Chocolate Cake

I made the above mentioned cake for last X'mas. I have made several cakes before but not with filling and frosting. I call this cake of mine-The Complete Cake :) I also tried to do piping, but as I was trying that for the first time, it didn't turn out very well. But everyone liked the cake. So here is the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

Chocolate Cake :

1. Unsalted Butter - 1/2 cup or 1 stick
2. Sugar - 1/2 cup
3. Eggs - 2 no:s
4. Light Corn Syrup - 1 tbsp
5. All purpose flour/Maida - 1 cup
6. Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
7. Salt - 1/2 tsp
8. Unsweetened Cocoa - 2 tbsp

Caramel Filling :

1. Heavy Cream - 1/3 cup
2. Butter - 1/2 cup or 1 stick
3. Brown Sugar (packed) - 1 cup
4. Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
5. Confectioner's Sugar - 2 cups
   

Chocolate Frosting :

1. Heavy Cream - 1/3 cup
2. Butter - 1/2 cup or 1 stick
3. Confectioner's Suger - 2 1/2 cups
4. Cocoa powder - 2 tbsp
   

METHOD:

To make Cake,

• In a large bowl, whip the butter (in room temperature) using a hand mixer. Add the eggs, sugar and corn syrup.
• In another bowl mix all purpose flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa.
• Add this mixture to the first bowl little by little, while mixing with a hand mixer.
• Take two shallow cake pans and butter the sides and bottom of those pans.
• Divide the mixture between the pans. Smooth the tops.
• Preheat the oven(conventional) to 350 deg F/ 190 deg C.
• Bake for 20 minutes.
• Stick a fork in the center, if the fork comes out clean the cake is ready.

To make Caramel Filling,

• On stove, melt butter in a saucepan. Add brown sugar and heavy cream, dissolve it in the butter in medium heat. Add Vanilla.
• Switch off and let it cool.
• Pour it in a bowl and mix it with a hand mixer by adding confectione's sugar little by little till it reaches spreading consistency

To make Chocolate Frosting,

• Bring butter to room temperature and beat in the confectioner's sugar, heavy cream and cocoa.
• Beat it till it reaches spreading consistency.

Putting it together,

• Take the two cakes. The tops of the cakes will be a little convex. So cut off the tops of the cake in order to make them flat.
• Keep one cake on a levelled surface. Spread the filling and on the top place the other cake.
• Cover the top and sides of the cake with chocolate frosting. Level it with a spatula, wetting it often so that the frosting won't stick to it.
• If you know piping you can decorate the cake or just decorate the top with chpped roasted nuts or fruits. Its a very long process. It took me around 5.5 to 6 hrs to make this. May be next time it will take less time. But its all worth it.