Egg-less Chocolate Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting

ಕನ್ನಡ ಆವೃತ್ತಿ 

If there are any special occasions like birthday or anniversary of near and dear ones, it calls for a celebration. Baking a cake at home is not a big deal, but decorating the cake needs some thinking and more efforts. Depending on the type of cake, we need to decide which type of frosting will be suitable.
I tried chocolate frosting for my chocolate cake few days back. Chocolate cake with layers and yummy frosting..it was divine! You can remember my earlier recipe of Egg-less Chocolate Cake which I shared sometime back. I just prepared 2 chocolate cakes in that way, layered and decorated them and finally, here is the outcome!

Time required: 45 - 50 minuted
Cooling time: 2 - 3 hours
Servings: 10 - 12
Difficulty level: Difficult

Ingredients:
- Egg-less chocolate cakes - 2 nos (prepare and keep them ready)
- For Frosting:

• Unsalted butter (at room temp) - 1 cup
• Icing sugar - 3 cups (adjust according to taste)
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
• Dark chocolate - 200 gm
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Big pinch of salt
• Chocolate shaves - as needed (see Tips)
• Chocolate coated peanuts (or any other chocolate bytes) - few

Method:
- How to prepare frosting:

• Melt the dark chocolate and allow to cool.
• Beat butter using a beater or hand mixer till creamy. 
• To this, add melted chocolate, salt and 1 cup of icing sugar. Beat them for a minute.
• Add 2 - 3 tbsp of milk and one more cup of sugar. Beat the mixture again. 
• Continue adding milk followed by sugar till you are done. 
• Adjust the consistency and taste.
• Beat the mixture for 2 - 3 minutes or till its light and creamy. 

- How to assemble the cake:

• Slice each cake carefully into two layers. You will have 4 separate layers in total now.
• Keep the first layer on the cake base or on a plate. Cover it with one layer of chocolate frosting.
• Put the second layer of cake upon that and cover with frosting.
• Fix all the four layers in the same way and cover the top and sides with frosting.
• Decorate the sides with chocolate shaves. Arrange the choco-coated peanuts / your favorite chocolates on the top. Sprinkle some chocolate shaves as you like.
• Refrigerate the cake for 2 - 3 hours before cutting. 

Tips:

• Dark chocolate which I used for frosting was sweet and hence, 3 cups of icing sugar was enough. If using unsweetened chocolate, add more sugar accordingly.
• You can prepare the chocolate shaves easily at home. Refrigerate the chocolate block and once it becomes really hard, peel them using a peeler. Your chocolate shaves are ready to use!