Baking with Kids: Rich Chocolate Cake

Quite sometime ago, I mentioned my intention to bake a really nice cake to my baking buddy in Manila, Joan. She repeatedly told me to try her fail-proof chocolate cake's recipe. She said I would not go wrong with this recipe. Finally, today I followed her advice and spent the whole afternoon baking and preparing the chocolate frosting for this cake. Thanks to Joan, I had a really rich and moist chocolate cake to brighten my rainy Saturday. My nieces loved it and my sister-in-law said the cake tasted so good! *beams*

Rather messy and 'strikingly' decorated homemade "LOVE YOU" chocolate cake.

The baking method of this chocolate cake is rather different from other chocolate cake recipes because it uses boiling water for the cake batter. In the beginning, I was quite concerned with the final results, but in the end, everything turned just fine. *Phew* Joan was right! The cocoa aroma of this chocolate cake when baked was really heavenly.

Oh, by the way, today I had some little helpers in decorating my chocolate cake after I frosted it. My nieces were so kind in helping me separating the sugar stars by their colors and putting them nicely all over the cake. They were so happy doing their simple 'cake decoration' assignment. Baking with kids is fun!

I could not think of better idea in decorating the cake with sugar stars, so I just arranged them to form "LOVE YOU" words. A bit lame, I know. And no, I was not inspired by disco lights in decorating this cake so colorfully.

My cute little helpers today.

This cake's chocolate cream frosting was indeed to die for. This morning, I purposely invested on a box of rather expensive Hershey's cocoa powder (RM 17.99) from supermarket to make this cake but I guess it's really worth it. I caught one of my nieces kept on putting some of the chocolate frosting from the bowl into her mouth using her little finger. It's quite amazing to see her doing this considering that usually she's sort of anti-cake's cream but surprisingly, she could accept the chocolate cream frosting that I made today!

The inside chocolate cake after I cut it! Yum!

I am so making this cake again for someone's birthday in the near future! But in the meantime, I think I need to brush up my frosting skill so I can produce a lot nicer cake presentation. Thanks again, Joan, for sharing your secret!

What a diabetic Saturday today is. *sugaroverdose*