cut out the top trim of the stocking and proceeded to arrange the gift boxes into and around the stocking.

Needless to say, it was a huge hit with the kids!!

This is my entry to Home Made Christmas Gifts
at My Kitchen Treasures , the Christmas Feast Event hosted by Purva and to Santa's Holiday Challenge hosted by JZ